When the Great Leader’s work is done, the people say, "We did it ourselves."
--Lao-tse, famous Chinese philosopher
The fine piece by Austin Bay, one of my fellow columists on here on www.theconservativevoice.com, reminded me of the excellent book, Reagans War, by Peter Schweizer. And an excellent piece by the great Francis Fukuyama on www.opinionjournal.com makes a somewhat similar point. Links below.
It is very difficult to know what’s going on behind the curtains of politics, especially when the man or men who are wielding the power, pulling the levers, pushing the buttons, are not the type to blow their own horns and take all the credit for themselves.
Ronald W. Reagan was a man who did not care whether he got credit or not--he just wanted to do the right thing and improve the country and the world, and mostly he did. I think George W. Bush is in much the same mold. It may be left to political analysts decades in the future to finally unravel all that Bush has done that led to Syria leaving Lebanon, Libya giving up weapons programs, and Palestinians holding free elections. When the Middle East has gone democratic and joined the ranks of decent world governments, most people will think it all "just happened." And the political revisionists will be quite happy to claim such, too. I note the hypocrisy of all the liberal scholars such as Arthur Schlessinger, who had been claiming that the Soviet Union would overtake the USA and best us in the geopoliticoeconomic realm. Once the Soviet Union fractured, they claimed that Reagan had nothing to do with it. The Soviet Union just happened to collapse. And then had the nerve to claim that it was obviously inevitable all along! Schweizer documents in great detail the strategies employed by Reagan, what they were designed to accomplish, and shows clearly that they did accomplish that objective, the defeat of the Soviet Union and communism.
On the other hand, historians, in the main, are left-wing folks who have entrenched themselves on college campuses. The textbooks used in our colleges may not reveal the truth about Reagans or Bushs accomplishments. But there are others out there who have looked behind the political curtains and have documented the policies and tactics and strategies by which great conservative leaders have done what the liberals said was impossible.
References:
Reagans War. The epic story of his forty year struggle and final triumph over communism by Peter Schweizer.
http://www.theconservativevoice.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=5930
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110006752
