46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Well Researched Thesis, March 10, 2009
This review is from: The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan: A History of the End of the Cold War (Hardcover)
I found the thesis of this book to ring true. The idea that Reagan on his own, came to conclusions at variance, with both his conservative base, and the "realist" school that included Nixon, Kissinger, and Snowcroft, has been repressed on both sides of the American political divide, for different reasons.
Some like to think of Ronald Reagan as either a rigid and narrow-minded, ideological Cold Warrior, in the school of Joe McCarthy...or, a conservative, neo-con, cowboy-saint, who single-handedly, won the Cold War by forcing the Soviets to capitulate in the face of our arms build-up, our Pershing missile deployment, and our moral vigor.
James Mann explodes both these misconceptions. His thesis is that eventually, Reagan saw in Mikhail Gorbachev...as good hearted man of flexible mind...and crucially, as man with whom he could negotiate. Reagan was aided in this effort by an extraordinary woman...a writer, with good contacts within the Soviet Union, and whom Reagan personally trusted to send and receive messages and overtures...as well as report her observations. In fact, he trusted this woman more than his conservative political base, and more than George Schultz and his own State Department.
It's an extraordinary story of the personal diplomacy of "trusting, but verifying". Mann documents that Reagan's real role was, in first understanding Gorbachev's internal political position, and responding to it in such as way as not to undermine the Kremlin politics that kept him on top. The fact that Reagan's arms build-up, in a way, actually helped to propel Gorbachev into power, is intriguing, for as Andropov's intelligence protege, he was trusted on security issues by the Soviet military and political establishment. This was particularly important for progress on the IMF treaty, so vehemently opposed by Reagan's right wing...the up-and-coming American neo-cons.
Mann sees Reagan deftly acting in ways to respect and support his "enemy"...who eventually became his colleague in ending the Cold War. I even see an element of Gandhi's non-violent opposition, in this highly counter-intuitive idea of supporting one's opponent.
I think Mann convinces the reader that, in the end, it was Gorbachev's central role, in desiring a European Russia...who ABANDONED the Cold War...not Reagan who FORCED its ending. But Mann is most clear that Reagan was quite instrumental in making it politically possible for him to do so. This was, without doubt, a HUGE contribution to the success of peace, and the nearly bloodless transformation and normalization of Europe.
Ronald Reagan deserves the credit he's accorded as a first class diplomat..but Mann's script for how he achieved this, is different from the usual dogma of either the American right, or the American left...or, for that matter, the genetically critical Euro left.
Mann's thesis is quite believable to me....and I think this well documented history should have nothing but a beneficial effect, upon the highly contentious partisanship we've seen in America, since Reagan and Gorbachev left the world stage.
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24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An important new study, March 7, 2009
This review is from: The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan: A History of the End of the Cold War (Hardcover)
The importance of Ronald Reagan is often being debated with books on both his greatness, sort of hagiographies, and those opposing places to much credit in him (
Tear Down This Myth: How the Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Politics and Haunts Our Future). This book attepts to examine Reagan from he standpoint of his 'rebellion' against the consensus on the right and left that the Soviet Union was a fact of life. Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger and other powerful voices in the Republican and Democratic parties believed the USSR was part of the status quo of the world, something that would always exist.
This book posits that Reagan and those around him imagined a world without the USSR and they sought to bring it about. This 'revolutionary' ideology meant that the State Department's current policies had to be pushed aside and instead of accomidating the USSR the U.S had to push against it, rather thanc containing, it had to be done away with.
Suprisingly Reagan found a sort of soul mate in Michael Gorbachev, who also sought radical reform in the USSR. In a freindship forged in ideological combat they together helped tear down the myth of Soviet invincibility. This book examines such famous incidents as the 'tear down this wall' speech. It shows that Reagan had a very real ideology that he pursued with vigor.
An important work. It doesn't highlight the role of the Afghan war at all and this is a major dificiency, but one filled by such books as
Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of How the Wildest Man in Congress and a Rogue CIA Agent Changed the History of Our Times. For those interested in the Cold War and Reagan this is an important study from a master writer.
Seth J. Frantzman
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A nuanced look at Ronald Reagan, March 12, 2009
This review is from: The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan: A History of the End of the Cold War (Hardcover)
James Mann mantains that Ronald Reagan was able to look beyond both the Realist and Neoconservative tradtions of the Republican Party and developed a working relationship with Gorbachev. In the first part of the book, Mann discusses Nixon's troubled relationship with Reagan when it came to the Soviet Union. Nixon, had a Realist emphasis on balance of power and military might when it came to dealing with the Soviet Union while Reagan thought that the Cold War was a war over ideas in which the Russians would embrace American ideals. In the first part of Reagan's term Nixon felt that Reagan should at least talk to the Soviets and then criticized Reagan for being too close to the Soviets in the second term. Reagan disargeed with Nixon because he thought that the Russian people had abandoned Communism. The second part of the book describes how Suzanne Massie persuaded Reagan that the Russians hated Communism and that Gorbachev was a new kind of Soviet leader , who would embrace Western values. The third part of the book is about how this new vision of Gorbachev allowed Reagan to give the "tear down the wall," speech despite protests from Realist in the state department. The fourth part of the book Mann tells how Reagan infuriated both Realists and Neoconservatives alike by signing the INF treaty with Gorbachev. Mann contends that only Reagan could have signed that deal with Gorbachev since most other Republicans opposed that deal and a Democrat would have had a tough time passing that treaty through the senate.
Mann concludes by stating that Gorbachev was the main reason that Communism fell in Europe. Gorbachev tried to refrom the Communist Party and security services through reconciliation with the West. Since the Party and the security services were built around hositility towards the West, they lost any legitimacy once Gorbachev's reforms were enacted. Reagan played his part in the Cold War's ending by talking to Gorbachev and signing the INF treaty which gave Gorbachev enough political capital to launch his reforms which eventually resulted in the demise of Communism in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. I wished that Mann would described in greater detail the Euromissile debate in Europe and SDI and how they poisoned realtions with Soviets in the early eighties. Despite this failing, Mann gives an accurate picture of how the Cold War ended.
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