Did Ronald Reagan say, “There are more important things than peace”?

Some attribute to the 40th President of the United States the words that in order to achieve truly important goals, one can turn to military methods. We have verified the correctness of this attribution.

Often the phrase that “there are things more important than peace” is mentioned by right-wing publicists. For example, her attributes To Reagan, columnist for the Tsargrad portal Yegor Kholmogorov called the quote “the phrase that won the Cold War” because “in the official ideology of the Soviet political leadership there were no more important things than peace.” Sometimes these words, precisely as a quote from Reagan, can be found in statements by speakers for different large Media.

The presidency of Ronald Reagan (1981–1989) saw many important developments in relations with the Soviet Union. On the one hand, the American leader named The USSR became an evil empire and formulated the so-called Reagan Doctrine - a concept aimed at supporting anti-communist movements around the world. On the other hand, he spent a whole series of meetings with Mikhail Gorbachev, who contributed to the normalization of relations between countries, as well as signed Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles with the USSR.

At the same time, attributing the phrase about “things more important than peace” to Reagan is groundless. It is absent from the speeches, texts and personal documents of the American leader collected at website The Reagan Presidential Library is the most comprehensive collection of materials about him. We were unable to find confirmation in other authoritative sources.

However, this expression actually appeared in the United States about 40 years ago. At the start of his first term, Reagan suggested to the post of US Secretary of State Alexander Haig. A candidate for this post must approve with the Senate, for which purpose special hearings are held in the upper house of the American parliament, during which senators can ask questions of interest to them. In the case of Haig, such discussions passed for several days in January 1981. Recalling an argument with Senator Claiborne Pall over the previous administration's foreign policy, Haig said: "You said, 'But we live in peace!' And I will answer you, senator: “There are worse things, there are more important things!”

Note that Haig is one of few military, who headed the US State Department (this is an analogue of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Russia and other countries). A veteran of the wars in Korea and Vietnam and commander of allied forces in Europe, Haig nevertheless did not succeed in this civilian position - due to disagreements with other members of the administration and failures to resolve a number of international disputes, Haig left his post a year and a half after his appointment.

Incorrect quote attribution

What do our verdicts mean?

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3. Is it true that the United States awarded Mikhail Gorbachev the medal “For Victory in the Cold War”?
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