Frank Donatelli
Reagan White House Director of Political Affairs

When he rode Marine 1 from the White House to Andrews Air Force Base, Reagan could be seen staring intently at the landscape below. After observing this several times, I once asked him, "Sir, what are you seeing down there?"

"Look at those homes," he replied. "They are owned by working people. Many of them have swimming pools. I have to show this to [Former Soviet Leader] Gorbachev. I want him to understand how well off American workers are and how much freedom can do to improve every person's life."

The next year, Reagan indeed gave Mr. Gorbachev that tour and, presumably, an earful about the importance of freedom.

Ronald Reagan was formidable precisely because he believed fervently in the power of ideas. He was fond of quoting the title of Richard Weaver's seminal work, "Ideas Have Consequences." The idea of freedom as framed by the American experience was central to his belief that, as he said at Notre Dame back in 1982, " We will not defeat Communism; we will transcend it."