If Biden Won’t Stand for Freedom, Congress Can Reagan exposed the true nature of the Soviets. The same needs to be done for China, Russia and Iran. By Arthur Herman and Mike Pompeo
This month marks the anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The U.S., Europe and much of the rest of the world—with the significant exceptions of China and Iran—have rallied to support the Ukrainian people and condemn this unprovoked attack. This war isn’t one more clash of competing nations; it’s about a nation defending its freedom against autocratic aggression. While it is important to support the Ukrainian people with the arms and resources they need to resist Russia, the most vital asset the U.S. can offer is the idea of freedom itself.
During the Cold War, Ronald Reagan understood the symbolic value of freedom. He founded his strategy for prevailing against the Soviet Union on his belief that the human yearning for freedom is universal and that America’s leadership in the world depended not only on military or economic power but also on its ability to demonstrate how freedom creates prosperity and happiness.
This past year we’ve learned how universal that yearning is, even in Russia. Tens of thousands of young Russian men refused to participate in Mr. Putin’s illegal war of aggression, and thousands more risked arrest and bodily harm protesting that war.
In China we’ve seen massive protests against Beijing’s brutal Covid lockdowns—protests that have directly challenged President Xi Jinping’s autocratic rule.
In Iran the vicious murder of a young Iranian woman triggered mass demonstrations that continue to this day, as young people risk their lives to protest the mullahs’ iron-fisted control. Even the execution of prominent protesters, including Mohammad Mehdi Karami, one of Iran’s most beloved athletes, have failed to quell the unrest.
These protests have shaken all three regimes and created a golden opportunity for President Biden to speak in solidarity with the protesters and voice America’s support for the struggle for human rights in these three counties.
Yet inexplicably, except for some perfunctory remarks condemning the violent suppression of the protests in Iran, Mr. Biden hasn’t spoken in support of citizens’ aspiration for freedom in these three countries, all autocracies actively challenging American interests. The administration has failed to understand Reagan’s most important lesson: “The ultimate determinant in the struggle now going on for the world will not be bombs or rockets, but a test of wills and ideas—a trial of spiritual resolve.”
Reagan saw the emergence of the Solidarity workers’ union, which began as a series of strikes in the Gdansk shipyards in 1980, as a powerful challenge not only to the Polish communist regime but to its Soviet masters. He showed the world how the Polish government’s refusal to allow workers to organize an independent union, and the subsequent crackdown on Solidarity under martial law, proved that the Soviet system would never allow the Poles, or anyone else behind the Iron Curtain, to determine their own destiny. He wrote to other Western leaders, including Margaret Thatcher, that the Solidarity strikes “may well be a watershed moment in the political history of mankind—a challenge to tyranny from within” as well as a challenge to Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe.
Reagan enlisted America’s largest labor union, the AFL-CIO, to support Solidarity’s organizing efforts, and designated Jan. 20, 1982, as Solidarity Day in support of the union, stating: “The hearts and minds of free people everywhere stand in Solidarity with the people of Poland in the hour of their suffering.” He even authorized the CIA to supply Solidarity covertly with funds and material support.
It’s hard to say whether Reagan’s support turned the tide in Poland and the Cold War. But by showing that the conflict taking place in the streets of Gdansk and Warsaw was between tyranny and freedom, and that the U.S. was firmly on the side of freedom, Reagan was able to enlist the help of other democratic leaders. This new coalition resisted the Soviets’ effort to dominate Europe with intermediate-range nuclear-armed missiles.
The Biden administration may have missed its opportunity to advance America’s moral leadership in the confrontation with China, Russia and Iran. The new Congress, however, still can. It can continue to support Ukraine, and also investigate and highlight the atrocities being committed by Russian forces, as well as the egregious human rights records of China, Russia and Iran.
Congress also can impose sanctions on companies and institutions in the U.S. that support these abuses. It can invite Russian, Chinese and Iranian dissidents to testify about the crimes of autocratic leaders. Lawmakers can memorialize the victims past and present of these oppressive regimes through a congressional act.
By emulating Reagan and encouraging Chinese, Russian and Iranian citizens to call out their leaders as dictators and enemies of freedom, while offering support to calls for political change, the new Congress, with its Republican House majority, can lay the foundation for a robust Freedom Agenda for the U.S. in the coming decade.
It would also remind America and the world that the U.S. is not the evil empire the woke left likes to claim it is, and that evil is alive and well in Beijing, Moscow and Tehran.
Mr. Herman is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and author of “Freedom’s Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II.” Mr. Pompeo, a distinguished fellow at Hudson, served as U.S. secretary of state (2018-21) and director of the Central Intelligence Agency (2017-18).
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