autonomy of the country as a whole. “There was a sense that the Soviet Union was on the move [from 1975 through 1979] and that the U.S. was at great risk if the momentum continued. Reagan felt that and communicated it.” His speeches always conveyed this feeling; even before he was president. In 1962, as governor of California, Reagan described the Soviet Union as a “single worldwide force dedicated to the destruction of free enterprise and the creation of a socialist state.” Additionally, in a pre-election address to a club in London, he remarked, “Status quo; that’s Latin for the mess we’re in,” referring to the current foreign relations strategy supported by the United States. Journalists called the speech a “strong attack on Western weakness.”The feeling was apparently mutual. The Soviets, before Mikhail Gorbachev, often refused to meet with the Reagan. In fact, the Kremlin viewed Reagan as a “dangerously confrontational figure, whose deeply disturbing animus against all things Russian had created a solid front of hostility among Politburo leaders.” Reagan’s firm stance against communism and those related to it is likely what caused this deep rift in Soviet/U.S. relations at the beginning of the Reagan administration. The Soviet ambassador called it “the lowest point since World War II” when he spoke to the President early in 1983. Reagan main defense of his opinion is that communism oppresses freedom; in his first inauguration speech, he laid the groundwork for his campaign against communism on that basis.Additionally, Reagan disagreed almost totally with the idea of detente, or at least he disagreed with the detente as it was . While he thought the idea of detente was possible, he believed that it was largely unsuccessful when dealing with the Soviets. Previous administrations had used economic aid and trade agreements with Russi...
