Reagan and Thatcher - Hardcover

Smith, Geoffrey

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393029484 ISBN 13: 9780393029482

Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc, 1991

Drawing on interviews with both leaders and their key advisors, the author traces the close political partnership between Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher and how that partnership influenced world events

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From Publishers Weekly:

Drawing on interviews with both leaders and their advisers, Smith traces the course of a relationship that was warmer personally and closer ideologically than that between any previous American president and British prime minister. Their mutual admiration often translated into mutual aid: U.S. assistance in the 1982 Falklands war, for instance, was reciprocated by permission to use British bases in the Libyan air strike in 1986. While their most public dispute, according to Smith, was over the Grenada invasion in 1983 (Thatcher was enraged when Reagan launched it), their most deep-seated disagreement arose from Reagan's efforts toward a denuclearized Europe. The author, a columnist for the London Times, emphasizes the prime minister's influence over the president, and explains how her political position at home as well as her international clout was continually strengthened by her partnership with "Ron." Suggesting that Thatcher's most significant role was as matchmaker between Reagan and Gorbachev, Smith shows how their three-way interaction set international affairs on a new and more hopeful course. The book offers a fresh view of President Reagan from the British viewpoint and illustrates the importance of personal chemistry in high-level diplomacy. Photos.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

Smith, a political commentator for the London Times , has written a well-informed but sycophantic account of the warm relationship that developed between President Reagan and Prime Minister Thatcher in the 1980s. The reader is left with the impression that Reagan and Thatcher saved the civilized world with their policies of tax reduction, trade union reform, and privatization. "In their very different ways," he observes, "they combined to extend democracy and to make a market economy the mark of a successful state." Smith's analysis fails to go beyond journalistic cliches. For a more profound perspective, see Joel Krieger's Reagan, Thatcher, and the Politics of De cline (Oxford Univ. Pr., 1986). Previewed in Prepub Alert LJ 11/1/90 as A Very Special Relationship: Reagan and Thatcher. --Kent Worcester, Columbia Univ.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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