[AP] Former President Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy in a 1992 photo. Please sign our guestbook Up next for Nancy Reagan: tending her Ronnie's flame A patriot's last journey A studio snapshot becomes a treasure Farewells to a friend Her brush with future greatness Revisiting a 'shining city on a hill' D.C. reminisces about its own The great and the small pay their respects Wall Street pays tribute Final sendoff Media's praise of Reagan may soon subside Cheney praises Reagan's hope Day of mourning is day off for some Remembrance - and respects Solemn capital pauses in praise More than 80,000 make Reagan trek Mourners gather for first of farewells Reagan fueled stampede to GOP America's Warrior Europe: 'It is due to him that we are free' RELATED COVERAGE INTERACTIVES Portrait of a President Timeline: Illinois to the White House Reagan's life in pictures Go to an online pictorial glimpse of the life and careers of Ronald Reagan

Europe: 'It is due to him that we are free'

VIENNA, Austria - Leaders, former dissidents and ordinary citizens across eastern Europe expressed gratitude to Ronald Reagan for helping to end decades of "evil empire" communism and Cold War-era oppression.

Most of the region threw off communist rule in 1989, the year Reagan retired from a presidency marked by determination to loosen the grip of the Soviet Union through diplomacy, an intimidating space-based nuclear missile defense system and unrelenting appeals to the masses via Radio Free Europe.

As the world paused to remember the sacrifices of Allied troops 60 years ago on D-day, leaders such as former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban reflected on Reagan's influence in bringing democracy to those starved for it behind the Iron Curtain.

"Hungary and Europe do not forget Ronald Reagan's help and his support for the former communist countries," Orban, 41, told the Associated Press on Saturday.

In 1983, Reagan stunned the world by denouncing the Kremlin as an "evil empire" whose nuclear arsenal threatened the globe.

Throughout, the Reagan administration devoted manpower and cash to quietly expanding its contacts in Eastern bloc countries such as Poland and Czechoslovakia.

"He is the one who allowed the breakup of the Soviet Union. May God rest his soul," said Bogdan Chireac, a foreign affairs analyst for the Romanian newspaper Adevarul.

Reagan appointed a deputy secretary of state to shuttle in and out of the region and encouraged others to do the same. He poured millions of dollars into programming by Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, using the airwaves to encourage fledgling prodemocracy movements like Poland's Solidarity.

"During his administration, U.S. citizens at all levels and of all walks of life - politicians, senators, journalists, academics - systematically and repeatedly were visiting Czechoslovakia and other communist countries, meeting the dissidents and the opposition," former Czech dissident Jiri Dienstbier told the AP.

"Their open support was very important for our safety and for our position in society," he said.

As his presidency wound down, Reagan lashed out at communism in eastern Europe as "an artificial economic and political system, long imposed on these people against their will."

Within a year, the Berlin Wall fell.

"Mr. Reagan, along with Pope John Paul II, was one of the architects who dismantled communism in eastern Europe and stopped the expansion of the Soviet Union," said Ivo Samson, an analyst with the Slovak Foreign Policy Association.

There were some bumps on the road to freedom.

His administration was criticized by human rights activists for waiting until early 1989, the year the brutal Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was toppled and executed, to withdraw that country's "most favored nation" trade status.

But his speeches, which so often sought to encourage the oppressed while taking aim at their oppressors, stirred a generation.

"For us, Reagan was important because we knew he was really anticommunist, emotionally anticommunist," said Zdenek Kosina, 65, a Czech. "For us, he was a symbol of the United States' genuine determination to bring communism to an end."

Laurentiu Ivan, 35, a customs officer in the Romanian capital, struggled to describe Reagan's legacy and then said: "It is due to him that we are free."

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