Back in June when I walked into Grosvenor Square I saw this Statue of Ronald Reagan on a plinth outside the former US Embassy in Grosvenor Square, London with the statue bound in plastic sacking and red cord.
For those not familiar with Reagan, he was President of the United States Of America from 1981 to 1989. He had an interesting history in that apart from being a film actor he was an activist for and president of the Screen Actors Guild before moving into mainstream politics.
Two Presidents
Now the statue is unveiled and so is the one of Dwight D. Eisenhower at the other side of the Square. Eisenhower was president of the United States from 1953 to 1961 and his reputation has only grown over the years.
His rank as the overall commander of the Allied Forces in the D-Day landings an onward to bring WWII to an end is part of that. But also his stance on the danger of the military-industrial complex subverting democracy in the USA. I wonder what he would think of today’s world?
The shiny material of which the statues are cast reminds me of the liquid metal of which the T-1000 Terminator, in the 1991 film Terminator 2: Judgment Day, was made.
Note the eagle on top of the building that is now the Grosevnor Hotel. I wonder why the eagle remains, given that The US Embassy moved from Grosvenor Square to Nine Elms on the South Bank of the Thames in 2018?
Maybe it is a symbolic anchor for the statues that now stand in front of a hotel rather than an embassy. I wonder whether they are annoyed at being left behind to adorn a hotel?
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