The overall tone of this speech exhibits the eternal
optimism associated with Ronald Reagan. He tells the House of Commons that in looking
back over past decades, it may seem that
“Optimism comes less easily today, not because
democracy is less vigorous, but because democracy's enemies have refined their
instruments of
repression.”
Nevertheless, he
tells them, there is hope for the future because “optimism is in order because day by
day democracy is proving itself to be a not at all fragile flower.” He says that in
1982, the world was coming to the “end of a bloody century.” He argues that regimes that
are established by “bayonets” do not take root and that ultimately, such violent regimes
will fail, nevertheless, with modern nuclear weapons, we cannot ignore the threat from
warlike regimes. The fine balance as we go into the future is to “preserve freedom as
well as peace.”
It is his belief that all people everywhere
want freedom, despite what dictators claim to the contrary. He specifically targets the
Soviet Union. He says it is not wrong for the free nations to band together to achieve
the goal of freedom and peace:
“Let us be shy no longer. Let us go to our
strength. Let us offer hope. Let us tell the world that a new age is not only possible
but probable.”
He refers to
Winston Churchill’s comment during WWII towards the German attack: “What kind of people
do they think we are?” Were the British people that would give up their freedom so
easily without a fight? No! This is how we should proceed into the future, then, making
sure our enemies know that freedom is important to us and that we are willing to fight
to maintain it if necessary. We prefer to
preserve our freedom through peaceful means, but we are not unwilling to preserve it by
force if left no other choice. He says the world has come through the worst, and should
move forward into the future by securing the best.
“For the sake of peace and justice, let us move
toward a world in which all people are at last free to determine their own
destiny.”
Reagan did not
foresee a future in which our enemy would be cowards, crashing planes into our buildings
and blowing up our soldiers every day with IEDs and RPGs.
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