Starts with Reagan leaving the White House with Nancy after eight years in power, having handed the Presidency to Bush (yes, the Senior one) who is also from the same party.
The author clearly does not think much of what he did in the years and the rest of the book is dedicated to proving that he was not all that many people thought he was.
You quickly find out quite a few interesting facts about Reagan. Like everyone else, he had his flaws and strengths. The author talks about his poor upbringing with a deadbeat father, his unfailing optimism and his phenomenal memory for anecdotes and inspirational quotes. As warm and comforting as he was with those around him, making him popular all through his life, he did not seem to pay attention once they left his circle. This included the grown up children from the first marriage. He also seemed not to know the title of the book he was currently reading; his talks were peppered with anecdotes that he collected from Readers Digest and other sources, not bothering about the veracity of such stories.
He also did not seem to have a great grasp of complex policy matters, using cue cards in his left pocket to look up what he wrote about important matters. He believed in the manifest destiny of America, he preached the wonders of free markets and small government. He also believed in psychic phenomena and fate. He was willing to share credit for his achievements but never ready to admit his mistakes.
When he became President, he was seventy and was near sighted and hard of hearing. As his hearing deteriorated, he concentrated on lip reading. He was easily bored and if the subject did not interest him, frequently nodded off.
When Reagan convinces himself and his friends to stand for the Governer of California, the incumbent, Pat Brown has his team working behind the scenes to ensure that he becomes the Republican candidate! This is because he feels that Reagan has no chance at all with his inexperience, ‘an actor after all’, to beat him. But the fact comes out before the elections and – among other things – tarnishes Pat.
It is shocking to see how Reagan seemingly confused Hollywood movie scenes for real life military drama and quoted these to senior generals – and also articles on Readers Digest. He watched a lot of movies and read Readers Digest diligently. When newspapers tried to fact check many of his stories, they could find no veracity in them.
Another interesting tidbit is that prior to becoming President, Reagan was afraid of flying and traveled by train whenever he could.
Unbelievably, Reagan was great in communication and speeches and even putting people at ease but did not understand – or even try to understand – complex subjects. He was caught out multiple times in Presidential question and answer sessions with the press and wanted everything to be explained in anecdotes, jokes or cartoons.
It is appalling how he did not understand the implications of the decisions he was making as amply demonstrated by the decision to place MX missiles in the worst possible solution because the only logical answer was strongly favoured by his predecessor Jimmy Carter and he die not want anything to do with it.
When faced with all crisis, he ‘hoped’ that everything would come out OK, due to his lifelong, unbounded optimism. His aides shielded as much of it as possible and the author does not hesitate to describe them in detail, even though he was a person close to Reagan and admired him in some ways.
So we can excuse his pathetic defense of Reagan’s intellectual paucity by describing that ‘there are seven kinds of intelligence’ and Reagan was ‘intelligent in some – like interpersonal communication but not in others’. You feel that Reagan was lucky not to be President today, with the constant glare of social media enlarging all your gaffes.
The image of Reagan in the minds of most folks is that he is a consummate politician and in some circles, ‘the Gipper’ is considered the epitome of the Republican presidents and is even credited with engineering the collapse of the Soviet Union. Reading this intimate biography, you see a very different President emerge – one who hoped for the best in every situation and did not read his briefings for an international summit because ‘Sound of Music’ was being broadcast the night before. He was extremely fond of ‘short working hours’ lots of vacations and did not strain to understand the workings of the government machinery or even the complexities of the issues on which he was to make a decision. Almost like the Simpson caricature in the movie!
A disclaimer : I am not anti Reagan or anti Republican in my leanings; nor is the author, who has written multiple books on Reagan and knows him well by his own admission. I am simply stating the conclusions you as a rational reader would reach if you read the book with no preconceived bias for or against the individual.
Also surprising is how much influence Nixon had in the appointments in 1980.
The other fact that amazes is that his reading was light (Readers Digest was a favourite and some pulp magazines were too). But whatever he heard from anyone or read from any source – authenticated or not – he tended to believe as true. He was guileless and did not expect that people would deliberately lie to him to advance their agenda! Many in the White House used this to advance their own agenda.
Though he was very sympathetic and charming when he spoke to you, he did not have any close ties with anyone, however loyal they were to him. Once they left, they never figured in his life and they did not get even a phone call ever after.
He had on the other hand, great charm, a sunny and disarming personality and an astounding ability to put you at ease and get you predisposed to like him. His humour, often self deprecating, was a great advantage.
The details, unless you are very interested in deep machinations of Reagan’s team, may be boring. The author talks about the Social Security reform that a bipartisan committee recommended and how his White House staff (James Baker among them) talked him out of it.
More surprises abound. Reagan was a starry eyed idealist, who was convinced that communism was doomed and also wanted to fully eliminate nuclear arsenal but had no idea how to get there. He is credited with ‘Star Wars’ program that finally caused the Soviet empire to crumble unable to keep up with the Americans but he had not even a basic concept of what a Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI nicknamed Star Wars by critics) could do. It was a warning system but not a protective umbrella and he did not realize it for a long time.
So, it was circumstances that played into his hand and got him the credit, in retrospect. Even many Americans thought that the SDI will destroy incoming missiles (In 1986 US did not have anything close to the technology needed). Were the Soviets persuaded too, causing Gorbachev to take steps that resulted in the crumbling of the Soviet Union?
He made a speech in England that seemed to accurately predict the collapse of Soviet Union (which happened seven and a half years later) and also correctly chose Poland as the example of where it may begin. But this was his starry eyed idealism based on his convictions and helped along by pulp novels he had read (‘The Day The Earth Stood Still’ being one of them) rather than a coherent strategy. He did not seem interested in the basics or mechanics of the decisions he himself took when presented to him but seemed to be swayed by the argument of the ‘last person among his aides who met him’!
For all that he was a great speaker, charmer, and raconteur. Even annoyingly so, as when discussing serious and weighty topics, he used to launch into an anecdote (only 50% of the time even tangentially relevant to the topic of discussion).
He presided by gut instinct and many times it served him well. When Paul Volcker angered most of the Senate by his harsh measures that increased the pain to the common folks by worsening the inflation he inherited (‘from the Carter administration’ as he pointedly indicated in his speeches) he did not waver and backed Volcker to the hilt. It did work in the end, bringing stability and taming inflation.
The fiasco of – first – Nicaragua where Reagan sends money to people trying to overthrow the Sandinista government is well told. Reagan tries to keep it secret with slush funds and CIA and, when that was exposed and the House denies further funding, turns to other countries to fund it secretly, Saudi Arabia being a main benefactor (Prince Bandar, the ambassador to US and KIng Fahd were on board).
Even more shocking is Israel’s open defiance after invading Lebanon to oust PLO. Reagan is unable to convince Begin, the then Prime Minister of Israel to back off. The Prime Minister elect, Christian Leader Gemayel is assassinated (by suspected PLO operatives). His brother, Amin, placed in his stead proves totally ineffective. Moreover, he only favours the Christian side angering the Muslims and others. Iran creates a proxy in the form of Hizbollah and Syria walks in to protect its interests. Reagan makes a decision to have Israel withdraw. In the meanwhile, after bombing Lebanon indiscriminately which results in loss of several innocent civilian death in Lebanon, the popular opinion in Israel turns against continuing the invasion and Begin is replaced by his successor. Reagan hatches a plan to have Israel and Syria, along with Palestine, leave Lebanon – without consulting Syria at all. Hafez Assad, the President of Syria scorns the accord and refuses to leave.
After the entire populace of Lebanon bar the Christians turn against Lebanese PM Amin because he was only favouring the Christian faction, the military and also the Secretary of State Weinberger advise Regan to pull out the Marines he sent in – as they are surrounded by hostile forces and are not producing any benefit. On the advise of Baker and xxx, Regan decides to leave them in which is the worst decision he could have taken as a terrorist attack kills more than six hundred US Marines in one shot. It is a major fiasco for the Regan administration.
His invasion of Grenada seems to succeed, saving him from total ignominy and helping him win the 1984 reelection.
He often confused his movie set experiences for real life experiences and embarrassingly quoted them as such with visiting foreign dignitaries. He was fond of his mountaintop ranch and spent (not cumulatively) almost a whole year in vacations in his years in the White House!
He was gaffe prone but managed to charm Americans into voting him for reelection in a landslide that stunned the nation – and the democrats.
His second term started with a disaster. His able team of Deaver, Clark, Baker, Darman and Ed Meese departed. Don Regan who was ambitious was made the Chief of Staff and disasters followed one after the other right after his reelection. First was the foolish decision for Reagan to visit a military cemetery during his visit to Germany where SS army officers were buried. Even after a firestorm of protest from both his friends in the Jewish community as well as several congress members, Reagan insisted on visiting it which caused him great political harm.
On top of that, both Reagan and Nancy were superstitious. Nancy liked to consult astrologers for auspicious times for Reagan to undertake key activities (including debates or major visits) and Reagan used to throw salt over his shoulders, knocked on wood and carried a good luck penny.
The story goes into the horrifying details of all of Reagan’s blunders in the next term. First trying to clandestinely help the resistance fighters of Nicaragua (Contras) overthrow the government; When that funding was cut, trying to get the Saudis to pay for it. While protesting his opposition to terrorism and proclaiming that ‘he will never negotiate with terrorists’ doing just that with Iran under Khomeini – supplying lots of arms for an unkept promise of releasing the American hostages. The plan was so bad that Iranians took full advantage of the simplicity of US team and milked them for a lot of arms – to use against Iraqis in the Iran Iraq was, while US was supposed to be on the Iraqi side due to US Arab solidarity! – and not even releasing more than one or two captives, which they replaced immediately by kidnapping more US citizens from Lebanon!!
When this came to light, Reagan’s speeches defending the policy were gaffe prone and not even accurate. Even the American people, in thrall of the Gipper ‘the great communicator’ were totally unconvinced.
Some of his aids even went to prison for lying to Congress when the investigation. Reagan was really clueless but then ignored persistent opposition from both Schulz and Casey who tried to warn Reagan that this is a ‘dangerous option to pursue’. You, the reader, are shocked as much by the gullibility of the American Presidential team in coming up with one of the worst deals in his Presidential term but also trying to hide it from the legislature – including Republicans in both houses!
When the scandal erupts regarding ‘arms for hostages’ for Iran and for ‘proceeds illegally diverted to the contras’, Reagan is still adamant in denial. However, many of his coterie realize that this is extremely damaging and can even result in impeachment of the President. He is forced to make a speech acknowledging major mistakes and this just about saves his skin.
Fascinating stuff. If you are not interested in such deep analysis (this reminds me of a more recent book on Brexit that we have reviewed: All Out War by Tim Shipman) then I suppose you would be bored.
But this has to be one of the most detailed description of the entire Reagan presidency. The author, though by self confession close to Reagan, does not spare the man when writing this book. He is mercilessly neutral (or appears to be, to my layman eyes).
He goes deep into Gorbachev and Reagan’s SALT negotiations and how they signed a INF to eliminate medium range missiles. The irony is that the conservatives in parliament hated it because ‘it reduces US influence in Europe’ as they do not “need US” that much anymore to defend them. Even Kissinger – perhaps out of pique that he had no role to play in this – opposed it.
The final summit in Moscow is told as it was : an anticlimax after the INF agreement was signed. The immense popularity of Gorbachev in US and Reagan in Russia is explained.
This book definitely gives a close up look of the man and the President. The author does not leave out the bad decisions and even the weak points of Reagan. The White House staff and their nature, triumphs and blunders are all laid bare to read.
A great book if you are interested in the minutiae of Reagan’s presidency and his legacy.
8/10
== Krishna
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