Floor Speech - How One Man Remembers Reagan

Floor Speech - How One Man Remembers Reagan

Mr. Speaker,

A few years ago I had the privilege of visiting with Natan Sharansky, a former Soviet dissident who is now an Israeli cabinet minister.

I asked him what his reaction was, as he was in the Soviet Gulag at that time, to the "Evil Empire" speech.
Here is his reaction as expressed in a recent quotation:

"In 1983 I was confined to an 8 by 10 foot prison cell on the border of Siberia. My Soviet jailers gave me the privilege of reading the latest copy of Pravda. Splashed across the front page was a condemnation of President Ronald Reagan for having the temerity to call the Soviet Union an 'evil empire.' Tapping on walls and talking through toilets, word of Reagan's 'provocation' quickly spread throughout the prison. We dissidents were ecstatic. Finally, the leader of the Free World had spoken the truth, a truth that burned inside the heart of each and every one of us.

"At the time, I never imagined that 3 years later I would be in the White House telling the story to the President. When he summoned some of his staff to hear what I said, I understood that there had been much criticism of Reagan's decision to cast the struggle between superpowers as a battle between good and evil. Well, Reagan was right and his critics were wrong.'"

There is no doubt that Natan Sharansky speaks for millions of people who today are free.

A great President, with a great legacy, Ronald Wilson Reagan.