Victor Davis Hanson remembers Reagan:
He hastened the fall of the Soviet Union. We could not have been able to have fought Gulf War I without his prior commitment to reconstituting our forces; he established the principle we would support democracy and be active in its promotion, whether in undermining leftist thugs like the Ortegas or rightist tyrants like Noriega and Marcos. Like Clinton he was a great communicator, and like Clinton again, he sometimes compromised and moved to the center; but unlike the latter, he had a sense of core beliefs that remained unchanged and would not be sacrificed to the politics of the day.
Davis’ tone is quite restrained, and effective.