Margaret Thatcher's Eulogy Summary

With America at war in 2004, looking back to our past to how we overcame insurmountable odds is what Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was pleading when she delivered an eulogy at President Ronald Reagan’s funeral in 2004. She believes that since both wars and eras parallel each other, we must look to back to see how confident and daring President Reagan was when he took on the USSR and communism in order to understand how we should take on the War on Terror.
She started out by describing how effective a leader he was and how it pertained to the challenges we were going up against. One of the most significant she said in the eulogy was when she said, “free the slaves of communism,” particularly when she used the word slaves. When we hear the word slaves, we automatically think of the slaves that were freed during the Civil War, which was one of the most difficult periods in American history. We all agree that slaves are bad so when she used that word, she emphasized how bad communism was, along with how hard it is to defeat. This was important because it took place in the middle of another war, the War on Terror. Thatcher was trying to describe how, although this war seemed impossible to defeat, it
wasn’t the first time we were backed into a corner against a strong opponent. The fact that Reagan was able to take down communism showed how great of a leader he was and that we should remain optimistic toward the challenge we were taking on.
Thatcher then described how effective his personality when it came to the morale of the world.
When she said it “had a purpose beyond humor” and “they were truly under pressure,” it showed how intelligent Reagan was. He was smart enough to realize that his jokes and humor provide the world a fresh sigh of relief, even when things seemed to be escalating beyond repair. This made him a great leader because he knew that pandering to people’s emotions helped boost their morale and continue to be confident, which was the point Thatcher was trying to get across. It’s also why it was important that President George W. Bush responded to the September 11 attacks the way he did. Similar to Reagan, he provided relief and comfort while ensuring that everything would be
OK.
Thatcher then asserted that Reagan was right to take on the Red Army because it was something that had to be done. When she said “these words… cannot have been easy to say” and “he had firm principles,” she tried to get the world to realize that he was a great leader because, although faced with many tough decisions, he stuck to what he believed was ethically right. Again, this tied perfectly into the current events of the time because even though it was not the easy or popular decision, Bush believed this was the right thing to do and was necessary, which prompted the War on Terror.
Thatcher concluded her eulogy trying to unite a grieving world when she said “we share her grief today.” However, Thatcher’s underlying message became clear when she proclaimed, “we have one beacon to guide us that Ronald Reagan never had. We have his example.” The point she was getting to was that because of him, we now have an example on how to combat the evils of the world. As the leader of the free world, we had to lead the charge against terror under Bush similar to how we led the charge against communism under Reagan.