At one of the very first cabinet meetings, I raised a lightning rod issue — the embargo on grain exports to Soviet Russia imposed by Jimmy Carter after the Russian invasion of Afghanistan.
Carter's Russian grain embargo was hurting American farmers far more than it was hurting anyone in Russia. It was driving down prices for American wheat, corn, and other crops.
Russia, for its part, just bought its grain elsewhere, from America's competitors. It made no sense, and Reagan, during the campaign, had promised to end the embargo if elected. I seconded the idea and asked when we could get started. How could we make this concession without getting something in return? This argument over ending the Russian grain embargo raged all through early Haig and Weinberger kept the pressure up as I stood my ground and found other allies.
At one point, I was supposed to ride with President Reagan in his car from the Hilton Hotel — where the shooting occurred — to talk about it.
The shooting delayed the issue as the President recovered. But on April 24, President Reagan kept his promise to American farmers.
He put pragmatism and hard evidence ahead of ideology and lifted the embargo. Today, the debate goes on about Ronald Reagan's legacy, with both Republicans and even some Democrats claiming him. I think Reagan would get a good laugh if he could hear it, enjoying the praise from both sides. Reagan won the support of plenty of Democrats in his landslide victories.
To me, there is no question where Ronald Reagan stood. He was a true conservative. His motto was smaller government, lower taxes, and personal freedom. Yes, he went along with a few tax increases when pragmatism demanded it, but put his mountain of cuts next to the molehill of small increases and the message is clear.
Those years in the cabinet, the s, had many difficult challenges, including a credit crisis that severely hit thousands of American farm producers. But overall they were good ones, the Reagan years — good for the country — and it's gratifying to see the outpouring of good will on the Gipper's th birthday. To Ronald Reagan himself, my birthday greeting is simple. We miss you. About the author : Secretary Block is a Senior Policy Advisor in the law firm of Olsson, Frank, and Weeda, John Block has dedicated his professional career to the fields of agriculture, food, and health.
His accomplishments in agriculture began with the building of a large and successful hog operation in his home state of Illinois where he also served as the Director of Agriculture from Government is the problem. The promise of a smaller, less costly and more accountable government was renewed.
Pro-growth policies to cut taxes and reduce the size and scope of government were set in motion. John McCain:. Ronald Reagan believed differently. He possessed an unshakable faith in America's greatness, past and future, that proved more durable than the prevailing political sentiments of the time. And his confidence was a tonic to men who had come home eager to put the war behind us and for the country to do likewise.
Our country has a long and honorable history. A lost war or any other calamity should not destroy our confidence or weaken our purpose. We were a good country before Vietnam, and we are a good country after Vietnam. In all of history, you cannot find a better one. Of that, Ronald Reagan was supremely confident, and he became president to prove it. Sarah Palin :. The image of the lifeguard seems to represent what Reagan was to America and to the freedom-loving people of the world.
He lifted our country up at a time when we were in the depths of economic, cultural and spiritual malaise. We were told that we must accept that the era of American greatness was over; but with his optimism and common sense, President Reagan held up a mirror to the American soul to remind us of our exceptionalism.
Mitt Romney:. America entered the Reagan era as one kind of country and exited it another. His mixture of extraordinary personal and political qualities made it possible. One must begin with his sunny disposition: cheerful conservatism in flesh and blood. The Gipper's irrepressible high spirits tapped into something deeply rooted in the country: optimism, faith in America itself.
When Reagan's infrequent press conferences would end, his aides would scurry after reporters in an attempt to correct their boss' misstatements: "What he meant to say was 'this. So it became easy for some to dismiss Reagan, as the late Democratic presidential adviser Clark Clifford did in calling him "an amiable dunce.
Amiable, yes; dunce, most certainly not. One of the most treasured items on my office bookshelf is a dedication on a thin pamphlet, published in the Soviet Union in , by one of the top authors of glasnost, political philosopher Igor Klyamkin. I became friends with him in the late s. What did Igor mean? Like all truly great political leaders, at critical moments Ronald Reagan was guided by and openly articulated a profoundly moral judgment of right and wrong, good and evil, liberty and slavery that resonated with tens of millions people in America and abroad.
More than anything else, I think, it was this judgment that defined Reagan's "role" in Russia's latest revolution of which Igor wrote--and made it so effective.
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