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But in Reagan's America (and, it may be, in Ueberroth's), there has been a fundamental shift in values. From the beginning, American sentiment has been in tension between the values of freedom and equality. Under Franklin Roosevelt, and for several generations afterward, the official American inclination has been toward equality. In Reagan's America, the value of freedom has reasserted itself, sometimes at the expense of the gentler instincts. The Olympics expressed the preference perfectly: the freedom to win --athletics as Darwinian theater.
Reagan accomplished his landslide partly because of his masterly exploitation of the American mood. He both contributed to the sense of optimism and purpose and profited from it. In a way, he also benefited from two developments in the Democratic Party: the candidacies of Jesse Jackson and Geraldine Ferraro. If Americans have recovered some sense of their own virtue in the world as a nation, it is to some extent because they felt proud of themselves for accepting the idea that a woman and a black can run for the highest offices in the land. Jackson's race for the Democratic nomination, the first serious campaign by a black American, brought countless new voters into the political process, even if their hopes did end in at least partial disillusion. His address to the Democratic Convention last summer, an astonishing display of his rhetorical resources, was one of the memorable speeches of the late 20th century.
With her style and presence, Geraldine Ferraro was by far the liveliest of the four nominees. Intense, good-humored, always listening (a rare trait in a politician), she surprised Americans with her fast-mouthed New Yorker's style. Still, although Ferraro was a first-class campaigner, it was not she but Walter Mondale who made the decision to put her on a national ticket.
A CONCILIATORY NOTE
The year saw a slight improvement in the abysmal relations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. In a January speech, Reagan sounded a new--for him --conciliatory note. But the Soviet leadership, immobilized by the illness of Yuri Andropov, did not register the change. When Konstantin Chernenko first took over the Soviet leadership, he followed Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko's hard line against the U.S. But in June the Soviets spoke of resuming arms talks in Vienna. Then Gromyko agreed to meet with Reagan in Washington, at the height of the presidential campaign. The Soviets can read public opinion polls, and realized that they would have to deal with Ronald Reagan for four more years.
In the turbulent Middle East, the U.S. at last withdrew its Marines from Lebanon. The U.S. in effect allowed Syria to become master of Lebanon, but the Syrians were not much more effective than anyone else in bringing peace to Lebanon's warring factions. Meanwhile, the Israeli population grew more and more weary with their occupation of southern Lebanon. With their economy in a tailspin (400% inflation then, more than 800% now), the Israelis delivered a mixed, and not very helpful, election verdict. Lacking a clear winner, the two rival blocs, Likud and Labor, set up an unusual arrangement in which the office of Prime Minister would change after 25 months. Shimon Peres, taking the first turn, adopted a clearly warmer tone than former Prime Minister Menachem Begin had toward the U.S.