Who won the war?

• Author: Smith, Geoffrey
• Position: Ronald Reagan and His Quest to Abolish Nuclear Weapons - Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended - Book Review

Paul Lettow, Ronald Reagan and His Quest to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (New York: Random House, 2005), 254 pp., $25.95.

Jack F. Matlock, Jr., Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended (New York: Random House, 2005), 327 pp., $27.95.

ONE OF the many puzzles with Ronald Reagan is why so many people found such an articulate man so puzzling, or rather, why so few people listened to what this supremely eloquent man was actually saying on some of the most profound issues of his time. This conundrum is at the heart of both of these valuable books. They deal with the same issue, but from rather different perspectives. They agree that the prime roles in ending the Cold War were played by Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev; that the obsession with the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) shared by the two leaders (from contrasting standpoints) was both exaggerated and invaluable in pushing forward the peace process; and that from first to last, Reagan made no secret of his grand strategy, which never deviated in essentials, though the circumstances in which it was implemented certainly did. Why then did so many apparently well-informed people fail to appreciate what he was up to?

Ambassador Matlock has provided a distinguished example of history from the engine room. From his days at the beginning of the 1980s as the senior officer in charge of the U.S. embassy in Moscow, through three years as the National Security Council expert on European and Soviet affairs, to his appointment at the end of 1986 as ambassador to Moscow, he was at the heart of American policymaking on the Soviet Union--both a uniquely privileged observer and a participant during the critical times.

He has rendered a detailed account and, at the same time, given a robust defense of his stewardship. A few bruises are nursed from the bureaucratic battles of not-so-long-ago. His considerable admiration for George Shultz as secretary of state does not deter him from a few stinging criticisms of Shultz's negotiating tactics. But one gets the impression that any settling of personal scores flows solely from such tactical differences.

Paul Lettow does not get as up close and personal as Matlock. His book is based on detailed research of the written record and a range of interviews. But the two books complement each other. They start from the essential point that so many people missed at the time and for quite some years afterwards: that Reagan came to office with a genuine hatred of all nuclear weapons. He did not aim simply to prevent the Soviets from having more of what he regarded as the hateful things. He wanted to rid the earth of them altogether.

BEFORE HE entered the White House, Reagan had developed a powerful loathing of the prevailing nuclear strategic doctrine of Mutual Assured Destruction, which was based on the premise that no country would ever attack a nuclear-armed adversary because it would be wiped out by the inevitable retaliation. It meant that the leader of a country facing such an attack would be confronted by an awesome dilemma. He could retaliate and have his own country wiped out as well, or he could give way to irresistible force. Suicide or surrender: For Reagan, the choice was unacceptable.

His anti-nuclear ambition perplexed so many people because it seemed so out of character for the Cold War hawk, the hardheaded critic of the "Evil Empire." Even some of those who admired him most and knew him best were thrown off balance. In an interview with me while she and Reagan were still in office, Margaret Thatcher described the idea as "pie in the sky."

The other reason why Reagan's basic purpose was so often undetected was that his tactics were the opposite of those employed by most nuclear disarmers. Rather than being overawed by the might of the Soviet Union, Reagan believed it was economically vulnerable and that it would be unable to sustain prolonged technological competition...