Posted on 06/05/2004 8:04:45 PM PDT by Military family member
U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Dick Lugar wrote the following tribute to President Ronald Reagan who died today. Lugar served as Chairman of the committee in 1985-86, during Reagan's presidency, and was asked by Reagan to lead several missions including the election observer team in the Philippines. Lugar also chaired the National Republican Senatorial Committee for the 1984 election cycle and attended the weekly leadership meetings with the President. Lugar had the top congressional voting record in support of President Reagan during the eight years of his presidency. - - -
I pay special tribute to Nancy Reagan who has been indispensable throughout the public life of the Reagans, and particularly during this past decade. It was my privilege to sit beside Mrs. Reagan during several White House and Republican Party events and to understand her strength and shared dream for America.
The service of President Reagan to our country can only be approached by understanding how wide he cast the net of potential achievement, and fulfillment of dreams, hopes and visions.
President Reagan actually believed and articulated that our country had a special destiny, that no barriers were insurmountable because we are Americans. He actually believed and said that the Soviet Union was an Evil Empire, that its political and economic institutions were disintegrating, and that if its leadership and people knew the alternatives which our country presented, they would choose democracy and market economics.
President Reagan was prepared to invest an increasing portion of our national treasure in military defense with the certainty that we would negotiate successfully with our adversaries from a position of strength. He shocked foreign policy and defense specialists by proposing that all intermediate nuclear missiles be destroyed, a negotiating position labeled universally as a bizarre arms-control non-starter.
He affirmed the staying power of NATO by deploying Pershing missiles to Germany and cruise missiles to Italy even after the Soviets declared that such deployment would end all arms control negotiations and stimulate Soviet nuclear buildup.
Add to this, President Reagan's startling proposal that the United States should develop a Strategic Defense Initiative to protect our country against incoming missiles fired upon us. He contended that we SHOULD and COULD try to defend ourselves against the so-called balance of terror.
He proposed to President Gorbachev that the United States and the Soviet Union ban all nuclear weapons. In fact, he was confident that if he could take Gorbachev on an extended tour of America that Gorbachev would want to shape the Soviet Union into many of our successful traditions.
Meanwhile, President Reagan knew that substantial new growth must occur in our domestic economy to pay for the special leadership role he had envisioned in foreign policy. He was confident that substantial cuts in individual marginal tax rates and a host of investment incentives would establish and sustain the longest peacetime prosperity we had ever enjoyed. Our prosperity underwrote the magnificent gains in free and fair trade which he championed and world wide wealth grew abundantly.
When Ronald Reagan stood on a balcony of the Reichstag in Berlin and challenged Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall, he could see white crosses just below where courageous persons seeking freedom had lost their lives in that pursuit. Everything still appeared to be so locked up and grim, and sophisticated observers were barely patronizing in comment on his Berlin Wall challenge.
The Evil Empire crumbled, the Berlin Wall and other walls fell, all of the Intermediate Nuclear Force weapons were destroyed exactly in three years as the INF Treaty provided, and the United States became the only superpower with the strongest economy and the ability, uniquely, to extend military authority around the world.
All of this occurred because President Reagan persuaded the Congress and his countrymen to build our armed forces, to build our economy through the growth incentives termed "Reaganomics," to maintain the successful strategies of our NATO alliance, to utilize military force to support foreign policy as required, and to commence Strategic Defense Initiative research.
We now know that the Soviets were much weaker than experts estimated. We now know that they could not keep up the pace and that desperate attempts to do so led to the collapse of the Soviet Empire and then to the collapse of the Union, itself.
President Reagan advocated two more things which were inspiring and critically important in world history.
First, he rejected the Brezhnev Doctrine - the idea that territory which socialism had occupied could never be reclaimed. When he advocated this roll back of the iron curtain, he created deep anxiety and alarm among most international foreign policy advisers who loved liberty a lot, but loved stability even more.
U.S. Stinger missiles shipped to the expert ministrations of the Mujadahin in Afghanistan were a major instrument of the Soviet roll back, and the world watched in awe as the Soviet troops withdrew to a smaller Socialist world.
Second, President Reagan enunciated a new policy in a statement sent to the Congress after the Philippine election and revolution. He stated that henceforth, we would oppose tyranny of the left AND tyranny of the right, that we were for democracy developed by people who sought to know and enjoy democracy and human rights. this statement was SEVERELY criticized by experts who suggested that in the "real world" a good number of dictators were friendly to the U.S. and certainly useful in waging the Cold War against Communism.
In articulating his vision on the roll back of the Iron Curtain; in identifying with nations all over the world who applauded our passion for building Democratic institutions; in celebrating human rights and free market principles; in all of these areas, Ronald Reagan was far ahead of the prevailing wisdom. Yet he ultimately brought other leaders in America and around the world to his point of view in a relatively short interval.
President Reagan was courageous and on the right side of history. he performed these deeds in a very public way which instructed and inspired others. Those of us in public service learned much from President Reagan as we watched him speak and act. He was charismatic, he was determined and consistent, and he enjoyed a remarkable batting average of being right.
Thanks for posting.
Bump.
While Lugar is often on the wrong side of history. Nice words from Lugar, but Lugar would sell the US out to the UN in a minute.
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