Ronald Reagan achieved the impossible when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, William Inboden said in a speech Oct. 28.

“What a decade earlier had seemed ridiculously implausible, almost even a lunatic fantasy of bringing the Soviet Union to a peaceful collapse, to a negotiated surrender, Reagan had brought aright,” said Inboden, who credited Reagan’s success to strategic thinking, bold leadership, and a positive relationship with Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Inboden is the author of “The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan, The Cold War, and the World on the Brink,” as well as director of the Alexander Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education and professor of history at the University of Florida.

The Hillsdale College Center for Military History and Strategy hosted Inboden’s speech, titled “Ronald Reagan: Cold Warrior and Peacemaker.”

From the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 and continuing through the poor reputations of Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon in the 1960s and 1970s, the American presidency was in a weak position when Reagan took office, according to Inboden. He said the insecurities surrounding the institution of the American presidency before Reagan took power influenced American morale.

“If the presidency is broken, there’s no hope of a president being able to restore the country, to strengthen power and dynamism and hope again,” Inboden said.

According to Inboden, Reagan took on a new perspective with regard to the Cold War, which he said was made apparent in Reagan’s “A Time for Choosing” speech, delivered shortly before the presidential election in 1964.

“Reagan signaled his rejection of this strategic consensus held by all the Cold War presidents before and after him — that the standoff with Soviet communism was a permanent condition to be accepted and managed, rather than a conflict to be won,” he said.

According to Inboden, Reagan’s strategy consisted of two equally important elements: pressure and diplomacy. 

Although he received pushback for not following in the footsteps of former presidents, Inboden said Reagan stood firm.

“This is where leadership and statesmanship involves courage as well,” he said. “The courage of your convictions, the courage to stick to your beliefs, even when expert opinion says that you are wrong.”

Inboden said Reagan’s slogan, “We win, they lose,” was both a simple statement and a profound strategic concept.

“The possibility that the Soviet Union could be brought to its actual demise, to a defeat, to some sort of extinction — no American president had or spoken or even thought that way before,” he said. “That’s the new strategy that Reagan brings into office.”

Inboden said Reagan was concerned with winning the Cold War without violence, as he knew the resources the Soviet Union possessed when it came to nuclear weapons.

“The strategic challenge that he, in some ways, sets for himself is to win this competition, to win this conflict, but to win it peacefully, without it turning into a hot war,” he said. “To do that, he devised a very sophisticated strategy.”

Inboden said when the Soviet Union was struggling to keep a leader in place, Reagan used pressure to coerce the Soviet Union into choosing a reformist leader, resulting in Gorbachev.

“Gorbachev comes to power and he wants to preserve communism. He wants to reform it, but still preserve it,” Inboden said. “He and Reagan don’t share a lot of the same goals, but he also realizes that he is inheriting a failed system.” 

Inboden said much of Reagan’s ultimate success — the fall of the Soviet Union — is due in part to his diplomatic and personal relationship with Gorbachev. Inboden said Reagan, concerned for Gorbachev, spent time attempting to persuade Gorbachev to become a Christian.

“Gorbachev realizes that this is coming from a place of genuine sincerity on Reagan’s part and real regard for him,” he said. “But Reagan was illumining Gorbachev’s eyes so he could see the lies that the Soviet system was built upon.”

Senior Erin Osborne said she appreciated Inboden’s insight on the national dilemmas Reagan faced when he took office.

“I was struck by Inboden’s wealth of knowledge and emphasis on the variety of crises Reagan inherited,” Osborne said. “We don’t always think about those and it makes Reagan’s resolve for a negotiated Soviet surrender all the more impactful.”

Professor of Political Economy Gary Wolfram said he thinks it is especially important to consider the issues Reagan encountered as president and how he managed them.

“Oftentimes those of the younger generation are not aware of the severity of these problems, or we may have forgotten how difficult times were four decades ago,” Wolfram said. “I explain in my class how important it is to win the battle of ideas, as Ludwig von Mises emphasizes, and Dr. Inboden showed how Reagan, as the ‘Great Communicator’ was extremely effective in winning this battle.”

Inboden said Reagan’s successes were ultimately a result of sticking to his strategy.

“It was not an accident. He did not get lucky. It was not an inevitability of the tectonic forces of history,” Inboden said. “It was a result of leadership and vision by a great American statesman.”