Let us turn one more time to Ronald Reagan, in his centennial year, for some Christmas cheer. President Reagan loved America, his shining city on a hill, but he loved one thing—or rather one person—more: Nancy, his wife of more than 50 years. Theirs was a marriage of affection and devotion and commitment, captured in this Christmas letter of December 1980 addressed to “My Beloved First Lady.” I do not think it is possible to read it without a tear or two or more. December 25, 1980 My Beloved First …
The presidential proclamations commemorating National Captive Nations Week—the third week of every July–are a revealing reflection of U.S. foreign policy over the past 50 years and America’s sometimes hard, sometimes soft attitude toward those who suppress the basic human rights of peoples and nations. The first proclamation, issued by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on July 17, 1959, crackles with phrases like “the imperialistic and aggressive policies of Soviet communism.” It urges the American people to study “the plight of the Soviet-dominated nations” and recommit themselves to the support of the …
Of all those whom we at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation have honored with the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom—and they include such famed defenders of freedom as Vaclav Havel, Lech Walesa, Vladimir Bukovsky, and Harry Wu—none surpasses the courage and commitment of Elena Bonner, who passed away last Saturday. Known best as the widow of Andrei Sakharov, the renowned Soviet dissident and Nobel Prize Peace Prize winner, Mrs. Bonner—despite serious health problems—became a tireless advocate of human rights and unflinching opponent of political oppression. When Mikhail Gorbachev, still head …
Although a man of many high talents—author, syndicated columnist, television host, college lecturer, political strategist, think tank fellow—William A. Rusher was invariably described as the “Other Bill” because of his decades-long association with William F. Buckley Jr. Bill Rusher was National Review’s and Bill Buckley’s publisher for 30 years. He was a frequent guest on Buckley’s Firing Line. He was the master of ceremonies at numerous NR events. The two Bills were photographed together more than most married couples. And yet Bill Rusher deserves full recognition as a major figure …
While members of Congress, former cabinet members, long-time aides and assorted VIPs were celebrating Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday at the Reagan Presidential Library in sun-baked Simi Valley, California, I was nearly 6,000 miles away in snow-bound Tallinn, Estonia, a small Baltic country bordering on the former Soviet Union. As a Reagan biographer, I was invited by the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Amb. Michael Polt of the U.S. Embassy to keynote a conference on President Reagan’s legacy and U.S.-Estonian relations, which couldn’t be much better in large part because …
The buzz word to praise Barack Obama’s second State of the Union address is “Reaganesque.” Time magazine gushed that Obama’s emphasis on innovation, nod to American Exceptionalism, and deft use of storytelling places him “squarely — with Reagan — on the side of sunshine and enterprise.” As one conservative commentator remarked, “ever so slowly, liberals are attempting a subtle revisionism” of our 40th president. Though Reagan was portrayed as a simpleton B-movie actor (lacking compassion for the little man or good sense about policy) while president, liberals now reinterpret his …
The adamant refusal of the Chinese Communist government to allow Liu Xiaobo to travel to Oslo to receive the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize is more than disgraceful—it is a flagrant violation by the Chinese regime of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the UN General Assembly, including China. Liu Xiaobo is only the fourth laureate to be honored in absentia and prevented from going to Norway to accept the prize. The others are the German peace activist Carl von Ossietzky—imprisoned by the Nazis–the Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, and …
The national convention of the American Legion joins a long list of Americans of all political views in condemning inclusion of a bust of the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin at the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Va. Some 3,000 delegates last week adopted a resolution saying the Stalin bust “flies in the face of history which has seen countries tearing down—not erecting—statues of Stalin.” So far, the reaction of the National D-Day Memorial Foundation, which installed the Stalin bust in June and in the wake of outrage is “reviewing” the …
On President Obama’s trip across Asia, the major news has not been America’s policy posture, but rather our president’s personal posture. On Saturday, photo and video emerged of President Obama bowing at a 45 degree angle, head down, hand outstretched to Japan’s Emperor Akihito. Even within Japanese culture, this bow was certainly excessive. And the flood of pictures now surfacing of other world leaders greeting the Emperor without so much as a head nod prove that this bow was more than a simple diplomatic gesture. The bow certainly plays into …
