46. Here is one example from pages 32 and 48–49: “In the West, Lenin is often portrayed as an advocate of authoritarian methods of administration. This is a sign of total ignorance of Lenin’s ideas and of their deliberate distortion. In effect, according to Lenin, socialism and democracy are indivisible.” It was Gorbachev who was totally ignorant of this repugnant, very violent man who created the gulag and gave the Communist Party a monopoly on all political power.
47. Ibid., 50–51.
48. Ibid., 10, 37, 42.
49. Ibid., 42.
50. Ibid., 31.
51. Gorbachev, Perestroika, 161–63.
52. Ibid., 165.
53. Ibid., 163–64.
54. Properly evaluating Mikhail Gorbachev is a daunting problem, for at least three reasons: first, the real man must be separated from the mythological figure canonized by Western hagiographers in academe, especially those eager to shift any credit for the Cold War’s end away from Reagan, whose politics they despised. Yet, that record presents a second, sticky challenge: It is very difficult to assess what Gorbachev believed, especially regarding Communism, because as the reform-minded leader of the Soviet Marxist system he could not be forthcoming regarding his true goals and beliefs. His position depended on the support of hard-line Communists on the Central Committee and elsewhere. Prior to when Gorbachev at last firmly held complete control of the General Secretaryship of the Central Committee in 1990, he likely would have been removed at a moment’s notice if he had openly criticized Communism or spoke of abolishing the Soviet Communist system. Still, there is a third problem in gauging Gorbachev: He was on a lifelong journey from being a Marxist-Leninist who, as a young man, did not perceive Lenin’s or even Stalin’s culpability in Soviet crimes, to, at the end, a democratic socialist who favored a more Western European kind of socialism. He became, and remains, a staunch political pluralist. More confusing, he has long used Communist rhetoric and still seems to retain some Communist goals and sympathies, though he adamantly rejects totalitarianism. He never seemed to completely discard all Marxist-Leninist ideology.
55. Ibid., 175, 207, 215.
56. He pointed out this exception many times in his remarks. Reagan, “Remarks and a Question-and-Answer Session With Area High School Seniors,” Jacksonville, Florida, December 1, 1987; Reagan, “Interview with Network TV Broadcasters,” December 3, 1987.
57. Importantly, this seemed to contradict Gorbachev’s understanding that socialism was approaching another stage in its continuing advancement along the dialectal plane, one that Marx and Lenin envisioned as eventually leading to world socialism; however, Gorbachev either convinced himself that such a global goal was never Lenin’s or, as noted earlier, convinced himself that Lenin only advocated socialism’s global advancement by peaceful means. Also, Gorbachev repeatedly spoke of some form of fuzzy quasi-democratic method of Lenin, of which Gorbachev was extremely vague. See: Gorbachev, Perestroika, 202, 210.
58. Ibid., 152.
CHAPTER 12
1. Vladimir Serov, “The Plans of Nuclear ‘Crusaders,’” distributed by TASS, January 17,
1983. Text is published as “Serov: Directive ‘Crusade Against Communism,’” in FBIS-SOV
18-JAN-83, January 18, 1983, A2.
2. Though formally issued January 17, 1983, the document was approved by Reagan at an NSC meeting on December 17, 1982. See Bailey, The Strategic Plan That Won the Cold War, 13.
3. Those words are actually the full name of a monograph on NSDD-75 by Bailey. 4. Reed, At the Abyss, 240.
5. Interview with Richard Pipes, September 9, 2002. Pipes concedes that NSDD-75 was his “main contribution to the Reagan administration’s foreign policy.” Pipes, Vixi, 188. Roger Robinson contributed the sections focused on economic and financial warfare. Interviews with Roger W. Robinson, June 6 and 8, 2005.
6. Pipes stated this in an interview with Peter Schweizer. Schweizer, Victory, 131. 7. Clark in Schweizer, ed., The Fall of the Berlin Wall, 71–73.
8. NSDD-75, January 17, 1983, 1. NSDD is on file at Reagan Library. 9. Interview with Richard Pipes, September 9, 2002.
10. Interview with Richard Pipes, September 27, 2005.
11. Richard Pipes, Survival Is Not Enough (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984), 262–64. 12. Clark in Schweizer, ed., The Fall of the Berlin Wall, 72.
13. Quote is taken from NSDD-75 third to last bullet on page 2.
14. McFarlane was interviewed by Peter Schweizer. Quoted in Schweizer, Victory, 132. 15. The two releases from the Moscow Domestic Service were released at 1940 and 2015
CHAPTER 13
1. These letters are quoted in my biography of Clark.
2. Bailey, The Strategic Plan That Won the Cold War, i.
3. This Marxist group was a renegade, competitor Marxist group. Bishop himself was a
Marxist, albeit much less radical and violent. Bishop and his New Jewel Movement came to power in a 1979 coup.
4. Reagan, “Speech Announcing the Strategic Defense Initiative,” March 23, 1983.
5. On this, and the entire operation in general, see Ed Meese’s chapter in Edwin Meese, With Reagan (Washington, DC: Regnery, 1992), 213–27.
6. Reagan, “Remarks at a Summit Conference of Caribbean Heads of State,” University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, July 19, 1984.
7. Quoted by Cannon, The Role of a Lifetime, 386–87.
CHAPTER 14
1. Reagan, “Interview With Lou Cannon, David Hoffman, and Juan Williams of the Washington Post on Foreign and Domestic Issues,” January 16, 1984. Reagan did not let go: He heralded the operation on its second anniversary in October 1985, seizing the occasion as a continued shot in the arm to the American body politic.
2. Reagan, An American Life, 457–58.
3. He actually began seeing the changes as early as summer 1982, especially in the military. See Reagan, An American Life, 557–58.
4. Reagan, “State of the Union Address,” January 26, 1984. For more such references later, see Reagan, “State of the Union Address,” February 6, 1985; and Frederick J. Ryan Jr., ed., Ronald Reagan: The Wisdom and Humor of the Great Communicator (San Francisco: Collins, 1995), 11.
5. Reagan, “Remarks Upon Returning From the Soviet-United States Summit Meeting in Moscow,” June 3, 1988.
6. He took the time to say so in his Farewell Address on January 11, 1989: “[O]ne of the things I’m proudest of in the last eight years [is] the resurgence of national pride…the recovery of our morale. America is respected again in the world and looked to for leadership.”
CHAPTER 15
1. Jack F. Matlock, Jr., Reagan and Gorbachev (New York: Random House, 2004), 106–7. 2. Reagan, “Remarks to Citizens in Hambach, Federal Republic of Germany,” May 6,
1985.
3. The remainder of this statement said: “To win this struggle, to preserve our way of life, to maintain the peace, we must be strong and true to our ideals. And together we can meet the challenge.” And then, “Future generations, not only in the United States but throughout the hemisphere, will be grateful for what we do today.” Because, said the president, “We’re passing to them the most precious gift of all—liberty.” Reagan, “Remarks at a Fundraising Dinner for Senator Paula Hawkins,” Miami, Florida, May 27, 1985.