presidents.
Reagan brought a Republican majority to the Senate on his coattails—a rarity at that point in American politics. Once elected, he had what it took to carry his agenda through Congress, including a partisan Democratic House. With the Oval Office secured, he attracted and assembled a team of capable advisers. With staff in place, he signed documents and made final decisions. Administration policy, up and down, side to side, was structured around his core beliefs, his conservatism, and his preferences.
Thus, even if Ronald Reagan never had an original idea to contribute to Cold War strategy, even if he sat motionless in meetings, the electoral triumph alone would be enough to make him the most important factor in any Reagan administration Cold War victory. The reality, however, is that he did contribute, and very much so.
9. Ruth Graybill quoted in Swarbrick, ed., Remembering Ronald Reagan, 7. 10. Kiron Skinner, Annelise Anderson, and Martin Anderson, eds., Reagan: A Life in Letters (New York: Free Press, 2003), 10.
11. Ronald Reagan with Richard Hubler, Where’s the Rest of Me? (New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1965), 23; and Reagan letter to Mrs. John B. White, Peoria, Illinois, October 5, 1982, in Skinner, Anderson, and Anderson, eds., Reagan: A Life in Letters, 11.
12. Reagan and Hubler, Where’s the Rest of Me?, 23.
13. Burrel J. Reynolds quoted in Swarbrick, ed., Remembering Ronald Reagan, 7. 14. Reagan and Hubler, Where’s the Rest of Me?, 21. Ron Reagan, “My Father’s Memories,” 110.
15. Reagan speaking on “Ronald Reagan: A Legacy Remembered,” History Channel productions, 2002.
16. This fact is not widely known. Reagan once shared it with Joseph A. Pecoraro, president of the U.S. Lifesaving Association, during a July 17, 1986 meeting in the Oval Office. Interview with Joseph Pecoraro, October 6, 2004; and letter from Pecoraro published in American Lifeguard, the official newsletter/publication of the U.S. Lifesaving Association, Autumn 1986.
17. In the early 1930s in Des Moines, Reagan reportedly saved one or two swimmers at the popular Camp Dodge pool, a spot where he cooled off frequently. Renda Lutz, “Ronald ‘Dutch’ Reagan got his big break while living in DM,” Des Moines Register, June 15, 2004. On the latter: On July 4, 1967, Reagan hosted a staff garden party around the pool of the governor’s residence in Sacramento in celebration of the completion of the legislative session. As the adults drank cocktails, chatted, and laughed, Dixon’s former star lifeguard, now fifty-six years old and 2,000 miles west, could not help but keep an eye on the water. While he spoke to acquaintances, he privately tracked submersion times of kids dropping in and out of the water. A little girl quietly sank to the bottom. A fully dressed Reagan dashed along the concrete and plunged into the pool. The shocked guests tried to comprehend what was happening. Dutch emerged with her in his arms, gently sat her poolside, and, as a surviving picture attests, smilingly comforted her as his wet, wrinkled clothes stuck to his body. Ron Reagan, speaking on “Ronald Reagan: A Legacy Remembered,” History Channel productions, 2002; and Morris, Dutch, 352–53. 18. Reagan and Hubler, Where’s the Rest of Me?, 21; and Ron Reagan, “My Father’s Memories,” 111.
19. For a rescue that Reagan made on turf in Iowa, see Anne Edwards, Early Reagan: The Rise to Power (New York: Morrow, 1987), 138; and Lutz, “Ronald ‘Dutch’ Reagan got his big break while living in DM,” June 15, 2004. For another, amusing example of Reagan’s physical daring, see Reagan’s tight-wire act, in William F. Buckley, Jr., “Reagan: A Relaxing View,” National Review, November 28, 1967.
20. Interview with Bill Clark, July 17, 2003.
21. While all seventy-seven may not have died, many (perhaps even most) were in serious trouble, often at risk of death. On a separate matter, I’ve discussed Reagan’s many rescues with a number of lifeguards and lifeguard organizations. Some lifeguards have admitted never saving a single life, whereas others relay actual incidents where a single lifeguard did a dozen or more rescues in a single day. Interviews with lifeguard Matt Scheff, June 5, 2003, and B. Chris Brewster, director, United States Lifesaving Association, October 5, 2004.
22. Paul Kengor,
23. Ronald Reagan, An American Life (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990), 20–21. Reagan added on Nelle: “If something went wrong, she said, you didn’t let it get you down: You stepped away from it, stepped over it, and moved on.” Later on, “something good will happen and you’ll find yourself thinking—‘If I hadn’t had that problem back then, then this better thing that did happen wouldn’t have happened to me.’”
24. On the ‘Teflon Presidency,” see Peter B. Levy, Encyclopedia of the Reagan-Bush Years (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996), 359.
25. Melor Sturua, “Apologizing or Squirming? The US President Tries to Maneuver,”
26. U.S. Ambassador to the USSR Jack Matlock said of Reagan: “[H]is confidence did lead him to take chances because he felt the Soviet system could change.” Published in William C. Wohlforth, ed.,
president March 1947 (replacing Robert Montgomery), and resigned as president on June 6,
1960. See Anne Edwards, Early Reagan, 494. On the life membership card: This took place November 9, 1952. See “Radio and Television,” New York Times, November 10, 1952, A32. 13. Reagan, “Interview with the President,” December 27, 1981.
14. Meroney, “Rehearsals for a Lead Role.”
15. Reagan,
16. This has been described in many accounts, including Reagan’s own autobiographies, An American Life and Where’s the Rest of Me. Among the better accounts are those by Anne Edwards in her Early Reagan and the excellent research of Stephen Vaughn in his Stephen Vaughn, Ronald Reagan in Hollywood: Movies and Politics (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 124–26.
17. Ron and Allis Radosh,
18. “The Refugees Still Wait,” The New York Times, October 5, 1947, E8. 19. The figure was at least $100 million annually, in addition to the services of the U.S. soldiers. The camps were also located in Britain, Canada, Belgium, and Latin America. “Marshall Says DP Exit Would Ease U.S.–Russian Friction in Europe,” New York Times, July 17, 1947, A6.
20. “U.S. Opposes Soviet on the Displaced,” New York Times, November 4, 1947, A5. 21. “Marshall Says DP Exit Would Ease U.S.–Russian Friction in Europe,” New York Times, July 17, 1947, A6.
22. “Rosenwald Urges U.S. to Take DP’s,” New York Times, May 13, 1947, A8.
23. “Bill on Displaced Faces Stiff Fight,” New York Times, May 18, 1947, A29.
24. “Clark Urges U.S. to Take Refugees,” New York Times, July 19, 1947, A5.
25. “Law Change Urged to Admit Refugees,” New York Times, April 2, 1947, A11.
26. “Reagan Backs Bill for DP’s,” New York Times, May 8, 1947, A5.
27. John Howard Lawson, Film in the Battle of Ideas (Masses & Mainstream, 1953). See Marvin Olasky, “Reagan: A wonderful life,” World magazine, February 7, 2004, 52. 28. This is not the place to debate the subsequent blacklist and the Hollywood Ten. That is a separate discussion.
29. “Star Witnesses,” Newsweek, November 3, 1947, 23–25.
30. Reagan, “Testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee,” October 25, 1947.
31. Quoted by Vaughn, Ronald Reagan in Hollywood, 166.
32. “Film Stars’ Lawyer Hits Kangaroo Court,” Daily Worker, October 24, 1947, 3. (Note: the date may have been misprinted.)
33. Anne Edwards, Early Reagan, 350.
34. Schweizer, Reagan’s War, 25–27, 33.
35. Gladwin Hill, “Reagan Weighing a New Role in Gubernatorial Race on Coast,” The New York Times, January 23, 1965.
36. Meroney, “Rehearsals for a Lead Role.”
37. Quoted in Vaughn, Ronald Reagan in Hollywood, 141.
38. Vaughn, Ronald Reagan in Hollywood, 144.
39. This line and anecdote has been widely quoted. Hayden’s HUAC testimony, April 10, 1951; McCoogan, “How the Commies Were Licked,” New York Times, April 11, 1951, 14; and Vaughn, Ronald Reagan in Hollywood,
