Looking back

Paul Kengor reminds us to count our blessings:

In December 1981, much of the world lived in totalitarian darkness. This was captured at the time by Freedom House, the group begun by Eleanor Roosevelt and today headed by freedom fighter Nina Shea. Freedom House published its map of global freedom, which showed the world's free nations in white and unfree nations in black. Nearly all the great Eurasian land mass was colored black, from the western border of East Germany, through eastern Europe and the massive spaces of the Soviet Union, and on to the huge terrain of China, and still further down to Vietnam and the South China Sea. The contrast was pointed out by a presidential candidate who hoped to transform the darkness: "If a visitor from another planet were to approach earth," said Ronald Reagan, "and if this planet showed free nations in light and unfree nations in darkness, the pitifully small beacons of light would make him wonder what was hidden in that terrifying, enormous blackness. We know what is hidden: Gulag. Torture." Reagan noted that "the very heart of the darkness" was the Soviet Union.

What was that totalitarian darkness like? It sought the persecution and even annihilation of entire classes and groups of hated people. According to the 1999 work by Harvard University Press, The Black Book of Communism, at least 100 million people were killed by Communist governments in the 20th century, a conservative figure that we already know underestimated the total. (We now know, for example, that Mao Tse-Tung alone killed 70 million in China, and Soviets authorities like Alexander Yakovlev maintain that Stalin himself killed 60-70 million in the USSR.) If one combined the total deaths in World War I and World War II and multiplied them by two, they still did not match the deaths by Communism in the 20th century.

These governments robbed individuals of the most basic rights: property, speech, press, assembly, the right to life. Communists had a particular antipathy for religion. Of special attention this time of year -- in December -- Communist governments went so far as to inspect houses in search of Christmas trees, as they tried to also strip the right to celebrate the birth of Christ.

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In 1980, according to Freedom House, there were 56 democracies in the world; by 1990, there were 76. The numbers continued an upward trajectory, hitting 91 in 1991, 99 in 1992, 108 in 1993, and 114 in 1994, a doubling since Reagan had entered the Oval Office. By 1994, 60% of the world's nations were democracies. By contrast, when Reagan lamented the lack of freedom in the mid 1970s, the number was below 30%. Few presidents got so much of what they wanted.

There has been an explosion in freedom worldwide since the 1980s. This democratic transformation is one of the great stories of modern humanity, and one of the least remarked upon, as high-school texts -- among numerous other sources -- are completely silent on the subject.

This is a truly global blessing that transpired in the lifetimes of most of us. Unfortunately, many of us Americans are not good at counting our blessings or remembering our history. A look back at 25 years ago this month can help us to be grateful for what we have, especially at Christmas time, when we pause to remember the ultimate source of light that conquers the darkness.

Few times in the history of the world has one man has such an enormous impact upon his times. At various times in its history the United States of America has been blessed by providence with the leadership of great men. The nation's founding one of the extraordinary collections of great men to have ever lived all at the same time. Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, Mason, Lee and so many others all coming together at the same time and place to give birth to a nation conceived in liberty and founded upon a delegation of power from the sovereign people to the government rather than upon the gifting of privileges to the subject people from the sovereign government.

Of course Reagan did not act alone. In the 1980's there was a collection of the great as well. Margaret Thatcher, Pope John-Paul II and Lech Walesa were all stars which glittered brightly in the firmament of freedom. But it was Ronald Reagan who stood out front.

As the President of the United States Ronald Reagan was the leader of the Free World. America's power, the military power and the economic power -both of which Reagan had rebuilt, put iron behind every challenge which was hurled at the Soviet juggernaut. From the Pope's vow to "take off the Crown of St. Peter and fight beside his people" if the USSR invaded Poland to the threat of SDI, which finally called the USSR's bluff and broke the back of its communist government it was Ronald Reagan's unbreakable determination to fulfill the vow made by one of his predecessors to ". . . pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty” which sustained and carried the final great battle in the long cold war.

We were blessed to have him.