With Russia, Trump takes a page from the Reagan playbook
COMMENTARY
By Scott Walker - Thursday, August 21, 2025
OPINION:
Peace through strength works.
This week, we saw Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the leaders of various European nations sitting in the Oval Office with President Trump, discussing how to achieve peace. I was struck by one of the photos of that meeting, as it also showed President Reagan’s portrait hanging just off and behind the Resolute Desk, where the president works.
Reagan presided over one of the most peaceful times in American history. Before his two terms in office, the U.S. military was in shambles and our standing in the world was in question, as Americans were held hostage in Iran for more than a year.
Reagan set out to rebuild our armed forces and strengthen our position in the world. He formed strong bonds with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II in the battle. Most important, he set out to transcend communism, not just contain it. That was a major change in policy, and it worked.
Reagan’s opponents falsely claimed he would get us into World War III. Instead, he kept the United States out of wars and conflicts with the original peace-through-strength strategy. Eventually, he took on the Soviet empire by calling for its leaders to tear down the Berlin Wall and walking out on Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev during a summit in Reykjavik, Iceland, when disagreement arose over the Strategic Defense Initiative.
In 1986, Reagan made the case that he would offer the technology to protect the people of the Soviet Union against a nuclear attack and provide it for the people of the United States. Critics said he was making up the program, yet his idea is essentially the Iron Dome system, which the Israeli military uses to neutralize incoming missiles.
In 1987, people within his administration tried to talk Reagan out of the language in his iconic speech at the Brandenburg Gate, where he declared, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” He did not back down, and it sent a powerful message to the Soviet leader. Eventually, the slabs of the Berlin Wall came tumbling down, followed by the collapse of communism throughout the former Soviet empire.
Just as President Carter failed to rebuild the military and reflected a posture of weakness as the days went by and we continued to see images of the hostages at the U.S. Embassy in Iran, we saw a similar trend under President Biden. When he stubbornly ordered the ill-planned withdrawal from Afghanistan that ended in tragedy, Russian President Vladimir Putin saw an opportunity to move into Ukraine. Weakness opens the door to evil.
Earlier this year, we saw the practical application of peace through strength in the Middle East. After Iran-funded Hamas attacked Israel and it fought back, concerns grew that the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran were close to developing nuclear weapons. Most Americans do not want us to enter into another prolonged war. At the same time, most do not want radicals in Iran to have nuclear weapons.
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READ MORE: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/aug/21/russia-trump-takes-page-reagan-playbook/
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