Ronald Reagan was our best President ever

Rebuttal“Ronald Reagan ended the Cold War. Even a progressive like you must admit his policy of 'peace through strength' was immensely successful, and if we had leaders like him today, the world would be a very different place.”It has become revisionists’ history that Ronald Regan ended the cold war. The line of reasoning goes – The Reagan Administration won the arms race that led to the collapse of the USSR. The people who were there tell a different story.Georgi Arbatov, head of the Moscow based institute for the study of the U.S.A and Canada wrote in his memoirs that the change would have come about without foreign pressure. He contends that the Reagan military buildup impeded this development.George Kennan, the former us ambassador to the Soviet Union agrees with Arbatov’s assessment. "the suggestion that any United States administration had the power to influence decisively the course of a tremendous domestic political upheaval in another great country on another side of the globe is simply childish.”. He further states that Soviet hard-liners reacted to the increased militarization and were empowered within the government to delay reforms that all knew were coming.A man named Aleksandr Yakovlev, an advisor to Mikhail Gorbachev, when asked about the influence of Reagan said “It played no role. None. I can tell you that with the fullest responsibility. Gorbachev and I were ready for changes in our policy regardless of whether the American president was Reagan, or Kennedy, or someone even more liberal.”Regan didn’t “win” the cold war. Gorbachev changed the USSR due to many reasons. Little of it had to do with the president who was out of office for more than four years at that time. Reagan himself never claimed to have beat the Soviet Union."Actually, according to a 2012 Gallup poll (1), "Americans are most likely to say Ronald Reagan was the nation's greatest president -- slightly ahead of Abraham Lincoln and Bill Clinton." So not only in professional opinion, but also in public opinion was Reagan out nation's greatest president."Per your link, Reagan had lead the poll three times over the twelve years the question has been asked. This is a public opinion poll, as I had stated, there is a large change when historians are asked. Reagan has never made the top ten in lists created by historians and political scientists."As to your claims of funding terrorist organizations, any sensible president, not even Obama, would purposely fund terrorist organizations; there are two scenarios that often are behind these situations. First, the organization does not start off as a terrorist organization. As is commonly known, the Syrian rebels of today did not start off connected to Al-Qaeda. This is the case with with the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. They actually did start off as simply a revolutionary group trying to overthrow the oppressive Soviets and their communism (2). The second case is that which has been exemplified numerous times throughout history. I am sure you have heard the saying 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' before. This is often the case. For example, the US support of Communist China during WW2. They gave millions of dollars in weapons and training to the Chinese, who would soon become their enemies. The reason for this was the much more real and present threat of Japan, with whom we were at war (3)."Our involvement with these groups is the very foundation of terrorist problems we face today. We, with the help of people like Reagan, created these groups. Ignoring or dismissing the fact as “woops” is not enough to relieve responsibility. They are reasons that Reagan is NOT the “best president ever”."As for Reagan's involvement in the Libya, Grenada, El Salvador, Lebanon and Nicaragua, you are right they are questionable. I see them as wise actions to help protect American interests abroad. The "Star Wars" initiative was immensely successful as it forced the Soviets on the defensive."“Star wars” did not force the Soviets. “ On the balance, however, the documents support the view that the SDI program, while affecting Soviet policies, did not help bring the cold war closer to the end. Instead of facilitating the arms control process, SDI seriously complicated it, creating an unnecessary obstacle that the Soviet leadership, eager to move to arms reductions, had to deal with. Finally, the evidence suggests that one of the basic premises behind the SDI program - that it would be able to shift the arms race to the areas of advanced technologies, dissuade the Soviet Union from competition, and eventually provide a more stable defense-dominated environment - did not work” [2]"His pullout of Beirut Lebanon was logical. Never before had a terror attack on such a scale been experienced before. This was the bloodiest day in Marine Corps history since Iwo Jima. The nation, and Reagan was rightfully shocked. HE made the decision to pull out because the troops were in obvious danger. The counter attacks that were launched were weak because America was shaken to its core because of the atrocity committed (4). And as for leaving the French with their PAINTS (I assume you meant PANTS), well, I am really not sure on this one."Our greatest president ever reacted out of shock? He changed the policy of involvement in the middle east because of the “danger”? I have no doubt that Reagan was bending to public will. This does not illustrate the leadership of the greatest president ever.As for the French. Yes, we were no shows for a coordinated counter attack. Reagans actual response was “that’s just terrible, I don’t know what happened.”.You made no comment addressing the effectiveness of his policy in orchestrating the downfall of the Soviet Union, so I will assume you agree with me that it was a good achievement of his.See aboveNext Topic: Reagan's domestic PoliciesI had intended to post my domestic policie points this round. It seems you are a little out of sync, so I will wait, and give you the first shot, and respond to them in my next round.[1] http://baltimorechronicle.com...[2] http://russianforces.org...