Ed Harper of the Brookings Institution said that, “One of the most important things Ronald Reagan did was to erase the attitude of defeatism.” This, he goes so far to say, was a defeatism “not only about the manageability of government but also about the future of the planet.” Harper points to the calamitous forecasts of the Club of Rome report. “The Carter administration had bought the Club of Rome Report hook, line, and sinker,” he asserted. “The Club of Rome made all kinds of dire predictions, saying that by the 1990s we would be turning out lights all over the world….There was a defeatism in the last years of the Carter administration that we haven’t seen since.” Ed Harper testimony before University of Virginia Miller Center is published in Thompson, ed., Leadership in the Reagan Presidency, Pt II: Eleven Intimate Perspectives (Landham, MD: University Press of America, 1993), 133. Historian Alonzo Hamby agrees, writing that among Reagan’s accomplishments, “He had brought back the presidency from its lowest ebb since Hoover.” Commenting on Reagan’s unimpressive showing in one of Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.’s presidential greatness polls, Hamby assures: “When passions cool after a generation or so, Ronald Reagan will be widely accepted by historians as a near-great chief executive.” “Most of all,” said Hamby, Reagan “restored the nation’s confidence and had affirmed its faith in the future.” He said that Reagan “excelled” in the “job” of the “restoration of confidence.” Reagan was an “uplifter,” an “outstanding national cheerleader.” See Hamby in Adam Meyerson, ed., “How Great Was Ronald Reagan,” Policy Review, no. 46 (Fall 1988), 32–33. From this symposium, also see the observations from George H. Nash and James Nuechterlein on pages 34–36. On Hamby, see Alonzo Hamby, Liberalism and Its Challengers (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 376, 388. Strong words also come from Cold War expert John Lewis Gaddis, who was impressed at how Reagan after only his first few months in office had “managed to project—and therefore instill—a degree of self confidence that went well beyond anything his predecessor had achieved.” Gaddis, “Hanging Tough Paid Off,” 60–63.
8. Not surprisingly, Reaganites inside and outside the administration lauded the president for boosting spirits. These include Don Regan, Larry Speakes, Peter Rodman, and many more. See Donald Regan, For the Record (San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988), 244; Larry Speakes, Speaking Out (New York: Scribner, 1988), 308; and Rodman, More Precious Than Peace, 542. Adam Meyerson of the Heritage Foundation cleverly referred to Reagan as the Great Rejuvenator. Burton Yale Pines concluded: “The mood in the 1970s was tragic… dreadful. Reagan reversed and healed this. See Burton Yale Pines, speech at the China Association for International Friendly Contact, the People’s University of China, and the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, October 1988, published in Policy Review, Spring 1988.
9. Among them, journalist Michael Ruby, who wrote the lengthy U.S. News & World Report final assessment of the Reagan presidency, estimated that, “historians will conclude that it was during the Reagan decade that the U.S. finally overcame its Vietnam-induced loss of national nerve.” Ruby finished with this: “[H]e has helped the nation regain its self-confidence…. Ronald Reagan convinced most of his countrymen that it was still morning in America. See Michael Ruby, “The lessons of the Reagan era,” U.S. News & World Report, January 9, 1989, 18–26.
Over a full decade later, in February 2001, a vigorous debate over Reagan’s legacy took place on the popular CNN political show “Capital Gang.” A heated exchange ensued between conservative Robert Novak and liberals Mark Shields and Al Hunt. Shields and Hunt were critical of Reagan, finding much to still dislike. Both, however, agreed that he must be credited with “turning around” the presidency and the country at a time that seemed “ungovernable,” as Hunt put it, with Shields voicing agreement. Mark Shields and Al Hunt on “The Capital Gang,” CNN, February 10, 2001.
The examples in the days after Reagan’s death could fill a book, and are not quoted here. 10. Mike Wallace speaking at conference, “The Reagan Legacy,” Ronald Reagan Library, Simi Valley, CA, May 20, 1996; and Sidey speaking on documentary, “The American President,” PBS, WNET-New York, 2000.
Reagan biographers agree. Lou Cannon has said so repeatedly. In his 1991 Role of a Lifetime, he wrote of how Reagan’s speeches “did succeed in reviving national pride.” See Cannon, Role of a Lifetime, 292. Also, in a 1999 C-SPAN interview, Cannon said that Reagan “restored America’s confidence at a time when it was very low. He convinced the American people to believe in themselves again.” In a 2001 CNN documentary, Cannon credited: “I think he’ll be remembered as the person who restored hope and confidence to a country when it was really troubled.” Cannon interviewed by Brian Lamb on C-SPAN’s “American Presidents” series, December 6, 1999; and Cannon interviewed for CNN documentary, “The Reagan Years: The Great Communicator,” Pt. II of series, CNN, February 2001.
11. In a way, “overnight” is not a stretch by Morris: On the day Reagan was inaugurated, those hostages in Iran were released—a huge shot in the arm for Uncle Sam, though it would be a big mistake to think the hostage release alone put the nation back on track. By 1984, however, it was certainly back. See Morris in Wilson, ed., Power and the Presidency, 125–26. Also, Edmund Morris interviewed by Leslie Stahl of “60 Minutes,” September 26, 1999. 12. Doug Gamble, “On patriotism, the Gipper and Bill Clinton,” The Los Angeles Times, December 17, 1999.
13. Later, from the apex of the Soviet leadership, Mikhail Gorbachev himself spoke to the morale issue and even Reaganomics. “It was widely accepted that the first four years of ‘Reaganomics’ had stabilized the US economy,” acknowledged Gorbachev, “and that the Reagan administration had contributed to the strengthening of the ‘American spirit.’” Gorbachev, Memoirs, 415.
14. Vladimir Simonov, “Political Portrait of Ronald Reagan,” Literaturnaya Gazeta, May 25, 1988, 14, published as “Weekly Presents ‘Political Portrait’ of Reagan,” in FBIS-SOV88–102, May 26, 1988, 8, 10.
15. Michael Ellman and Vladimir Kontorovich, eds., The Disintegration of the Soviet Economic System (London and New York: Routledge, 1992), 18.
16. Schweizer, Victory, 166.
17. TASS release written by economic writer Vladimir Pirogov, December 29, 1983, published as “U.S. Seeks to ‘Exhaust’ USSR Economy,” in FBIS, FBIS-SOV-29-DEC-83, December 29, 1983, A4.
18. These sources include Peter Schweizer, who wrote of the campaign in Victory and Reagan’s War, as well as references made by Vasiliy Mitrokhin in his research and Anatoly Dobrynin in his memoirs. The term “active measures campaign” was a KGB intel term that referred to spreading propaganda, disinformation, and conducting operations against an individual, short of assassination.
19. On the campaign and this quote, see Schweizer, Victory, 171–73, 201. 20. Vitaliy Korionov, “Production Line of Crimes and Hypocrisy,” Pravda, January 10, 1984, 4, published as “‘Unprecedented Wave’ of Lies Seen in U.S.,” in FBIS-13-JAN-84, January 13, 1984, A1, A5.
21. Vladimir Lomeyko, “NATO’s Procrustean Bed,” Literaturnaya Gazeta, January 25, 1984, 14, published as “‘Psychological War’ Eyed as Cold War ‘Crusade,’” in FBIS-3-FEB-84, February 3, 1984, CC5.
22. A. Gurov and V. Martynenko, “Imperialism’s Economic Aggression,” Krasnaya Zvezda, January 27, 1984, 3. Text is published as “U.S. Anti-Socialism Includes ‘Economic Warfare,’” in FBIS, FBIS-SOV-2-FEB-84, February 2, 1984, CC1–4.