Remembering Ronald Reagan

The 20th Century's Greatest President Was Unwilling to Play for Less Than Total Victory.

NOTE: This is my obituary for the 20th Century’s greatest President, originally published on the day of his death, June 6, 2004. I am republishing it today in honor of his 114th birthday.

by Rod D. Martin
February 6, 2025

It was fashionable for a time to consider Ronald Reagan a warmonger and a fool.  Perhaps this is the best indicator of his Chuchillian stature; for like Reagan, Churchill was so maligned, and like Churchill, Reagan saved the world.

The left, of course, credited Gorbachev for this, which resembled nothing so much as crediting Hitler’s suicide for the end of World War II.  Reagan’s victory -- and the fact that we are not now speaking Russian or buried ala Khrushchev under a smoldering ruin -- was produced of a vision shared by no president before him, and a fortitude possessed by few.