27 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I'm in Awe of the Wisdom and Insight of These Cold Warriors, December 17, 1999
By A Customer
This book is a must-read for Cold War history buffs. With so much misinformation and biased commentary on the winners and losers of the Cold War, it was essential that such a book as Shattan's be written to set the record straight.
With Western leftist intellectuals still infatuated with Communism, it was inevitable that the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union would be followed by books praising Communist leaders and ignoring those that contributed to the system's collapse.
This book is a breath of fresh air. It's wonderful to finally read something that gives the champions of Freedom their due credit for crushing Communism and tossing it onto the ash heap of history. I don't expect Liberals, and others prone to blame America, will find much refuge in this book.
But for one looking for a fair and honest assessment of those that fought publicly and privately for Freedom and Human Dignity, you will find in this book an accounting of those individuals that challenged the morality and legitimacy of Communism and dared to oppose it. While many were content to co-exist with the Evil Empire, the six heroes described in this book challenged its right to exist and pushed for its demise.
In retrospect, one cannot help but be in awe of the near prophetic insight and wisdom that these individuals showed in dealing with the Soviet Union. For instance, Ronald Reagan ignored virtually all public opinion and expert advice when he put Pershing II missiles in West Germany. And he had few defenders when he refused to discontinue SDI as part of a disarmament treaty.
Of course, we now know that both of these events were critical turning points in the Cold War. It's hard to imagine anyone else doing what Reagan did. He was a man of firm and unshakable convictions and did not budge no matter what voters were saying or what Sovietologists were telling him. His wisdom and persistence provided a solid foundation for implementing policies aimed at rolling back the Evil Empire.
As a Conservative, Reagan understood Human Nature. He understood that Freedom and Human Dignity were given to each by their Creator. He knew that Communism was morally illegitimate since it suppressed Human Nature and denied the existence of the Creator. His constant derision and challenge to the Soviet Union and its leaders caused a crisis of Faith in the Kremlin. American leaders up to that point had accommodated and played nice with Soviet leaders. Reagan did not. Driven by a spiritual insight of the system's wickedness, he called a spade a spade (much to the chagrin of the State Department!) and demoralized the Politburo that had until then believed itself ideologically superior.
Of course, Reagan wasn't the only hero of the Cold War. In fact, Reagan followed the course set out by Winston Churchill (and Barry Goldwater) many decades before. Churchill, like Reagan, was incredibly insightful and had uncommon wisdom. In fact, if Churchill's first utterances of wisdom had been heeded, World War II probably would never have occurred. Also, if Roosevelt had listened to Churchill instead of appeasing Uncle Joe Stalin, the Yalta Betrayal that enslaved Eastern Europe would not have occurred. And if post-WWII leaders had heeded Churchill's "Iron Curtain" wisdom, Communism and the Soviet Union could have been held in check and Korea, Vietnam, etc. would not have happened.
But as they say, better late than never. It took a leader like Reagan to realize Churchill's plan for dealing with the Soviet Union from a position of military strength and moral superiority. And as both Churchill and Reagan knew, with such an approach, Communism would collapse upon itself. They knew that Human Freedom would prevail if the defenders of Human Freedom rose up to challenge the oppressors of Human Freedom.
I must admit that I was somewhat disappointed that Shattan included Truman as a hero. After all, Truman was the Vice President in an administration that betrayed American interests and sacrificed millions of human lives in order to befriend and appease Stalin after World War II. But I suppose Truman does deserve credit for finally abandoning the go-easy-on-Uncle-Joe policy that his predecessor (FDR) had engaged in. Without the Marshall Plan, the Berlin Airlift, and the Truman Doctrine, Western Europe may have also found itself behind the Iron Curtain.
Before reading this book, I was unaware of the role Pope John Paul II had in rolling back Communism in Poland. I now have great respect for His Holiness. Alexander Solzhenitsyn deserves credit for his courage in bringing attention to the evils of the Communist system, especially in his work "The Gulag Archipelago" which described to the West the barbarity and cruelty that was happening behind the Iron Curtain. His revelations renewed the moral struggle against the Evil Empire. Konrad Adenauer, like Reagan, did many things despite the abundance of naysayers. His firmness and dedication to Freedom contributed greatly to keeping West Germany from falling under the control of Communism.
Naturally, this book doesn't discuss all of the heroes of the Cold War. For instance, the French (Francois Mitterrand) and German (Helmut Kohl) leaders during the Reagan years deserve credit for their support of the Reagan Doctrine which aimed not to contain Communism, but to roll it back and crush it. Of course, Reagan and the 1980s would be incomplete without recognizing the role England's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher played in crushing the Evil Empire.
Naturally, the Left will never recognize any of the leaders described in this book as heroes because they crushed the very system that the Left admires. But as Ronald Reagan has said: "There is no limit to what you can accomplish if you don't mind who gets the credit." The Truth of history will ultimately prevail, notwithstanding modern historic revisionism that seeks to glorify Communism and attack those who opposed it and contributed to its demise.
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