The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister: Three Who Changed the World
They Changed the Course of HistoryThey were three "middle managers" no one imagined could reach the top.Ronald Reagan was too old to be president and too conservative anyway.  Margaret Thatcher was not only too conservative she was a woman, and not on  anyone's short list to lead Britain's Conservative Party. And the idea of a  Polish pope that was truly absurd, especially when the cardinal in question  was a strong anti-Communist and defender of orthodoxy when many in the  Church and throughout the world believed the future belonged to détente  with the Soviets and social liberalism in the West.Not only did Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Karol Wojtyla (the  future John Paul II) rise to the top, but all three of them also survived  assassination attempts, collaborated in the miraculous peaceful liberation  of Eastern Europe from Soviet Communism, and reinvigorated their respective  countries and the West. They were beacons of optimism cutting through the  malaise and despair that afflicted 1970s America, strike-ridden and  economically moribund post-imperial Britain, and a Catholic Church rocked  by social and sexual revolutions.In The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister, veteran journalist and  former Thatcher speechwriter John O'Sullivan reveals:● How Reagan, Thatcher, and John Paul developed as strong and  individual leaders, perfectly suited to take power when liberalism failed  How John Paul's papal visit to Poland in June 1979 led to the birth of the  Solidarity labor union● How the pope's moral undermining of Communism worried the Soviet  Politburo more than any military threat● Why Thatcher's handling of the Falklands crisis was a turning point  in the Cold War● How Reagan arranged for the pope to receive U.S. intelligence on  developments in the Soviet bloc● Reagan's reluctant support for the nuclear "balance of terror" and  how he gratefully adopted the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) as an  effective alternative● The Soviets' attempts to lure the pope into an anti-SDI campaign  and his refusal● How Reagan's refusal to compromise with Gorbachev in Reykjavik  precipitated the unraveling of Soviet power● How Reagan, Thatcher, and John Paul II restored optimism and hope  to their peopleToday, as we face a new and perhaps even deadlier enemy than Soviet  Communism, we need to revisit the powerful lessons taught by these three  great leaders who revived the faith, prosperity, and freedom of the West.John O'Sullivan covered the Reagan presidency as a Washington columnist,  was a special adviser to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and has written  regularly on Pope John Paul II and the Catholic Church's influence on  international relations. A veteran journalist in Britain and the United  States, he was the editor in chief of National Review, The National  Interest, Policy Review, and United Press International, editorial page  editor of the New York Post, op-ed and editorial page editor for the London  Times, and an editor with the London Daily Telegraph. He is currently  editor at large for National Review, a weekly columnist for the Chicago  Sun-Times, and a senior fellow with the Hudson Institute. A Commander of  the British Empire and founder of the New Atlantic Initiative, he divides  his time between his apartment in Washington, D.C., his home in Decatur,  Alabama, and frequent trips to Britain, Europe, and Latin America.--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.