Reagan Memorials For London And Berlin
By Kevin McCandless (CNS News)
London and Berlin may soon join other cities across Europe in hosting memorials to the late President Ronald Reagan.
Since the death of America’s 40th president in June 2004, a handful of parks and streets across the continent have been named after him, and a bust of Reagan was installed in a central Budapest park in 2006.
With plans already underway for memorials in Prague and two cities in Poland, a spokeswoman for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Foundation confirmed Monday that the organization is involved with plans for a proposed statue in the British capital.
Spokeswoman Kirby Hanson said that her foundation is helping a local group with funding and installing a statue in historic Grosvenor Square in central London.
Located outside the United States Embassy, the proposed statue would join memorials to presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower, as well as to the British victims of 9/11 and to the American pilots who flew with the Royal Air Force in the early years of World War II.
Hanson said plans were still in the very early stages of a complicated process, which would require approval from the Westminster City Council and other government bodies.
More than 300 statues and memorials are located in the area controlled by the council, which oversees large parts of central London, including much of the West End. Stringent rules have been put in place to limit their numbers in some neighborhoods.
Hanson said the foundation was working closely with the Westminster Public Arts Advisory Panel to come up with a design that would fit in with the surrounding area.
Robert Kaufman, a professor at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif.,. who is working on a biography of Reagan, said earlier this month that the case is easily made on “several different levels” for placing a memorial to Reagan in Grosvenor Square.
Where Roosevelt had faced down the first great threat to freedom in World War II, he said, Reagan had defeated the second threat — Soviet tyranny.
He also forged an enduring Anglo-American alliance with former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
A spokesman for the American Embassy said earlier the U.S. government would welcome a statue in London but was not involved in the initiative.
Late last month, Michael Reagan, the eldest son of the late president, announced plans to build a monument to his father in Berlin.
Michael Reagan, who is head of the Reagan Legacy Foundation, said he would like a memorial on or near the Brandenburg Gate.
In June 1987, President Reagan made a legendary speech facing the gate, which at the time was in communist-ruled East Berlin, cut off by the Berlin Wall.
The president exhorted Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev “to tear down this wall.” His son, during a recent visit to Germany, told reporters he would like to see some sort of monument to commemorate Reagan’s part in ending the Cold War.
James Lacy, a spokesman for Michael Reagan, said last week that no decisions had been made on what the monument would entail or exactly where it would be located.
He said Reagan was looking forward to working closely with the Berlin City Council and the citizens of Berlin, as well as forming partnerships with other German organizations.
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If there was ever a man who deserved a monument it is President Reagan. one of the most influential world leaders of all time.
trust but verify.
peace through strength.
July 16th, 2008 at 6:36 pmNever was there a man who deserved it more.
Viva la Reagan Revolution!
July 16th, 2008 at 6:39 pmw00t
July 16th, 2008 at 6:41 pmEven one 2 ft. high statue in Oslo’s neighborhood trumps any Nobel handed to a Carter.
July 16th, 2008 at 6:49 pmMan, do I miss him. I look around sometimes reflecting at how fucked up this country has gotten since 1990. If the next 18 years is anything like the last 18 years, I am afraid that “the great experiment” will be coming to a close.
July 16th, 2008 at 6:56 pmGODSPEED BOSS. My C.I.C. forever. I vehemently defended him and his legacy in life and death. All he had to do was say the words and I would have fought against the gates of hell as long as he had breath to say it no matter how old I or he had become.
July 16th, 2008 at 7:00 pmExcellent
July 16th, 2008 at 7:45 pmThey stood foursquare against the evil of their time.
July 16th, 2008 at 8:14 pmLech Walesa, Pope John Paul II, “Iron Lady” (nickname used derogatorily by the KGB) Margaret Thatcher and of course President Ronald Reagan.
These heroes of liberty and freedom should be held aloft in the Pantheon of mankind above all other’s who preceded them.
The sheer number of human beings freed by them will never be duplicated in the history of mankind.
God Bless President Reagan and his.
Roosevelt & Churchill defeated the first wave—Naziism
Reagan & Thatcher defeated the second wave——Communism
?????? & ??????? will stand against the third wave-Islamism
Ronald Reagan deserves recognition as first among equals in the Pantheon of American Heroes, who is there to take up his banner?
Europe and America, both, holding out for a hero
July 17th, 2008 at 4:37 amThe Euros have a little sense left, at least.
July 17th, 2008 at 10:00 am