Well, there was more than one way to win the Cold War. And before President Reagan spent the Soviet Union into oblivion, a new biography, “The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan,” suggests he tried to convert Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev:
The new biography tells of the leaders final summit meeting in Moscow in 1988. During the summit Reagan told the story of a World War II Russian soldier who turned to God just before dying of his wounds, despite being raise as an atheist in Soviet Russia.
Gorbachev had already told the President that he had been baptised as a Russian Orthodox by his mother, but added that he himself had no faith.
A presidential aid at the meeting noted that the President told Gorbachev wished to convert his son, who was also an atheist.
A declassified set of minutes of the meeting said, “The president concluded that there was one thing he had long yearned to do for his atheist son. He wanted to serve his son the perfect gourmet dinner, to have him enjoy the meal, and then to ask him if he believed there was a cook.”
Reagan, however, swore the minute-takers to secrecy due to the potential for political embarrassment should the conversation be leaked.
Rudolf Perina was one of those recording the conversation. In the biography he is quoted as saying that Regan tried to convert Gorbachev, “Reagan thought he could convert Gorbachev or make him see the light.”
Read the rest, from Christian Today, here.
(Hat tip: Holy Weblog)
