James Mann of the Wall Street Journal wrote an interesting article this week on the Reagan and Gorbachev summit meetings in the the mid 1980s.  The Article is titled: Did Reagan Try to Convert Gorbachev?  Thanks to Bob Repass for passing this on to me….

It is obvious in the recorded conversations that Reagan had more on his mind than world peace.  He was trying to bring peace to Gorbachev by leading him to a relationship with Jesus.  It is intesting the Gorbachev said he had once been baptized but was no longer a believer….

Below are some out takes from the meeting and you can see the rest of the WSJ article by clicking here……

… Reagan engaged in a bold but questionable endeavor well beyond his mandate as president of the United States. According to the memo of their conversation, which was based on notes taken by two Reagan aides and has now been declassified and made available at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif., Reagan secretly attempted to persuade Gorbachev of the existence of God….

Suddenly, Reagan switched the subject to religion. He told Gorbachev that what he was about to say would be considered entirely secret. According to the notetakers, Reagan told Gorbachev that “if word got out that this was even being discussed, the President would deny he had said anything about it.” To emphasize this point, Reagan said again a few minutes later that “if there was anyone in the room who said he had given such advice [to Gorbachev about religion], he would say that person was lying, that he had never said

Gorbachev deflected this question. He insisted that religion was not a serious problem in the Soviet Union. According to the notes, Gorbachev told Reagan that “he, himself, had been baptized, but he was not now a believer, and that reflected a certain evolution of Soviet society…

 The president switched from seeking to persuade Gorbachev of the value of religious tolerance to promoting a belief in God. Reagan did so by telling one of his trademark stories. According to the notes of their meeting: 

The president said he had a letter from the widow of a young World War II soldier. He was lying in a shell hole at midnight, awaiting an order to attack. He had never been a believer, because he had been told God did not exist. But as he looked up at the stars he voiced a prayer hoping that, if he died in battle, God would accept him. That piece of paper was found on the body of a young Russian soldier who was killed in that battle.

Gorbachev tried to switch the subject. Perhaps the United States and the Soviet Union might open the way for greater cooperation in space, he told the president. But the president wasn’t to be diverted. According to the transcript, Reagan told Gorbachev that space was in the direction of heaven, but not as close to heaven as some other things that they had been discussing.

Reagan’s proselytizing was extremely unusual for an American president, but not entirely unprecedented. Nine years earlier, Reagan’s predecessor Jimmy Carter had stunned his aides when he asked the South Korean dictator Park Chung Hee about his religious beliefs and then told Park, “I would like you to know about Christ

Rest of the article here….