A Courageous Leader

 

Edwin Meese III

Edwin Meese III is the Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow in Public Policy at the Heritage Foundation (heritage.org). He served in several posts during Reagan’s presidency, including attorney general from 1985 to 1988.

For three decades I had the privilege of working with Ronald Reagan. I admired him as a leader and cherished his friendship. It’s an honor to hold the endowed chair at the Heritage Foundation that bears his name.

As many have noted in the wake of his death, President Reagan accomplished great things. He revitalized our nation’s economy, led us to victory in the Cold War and revived the American spirit.

But to me, one special attribute of Ronald Reagan’s character will always stand out as paramount—his tremendous courage.

In Washington, a town where too many in high positions follow polls instead of principles and seek consensus at the expense of conviction, President Reagan was a breath of fresh air. He knew what he believed and demonstrated the courage to turn those beliefs into action.

Three examples of that courage come to mind. The first was the air traffic controllers’ strike in 1981, which was more significant than any of us realized at the time. Through the years, the public had grown accustomed to seeing government workers striking, even though it is illegal. But seldom was the law enforced—until Ronald Reagan became president.

His stand against the strikers was risky. Air traffic control is a highly specialized job, and replacing the controllers would be hard. And their union was one of the few that supported Reagan in 1980. Union leaders no doubt considered themselves immune from legal action.

They thought wrong. Ronald Reagan never liked to fire anyone, and he gave the air traffic controllers 48 hours to obey the law and go back to work. But many refused and promptly were fired and replaced.

Reagan had the courage to preserve the rule of law, despite the political risks and his feelings about firing people. After the president’s action, few public workers considered striking because everyone realized that the law would be enforced.

The firing also had a sobering effect on Soviet leaders because they saw a president who had to be taken seriously. One American scholar wrote that Reagan’s action showed the Politburo it was dealing with a man who “will go to the limit to back up his principles.”

Another courageous act was Reagan’s defense of Central America. In the 1980s, the Soviet Union gained new footholds in our hemisphere. Starting from Nicaragua, Marxist guerillas tried to take over nearby El Salvador. Reagan supported Nicaraguan freedom fighters against the Sandinista Marxist government despite opposition from many politicians and, most of all, the media. Even when Congress placed limits on what could be done, he obeyed the law—but he did whatever he could to support the freedom fighters. As a result, El Salvador was saved, and democratic government was ultimately restored to Nicaragua.

A third instance of Reagan’s courage took place in Reykjavik, Iceland, during the 1986 summit with Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. The principal issue between the leaders was Reagan’s proposal for a Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), the forerunner of today’s missile defense. Gorbachev used all his wiles to get the president to drop this program, even proposing huge reductions in Soviet offensive weapons. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but it would come at a price: Reagan would have to give up SDI.

The stakes couldn’t have been higher. The number of weapons Gorbachev was willing to give up was enormous. Had Reagan accepted the deal, the media would have hailed it as a great step towards peace. Both men probably would have shared the Nobel Peace Prize the following year.

But Reagan knew accepting this deal would have been wrong for the United States and wrong for any true concept of world peace. He also knew, as soon as Gorbachev made the offer, that he was right about SDI. Gorbachev wouldn’t be willing to give up all those weapons if he didn’t think killing SDI was so important.

Once Reagan refused, the summit was over. The press called it a failure. But as we now know, the president’s refusal to give up SDI went far towards convincing the Soviets that their empire couldn’t exist much longer. Ultimately it was a major factor in ending the Cold War.

There are many other acts of courage I could mention, but they all point to the same conclusion. Ronald Reagan had strong convictions. He was committed to the principles that had led to the founding of our nation. And he had the courage to follow his convictions against all odds. All of which, I’m convinced, will cause posterity to view him as one of the greatest leaders our country has ever had.     Ω

“To those who cite the First Amendment as reason for excluding God from more and more of our institutions every day; I say: The First Amendment of the Constitution was not written to protect the people of this country from religious values; it was written to protect religious values from government tyranny.” —Ronald Reagan