ZAKARIA: This week I'm looking back, almost exactly 21 years ago. President Ronald Reagan thrilled his conservative fans when he stood at the Berlin Wall and challenged Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.</s>RONALD REAGAN, U.S. PRESIDENT: Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.</s>ZAKARIA: A year later, he was being pilloried by the same conservatives. His sin? Reagan went to Moscow for a summit meeting with Gorbachev to discuss arms reductions and conflict resolution. This full-page ad, taken out in January 1988, from the hugely influential group, the Conservative Caucus, warned that, quote, appeasement is as unwise in 1988 as in 1938, unquote -- comparing Reagan's meetings to those with Hitler before World War II. When Reagan first proposed meeting with Gorbachev, Newt Gingrich was among those who denounced him, saying it was the most dangerous summit for the West since Adolf Hitler met with Chamberlain. Of course, those summits marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War, on Western terms, for which Ronald Reagan is now lionized on the right. Twenty-one years later, the world has changed profoundly, but the same conservatives are saying the same things. Newt Gingrich, who denounced Reagan, now launches the appeasement missile against new targets -- Democrats and anyone who dares suggest that we should talk to Iran, Syria or Cuba. So, when you hear the word "appeasement" today, remember, that's what they said about Ronald Reagan. We'll be right back.
Ronald Reagan and Appeasement Charges