Newt Gingrich’s Contribution to Reagan’s Strategy of Peace through Strength

We know that Reagan's basic strategy of Peace through Strength, was made workable, only because the U.S. Congress gave strong and visible expression to Reagan’s Anti-Communist principles. The stronger we became, through the defense buildup, which only Congress could approve, and the stronger we became, through implementation of the Strategic Defense Initiative, again, which only Congress could approve, the better Reagan’s strategy would work.

Newt Gingrich’s Special Order of March 21, 1986, went exactly to this point, expressing a strong voice in Congress, that there was a strong desire in America to give full expression to Reagan’s Anti-Communist principles, underlining the need to institutionalize strongly, those principles.

The more the Soviet’s believed that we were determined and motivated to stand up against them, the sooner they would come to the conclusion that they could never hope to challenge us, without being utterly annihilated. The stronger we appeared, the more the Soviet’s would back off from their expansionist designs. And the safer our freedoms would be. That was the strategy.

The voice of Newt Gingrich was heard in Moscow. Here was a voice, in the U.S. Congress, that was pointing to some of the more wish-washy elements in the administration’s implementation of Reagan’s Anti-Communist principles. And this gave the Communist leadership the understanding that there was yet a will to do even better, and become even stronger against them. Of course, Gingrich was not alone. There were many strong voices in those days, at least on the Republican side, and many strong voices make up a very strong chorus.

Make no mistake about it. Gingrich was fully at one with the Reagan strategy, of Peace through STRENGTH, and he had his own shoulder firmly to the wheel. This Special Order of March 21, 1986 proves this beyond a shadow of a doubt.

His message was basically, to the U.S. Congress, and to the administration bureaucrats, "Come on, BE as strong as Reagan wants us to be." And to Reagan, "Come on, BE as strong as you say you want to be." To Be or Not to Be, that is the question. It was all about becoming stronger against the Soviet threat.

But no one in those days, not Reagan, not Gingrich, no one, really understood how well, and at what levels, that this strategy was actually working. We can surmise this now, only with the benefits of hindsight.

In hindsight we know that the basic Reagan strategy, that of strong confrontation with the USSR, proceeding forward with a strong U.S. Defense buildup, and proposing a technological advance, in the Strategic Defense Initiative — that had the potential of making the Soviet nuclear arsenal of no effect — together, struck the Fear of God into the Soviet leadership. They finally understood they could not keep up with us technologically, and it forced them into a new propaganda initiative.

They needed to persuade America to back down, not through direct confrontation, but through deception. Gorbachev had to PUT ON A MASK (see the above discussion) and make himself look to the whole world like a great reformer, making people believe that the beast was melting into a pussy cat, and that there was no need for all of these missiles and guns and lasers and all of that.

On the one hand, Gorbachev did such a good job, that Reagan himself fell for it, and traded away the most important element of our nuclear deterrent in Europe, the intermediate range missiles which Reagan himself had earlier deployed there. And Gingrich was rightly focused on this truth, that Reagan was being taken in by Gorbachev.

However, and on the other hand, Gorbachev had done such a good job of making himself look like a reformer, that he actually ignited the fires of hope in his own people, something that the Soviet Leadership did not factor in, or thought they could manage.

But this was a true hope for freedom, which GOD could use, and did use, to expand, to motivate the people to stand up for the reforms that Gorbachev himself had promised.

In this respect, God worked through Reagan to stand strong against the Soviet Empire, a strong stance which created Gorbachev THE ACTOR, who would play the role of reformer so well — because the survival of the Soviet Union depended on it — that he would not only convince Reagan to pull those nasty missiles out of Europe, but would be so convincing that he would fan the flames of hope in his own people, not intended of course, which could be used by God, as tiny candles, expanded into bright lanterns, to raise up whole populations to stand up and demand the reforms Gorbachev had promised.

Well, Gorbachev was trapped by his own act. If he cracked down, his whole game would go down the toilet, and America would continue with its determined military buildup. He had to keep the reformer charade going as long as possible, he needed time to fully persuade the U.S. to abandon its military buildup, while at the same time, he was greatly challenged in trying to figure out some way to keep the Communists in power. Events eventually spiraled out of his control.

So, in hindsight, we see that Reagan’s strategy, of peace through strength, which was, at its root, a God-Inspired determination to stand strong against the Communist threat, played a key role in the collapse of the Soviet Empire. As Reagan said, “In God I Trust.”

But in 1986, no one conceived of, let alone predicated such an outcome. The Soviet Union showed no signs of collapse. At the time this Special Order speech was given, the Soviet Red Army was still in Afghanistan with no sign of departing, as Gingrich so poignantly notes. Indeed, they were actually expanding their holdings around the world as Gingrich pointed out so well. The threat loomed over us as it had always done, and the dark clouds stretched as far as the eye could see.

Now, having said all of that, this is the bottom line as far as Newt Gingrich is concerned. The ONLY thing in this Special Order that Gingrich was doing, was standing strong, providing one of many of the strong voices necessary for the success of the Peace through Strength strategy.

In this Gingrich clearly can take credit, along side Reagan, for the final outcome. Surely, it was a team effort. And Gingrich was a strong member of that team, along with everyone else who chose to be inspired by God in those days to stand strong against the global totalitarian ambitions of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

But, we need to be clear about this. Mitt Romney was not one of those people. He was not. He was an "independent" wanting nothing to do with Reagan and his Anti-Communism.

I created this statement in response to the Elliot Abrams attack on Newt Gingrich, and posted it first to the comment section below Jeffrey Lord’s Spectacle Blog post on the subject. I asked Jeffrey Lord for a copy of the congressional record section that he was reading, he sent it to me, and I read the whole thing. There is a link to that document in the statement above, so anybody can read it for themselves, if they feel so inclined. Clearly, when you read this document, it is obvious, that Elliot Abrams had fallen into a deep hole of delusion and falsehood. And I am moreover wondering whether Elliot Abrams it not the quintessential poster boy for the validity of this theory, which I will posit here, that to be drawn into orbit around Mitt Rommey is to be drawn into orbit around a black sun of falsehood, where the great magnetism of error that emits from Romney makes the knees to buckle, and the person finds himself kneeling in reverence, even while frothing at the mouth, before a shiny gold altar of utter falsehood, and how if this is correct, I am wondering how this could possibly be good for the nation.

Thank you for this thread. Few politicians have a large vision of what peril our Nation will be in if their service to our Nation is not effective. Reagan had that large vision. Kennedy had that large vision. The result of the efforts of these two men included an energized space program and the end of the USSR’s Iron Curtain.

Today, we are suffering from 80 years of Socialism Expansionism by “both” political parties.

I remain skeptically hopeful that this will be the year that Republicans reject the RINOs and choose a candidate with the large vision.

Your comments on Newt are appreciated, as he is the most probable to have that large vision.

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