The rebellion of ronald reagan politics pdf

I found The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan to be a worthwhile read The narrative style of James Mann in writing this monograph made the book infinitely enjoyable I felt that this monograph humanized Ronald Reagan much than any other piece of Reagan historiography by focusing on Reagan s decision making process and the softening of his rhetoric towards the Soviet Union This book also substantially covered perhaps the most difficult scandal of the Reagan presidency the Iran Contra Affair of the late 1980s I truly believe that Ronald Reagan was the right man to end the Cold War as his rebellion against the Washington establishment was a true result of his moral uprightness This book focused greatly on Berlin and the triumph of Ronald Reagan at the Brandenburg Gate One thing that gave me pause in reading was the frequent discussion of the fact that Reagan may have had his Alzheimer s disease as early as 1987 I felt that this book was a great introduction to Ronald Reagan s second term I felt that despite the liberal tinge that may have existed he was objective towards Ronald Reagan This book to some degree felt like it was the work of a generalist scholar and read much like a popular history Despite its flaws this monograph does have some merit to historians as it can provide the impetus for further research on the Reagan presidency Politics Great story about a great man but not well written Politics An engrossing study showing how Reagan differed from other Cold Warriors.

The rebellion of ronald reagan pdf book

In The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan NY Times bestselling author James Mann directs his keen analysis to Ronald Reagan s role in ending the Cold War Drawing on new interviews previously unavailable documents Mann offers a fresh compelling narrative a new history assessing what Reagan did didn t do to help bring America s four decade conflict with the Soviet Union to a close As he did so masterfully in Rise of the Vulcans Mann sheds new light on the hidden aspects of American foreign policy He reveals previously undisclosed secret messages between Reagan Moscow internal White House intrigues battles with leading figures such as Nixon Kissinger who repeatedly questioned Reagan s unfolding diplomacy with Mikhail Gorbachev He details the background fierce debate over Reagan s famous Berlin Wall speech shows how it fit into Reagan s policies Ultimately Mann dispels the facile stereotypes of Reagan in favor of a levelheaded cogent understanding of a determined president his strategy This book finally answers the troubling questions about Reagan s actual role in the crumbling of Soviet power concludes that by recognizing the significance of Gorbachev Reagan helped bring the Cold War to a close The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan A History of the End of the Cold WarJames Mann is the author of six books on American politics and national security issues including Rise of the Vulcans The History of Bush s War Cabinet and The Obamians The Struggle Inside the White House to Redefine American Power A longtime correspondent for the Los Angeles Times he is currently a fellow in residence at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies He lives in Washington D. The rebellion of ronald reagan book pdf Ronald Reagan Genial gladhander of the 1980 s America s great golden age The only true conservative The man with an anecdote for every occasion and sometimes they were even true Was he a wily genius who single handedly defeated the Soviet Union Or a stooge who was overly reliant on his advisors and just happened to be president at the right time The truth lies somewhere in the middle as it usually does James Mann attempts to get closer to that truth in his 2009 book The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan A History of the End of the Cold War The book examines Reagan s foreign policy towards the Soviet Union Mann split the book into four sections that examine Reagan s relationship with former president Richard Nixon Reagan s friendship with author Suzanne Massie Reagan s 1987 speech in West Berlin in which he demanded Mr Gorbachev tear down this wall and Reagan s summit meetings with Mikhail Gorbachev During his first term in office Ronald Reagan famously called the Soviet Union an evil empire and said in a 1982 speech that the march of freedom and democracy will leave Marxism Leninism on the ash heap of history During his second term in office Reagan held five summits with Mikhail Gorbachev and on his 1988 visit to Moscow when asked if he still thought the Soviet Union was an evil empire he said I was talking about another time and another era How did this change happen That s one of the key questions that Mann attempts to answer. The rebellion of ronald reaganm mmo While The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan is a fine book and an interesting look at Reagan s attitude towards the Soviet Union Mann s unorthodox organization ends up hampering the book In the first section about Reagan s relationship with Richard Nixon we go through Reagan s presidency chronologically Then with the next section we re back to 1984 and the first time Reagan met Suzanne Massie Because we re constantly jumping forwards and backwards in time the book becomes repetitive than it needs to be I can understand why Mann organized the book this way it makes sense to examine Reagan s relationship with Nixon in one short essay but I think a straight chronological approach would have helped the book overall. The rebellion of ronald reagan book review The section on Nixon and Reagan is quite interesting During Nixon s presidency Reagan had opposed Nixon s policy of d tente towards the Soviet Union but after the 1986 summit between Reagan and Gorbachev in Reykjavik when the two leaders came close to agreeing to eliminate all nuclear weapons Nixon attacked Reagan s policies towards the Soviet Union essentially accusing him of becoming too soft on communism Nixon and Henry Kissinger wrote a joint editorial in April 1987 attacking Reagan s Russian policies and later that same month Nixon secretly met with Reagan in the White House The meeting did not go well and Nixon refused to back off on his criticism of Reagan For as much as the Republican party has deified Reagan since he left the White House in 1989 it s very interesting to read about how many Republicans were angry about his policies towards the Soviet Union and Gorbachev during his second term in office Conservative columnists like William F Buckley Jr. The rebellion of ronald reagan book free and George F Will were both critical of any kind of arms limitation talks with the Soviets Section two of The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan takes a closer look at Reagan s friendship with Suzanne Massie the author of a 1980 book about Russia Land of the Firebird Massie wasn t an academic historian but she had made many trips to the Soviet Union and her then husband was Robert K Massie author of Nicholas and Alexandra and the Pulitzer Prize winning biography Peter the Great His Life and World Through contacts she had in Washington D. The rebellion of ronald reaganp ppt presentation Massie was able to meet with Reagan in January of 1984 to give him a report about life in the Soviet Union For whatever reason Reagan and Massie clicked and she visited the White House many times during Reagan s second term Massie carried back channel messages between Reagan and the Soviet government and she seems to have been an important influence on how he viewed the Russian people Reagan dealt in the vernacular in stories and anecdotes that would be easily relatable and Massie was glad to supply him with her tales of life in Russia. The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan booker 85 Mann makes it clear that Reagan s naivet also extended to Mikhail Gorbachev While most American politicians thought that Gorbachev was no different from the previous occupants of the Kremlin Reagan seems to have intuited pretty quickly that Gorbachev was in fact a very different kind of Soviet leader. Ronald reagan historical events Reagan s Soviet counterparts during his first term in office were a trio of arteriosclerotic old men Leonid Brezhnev Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko Reagan made token overtures to each leader but no serious discussions of a summit meeting occurred with any of the three Soviet leaders Andropov and Chernenko were both very seriously ill during their entire tenures as Soviet leaders so there was little prospect of a summit meeting occurring Although Reagan was actually older than both Andropov and Chernenko he continued to project a healthy vigor Gorbachev realized that he needed an arms limitation treaty with the United States in order to reduce the massive percentage of the Soviet budget that was going towards national defense If Gorbachev hadn t been so willing to strike a deal with Reagan there might not have been the lessening of Cold War tensions that the world saw during Reagan s second term Reagan was extremely lucky that he was dealing with a Soviet leader who was responsive to the West and who was bent on reforming a Soviet system that was on the verge of collapse Reagan also had excellent support from his very intelligent and capable Secretary of State George Shultz It was Shultz who worked out the nuts and bolts of the 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty and it was Shultz who took Reagan s generalities and crafted specific policies from them Shultz was an integral part of the lessening of Cold War tensions during Reagan s second term Even though Shultz turned 95 in December of 2015 he is still an articulate defender of Reagan s place in history. Book the rebellion of ronald reagan pdf Mann details all of the infighting in the Reagan administration concerning Reagan s Tear Down This Wall speech delivered on June 12 1987 in West Berlin While it s now regarded as one of Reagan s signature speeches at the time many members of the administration thought that the line should be toned down as it might dissipate the goodwill that had been established between Reagan and Gorbachev But Reagan was determined that the line should stay in the speech Mann also chronicles the difficult dance that West Germany and East Germany were performing at the time as German leaders on both sides were pressing for economic agreements much to the chagrin of their Western and Eastern allies In the last section of the book Mann examines Reagan s summit meetings with Gorbachev For whatever reason Mann doesn t cover the 1985 Geneva summit or the 1986 Reykjavik summit in detail which is an opportunity missed He does provide a thorough look at the 1987 summit in Washington D. The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan epub.pub and the 1988 summit in Moscow Reagan delivered one of his best quips just before Gorbachev arrived in Washington as a reporter asked him if he was worried about the younger Gorbachev upstaging him Reagan responded I don t resent his popularity or anything else Good Lord I co starred with Errol Flynn once p. The rebellion of ronald reagan pdf download 266 One of the most interesting anecdotes concerned Reagan s concern over a pair of cuff links he was going to give Gorbachev at the Washington summit Reagan asked Colin Powell then his national security advisor When do you think I ought to give him the cuff links Mann writes Powell tried to switch the conversation to what Gorbachev might say about Soviet SS 18 missiles but Reagan talked about the cuff links again and again p. The rebellion of ronald reagan book review 267 both quotes Cuff links The leader of the free world was worried about the right time to give Gorbachev cuff links Incredible Does this show that Reagan was getting senile by focusing on trivial and unimportant details Or does it show that Reagan knew that the personal connection between him and Gorbachev was just as important as the weighty issues they would be discussing The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan is a good examination of a pivotal time in modern history and an intriguing portrait of one of the most fascinating presidents in modern history a man who was both outgoing and aloof at the same time Politics I d previously read Mann s The Rise of the Vulcans liked it so picked this up for some insight into the Reagan administration On this albeit with a very narrow focus Mann delivers Basically what this is is a detailed description of how Ronald Reagan in opposition to his political base and to most of his staff switched from being a hawk to becoming a dove in disarmament negotiations with Mikhail Gorbachev. The Rebellion of Ronald reaganville While confirming the usual liberal estimation of Reagan as lazy poorly educated slow witted if not senile and so on Mann s picture of the president is not entirely negative Whatever his deficits Reagan and wife Nancy was genuinely concerned about world peace Politics As someone who was very apolitical in the 80 s my political education took a high speed gear shift since marrying a very politically conservative fellow who worked for Reagan in the late 80 s Reagan is a fascinating individual from his anti communist battles as the president of the Screen Actors Guild to his tenuous initial dealings with the Soviet bloc and Gorbachev His role in bringing down the Iron Wall and who to trust during the new era of peristroika versus Nixon and Kissinger s very vocal opposite opinions was controversial then and even now as history continues to catalogue the sequence and importance of specific events I was enthralled with Mann s rendition of the facts that comprised his particular theory of the end of the Cold War and Reagan s role Politics In The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan NY Times bestselling author James Mann directs his keen analysis to Ronald Reagan s role in ending the Cold War Drawing on new interviews previously unavailable documents Mann offers a fresh compelling narrative a new history assessing what Reagan did didn t do to help bring America s four decade conflict with the Soviet Union to a close As he did so masterfully in Rise of the Vulcans Mann sheds new light on the hidden aspects of American foreign policy He reveals previously undisclosed secret messages between Reagan Moscow internal White House intrigues battles with leading figures such as Nixon Kissinger who repeatedly questioned Reagan s unfolding diplomacy with Mikhail Gorbachev He details the background fierce debate over Reagan s famous Berlin Wall speech shows how it fit into Reagan s policies Ultimately Mann dispels the facile stereotypes of Reagan in favor of a levelheaded cogent understanding of a determined president his strategy This book finally answers the troubling questions about Reagan s actual role in the crumbling of Soviet power concludes that rather than stumbling and bumbling his way into a foreign policy win by recognizing the significance of Gorbachev Reagan helped bring the Cold War to a close by intentional design Politics In the past as a died blue in the wool liberal I would have scoffed at the idea of Reagan as good president Afterall the powers that be in the liberal establishment hark on the savings and loans scandels the Iran Contra affair and the way the man took a hawkish stance to foreign policy Further since casting my first vote for president in 2000 I had been hearing the unashamed hero worship of this man for the past 10 years He is the standard against which all Repulicans compare each other and themselves Every Republican primary becomes a goofy jockeyed to prove they are like Reagan than anyone else Therefore one comes to equate all that is conservative to the man that is Ronald Reagan However I think this book offers a chance to maybe take a different look at the former president For one I was surprised to find that the so called hawk doved later in his administration I enjoyed hearing about the battles behind the scenes during which Reagan lost his unwavering support from the far right and indeed fell under their frequent attacks This insight gives new light to the current climate of conservative American where such radically conservative personalities as Hannity and Coulter continue to hold the former president up as the quintessential conservative In addition over the years I have heard many modern Republican and Conservative analysts insist that the Reagan push on military build up was an intentional attempt to force the USSR into an unsustainable arms race that would economically destabilize the nation enough to force changes This book seems to call this explanation into question after examining the words and documents of former Reagan officials These new insights into the former administration were certainly eye opening. The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan pdfescape As far as the writing goes the book is almost a random amalgamation of anecdotes and stories As mentioned in other reviews the author repeats himself often Perhaps he meant this move to mirror the style of the book s subject but it does to exasperate the reader than anything else one certainly begins to feel for Gorbachev Further the book does seem to jump from time to time and I would often have a go back a few pages because I thought I had missed something Nevertheless the book was worth the read for the chance to clarify my views on this former president Politics

The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan: A History of the End of the Cold War By James Mann

0670020540

9780670020546

English

416

Hardcover

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A decent recitation of events but disappointing in its substantive analysis or lack thereof Mann tells us at the beginning of the book that his goal is to present an interpretation of Reagan s role in ending the Cold War that avoids the two partisan mythologies of Reagan s presidency that either overemphasize or dismiss his importance He succeeds insofar as he portrays Reagan as being somewhere in between these two extremes but rarely in his narrative does he offer any original analysis of Reagan s foreign policy or that of Gorbachev or Gorbachev s attempts at reforming the Soviet system and its possible influence on the eventual breakup of the party and the union or the political climate of Germany and Eastern Europe all of which should have been prominently featured in an analysis of the importance of Reagan s role as one player among many Additionally Mann makes many digressions that I felt were frivolous Suzanne Massie s role as an unofficial emissary to the Soviet Union is interesting but never seemed important enough to warrant dedicating an entire section of the book to her life and her relationship with Reagan as Mann does here We are told that she became close friends with Reagan and through storytelling was able to humanize the Soviet people in the president s eyes That may be true butso what Mann justifies telling us about Massie by claiming that her rapport with Reagan was a reflection of gradual changes in the president s attitude but apart from a few anecdotes about how Reagan mentioned the Russian soul in various settings the exact nature of this change in attitude and any influence this may have had on Reagan s diplomacy with the Soviet Union and subsequently on the end of the Cold War is never really explored Mann makes another long and unnecessary digression when he devotes another entire section of the book to the buildup to and delivery of Reagan s famous 1987 speech at the Brandenburg Gate He spends far too much time detailing Reagan s history as an orator the history of the very implication of American policymakers that the wall should come down previous presidential visits to Berlin like that of John Kennedy and the disputes among Reagan s staff regarding whether the famous tear down this wall clause should have remained in the speech This entire section seems contrary to Mann s goal of getting away from triviality in approaching Reagan s presidency Mann claims that he wants to find a middle road between the triumphal and theater schools of interpretation regarding the speech but merely by devoting so much of the book to one moment of political theater Mann elevates just the sort of triviality he is trying to avoid No one seriously believes that the Cold War ended because Reagan uttered the words tear down this wall Even the so called triumphalists saw the speech as a reflection of a confrontational stance that was taking place in actuality they don t believe that the speech itself actually struck a blow against the Soviet Empire In treating the speech like a critical moment in the end of the Cold War almost as fateful as the actual act of Berliners in dismantling the wall Mann seems to miss the point The book has redeeming qualities as a factual narrative account of the final years of the Cold War But ultimately in terms of substance and originality it is a disappointment Politics Really excellent and nuanced look at the Reagan years in terms of his approach to the Soviet Union Basically a history of how Reagan went from calling the USSR an evil empire in 1983 to throwing his arm around Gorbachev s shoulder in the middle of Red Square in 1988, Ronald reagan historical events Reagan had a certain naivet about the world and the Soviet Union in particular After Reagan had met with Soviet ambassador to the U: The rebellion of ronald reagan book online S Anatoly Dobrynin he was shocked at Dobrynin s cosmopolitan sophistication and he asked Is he really a Communist p, The rebellion of ronald reagan book online Important reading Politics Overall and therefore was able to adapt to the changes implemented by Gorbachev Politics.

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