Reagan Remembered
Tom Wilson 11.06.04

'Ronald Reagan was a man who polarised opinion; you either loved or hated him.' It's a sentiment that almost became a stock-phrase, finding its way into the media all over the globe in the wake of the death of the fortieth US president last weekend. So why then has the coverage of his passing been so one-sided?

Most of the western media appeared to have taken a leaf out of the Scinteia* handbook of journalism this week. In an attempt at an 'apolitical' coverage of his death from Alzheimer's disease at the age of 93, the media lapsed into a state of near-amnesia. Perhaps it was meant as a tribute. Almost in illustration of the way in which the press has converged upon a single vision of his 9 years in the White House, both Time Magazine and Newsweek chose to run exactly the same picture, of 'Reagan-as-cowboy', on their front pages. The gushing tributes that made up most of the media coverage were equally lacking in variety.

Newspapers in Britain have a long history of actually telling the truth about people in their obituaries, and in continuation of the tradition we badly need a re-analysis of what the Reagan administration achieved - instead of the prevailing airbrushed Orwellian version of history.

Reagan 'the man' had many strengths. He brought a much-needed homely air to the White House at a time when politicians were mistrusted, rather than revered. His personal qualities are not in question. What is, is whether or not he is deserving of the current rush to lionise him as a politician. A quick look at the facts provides good reasons to doubt this:

The Economy: Reagan was a pioneer of the free-market reforms of the 80's. This, for many, makes him a visionary. 'Reaganomics' laid down the basic rules of the game which global markets abide by today. It should be fairly uncontroversial, then, to use Reagan's own standards to judge his success. Sadly, he failed miserably. By the end of his presidency, the man who wanted to cut back government spending as far as possible left the United States with the largest budget deficit in its entire history.

The Iran-Contra Affair: "They are our brothers, these freedom fighters and we owe them our help. They are the moral equal of our founding fathers." Who was Reagan talking about? The Contras in Nicaragua , who aimed to overthrow the democratically elected, left-wing Sandinista regime. If you're really a stickler for punishment, have a quick search on the Internet and find out exactly how the Contras gang-raped mothers and castrated fathers before killing them in front of their own children - their use of such terror tactics is well documented. To make matters worse, Reagan got the money to arm and train the Contras from selling missiles to the west's then enemy number one, radical Islamic Iran. Illegally. And then lied about it.

South Africa : Nelson Mandela might look like a serene symbol of freedom today, but once upon a time he was languishing in a cell in South Africa . Reagan embraced the all-white apartheid government that imprisoned him as a friend and ally. What happened when the American Congress voted to implement sanctions against the racist regime? Staggeringly, Reagan had the gall to veto the measure. Perhaps it was something to do with his belief that "strategically, ( South Africa ) is essential to the free world in its production of minerals." I'm personally waiting to see exactly what Mandela has to say about Reagan's passing.

Racism: ' Reaganomics' involved slashing state funded social programmes, from food stamps to Employment and Training programmes, which America's black communities are disproportionately the recipients of. The fact that Reagan's welfare reforms thus hit poor black families the hardest shouldn't be taken as an indication of a racist streak underlying the Reagan agenda. However, he certainly didn't help matters by his staunch opposition to affirmative action; his quick defence of politicians who attacked the integrity of Martin Luther King; and his attempts to obtain tax exemptions for southern, segregated universities.

Osama Bin Laden: Surely some mistake - Osama comes later, with Bush, right? Sadly not. Reagan generously supplied Bin Laden and the Afghan mujahideen , even persuading the CIA to send equipment that was considered 'too dangerous' to be given to the rebels. Such as the Stinger missiles later used against American pilots after 9/11.

Saddam Hussein : Remember how just before going to war with Iraq , our TV screens were full of images of Saddam's attacks on the Kurds in 1988? Guess which long-term supporter of Saddam sold him the chemical weapons that did the job...

Aids: Despite presiding over the peak of the AIDS panic in America , it took Reagan six years to mention the word AIDS. He refused to spend the money voted by Congress for AIDS research and was openly hostile to the government funding of research and public education.

The Iron Curtain Collapse: So Reagan defeated the Soviet threat? Over to George F. Kennan, former US ambassador to the USSR and father of the theory of 'containment' - " The suggestion that any United States administration had the power to influence decisively the course of a tremendous domestic political upheaval in another great country on another side of the globe is simply childish ."

Sadly space doesn't permit a discussion of Reagan's support for brutal dictators, from Cambodia's Pol Pot to Guatemala's General Efrain Rios Mont (with the worst human rights record in the hemisphere according to the UN Truth Commission Report) ; nor his escapades in Angola; El Salvador; Guatemala; Honduras; Haiti; Laos; Lebanon; Zaire...

 

© Tom Wilson / ZF 2004

* 'Scinteia' was a communist newspaper before the 1989 'revolution'. It means 'The Spark'.