The West's enemies sense America's fundamental new weakness
What set Dolan – and Reagan – apart from so many Cold Warriors was a keen awareness that, in the battle against freedom's enemies, ideas often matter more than missiles, bullets, tanks and soldiers. When Reagan chose to confront the Soviets in the court of public opinion, he ignored the advice of national security bureaucrats who told him to tread softly for fear of antagonising the West's existential adversary.
Speaking to members of the British Parliament at the invitation of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in June 1982, Reagan took clear aim at the murderous ideology that gripped the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact, championing 'the march of freedom and democracy which will leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash-heap of history'. Those were Dolan's words.
Ideas, and the ability to communicate them through words and actions, were a cornerstone of the West's ability to stand firm in the face of Communism's onslaught against free nations and peoples across the world. Our ability to tell our story and display our generosity gave hope to billions of people struggling under the boots of tyrants.
Yet freedom's victory has never been assured, and the West must now, as ever, make its case as it faces down threats from all sides. Russian propagandists continue to undermine free elections in Europe, and their troops are poised to swallow Ukraine, leaving Putin one step closer to Nato's doorstep. Communist China grows more aggressive with each day, seizing the opportunity to buy allies where US aid has dried up. Iran's theocratic thugs preach anti-democratic hate and remain dedicated to building a nuclear weapons capability and winning anti-Western allies in the Middle East.
Which makes all the more troubling the news that the Trump Administration is shuttering critical organs of American soft power: Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia, Voice of America, Middle East Broadcasting Networks, USAid, and many more. These initiatives and others have for decades brought hope and support to people standing up to the forces of tyranny, and they project Western ideals into parts of the world that are at risk of falling under the sway of our enemies.
There is no doubt the American government bureaucracy could use substantial trimming. Countless programmes and departments spend far too much on meaningless initiatives driven by special interests. The Trump administration is right to root them out.
Yet making the argument for our way of life is a critical mission. The West cannot hold back its adversaries by naively hoping that the case for freedom makes itself. It does not. Our victory in the Cold War did not guarantee perpetual peace and liberty the world over. Our enemies know that and sense this moment of our vulnerability. We must not be complacent.
There is an old adage that, if you're not telling your own story, someone else will tell it for you, and you may not like the way they tell it. Tony Dolan and Ronald Reagan knew that intuitively, yet many of the new generation of conservatives have forgotten the lesson and are ceding the battlefield. That pullback may well lead to our eventual defeat.
Charley Cooper is a former senior advisor at the US Departments of Justice and Defence
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