RIP Richard Pipes, Hero of the Cold War

Ronald Reagan trenchantly warned that “every generation faces an existential threat to freedom.” Yesterday, America lost Richard Pipes, a man who played an outsized, yet largely unsung, role in helping President Reagan defeat that threat in his time: Soviet Communism.

Professor Pipes was the world’s foremost historian of Russia, before, during and after Vladimir Lenin and his Bolshevik revolutionaries conquered that country.  He was also a driving force behind the Committee on the Present Danger and “Team B,” two groups that helped Mr. Reagan conceive and then execute a strategy for liberating Russians and the world of the Soviet blight.

A hearing in the House Intelligence Committee yesterday underscored the need for a similar strategy and effort to counter our time’s Communist threat to freedom: China.  It will be inspired by the leadership and success of Dr. Richard Pipes.