A New Beginning

President Reagan is likely to occupy a significant place in history. His eight-year presidency was a turning point both in the fortunes of his own country and in the history of the world—and the two were closely connected. It is not easy, now, to cast one’s mind back to the year in which Reagan won office, because everything has changed so radically. Nineteen eighty found an America wearied by what was perhaps the worst decade in its history—worse even than the ’30s, because there was no anticipation of recovery. The 1970s had seen a president forced to retire in disgrace, and an unelected president with no mandate, beaten in turn by a feeble Democrat from the South who had no obvious policy or coherent view of the world. In Washington, a triumphant but leaderless Congress usurped executive authority, allowing a triumphant Soviet Union, and its surrogates in Cuba and Vietnam, to do what they willed in Africa and Asia. America’s apparent decline as a great power was symbolized, in a terrible moment early in 1980, by a shocking military fiasco in Iran.

Mr. Johnson, the historian and journalist, is the author, most recently, of Art: A New History.

About the Author

Paul Johnson

Mr. Johnson is a prominent author and historian.

President Reagan is likely to occupy a significant place in history. His eight-year presidency was a turning point both in the fortunes of his own country and in the history of the world—and the two were closely connected. It is not easy, now, to cast one’s mind back to the year in which Reagan won office, because everything has changed so radically. Nineteen eighty found an America wearied by what was perhaps the worst decade in its history—worse even than the ’30s, because there was no anticipation of recovery. The 1970s had seen a president forced to retire in disgrace, and an unelected president with no mandate, beaten in turn by a feeble Democrat from the South who had no obvious policy or coherent view of the world. In Washington, a triumphant but leaderless Congress usurped executive authority, allowing a triumphant Soviet Union, and its surrogates in Cuba and Vietnam, to do what they willed in Africa and Asia. America’s apparent decline as a great power was symbolized, in a terrible moment early in 1980, by a shocking military fiasco in Iran.

Mr. Johnson, the historian and journalist, is the author, most recently, of Art: A New History.