The Soviets

Published: Aug. 23, 2022, 7 a.m.

Ronald Reagan was a loving guy \u2013 he never hated anyone, except, maybe two things: Communism and Liars. In his mind, the two were definitely intertwined. And, as we observe Putin\u2019s assault on Ukraine, it\u2019s the same old Soviet tune \u2013 one that says \u201cwe\u2019re for peace\u201d and oh by the way, just ignore the tanks invading your country, we\u2019re hunting for nazis. No one believes them. And Reagan didn\u2019t drink the Soviet Kool-Aid, either. There\u2019s one Town Hall that he conducted in 1987 in California at the Century Plaza Hotel with transmission also on the East Coast AND supposedly in the Soviet Union. The Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York had, since 1984, sponsored a week of debate between Soviet and American scholars and officials and August 1987 was no exception. To put the time frame in perspective, by August 1987, Gorbachev had been General Secretary for about 2 \xbd years. Two summits \u2013 one in Geneva and one in Reykjavik - had taken place with the signing of the historic INF Treating looming in four months, in December of the same year. We love this town hall and we\u2019ll focus on it in this podcast.