Receive Three Days In Moscow: Ronald Reagan And The Fall Of The Soviet Empire Curated By Bret Baier Represented In Script

Days In Moscow makes the case for Ronald Reagans foreign policy, arguing that his tough anticommunist stance, which morphed over time into deft diplomacy, played a key role, perhaps THE key role in winning the cold war.
I do agree that Reagan was a good President on foreign policy issues, that he helped push the moribund Soviet state into an early grave, and that he managed to reduce arms and prevent direct war in the process, but Baier overstates his case.
There were many factors that led to the demise of Soviet communism, but communism itself was by far the most important of these Reagan himself made it clear that he believed the Soviet system couldnt survive in the long term.


Also, it was stupid of Baier to spend an entire book making the case for Reagans greatness only to throw the argument in the trash at the end by claiming that Trump is some kind of second coming of the Gipper.


I listened to this in audiobook, and the reader was good, My review of this book would've beenhad the author ended it a chapter early, The story of Reagan and Gorbachev is well told, Growing up in the's and watching the end of the cold war, it felt like I was watching the speeches and news coverage anew, Then, in true Fox News style, the author tries to paint Trump as Reaganesque, Even though I never met President Reagan, I knew him, He was a friend of mine, Mr. Baier, Trump is no President Reagan, The comparison should embarrass you and it soils the preceding prose, You damaged a fond memory of a great President much more than you elevated the current one and you should be ashamed of yourself, President Reagan deserved better than that and so did the readers of your book, Great Book!! Loved every word, If you are not a Regan lover before you read it, you will be at the end, I found the events of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War so interesting, As we look back, these events during Regan's administration will be great in history, Without Firing a Shot, . .

Bret Baier has done Americans who were not around or do not recall the Reagan years a tremendous service, Ronald Reagan had a lifetime dream to free the world of communism, I am fortunate to have lived through and witnessed his dream and the dream of so many

come true,
Yes, he won the Cold War, without firing a shot, . As someone who will, upon hearing the name of theth US president spoken aloud, spit on the ground and ward against the evil eye, I knew this book was not written with me in mind.
But like all good liberals who havent figured out the door only swings one way, I went in with an open mind, hoping for some historical analysis with at least a semblance of impartiality.
Reading these pages, we meet a version of The Gipper replete with masculine charisma and strength who is also softspoken and demure but in a manly sort of way, His every word is well timed and the platonic ideal of poetic brevity and power, He has no flaws unless one considers being too successful in every endeavor a flaw, The Great Communicator is magnanimous and kind as he insults The Russians, cracks the occasional cosmological zinger over the head of his heathen son and treats a wayward negro boy to charity as proof of his racial egalitarianism.
There is no speculation or analysis on what Reagan might have done better or worse or anything he might have missed for the mere speculation that his every heartbeat wasnt perfection personified is never raised.
I was hoping for history and would have settled for lopsided journalism, By the time we got around to comparing the godlike Reagan to Trump, I realized all Baier had to offer for us was propaganda,

Now, if youll excuse me, Im going to listen to all my Dead Kennedys albums on repeat to try to wash this trickle down nonsense off me, "You and I have a rendezvous with destiny, We'll preserve for our children this, last best hope of man on earth, or we'll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness, "
from Ronald Reagan's inauguration speech



While it's clear this book was written from a standpoint of admiration, Brett Baier makes an excellent case for why Ronald Reagan was the right president for the time, how he really did have much to do with the ending of the Cold War, and how Reagan was probably the least "political" of any president my generation has seen either before or since he held the office he truly believed in the good of his own actions and loved this country and its people for the goodness in their hearts.


The book spends a few chapters discussing how Reagan got into the office, but then dives straight into his interactions with the politburo of the USSR, Brett describes how, in contrast to his predecessor Jimmy Carter, Reagan came into office from day one painting the Soviets as an "Evil Empire" set on world domination, He then ramped up U, S. spending on its nuclear arsenal, which at that time was presumably only half the size of the Soviets although, in truth it only takes so many nukes to destroy the world.
The USSR and its less vibrant economic communist structure could not continue to spend large portions of its GDP to keep pace with Reagan, and eventually the hardliners such as Brezhnev, Andropov and Chernenko died off or gave way to reformists such as Gorbachev and Yeltsin.
That's when Reagan, now in a position of equals, could sit down across the table and negotiate a gradual reduction in our respective arsenals,

". . weapons are a sign of tensions, not the cause of them, . . Nations do not distrust each other because they are armed they are armed because they distrust each other"
President Reagan

Gorbachev and Reagan first met at Reykjavik, Iceland in.
It was not an auspicious start, as Gorby drew a line in the sand and said no negotiations could take place unless the U, S. agreed to halt research into the Strategic Defense Initiative or, as others disparagingly referred to as "Star Wars", Whether SDI was realistic or just a pipe dream, it didn't really matter it frightened the Russians to death, Shortly after the failed summit, the news back home turned its attention to the IranContra scandal, and the notion of perestroika was viewed as dead, The midterm elections went poorly for Republicans and Reagan's last two years were thought to be headed toward a "lame duck" period, However, Reagan had other ideas,

InReagan visited Berlin and standing across from the famous Brandenburg gate, half obscured by the graffitiridden wall separating east and west Germany, he gave his famous "Mr.
Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" speech, Now on their heels due to pressure from the reformist populace, the Soviets reinitiated talks, The two countries ultimately signed both INF and START treaties technically, the later was under Bush and the dismantling of the USSR statehood had begun, As Margaret Thatcher later said, Reagan ended the Cold War without firing a shot,

Fan of his policies or not, Reagan had the respect of both sides of the aisle, When he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease and gave an impassioned public statement where "I now begin the journey that will lead me to the sunset of my life.
I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead" there were few dry eyes in the house,

Reagan was a humble man about his achievements, Dismissing the label as the Great Communicator, he said "I never thought it was my style or the words I used that made a difference: it was the content.
I wasn't the great communicator, but I communicated great ideas, "

Placing one's political views to the side, I recommend this book as a discussion of a man who is both to be admired and who played a major role in the shaping of history.
Excellent book about the presidency of Ronald Reagan, with emphasis on his relationship with Mikhail Gorbachev, and the fall of the Soviet Union, Very well written, with interesting details on how these two men felt about each other, and how they related to each other, The book also discusses Reagan's earlier years, and how he evolved from a liberal Democrat to a conservative Republican, The impact that Reagan and for that matter Gorbachev had on world history is profound, I always thought that Reagan was one of our countries greatest presidents certainly in my lifetime, and this book definitely cemented that view, Having grown up in the midst of the Cold War era and graduating from high school at the time these events took place I remember being aware of these issues on the barely emerging periphery of my political and current events awareness.
This book offers a thoroughly enjoyable look at the events as they unfolded from the perspective of Reagan and his cabinet, There were several things that I learned that I had never known before and I found myself enjoying the saga and the insights the book has to offer,

Baier's writing is well presented and researched, without getting in the way of the history he is presenting, He is thoroughly readable and has been able to capture much of the emotional and mental intensity that surrounded this time period, His presentation of Reagan is much as I remember the man a happy, optimistic leader who generated confidence in an era that was filled with anxiety and concern, Baier offers an on point presentation of the events he covers without getting side tracked or confusing, The history is anything but boring and I actually recommended this read to several people, even before I had finished reading it, A great read! I couldnt put this book down! The narrative moves along very smoothly and really brings out the history and politics in a way that captures the personalities feelings and relationships.
Impressed with the steadfastness of Reagan which he never wavered from and didnt allow others to sway him, Learned some about Gorbachov and how unique he was, The book weaves nicely through Bush and the Russian coup, The end of the book was quite riveting, If you already know a lot about Ronald Reagan you can skim or skip the first half of the book,

It's all rehash and buildup to Reagan's decision to establish relations with Russia's new premier, Gorbachev, much to the concern of fellow Republicans leery of Moscow, The story shows how the two men felt each other out and slowly found a route to ending the Cold War, It's an interesting story, told through documents, tapes and books by people who were involved in the various summits,

And there are human elements, too, Check out the scene where Gorbachev and Reagan are making serious headway toward establishing world peace, but are called away to defuse a squabble between Mrs, Reagan and Mrs. Gorbachev. Another look at Ronald Reagan, This time Baier looks at RWR through the microscope of how he and Gorbachev through their personal relationshipput a nail in the Soviet Union's coffin, Reagan relegated Communism to the ash heap of history as he had hoped he would, Read by the author, it was another of my "walk the dogs" audiobooks, Don't let the title fool you, This book is about far more than that, It covers Reagan's adversarial relationship with the former Soviet Union and communism, There's quite a bit of background biography to explain how Reagan came to be the hardliner he was, It highlights the big four speeches he gave and the summits with Gorbachev,

Baier parked himself in the Reagan library with Catherine Whitney's help and interviewed many people who worked with Reagan through his political career, There's a ton of footnotes to back up things that were said and done, While it glosses over the uglier parts of Reagan's foreign policy and his anticommunist crusade an observation, not a criticism, the book is really good when it focuses on the relationship between Reagan and Gorbachev.
I was pleasantly surprised to find Gorbachev treated so well in the text,

As for Baier, it was clear that he was wearing his fanboy pants when he wrote this, That's evident from the introduction when he recalls "being struck by awe" during a visit to the White House for a special event when he was a senior in high school.
The press were on the outskirts of the event and Baier remembers being pissed off my words, his emotion at Sam Donaldson for rudely interrupting the event, I think if the young Mr, Baier could've bopped him on the nose for it, he would've, not that I could blame him, Sam Donaldson was annoying. But Baier seemed a little obsessed, referencingd him three more times, IIRC, each time negatively,

Another negative of the book was the last chapter, I think the effect was intended to bring the USRussian relationship to the present day, After panning Bushand Obama for their failure to properly address Putin's troublemaking, he went on to compare Trump to Reagan, The text is contorted with attempts to make Trump seem like Reagan while acknowledging some of the glaring differences, For someone who was so enamored of Reagan, I don't see how he could even think about equating the two in a positive context,

I was a teenager while Reagan was President, I had issues with authority back then Ok, I still do, and Reagan's fiery rhetoric coupled with the cultlike fandom he inspired gave me nightmares, I didn't expect to live to see thirty, I was shocked when the Berlin Wall came down, Surprise! Reagan's strategy worked! Alas, the democratic principles he sought for the Soviet Union didn't survive Putin's thugocracy,

As I've gotten older, I've come to appreciate Reagan, While I still don't see eyetoeye with plenty of his policies, I miss his congenial disposition, something sorely lacking in today's politics, I wasn't planning on reading this book, but a friend of mine insisted I read it, and I'm glad that I did, Well, most of it anyway, I don't always givestar reviews but, . .

In this caseare well deserved, Bret Baker has provided a well researched riveting account of Ronald Reagan 's lifelong fight for freedom, which, by definition, is a fight against communism, He backs up go research with interviews with many who were there and participated in this battle won without during a shot,

I was alive to witness this time in history but never really knew what happened until reading this book, It makes me proud to know I cast my first and second presidential votes for this man who revived the American spirit and patriotism at a time when it was sorely needed and by sticking to his principles played the role of a lifetime in ending the cold war.


I liked this one a lot and believe you will too, .