It's About Coalitions Not Purity, Part Fourteen
"Conservatism Consolidates Power-Reagan"
During 1981 Ronald Reagan fired thousands of the nation's air traffic controllers who had gone on strike.* This action signaled business people that labor unions had no friend in the White House, in spite of Reagan touting how he had once been the president of a union. It was another of Reagan's contradictions, but it didn't really hurt him in the long run, as some union members still staunchly supported the President.
Ronald Reagan had made his strong anti-communist feelings clear going back well before he was president; in fact, when he was still a Democrat and president of The Screen Actors Guild, the union for performers, when he testified at a congressional hearing about possible communist sympathies in the film industry. His strong support for Barry Goldwater in the 1964 election solidified Reagan's position as a leading anti-communist spokesman. As President, Reagan used his position to lambaste the Soviet Union, which he declared to be "the evil empire," and he supported giving aid, even in secret, to groups opposing communist or communist leaning governments in other countries. President Carter had begun giving aid to Afghanistan opponents of the Soviet Union and its Marxist allies in the country.** Reagan, with support from some Democrats in Congress, intensified American support for the Afghanistan forces opposing the Soviets. The Reagan administration also supported anti-communist groups in a number of other countries, including in Ethiopia and Nicaragua.*** In 1983, the little island nation of Grenada (off the coast of the northern part of South America), with a Marxist government, had internal troubles which had the government taken over by the military elements of the ruling Marxists and strict martial law was imposed, with the threat of execution for violators.**** There were at least several hundred Americans on the island, mainly medical students. In an effort to send in military forces to both secure the Americans and to defeat the Marxists, who had Cuban support, the Reagan administration had other nearby nations "ask for military assistance from the United States," and American forces invaded the island. A constitutional government was established, although Britain was not entirely happy with the American intervention into this Commonwealth nation. Americans generally reacted favorably to the President's action, which had the cover of acting to secure the American medical students, as the recollection of the hostages in Iran was still fresh in people's minds, but the administration also claimed victory of turning a Marxist nation, albeit a small one, to a constitutional nation.
* The controllers wanted better pay, but the main issue was a shorter work week. Reagan had voiced support for the controllers' cause during the 1980 campaign and the union endorsed Reagan over Carter in that election.
** Afghanistan was and is a nation almost exclusively Muslim. The Soviet Union sent troops into Afghanistan in 1979 in support of the pro-Soviet government there, which was opposed by the committed Muslim segment of the population, a segment which grew and became more radicalized as time passed. Thus began a resistance to Soviet forces in Afghanistan, aided by Muslims who came from outside the country, including one Osama bin Laden, and given financial and military aid by the United States. The military and clandestine operations experience gained by the Muslim fighters against the Soviets over nearly a decade of war was later often turned against the United States in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. The Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989 after suffering tens of thousands of killed, wounded, or sick. Their failure in Afghanistan is often likened, by some, to the U.S. role in Vietnam, which ended in the mid 1970s.
*** Just a little personal story here. In the mid 1980s I was in Germany traveling on a train from Berlin to Frankfurt. From the end of World War Two until German reunification in 1990, Berlin lay within the Soviet occupation zone, which was communist East Germany. Berlin itself was also divided into democratic and communist. The trip to Frankfurt was largely in East German territory. There had been a major revelation about communist spies, called "moles" (German: "Maulwürfe") in (democratic) West Germany, and the West Germans cracked down. In my train compartment, besides a couple of Germans, was a young man from Ethiopia, a country at that time with a pro-Soviet government. He had been to a university in Moscow and he actually had a Soviet passport. He spoke to the German guy next to me in French (so an Ethiopian with a Soviet passport speaking French, confused yet?). When the train stopped at the border between East and West Germany, the West German guards got on to check passports and identification, which was quite normal. However, when they saw the man's passport and his native country, they went through everything that man had with him, including his toothbrush. I am not exaggerating. He was young and visibly shaken, but such were the tensions of the Cold War back in those times. As for myself, I had no problems going through East German territory either to get to Berlin or to return to Frankfurt. The East Germans needed western money, and they charged a special "transit visa" (equivalent to a dollar or two) to cross their territory. The trip to Berlin was not quite as much in East German territory, as I had been in Hamburg (in northern Germany) for a few days and left from there, crossing into East Germany at the little town of Büchen (actually in West Germany), which was a major crossing point between East and West..
**** Grenada had been a British colony until the mid 1970s and the official language is English. It remained (and remains) a Commonwealth nation, and Queen Elizabeth II is also the Queen of Grenada.
WORD HISTORY:
Missile-The ultimate origins of this word are unknown, but it is closely related to "mission" and "message." It goes back to Latin "mittere," which meant "to send," the participle form of which was "missus." This produced the Latin noun "missilis," meaning "things that are thrown," but especially used of "thrown weapons." English borrowed the word from Latin in the early 1600s, and by about the mid 1700s, besides being used for thrown weapons, it was also applied to rockets used in combat (see note). The modern sense of large rockets remotely controlled or with guidance systems of their own is post World War Two usage.
NOTE: The use of rockets as weapons goes back much further than most people probably realize, as the Chinese and Mongols certainly used them in the 1300s, and likely the 1200s or before.
During 1981 Ronald Reagan fired thousands of the nation's air traffic controllers who had gone on strike.* This action signaled business people that labor unions had no friend in the White House, in spite of Reagan touting how he had once been the president of a union. It was another of Reagan's contradictions, but it didn't really hurt him in the long run, as some union members still staunchly supported the President.
Ronald Reagan had made his strong anti-communist feelings clear going back well before he was president; in fact, when he was still a Democrat and president of The Screen Actors Guild, the union for performers, when he testified at a congressional hearing about possible communist sympathies in the film industry. His strong support for Barry Goldwater in the 1964 election solidified Reagan's position as a leading anti-communist spokesman. As President, Reagan used his position to lambaste the Soviet Union, which he declared to be "the evil empire," and he supported giving aid, even in secret, to groups opposing communist or communist leaning governments in other countries. President Carter had begun giving aid to Afghanistan opponents of the Soviet Union and its Marxist allies in the country.** Reagan, with support from some Democrats in Congress, intensified American support for the Afghanistan forces opposing the Soviets. The Reagan administration also supported anti-communist groups in a number of other countries, including in Ethiopia and Nicaragua.*** In 1983, the little island nation of Grenada (off the coast of the northern part of South America), with a Marxist government, had internal troubles which had the government taken over by the military elements of the ruling Marxists and strict martial law was imposed, with the threat of execution for violators.**** There were at least several hundred Americans on the island, mainly medical students. In an effort to send in military forces to both secure the Americans and to defeat the Marxists, who had Cuban support, the Reagan administration had other nearby nations "ask for military assistance from the United States," and American forces invaded the island. A constitutional government was established, although Britain was not entirely happy with the American intervention into this Commonwealth nation. Americans generally reacted favorably to the President's action, which had the cover of acting to secure the American medical students, as the recollection of the hostages in Iran was still fresh in people's minds, but the administration also claimed victory of turning a Marxist nation, albeit a small one, to a constitutional nation.
* The controllers wanted better pay, but the main issue was a shorter work week. Reagan had voiced support for the controllers' cause during the 1980 campaign and the union endorsed Reagan over Carter in that election.
** Afghanistan was and is a nation almost exclusively Muslim. The Soviet Union sent troops into Afghanistan in 1979 in support of the pro-Soviet government there, which was opposed by the committed Muslim segment of the population, a segment which grew and became more radicalized as time passed. Thus began a resistance to Soviet forces in Afghanistan, aided by Muslims who came from outside the country, including one Osama bin Laden, and given financial and military aid by the United States. The military and clandestine operations experience gained by the Muslim fighters against the Soviets over nearly a decade of war was later often turned against the United States in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. The Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989 after suffering tens of thousands of killed, wounded, or sick. Their failure in Afghanistan is often likened, by some, to the U.S. role in Vietnam, which ended in the mid 1970s.
*** Just a little personal story here. In the mid 1980s I was in Germany traveling on a train from Berlin to Frankfurt. From the end of World War Two until German reunification in 1990, Berlin lay within the Soviet occupation zone, which was communist East Germany. Berlin itself was also divided into democratic and communist. The trip to Frankfurt was largely in East German territory. There had been a major revelation about communist spies, called "moles" (German: "Maulwürfe") in (democratic) West Germany, and the West Germans cracked down. In my train compartment, besides a couple of Germans, was a young man from Ethiopia, a country at that time with a pro-Soviet government. He had been to a university in Moscow and he actually had a Soviet passport. He spoke to the German guy next to me in French (so an Ethiopian with a Soviet passport speaking French, confused yet?). When the train stopped at the border between East and West Germany, the West German guards got on to check passports and identification, which was quite normal. However, when they saw the man's passport and his native country, they went through everything that man had with him, including his toothbrush. I am not exaggerating. He was young and visibly shaken, but such were the tensions of the Cold War back in those times. As for myself, I had no problems going through East German territory either to get to Berlin or to return to Frankfurt. The East Germans needed western money, and they charged a special "transit visa" (equivalent to a dollar or two) to cross their territory. The trip to Berlin was not quite as much in East German territory, as I had been in Hamburg (in northern Germany) for a few days and left from there, crossing into East Germany at the little town of Büchen (actually in West Germany), which was a major crossing point between East and West..
**** Grenada had been a British colony until the mid 1970s and the official language is English. It remained (and remains) a Commonwealth nation, and Queen Elizabeth II is also the Queen of Grenada.
WORD HISTORY:
Missile-The ultimate origins of this word are unknown, but it is closely related to "mission" and "message." It goes back to Latin "mittere," which meant "to send," the participle form of which was "missus." This produced the Latin noun "missilis," meaning "things that are thrown," but especially used of "thrown weapons." English borrowed the word from Latin in the early 1600s, and by about the mid 1700s, besides being used for thrown weapons, it was also applied to rockets used in combat (see note). The modern sense of large rockets remotely controlled or with guidance systems of their own is post World War Two usage.
NOTE: The use of rockets as weapons goes back much further than most people probably realize, as the Chinese and Mongols certainly used them in the 1300s, and likely the 1200s or before.
Labels: Afghanistan, air traffic controllers, Communism, conservatism, English, etymology, Germany, Grenada, Latin, personal recollections, Reagan Democrats, Ronald Reagan, Soviet Union, unions
posted by Randy at 10:45 PM
1 Comments:
Young people can't imagine how the Cold War affected us back then. That's a good story you told about being on the train. That was probably typical of how things were.
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