Remembering the Man Who Helped Ronald Reagan Take Down the Soviet Union
“We win; they lose.” That iconic declaration by Ronald Reagan captured the essence of his Cold War strategy and marked a turning point in 20th-century history. It succinctly summarized what Reagan accomplished in defeating the Soviet Union.
For Reagan enthusiasts, the phrase is legendary. However, few are aware of its full context and origin.
The complete quote goes: “Dick, my idea of American policy toward the Soviet Union is simple, and some would say simplistic,” Reagan explained. “It is this: We win, and they lose. What do you think of that?”
But who was “Dick”? The reference was to Richard V. Allen, who passed away on November 16 at the age of 88. A longtime admirer of The American Spectator and a friend of its founder, R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., Allen was a key witness to Reagan’s vision and accomplishments.
The backstory to this pivotal Reagan statement dates back to late January 1977, just days after Jimmy Carter’s inauguration set the stage for what many saw as four challenging years in American history.
At the time, Allen, then 41, already had an impressive résumé in foreign policy and academia. He had pursued graduate studies at Notre Dame and worked at institutions such as the Hoover Institution, the Center for Strategic & International Studies, and the Nixon White House.
Allen was considering a run for governor of New Jersey when he traveled to California to seek the endorsement of the former governor, Ronald Reagan. What began as a simple request for support turned into an extended four-hour conversation about foreign policy.
During that meeting, Reagan made the bold assertion that left an indelible mark on Allen: “We win, and they lose.”
Allen later recounted this pivotal moment in a 1999 speech in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Hoover Institution and the William J. Casey Institute. The text of his speech was later included in Peter Schweizer’s book The Fall of the Berlin Wall.
When I interviewed Allen for my own research—eventually published in my 2006 book, The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism—he emphasized the groundbreaking nature of Reagan’s words. It was a stark contrast to the prevailing foreign-policy strategies of the time.
During the Nixon, Ford, and Carter administrations, détente was the favored approach. The aim was to maintain the status quo rather than challenge Soviet dominance in Eastern Europe. Liberation seemed unattainable, and talk of victory was almost unheard of.
Allen recalled being taken aback by Reagan’s audacity. “Governor, do you mean that?” he asked. Reagan’s response was unwavering: “Of course I do.”
In my follow-up with Allen, I pressed him to confirm Reagan’s intent: “Are you telling me that in January 1977, Ronald Reagan expressed his goal to defeat the Soviet empire?” Allen unequivocally affirmed: “Yes. That’s absolutely right.”
This meeting had such a profound impact on Allen that he abandoned his gubernatorial aspirations to join Reagan’s mission to combat Soviet communism. Four years later, Allen became Reagan’s first national security adviser, playing a role in crafting the strategy to achieve this ambitious goal.
Although Allen’s tenure as national security adviser was brief, ending in January 1982, he remained a witness to Reagan’s intent and an advocate of his mission. He was succeeded by Judge William P. Clark, who played a pivotal role in executing Reagan’s Cold War strategy. (Clark, whom I knew well, later became the subject of my biography.)
Allen’s contributions, along with his firsthand accounts of key moments, have left an enduring legacy. In addition to that transformative meeting in 1977, Allen witnessed other critical moments in Reagan’s Cold War plans. Over the years, I sought to document Allen’s insights, including capturing his memories on video for future generations.
Allen and Reagan at the Wall
One such moment occurred in November 1978 — at the Berlin Wall.
Allen and Reagan traveled all the way to Berlin. Joining them was their mutual friend Peter Hannaford and their three wives. In the book and film, “The Divine Plan: John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and the Dramatic End of the Cold War,” done by myself and Robert Orlando, Allen shared what he witnessed:
Berlin was behind the Iron Curtain. And from the American sector in Berlin, I took [Ronald Reagan] into the East. I took him to several notable places, parts of Berlin where he could see up close what it meant to live in communist East Germany, one of the most repressive of all places in Eastern Europe. We went into an enormous plaza, a platz, as the Germans call it, and people were milling about and walking around. And he was just gathering the flavor of everything.
I nudged him and told him to look over there. Two East German police, the Volkspolizei, were stopping a man who was carrying two shopping bags. One of them poked the barrel of his automatic rifle into the stomach of the man, and the other one probed with his rifle in the shopping bags to see what was in them. It was all I could do to restrain Reagan from going over and doing whatever he was going to do. I was afraid he might punch the East German policeman. Then we’d really be in a pickle, wouldn’t we? …
That was his first direct encounter with the wall as such. As we approached the wall very closely, just a few feet away, with Peter Hannaford and his wife on the left, and I and my wife, Pat, on the right, he stared at the wall, glowered, his jaw tightened, and he turned to me and said, “Dick, we’ve got to find a way to knock this thing down.”
A really historic quote. I’ll never forget it because, of course, then as president, nine years later, he would stand there and say, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”
“Dick, we’ve got to find a way to knock this thing down.” That, of course, was the thought that never left him.
And knock it down they did. When the wall went down in November 1989, it was a dramatic sign that we had won and they lost.
The Polish Pope: Key Ingredient
Another dramatic moment occurred in June 1979 — in Warsaw.
The occasion was the pivotal nine days that Pope John Paul II spent in a triumphant return to his native Poland, a period described as “Nine Days That Changed the World“ in the gripping documentary by Newt and Callista Gingrich.
Dick Allen witnessed Ronald Reagan’s remarkable reaction to that moment from afar — once again from Reagan’s home in California as the two watched footage of the pope’s visit to Poland.
Allen had previously shared that reaction in books and in speeches. What he witnessed was so significant that Rob Orlando and I wanted to track down Allen to share it on camera.
By a stroke of Providence, Orlando and Allen just happened to be near one another in New Jersey for a very brief window of time. Orlando grabbed his video equipment and dashed off. Here was what Allen told us (watch here, starting at the 4:00 mark):
It happened the day I was in California to see Governor Reagan. It turned out it was on that very day that Pope John Paul II, newly inaugurated, visited Poland. I happened to be sitting in Reagan’s study with him…. I turned on the television set and there it was: The papal plane arriving and the pope descending the steps and kneeling down, as his first action, to kiss the ground in Poland.
That was amazing. It still chokes me up to speak of this moment. And I glanced over, it was a moment in which you wouldn’t speak, I glanced over, at Governor Reagan, and I saw a tear in his eye. It was very, very interesting. It was the only time that I ever saw him tear up, and certainly I did as well. I’m a Roman Catholic. He was not.
Reagan leaned forward, peered into the TV screen and stated that the new pope was “the key” to winning the Cold War. He immediately wanted to reach out to the new pope and the Vatican and “make them an ally.” Reagan said to Allen: “Dick, that’s it! That’s it! The pope is the key!” Reagan said then and there that the pope was the key to liberating Poland, Eastern Europe, and winning the Cold War.
Yes, Reagan wanted to win the Cold War, but how? He knew he would need crucial allies. The election of a Polish pope could not have been a bigger game-changer. As Reagan would later say, John Paul II was his “best friend” in that effort. (Margaret Thatcher was certainly a crucial friend, as well.)
Now, the only thing remaining was for Reagan to get elected. No small feat, though he made it look easy.
He won 44 of 50 states against an incumbent in 1980 and was re-elected by winning 49 of 50. In 1984, he won the Electoral College by an astounding 525 to 13. With those wins, he could now implement that strategy to win the Cold War.
And what happened? Well, as Dick Allen alone heard it first, we won and they lost. Richard V. Allen was quite a witness to that epic Cold War victory. May he rest in peace.
Dr. Paul Kengor is an Editor of The American Spectator, a professor of political science at Grove City College, and authored “The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism,” the book of which the 2024 film “Reagan” is based.