Address to the British Parliament.

• Author: Sempa, Francis P.
• Position: Brief article

Address to the British Parliament

By Ronald Reagan, President of the United States

Text, audio, and video: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/ronaldreaganbritishparliament.htm

Reviewed by Francis P. Sempa, Contributing Editor

Twenty-eight years ago on June 8, 1982, President Ronald Reagan foretold the end of the Cold War in a remarkable address to the British Parliament. Like one of his intellectual mentors, Whittaker Chambers, Reagan portrayed the geopolitical Cold War struggle as a much deeper philosophical battle between the forces of freedom and totalitarian tyranny.

Paraphrasing Winston Churchill's "iron curtain" speech, Reagan noted that from the Baltic to the Black Sea not one Soviet imposed communist regime had been able to establish legitimacy because "regimes planted by bayonets do not take root."

After reviewing the international situation, including the Solidarity movement in Poland, Reagan opined "we live now at a turning point." The Soviet empire, he noted, was in crisis because...