Customer Reviews

The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For substance "The Crusader" falls within the work of David Brinkley, Robert Caro and David McCullough. History which is fun to read but isn't fluff.

Not the very light writing of a Sean Hannity, Al Franken, Michael Savage or Bill O'Reilly. Nor an Ann Coulter foot-noted polemic intended to amuse or infuriate.

On the other hand, "The Crusader" is not as detailed as Yale university's Annals of Communism series (Think Sean McMeekin, Donald Rayfield and William J. Chase--wonderful history but not books one picks up and reads straight through).

Of the 432 pages in "The Crusader" 79 are footnotes. 12 pages mention Ted Kennedy. 4 pages out of those 12 pages are in the appendix--the KGB letter. Kengor received the Chebrikov document via Marko Suprun, Walter Zaryckyi and Herb Romerstein (author of the Venona papers). A brief excerpt from the letter was first published in the London Sunday Times (February 2, 1992 "Teddy, the KGB and the Top Secret File").

This book The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism
by Paul Kengor is a wonderful History of Ronald Reagan and his goal to defeat communism. kengor was challenged to prove that Reagan brought down the USSR and he proves it beyond a shadow of a doubt.The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism is very well resourced and is comprehensive, you will learn a lot and yet its not dry history, its exciting. Just for the Kennedy and Carter mentions alone, its worth it the read. There should be a congressional investigation into both Carter and Kennedy actions. But I digress, you will find out that Ronald Reagan did not end communism alone, but he was a big factor and major player in bringing down the evil empire, and that evil system.

This is a great history Ronald Reagan's lifelong crusade against Communism. I recommend it as an enjoyable read and a fascinating history of Reagan's role in the Cold War. Despite an obvious enthusiasm for Reagan, Kengor's research is extremely well-researched and authoritative. "The Crusader" is a "must read" book for anyone interested in the period.

However, the story presented here is one-dimensional and, therefore, different than the fuller story Reagan tells himself in Reagan's autobiography An American Life. According to Reagan himself, he and Gorbachev became good friends and peacefully ended the Cold War. That personal diplomacy had much to do with the unraveling of the Soviet Empire three years after Reagan left office. Read the last chapter of his autobiography. This view is affirmed by Reagan's top diplomatic adviser to USSR Jack Matlock in Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended. For the rest of the story, read the two best books on the Cold War: The Cold War: A New History and The Rise and Fall of Communism. I recommend reading those books, along with the Crusader, to understand the complete story.

In the early 1940s, Reagan the visible actor spoke out against the threats of Nazism. After America won World War II, Reagan warned that there was another totalitarian threat called Communism. Yet Reagan's anti-Communist views were not well received in Hollywood where many naive liberals back then were intrigued with the delusions of Marxism. Communists were trying to infiltrate the film industry, and Reagan stood up to them and rooted them out. Reagan was threatened with having acid thrown in his face for his efforts. After James Roosevelt, FDR's son, and Reagan considered making a strong anti-Communist statement, they were attacked with insults. That's when Reagan, a staunch FDR supporter, began his journey to become a staunch conservative Republican and crusader against Communism. This book is so well researched and shows repeatedly that again and again, year after year, Reagan sincerely and forcefully spoke out against the threat of Communism - and he was right!

According to "The Crusader," once Reagan became president, he put in place a program of relentless pressure against USSR. He used speeches, economic warfare, a huge military build-up, and support of anti-Communist forces around the world. Reagan rejected containment and Detente, which maintained the status quo. His masterful speeches undermined the legitimacy of Communism. Reagan personally wrote to the Soviet leaders in longhand and insisted that they honor their promises in writing at Yalta, which they broke, to allow free elections in Poland and Eastern Europe.

The agreement at Yalta states: "The establishment of order in Europe and the rebuilding of national economic life must be achieved by processes which will enable the liberated peoples to destroy the last vestiges of Nazism and fascism and to create democratic institutions of their own choice. This is a principle of the Atlantic Charter - the right of all people to choose the form of government under which they will live - the restoration of sovereign rights and self-government to those peoples who have been forcibly deprived to them by the aggressor nations."

On August 17, 1984, Reagan said "We reject any INTERPRETATION of the Yalta agreement that suggests American consent for the division of Europe into spheres of influence. ON THE CONTRARY, we see that agreement as a pledge by the three great powers to restore full independence and to allow free and democratic elections in all countries liberated from the Nazis after World War II..." Reagan set out to make it happen. Reagan kept pushing and pushing to achieve his foreign policy political goals. It worked.

The chapter "The Coroner Comes to the Kremlin" is great. Read it. Under pressure to revive the ailing Soviet economy, Mikhail Gorbachev adopted bold reforms called Perestroika and Glasnost, but the results were not what he expected. Once the people tasted the freedoms he allowed, once the train was moving at high speed, it could not be turned back. Mikhail Gorbachev's Perestroika and Glasnost reforms opened Pandora's Box of freedom.

Ronald Reagan was the right man at the right time. Mikhail Gorbachev won the Nobel Peace Prize, the first Ronald Reagan Freedom award, and was named Time Magazine's Man of the Decade for his role. Yet Gorbachev never intended to destroy the Communist Party. He hoped, instead, to save it through reforms. He inadvertently presided over its demise. Without Reagan shifting the winds of freedom and applying pressure the way he did, the Soviet Empire would not have unraveled when it did.

Reagan ranks as one of the greatest diplomats of the 20th Century for his role in the demise of the Soviet Empire and making the world safer from the threat of nuclear war, along with FDR and his Great Arsenal of Democracy, Four Freedoms, Atlantic Charter, winning World War II, and making America a superpower engaged in world affairs. Just compare those impressive records to the rigid neo-con blunders in Iraq. Reagan was not a rigid neo-con, and he was not an amiable dunce as his critics have falsely claimed.

I do have a few quibbles with this book. Ronald Reagan, in his autobiography "An American Life" and "The Reagan's Diaries," emphasizes his friendship with "Gorby" and his peaceful diplomacy. Recent Reagan biographies by John Patrick Diggins and Richard Reeves also credit Reagan's diplomacy and friendship with "Gorbachev." Reagan was so sincere and good-natured, with that twinkle in his eye, that he was irresistible. Once Reagan got his "high beams" on you, you were finished, Michael Reagan once said. Reagan was a crusader but, more importantly, he was a persuader.

At Gorbachev's friendly invitation, Reagan gave a speech on free markets at Moscow State University and received a standing ovation. Reagan sold the Russians on free markets and freedom. He WAS the Great Communicator. When a reporter asked Reagan if USSR was still "the evil empire," Reagan replied, "No. I was talking about another time, another era." Kengor does not mention this, and he describes the visit to Moscow as yet another time when Reagan pressured Gorbachev. In fact, it was Reagan's love of peace and diplomacy that won the Cold War. Reagan and "Gorby" became good friends. In his autobiography, Reagan shared his fear that Gorbachev might be toppled by Communist hardliners: "I was concerned for his safety... I've still worried about him: How hard and fast can he push reforms without risking his life?"

Kengor presents an incomplete and perhaps misleading story of the Reykjavik summit and the friendship between the two leaders. Kengor reveals that Reagan desired to abolish nukes, but Kengor does not mention that Reagan and Gorbachev tentatively agreed to abolish ALL nuclear weapons at the Reykjavik summit and that Reagan proposed sharing SDI, which Reagan believed would make nukes obsolete.

Also, the achievements of President George Bush Sr. are not mentioned. Sweeping progress occurred when Bush was president, such as the summit at Malta between Bush and Gorbachev, the withdrawal of Soviet troop from Eastern Europe by Gorbachev's order, and Gorbachev allowing numerous free elections to take place. Bush was president for nearly three years when Gorbachev finally fell from power.

By the way, it was actually the 1975 Helsinki Accords by Gerald Ford - not Yalta - that officially recognized Soviet Control of Eastern Europe. In return, the Soviets promised to honor "human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief." Specifically, the Soviets recognized the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which Eleanor Roosevelt helped achieved. This allowed the dissident movement in USSR to take root. According to Soviet Foreign Minister Anatoly Dobrynin, the publicity gained from finally receiving recognition of Soviet control in Eastern Europe was supposed to bolster the Communist Party. Instead, "it gradually became a manifesto of the dissident and liberal movement'... Brezhnev could hardly repudiate what he had agreed to... human rights..." (The Cold War a New History: John Lewis Gaddis) Kengor also does not mention anything about the Potsdam Conference when Harry Truman was president. That was the last summit of WWII - not Yalta.

This book does not mention the contributions of the dissident movement, including Nobel Peace Prize-winning Andrei Sakharov. He was named as one of the Time 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century. "By courageously speaking truth to power, he became the conscience of the cold war and inspired the movement that toppled Soviet communism...," Time wrote. "By the time of his death in 1989, this humble physicist had influenced the spread of democratic ideals throughout the communist world. His moral challenge to tyranny, his faith in the individual and the power of reason, his courage in the face of denunciation and, finally, house arrest -- made him a hero to ordinary citizens everywhere."

None-the-less, this is the best book on Reagan's lifelong crusade against Communism and a compelling work of research concerning Reagan's role. Kengor has done a fabulous job. Without Reagan, the Soviet Union would not have unraveled when it did. Reagan was the right man at the right time.

I am in a unique position to recommend this book. I studied the Cold War in college (although I eventually majored in business) when Gorbachev was in power. I traveled abroad and witnessed first-hand the rebellion in Lithuania against Soviet rule. I talked to several Lithuanians, who were participating in the rebellion, and I briefly met Vytautas Landsbergis, a professor of music and leader of the rebellion who became president after Lithuania gained independence. Tanks rolled through the streets of Vilnius while I was there (although Gorbachev refused to brutally suppress the rebellion). As a memento, I have a leaflet that Soviet helicopters dropped into the streets of Kaunas demanding an end to a huge demonstration. I had a friend who went to Poland and witnessed the Solidarity movement. Reagan encouraged those rebellions. I saw the world turn, and I know that Reagan had much to do with it. Reagan's life story is quite charming.

I highly recommend this book along with the fuller story Reagan tells himself in Reagan's autobiography An American Life. Reagan's personal diplomacy had much to do with the unraveling of the Soviet Empire three years after Reagan left office. This view is affirmed by Reagan's top diplomatic adviser to USSR Jack Matlock in Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended. For the rest of the story, read the two best books on the Cold War: The Cold War: A New History and The Rise and Fall of Communism. I recommend reading those books, along with the Crusader, to understand the complete story. Read the Reagan biographies that document this relationship with Gorbachev well, including Ronald Reagan: Fate, Freedom, and the Making of History, President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination and President Reagan: The Role Of A Lifetime. The Soviet Empire unraveled three years after Reagan left office when George Bush Sr. was president. The more diplomatic and peaceful side of Reagan is minimized in Kengor's "The Crusader." None-the-less, Kengor's book is an important piece of the puzzle and a terrific history of Reagan.

Also read the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire by David Remnick.

We have heard of how SDI was the breaking point for the Soviets but Paul Kengor, in his book The Crusader, reveals the many and varied strategies used by President Reagan and his team for bringing down the Soviet Union, many of which have only recently been declassified. For anyone who doubts that Reagan had much to do with the demise of the Soviet Union, this book will convince you that Reagan's staunch adherence to his belief that human freedom will win against totalitarian ideology was the catalyst in winning the cold war. He believed that as long as the oppressed are given hope, and the right pressures are applied on repressive regimes at the right time, these regimes will crumble.

The Crusader is a fascinating read as it shows how Reagan, the man, developed the confidence, the skills, and the philosophy that helped him deal with the Soviets. It shows how he was able to stand up to the intense pressure, even from those in his own administration at times, to follow the right course which led eventually to the collapse of Communism. You come away with the belief that without Reagan, the Soviet Union would still be controlling Eastern Europe and parts of Asia today.

Extremely well researched with new evidence from both U.S. and Soviet declassified files, the Crusader tells a story of courage, principled leadership, and faith in the power of freedom. It shows Reagan as a great leader who revived the American spirit and made us believe in ourselves again. It shows how Reagan who was often bitterly opposed by the opposition party, the Europeans, and the Kremlin was able to persevere and accomplish the thing that he had set out to do from the first days of his administration. This book offers many lessons that we need to learn in order to deal intelligently with the difficulties that the U.S. faces today. I highly recommend this book.

It is nice to finally read some of the history of the 1980s without the need to insult or suck up to those in power. Paul Kengor has added this book to the list of great biographies of Ronald Reagan (another was "Reagan's War" which is also excellent). Regardless of what you felt about the man, it is fairly important to understand Reagan's place in changing the world.

An odd thing about telling the story of Reagan is that most biographies don't mention what he did for Poland and other Soviet Block countries. In fact, the book, "Dutch" barely mentions Lech Wallesa and the solidarity movement. In many of those countries, Reagan is viewed as a liberator and hero. Again, regardless of your view of the man here in the U.S., he did change the world and was the linchpin for the fall of the U.S.S.R. This book is an excellent way to understand how and why he did it. What he did was put his vision on the block and stood by it, regardless of what some of his closest advisors told him. In the end, history has shown him to be the man with the vision of how to end the cold war.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough for ANYONE who wants to understand the fall of the Soviet Union or why Reagan is viewed as a God by many Republicans. At the same time, this book is not insulting, nor does it degrade those with different viewpoints. It is an exciting and fascinating book with information that I had never heard, and I've read 10-15 books about the man. Great work and as a fan of history... keep these types of books coming.

I read Crusader with great interest, having spent six years in the Navy, ending in the dismal Carter years. Had you told me in 1975 that the Wall would fall a decade later, I would have bet you every cent I had you were lying. Russia was ascendent; America was spiraling into decline. Most of my last Med cruise was spent with our main weapons systems inoperable for lack of spare parts--and our ship was cannabalized for other spares to fix our replacement ship's weapons when we headed stateside. It was the worst of the post-Vietnam sag. Reading this book helped me understand the dramatic changes of the 80s, and clearly laid out the true truth about how Christian faith can motivate a great statesman to truly great secular successes.
The book was well-documented, written in an engaging style, and thorough in its analysis. Two negatives I noted: the discussion of the internal defense directives tended to be repetitive, and there was not really a good explanation of how seemingly mild, vague words in a government white paper can later result in, for example, a huge explosion in Russia. It might have been better to focus on a few of the directives and follow them through in some detail.
I was also very surprised he did not talk more about the famous speech at the Brandenburg Gate in 1987--even today you see the dramatic clip of Reagan demanding, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" But nowhere in modern media will you see them play out the rest of the speech, where Reagan pointed to an East German TV tower surmounted with a glass globe which, when the paint flaked off, would make the sign of the Cross over communist Berlin. Reagan devoted a good bit of the speech to Christian love, and the distinction between atheistic communism and free, faith-tolerant democracy. It the crusader at his best, and is a bit of history now forgotten that would have provided excellent reinforcement to Mr. Kengor's fine effort.

I remember the old view of Reagan: "Dumb Actor Following a Script Written By His Advisors" As I said, "old view" because now we know what many of us already knew...Reagan was a President who had a vision of a world without communism and the threat of nuclear war. Reagan was a President who seriously thought about the issues of the day and a combination of his views, actions, internal opposition to communism in Poland, and Gorbachev ended the Cold War. Kengor's book is an excellent, up to date, well written, and documented look at Reagan's role in ending the Cold War.

The book was easy to read, had great notes and footnotes. I also got a much better understanding of the role of Poland, Solidarity, and the Pope in ending the Cold War. I had not known this before, and certainly some of the revisionist professors I had neglected to mention this in class. Combined with the "Cold War" by Gaddis and the recent release of the many letters and speeches of Reagan, Kengor's book shows how Ronald Reagan helped end communism in Europe and defeat the Soviet Union.

On a personal note, Professor Kengor spoke to my students about his book, the Cold War, and his research. Not a lot of authors would take the time to speak to high school kids and I think this says a lot about the Professor's character.

Not only did this book show the greatness of Reagan but it showed the greatness of Pope John Paul II and Lech Walesa and to a large extend Gorbachev. The book showed how great Reagan was without diminishing the contributions of others to the end of the Cold War.

I highly recommend this book. Order this book and "The Cold War" by Gaddis. After reading this book NO ONE should try and say Reagan was "just following a script." This is one of those books where at the end you learned a lot of things you didn't know before.

A few years back, I was having an argument with a (rather liberal) friend of mine about the collapse of European communism. We are both from Europe, but we grew up on different sides of the East-West divide. His was what I came to understand the conventional view of people on the left: the communism collapsed due to its internal contradictions, because it was not the "real" communism, and a string of similar sorts of nonsense. As with many other issues that we argued about, I could not have disagreed more. Indeed, communism had enough of the internal problems that its eventual demise was inevitable, however left to its own devices, the eventual collapse would surely taken many more years, or even decades if not longer to unravel, with incalculable cost in human misery that would have engendered. Those of us who have had the luck to avoid that misery are grateful for all the external pressures exercised on that political system that hastened its demise, in particular the pressure that United States has exercised during all those decades of the Cold War, culminating with the final strong push by president Ronald Reagan and his administration. This book is a valuable record of what motivated Reagan to see the communism for what it really was - an evil system bent on repressing its own citizens. The book documents Reagan's anti-communist stand from his earliest political days, all the way through his years in the office. It gives an invaluable event-by-event chronology of all the systematic and relentless effort that Reagan put into dismantling the communist influence everywhere in the world that culminated in the final collapse of the Soviet Union and its many Eastern European satellite-states.

If there is one criticism that I would have against this book, it would be that it sometimes portrays Reagan too one-dimensionally. The reader gets the impression that anti-communism was the only motivator behind this great American president. Nevertheless, this is a great andextremely well researched book and it is extremely valuable to anyone with interest in either Ronald Reagan or the Cold War.

Hearing skepticism from fellow class mates about Ronald Reagan inspired me to read a little bit about him. After reading Mr. Kengors book on 'The Crusader', I have no skepticism about Reagan being the greatest president (and communicator) of the 20th century. This book proves he wasn't just some actor/puppet for his advisors, but rather, very brilliant both economically and politically. Reagan's foreign policy against the Kremlin was harsh and just what we needed after years of Détente or appeasement for the KGB. The policy of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) was just that, mad, and Reagans policy of MAS (Mutually Assured Survival) was much more reassuring; as I read about this though I couldn't help but feel that Reagans ideas go far beyond his time and are reflected with people wanting MAD with countries such as North Korea and Iran even today. This book is for anyone who wishes to expand their already extensive knowledge of Reagan or for someone who wishes to start learning about him. I promise though, this book will not leave you disappointed it will leave you with a hunger to learn more about this lifeguard turned actor, turned governor, turned president, turned hero.

The two best Presidents during the 20th century were FDR and Reagan. If you want to know why the former is on the list, read Doris Kearns Goodwin. If you want to know why the latter name is there, read this book.

The conventional wisdom that Reagan was aloof and unable to keep track of what was happening during his presidency is absolutely decimated by the author's research. The original biographies of Reagan written by Cannon and Morris were written from a liberal perspective, and with very little information available. The passage of time means documents become unclassified, and those documents show a President with a laser-like focus on burying communism and spreading freedom. Reagan's aides all admit that he was the driving force behind our foreign policy all along.

The other aspect of the book that I most enjoyed was the frequent references to Soviet media and elite opinion, which was apoplectic during the early '80s as they figured out that Reagan was not about to play nice with them. Anyone who credits only Gorbachev for bringing democracy to the communist bloc will not think that way after reading this book. He deserves some credit, but as the author states it was never Gorbachev's goal to end communism. That goal was Reagan's alone, so how can he not get the overwhelming majority of the credit? Reagan forced Gorbachev's hand, pure and simple.

The greatest accomplishment by a President since WW2 was taking over a country with a serious inferiority complex and terrible economy in 1981, and transforming it into the strongest nation in the world and the outright victor in the Cold War in eight short years. I urge everyone to read this book if for no other reason than to understand that great leadership in Washington is possible, and big dreams do come true if you're willing to fight for them.