Mikhail S. Gorbachev was last seen on MTV’s music videos. He left this mortal coil yesterday to go to the Great Politburo of the Sky.
Although I consider myself well-informed, I must admit that Gorby was not checked out until at least twenty years ago. This is probably because Gorby was only a footnote in the fall of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
But commie-loving American leftists do not see it that way. Twitchy, our sister site, anticipated the lovefest we will be exposed to in the mainstream media over the next few days.
Gorbachev was a gentle giant compared to his predecessors. But he was still a poor man who was in power at a time when America was blessed with a president who was not patient with commie nonsense. As soon as Vlad Lenin declared that the Soviet Union’s people could be sacrificed to fulfill his global domination pipe dream, it was certain that the Soviet Union was headed for disaster. The help of Margaret Thatcher, Pope John Paul II, and Ronald Reagan greatly expedited that doom.
Spencer shares the Townhall story about Reagan’s moment of truth with Gorbachev.
One of the most important Cold War meetings between Gorbachev, and Reagan was the October 1986 summit in Reykjavik (Iceland). They knew that they would eventually lose an arms race against the United States, and wanted Reagan to end America’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), aka Star Wars.
Reagan refused to compromise despite Gorbachev’s efforts to persuade him to end the program by offering Russia a concession to reduce its long-range missile capabilities. Reagan ended up leaving Reykjavik with no deal. This was one of the key examples of his “peace through power” foreign policy.
Reagan made that decision based on his gut instincts. His advisors told him to not do it, and to make a deal. The American left used to mock SDI. Star Wars was an epithet meant to mock Reagan’s cowboy folly.
However, Gorbachev is the one who is fondly remembered by the media. According to the New York Times, he was responsible for “the end of the Cold War.”
Gorbachev was actually just along for the ride. Ronald Reagan was always the driver.
