8 - In God’s Country

Summary

The events of the 1980s would have been reassuring to anyone who ever doubted that America was God's chosen country. Electing Ronald Reagan, to determine their future in a world of extraordinary complexity, with nuclear holocaust a hair's breadth away, was the ultimate act of faith by the American people. Despite the extraordinary military buildup over which he presided and the confrontational rhetoric for which he was notorious, Reagan had an intense emotional horror of nuclear weapons. The crisis in Poland in 1981 provided another example of Reagan being forced to retreat under pressure from his European allies. Reagan seemed content to accelerate the arms race and bash the Soviets verbally. Reagan, like much of the world, was appalled by Israeli aggression and unmoved by Israel's insistence that it was acting defensively, clearing out terrorists. Reagan and the rest of the world were not quite ready for the extraordinary course Mikhail Gorbachev was about to undertake.