The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism
By Paul Kengor
The Crusader:
Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism
By Paul Kengor
Regan Books
(October 17, 2006)
-- Grove City College press release --
About the Author:
Dr. Paul Kengor is the author of God and Ronald Reagan, which was a New York Times Extended List bestseller, and God and George W. Bush. A professor of political science and executive director of The Center for Vision and Values at Grove City College, he is nationally renowned for his work as a presidential historian. A frequent television political commentator and opinion page contributor, his work has been featured in many publications including the New York Times, USA Today, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. He lives with his wife and four children in Grove City, Pennsylvania.
Book Reviews:
“Book by book, Paul Kengor’s body of work becomes ever more impressive. The Crusader is a masterpiece, painstakingly researched, filled with new evidence no one has seen, including shockers from Soviet files, freedom-of-information requests, and heretofore unknown documents.”
–MICHAEL NOVAK,
author of Washington’s God
“Provides an authoritative insight into Reagan’s campaign to destroy Soviet Communism. Though I served as Reagan’s Soviet advisor in 1981 and 1982, there is information here of which I had been ignorant. Highly recommended as the story of one of the most dramatic episodes of modern history.”
–RICHARD PIPES,
professor of history, Emeritus, Harvard
“Combining the skills of the great story-telling with his commitment to scholarly detail, Paul Kengor has written an important book that also makes for a fascinating read. The Crusader will entertain, inform, and change minds.”
–PETER SCHWEIZER,
author, Reagan’s War
“While many have tried, few have succeeded in telling such a complete and thorough history of my dad’s greatest triumph: the downfall of the Soviet Union. A fascinating read—with all of the passion, intrigue, and fairness he would have wanted—The Crusader is unlike any other book about him.”
–MICHAEL REAGAN
“… an impressive amount of research.”
–Publisher’s Weekly
Regan Books Press Release:
THE CRUSADER:
RONALD REAGAN AND THE FALL OF COMMUNISM
By Paul Kengor
“As in his previous work on Ronald Reagan, Paul Kengor's latest book illuminates a side of the man evident only to those closest to him, including the deep influence of the man's faith in his attack on atheistic Soviet communism. The Crusader is another important addition to our historical understanding of Ronald Reagan, his presidency, his policies, and the end of the Cold War.”
–BILL CLARK,
National Security Advisor 1982-1983
Ronald Reagan is beloved around the country for his dynamic presidency that restored optimism to America and helped bring about the fall of the Soviet Union. Now, in an explosive new work of history, THE CRUSADER (Regan; October 17, 2006), New York Times bestselling author, Paul Kengor, lifts the “Iron Curtain” to reveal the remarkable untold story behind Reagan’s complicated presidential agenda to crush the Soviets.
In his compelling book, Kengor draws on newly declassified presidential papers, previously untapped Soviet media archives, and revealing exclusive interviews with key players, to document Reagan’s lifelong crusade against Communism, and his dogged--and ultimately triumphant--effort to bring the USSR, which he famously dubbed the “Evil Empire,” to its knees.
When it’s released in October, THE CRUSADER will ignite controversy and debate with Kengor’s major new revelations about the Reagan presidency, including:
- How Ted Kennedy reached out to the USSR in an attempt to derail Reagan’s policies and 1984 reelection bid. Kengor, drawing on a highly sensitive KGB document, shows how Kennedy, through a liaison, approached Soviet leaders with a plan to counter Reagan’s foreign policy in the hope of scaring up a Democratic presidential victory in ‘84.
- How Nancy Reagan privately regretted that she had not been at her husband’s side to take a bullet for him in March 1981, and how that near-fatal assassination attempt invigorated Ronald Reagan’s “crusade” against Soviet Communism.
- How Reagan viewed his space-based missile-defense system, SDI, as an extension of the arms race, designed to force the Soviets to overspend their military budget. Kengor examines the effectiveness of Reagan’s plan and how, after the Cold War, high-ranking Soviet officials claimed the policy had “accelerated the decline of the Soviet Union.” Kengor also reveals that the Reagan administration fooled the Soviets by rigging an SDI test in June 1984, and how the term “Star Wars,” created by a U.S. senator and adopted by the American media to ridicule SDI, became a propaganda tool for the Soviet government.
- How, after Reagan learned the Soviets were stealing critical technical and scientific knowledge from the United States, he organized a team to sabotage the technologies and encourage their use by the enemy. Kengor says this sabotage program was responsible for a Soviet pipeline explosion so large that U.S. satellites picked it up in space.
- How Reagan enlisted King Fahd of Saudi Arabia to help him destroy the Soviet economy by drastically reducing its income from oil exports. Kengor shows how Reagan worked with the Saudis to manipulate the world’s oil market, encouraging them to increase production, thereby lowering the price of oil.In the six months that followed, the price of oil dropped from $30 a barrel to $10 a barrel, sending catastrophic shock waves through the Soviet economy.
- How Reagan also limited the financial boon of the Soviet’s chief natural resource, natural gas, by partially blocking construction of the pipeline from the USSR to Western Europe. Kengor shows how this action had a devastating impact on the Soviet economy as potential revenue from natural gas was cut in half.
- How the idea of providing Stinger missiles to Afghan rebels fighting the occupation of the Soviet Army came directly from Reagan himself. Kengor says the origin of the idea, which many have credited as being central to the Soviet’s defeat in Afghanistan, was originally articulated during a January 1980 campaign speech, in which Reagan spoke of the need to supply the Afghanis with “shoulder-launched, heat-seeking missiles that can shoot down Soviet helicopter gunships.” Kengor also reveals how Reagan personally authorized Afghan rebels to cross the border into Soviet territory, where they launched some of the most provocative attacks of the entire Cold War.
- How Reagan entered office with one goal in mind: to end the Soviet Union. With a detailed look at his past, including his days as an anti-Communist president of the Screen Actors Guild, Kengor explains convincingly that the reason Reagan became a politician, and eventually President, was to destroy Communism. Kengor shows how Reagan was committed to that goal as early as 1950 and publicly called for the destruction of the Berlin Wall as early as 1967.
- How Reagan publicly defended the “Captive Peoples” behind the Iron Curtain as a movie actor in 1947, as host of CBS’s GE Theatre in the 1950s, and how in the 1960s he mourned the deaths of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy and linked their assassinations to Soviet Communism.
- How Reagan privately pleaded with Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall, and how Gorbachev repeatedly rebuffed his request.
- How Reagan considered a military invasion of Poland in 1981 in response to a possible Soviet invasion there. Kengor, citing interviews with high-ranking members of the administration, details just how serious Reagan was about preventing Soviet hegemony in Poland.
- How Reagan and Pope John Paul II frequently shared valuable information through secondary channels regarding their mutual support of Solidarity, the Polish workers union, and how Reagan called the Pope “my best friend.”
- How the Soviets identified Reagan as a threat to their survival at a very early stage in his political career. THE CRUSADER is the first book that pours through thousands of Soviet documents and propaganda, exploring what the other side truly thought of Reagan.
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