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Noted American columnist George Will summed up former President Ronald Reagan's international legacy very well. He wrote: "One measure of a leader's greatness is this: By the time he dies, the dangers that summoned him to greatness have been so thoroughly defeated, in no small measure by what he did, it is difficult to recall the magnitude of those dangers, or his achievements.
"So if you seek Ronald Reagan's monument, look around and consider what you do not see. The Iron Curtain that scarred a continent is gone, as is the Evil Empire responsible for it. The feeling of foreboding —the sense of shrunken possibilities—that afflicted Americans 20 years ago has been banished by a new birth of the American belief in perpetually expanding horizons" (The Wall Street Journal Europe, June 7, 2004).
When Ronald Reagan was inaugurated into office as America's 40th president, his goal was not to somehow survive the Cold War but to end it. He boldly referred to the old Soviet Union as the Evil Empire and challenged its leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, to tear down the Berlin Wall. Previous U.S. presidents had only talked of détente. While other leaders spoke of America's malaise, he continually extolled his country's heritage and its role in the world.
A firm belief in America's divine destiny
Undergirding President Reagan's patriotism was his unshakable conviction about America's divine destiny. He once said while president: "I have always believed that this anointed land was set apart in an uncommon way, that a divine plan placed this great continent here between the oceans to be found by people from every corner of the earth who had a special love of faith and freedom" (quoted in "The Great American Experiment," The Plain Truth, September 1988, emphasis added throughout article).
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