By POLITIGIRL BY BETH SOLOMON
WASHINGTON — All the cameras were rolling on the beaches of Normandy three weeks ago, the world focusing on the anniversary of D-Day. Network anchors arrived solemnly. Scores of world leaders lined up to pay their respects. Following the inauguration of the World War II Memorial in Washington, even America quieted down to celebrate the Good War — World War II — the veterans, and to a lesser extent, the homegrown national effort that signaled the end of Nazi tyranny.
And then, poof. It evaporated faster than you can say, “Great Communicator.”
When the 40th president expired that weekend, a week of wall-to-wall tributes, 24/7 news coverage, appreciations, portraits and paeans began. Suddenly, Reagan, not WWII, was the most important event of the 20th Century.
Reagan was one of the greatest presidents of all time, the networks intoned. He restored America’s optimism, cut taxes, crushed communism and ended the Cold War. The country fondly recalled Morning in America, “there you go again” and the ever affable president who never met an enemy he didn’t like. Reagan loved his wife. He even loved the squirrels on the White House lawn. Like the Good War, Reagan symbolized — the back-to-back coverage explained — all that is good about America.
When the satellite dishes get going, watch out for the truth.
It’s convenient not to remember that the Russians lost 30 million people vanquishing Hitler, beating him down so much by D-Day that his army was in trouble.
And it’s more comfortable to remember Reagan’s smiles than the souplines he created, the homelessness, the 13,000 air traffic controllers whose lives he damaged, the back-breaking deficits, the fear he caused in Europe by forcing new missiles into what he called the “European theater” of nuclear war.
One of Reagan’s admirers and partners, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, came to Washington to pay respects to Nancy Reagan and to the man with whom he changed the course of history. He praised Reagan as “an extraordinary leader,” but he filled in some of the detail that the satellite transmissions missed.
Gorbachev was asked if Reagan won the Cold War. “That’s not serious,” he said. “I think we all lost the Cold War, particularly the Soviet Union. We each lost $10 trillion.”
That’s a lot of bowls of chicken soup. What ended the Cold War, Gorbachev said, was Reagan’s shift in strategy in his second term. “When (Reagan) was elected to a second term, he, and especially the people close to him, began to think about how he would complete his second term — by producing more and more nuclear weapons and conducting ‘special operations’ around the world?”
No, Reagan knew that the bigger way to go down in history was as a peacemaker. When Reagan decided to seek peace with Moscow, he found a willing partner in Gorbachev. “The new Soviet leadership wanted to transform the country, to modernize the country, and we needed stability, we needed cooperation with other countries,” he said. “And we both knew what kind of weapons we each had. There were mountains of nuclear weapons. Awar could start not because of a political decision, but just because of some technical failure.”
Reagan and Gorbachev first met to discuss peace in
In this age of television, history is instant — and often fictional. Facts give way to fantasy. Information can’t compete with impressionism. It’s almost as though if you’re watching it on TV, if you hear it on TV, what you’re seeing — crunched by signal converters and beamed by satellite dishes — is the opposite of reality.
What’s the next big event in America? Clinton’s book tour? Paris Hilton? American Idol XIV?
It seems like Reality TV is the least real thing you can see. (Beth Solomon is a Left Coast writer reachable at bethsolomon@earthlink.net)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 23, 2004. Read the original PDF.