I can believe that flohofwoe honestly got that impression growing up behind the Iron Curtain (per his website, 12 in 1984). Heck, at the time most of the US Main Stream Media (MSM) portrayed Reagan as being like that. I'll bet that if he tuned into the BBC back then he'd had heard the same thing.
Although we had West German TV in the area I lived I might have been influenced by Eastern propaganda of course (and by MTV with Frankie's "Two Tribes" music clip) ;) TV and magazines were full of how the US is moving the arms race into space (SDI or 'Star Wars' program) in the mid-80's, while 'of course' the Soviet Union was only interested in peaceful research of space.
Re:How the Berlin Wall Really Fell
by droopybuns on Sunday November 09, 2014 @06:43AM
(#8579686)
According to "Command and Control," Regan at one point sincerely proposed to Gorbachev that both countries completely eliminate their nuclear weapons, much to the chagrin of his military advisors.
I think you're extremely wrong in your character assessment. There are numerous books available on Reagan in relation to what he actually said and wrote about his time as President, none of it indicates he was eager to start a nuclear war.