Michael
Nov 26th 2009, 03:21 PM
Reagan Didn't End the Cold War -- Leftist Intellectuals Did
Reagan was inspirational, but to claim he defeated Communism is a disservice to the millions of Eastern Europeans who struggled against great odds for their freedom.
The 20th anniversary of the 1989 Velvet Revolution that overthrew the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia was one of the most impressive civil insurrections in history. It was not the military might of NATO, but the power of nonviolent action by ordinary citizens which brought down the system. The popular uprising against the repressive system that had ruled their country for much of the previous four decades -- along with comparable movements, which came to the fore that year in Poland, Hungary and East Germany -- marks a great triumph of the human spirit.
These movements were largely led by democratic socialists who mobilized workers, church people, intellectuals, and others to face down the tanks with their bare hands. Yet here in the United States, we are told that it was a result of President Reagan's militarism and the supposed inherent superiority of capitalism. It is this false narrative that has played such a major role in shifting discourse to the right in subsequent decades and has been used to discredit those struggling for a more just and egalitarian economic system and a more sane and less imperialistic foreign policy.
President Reagan's verbal support for democracy had little credibility in many of these countries. For example, while he denounced Poland's martial law regime, he was a strong supporter of the more repressive martial law regime then in power in NATO ally Turkey and scores of other dictatorships. In challenging left-wing governments in the Third World, Reagan gave little credence to nonviolent action and instead backed insurgents with ties to U.S.-backed dictatorships and -- in the case of Afghanistan -- even Islamic fundamentalists.
Source (http://www.alternet.org/world/144069/reagan_didn%27t_end_the_cold_war_%E2%80%94_leftist _intellectuals_did/?page=entire)
I think the last two paragraphs are particularly poignant:
Indeed, none of the extensive archival evidence that has emerged in the past 20 years gives any indication that the United States can take any credit (or blame) for the events of 1989. As Timothy Garton Ash, the most respected Western chronicler of that period notes, "the United States' contribution lay mainly in what it did not do."
Instead of using the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution and the fall of the Berlin Wall as a rationalization for global capitalism, the supposed triumph of the neo-liberal Washington consensus, and a celebration of Cold War militarism, the real lesson from that autumn is that civil society utilizing mass strategic nonviolent action has the power to bring down an oppressive hegemonic order.
There's a lesson there. I'm sure our ruling elites will do their very best to bury it and forget it and go back to praising Reagan for single-handedly winning the cold war and bringing down the Berlin Wall since that view reinforces their belief of the centrality of the USA to everything and the importance of Reagan (myths that are near and dear to the US media's heart).
I might add that I think the 'headline' on this story is as foolish as the assertion about Reagan. The whole thrust of this article is about how it was ordinary people who actually did all the heavy lifting on the issue - how can leftist intellectuals take credit for that? It wasn't a wall of leftist intellectual words that brought down the Berlin Wall in 1989 - it was ordinary people.
Reagan was inspirational, but to claim he defeated Communism is a disservice to the millions of Eastern Europeans who struggled against great odds for their freedom.
The 20th anniversary of the 1989 Velvet Revolution that overthrew the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia was one of the most impressive civil insurrections in history. It was not the military might of NATO, but the power of nonviolent action by ordinary citizens which brought down the system. The popular uprising against the repressive system that had ruled their country for much of the previous four decades -- along with comparable movements, which came to the fore that year in Poland, Hungary and East Germany -- marks a great triumph of the human spirit.
These movements were largely led by democratic socialists who mobilized workers, church people, intellectuals, and others to face down the tanks with their bare hands. Yet here in the United States, we are told that it was a result of President Reagan's militarism and the supposed inherent superiority of capitalism. It is this false narrative that has played such a major role in shifting discourse to the right in subsequent decades and has been used to discredit those struggling for a more just and egalitarian economic system and a more sane and less imperialistic foreign policy.
President Reagan's verbal support for democracy had little credibility in many of these countries. For example, while he denounced Poland's martial law regime, he was a strong supporter of the more repressive martial law regime then in power in NATO ally Turkey and scores of other dictatorships. In challenging left-wing governments in the Third World, Reagan gave little credence to nonviolent action and instead backed insurgents with ties to U.S.-backed dictatorships and -- in the case of Afghanistan -- even Islamic fundamentalists.
Source (http://www.alternet.org/world/144069/reagan_didn%27t_end_the_cold_war_%E2%80%94_leftist _intellectuals_did/?page=entire)
I think the last two paragraphs are particularly poignant:
Indeed, none of the extensive archival evidence that has emerged in the past 20 years gives any indication that the United States can take any credit (or blame) for the events of 1989. As Timothy Garton Ash, the most respected Western chronicler of that period notes, "the United States' contribution lay mainly in what it did not do."
Instead of using the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution and the fall of the Berlin Wall as a rationalization for global capitalism, the supposed triumph of the neo-liberal Washington consensus, and a celebration of Cold War militarism, the real lesson from that autumn is that civil society utilizing mass strategic nonviolent action has the power to bring down an oppressive hegemonic order.
There's a lesson there. I'm sure our ruling elites will do their very best to bury it and forget it and go back to praising Reagan for single-handedly winning the cold war and bringing down the Berlin Wall since that view reinforces their belief of the centrality of the USA to everything and the importance of Reagan (myths that are near and dear to the US media's heart).
I might add that I think the 'headline' on this story is as foolish as the assertion about Reagan. The whole thrust of this article is about how it was ordinary people who actually did all the heavy lifting on the issue - how can leftist intellectuals take credit for that? It wasn't a wall of leftist intellectual words that brought down the Berlin Wall in 1989 - it was ordinary people.