The Peacemaker

Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, and the World on the Brink

By: William Inboden

Narrated by: Robert Petkoff

Winner of the Society of Presidential Descendants Book Award and the Age of Reagan Conference Book Prize

One of the Wall Street Journal’s best political books of 2022

A masterful account of how Ronald Reagan and his national security team confronted the Soviets, reduced the nuclear threat, won the Cold War, and supported the spread of freedom around the world.

“Remarkable… a great read.”—Robert Gates • “Mesmerizing… hard to put down.”—Paul Kennedy • “Full of fresh information… will shape all future studies of the role the United States played in ending the Cold War.”—John Lewis Gaddis • “A major contribution to our understanding of the Reagan presidency and the twilight of the Cold War era.”—David Kennedy

With decades of hindsight, the peaceful end of the Cold War seems a foregone conclusion. But in the early 1980s, most experts believed the Soviet Union was strong, stable, and would last into the next century. Ronald Reagan entered the White House with no certainty of what would happen next, only an overriding faith in democracy and an abiding belief that Soviet communism—and the threat of nuclear war—must end.

The Peacemaker reveals how Reagan’s White House waged the Cold War while managing multiple crises around the globe. From the emergence of global terrorism, wars in the Middle East, the rise of Japan, and the awakening of China to proxy conflicts in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, Reagan’s team oversaw the worldwide expansion of democracy, globalization, free trade, and the information revolution. Yet no issue was greater than the Cold War standoff with the Soviet Union. As president, Reagan remade the four-decades-old policy of containment and challenged the Soviets in an arms race and ideological contest that pushed them toward economic and political collapse, all while extending an olive branch of diplomacy as he sought a peaceful end to the conflict.

Reagan’s revolving team included Secretaries of State Al Haig and George Shultz; Secretaries of Defense Caspar Weinberger and Frank Carlucci; National Security Advisors Bill Clark, John Poindexter, and Bud McFarlane; Chief of Staff James Baker; CIA Director Bill Casey; and United Nations Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick. Talented and devoted to their president, they were often at odds with one another as rivalries and backstabbing led to missteps and crises. But over the course of the presidency, Reagan and his team still developed the strategies that brought about the Cold War’s peaceful conclusion and remade the world.

Based on thousands of pages of newly-declassified documents and interviews with senior Reagan officials, The Peacemaker brims with fresh insights into one of America’s most consequential presidents. Along the way, it shows how the pivotal decade of the 1980s shaped the world today.

Compelling from Beginning to End

Not only is this a terrific biography of Reagan in the context of his foreign policy, a great history of the his presidency and its influence on ending the Cold War, but also a great assessment of the bipartisan consensus in Congress that Regan was able to forge on how to deal with our allies and enemies. It is this last aspect that demonstrates convincingly how much a future President will need to accomplish to achieve a similar agreement on what is important for our country, both internationally and domestically. Sadly, the last several Presidents, current one, and likely next one have failed utterly in this regard.

Excellent

A comprehensive and sweeping account of President Ronald Reagan’s foreign policy, including its triumphs and failures.

Compelling story

This was a very easy to listen to and interesting book. It was long, but I enjoyed it very much. It took place during an earlier time in my life, and I remembered lots of events, but the way it’s told the details were very interesting and told me a lot about President Reagan, that I did not know. I left feeling this was an exceptional man who I underestimated at the time.

The excitement of a novel

The author apologizes for writing this book as a real time history. He does not follow the tradition of pursuing individual topics. This type of history will help the reader avoid dementia. Novels are better for challenging your brain than traditional history books. He shows the advantage of foreign countries, knowing that a president most likely has eight years.

An excellent book

This book is well worth the listen. The focus is on President Reagan's foreign policy and his determination to use his presidency to bring down the Soviet Union. It is extremely well done with a blend of behind the scenes anecdotes and valuable recounting of public events.

There are some diversions such as Latin America policy, the Middle East, Asia and, of course, Iran Contra. But the author, like President Reagan, keeps the spotlight on the Soviet Union.

It's a different view of the prevailing opinion in the 1980s and later of Reagan as a war monger. According to this recounting, Reagan had an overall strategy of pressuring the Soviet Union through an arms build-up combined with talks to reduce nuclear weapons. Reagan also made it a priority to gain the release of religious prisoners in the Soviet Union.

An added bonus is Reagan's interesting and often humorous interactions with Margaret Thatcher,

I give this book my highest recommendation.