It was 43 years ago today

A few days ago, I had a conversation with a college student who did not remember the US beating the USSR in the 1980 Winter Olympics. He could not relate to the story off the ice or what the world was like when that game was played. So I told the student to read a bit about President Reagan and get back to me for more conversations about communism.  He did call me back and couldn't believe how deadly communism had been.

Like many of his generation, President Ronald Reagan was a strong anti-communist.   He understood the evil empire and knew that you have to negotiate from a position of strength rather than weakness. Over the Christmas holidays, I found this from the late President Reagan:

“How do you tell a communist? Well, it’s someone who reads Marx and Lenin.

And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It’s someone who understands Marx and Lenin.”  

— Remarks in Arlington, Virginia, September 25, 1987

In my life, I have found that this is true. Most people who favor communism in polls do not really understand what it means or have lived under it.   They see it as some romantic idea based on false promises of equality and justice.  On the other hand, we Cubans, along with others from who experienced communism directly, see it for what it is.

Communism was, and is, a great lie. We need to keep teaching that to the new generation.

And so I remember today one of my favorite anti-communists, or President Reagan who became president on this day in 1981.

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