Colin Powell talks about Reagan ["He exuded a confidence that was infectious"]

MR. SCHIEFFER: Earlier this morning after the ceremonies at the American Cemetery just above the Normandy beaches, I talked about Ronald Reagan with a man who served as his last National Security Advisor, the current Secretary of State, Colin Powell. I asked him what it was like to work for him.

SECRETARY POWELL: It was a wonderful experience. He was a man that was constantly exuding optimism, a love of America, a total belief in freedom, and the power of freedom and democracy to transcend any form of tyranny on the face of the earth.

I saw him both as a diplomat, as National Security Advisor and Deputy National Security Advisor, but I also saw him as a soldier because during those years I was a still in the Army. And I'll never forget that it was Ronald Reagan who helped to restore pride in the Armed Forces of the United States when he became President in 1981, and he also gave us the wherewithal to, once again, be the best military force in the face of the earth.

So, seeing him as a soldier and as his National Security Advisor, I am sad at his passing, but I will always be grateful for the service that he gave to the nation that he loved so much and to the cause of freedom throughout the world.

MR. SCHIEFFER: It's said that he was short on detail but long on vision. He really was kind of a different kind of leader, wasn't he?

SECRETARY POWELL: He was, indeed. He had several simple, straightforward, visionary principles: America should be strong; America should be a nation of values; we should not be afraid to show those values to the rest of the world. He believed, ultimately, that the Soviet Union was a failed political system and it was his role as President to help bring about the end -- not to push them over a cliff, but to help guide them to a realization that there was a better political system for them. And he finally met the man who understood that, Mikhail Gorbachev, and the two of them together, in the last several years of the Reagan Administration, did historic work together.

MR. SCHIEFFER: It's very interesting. I guess they had, what, five summits where they were together. They got to know each other very well. And as you allude to there, this was a man who called the Soviet Union "the Evil Empire," and yet he and Gorbachev did develop -- was it a good relationship, a good working relationship? What was the relationship between the two of them?

SECRETARY POWELL: It was a good -- it was a very good relationship. Gorbachev knew that he needed Reagan. And even though, yes, Reagan called it "the Evil Empire," Gorbachev never pushed back or resented that. In fact, he needed that kind of clear statement from the United States to persuade others in the Soviet Union that they had to make changes. Remember, he was trying to keep the Soviet Union intact. Perestroika restructuring and glasnost openness were not for the purpose of bringing an end to communism or the Soviet Union, but to making it a different system that would survive in the 21st century.

What Reagan knew was that it couldn't survive. Either with glasnost or perestroika, communism had to come to an end, and it did. And he knew it. And he worked with Gorbachev, and even though Gorbachev didn't succeed in keeping the union together, he brought it to the point where now we see a democratic Russia, still pressures within that society, but a Russia that is a friend and a partner with the United States.

MR. SCHIEFFER: Some would say that -- some of his strongest supporters would say that Ronald Reagan and the defense buildup in the United States that he brought about actually brought down the Soviet Union. Others would say, well, that may be taking it a little too far, but certainly he created the conditions to help bring down the Soviet Union.

SECRETARY POWELL: I think many things contributed to bring down the Soviet Union. First and foremost, it was living a flawed -- it was a flawed system. It was living an ideology that was a lie. And so that was a fatal weakness to the system. But it wouldn't have come down as quickly as it did if it hadn't been for Ronald Reagan and the military buildup, which said: "You cannot beat us militarily. We will do what we have to do to make sure that we are strong. And guess what, we can also provide for our social and economic needs. We can have guns and butter. Why don't you try it?"

And they tried it and realized they couldn't do it. They didn't have a system that worked either politically and economically that would allow them to have guns and butter. So they had many, many guns, but it was a society that was increasingly unable to cope with the economic and social challenges of the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, and therefore it collapsed.

So all of these things came together. Reagan's vision, the inherent weakness of the communist system and the buildup all came together to produce the results that we saw in the early 1990s.

MR. SCHIEFFER: You are a leader. You've been trained in leadership and management as a general officer in the Army. We talked at the beginning about Reagan was a different kind of leader. How was he different? Because he truly did delegate and left so much of the details to others that some said that maybe he was almost detached.

SECRETARY POWELL: No. He delegated, but he always gave us a clear vision. And it was a vision that never varied and it was constantly repeated, so you could count on it. And we knew what he wanted and he made it clear what he wanted, and he counted on those of us who he trusted to help bring reality to that vision.

But let me tell you, when anybody ever strayed off what he wanted or his vision, Ronald Reagan would show you what a determined, disciplined leader could do, and he would bring you rapidly back in line.

And so I think that was his greatness: his ability to see that vision clearly, never waver from it, and to bring all of the forces available to him -- political, economic and military -- to bear on achieving that vision.

SECRETARY POWELL: How to be calm in the middle of a crisis. How to set a clear vision. How to use the skills you have as a communicator to push that vision forward. He's often been called, of course, the Great Communicator, and he was. He just exuded an image. He exuded a confidence that was infectious. And it touched not only his fellow Americans. It touched people around the world.

MR. SCHIEFFER: I have always felt that the optimism that he exuded and that you refer to was maybe responsible for a lot of his success, perhaps most of his success, because I think it sort of reflected the optimism of most Americans. We are, after all, an optimistic people, it seems to me.

SECRETARY POWELL: I think that's absolutely right. And one of the little rules I've followed in my current lifetime is: Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier. I mean, if you're optimistic all the time, if you always believe you can, then others around you begin to believe that. And the world looks to America as the nation that can, the America that can put a man in space, the America that can believe in democracy, the America that can, over time, solve its social problems.

And America always has had that vision and that image for the rest of the world, and Reagan was the personification of it. And when people looked at Reagan, they saw America. And Reagan knew that. He knew that he, in his person and the way he projected that optimism, was projecting an image not just of Ronald Reagan but an image of all Americans and of America to the rest of the world.

Something interesting that Powell has said about Gorbsvhrb in the interviews he's given today: "Remember, he was trying to keep the Soviet Union intact. Perestroika restructuring and glasnost openness were not for the purpose of bringing an end to communism or the Soviet Union, but to making it a different system that would survive in the 21st century."

I think this is something the media often forgets to mention. Reagan had much more to do with the end of communism than Gorbachev did. Gorbachev didn't want want to end communism, but in the end he couldn't control what he started.

"He exuded a confidence that was infectious"

Imagine if you will a eulogy for Bill Clinton which includes the word "infectious".

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