Because you were probably as clueless then as now. You have been shown press reports of words no one denies. No one. They are in the factual record
Conservative Opposition - Hardline conservatives protest Gorbachev’s visit to Washington, and the signing of the treaty, in the strongest possible terms. When Reagan suggests that Gorbachev address a joint session of Congress, Congressional Republicans, led by House member Dick Cheney (R-WY—see
1983), rebel. Cheney says: “Addressing a joint meeting of Congress is a high honor, one of the highest honors we can accord anyone. Given the fact of continuing Soviet aggression in Afghanistan, Soviet repression in Eastern Europe, and Soviet actions in Africa and Central America, it is totally inappropriate to confer this honor upon Gorbachev. He is an adversary, not an ally.”
Conservative Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Committee is more blunt in his assessment of the treaty agreement: “Reagan is a weakened president, weakened in spirit as well as in clout, and not in a position to make judgments about Gorbachev at this time.” Conservative pundit William F. Buckley calls the treaty a “suicide pact.”
Fellow conservative pundit George Will calls Reagan “wildly wrong” in his dealings with the Soviets. Conservatives gather to bemoan what they call “summit fever,” accusing Reagan of “appeasement” both of communists and of Congressional liberals, and protesting Reagan’s “cutting deals with the evil empire” (see
March 8, 1983).
They mount a letter-writing campaign, generating some 300,000 letters, and launch
a newspaper ad campaign that compares Reagan to former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.
Senators Jesse Helms (R-NC) and Steven Symms (R-ID) try to undercut the treaty by attempting to add amendments that would make the treaty untenable; Helms will lead a filibuster against the treaty as well.
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1988: Reagan Abandoned, Mocked by Hardline Conservatives
As the end of President Reagan’s final term approaches, conservatives and hardliners have radically changed their view of him. They originally saw him as one of their own—a crusader for good against evil, obstinately opposed to communism in general and to any sort of arms reduction agreement with the Soviet Union in specific. But recent events—Reagan’s recent moderation in rhetoric towards the Soviets (see
December 1983 and After), the summits with Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev (see
November 16-19, 1985 and
October 11-12, 1986), and the recent arms treaties with the Soviets (see
Early 1985 and
December 7-8, 1987) have soured them on Reagan. Hardliners had once held considerable power in the Reagan administration (see
January 1981 and After and
Early 1981 and After), but their influence has steadily waned, and their attempts to sabotage and undermine arms control negotiations (see
April 1981 and After,
September 1981 through November 1983,
May 1982 and After, and
April 1983-December 1983), initially quite successful, have grown less effective and more desperate (see
Before November 16, 1985). Attempts by administration hardliners to get “soft” officials such as Secretary of State George Shultz fired do not succeed. Conservative pundits such as George Will and William Safire lambast Reagan, with Will accusing him of “moral disarmament” and Safire mocking Reagan’s rapport with Gorbachev: “He professed to see in Mr. Gorbachev’s eyes an end to the Soviet goal of world domination.” It will not be until after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the tearing down of the Berlin Wall (see
November 9, 1989 and After) that conservatives will revise their opinion of Reagan, in the process revising much of history in the process. [
Scoblic, 2008, pp. 143-145]
Entity Tags: George Will,
George Shultz,
William Safire,
Mikhail Gorbachev,
Ronald Reagan
Timeline Tags: US International Relations
George Will
