Prague Diary: Reagan and the Charter
Peter has put up some great posts on Reagan's famous speech at the Berlin Wall. Apart from the question of the wisdom of this or that line in these foreign addresses, one sometimes hears the argument that these sorts of addresses just don't matter that much. They will get some ink in the US and foreign papers the next day--maybe even generate some controversy over a longer span, but fundamentally, they don't mean anything. WRONG. WRONG. WRONG.
Here is what former Czech dissident Pavel Bratinka told me about Reagan's evil empire speech.
Andropov paved the way for Gorbachev right at the moment when Ronald Reagan’s truth talk about the Soviet evil empire penetrated the heart of the system with a metaphysical blow from which the system never recuperated. At long last, the Communists met an opposing force declaring determination to bring about the end of Communist empire.
Tonight I was at a meeting with Kamila Bendova (whom I wrote about here). We were discussing her life under Communism--Charter 77, house searches, her husband's imprisonment, you name it. People often make the claim, I said, that the Charter didn't ever accomplish what it was designed to because it never grew into a large enough movement to affect the society as a whole. Well, Mrs. Bendova countered, the Charter did affect future events--it made people imagine new possibilities. She mentioned many other things--among them that it clashed with the peace movement in Western Europe and pointed to its futility and backruptcy. And important people payed attention to the Charter, she said. At this point she got a little smile on her face and she went to her files. She quickly produced a piece of paper containing numerous instances when people in the West had quoted a Charter document. I glanced down at this paper and what did I see? June 4, 1984, President Ronald Reagan, speech to the Irish Parliament:
In the moving words used by the Czechoslovak Charter 77 group just a week ago, in reply to supporters of nuclear disarmament in the West, they said, ``Unlike you, we have personal experience of other, perhaps less conspicuous, but no less effective means of destroying civilization than those represented by thermonuclear war; some of us, at the very least, prefer the risk involved in maintaining a firm stance against aggression to the certainty of the catastrophic consequences of appeasement.''
The struggle between freedom and totalitarianism today is not ultimately a test of arms or missiles, but a test of faith and spirit. And in this spiritual struggle, the Western mind and will is the crucial battleground. We must not hesitate to express our dream of freedom; we must not be reluctant to enunciate the crucial distinctions between right and wrong -- between political systems based on freedom and those based on a dreadful denial of the human spirit.
Can you imagine what this did for the morale of those Charter members? Those people were hounded and harassed by the police, made to live in constant fear. And so this was proof that there was someone out there who was listening to what they said! I don't know if you wrote that one Peter, but cheers to you or whoever did.
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Aug '10
Re: Prague Diary: Reagan and the Charter
Did Czechs win freedom or did they get it? I read these really fine posts and then I do perhaps an unfair thing, which is look for Slovene parallels. There really aren't any. Slovenes never had Russians, briefly had Germans, and finally evicted Yugoslavians - fellow Yugoslavians, it must be noted. And they did this in a shooting war. Not being loquacious, Slovenes weren't and aren't self-documenting either. Those Czech museums look slick and undervisited; Slovenes just have candles burning at countless tiny roadside memorials.
Re: Prague Diary: Reagan and the Charter
Beautiful, Flagg. Just beautiful.
Jun '12
Re: Prague Diary: Reagan and the Charter
John, I will try to answer your question in just a couple of sentences. On one side, the Czechs did indeed directly participate in the fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia, which culminated on November 17, 1989, also known as the Velvet Revolution. On the other hand, the Soviet empire was already collapsing thanks to M. Thatcher, R. Reagan, and Pope John Paul II. One could say they took advantage of the situation.
Nov '10
Re: Prague Diary: Reagan and the Charter
Flagg -- I just sent your post (as I've sent all your "Prague Diary" posts) to my Czech ex-girfriend. She just wrote back something about her mother:
Apr '12
Re: Prague Diary: Reagan and the Charter
Perhaps we can guess at those positive effects by comparing the absence of similar presidential acknowledgements in a similar, later circumstance.
Consider the long forgotten Green Revolution in Iran (2009-2010). As the people rose up, in spite of being "hounded and harassed by state police" they took to the streets in protest of a rigged election.
Iran's insurrection proved to the the first of what would be called (laughingly? cynically? wrongly? rightly?) the "Arab Spring."
Perhaps the Obama White House is willing to let the State Department edit out everything the president should be saying.
The fact is, he said nothing.
The "Arab Spring" would continue to sweep through the Maghreb and Levant, succeeding almost everywhere. But not in Iran. The Mullah's totalitarian regime is still firmly in place, begging for a military strike against itself. It still supports Syria, where the insurrection has cost the most in lives.
Edited on June 13, 2012 at 6:35amFeb '11
Re: Prague Diary: Reagan and the Charter
Sharansky makes this point frequently.
Sep '11
Re: Prague Diary: Reagan and the Charter
Do you remember this speech Peter?
Sep '11
Re: Prague Diary: Reagan and the Charter
Flagg Taylor: President Ronald Reagan, speech to the Irish Parliament:
The struggle between freedom and totalitarianism today is not ultimately a test of arms or missiles, but a test of faith and spirit. And in this spiritual struggle, the Western mind and will is the crucial battleground. We must not hesitate to express our dream of freedom; we must not be reluctant to enunciate the crucial distinctions between right and wrong -- between political systems based on freedom and those based on a dreadful denial of the human spirit.
So stirring, and so relevant. Can we lock Romney in a room with some of Reagan's speeches for a couple of days? Maybe the concepts would sink in...
On the other hand: "mind and will". Do we still have them?