I hope I'm missing something, but after reading various news stories about the events in Berlin, it certainly appears as though Ronald Reagan is being overlooked in favor of Mikhail Gorbachev. German Chancellor Angela Merkel went so far as to proclaim to Gorbachev, "You made this possible." Well, he "made this possible" to the degree that he had at least enough of a grasp on reality to perceive that the Soviet Union was dying quickly and that few, if any, options remained open to him except to embrace glasnost. Reagan boxed Gorbachev into this position through his masterful, no-nonsense diplomacy, and Gorbachev, realizing the gig was up, had the smarts to meet Reagan on Reagan's terms. To be fair, Gorbachev was a different kind of leader in the Solviet Union, in the positive sense. But Reagan's unique status in the struggle for victory in the Cold War (second perhaps only to Pope John Paul II) cannot be obscured. Again, I will continue following the events in Berlin and, hopefully, I will be proven wrong. That said, it shouldn't be so difficult to find a conspicuous reference to Ronald Reagan in all of the speeches being given today, if one has been made.
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