I appreciate the response Mark but think back yourself.
Reagan was called a warmonger for his actions at Rekiavic, his missile deployment in Europe and for many of his brilliant comments. He was called all sorts of names by folks for his ‘Bring down this wall’ comment.
At Rekiavic he was specifically spanked by know-it-all liberal republican leaders for ‘missing a once in a lifetime opportunity’. He had to fight off his own party leadership, to put the Pershing II (I belive it was Pershing II) nukes in Europe.
He was fought tooth and nail against undermining that communist germ in Nicaragua, that has come to power again.
Are we talking about democrats? No. The republican leadership thought he was a loose cannon. They thought he was senile. They thought he didn’t have a clue a majority of the time.
Reagan was vindicated when the wall came down. He was also vindicated when his own diary revealed that he was lucid and still driving policy and day to day operations up until the end of his presidency.
A considerable number of leading republicans did not buy into this while he was in office.
With all due respect man, you are using selective memories here.
Yes, there was opposition to Reagan’s Reykjavik summit. Much of it was from the Left and Democrats who thought Reagan was a warmonger. BUT...the truth is that his toughest opposition at that point came from HARDCORE CONSERVATIVES who thought he was being too soft on the Soviets. Go research this. Reagan was criticized by as many as 20 Right Wing (NOT RINOs) Senators, including Jesse Helms, the absolute darling of the hardcore right.
You talk about “know it all Liberal Republicans” who opposed Reagan on Reykjavik...like who??? What Liberal Republicans were there in that time frame who specifically ripped Reagan and repudiated the deal with the Soviets? I was on Capitol Hill in the late 1980’s and I can tell you that 90% of the criticism of Reykjavik came from the Democrats and the other 10% came from THE RIGHT WING, not so-called RINOs.
It wasn’t the Republican Leadership (as you call it) that thought of Reagan as a Loose Cannon, it was Bureaucrats at the State Department, and in the CIA, and other entrenched government interests like that. Sure, there was some grumbling from a few RINOs that he was too harsh early in his term, but that was from people trying to win re-election in weak districts...and they had pretty much shut their mouths after the second term began.
Believe me, there was a lot of criticism of Reagan, but it mostly came from the media and Democrats...and there was WAYYYYY more criticism of Reykjavik from the Right Wing than so-called RINOs.
And you bring up Nicaragua...the Republicans DID side with Reagan on that issue. Other than Arlen Specter and Dan Evans, what Republican Senators voted against Contra Aid??? The Contra Aid situation fell apart after Republicans got crushed in the 1986 off-year election and lost several Senate seats. Only THEN did that situation truly fall apart.
If you want to make that point that in 1976, the Republican establishment opposed Reagan then I agree with you, but that was NOT the case in the 1980’s. It is major revisionist history to suggest that there was anything more than token resistance from the so-called RINOs...hell, Reagan even had Democrats on board for some of his stuff...