Many others also rejected the notion that there was a conspiracy between the two sides. Richard V. Allen was particularly hostile to the term, saying that when he once referred to the partnership as an alliance, he meant it as a metaphor not as a statement of fact.32 Similarly, John Paul II biographer George Weigel calls Bernstein a “journalistic fantasist,” and states categorically that there was “neither alliance nor conspiracy,” though there was “a common purpose born of a set of shared convictions.”33 The gentlemanly Bill Clark also rejects the notion of a Holy Alliance or conspiracy: “[T]he idea that this was some sort of ‘Holy Conspiracy’ is overreaching a bit. There was no plot or plan between the two sides…. We knew we were both going in the same direction and so we decided to collaborate, particularly on intelligence issues regarding the Eastern Bloc.” He adds: “There was a natural convergence of interests, which led officials at the White House to work together with their counterparts at the Vatican.” “Primarily,” Clark continued, “that cooperation involved the sharing of intelligence information. But no, there was not a formal alliance as such.”34
In the end, Clark dubbed the mutual effort a “successful collaboration” which took place “under Ronald Reagan’s direction.” This mutual effort was encouraged to flourish during Clark’s tenure at the NSC, bringing the White House and Vatican closer together than at any other point.
Though some clearly do not like the term, it seems that this mutual effort was a “conspiracy” of sorts, especially when clandestine priests were on the ground and mutual aid was secretly provided by the two sides. It certainly seems fair to characterize it as an alliance, and even a “holy” one, being that it was one that the spirit-filled Reagan and spiritual father John Paul II pushed for the purpose of undermining Communism.
Regardless of the specific language used to describe it, the end result was that their meeting on June 7, 1982 forged an indelible bond, a sacred pledge to share information that would be mutually beneficial to both sides. And despite the clear obstacles, both men persevered in the hope that they might one day live to see the walls of Communism come tumbling down. It was a unique connection between two unique individuals, the like of which have rarely been seen in modern politics.
JUNE 8, 1982: WESTMINSTER
The day after his historic meeting with the pope, Reagan left the Vatican reinvigorated with a spiritual zeal to undermine Communism. Filled with a sense of grander purpose, he flew to London, where on June 8 at Westminster he gave the most prescient speech of his presidency.
While Tony Dolan was the speechwriter for the Westminster address, Reagan’s hand—literally his pen—was apparent in every line as Reagan played a key role in the speech’s language, ensuring that it embodied all that he preached. An early draft of the speech, probably the first, is dated May 19, 1982, and is on file at the Reagan Library. That draft, written by Dolan, was overhauled by Reagan, with the president removing numerous words, lines, and paragraphs and adding so much text that he could have received a coauthor credit.35 The May 19 draft was twenty-four pages long, with twenty-seven entire paragraphs that were removed by Reagan in addition to dozens of sentences and hundreds of words the president slashed.36
Throughout the draft process, Reagan played this editing role, adding significant, well-known lines to the text. Few sections of the Westminster address were more memorable than the one Reagan penciled in to page fourteen of the May 24 draft: “What I am describing now is a policy and a hope for the long term—the march of freedom and democracy which will leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash heap of history as it has left other totalitarian ideologies which stifle the freedom and muzzle the self-expression of its citizens.”37 Very tellingly, Reagan opted for the word “policy” in addition to “hope.”38
The speech offered more: The president called upon Western allies to encourage democratic developments in Eastern Europe by assisting inchoate democratic institutions behind the Iron Curtain. He said he wanted Eastern Europeans “to choose their own way to develop their own culture, to reconcile their own differences through peaceful means.” This effort, said Reagan, would constitute a “crusade for freedom.”
In the 1950s, he had signed onto the Crusade for Freedom; now, he was resurrecting and spearheading it. “[L]et us move toward a world in which all people are at last free to determine their own destiny,” he urged. Forecasting a simultaneous splurge in democracy, he assured people that “around the world today, the democratic revolution is gathering new strength.” He went on to say that “in the Caribbean and Central America, sixteen of twenty-four countries have freely elected governments. And in the United Nations, eight of ten developing nations which have joined the body in the past five years are democracies.” He offered: “This is precisely our mission today: to preserve freedom as well as peace. It may not be easy to see, but I believe we live now at the turning point.”
As he had at CPAC six months earlier, Reagan spoke of a crossroads—a “turning point.” He then turned his attention to what he saw as the source of darkness:
In an ironic sense, Karl Marx was right. We are witnessing today a great revolutionary crisis…. But the crisis is happening not in the free, non-Marxist West, but in the home of Marxism-Leninism, the Soviet Union.
It is the Soviet Union that runs against the tide of history by denying freedom and human dignity to its citizens. It also is in deep economic difficulty…. The dimensions of this failure are astounding: a country which employs one-fifth of its population in agriculture is unable to feed its own people.
Calling on more evidence of the economic crisis, Reagan borrowed material he had used in his radio addresses from the 1970s:
Were it not for the tiny private sector tolerated in Soviet agriculture, the country might be on the brink of famine. These private plots occupy a bare three percent of the arable land but account for nearly one-quarter of Soviet farm output and nearly one-third of meat products and vegetables.
Overcentralized, with little or no incentives, year after year, the Soviet system pours its best resource into the making of instruments of destruction. The constant shrinkage of economic growth combined with the growth of military production is putting a heavy strain on the Soviet people.
What we see here is a political structure that no longer corresponds to its economic base, a society where productive forces are hampered by political ones.
The decay of the Soviet experiment should come as no surprise to us. Wherever the comparisons have been made between free and closed societies—West Germany and East Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia, Malaysia and Vietnam—it is the democratic countries that are prosperous and responsive to the needs of their people.