Response to Leftist Charge #2: REAGAN DIDN'T WIN THE COLD WAR

Link to Response #1 is here
"The Russia would have collapsed anyway story"---a look at Reykjavik--It's Reagan, an old line labor leader and negotiator vs Gorbachev, a communist to his core and under pressure at home. A man who never negotiated with anyone in his life. He gave orders or followed them.

"Not winning the Cold War" absurdity ignores the fact that the policy in Washington had been MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction), Detente (Let's be friends while armed to the teeth), and Balance of Terror. Reagan thought living like that was MAD. Reagan as early as 1958 had been articulating and writing on the concept of attacking Soviet Communism economically. He wanted to win, not just hang around "saber rattling". Win! Something not one Lefty wanted to do; they were afraid. By 1986 Reagan had already done great damage to the Soviet economy; he had "allowed" the Russians to steal a phony computer code which the Russians had put into gas and oil pipelines. The stolen code resulted in the largest explosion inside Russia since they tested an atomic bomb. He had cut off credits. He had made hard currencies almost impossible for them to get so they couldn't trade effectively. He had run them out of Afghanistan at huge cost to them. He wanted to meet with Soviet leaders, but "they kept dying on me" said Reagan referring to the endless string of Soviet leaders who died of old age while in office.

When Gorbachev took over and met with Thatcher she told Reagan, "I think we can talk with this guy." Reagan met briefly with him in Switzerland and proposed a zero zero solution; zero weapons on each side which was basically shrugged off. But groundwork had been laid and they parted. Gorbachev requested another meeting to be held in Reykjakik Iceland.

Now here is where everyone (all the liberals running the media) misses one of the great strengths of Ronald Reagan. He had been the president of the Screen Actors Guild labor union. In this capacity he had to negotiate contracts with three of the toughest bastards in business. Harry Cohn, the head of Columbia, was a thug and a real gangster think Al Swearinger the whore house saloon owner in the HBO Series "Deadwood" and you've got Harry Cohn). Everybody was afraid to cross him because they realistically feared him. Louis B. Mayer was the toughest businessman on the planet and you crossed him at peril for your future, meaning you would never work again. Jack Warner of the Warner Brothers was a super ruthless guy who violated labor agreements whenever he could. These three guys had already busted one huge Hollywood craft union combine called the CSU that the actors and teamsters did not join. This CSU was lead by a Communist (Herbert Sorrell, not proven but close) and the strike exploded into real violence all across Los Angeles that involved the communist Harry Bridges led longshoremen and the newspaper guild which was regarded as a communist union too.

Strikebreakers and goons "were armed with chains, bolts, hammers, six inch pipes, brass knuckles, wooden mallets, and battery cables." Steel-helmeted county sheriffs were armed with "30-30 Garrand rifles and two were weighted down with an arsenal of tear-gas bombs."

Cutting to the chase, the studios eventually "settled" with a gangster controlled IATSE craft union and the strike was crushed. Gangsters took a huge role in Hollywood instead of Communists. A Teamster Union Leader (Joe Tuohy) immediately became a high official in one of the studios, and so on.

Reagan went nose to nose with these really tough guys who had made deals with gangsters who could blow your brains out if they didn't like your hair style. He did this on a regular basis and hammered out contracts that were increasingly favorable to actors. It was said his "charm" was impenetrable. He was always in "good spirits" and the gangsters probably liked him a little. Many think that the demise of his movie career was caused partly by the real anger the studio heads bore him for his role in the negotiations of the 40s.

At any rate the "negotiations" between Reagan and Gorbachev was like Tyson vs the referee. Gorbachev didn't know who he was in with. He entered the negotiations with no strength at all. Reagan also knew from super CIA agent Herb Meyer that the Soviet economy was crumbling on the spot. SDI (Star Wars) was key. Gorbachev and Reagan came close, but Reagan wouldn't budge on Star Wars. Not one inch. Keep in mind this old labor negotiator was bargaining with nothing. There was no Star Wars. Reagan knew it. Knew it was still a laboratory concept but he acted like he was going to pull the whole union out on strike. Gorbachev demanded that Star Wars "stay in the Laboratory" but he had no bargaining chip, nothing to negotiate with; Reagan saw him as Harry Cohn on a bus stop bench ten cents short of the fare; he could take the studio. Finally they parted:

"It is a question of one word," Reagan said. Gorbachev agreed, saying, "It's 'laboratory,' or goodbye." Gorbachev could not go home and tell his people that he had agreed to eliminate ballistic missiles while allowing Americans to develop a space-based defense system. As a tight-lipped Reagan escorted the general secretary to his limousine, Gorbachev said, "I don't know what more I could have done."
"You could have said yes," replied the president.

The old line labor union negotiator knew there would be more. There always is a settlement. Eventually. Well this time there wasn't. The company (Soviet Union) went broke within three years. What every left wing labor leader (which is what Reagan was in the 40s) dreams of. In fact Barry Goldwater thought he was a Communist.

Every liberal on the planet would have agreed with Gorbachev and prolonged the enslavement of millions for another ten years. None of them, like in nobodeeee, wanted to win other than Ronald Reagan. Reagan WANTED to win, and that is why the Left hates him. They hate winners.

Reagan won the Cold War and nobody else.

Some side reading on the Hollywood strikes of the 40s is available around the web, much of it is Communist stuff, but all is interesting. I didn't go into the details in this piece.