Released today are many of Margaret Thatcher’s papers from her first year in power. See them online, including an introductory commentary, at the Margaret Thatcher Foundation.
Not initially bothering to read the latest papers, I browsed the website and lighted on Margaret Thatcher’s eulogy to President Ronald Reagan in 2004 [Text of speech]. A truly masterful and poignant speech. Why this speech? I believe Ronald Reagan to be America’s finest post-war president, and up there with the all time greats. And, of course I’m a fan of Margaret Thatcher, being proud to have once met her. Remember, together they defeated Soviet communism, and without going to war. Here are a few snippets from the speech:
“Others hoped, at best, for an uneasy cohabitation with the Soviet Union. He won the Cold War, not only without firing a shot, but also by inviting enemies out of their fortress and turning them into friends.”
“Yet his ideas, so clear, were never simplistic. He saw the many sides of truth. Yes, he warned that the Soviet Union had an insatiable drive for military power and territorial expansion, but he also sensed that it was being eaten away by systemic failures impossible to reform. Yes, he did not shrink from denouncing Moscow’s evil empire, …”
Did you spot it, of course you did, reference to the evil empire. Wonderful.
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