Ronald Reagan was perceived at best as a nice fool, a brilliant actor who simply regurgitates any slogans his masters put before him, leading him like a puppet. In Reagan's War, Peter Schweizer rehabilitates Reagan as a president and statesman – revealing his crucial role in shaping a firm and aggressive central anti-communist principle of American politics, which replaced decades of appeasement by previous American presidents. Reagan's War is the story of Ronald Reagan's personal and political journey as an anti-communist: it begins with his time in Hollywood, where he led the film industry's resistance against communist attempts to take over Hollywood unions. The fight against communism became Reagan's obsession and changed the entire direction of his life. Schweizer chronicles Reagan's anti-communist crusade from his position as Governor of California to the White House. Along the way, Reagan shifted from an initial stance of 'containment' to advocating for a frontal confrontation. By the late sixties, he was already calling for the defeat of the Soviet Union and the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. The goal of American policy, he said many times, should not be containment, but 'victory.' Reagan's criticism of Nixon's détente policy, along with his...
