4, RRL. This is taken from a Reagan radio broadcast titled simply “Miscellaneous I.” For a full transcript, see Skinner, Anderson, and Anderson, eds., Reagan, In His Own Hand, 104–5.
34. Reagan was again on cue in a 1980 interview with the Associated Press: “They [the Soviets] know our industrial strength. They know our capacity. The one card that’s been missing in these negotiations has been the possibility of an arms race. Now the Soviets have been racing, but with no competition. No one else is racing. And so I think we’d get a lot farther at the table if they know that as they continue, they’re faced with our industrial capacity and all that we can do.” In James S. Brady, ed., Ronald Reagan: A Man True to His Word (Washington: The National Federation of Republican Women, 1984), 38–39.
Also see speech written by Reagan and delivered in Chicago, August 18, 1980. Text available at Reagan Presidential Library. Reagan-Bush 1980 Campaign Papers, 1979–80, Box 949. Analyzing the late 1970s record with access to more original documents than anyone else has had, Kiron Skinner (in a piece for National Interest) stated that Reagan believed “that Russia’s inefficient economy and inferior technology ultimately could not survive competition with the United States over armaments. He discussed his hypothesis repeatedly, in his daily radio broadcasts and bi-weekly newspaper columns in the late 1970s.”
35. “Reagan: ‘It Isn’t Only Washington…,’” National Journal, March 8, 1980, 392. 36. Lou Cannon, “Arms Boost Seen as Strain on Soviets,” Washington Post, June 19, 1980, A3. Among others, see Reagan, “Remarks and a Question-and-Answer Session via Satellite to Republican Campaign Events,” October 14, 1982.
37. Cannon oral-history testimony at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. Kenneth W. Thompson, ed., Leadership in the Reagan Presidency, Pt II: Eleven Intimate Perspectives (Lanham, MD: United Press of America, 1993), 59, 65.
38. Lou Cannon in Hofstra conference (1993) proceedings, 468–69.
39. Letter in Skinner, Anderson, and Anderson, eds., Reagan: A Life in Letters, 374–75.
40. Reagan, “Acceptance Speech at Republican National Convention,” July 17, 1980.
41. Thomas C. Reed, At the Abyss: An Insider’s History of the Cold War (New York: Presidio, 2005), 234– 35.
42. Schweizer, Reagan’s War, 215–16.
43. Michael Deaver, A Different Drummer: My Thirty Years with Ronald Reagan (New York: HarperCollins, 2001), 76–77.
44. Earl Dunckel in oral-history testimony, April 27, 1982. RRL, Oral History Testimony (OHT), Volume 31, Box 7, 19.
45. John Sears, “A Man Who Knows Himself,” Washington Post, July 13, 1980, E7.
46. George F. Will, “The best do not linger,” op-ed, Washington Post, August 20, 1995.
47. Quoted by Larry Berman in Berman, ed., Looking Back on the Reagan Presidency (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990), 7. This was not the first time he used such a line. At the December 1987 Washington Summit, a reporter noticed a gaggle of media fawning over Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, while Reagan strangely appeared off alone with no one interested in him. Asked if he felt upstaged by Gorbachev, Reagan replied: “Good Lord, no. I’ve been on the same stage with Errol Flynn.” Reagan, “Remarks and a Question-and-Answer Session With Area High School Seniors,” Jacksonville, Florida, December 1, 1987.
48. Interview with Ben Elliott, September 20, 2001.
49. Peter W. Rodman, More Precious Than Peace (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons), 234.
50. Commentator Fred Barnes adds that, “One of the amazing things about Reagan, and one of the traits that is the least commented on, was his amazing ability to just block out the buzz in Washington and in the rest of the world for that matter.” Kenneth W. Thompson, ed., Leadership in the Reagan Presidency: Seven Intimate Perspectives (Lanham, MD: Madison Books, 1992), 96.
51. Dinesh D’Souza, Ronald Reagan: How an Ordinary Man Became an Extraordinary Leader (New York: Free Press, 1997), 236. D’Souza’s work is a solid source on the confidence issue.
52. By Delchamps’ description, “I spent a lot of time in the campaign, with the Reagan people and the people running the campaign.” Interview with Ollie Delchamps, May 7, 2004. During the Reagan presidency, Delchamps became chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Delchamps was not chairman for the entire Reagan presidency. The “U.S. Chamber,” as it is called, is a private entity that is not a part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Delchamps said he worked “very closely” with the White House. He frequently had lunch with budget director Jim Miller and had “a lot of connections” to the White House, connections he describes in detail. He recalls that the economy was the overriding issue at the start of the Reagan administration. “The economy had to be improved first so we could rebuild the military that Carter had gutted so bad,” said Delchamps, expressing the conventional thinking. “Then that would put us back into the race against the Soviets. That was the thinking. That was the plan.”
53. Callahan chose to share his recollection of the incident with me for a number of reasons: He read and enjoyed my book, God and Ronald Reagan, and also has tremendous respect for Grove City College, the college where I teach and where Callahan sent one of his children. He also learned from God and Ronald Reagan that I was continuing to write a second book on Reagan and the Cold War (this book), and thought his account of his meeting with Delchamps would be of interest to my research. As a result, he called me one day (May 4, 2004) and eagerly shared this story.
54. Interview with Bob Callahan, Sr., May 4, 2004.
55. For the record, Delchamps, now saddled by the enemy of old age, said he could not recall the incident with Callahan. “I’m sorry,” Delchamps told me, “but there are only so many things I can remember.” However, he emphasized, if Callahan “said I said that, then I’m sure I did.” Interview with Ollie Delchamps, May 7, 2004. As noted, Callahan never forgot the incident, and longed to share it. Callahan, a highly respected individual who counts Margaret Thatcher among his personal friends, is certainly credible.
6. Schweizer, Reagan’s War, 141.
7. Interview with Louis H. Evans, February 22, 2006.
8. Evans remembers the gathering place as a kind of “reception room” with a couch and some chairs. He is not sure of the name of the room, but believes it was not part of the White House living quarters. He says that they tracked down Moomaw at a conference that Moomaw had been attending in the Caribbean.
9. For an extended discussion, see Kengor, God and Ronald Reagan.
10. Interview with Louis H. Evans, February 22, 2006.
11. On this, see God and Ronald Reagan. Bill Clark especially stresses the humility element. 12. For a lengthy analysis, see God and Ronald Reagan. The speech was written by Reagan speechwriter Tony Dolan, with few edits from the president. Draft is located in PHF, PS, RRL, Box 1, Folder 7. Reagan, “Address at Commencement at the University of Notre Dame,” South Bend, Indiana, May 17, 1981.
13. For a very early example of this theme, see Reagan, “America the Beautiful,” commencement address, William Woods College, June 1952.
14. This notion of divine challenge is also discussed at length in God and Ronald Reagan.
15. Reagan, “The President’s News Conference,” June 16, 1981.
16. Reagan, “Speech to Members of Platform Committee,” Republican National Convention, July 31, 1968. Speech filed at Reagan Library, “RWR—Speeches and Articles (1968),” vertical files.
17. This is from an October 12, 1972 Reagan speech, titled “The Obligations of Liberty,” in Alfred Balitzer, ed., A Time for Choosing: The Speeches of Ronald Reagan (Chicago: Regnery Gateway, 1983), 98–106.
18. Full text in Skinner, Anderson, and Anderson, eds., Reagan, In His Own Hand, 4–9.
19. Reagan,
20. Reagan, “Address at Commencement Exercises at the United States Military Academy,” May 27, 1981.
21. For an excellent analysis, see Andrew E. Busch, “Ronald Reagan and Economic Policy,” in Kengor and Schweizer, eds., The Reagan Presidency: Assessing the Man and His Legacy (Lanham, MD: Rowman-Littlefield, 2005).
22. Baker, Deaver, Duberstein, and Meese interviewed for CNN documentary, “The Reagan Years: Inside the White House,” Pt. II of series, CNN, February 2001.
23. “How Reagan Decides,” Time, December 13, 1982, 12.
24. Reagan, An American Life, 234–35.
25. Ibid., 333.
