Alaska: A crossroads of diplomacy—from Reagan and Pope to Trump and Putin

On August 15, US President Donald Trump met his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska to discuss ways to bring an end to the Ukrainian war that has raged for over three years, killing thousands of people. The success of the meeting is disputed, though both leaders have claimed the dialogue was “productive”.

As the whole world kept its eyes glued to Alaska—the northernmost, westernmost, and easternmost American state—it also brought reminiscences of a similar high-profile meeting that took place here around four decades ago. Then US President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II landed in this US exclave in 1984, marking the formal establishment of diplomatic relations between Rome and Washington.

If the Trump-Putin meeting was in Anchorage, Reagan met the Pope in Firebanks, a sleepy city, around 358 miles north. The pontiff, known for globe-trotting, had already visited Anchorage four years ago in 1981.

Both the political and spiritual leaders exchanged pleasantries and lavished praise on each other. Reagan labelled Pope as the “minister of peace and love” in a “violent world”, according to a New York Times report.

In return, the pontiff said he held the people of America close to his heart. “In some ways, Alaska can be considered today as a crossroads of the world. President Reagan is returning from visiting the beloved people of China, even as I am making my way to a neighbouring area in the Far East," he said.

The city welcomed the gathering with great fervour, closing schools and hanging banners in the streets. Young people were seen wearing T-shirts featuring photos of both Reagan and the Pope with the caption “Great minds in the great land”.

 

Fall of Communism

This was the second meeting between Reagan and the Pope after their first encounter at the Vatican in 1981. The two leaders further met in Miami in 1987 and again at the Vatican in the same year. What made these meeting the centre of attention is the fact that both of them shared a common goal – the end of Communism. 

Reports claimed that these meetings were held in private, and so the specific details of their conversations remain largely unknown.

However, the relationship developed between the president and the pontiff through these meetings is considered to be a major contributing factor to the fall of Communism in Central Europe and the ensuing collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Reagan and the Pope held Soviet communism as a great source of evil in the world, which was destroying human freedom and dignity. Their anti-communism stand was so poignant that some experts argue that the term ‘Holy Alliance’ aptly describes the relationship between the two.

“The diplomacy between President Reagan and Saint Pope John Paul II contributed to the downfall of communism and the freedom that the modern world enjoys today, and it’s important we remember and celebrate their lasting impact,” Melissa Giller, chief marketing officer of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute, said in a statement last year, ahead of the launch of an exhibition by the institute, titled ‘The Pope and the President: Bringing Hope to the World’.

Both Reagan and the Pope believed that “Communism in the eastern bloc could come to an end—not sustained through conflict resolution methods, not defeated through war, but rather transformed peacefully”, according to a Crux report.

It’s a stark irony that Putin, who described the fall of the Soviet Union as the “disintegration of historical Russia” and "the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century”, flew down to Alaska to discuss peace with one of the vociferous successors of Reagan.