Reagan's Legacy - How will he be remembered?

[SlowwHand]

A) Pay no attention to the Aussie behind the curtain.

B) Going bask to the asserted point that Reagan applied for membership in the communist party when in his 30's, during the Great Depression, speaks of why he should be considered an icon by present-day commies.

That is, it is entirely possible to recover from making a major mistake in thought process, and end up making contributions that actually better the world.
So don't give up on yourself after you screw the pooch.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Actually it was Reagan who offered to cut nukes. At the Iceland Summit he offered to eliminate them altogether in a 4 eyes meeting - which shocked his own advisers as well as Gorbachev.

Both did. Gorby offered smaller cuts in both arsenals and that was a big negotiation, until Reagan dropped his (pardon the pun) bombshell on Gorbachev at Reykjavik.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Dissident
we were never remotely close to nuclear war btw.

You have no idea, actually. My buddy who worked on nukes told me that real alerts were very common, both because one side or the other would be buzzing the other and because of idiotic mistakes.

He told me one story of a guard in Dusseldorf who mistook a F-16 for a MiG and called it in, then began firing upon it. An F-16 in the area reported taking fire, and ground control put two and two together and assumed that the MiG was firing upon the F-16. Also, since this was near the Rhine, C&C was freaked that a Soviet jet made it that far, and scrambled all planes in Western Europe.

Now, imagine you're sitting in East Germany, and all of a sudden, every warplane in Western Europe goes into the air. What are you going to do?

That was just one incident.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by DanS
1984 was an awesome year. The US economy grew at a real 7.2%, the best since 1951.

Growth is typically very high coming out of a recession, even an engineered recession.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
Actually it was Reagan who offered to cut nukes. At the Iceland Summit he offered to eliminate them altogether in a 4 eyes meeting - which shocked his own advisers as well as Gorbachev.

You have that reversed. Reagan offered to cut nukes, and Gorby said, let's get rid of all of them. Reagan accepted. Schultz was the voice of insanity and came back and said no. The Americans would not suggest such a thing as Warsaw conventional forces greatly outnumbered NATO.

[Arrian]

I'm a mix of Gepap's 2 and 4. I have a certain nostalgia for the time since I was a young kid and my parents sure liked Ronnie. Objectively, I'm not a big fan of his policies. Even *if* his insane spending on the military helped speed the end of the Soviet Union, I'm still not sure it was money well spent. There is a ****load of dept lying around from his time, and are we really better off w/o the SU? People in the SU may be, and good for them (though it's certainly a mixed bag over there), but are we? I'm not so sure. I do cut him *some* slack on the mucking about in other people's countries, given that the Cold War was still on. It doesn't make those things magically ok, but I do view the CW as a different era, with somewhat different rules & priorities. Even with the slack, though, I'm not at all impressed with the Iran-Contra mess. I kinda liked the shot they took at Dubya's new best friend in Lybia, though. Too bad they missed.

-Arrian

[the_ceebs]

Let's not forget Ron's actions on the 40th aniversary of D-Day

Laying a wreath in an SS cemetary.

[child of Thor]

I'll remember him as an average to good actor, and a friend of our(uk) dear Margret Thatcher(kinda joke about the dear bit ).
Jimmy Carter just seemed much more friendly to me - sort of like John Denver, but i got no idea what his policies were like.
Next to Bush, Reagan is not so bad.
But then the Devil was an angel once

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by child of Thor
Next to Bush, Reagan is not so bad.

True, and so very, very frightening.

[Verto]

Originally posted by the_ceebs
Let's not forget Ron's actions on the 40th aniversary of D-Day

Laying a wreath in an SS cemetary.

Took a man of courage to do that.

[Verto]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger


Brilliant?

Everybody knew SDI didn't work, and wouldn't for the foreseeable future. That included the Soviets.

From former Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union, during an address at Princeton in 1993:

"There was one vital factor in the ending of the Cold War. It was Ronald Reagan's decision to go ahead with the Strategic Defense Initiative."


If the Soviets knew it wouldn't work, why did they consistently demand that the US give up any plans for a missile defense?

[germanos]

A few quotes as published by my newspaper, in attempt to capture Reagan's humor. [newspaper's disclaimer] His humor would be intentinal, but accidental is well[/disclaimer]

[my disclaimer ] I'm sorry if anything got lost in translation[/disclaimer]

The attitude of government in regard to economics can be summarized as followes: If it moves: tax it. If it keeps on moving: regulate it. If it stops moving: subsidize it

People say Politics is the second oldest profession. I've found out it appears to be very much like the oldest profession

In English the most terryfying words are: "I'm from the government and I'm here to help"

Politics is like showbusiness: first you have a great overture, then you just float around and you end with a great punch-line

It's true: nobody has ever died from working hard. But why would I take the risk?

:evil grin:

The waste produced by a nuclear power plant is easily stored in the empty space under a desk

I'm not worried about our budget-deficit: it's big enough to take care of itself

[Verto]

In English the most terryfying words are: "I'm from the government and I'm here to help"

It is based off the humor that whatever the government lays its hands on ends up in worse condition.

[The Mad Monk]

"An old Russian woman goes into Kremlin, gets an audience with Gorbachev and says, "In America anyone can go to the White House, walk up to Reagan's desk and say, 'I don't like the way you are running the country.'" Gorbachev replied, "You can do the same thing in the Soviet Union. You can go into the Kremlin, walk up to my desk and say 'I don't like the way Reagan is running his country.'"

[The Mad Monk]

Soviet Premier Gorbachev's three predecessors Brezhnev, Andropov and Chernenko had all died during Reagan's first four years in office. Whenever Reagan was asked why he had waited so long for a summit with the Soviets, he would reply, "They kept dying on me."