Remembering Pope John Paul II
Regardless of your religious views, all freedom-loving people owe him a debt of gratitude.
I haven't read the Peggy Noonan book yet -- but if you are interested in learning more about how his leadership helped win the cold war -- I do highly recommend John O'Sullivan's excellent book, The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister.
One of the things this book highlights is how the Pope was able to undermine Communism from a moral perspective. In many ways, this was more effective than military threats, because it created internal dissent.
In fact, as O'Sullivan reveals in his book, internal KGB reports confirm that the Soviets initially believed John Paul II was "installed" by Ntl. Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, in an attempt to undermine the Soviets.