The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, and the World on the Brink | Uncommon Knowledge
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 มี.ค. 2023
- Recorded on January 25, 2023.
Will Inboden is a man of many talents: author, academic, and national policy maker. He held positions with the State Department and the National Security Council before returning to academia to serve as executive director of the Clements Center for National Security and associate professor of public policy and history at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, both at the University of Texas- Austin.
In this wide-ranging two-part interview, Inboden discusses in detail Reagan’s strategy and tactics in bringing the Cold War to a successful and peaceful conclusion through negotiation and, yes, some artful bluffing.
In this first installment, we cover Reagan’s first term in which he deals with the public’s perception of his intelligence, a large and popular antinuclear movement, and the execution of his “peace through strength” initiative.
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Peter has to be one of the best interviewers around. Great discussion, thank you.
Superb interview! Cannot wait to read this book. Thank you very much.
Here's to you Mr Robinson. I wonder if the listener understands the role you played in the evil empire speech. And where did the inspiration come from. I don't remember seeing it in those words in the classics. But I think the intent was there in XYZ. Talk to Victor DH. And how much the establishment argued against it and it's not clear to me how it survived their interference. And did RR have to erase their notes in the margin
RR was that last true believer in Western civilization. Where shortly afterwards we stop teaching it. Back to the classics. Thank goodness for you and Victor Davis Hanson. As far as I can determine the last holder of that candle and belief system. Squawks the macaw
I just read the book and it is excellent
The book is excellent; Reagan's ideas and actions were greater. We need more like him in today's idea war
He was a populist who made a massive debt
@@AlexanderLittlebears populism is good tho. But yeah increasing the debt is obviously bad
He had his goons go behind Carter’s back to prolong the imprisonment of Americans in the hand of America’s enemies, promising weapons that were later delivered and used to kill Americans.
The Constitution defines treason as “…adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort”. Selling arms to Iran was exactly that. Reagan was a traitor.
So he was the guy in the office when Gorbachev pursued glasnost in USSR. If not him it would have been someone else, and the USSR would still have collapsed, it was coming for years.
No thank you - we absolutely do not need more people who use treachery to gain office then go on to break the middle class even more in today’s world.
I served 20 years in the Air Force 1973-1993. I started at NORAD in Cheyenne Mountain. I later served five years at Strategic Air Command HQ, dealing with the initial deployment of the MX "Peacekeeper" 10-warhead ICBM into former Minuteman III missile silos in Wyoming, and the B-1 Lancer and B-2 stealth bomber. SAC had 100,000 personnel controlling ICBMs and nuclear bombers at 25 bases across the US, from northern Maine to Guam. I worked at most of those bases. I participated in annual week long nuclear war exercises in the field, as well as a week long exercise in responding to a nuclear weapon accident. Reagan was the first president to actively reduce the number of nuclear weapons in America and the USSR. By the time I retired from the Air Force in 1993, SAC had decisively stepped back from a hair trigger nuclear war response, detargeting its missiles, and ending the 24-7 flights of the Looking Glass airborne command post that could launch ICBMs from the air even if the underground launch centers had been destroyed in a Soviet attack. He got rid of the Titan II heavy ICBMs and closed several ICBM bases. Nuclear missile subs were taken out of service. And he had started his time in office by cancelling the massive "shell game" basing of a thousand MX missiles, that would have covered half of Utah and half Nevada with concrete missile bunkers. He cancelled MX unilaterally. By the end of his second term, nuclear weapons had been halved again, and the US began closing 100 military bases. We now have a force of non-nuclear anti-ICBM interceptors that give us a non-retaliatory option if there is an ICBM launched at the US by accident, or by a rogue faction in Russia. We have anti-missile systems we can deploy on land and at sea against shorter range missiles, used during the Iraq war and to protect Israel.
Amazing interview.
Can’t wait till the second conversation!
The book is great! About fifty pages from finishing. It's a great analysis of Reagan's foreign policy - warts and all.
I hope in part II you also cover how President Reagan also helped the schools (k-12). Great program.
Another deceptively brilliant interview by Peter Robinson. His easy demeanour engenders an openness and confidence in his interlocutors which makes the whole experience so fruitful. I happened to meet one of Reagan's speechwriters (Richard Langworth, I think) as an eighteen-year old. It was clear speaking with him that Reagan had depths which were not obvious to us, here in the United Kingdom, at the time. Thank you for bringing out the correct perspective - which is all the clearer in time. When deriding either Trump or Biden, keeping Reagan in mind is apposite.
A great interview about my Gabor President…. Congratulations
Cheers Andrew Wickham
Always great interviews by Peter
Thanks for Uploading.
What a great Interview!
Bravo
Thanks !!!
In 1967, Hugh B. Brown, the #2 leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (nicknamed "Mormons") spoke to a Church conference in Osaka, Japan, and prophesied to the Japanese members of the Church that Japan's longtime enemy, the USSR, would open its borders to missionaries of the Church, including some of them. I have a tape recording of the talk, and the statement was quoted in the academic quarterly of Brigham Young University. No one expected it would happen anytime soon. But it happened 25 years later.
That's another winner! I had to watch it twice, back to back.
Excellent never been so excited for a sequel😮
Am missing the part about Solidarity Union in Poland - and John Paul II.
Everyone remembers Reagan hollering his famous phrase at the wall, but few know of the actual hard work others did prior to that Berlin visit... 🤷♂️
the Italian PM which approved the Pershing missile installation in Comiso (Sicily) was Giovanni Spadolini.
A great interview. A question to ask would be: "If Reagan and the US state dept never got involved in the Iran contra and teamed up with Iraq during the 1980s, would 9/11/01 have happened, thus Iraq and Afghanistan War doesn't happen either?" Keep in mind these 3 things along with the sub prime mortgage mess from the late 70s lead to the 2008 economic recession here in the United States and throughout the world. Let's ask the hard questions too!
At 43:56 Professor Imboden must have had some struggle to conceal the full measure of how that compliment hit him.
I’ve come around on Regan, but perhaps that is largely a product of comparing him to the modern Republican party. Longing for the good old days of the cold war, which I wasn’t alive for.
Great another book on the must read list & here I loosely quote C.S Lewis You cannot make a cup of joe big enough or a Geo-Relations book long enough to satisfy my tastes. & DJ...
This interview was mostly on US foreign policy yet mentioned only Vietnam and Watergate as undermining US offshore interests. What was NOT mentioned was President Carter’s disastrous foreign policy with Iran and the Iranian hostage crisis. Then Carter’s rush to do something before the 1980 election, he killed 8 US servicemen in a failed hostage rescue attempt. He had over a year to plan a rescue, but did not issue an order to start planning until Senator Kennedy filed to run for President in the New Hampshire Primary. The American people fired President Carter for being incompetent.
Air traffic controllers, had a ace up his sleeve. He had an entire replacement force, sitting in the Air Force to take charge just in case there was an air attack from the Soviets. So he took no risk making the threat, after all the Air Force needed the practice and they would often practice anyway. As almost all pilots were in the Air Force reserve and being paid for that. Squawks the macaw
Although entirely different personalities, It is interesting that Margaret Thatcher's approach to international affairs was in lockstep, even ahead of President Reagan. It would have been interesting to see how either would have fared without the other
I remember it well
S/H home with SDI
Gov Reagan signed the Mulford Act in 1967, outlawing open carry in the state of California. A response to the Black Panthers occupying the state Capitol in Sacramento armed with long rifles.
Are are hated those damn things with a passion. To the point rumor has it that he brought one into the capital just to touch. Good news is Gorbachev had the same feeling. And both wanted out from under the scourge and having to start over again in every way.
I think Reagan is worthy of respect (unlike most of the presidents who’ve followed him) but a bit of skepticism is warranted about some of the suggestions about the fall of the USSR made here.
If we really believe his tough talk was part of the blueprint for stopping communism in Russia wouldn’t you suggest we follow that same pattern with China? I don’t expect anyone with the ultimate responsibility for the matter would trust that Russian communism fell because of the aggressive stance of the west rather than in spite of it.
It was the Russian people who, when given the chance to vote, ended the USSR. The CPP knows this is their greatest threat rather than tough talk from the west.
11:48
👍👍👍
You're welcome
I had never seen the "Morning in America" video. I was politically disengaged and voting in almost total ignorance for Democrats (I was pro-life but not practicing my Anglican faith.) At the moment it seems to be Midnight in America but there seems to be peeks of early morning light if not yet a new dawn. And I do not find this Morning in America message hokey at all. The last image of a marrying couple says it all about today.
Wow. So Reagan didn't make any mistakes ever, not even once. So cool 😍
The Soviet understood that the neutron bomb, would kill people, without destroying infrastructure. hanks and artillery moving forward as was their plan. Would be without a drivers in 24 hours. And there would be no cost to the infrastructure to speak of. That was a threat that couldn't be ignored. As the Soviets depended entirely on their entire entirely on their artillery. Having mapped down the artillery and tank obstacles to the square meter.
I hope a guy like DeSantis will become a Reagan-like-president. The world needs a president like that.
My biggest gripes with Reagan are his complete deregulation of the financial sector to the point of virtual immunity from the law, they created "wealth" on paper via accounting gymnastics and speculation- without actual value having being produced. This wrongheadedness sparked the inflation of the massive bubble that popped in 2008 (which has been reinflated even worse at this point). Also his draconian approach to dealing with illegal drugs has caused so much pain and needlessly alienated so many people from American society. I don't advocate for legalization of hard drugs, but there are far better ways to deal with the problem. He left us with some great sound bites though!
Reagan gets the credit, but the turn away from détente was originally done by Carter and his stressing on the morality of human rights (i.e., that communist countries obviously have low regard for), and then reinforced by Carter in his aghast at the USSR involvement in Afghanistan. This is really where the defense buildup started, with one of the main weapons being the B-2 bomber; oh BTW, Reagan had politically attacked Carter for canceling the B-1 bomber - which was only done since the B-2 was to make the B-1 obsolete (at least at that cost level), and Carter being the thoroughly decent man just took the political lumps rather than divulge the secret.
Now that said, Reagan was in office at the time when the CIA had assessed that the USSR was not adept at the new semiconductor economy, and he made the right decision to push for a high-tech arms buildup that the USSR would not be able to keep up with. Reagan also deserves the credit for realizing that the Muslim oil states (i.e., mainly Saudi Arabia) could be cajoled to support the Afghan Mujahedin by flooding the oil market with supply, thereby seriously reducing the hard currency exports of the USSR, and which also would help break the back of the Great Inflation and increase Americans' standard of living. Finally, Reagan was wise enough to know when to work with its adversary once it had been beaten down.
Even worse than stopping explaining and teaching Western civ. Is the fact that all the courses that explain and taught the comparative religions courses have disappeared. If we still had those we might have been able to address and even solve some of those issues in the Middle East. Like Mr T showed there's nothing like a little respect, and treating each other as adults. To make progress around the negotiating table. And stopping paying tribute. Paying others to lie so we could lie to our people.
He was a great president no doubt.
Ummm.... No.
Horrible person. I hope he's burning in hell.
Why no mention of Reagan cancelling the MX ICBM program, that would have doubled US nuclear warheads? Critics of Reagan calling him a lover of nuclear weapons have erased that fact from hustory. MX would have made Nevada and Utah the main target of Soviet ICBMs.
The US didn't lose the war in Vietnam. The Democrats walked away from our country's commitment to the South Vietnamese to provide the needed replacement ammunition to allow them to defend themselves against the north.
This was similar to the way the democrats abandoned the people of Afghanistan.
Very interesting conversation.
I often wonder what Reagan would make of the recent political developments in the Republican Party. The GOP has been driven so far from defending liberty in recent years that key figures in that party are now calling for the appeasement of Russia. Even though the Democratic Party has many problems of its own, I do hope Americans will vote for politicians who will uphold the Reaganite view of the world, and continue to defend liberty across the globe.
Don’t forget Pakistan and Afghanistan, we paid with blood for European and global freedom.
current leading gop candidates ready to back down to russia, in europe. who would have thought...
The new dunces on the scene, DeSantis and Trump (unfortunately), need a re-education on the Reagan Doctrine and the concept of pease through strength.
I am ALL for uplifting white men who deserve it!
The author of the book is incorrect.
Reagan was *not* the Peace Maker.
*Gorbachev* was The One.