Ronald Reagan, præsident i USA 1981-1989, døde den 5. juni 2004. Som modvægt mod den sædvanlige ukritiske hyldest har vi samlet lidt materiale fra “det andet USA”.
Indhold
- Forord
- Artikler på dansk/skandinavisk
- Foreword in English
- Encyclopedia & sites
- Articles and obituaries in English
Forord
Ronald Reagan, præsident i USA 1981-1989, døde den 5. juni 2004. Som modvægt mod den sædvanlige ukritiske hyldest har vi samlet lidt materiale fra “det andet USA”.
For topmål af apologi, se Venstrepolitikeren Søren Pinds kronik: Ronald Wilson Reagan – manden der vandt krigen (Jyllands-Posten, 7. juni 2004), og samme sted fortsætter den konservative kulturminister Brian Mikkelsen mytemageriet: Reagan var en helt (11. juni 2004).
I disse sites og artikler/nekrologer tegnes et helt andet billede med Reagan-regeringen i spidsen for en konservativ højredrejning af USA med oprustning af klassekrigen mod fagbevægelsen og en radikal omfordeling af løn- og formueforhold til gavn for overklassen og militær oprustning mod ‘ondskabens imperium’ (Sovjetunionen) og en agressiv udenrigspolitik med bl.a. aktiv støtte og organisering af de mellemamerikanske dødsspatruljer (kontraerne) og de hellige krigere i Afghanistan (mujahedinerne).
I anledning af tre Venstre-pingers (Søren Pind, Lykke Friis og Uffe Ellemann-Jensen) oprettelse af Det danske Reagan-selskab (i februar 2011) har vi revideret linkboxen.
Bjarne A. Frandsen & Jørgen Lund. Juni 2004.
Revideret februar 2011 og marts 2019.
Søren Pind, din politiske helt var direkte ansvarlig for blodige massakrer. Af Pelle Dragsted (Berlingske.dk, 5. december 2019)
“Søren Pind mener, at Ronald Reagan fortjener en statue i København, men det støder mig, at folk, der ser ser sig som demokrater, kan foreslå noget sådant.”
Danske politikere stifter Reaganselskab (Politiken.dk, 6. februar 2011)
“På 100-års fødselsdagen for afdøde præsident Ronald Reagan stifter tre kendte Venstrefolk et Reaganselskab.”
Sådan løfter vi arven efter Reagan. Af Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, Lykke Friis, og Søren Pind (Berlingske.dk, 5. februar 2011)
“Frihed. I dag ville Ronald Reagan være fyldt 100 år, og han vil med rette blive mindet som én af de afgørende murbrækkere og forfægtere af demokratiet – og en af verdenshistoriens mest ærefulde sejrherrer.”
Skandaløs hvidvaskning. Af Thomas Bonde (Modkraft.dk/Kontradoxa, 7. marts 2011)
“Fremstilling af Ronald Reagan som forkæmper for frihed og demokrati er revisionisme. Præsidenten er dømt for forbrydelser ved FN’s International Domstol i Haag.”
Artikler på dansk/skandinavisk
Arbejderen
Noget at tænke over (12. juni 2004)
“USAs nu afdøde præsident Ronald Reagan gik ind for tanken om at vinde en atomkrig, investerede milliarder i Stjernekrigsprojektet, og udløste et nyt gigantisk våbenkapløb.”
Frygtindgydende tæt på atomkrig. Af Lawrence S. Wittner (12. juni 2004)
“Reagans militaristiske politik bragte ikke en afslutning på den kolde krig, men bragte verden ud på randen af atomragnarok.”
Reagan hadede. Af Juan Cole (12. juni 2004)
“Det ville vel være en overdrivelse at skrive, at Ronald Reagan skabte al-Qaeda, men ikke nogen stor overdrivelse.”
Morder kujon, bondefanger: farvel Ronald Reagan. Af Greg Palast (12. juni 2004)
“Endnu et bevis på, at det kun er de gode, der dør unge.”
Information
Reagans dystre arv. Af Mark Weisbrot (9. juni 2004)
“Reagan-revolutionen er fortsat i den nuværende amerikanske regering i den forstand at ‘krigen mod terror’ nu har erstattet Den Kolde Krig som påskud for interventioner i udlandet, herunder den katastrofale krig i Irak. Skattelettelser for de rigeste og voldsomt forøgede militærudgifter har genoplivet de enorme budgetunderskuds æra.”
Præsidenten der genfødte USA’s højrefløj. Af Torben Krogh (7. juni 2004)
“Han genoplivede USA’s brug af magt efter Vietnamkrigen og gjorde liberalismen til politisk eksportvare, men Sovjetunionen klarede han ikke alene.”
Modkraft.dk
Skandaløs hvidvaskning. Af Thomas Bonde (Kontradoxa, 7. marts 2011)
“Fremstilling af Ronald Reagan som forkæmper for frihed og demokrati er revisionisme. Præsidenten er dømt for forbrydelser ved FN’s International Domstol i Haag.”
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English section
Foreword
Not just the Republican right, but more and more in the whole political establishment in the US and worldwide, the clear tendency is to regard president No. 40, Ronald Reagan, as one of the “greatest presidents”.
To counterweight this pro-Reagan hysteria peaking at his 100 years birthday in February 2011, we have compiled links from alternative and progressive sources.
So these are contributions to another picture: the leader of the conservative backlash in the USA and of the class war against the trade unions, for a radical redistribution of wealth, military re-armament in Europe as well as Contras and death squads in Latin America and mujahideens in Central Asia.
The compilers Bjarne A. Frandsen & Jørgen Lund. June 2004.
The collection of links are 2. edition, revised February 2011 and March 2019.
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Encyclopedia & sites
- Ronald Reagan (Wikipedia.org)
- Ronald Reagan (Spartacus Educational)
- Ronald Reagan (Sourcewatch)
- Ronald Reagan Page (Third World Traveler)
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Articles and obituaries in English
AlterNet
Was Ronald Reagan an even worse president than George W. Bush? By Robert Parry (June 5, 2009)
“The starting point for many of the catastrophes confronting the United States today can be traced to Reagan’s presidency.”
How green was The Gipper? By Amanda Griscom (June 10, 2004)
“Reagan infamously declared that, ‘trees cause more pollution than automobiles do.’ Unlike Bush, his administration told you exactly what they were up to.”
Common Dreams
He lied and cheated in the name of anti-communism: From Iraq, Reagan didn’t look so freedom-loving. By Jonathan Steele (June 11, 2004)
“It was detente that made the end of the cold war possible, and without Reagan’s blind anti-communism it could have come at least four years earlier.”
Reagan played decisive role in Saddam Hussein’s survival in Iran-Iraq war (June 9, 2004)
“The Reagan administration opened full diplomatic relations with Baghdad in November, 1984. Iraqi chemical attacks continued not only on Iranian forces but also on Kurdish civilians, notably at Hallabja in 1987…”
Noam Chomsky on Reagan’s legacy. Amy Goodman interviews Noam Chomsky (June 7, 2004)
“Bush has resurrected ‘the most extremist, arrogant, violent and dangerous elements’ of Reagan’s White House.”
Ronald Reagan’s legacy. By Mark Weisbrot (June 7, 2004)
“Ronald Regan ”¦ changed not only the conservative movement, the Republican party, his country and the world – but also his opponents, known as liberals. As a result of his achievements, the typical liberal Member of Congress today sits to the right of Richard Nixon on a number of economic issues, including tax policy.” Artiklen er oversat til dansk i dagbladet Information: Reagans dystre arv (9. juni 2004)
CounterPunch
The beatification of Ronald Reagan. By Charles R. Larson (February 9, 2011)
“The excess of emotion expressed in the nation over the hundredth anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s birth might lead one to conclude that he wasn’t the 40th President of the United States, but God.”
How Reagan armed Saddam with chemical weapons. By Norm Dixon (June 17, 2004)
“Not only did Ronald Reagan’s Washington turn a blind-eye to the Hussein regime’s repeated use of chemical weapons against Iranian soldiers and Iraq’s Kurdish minority, but the US helped Iraq develop its chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs.”
Ronald Reagan, Neo-Cons and the ‘intelligence failures’. By Zeynep Toufe (June 10, 2004)
“United in a fervent desire to praise Reagan, not bury him, the pundit class seems to have agreed that, no matter what else they might say about him, Reagan won the cold war by outspending the Soviets and forcing them into bankruptcy. It’s a neat story, except that it’s not what happened.”
The nature of Ronald Reagan. By Jeffrey St. Clair (June 8, 2004)
“During the pitched battles to save some of the world’s largest trees ”¦ Reagan [made] his infamous declaration: ‘Once you’ve seen one redwood, you’ve seen them all.’ Later, Reagan propounded the thesis that trees generated more air pollution than coal-fired power plants. For the Gipper, the only excuse for Nature was to serve as a backdrop for photo-ops, just like in his intros for Death Valley Days.”
Reagan’s dark global legacy. By Dennis Hans (June 7, 2004)
“As we consider additional tributes to Mr. Reagan, let us recall some of the creative honors dreamed up by our international friends so that they’d never forget the man and his values.”
Goodbye and good riddance. By Phil Gasper (June 5/6, 2004)
“Ronald Reagan has finally died at age 93. Predictably, politicians from both major parties have issued gushing tributes to this venal and vicious man, who was happy to slash workers’ wages, see families thrown onto the street, support sadistic death squads and bomb other countries, if this was in the interests of the American ruling class.”
Democracy Now!
Noam Chomsky on Reagan’s legacy: Bush has resurrected ‘the most extremist, arrogant, violent and dangerous elements’ of Reagan’s White House (June 7, 2004)
Remembering the dead (June 2004)
“Democracy Now special coverage of Reagan’s presidency:
The Reagan years, Central America and the Iran-Contra scandal, The Middle East, The nuclear race, etc.”
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR)
Reagan: media myth and reality (June 9, 2004)
“As the media spend the week memorializing Ronald Reagan, journalists are redefining the former president’s life and accomplishments with a stream of hagiographies that frequently skew the facts and gloss over scandal and criticism.”
Focus on the Global South
Ronald Reagan: a view from the global south. By Walden Bello (June 11, 2004)
“If I were asked what epitaph I would write for Ronald Reagan, it would be: Here lies a man who was good for the upper 20 per cent of his fellow Americans and his rich and powerful buddies elsewhere, but bad for the rest of us.”
Global Research
Ronald Reagan’s supposed role in ending the cold war. By Bill Blum (7 June 2004)
“Ronald Reagan’s biggest crimes were the bloody military actions to suppress social and political change in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Afghanistan, but I’d like to deal here with the media’s gushing about Reagan’s supposed role in ending the cold war. In actuality, he prolonged it.”
In Defence of Marxism
A farewell to Ronald Reagan. By Rob Lyon (14 June 2004)
“Former US president Ronald Reagan passed away on June 5. The state funeral, which was little more than a crude exercise in propaganda on the part of the Bush administration, was held the following weekend. The historical revision at the ceremony was astonishing. The working class of the United States and the world must know and understand the real legacy and meaning of the Reagan years in order to understand the lessons of the past and lead the struggle against capitalism and imperialism today.”
Jacobin
Pinning the rise of Neoliberalism on Ronald Reagan lets Democrats off easy. By Paul M. Renfro (June 25, 2023)
“It’s common to credit President Ronald Reagan for ushering in the age of neoliberalism. But doing so suggests that neoliberalism is primarily a right-wing project, obscuring the important role of liberals in subordinating society to free markets.”
Ronald Reagan paved the way for Donald Trump. By Eileen Jones (December 12, 2020)
“A new Showtime docuseries (‘the four-part The Reagans) reminds us of just how awful Ronald Reagan was and how his brand of demagogic racism became a model for Trump…”
The paranoid, reactionary dreams of Ronald Reagan. By Lyle Jeremy Rubin (March 16, 2019). Review of Bob Spitz, Reagan: An American Journey (Penguin, 2018, 863 p.)
“Ronald Reagan’s hyper-nationalist worldview grew out of the paranoid jingoism of postwar America. It led him to support fascists in Central America and see moderate liberals like JFK as dangerous radicals.
Media Monitors Network
In Reagan we trust?: keep that man off my money. By Ahmed Amr (June 11, 2004)
“Instead of standing firm against the horrors of Apartheid, Reagan and Bush senior opted for ‘constructive engagement’ with South Africa. In Central America’s killing fields, Reagan’s administration left abundant testimony to his foreign policy legacy. The Sandinistas posed as much threat to American national security as the well-armed residents of Atlantis.”
The Nation
The Gipper’s economy. By William Greider (June 28, 2004)
“Beyond movie scripts, Reagan was authentic in his convictions – he brought the flint-hearted libertarian doctrines of Hayek and Friedman to Washington and put a smiling face on the market orthodoxy of “every man for himself.”
Cold war to star wars. By Jonathan Schell (June 28, 2004)
“Perhaps the most important question – for present policy-makers as well as historians – posed by the presidency of Ronald Reagan is what role he played in ending the cold war.”
Belowed by the media. By Marc Hertsgaard (June 28, 2004)
“Hertsgaard explains why the media played along with Reagan’s PR machine”.
Reagan in truth and fiction. By Alexander Cockburn (June 28, 2004)
“As an orator or ‘communicator’ he was terrible, with one turgid cliché following another, delivered in a folksy drone punctuated by wags of the head. There was no internationally recognized border in Reagan’s mind between fantasy and fact.”
Progressive Review
Bottom line: the true costs of Reagan and extreme capitalism. By Sam Smith (2004)
“… This was the real Reagan, one that barely surfaced in his lifetime and had largely disappeared by the time of his absurd death fest, in no small part thanks to a media that quickly adopted the icon’s language, clichés and premises. Reagan transformed American politics into show business …”
Theme: The Ronald reagan myth
Socialist Register
‘Reaganism’ after Reagan. By Joshua Cohen and Joel Rogers (1988, p.387-424)
“Reagan’s impending departure naturally inspires a number of questions about the meaning and legacy of that destructive bundle of policies, eponymously identified as ‘Reaganism’ … In this essay, we offer some provisional answers to these questions, concentrating on their implications for US domestic politics.”
The Reagan doctrine and the Third World. By Larry Pratt (1987, p.61-96)
“The armed doctrine under consideration in this essay is the Reagan Doctrine, an aggressive strategy of counter-revolution whose purpose is not merely the containment of Marxism, but the ‘bleeding’ and overthrow of radical anti-imperialist regimes in the Third World through economic pressure, the arming of right-wing proxies and insurgencies, and the use of force in so-called low-intensity conflicts.”
Reagan, the business agenda and the collapse of Labour. By Kim Moody (1987, p.156-176)
“The first six years of the Reagan administration have been unique in postwar
American political history both for the ideological consistency of its leadership and for the degree to which it succeeded in altering the direction of social policy.”
Liberalism, feminism and the Reagan state. By Zillah Eisenstein (1987, p.236-262)
“The purpose of this article is to document the right-wing policies of the first term of the Reagan administration as centred on a series of antifeminist,
anti-egalitarian strategies which attempt to reconstitute the patriarchal basis of the state and society.”
Socialist Worker (UK)
If only the bloody thug have died 20 years earlier. By Chris Harman (Issue 1905, 10 June 2004)
“He was a killer who was prepared to commit any crime in the interests of increasing the power which the rich of the world-and of the US in particular-exercised over the world’s poor.”
Socialist Worker (US)
Good riddance: bigot, liar, mass murderer (Issue 503, June 11, 2004; online at Internet Archive)
“The corporate media have filled the airwaves with days on end of nauseating tributes to Ronald Reagan. Here, Alan Mass and Lee Sustar tell the truth about this disgusting bigot.”
Truthdig
The myth of Ronald Reagan. By Allen Barra (February 12, 2009)
Review of William Kleinknecht’s The Man Who Sold the World: Ronald Reagan and the Betrayal of Main Street America (Nation Books, 2009)
“The book is the most concise and well-thought-out argument against Reagan.”
World Socialist Web Site
Ronald Reagan, 1911-2004: an obituary. By David North (June 9, 2004)
“Though Reagan has departed this world, the accomplishments of his administration live on and are observable everywhere: in the staggering growth of social inequality in the United States, in the grotesque concentration of wealth in the hands of a small segment of American society, in the shocking decline of literacy and the general level of culture, in the utter putrefaction of the institutions of American democracy, and, finally, in the murderous eruption of American militarism.”
ZNet
The Reagan era. By Noam Chomsky (June 11, 2004)
Excerpted from Chomsky’s book: Deterring Democracy (1991)
Killer, coward, conman. By Greg Palast (June 8, 2004)
“You’re not going to like this. You shouldn’t speak ill of the dead. But in this case, someone’s got to. Ronald Reagan was a conman. Reagan was a coward. Reagan was a killer.”
Reagan. By William Blum (June 10, 2004)
“The intensity of the patriotic focus surrounding D-Day, and also the death of Ronald Reagan, suggests a state-corporate system desperately trying to reassert its credibility after a catastrophic failure of propaganda over Iraq.”
Reagan the paradigm shifter. By Russel Mokhiber (June 12, 2004)
“He was … a ‘regime-changer’, moving decisively to end the flagging New Deal era and launching the modern period of corporate rule.”
Visions of the damned. By David Edwards (June 16, 2004)
“The intensity of the patriotic focus surrounding D-Day, and also the death of Ronald Reagan, suggests a state-corporate system desperately trying to reassert its credibility after a catastrophic failure of propaganda over Iraq. Apart from tiny glimmers of mode 1 functioning (‘fig leaf’), the media has been in full tilt propaganda mode 2 (‘full propaganda’) over Reagan.”
