Ambassador Joseph DeTrani
President Ronald Reagan believed in the power of communication. He aimed to inform a global audience about American values and find ways to provide truthful information and analysis to those who were denied access by their own government to the truth.
President Reagan selected Charles Wick, a successful businessman, to head the U.S. Information Agency (USIA) and William J. Casey, his former campaign manager and successful businessman, to be Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Mr. Wick had an array of agencies – Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, Radio Marti (directed at Cuba) and others – which provided news and analysis in twenty-seven languages to twenty-three countries. Mr. Casey would assist, providing support, for example, to the Solidarity labor movement in Poland and methods for USIA to penetrate the Iron Curtain to reach people who had been denied access to truthful information.
During the Reagan years, information was getting into the former Soviet Union, to include Russian literature (Samizdat) banned by Moscow. When Mikhail Gorbachev was elected supreme leader in March 1985, he inherited a demoralized and financially bankrupt country. In November 1986, Mr. Gorbachev made the decision to withdraw all Soviet combat troops from Afghanistan; that deployment was costing Moscow $4-$5 billion per year, and the Soviets were suffering heavy casualties. Gorbachev also implemented a policy of openness (Glasnost) and economic and political reform (Perestroika) for the beleaguered Soviet Union. In August 1991, Gorbachev resigned and shortly thereafter Ukraine and Belarus declared independence and the Baltic States sought international recognition as sovereign states. hat was the end of the Cold War.
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