All That Could be Done

Ronald Reagan, in his second-most famous speech, said: "You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children's children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done."

In Reagan's most famous speech, he said: "General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

And the lasting legacy of Ronald Reagan will be simply this, that he did do all that could be done, and in the end destroyed a monstrous and pernicious tyranny.

Rest in peace, Dutch. And thank you.

UPDATE: Pejman Yousefzadeh has a fine roundup of online reactions.

Posted by Jeff at June 7, 2004 12:05 PM | Link Cosmos