Thatcher helped to free millions enslaved by communism
Re: “Thatcher’s legacy,” Letter, April 10.
Contrary to what letter writer James Currie says, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan had a great deal to do with the end of communism. They were catalysts for change. When thousands of people formed a human chain all the way across the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in defiance of communism, they were inspired.
When Mikhail Gorbachev acted to move the Soviet Union away from extreme socialism, he too was inspired, as was Boris Yeltsin when he stood in a crowd and announced his opposition to the arrest of Gorbachev by the military. What these three events have in common is that they all benefited from a new-found courage, and much of it came from watching the speeches and actions of Thatcher and Reagan.
I wish people like Currie would delve deeper into the economic success the Baltic countries have achieved in a free enterprise environment and compare it to the stagnation they endured under communism. There is much to learn from this and other comparisons.
The Iron Lady came into power when the United Kingdom was in grave economic danger and this lady had the guts to do what needed to be done, to prescribe the healing medicine even though it was bitter. How many politicians can you say that of ? It is for no small reason that the Queen will attend her funeral. She knows true patriotism when she sees it.