The Crusader

The New York Times’ columnist Anthony Lewis, one of many on the political left not respectful of Reagan’s mind, who usually assumed the worst, said, “There’s this mystery to Reagan that pervades everything, which is how much was he aware of what he was doing?”¹¹

This book will show that the correct answer, as related to Reagan and the Cold War specifically, was provided by Reagan foreign-policy adviser Richard V. Allen, who said candidly that “the key factor in the winning side’s team,” meaning the United States in winning the Cold War, “was the president himself.”¹² Allen’s assessment, unlike that of Lewis, had the advantage of proximity. Unlike the pundits, Allen actually interacted with Reagan on a daily basis for years, both before and during the White House period. That was even truer for Judge William P. “Bill” Clark, former Reagan national security adviser, right-hand man, and close friend. Going further than Allen, Clark has often said that Reagan “will be remembered by those of us who worked with him in Sacramento and Washington as being far wiser than his Cabinet and his staff combined.”¹³

Historians can debate those claims to the letter. Not debatable were contemporary charges like this from Gary Paul Gates and CBS News’ Bob Schieffer in their book, The Acting President: “Ronald Reagan had very little to do with his administration and the issues that came before it.” The evidence overwhelmingly proves that that assertion was simply not accurate.¹⁴ Likewise inaccurate, and reflective of much partisan thinking at the time, was a December 8, 1986 Time feature titled “How Reagan Stays Out of Touch.” It ran as a news article, not an opinion piece. The article declared:

[Reagan’s] briefing with his senior staff, which mainly concerns his daily schedule, lasts only about thirty minutes, and Reagan usually remains quiet, except for his trademark bantering. It is followed by a briefing from his national security council staff that is usually even shorter. When National Security Council staffers prepare Reagan for a full-fledged meeting of the NSC, the President typically does not ask any questions about the topic at hand; instead he inquires, “What do I have to say?”…

Reagan’s reading is not heavy…. Old friends and cronies have access to a special private White House post office box number and they can send him clippings that they think might strike his fancy. That box number is the source of many of Reagan’s familiar “factoids,” snippets clipped from obscure publications.

Reagan is not notably curious. His aides say he rarely calls them with a question and that he knows in only a vague way what they actually do.¹⁵ He does not sit down with his advisers to hammer out policy decisions. He is happiest when his aides form a consensus, something they try awfully hard to do….

He sees himself less as an originator of policy than as the chief marketer of it…. [Reagan] can work only if he is supported by a competent and active staff. During his first term, Chief of Staff James Baker protected Reagan from his woollier notions and helped put many of his ideals into practice. When Baker and Donald Regan pulled off their White House shuffle in January 1985, with a typically detached Reagan looking on like a bemused bystander, the new chief of staff proclaimed that his primary goal was to let Reagan be Reagan.¹⁶

By that point in this astounding article, Time readers understood the danger of letting Reagan be Reagan: the president might not be able to find his desk.

Today, many journalists, like many academics, have stepped back, allowed their emotions and partisan inclinations to cool, taken a careful look at the record, and see Reagan much differently. “Ronald Reagan was not the person that I thought he was when I was covering him in the early 1980s,” says Washington Post reporter Don Oberdorfer, who has written a book on the period.¹⁷ His is far from an isolated judgment. Many long-time Reagan critics, some of the harshest among them, seem to have softened or outright changed. Historian Garry Wills now states:

Part of Reagan’s legacy is what we do not see now. We see no Berlin Wall. He said, “Tear down this wall,” and it was done. We see no Iron Curtain. In fact, we see no Soviet Union. He called it an Evil Empire, and it evaporated overnight…. Admittedly, Reagan did not accomplish all this by fiat. But it was more than coincidence that the fall began on his watch.¹⁸

There is hyperbole here, particularly Wills’ suggestion of immediate causality. Yet, curtains and empires fell, as Reagan expected. It is striking that a Reagan critic to Wills’ degree, who seemed to have no respect for Reagan,¹⁹ now grants so much credit.

The biggest surprise, especially to Reagan conservatives, has been the reevaluation of the fortieth president by academics. Reagan has received quite fair, favorable reviews by top presidential scholars and historians— names like Thomas Mann, Sidney Milkis, John W. Sloan, David Mervin, Stephen Skowronek, James T. Patterson, Robert Dallek, Matthew Dallek, and Alonzo Hamby, to cite a few.²⁰ George Mason University’s Hugh Heclo maintains that Reagan was a “man of ideas” in the estimable company of Jackson, Madison, and Jefferson.²¹ There are similar appraisals from giants like Harvard’s dean of presidential scholars, the late Richard Neustadt, from popular historian and Pulitzer Prize–winner David McCullough, and from John Lewis Gaddis, the leading Cold War historian.²² Reagan is even faring well in certain surveys of academics, nearly all of whom—like most to all of the aforementioned names—are politically liberal.²³

There are many reasons for this rising Reagan.²⁴ Importantly, Ronald Reagan’s Cold War success—now widely attributed to more than luck—heads the list. And yet, as the pages ahead show, there is much to learn about the man’s Cold War achievement.

PART I The Early Years

1. Rock River Rescuer

STEPPING OUT OF HIS HOUSE THE MORNING OF AUGUST 2, 1928, Ronald “Dutch” Reagan was expecting another scorcher. As he walked across the street to the Graybills’ to catch his ride to the river, he noticed that it was yet another muggy Thursday in Dixon, Illinois. It was a typical midsummer afternoon in the Midwest, humid beyond any reasonable expectation, and with the advent of air-conditioning still years in the distance, the best form of escape could be found in a Ford automobile with windows open amid a breezy drive to the river at Lowell Park.

At Lowell, there were shady trees, cool water, and people, all kept under the watchful eye of seventeen- year-old Dutch Reagan. Already tall, he hovered above the swimmers in a ten-foot-high chair perched on the grassy banks, making himself a beacon for all to see. His height was emblematic of his swimming prowess, and a key factor in his swimming successes. At the YMCA in January, Reagan had sprinted to victory in the 110-yard freestyle by a half-length of the pool. When competing in the annual Water Carnival at the Rock River on Labor Day, he took first in the longest competition—the 220-yard River Swim.¹ He still holds the record for swimming fastest from the park entrance to the river’s farthest bank and back. So adept were his swimming skills that he was allegedly approached by an Olympic scout who invited him to work out with the team preparing for the 1932 games—an offer Reagan said he refused because he could not give up his summer pay.²

On this August day, the river’s rough waters and undertows were particularly active. Scattered throughout the choppy waters were hundreds of swimmers, and through the spectacles that rested atop his nose, Dutch gazed at the clusters of people, aware that he could not slack off for a moment. Reagan’s regular pattern for patrolling the waters was tested on such a chaotic summer afternoon. According to the Dixon Telegraph, on a day like this Ronald Reagan often single-handedly watched over 1,000 bathers at a time, with no assistant.³

His most difficult concerns were toddlers who ventured too far out (there were legions of them) and adults