SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE: Whose Reagan? An Exchange

...He enforced the laws that Congress made...

...There is, incidentally, a whole school of studies on Americanreligioushistoryshowing how Protestantism takes just such a path, away from authority and toward the self and its desires...

...The passions ought be controlled and regulated by the government...

...4) Wallison: "Reagan's views of government were much in tune with those of the Founders, including the authors of The Federalist Papers, who--far from wanting a strong government to restrain the people--were at pains to demonstrate that the Constitution has limited the power of the government through checks and balances in the Constitution's separation of powers...

...The Constitution was created in an intellectual environment in which most educated people believed that people had natural rights...

...But it is the reason, alone, of the public, that ought to regulate the government...

...Incidentally, don't overlook the remarkthatthearmsbuildup--for which most journalists and historians credit Reagan--really began underCarter...

...Then I go on to make my point that, given Reagan's religious outlook, there was no dualism between materi-alism and Christian idealism, a conviction residing in his mother's religion...

...Of course not...

...But how in the world can Wallison flatly deny that Reagan did not try to"persuade Gorbachev that the United States had no military or other designs on the Soviet Union...

...Such remarks are in the texts and they are footnoted...

...Of course, there aredifferingviewsofthe Constitution's meaning, so there is tensionbetweentheACLUand,say, the Bush White House over warrantless surveillance for national security purposes...

...Let me give only a few examples: (1) I wrote: "Reagan would use the language of idealism to rationalize the schemes of materialism, forgetting altogether Jesus and poverty and humility in order to reconceive Christianity to make it serve the interests and power of the rich classes...

...I'm actually defending Reagan against the charge and your reviewer has me making the charge...

...Constitution as an effort to control the people...

...An Exchange P stitute a threat to the Soviet Union...

...Statements like this could be taken to mean that Reagan was "celebrating" the unfettered will of the people, but that would be a gross misinterpretation...

...Does Wallison really deny that Reagan had any fears about nuclear warfare...

...So when the Air Traffic Controllers threatened an illegal strike early in his administration, he said: "I must tell those who fail to report for dutythismorningtheyareinviolation of the law, and if they do not report for work within fortyeight hours, they have forfeited their jobs and will be terminated...

...Of course, I was not...

...Everyone, including Reagan, feared nuclear war...

...Reagan's rejection of authority and his celebration of the people thwarted efforts to limit their will...

...1) Ronald Reagan, the fall of CommunismandtheendoftheCold War...

...That's not such a conundrum...

...One last point, and I shan't bore the reader anymore...

...That's true...

...This is on p. 46...

...He said it again in No...

...Nevertheless, it is possible to engage Diggins on thepurposesoftheFoundersand the meaning of the Constitution...

...2) Reagan and materialism...

...Does ProfessorDigginsbelieveorsuggest that Reagan was somehow responsible for these decisions...

...I have simply quoted Professor Diggins'swords.Whattheypresent, atleasttome,isapictureofRonald Reagan so distorted that only Professor Diggins and those who share his views could find such a presidentadmirable...

...Let us know...

...Is WallisonimplyingthatIammaking them up...

...If not, what--in Diggins's telling--was Reagan's role...

...JOHN PATRICK DIGGINS New York, New York Peter Wallison replies: THERE ARE THREE points worth dealing with in Professor Diggins's letter...

...Because Reagan came to power at a time when the government had grown too large, he set about reducing its size...

...2) This is Wallison: "[T]he book gives the real credit to Gorbachev...

...Certainly not from me...

...Wallisonstates:Reaganwouldn't "recognize" that description of him...

...This, and states issuing "cheap money," is not an adequate argument for Diggins's complete reinterpretation of the U.S...

...These make the point that Gorbachev deserves the credit for the fall of Communism and the end of the Cold War, while Reagandoesnot.ProfessorDiggins wrote: "[I]n the end, what brought down communism was liberalism itself, specifically Gorbachev's introduction of glasnost and perestroika...

...How in the world could Wallison have missed it since explicit reference to Kraft comes in the sentence right above my paraphrase...

...The Constitution wasdrafted and adopted by the people of the several states because the earlier structure, the Articles of Confederation,wasunsatisfactory for a number of reasons--but not because the governments of the states could not control their citizens...

...He says that "NowhereinthebookdoIsaythat S P E C I A LC O R R E S P O N D E N C E O C T O B E R 2 0 0 7 T H E A M E R I C A N S P E C T A T O R 9 the`realcredit'goestoGorbachev...

...Reagan's role, according to Diggins, was to overcome the fear of Communism and the Soviets that gripped Washington, to recognize the overwhelming danger of nuclear war, and to persuade Gorbachev that the United States had no military or other designs on the Soviet Union...

...The first expression signified`openness,'theattemptto free up the political mind...

...3)Reaganandthenatureofthe U.S.Constitution.Finally,thereis the strange matter of the Founding Fathers and the Constitution...

...In short, the people and their passions need to be controlled by a government that has a better capacity of self-control by virtue of reason not as a faculty of mind but as the system of checks and balances...

...But did I say what the reviewer has me saying...

...Professor Diggins claims that I was unfair in describing his characterizationofReagan'sroleinthis momentous event...

...Here is Diggins on the Founders, as quoted in my review: "The true conservatives, the founders, framed a specific system of authority in governmenttocheckthedemandsofthe people...

...But Reagan, to his eternal credit,was the first to develop a viable strategy to prevent it...

...Had Reagan forced Gorbachev to adopt glasnost becauseofhisspeechesinMoscow, and especially Reagan's extraordinarily candid speech at Moscow University...

...He suggests that in saying he belittled Reagan's role in ending the Cold War, I was questioning whether Reagan feared nuclear war...

...This sounds vaguely familiar...

...ETER J. WALLISON'S review of my book, Ronald Reagan: Fate, Freedom, and the Making of History ("Reagan Co-opted," TAS, July/August 2007), is so full of utter distortions that a reader could only wonder how I admire a president after what I have said about him...

...In response, I'll simply quote from his book and let readers decide whetherIhavebeenfairorunfair...

...I don't have to say much about Professor Diggins's reference to Tocqueville and Reagan...

...But few, if anyone--andcertainlynoconservative (i.e.,classicalliberal)--believesthat the Constitution was intended to controlthepeople.Could Reagan have held a different view...

...Yes, in Professor Diggins's view, Reagan's role was to "call off" the ColdWar.Thisisnotasabsurdasit sounds...

...Inhisletter,Diggins'sdefenseof his position on the Constitution is to cite the obvious--the fact that the first duty of government is to maintain civil order...

...He writes: "Tocqueville presaged Reagan in sensing thattheAmericanpeople, insteadofseekingtoberightwith Jesus, or putting the public good ahead of all other concerns, only loved `material enjoyment.' If a life devoted excessively to an evanescent materialism and its `petty pleasures' filled Tocqueville with `religious dread,' it delighted Reagan...

...Matlock was the American ambassador to the Soviet Union during the summits and he heard Reagan make the remark while leaving office...

...Okay, so one gathers from this that Communism fell because of decisions by Gorbachev...

...Both Hamilton and Madison were worried about the "want" of nationalpowerintheoldArticles of Confederation...

...Reagan, like all conservatives (that is, classical liberals), believed in the rule of law...

...he doesn't actually say it, but I quoted in the review the crucial passages from his book, repeated below...

...That he should share some of the credit is what I do say, as did Margaret Thatcher...

...51: "In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you mustfirstenablethegovernment to control the governed...

...Even so, the Constitution was ratified by the people of the states only after the framers had committed to add a Bill of Rights that guaranteed the people's personal liberties against interferencebythegovernment...

...I'd forgotten, I guess, that Reagan promised Americans that they would be "better off" if he were elected, or have a "right to dream of their material happiness...

...Which writers and articles had the most impact...

...There was no rejection of authority or celebration of an unfettered people's will...

...Madison said it all in Federalist No...

...Nowhere in the book do I say that the "real credit" goes to Gorbachev...

...So the Constitution created a governmentofenumeratedpowers,anda separationbetweenthelegislature and the executive as a further restraint on the government's power...

...On the last page of my book I wrote, after describing the dramaticendtothecoldwar:"Reagan responded with characteristic modesty to this unprecedented event...

...and in the next place oblige it to control itself...

...The first diplomatic letter that Reagan wrote as a president, composed on a hospital bed when recovering from an assassination attempt, engaged in just such a persuasion...

...To do this, he also had to overcome the power of the neocons...

...He recognized--probably because of his firm belief in the inherent weakness of the Communist system-that the Soviet Union would be seriously stressed by an arms race with the United States...

...We all know the end of this story...

...He does not engage my point that the role he assigned to Reagan was to stop threatening the Soviet Union, while the role heassignedtoGorbachevwasthe role of prime mover...

...Only 13 years before, the Declaration of Independence had declared "that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men...

...Or had Reagan, perhaps, through the military buildup in the United States, shown Gorbachev the error of the Communist command economy, thusaccountingforperestroika?No.Reagan's role, in Diggins' account, was this: "To be sure, Reagan supported the arms buildup, actually begun under President Jimmy Carter,buthesooncametoseethat theonlyanswertothecoldwarwas tocallitoff...

...Diggins notes, "Reagan's rejection of authority and his celebration of the people thwarted efforts to limit their will...

...This is the unambiguous history of the Constitution, recounted in history books, in countless Fourth of July declamations, and probably hundredsorthousandsofSupreme Court decisions...

...Professor Diggins defense here is to change the subject...

...Professor Diggins has now provided his source...

...Who do you miss...

...200201...

...only a madman would not...

...As he said in his first Inaugural Address: "We are a nation that has a government-not the other way around...

...Wallison observes: "None of these statements, regrettably, is accompanied by footnotes, or reference to things Reagan actually said...

...the former declared that a nation without national authority is a "spectacle"ofweakness;thelatterfeared people acting in concert, as factions in the various states where they had taken over in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and North Carolina and seized control of the right to issue cheap currency...

...We need you in our special anniversary double issue, forthcoming in December...

...To reduce all this to one sentence:Thefirstactofenablement is for the government to control the governed...

...3) I wrote: "Tocqueville presaged Reagan in sensing that the American people, instead of seeking to be right with Jesus, or putting the public good ahead of all other concerns, only loved `material enjoyment.' If a life devotedexcessivelytoanevanescent materialism and its `petty pleasures' filled Tocqueville with `religious dread,' it delighted Reagan...

...The subject also comes up in the transcripts of the Geneva and Reykjavik summits...

...49: Since people acting in factions will be the sole judge of their own cause, "the passions, therefore, not the reason, of the public would sit in judgment...

...Did Reagan think that the Constitution was intended to control the people...

...In other words, the government the Founders designed was not to "secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity" as the Constitution says, but to control the people, and Reagan was willing to--I guess--break these bonds by "celebrating the people...

...This is one subject that caused me to wonder whether American liberals like Diggins and the rest of us were living on the same planet...

...What happens to that right in the new Constitution...

...When asked who should take credit for the end of the cold war and the demise of communism,henamedMikhail Gorbachev...

...S P E C I A LC O R R E S P O N D E N C E O C T O B E R 2 0 0 7 T H E A M E R I C A N S P E C T A T O R 1 1...

...the second,`restructuring,'theattemptto reorganize the economy closer to thefreemarketsystem...

...Reagan'srole,thus,wasnotassimple as calling off the Cold War...

...His own defense contains the seeds of its destruction...

...Indeed Reagan told the paranoid Brezhnev that if the U.S...

...If you are wondering what he's talking about, so was I, but regrettably there is no citation to Reagan's words or writings anywhere in the book that clarifies thispoint--justafurtherseriesof generalizations...

...had such designs it had the chance to carry them out in 1945-1949, when it had sole possession of the atomic bomb...

...Laws are "the wise restraints that set men free...

...Read the recent book by Paul Lettow, Ronald Reagan and His Quest to Abolish Nuclear Weapons...

...Your readers may like to know that I repeatitinmybooktomakecomparisons between Reagan and Abraham Lincoln, both "wise, humane, and magnanimous...

...If you are satisfied with what Professor Diggins has provided S P E C I A LC O R R E S P O N D E N C E 1 0 T H E A M E R I C A N S P E C T A T O R O C T O B E R 2 0 0 7 ATTN: SUBSCRIBERS The American Spectator has begun its 40th Anniversary celebrations...

...Wrong again...

...Throughout the book, as recountedinmyreview,Professor Diggins refers to mysterious but apparently powerful figures-never named--called "neocons," who wanted to continue the Cold War, and may have wanted to engagetheSovietUnionmilitarily...

...The whole debate over "Star Wars" involved just this issue, with Reagan trying to convince Gorbachev that it was defensive only and did not conS P E C I A LC O R R E S P O N D E N C E 8 T H E A M E R I C A N S P E C T A T O R O C T O B E R 2 0 0 7 Whose Reagan...

...Send your letters to mitchell@spectator.org or, via snail mail, to: 40 Years Correspondence The American Spectator 1611 North Kent Street, Suite 901 Arlington, VA 22209 as support for his statement about Reagan and materialism, okay, but I certainly was not...

...The letter is quoted in my book on pp...

...Not only I but Lou Cannon have documented howReaganranforthepresidency promising Americans that they would be "better off," how he insisted that people have a "right to dream of their material happiness," how he told the Russians that plenitude derived from the spiritual, and that headvised Florence Yerly not to worry about sin because "God couldn't have created evil so that the desires he planted in us are good...

...The problem, as the framers saw it, was to establish a governmentthatcoulddothenecessary things--establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, and provideforthecommondefense-without interfering with the "blessings of liberty...

...At least this is a gesture at a source--more than I found in the book itself...

...If I were to pull a Wallison on Wallison, I'd insist that the Federalist authors would not have recognized themselves in his description...

...Huh...

...Yes, where...

...Where have we heard it before...

...This remarkable thought is from Jack F. Matlock, Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended...

...It has been taken away from the people because they abused it to get out from under debts, and itwas relocated in the national government which now had sovereigntyovermanyissuessuchas commerceandtariffsandforeign policy...

...At the outset of his letter, Professor Diggins says that my reviewofhisbookis"sofullofutter distortions that the reader could only wonder how I admire a president after what I said about him...

...I thought this was rather strong statement, and looked in vain in the book for any support for the idea that Reagan was "delighted" by "evanescent materialism" or "petty pleasures...

...Nor would I, for it is not my description but a paraphrase of that of his critics, especially the journalist Joseph Kraft from his article "Reaganism and the Politics of Piety...

...Professor Diggins's extended excursion in his letter about Reagan and nuclear war is accurate as far as it goes, but irrelevant...

...What has the Spectator meant to you over the years...