‘The focus of evil in the modern world’

Abstract

Immediately after the economic summit in Versailles, Reagan visited Britain. The President went riding with the Queen at Windsor. It had been suggested that he should address a joint session of Parliament in Westminster Hall, but the Labour Party objected. Reagan remained a highly controversial figure in Britain, with much of the press continuing to depict him as a warmonger and, despite two successful terms as Governor of California, as a B-movie actor. The President instead addressed those Members of Parliament who wished to hear him in the Royal Gallery. About the Falklands he said that British troops were fighting for a cause: armed aggression must not be allowed to succeed. When Mrs Thatcher congratulated Reagan on making his speech without a note, he introduced her to a British invention — the Autocue.