Posted BY: John Green
I get a lot of emails from readers who think the American experiment is over. They believe that the lights in Reagan’s “shining city on the hill” are being snuffed out by the advancing darkness of tyranny — and there’s nothing we can do about it. I understand their frustration. But they’re wrong. Things are far from hopeless.
Ronald Reagan had a different objective for the Cold War from other politicians. It was simple, and completely contrary to the Washington elite’s strategic thinking at the time. In 1977, he stated his expectation:
My idea of American policy toward the Soviet Union is simple, and some would say simplistic. It is this: We win and they lose.
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It was not containment, nor slowing the global advancement of communism. It faced it and defeat it. His notion was really that simple — decide to win rather than just hold on.
