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<div id="mw-content-text" lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr" style="direction: ltr;">Ronald Reagan (died June 5, 2004) was the first professional actor to become an American president. A <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Conservative&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Conservative (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">conservative</a> <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Republican" title="Republican" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Republican</a>, he was elected to office in part because of dissatisfaction over a weak economy. Reagan's legacy includes unprecedented federal budget deficits fueled by tax cuts made at the same time the federal budget grew, due to massive increases in military spending (which the <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Soviet_Union" title="Soviet Union" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Soviet Union</a> could not match). Conservatives credit him with winning the <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Cold_War" title="Cold War" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Cold War</a> against the Soviet Union. However, critics fault his involvement in the <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Iran/Contra_scandal" title="Iran/Contra scandal" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Iran-Contra arms scandal</a> and his support for the anti-Soviet <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Mujahideen" title="Mujahideen" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Mujahideen</a> in <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Afghanistan" title="Afghanistan" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Afghanistan</a> (part of which went on to become the basis for <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Osama_bin_Laden" title="Osama bin Laden" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Osama bin Laden</a>'s <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Al_Qaeda" title="Al Qaeda" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Al Qaeda</a>)."Reagan is the one who freed presidential politics from the last vestiges of an obligation to make sense, and quickly ushered in the era where presidents are nothing but products, feel-good media creations that cheerlead for the active governmental maintenance of superstitions and traditional 'values'. He is a saint to people who were desperate to find reasons to feel good about being conservative."—<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://forums.alternet.org/guest/motet?show+-uiksuZ+-hk+Election_2004+13+2338" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) right center no-repeat, url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%2212%22%20height%3D%2212%22%3E%3Cpath%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%20stroke%3D%22%2306c%22%20d%3D%22M1.5%204.518h5.982V10.5H1.5z%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M5.765%201H11v5.39L9.427%207.937l-1.31-1.31L5.393%209.35l-2.69-2.688%202.81-2.808L4.2%202.544z%22%20fill%3D%22%2306f%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M9.995%202.004l.022%204.885L8.2%205.07%205.32%207.95%204.09%206.723l2.882-2.88-1.85-1.852z%22%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); padding-right: 13px;">Jon Tviete</a>.<div id="toc" class="toc" style="background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 7px; display: table; zoom: 1;"><div id="toctitle" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center;"><h2 style="background: none; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border: none; display: inline; line-height: 1.3;">Contents</h2>  [<a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Ronald_Reagan#" id="togglelink" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">hide</a>] </div><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0.3em 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Ronald_Reagan#Tobacco_issues" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1Tobacco issues</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Ronald_Reagan#Published_Works_about_Ronald_Reagan" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2Published Works about Ronald Reagan</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Ronald_Reagan#Related_SourceWatch_Resources" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3Related SourceWatch Resources</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Ronald_Reagan#External_links" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4External links</a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Ronald_Reagan#Profiles" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4.1Profiles</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Ronald_Reagan#Websites" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4.2Websites</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-7" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Ronald_Reagan#By_Ronald_Reagan" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4.3By Ronald Reagan</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-8" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Ronald_Reagan#Articles.26_Commentary" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4.4Articles & Commentary</a></li></ul></li></ul></div><h2 style="background: none; font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 1.3;">Tobacco issues</h2>In 1980, when campaigning to become U.S. President, Reagan wrote to a North Carolina tobacco farmer reassuring him of his strong support for the <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Tobacco_industry" title="Tobacco industry" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">tobacco industry</a>. "I also want to assure you that my Administration will end what has become an increasingly antagonistic relationship between the Federal government and the tobacco industry. The <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Jimmy_Carter" title="Jimmy Carter" class="mw-redirect" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Carter</a> <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Carter_administration" title="Carter administration" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Administration</a> has all too often singled out the tobacco industry for selective criticism and damaging restrictions. … I can guarantee that my own Cabinet members will be far too busy with substantive matters to waste their time proselytizing against the dangers of cigarette smoking," Reagan wrote. <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/giq92f00" style="background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) right center no-repeat, url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%2212%22%20height%3D%2212%22%3E%3Cpath%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%20stroke%3D%22%2306c%22%20d%3D%22M1.5%204.518h5.982V10.5H1.5z%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M5.765%201H11v5.39L9.427%207.937l-1.31-1.31L5.393%209.35l-2.69-2.688%202.81-2.808L4.2%202.544z%22%20fill%3D%22%2306f%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M9.995%202.004l.022%204.885L8.2%205.07%205.32%207.95%204.09%206.723l2.882-2.88-1.85-1.852z%22%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); text-decoration-line: none; padding-right: 13px;">[1]</a>Reagan was featured in advertisements for Chesterfield cigarettes in the 1950s.<a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://tobaccodocuments.org/pollay_ads/Ches06.01.html?ocr_position=hide_ocr" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) right center no-repeat, url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%2212%22%20height%3D%2212%22%3E%3Cpath%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%20stroke%3D%22%2306c%22%20d%3D%22M1.5%204.518h5.982V10.5H1.5z%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M5.765%201H11v5.39L9.427%207.937l-1.31-1.31L5.393%209.35l-2.69-2.688%202.81-2.808L4.2%202.544z%22%20fill%3D%22%2306f%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M9.995%202.004l.022%204.885L8.2%205.07%205.32%207.95%204.09%206.723l2.882-2.88-1.85-1.852z%22%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); padding-right: 13px;">[2]</a><a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://tobaccodocuments.org/pollay_ads/Ches08.04.html?ocr_position=hide_ocr" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) right center no-repeat, url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%2212%22%20height%3D%2212%22%3E%3Cpath%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%20stroke%3D%22%2306c%22%20d%3D%22M1.5%204.518h5.982V10.5H1.5z%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M5.765%201H11v5.39L9.427%207.937l-1.31-1.31L5.393%209.35l-2.69-2.688%202.81-2.808L4.2%202.544z%22%20fill%3D%22%2306f%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M9.995%202.004l.022%204.885L8.2%205.07%205.32%207.95%204.09%206.723l2.882-2.88-1.85-1.852z%22%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); padding-right: 13px;">[3]</a><h2 style="background: none; font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 1.3;">Published Works about Ronald Reagan</h2><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0.5em 1.6em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20version%3D%221.1%22%20width%3D%225%22%20height%3D%2213%22%3E%0A%3Ccircle%20cx%3D%222.5%22%20cy%3D%229.5%22%20r%3D%222.5%22%20fill%3D%22%2300528c%22%2F%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E%0A");"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Lou Cannon, President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime. Public Affairs, <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Special:BookSources/1891620916" class="internal mw-magiclink-isbn" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">ISBN 1891620916</a>.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Lou Cannon, Govenor Reagan: His Rise To Power, Public Affairs, <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Special:BookSources/1586480308" class="internal mw-magiclink-isbn" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">ISBN 1586480308</a>.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Lou Cannon, Ronald Reagan: The Presidential Portfolio, Public Affairs, <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Special:BookSources/1891620843" class="internal mw-magiclink-isbn" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">ISBN 1891620843</a>.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Mark Green and Gail MacColl, There He Goes Again: Ronald Reagan's Reign of Error, Pantheon Books, New York 1983.</li></ul><h2 style="background: none; font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 1.3;">Related SourceWatch Resources</h2><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0.5em 1.6em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20version%3D%221.1%22%20width%3D%225%22%20height%3D%2213%22%3E%0A%3Ccircle%20cx%3D%222.5%22%20cy%3D%229.5%22%20r%3D%222.5%22%20fill%3D%22%2300528c%22%2F%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E%0A");"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/America_is_a_shining_city_upon_a_hill" title="America is a shining city upon a hill" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">America is a shining city upon a hill</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Evil_empire" title="Evil empire" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">evil empire</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Inter-American_Foundation_during_the_Reagan_era" title="Inter-American Foundation during the Reagan era" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Inter-American Foundation during the Reagan era</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Peter_Hannaford" title="Peter Hannaford" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Peter Hannaford</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Reagan_doctrine" title="Reagan doctrine" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Reagan doctrine</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Ronald_Reagan_Presidential_Library" title="Ronald Reagan Presidential Library" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Ronald Reagan Presidential Library</a></li></ul><h2 style="background: none; font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 1.3;">External links</h2><h3 style="background: none; margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: none; line-height: 1.6;">Profiles</h3><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0.5em 1.6em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20version%3D%221.1%22%20width%3D%225%22%20height%3D%2213%22%3E%0A%3Ccircle%20cx%3D%222.5%22%20cy%3D%229.5%22%20r%3D%222.5%22%20fill%3D%22%2300528c%22%2F%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E%0A");"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Wikipedia article on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan" class="extiw" title="w:Ronald Reagan" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Ronald Reagan</a>.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/rr40.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) right center no-repeat, url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%2212%22%20height%3D%2212%22%3E%3Cpath%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%20stroke%3D%22%2306c%22%20d%3D%22M1.5%204.518h5.982V10.5H1.5z%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M5.765%201H11v5.39L9.427%207.937l-1.31-1.31L5.393%209.35l-2.69-2.688%202.81-2.808L4.2%202.544z%22%20fill%3D%22%2306f%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M9.995%202.004l.022%204.885L8.2%205.07%205.32%207.95%204.09%206.723l2.882-2.88-1.85-1.852z%22%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); padding-right: 13px;">Official Whitehouse bio</a>.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.usa-presidents.info/reagan.htm" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) right center no-repeat, url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%2212%22%20height%3D%2212%22%3E%3Cpath%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%20stroke%3D%22%2306c%22%20d%3D%22M1.5%204.518h5.982V10.5H1.5z%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M5.765%201H11v5.39L9.427%207.937l-1.31-1.31L5.393%209.35l-2.69-2.688%202.81-2.808L4.2%202.544z%22%20fill%3D%22%2306f%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M9.995%202.004l.022%204.885L8.2%205.07%205.32%207.95%204.09%206.723l2.882-2.88-1.85-1.852z%22%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); padding-right: 13px;">Ronald Reagan Biography</a>, USA-Presidents.info.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://tobaccodocuments.org/pollay_ads/Ches09.12.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) right center no-repeat, url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%2212%22%20height%3D%2212%22%3E%3Cpath%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%20stroke%3D%22%2306c%22%20d%3D%22M1.5%204.518h5.982V10.5H1.5z%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M5.765%201H11v5.39L9.427%207.937l-1.31-1.31L5.393%209.35l-2.69-2.688%202.81-2.808L4.2%202.544z%22%20fill%3D%22%2306f%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M9.995%202.004l.022%204.885L8.2%205.07%205.32%207.95%204.09%206.723l2.882-2.88-1.85-1.852z%22%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); padding-right: 13px;">Ronald Reagan featured in 1953 advertisement for Chesterfield cigarettes</a>.</li></ul><h3 style="background: none; margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: none; line-height: 1.6;">Websites</h3><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0.5em 1.6em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20version%3D%221.1%22%20width%3D%225%22%20height%3D%2213%22%3E%0A%3Ccircle%20cx%3D%222.5%22%20cy%3D%229.5%22%20r%3D%222.5%22%20fill%3D%22%2300528c%22%2F%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E%0A");"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.ronaldreagan.tk/" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) right center no-repeat, url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%2212%22%20height%3D%2212%22%3E%3Cpath%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%20stroke%3D%22%2306c%22%20d%3D%22M1.5%204.518h5.982V10.5H1.5z%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M5.765%201H11v5.39L9.427%207.937l-1.31-1.31L5.393%209.35l-2.69-2.688%202.81-2.808L4.2%202.544z%22%20fill%3D%22%2306f%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M9.995%202.004l.022%204.885L8.2%205.07%205.32%207.95%204.09%206.723l2.882-2.88-1.85-1.852z%22%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); padding-right: 13px;">RonaldReagan.tk</a> - a pro Reagan website - little in the way of authored content, mostly hot-links to other sites, but many public domain photographs.</li></ul><h3 style="background: none; margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: none; line-height: 1.6;">By Ronald Reagan</h3><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0.5em 1.6em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20version%3D%221.1%22%20width%3D%225%22%20height%3D%2213%22%3E%0A%3Ccircle%20cx%3D%222.5%22%20cy%3D%229.5%22%20r%3D%222.5%22%20fill%3D%22%2300528c%22%2F%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E%0A");"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/giq92f00" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) right center no-repeat, url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%2212%22%20height%3D%2212%22%3E%3Cpath%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%20stroke%3D%22%2306c%22%20d%3D%22M1.5%204.518h5.982V10.5H1.5z%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M5.765%201H11v5.39L9.427%207.937l-1.31-1.31L5.393%209.35l-2.69-2.688%202.81-2.808L4.2%202.544z%22%20fill%3D%22%2306f%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M9.995%202.004l.022%204.885L8.2%205.07%205.32%207.95%204.09%206.723l2.882-2.88-1.85-1.852z%22%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); padding-right: 13px;">"Letter to Mr Galloway,"</a> Bates No TIMN0089856, September 24, 1980.</li></ul><h3 style="background: none; margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: none; line-height: 1.6;">Articles & Commentary</h3><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0.5em 1.6em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20version%3D%221.1%22%20width%3D%225%22%20height%3D%2213%22%3E%0A%3Ccircle%20cx%3D%222.5%22%20cy%3D%229.5%22%20r%3D%222.5%22%20fill%3D%22%2300528c%22%2F%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E%0A");"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.pulitzer.org/bycat/National+Reporting" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) right center no-repeat, url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%2212%22%20height%3D%2212%22%3E%3Cpath%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%20stroke%3D%22%2306c%22%20d%3D%22M1.5%204.518h5.982V10.5H1.5z%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M5.765%201H11v5.39L9.427%207.937l-1.31-1.31L5.393%209.35l-2.69-2.688%202.81-2.808L4.2%202.544z%22%20fill%3D%22%2306f%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M9.995%202.004l.022%204.885L8.2%205.07%205.32%207.95%204.09%206.723l2.882-2.88-1.85-1.852z%22%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); padding-right: 13px;">Michael Kranish and Murray Waas</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://murraywaas.net/murraywaas_irancontra.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) right center no-repeat, url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%2212%22%20height%3D%2212%22%3E%3Cpath%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%20stroke%3D%22%2306c%22%20d%3D%22M1.5%204.518h5.982V10.5H1.5z%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M5.765%201H11v5.39L9.427%207.937l-1.31-1.31L5.393%209.35l-2.69-2.688%202.81-2.808L4.2%202.544z%22%20fill%3D%22%2306f%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M9.995%202.004l.022%204.885L8.2%205.07%205.32%207.95%204.09%206.723l2.882-2.88-1.85-1.852z%22%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); padding-right: 13px;">"Reporters Battle Over Final Report on Iran-Contra," Boston Globe,</a> November 27, 1993.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Robert_Parry" title="Robert Parry" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Robert Parry</a>, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/060704.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) right center no-repeat, url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%2212%22%20height%3D%2212%22%3E%3Cpath%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%20stroke%3D%22%2306c%22%20d%3D%22M1.5%204.518h5.982V10.5H1.5z%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M5.765%201H11v5.39L9.427%207.937l-1.31-1.31L5.393%209.35l-2.69-2.688%202.81-2.808L4.2%202.544z%22%20fill%3D%22%2306f%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M9.995%202.004l.022%204.885L8.2%205.07%205.32%207.95%204.09%206.723l2.882-2.88-1.85-1.852z%22%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); padding-right: 13px;">"Rating Reagan,"</a> Consortiumnews, June 7, 2004.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.economist.com/world/na/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2747437" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) right center no-repeat, url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%2212%22%20height%3D%2212%22%3E%3Cpath%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%20stroke%3D%22%2306c%22%20d%3D%22M1.5%204.518h5.982V10.5H1.5z%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M5.765%201H11v5.39L9.427%207.937l-1.31-1.31L5.393%209.35l-2.69-2.688%202.81-2.808L4.2%202.544z%22%20fill%3D%22%2306f%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M9.995%202.004l.022%204.885L8.2%205.07%205.32%207.95%204.09%206.723l2.882-2.88-1.85-1.852z%22%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); padding-right: 13px;">"Ronald Reagan's Legacy,"</a> The Economist, June 10, 2004. Subscription required.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Robert Parry, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/012907.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) right center no-repeat, url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%2212%22%20height%3D%2212%22%3E%3Cpath%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%20stroke%3D%22%2306c%22%20d%3D%22M1.5%204.518h5.982V10.5H1.5z%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M5.765%201H11v5.39L9.427%207.937l-1.31-1.31L5.393%209.35l-2.69-2.688%202.81-2.808L4.2%202.544z%22%20fill%3D%22%2306f%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M9.995%202.004l.022%204.885L8.2%205.07%205.32%207.95%204.09%206.723l2.882-2.88-1.85-1.852z%22%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); padding-right: 13px;">"Reagan & the Salvadoran Baby Skulls,"</a> Consortiumnews, January 30, 2007.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Jerome Doolittle, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://badattitudes.com/MT/archives/2007/04/bushs_role_mode.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) right center no-repeat, url("data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%2212%22%20height%3D%2212%22%3E%3Cpath%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%20stroke%3D%22%2306c%22%20d%3D%22M1.5%204.518h5.982V10.5H1.5z%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M5.765%201H11v5.39L9.427%207.937l-1.31-1.31L5.393%209.35l-2.69-2.688%202.81-2.808L4.2%202.544z%22%20fill%3D%22%2306f%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M9.995%202.004l.022%204.885L8.2%205.07%205.32%207.95%204.09%206.723l2.882-2.88-1.85-1.852z%22%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E"); padding-right: 13px;">"Bush's Role Model,"</a> Bad Attitudes, April 7, 2007.</li></ul><tdo>resource_id=23777 resource_code=reagan_ronald search_term=Ronald Reagan</tdo></div><div id="catlinks" class="catlinks" data-mw="interface" style="border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249); padding: 5px; margin-top: 1em; clear: both;"><div id="mw-normal-catlinks" class="mw-normal-catlinks"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Special:Categories" title="Special:Categories" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Categories</a>: <ul style="list-style: none none; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; display: inline;"><li style="margin: 0.125em 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.25em; border-left: none; padding: 0px 0.5em 0px 0.25em; zoom: 1;"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Tobaccowiki" title="Category:Tobaccowiki" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Tobaccowiki</a></li><li style="margin: 0.125em 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.25em; border-left: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0px 0.5em; zoom: 1;"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Tobacco_documents_biographies" title="Category:Tobacco documents biographies" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Tobacco documents biographies</a></li><li style="margin: 0.125em 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.25em; border-left: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0px 0.5em; zoom: 1;"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Presidents_of_the_United_States" title="Category:Presidents of the United States" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Presidents of the United States</a></li><li style="margin: 0.125em 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.25em; border-left: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0px 0.5em; zoom: 1;"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Politics(U.S.)" title="Category:Politics (U.S.)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Politics (U.S.)</a></li></ul></div></div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan</a>Ronald Wilson Reagan (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/English" title="Help:IPA/English" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none !important;">/ˈreɪɡən/</a>; February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Presidents_of_the_United_States" title="List of Presidents of the United States" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">40th President of the United States</a> from 1981 to 1989. Prior to the presidency, he had a three-decade career as a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood(film_industry)" class="mw-redirect" title="Hollywood (film industry)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Hollywood</a> actor and union leader before serving as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Governors_of_California" title="List of Governors of California" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">33rd Governor of California</a> from 1967 to 1975.Reagan was raised in a poor family in small towns of northern <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois" title="Illinois" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Illinois</a>. He graduated from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_College" title="Eureka College" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Eureka College</a> in 1932 and worked as a sports announcer on several regional radio stations. After moving to Hollywood in 1937, he became an actor and starred in a few major productions. Reagan was twice elected President of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_Actors_Guild" title="Screen Actors Guild" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Screen Actors Guild</a>—the labor union for actors—where he worked to root out <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Un-American_Activities_Committee" title="House Un-American Activities Committee" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Communist influence</a>. In the 1950s, he moved into television and was a motivational speaker at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Electric" title="General Electric" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">General Electric</a> factories.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#cite_note-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[1]</a> Reagan had always been a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party(United_States)#Liberals" title="Democratic Party (United States)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Democrat</a> until 1962, when he became a conservative and switched to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party(United_States)" title="Republican Party (United States)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Republican Party</a>. In <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1964" title="United States presidential election, 1964" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1964</a>, Reagan's speech, "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Time_for_Choosing" title="A Time for Choosing" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">A Time for Choosing</a>", supported <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Goldwater" title="Barry Goldwater" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Barry Goldwater</a>'s foundering presidential campaign and earned him national attention as a new conservative spokesman. Building a network of supporters, he was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_gubernatorial_election,1966" title="California gubernatorial election, 1966" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">elected Governor of California</a> in 1966. As governor, Reagan raised taxes, turned a state budget deficit to a surplus, challenged the protesters at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California" title="University of California" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">University of California</a>, ordered in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Guard_of_the_United_States" title="National Guard of the United States" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">National Guard</a> troops during a period of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Park(Berkeley)" title="People's Park (Berkeley)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">protest movements</a> in 1969, and was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_gubernatorial_election,1970" title="California gubernatorial election, 1970" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">re-elected in 1970</a>. He twice ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for the U.S. presidency in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1968" title="United States presidential election, 1968" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1968</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1976" title="United States presidential election, 1976" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1976</a>. Four years later in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1980" title="United States presidential election, 1980" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1980</a>, he easily won the nomination outright and became the oldest elected U.S. president up to that time, when he defeated incumbent <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter" title="Jimmy Carter" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Jimmy Carter</a> in a landslide.Entering the presidency in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_inauguration_of_Ronald_Reagan" title="First inauguration of Ronald Reagan" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1981</a>, Reagan implemented sweeping new political and economic initiatives. His <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply-side_economics" title="Supply-side economics" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">supply-side economic</a> policies, dubbed "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaganomics" title="Reaganomics" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Reaganomics</a>", advocated tax rate reduction to spur economic growth, economic deregulation, and reduction in government spending. In his first term he survived an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempted_assassination_of_Ronald_Reagan" title="Attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">assassination attempt</a>, spurred the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Drugs" class="mw-redirect" title="War on Drugs" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">War on Drugs</a>, and fought public sector labor. Over his two terms, the economy saw a reduction of inflation from 12.5% to 4.4%, and an average annual growth of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_domestic_product" title="Gross domestic product" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">real GDP</a> of 3.4; while Reagan did enact cuts in domestic discretionary spending, tax cuts and increased military spending contributed to increased federal outlays overall, even after adjustment for inflation. During his re-election bid, Reagan campaigned on the notion that it was "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_in_America" title="Morning in America" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Morning in America</a>", winning a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1984" title="United States presidential election, 1984" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">landslide in 1984</a> with the largest electoral college victory in American history. Foreign affairs dominated his second term, including ending of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War" title="Cold War" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Cold War</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_United_States_bombing_of_Libya" title="1986 United States bombing of Libya" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">bombing of Libya</a>, and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Contra_affair" title="Iran–Contra affair" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Iran–Contra affair</a>. Publicly describing the Soviet Union as an "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_empire" title="Evil empire" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">evil empire</a>", and during his famous speech at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburg_Gate" title="Brandenburg Gate" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Brandenburg Gate</a>, President Reagan challenged Soviet <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Secretary_of_the_Communist_Party_of_the_Soviet_Union" title="General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">General Secretary</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Gorbachev" title="Mikhail Gorbachev" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Mikhail Gorbachev</a> to "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tear_down_this_wall!" title="Tear down this wall!" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">tear down this wall!</a>". He transitioned Cold War policy from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9tente" title="Détente" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">détente</a> to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollback" title="Rollback" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">rollback</a> by escalating an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_race" title="Arms race" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">arms race</a> with the USSR while engaging in talks with Gorbachev. The talks culminated in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermediate-Range_Nuclear_Forces_Treaty" title="Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">INF Treaty</a>, which shrank both countries' nuclear arsenals.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#cite_note-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[2]</a> Reagan began his presidency during the decline of the Soviet Union, and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall" title="Berlin Wall" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Berlin Wall</a> fell just ten months after the end of his term. Germany <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_reunification" title="German reunification" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">reunified</a> the following year, and on December 26, 1991 (nearly three years after he left office), the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union" title="Dissolution of the Soviet Union" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Soviet Union collapsed</a>.When Reagan left office in 1989, he held an approval rating of sixty-eight percent, matching those of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D.Roosevelt" title="Franklin D. Roosevelt" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Franklin D. Roosevelt</a>, and later <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton" title="Bill Clinton" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Bill Clinton</a>, as the highest ratings for departing presidents in the modern era.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#cite_note-3" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[3]</a> He was the first president since <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_D.Eisenhower" title="Dwight D. Eisenhower" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Dwight D. Eisenhower</a> to serve two full terms, after a succession of five prior presidents did not. Although he had planned an active post-presidency, Reagan disclosed in November 1994 that he had been diagnosed with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alzheimer%27s_disease" title="Alzheimer's disease" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Alzheimer's disease</a> earlier that year. Afterward, his informal public appearances became more infrequent as the disease progressed. He <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_and_state_funeral_of_Ronald_Reagan" title="Death and state funeral of Ronald Reagan" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">died at home</a> on June 5, 2004. An icon among Republicans, he is viewed favorably in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_of_Presidents_of_the_United_States" class="mw-redirect" title="Historical rankings of Presidents of the United States" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">historian rankings of U.S. presidents</a>, and his tenure constituted a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realigning_election" title="Realigning election" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">realignment</a> toward <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatism_in_the_United_States" title="Conservatism in the United States" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">conservative</a> policies in the United States.<div class="toclimit-3" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div id="toc" class="toc" style="border: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); padding: 7px; display: table; zoom: 1;"><div class="toctitle" lang="en" dir="ltr" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center;">
</div><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Early_life" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1Early life</a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Formal_education" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1.1Formal education</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Entertainment_career" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2Entertainment career</a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Radio_and_film" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2.1Radio and film</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Military_service" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2.2Military service</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Screen_Actors_Guild_presidency" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2.3Screen Actors Guild presidency</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-8" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Television" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2.4Television</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-9" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Marriages_and_children" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3Marriages and children</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-10" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Early_political_career" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4Early political career</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-11" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Governor_of_California(1967%E2%80%931975)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">5Governor of California (1967–1975)</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-12" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#1976_presidential_campaign" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">61976 presidential campaign</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-13" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#1980_presidential_campaign" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">71980 presidential campaign</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-14" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Presidency(1981%E2%80%931989)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">8Presidency (1981–1989)</a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-15" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#First_term" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">8.1First term</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-26" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Second_term" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">8.2Second term</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-33" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Health" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">8.3Health</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-34" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Judiciary" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">8.4Judiciary</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-35" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Post-presidency(1989%E2%80%932004)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">9Post-presidency (1989–2004)</a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-36" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Public_speaking" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">9.1Public speaking</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-37" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Assault" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">9.2Assault</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-38" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Alzheimer's_disease" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">9.3Alzheimer's disease</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-41" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Death_and_funeral" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">10Death and funeral</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-42" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Legacy" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">11Legacy</a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-43" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Cold_War" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">11.1Cold War</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-44" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Domestic_and_political_legacy" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">11.2Domestic and political legacy</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-45" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Cultural_and_political_image" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">11.3Cultural and political image</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-46" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Honors" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">11.4Honors</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-47" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Portraits" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">12Portraits</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-48" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#See_also" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">13See also</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-49" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#References" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">14References</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-50" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Sources" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">15Sources</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-51" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Further_reading" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">16Further reading</a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-52" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Primary_sources" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">16.1Primary sources</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-53" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Historiography" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">16.2Historiography</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-54" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#External_links" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">17External links</a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-55" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Official_sites" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">17.1Official sites</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-56" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Media" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">17.2Media</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-57" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#News_coverage" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">17.3News coverage</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-58" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Essays_and_historiographies" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">17.4Essays and historiographies</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-59" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Other" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">17.5Other</a></li></ul></li></ul></div></div><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;">Early life</h2>Ronald Wilson Reagan was born on February 6, 1911 in an apartment on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthplace_of_Ronald_Reagan" title="Birthplace of Ronald Reagan" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">second floor of a commercial building</a> in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampico,Illinois" title="Tampico, Illinois" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Tampico, Illinois</a>. He was the younger son of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelle_Wilson_Reagan" title="Nelle Wilson Reagan" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Nelle Clyde</a> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Given_name#Name_at_birth" title="Given name" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">née</a> Wilson; 1883–1962) and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Reagan" title="Jack Reagan" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Jack Reagan</a> (1883–1941).<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#cite_note-nrhp-4" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[4]</a> Jack was a salesman and storyteller whose grandparents were <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Catholic" class="mw-redirect" title="Irish Catholic" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Irish Catholic</a> emigrants from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County_Tipperary" title="County Tipperary" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">County Tipperary</a>,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#cite_note-5" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[5]</a> while Nelle was of half <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_people" title="English people" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">English</a> and half <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_people" title="Scottish people" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Scottish</a> descent (her mother was born in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrey" title="Surrey" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Surrey</a>).<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#cite_note-6" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[6]</a> Reagan's older brother, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Reagan" title="Neil Reagan" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Neil Reagan</a> (1908–1996), became an advertising executive.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#cite_note-7" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[7]</a>Reagan's father nicknamed his son "Dutch", due to his "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_Boy_Paint" title="Dutch Boy Paint" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">fat little Dutchman</a>"-like appearance and "Dutchboy" haircut;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#cite_note-RRfacts-8" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[8]</a> the nickname stuck with him throughout his youth.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#cite_note-RRfacts-8" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[8]</a>Reagan's family briefly lived in several towns and cities in Illinois, including <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monmouth,Illinois" title="Monmouth, Illinois" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Monmouth</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galesburg,Illinois" title="Galesburg, Illinois" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Galesburg</a>, and Chicago.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#cite_note-9" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[9]</a> In 1919, they returned to Tampico and lived above the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.C.Pitney_Variety_Store" class="mw-redirect" title="H. C. Pitney Variety Store" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">H. C. Pitney Variety Store</a> until finally settling in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixon,Illinois" title="Dixon, Illinois" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Dixon</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#cite_note-nrhp-4" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[4]</a> After his election as president, Reagan resided in the upstairs White House private quarters, and he would quip that he was "living above the store again".<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#cite_note-10" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[10]</a>According to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Kengor" title="Paul Kengor" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Paul Kengor</a>, author of God and Ronald Reagan, Reagan had a particularly strong faith in the goodness of people; this faith stemmed from the optimistic faith of his mother<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#cite_note-pk_16-11" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[11]</a> and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disciples_of_Christ" class="mw-redirect" title="Disciples of Christ" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Disciples of Christ</a> faith,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#cite_note-pk_16-11" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[11]</a> into which he was baptized in 1922.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#cite_note-12" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[12]</a> For that period of time, which was long before the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_civil_rights_movement(1954%E2%80%931968)" title="African-American civil rights movement (1954–1968)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">civil rights movement</a>, Reagan's opposition to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_discrimination" title="Racial discrimination" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">racial discrimination</a> was unusual and commendable. He recalled the time in Dixon when the proprietor of a local inn would not allow <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Americans" title="African Americans" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">black people</a> to stay there, and he brought them back to his house. His mother invited them to stay overnight and have breakfast the next morning.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#cite_note-13" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[13]</a> After the closure of the Pitney Store in 1920 and the family's move to Dixon,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#cite_note-14" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[14]</a> the midwestern "small universe" had a lasting impression on Reagan.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#cite_note-15" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[15]</a><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;">Formal education</h3>Reagan attended <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixon_High_School(Illinois)" title="Dixon High School (Illinois)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Dixon High School</a>, where he developed interests in acting, sports, and storytelling.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#cite_note-16" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[16]</a> His first job involved working as a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifeguard" title="Lifeguard" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">lifeguard</a> at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_River(Mississippi_River)" class="mw-redirect" title="Rock River (Mississippi River)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Rock River</a> in Lowell Park in 1927. Over a six-year period, Reagan reportedly performed 77 rescues as a lifeguard.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#cite_note-17" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[17]</a> He attended <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_College" title="Eureka College" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Eureka College</a>, a Disciples-oriented liberal arts school, where he became a member of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tau_Kappa_Epsilon" title="Tau Kappa Epsilon" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Tau Kappa Epsilon</a> fraternity, a cheerleader, and studied economics and sociology. While involved, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_Center_of_Public_Affairs" title="Miller Center of Public Affairs" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Miller Center of Public Affairs</a>described him as an "indifferent student". He majored in economics and sociology and graduated with a C grade.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#cite_note-majoraverage-18" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[18]</a> He developed a reputation as a "jack of all trades", excelling in campus politics, sports, and theater. He was a member of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_football" title="American football" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">football</a> team and captain of the swim team. He was elected student body president and led a student revolt against the college president after the president tried to cut back the faculty.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#cite_note-19" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[19]</a><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;">Entertainment career</h2><div>...</div><div></div><div><a href="https://www.salon.com/2012/08/19/ronald_reagan_informant/">https://www.salon.com/2012/08/19/ronald_reagan_informant/</a></div><div>
</div><div><div>This article is excerpted from “Subversives: The FBI’s War on Student Radicals, and Reagan’s Rise to Power,”by Seth Rosenfeld, to be published on Aug. 21 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.</div><div>
</div><div>Ronald Reagan would quip that [as an actor] he became the Errol Flynn of the Bs, the low-budget second features on double bills. Through 1943 [when he was in his mid-30s] he would appear in thirty-one films, mostly light romantic or action movies in which he played his preferred role of a traditional hero—cavalryman, football star, government agent. While filming “Brother Rat,” a 1938 comedy set at a military academy, Reagan met the actress Jane Wyman. They were married in 1940, the same year he played his signature role of George Gipp in “Knute Rockne, All American.” Their daughter, Maureen Elizabeth, would be born in 1941, and they would adopt a son, Michael, who was born in 1945. Featured together in several films, Reagan and Wyman became an item in the Hollywood press; one newspaper dubbed them “top candidates for the title of happiest young Hollywood marrieds.”</div><div>
</div><div>But America had been edging toward war, and in the midst of this Reagan was notified that he would be called for duty. According to the historian Stephen Vaughn, however, the actor received special treatment with help from a former FBI agent. In late 1941, Reagan was finishing his biggest film yet, a $1 million Warner Brothers production titled “Kings Row,” and was negotiating a studio contract that would nearly triple his salary. When he learned soon afterward that he would have to report for service, Warner Brothers requested a deferment on the ground that his absence would cause the studio a significant financial loss. The request was not approved, and Jack Warner deployed William Guthrie, the studio’s liaison to the military. Guthrie had been with the FBI only two years when he was dismissed in 1920 “because of conduct unbecoming an Agent.” An internal bureau inquiry concluded he was “entirely dishonest; was using his official position to further his own ends; [and] was not above accepting gratuities or graft.” It further noted that “he depended very much on influential friends submitting communications in his behalf.”</div><div> </div><div>Guthrie suggested the studio send a retired military officer who was close to General Peak, commander of the U.S. Army base at the Presidio in San Francisco, to see Peak about a deferment. The studio did, and Reagan’s call to duty was deferred at least twice, to April 19, 1942, four months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Finally, Reagan was ordered to report to the cavalry reserve at Fort Mason in the Presidio, where he was eligible for limited stateside service because of his poor eyesight.</div><div>
</div><div>Reagan was there just five weeks. Warner and Guthrie had meanwhile convinced the Army Air Corps (the predecessor of the U.S. Air Force) to create a special movie detail. The First Motion Picture Unit was established under Warner’s direction at the old Hal Roach movie studios in Culver City, twenty minutes from Reagan’s home. Guthrie helped the army select some of the unit’s 1,300 men and, according to Reagan’s military records, arranged for his expedited transfer to it. Reagan spent the rest of the war at “Fort Roach,” narrating or appearing in films that promoted the Air Corps, recruited new enlistees, or trained men for battle. He also helped produce newsreels for commercial theaters, and was promoted to captain by the end of the war. Guthrie then arranged for his prompt discharge, helping him return to civilian life and a $3,500-per-week salary (about $44,268 per week in 2012 dollars).</div><div>
</div><div>Not everyone in Hollywood was happy about Reagan’s tour of duty. According to previously undisclosed FBI records, a movie industry source told bureau agents that Guthrie had obtained commissions and appointments to the First Motion Picture Unit “on a large scale for his friends and those of Jack Warner.” Guthrie had brazenly displayed dozens of blank U.S. Army commissions and asked the source if he wanted one. Separately, a producer at Warner Brothers told FBI agents that, in his opinion, “Ronald Reagan’s commission and appointment could stand investigation.” The FBI opened a file on Guthrie titled “Fraud Against the Government— Bribery,” but it is unclear from available records whether the bureau pursued the matter.</div><div>
</div><div>World War II had jolted Reagan. Before the war, he had focused on career and family. He had inherited his father’s allegiance to the Democratic Party and had followed FDR “blindly,” as he put it. He had not yet developed his own political philosophy. But during and after the war, he began to think more about world events. Although he never saw action, at Fort Roach he saw raw footage of Nazi death camps and of men in combat, like the film of a pilot crashing and burning to death as his comrades tried to pull him from the cockpit.</div><div>
</div><div> Reagan also worked on top-secret training films that realistically simulated American flights over bombing targets in Japan.</div><div>Reagan had expected the Allies’ victory to fix the world. He was sure all “the blood and death and confusion of World War II would result in a regeneration of mankind.” Events disappointed him, however, and he determined to help. In the months after his discharge in fall 1945, he became involved in liberal causes, lending his name to fund-raising efforts and giving talks. It seemed like the right thing to do in the lingering spirit of the Popular Front, which had united Communists and liberals during the war. As he recalled, “my first evangelism came in the form of being hell-bent on saving the world from neo-Fascism.” But though he was taking action, Reagan still was operating on the basis of political wisdom received from his father, the FDR Democrat.</div><div>
</div><div>Then the Cold War set in and the national mood shifted as if from Technicolor to black and white. J. Edgar Hoover feared a Kremlin-controlled conspiracy to infiltrate Hollywood and use the world’s largest producer of motion pictures to slyly manipulate public opinion against America. He had opened an investigation even before the end of the war, at about the same time he initiated the investigation of Soviet espionage in Berkeley. Code-named COM PIC—short for Communist Infiltration of the Motion-Picture Industry—the inquiry had two main goals:to determine the extent of Communist penetration of film industry unions, and to identify Communist activities by screenwriters, actors, directors, executives, and, as one FBI report put it, “the so-called intellectuals in general.”</div><div>
</div><div>As Hoover intensified the COM PIC case, Reagan’s name began showing up in reports from the bureau’s Los Angeles field office alleging he had suspicious associations. An April 1946 report described him as a sponsor of the Los Angeles Committee for a Democratic Far Eastern Policy, “the latest Communist front pressure group set up for the purpose of supporting the foreign policy of Soviet Russia as it is being applied in the Orient.” The report claimed the committee’s sponsors and directors all had “records of Communist activity and sympathies.” Besides Reagan, they included two Democratic congressmen, the muckraking author Carey McWilliams, and the actors Gregory Peck and Edward G. Robinson. Reagan had lent his name to a dinner for the committee at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City—along with Paul Robeson, the singer and actor who criticized American racism and openly admired the Soviet Union.</div><div>
</div><div>A May 1946 report said Reagan recently had been elected to the executive council of the Hollywood Independent Citizens Committee of the Arts, Sciences and Professions (HICCASP). The FBI’s political interest in the organization was clear. “It is a powerful political pressure group and using the motion picture industry and its prestige as a base will be the dominating factor in the coming primary elections in the State of California,” the report said. “Every endorsement for public office made by this organization coincides exactly with that made by the Communist Party of the state.” The group’s executive council included many movie stars and, according to the report, no fewer than twenty-four Communists.</div><div>
</div><div>As the COM PIC investigation continued, Hoover pressed his Los Angeles agents to develop more informers in Hollywood. Checking their files, the agents saw reports showing Reagan was well-placed in these suspect organizations. Checking further, they also saw he’d had some friendly contacts with the FBI.</div><div>One of Reagan’s college fraternity brothers had become an FBI agent. On September 17, 1941, the agent, Charles Browning, Jr., told FBI headquarters that through the frat he was “intimately acquainted” with several “influential individuals” who “might be of some assistance to the Bureau,” including Reagan at Warner Brothers. Hoover directed Browning to give Reagan’s contact information to the head of the Los Angeles field office for future reference.</div><div>
</div><div>Agents called on Reagan in 1943 while investigating a suspected Nazi sympathizer, one Baron Paul Emile de Loqueyssie, also known as Paul Avalon, a French bit actor who had graced the society pages. Reagan told the agents they had met at a Beverly Hills cocktail party hosted by Arthur Lyons, the New York talent agent who represented Jack Benny, Eugene O’Neill, and Cole Porter. Reagan said “considerable drinking had been done by all persons involved,” according to the agents’ report, and Loqueyssie made anti-Semitic remarks that so incensed Reagan that they almost came to blows. The agents also interviewed Reagan about “other matters” not specified in their report.</div><div>
</div><div>In 1945, Reagan passed along some political gossip of special interest to Hoover. After Reagan’s Army Air Corps basketball team played the FBI team at the Elks Club, Reagan drove home with Agent H. Rex Ellis. Reagan said he’d heard that Governor Thomas Dewey of New York, while campaigning for president several months earlier, had vowed that if elected “there would not be enough jails in the country to hold the people he was going to put into them, and that John Edgar Hoover of the FBI was going to be one of the first.” Richard B. Hood, the special agent in charge of the Los Angeles office, promptly sent Hoover a report marked “Personal and Confidential” containing this hearsay and describing Reagan favorably. “Reagan is, of course, a captain in the U.S. Army,” Hood wrote, and had said “he would certainly be inclined to side with Hoover.”</div><div>
</div><div>In addition to these contacts, Reagan’s brother was by now working with the FBI. Neil “Moon” Reagan had moved to Los Angeles and taken a job at the McCann Erickson advertising agency. According to a previously undisclosed FBI report, he was also serving as an informer in the bureau’s investigation of alleged Communist infiltration of the radio and television industry. He was listed as “Confidential Informant T-36.” Agents described him as “reliable.”</div><div>
</div><div>“Now, in those days, I was doing little things for the FBI,” he recalled during an oral history interview years later. “You know, ‘Neil, we’d like you to go out and lay in the bushes and take down the car numbers off of the cars that are going to be at this little meeting in Bel-Air. Put it in a brown envelope, no return address. And always remember, if you get caught in the bushes, you can just forget about saying, well, you’re doing this for the FBI, because we’ll just look him right in the eye and say, ‘We never saw the guy in our lives. Forget it.’ ”</div><div>
</div><div>Knowing all this, FBI officials concluded Ronald Reagan was a good prospect as an informer.</div><div>Late one night in 1946, FBI agents knocked on the front door of the eight- room house Reagan and Wyman had built at 9137 Cordell Drive, a twisting road overlooking Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. The unexpected visitors presented official identification, and the suntanned actor, then thirty-five, invited them in. “We have some information which might be useful to you,” one agent said as Reagan served coffee. “We thought you might have some information helpful to us.”</div><div>
</div><div>“Instinctively, my old liberal reaction popped up before I could think,” Reagan recalled in “Where’s the Rest of Me?,” published in 1965, “and almost by rote I found myself saying, ‘Now look, I don’t go in for Red-baiting.’ ‘We don’t either,’ said the second one. ‘It isn’t a question of that. It’s a question of national security. You served with the Air Corps. You know what spies and saboteurs are.’ ‘We thought someone the Communists hated as much as they hate you might be willing to help us,’ added the third.”</div><div>
</div><div>Reagan took the bait. “That got me,” he wrote. “It’s always a jolt to discover others have been talking you over. ‘What do you mean?’ I asked. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘they held a meeting last night.’ He described the house, gave the address, told me who was there, and what they said. I broke in. ‘What did they say about me?’ I demanded. ‘The exact quotation,’ he replied, ‘was: “What are we going to do about that sonofabitching bastard Reagan?” Will that do for openers?’ ”</div><div>
</div><div>“We got to talking. I must confess that they opened my eyes to a good many things. I came to admire these men: they never accused anyone of being a Communist unless they had every last bit of evidence which would stand up against the most vicious court assault. They were extremely careful never to smear anyone or guess even on good but less than complete evidence. They were very thorough, very patient, and very accurate. We exchanged information for a few hours.”</div><div>In his second autobiography, “An American Life,” published in 1990, Reagan elaborated on the agents’ visit: “They confided in me that FBI investigations had shown the Party was attempting not only to gain control of the Hollywood work force but striving to influence the content of movies through the work of several prominent film writers and actors who were party members or party sympathizers. They asked if they could meet with me periodically to discuss some of the things that were going on in Hollywood. I said of course they could.”</div><div>
</div><div>Their mission accomplished, the agents stood and bid Reagan good night. They had made what would turn out to be one of the FBI’s best contacts ever.</div><div>Not long after his visit that evening from the FBI agents, Reagan attended a meeting of the board of directors of HICCASP, the star-studded political action group under bureau investigation. Reagan had recently joined the board, but what the FBI agents told him had made him wary.</div><div>
</div><div>A heated debate quickly erupted when James Roosevelt, FDR’s son, took the floor and declared that organizations like HICCASP must be “vigilant against being used by Communist sympathizers.” This was a sensitive issue. What was a “sympathizer”? And what difference did it make who supported the cause if the cause was legitimate? Other board members harshly criticized Roosevelt’s proposal. Reagan was disturbed by this and mentioned it to Dore Schary, the head of MGM, who was sitting beside him. As the meeting broke up, Schary invited Reagan to stop by the home of the actress Olivia de Havilland, a board member who had starred in “Gone With the Wind” (1939).</div><div>
</div><div>Reagan raced over to de Havilland’s apartment, to find a gathering of concerned HICCASP board members. “I was amazed when she and others in the room said they suspected Communists were trying to take over the organization,” Reagan wrote in “An American Life.” “As we talked over the situation, I turned to her and whispered: ‘You know, Olivia, I always thought you might be one of “them.”' She laughed and said, ‘That’s funny. I thought you were one of them.”</div><div>
</div><div>Reagan had planned only to listen during this meeting, given that he was a new board member. “But knowing a little about Communist tactics from my dealings with the FBI, I suggested that we propose a resolution to the executive committee with language that we knew a Communist couldn’t accept and have Olivia submit it in the next meeting the following week and see what happened,” he wrote. Reagan drafted the motion, which declared, “We reaffirm belief in free enterprise and the democratic system and repudiate Communism as desirable for the United States.”</div><div>
</div><div>The group agreed to Reagan’s plan and, as he recalled, it “proved strong enough to blow the whole organization sky-high.”</div><div>
</div><div>On July 5, 1946, the feuding members of the full HICCASP board met at James Roosevelt’s home at 623 North Bedford Drive, in Beverly Hills, this time to discuss Reagan’s resolution. FBI agents hidden outside took down the license numbers of cars parked nearby, including one registered to Jane Wyman.</div><div>Inside, another argument broke out. Dalton Trumbo, the writer, and Artie Shaw, the composer, spoke against Reagan’s motion. So did John Howard Lawson. The screenwriter had drawn the ire of the Tenney committee when he participated in the 1943 Writers’ Congress at UCLA that Robert Gordon Sproul had refused to cancel. FBI agents had long suspected Lawson was a Communist, a suspicion they confirmed when they illegally broke into a Communist Party office in Los Angeles and photographed membership records. Waving his finger under Reagan’s nose, Lawson shouted, “This organization will never adopt a statement which endorses free enterprise and repudiates communism.”</div><div>
</div><div>Reagan’s deliberately divisive measure was voted down. “It was all the proof we needed,” he wrote. “HICCASP had become a Communist front organization, hiding behind a few well-intentioned Hollywood celebrities to give it credibility.” Reagan, de Havilland, and their fellow plotters promptly resigned. The organization collapsed soon after.</div><div>
</div><div>Before quitting, though, Reagan absconded with some of HICCASP’s internal records. He confided this to his brother and fellow informer during a late-night rendezvous at a Hollywood hamburger stand. As Neil Reagan recalled in his oral history interview, “One evening he calls me— evening, hell, it was about midnight—he had stopped up at the Nutburger stand (there was a Nutburger stand at the corner of Sunset and Doheny at the time, across from the drugstore). He says, ‘I’m having a cup of coffee, come on up.’ I said, ‘Do you know what time it is?’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘Well, I’ve been in bed for three hours. Have your coffee and go on home and go to bed.’ ‘No, I want you to come up.’ And I said all right; so I put a pair of trousers on and a shirt and drove up the hill. Here he is, parked. I got in, and—he’s a member of the board—he says, ‘You wouldn’t believe it. It just came to me tonight. We have a rule that if a board member misses two meetings without being excused, you’re automatically off the board.’</div><div>“ ‘There’s a gal out at the such-and-such studio,’ and he says, ‘I’ve been a little suspicious of her. All of a sudden, we had one of these cases come up tonight, that so-and-so had missed two board meetings, and so they were off, and now we’ve got to find somebody else. It suddenly dawned on me that over the last several months, every time one of these cases came up, she had just the individual that would be excellent as a replacement.</div><div>
</div><div>“‘I managed to filch the minute books before I left. I can show you the page where her board members became a majority of the board, with her replacements.’ ”</div><div>The 1946 minutes subsequently made their way into the FBI’s possession, according to bureau records.</div><div>
</div><div>Reagan had successfully used the insights imparted by FBI agents to disrupt HICCASP. He soon employed similar tactics against the Hollywood chapter of the American Veterans Committee, of which he also was a board member. As he testified in a subsequent court case, the national organization of the American Veterans Committee revoked the charter of both its Hollywood and California state chapters, dismissed their officers, and placed them in trusteeship “because there had been some Communist infiltration.” A lawyer asked, “Did you have any part in bringing about the revocation of that charter?” Reagan replied, “Very similar to the same activities in HICCASP.” The lawyer asked, “Did you at that time, Mr. Reagan, have any special access to investigative facilities of the government, either national or state, with respect to Communist activity?” Reagan replied, “Well, unofficially someone dropped in to my living room a few times and made information available to me, but told me at the time that if I ever got in trouble from using it they would deny that they had done so.”</div><div>
</div><div>By the fall of 1946, Reagan found himself in the midst of another battle against what he had come to see as the international Communist conspiracy in Hollywood. At this point he was third vice president on the board of directors of the Screen Actors Guild, the powerful union representing actors. He and other SAG directors conducted an inquiry so they could recommend whether guild members should support the Conference of Studio Unions. The CSU was representing movie set builders in a strike for better wages and working conditions. Although the National Labor Relations Board had recognized the CSU, the SAG directors concluded the CSU was not pursuing legitimate labor issues and was merely involved in a “jurisdictional” dispute with another union over which of them would represent the set builders. The other union, the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees, or IATSE, was headed by Roy Brewer, one of Hollywood’s most militant anti-Communists.</div><div>
</div><div>When the Screen Actors Guild met at Hollywood Legion Stadium, the old boxing venue, Reagan presented the board’s recommendation against supporting the CSU strike. A bruising debate followed in which Katharine Hepburn and Edward G . Robinson urged support of the strike. The actor Alexander Knox stood and delivered a stinging parody of all Reagan had said. “No fighter ever bled in that ring as I did,” Reagan recalled. “Alex was getting laughs, and that meant they were laughing at me.” But eventually the laughter stopped and Knox was booed off the platform. In the end, the SAG voted overwhelmingly not to join the strike.</div><div>
</div><div>The strike wore on for months, involved violence by both employees and management, and led to what was then the largest mass arrest in California history, of some seven hundred people for violating a court order limiting the number of pickets outside film studio gates. Reagan would later say he received threats of physical harm because he opposed the CSU, and that he began to carry a gun. He saw sinister forces behind the strike. “I will say of the Communists—they were the cause of the labor strife, they used minor jurisdictional disputes as excuses for their scheme. Their aim was to gain economic control of the motion picture industry in order to finance their activities and subvert the screen for their propaganda,” he wrote. “It would have been a magnificent coup for our enemies.”</div><div>
</div><div>Reagan’s views had shifted starkly since that night the FBI agents first dropped by his apartment. Bureau officials had told him there was a vast Communist plot at work behind the scenes in Hollywood. Those revelations had led him to fight Communists in HICCASP, the American Veterans Committee, and the CSU. In the process, he became convinced that some members of his own union—among them those who had opposed his position on that strike—were also subversive.</div><div>When Robert Montgomery stepped down as president of the Screen Actors Guild on March 10, 1947, the guild’s board of directors elected Reagan to finish out his term. Reagan was a man with a mission.</div><div>
</div><div>“More than anything else,” he wrote, “it was the Communists’ attempted takeover of Hollywood and its worldwide weekly audience of more than five hundred million people that led me to accept a nomination to serve as a president of the SAG and, indirectly at least, set me on the road that would lead me into politics.”</div><div>
</div><div>Excerpted from Subversives: The FBI’s War on Student Radicals, and Reagan’s Rise to Power by Seth Rosenfeld</div></div><div></div><div>seth rosenfeld hugh cronin et al ratted out by RR 16 min in</div><div>
</div><div><a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?308816-1/subversives">https://www.c-span.org/video/?308816-1/subversives</a></div><div>
</div><div>=</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">fsm: uber1 <a href="https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/6950F840-FB80-FCB0-D505-8AB1FA685F08#-2018" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/6950F840-FB80-FCB0-D505-8AB1FA685F08#-2018</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="slug-wrap" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px 140.094px; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: flex; align-items: center;"><h3 class="slug" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 2px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 400; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; letter-spacing: 0.34px; text-transform: uppercase;"><a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/interviews/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block;">INTERVIEWS FRESH AIR</a></h3></div><div class="storytitle" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 140.094px; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; float: none; width: auto;"><h1 class="transcript" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 400; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.2; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; letter-spacing: -0.00625em;"><a href="https://www.npr.org/2013/08/16/212381996/student-subversives-and-the-fbis-dirty-tricks" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Student 'Subversives' And The FBI's 'Dirty Tricks'</a></h1></div><div id="story-meta" class="story-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 140.094px; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; float: none; width: auto;"><div class="story-meta__one" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dateblock" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><time datetime="2013-08-16T10:28:00-04:00" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="date" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">August 16, 2013<span class="time" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">10:28 AM ET</time></div></div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="GGD0W3FBET" style="border: 0px; position: relative;">subversives: bk</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET" style="border: 0px; position: relative;"><a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=212381996" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">
</a></div><div class="GGD0W3FBET" style="border: 0px; position: relative;"><a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=212381996" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=212381996</a></div><div class="GGD0W3FBET" style="border: 0px; position: relative;">...</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET" style="border: 0px; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;">FBI agents in Phoenix were investigating him when they discovered that Joe Bananas' son, Joseph Jr., was hanging out with Michael Reagan, who was the adopted son of Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman, and they reported this to headquarters.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;">The agents proposed that they should interview Ronald Reagan to see if he had learned anything about the Bonannos through his son. This investigation, after all, was a top priority. But Hoover interceded. He ordered them not to interview Ronald Reagan, and he instead told the agents to warn Ronald Reagan that his son was consorting with the son of Joe Bananas.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;">Ronald Reagan was very grateful for this.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;">GROSS: You write that, you know, when Ronald Reagan was rising politically, there were parts of his past that could have been considered questionable because as governor, this meant, you know, overseeing the University of California system, which included, you know, atomic research laboratories and atomic research data. And so that's an important security position.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;">And there were a couple of things in Reagan's past that the FBI might have been concerned about if it was somebody other than Ronald Reagan. Do you want to discuss that?<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;">ROSENFELD: One of the interesting themes that emerged in reviewing all these FBI documents was how J. Edgar Hoover's FBI used information. In the case of Clark Kerr, at one point he was a candidate to be secretary of Health, Education and Welfare.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;">So the FBI did a background report, and Hoover used this as a pretext to send President Lyndon Johnson a report loaded with allegations that Kerr had associated with various subversives, even though the FBI had already investigated these allegations and knew that they were untrue. And this all comes out in the documents.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;">In contrast, when Ronald Reagan became governor, he had to undergo a similar background check because as governor, he would be a member of the board of regents and have oversight of the university's nuclear laboratories. During this investigation, the FBI went out of its way to help Ronald Reagan.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;">When Ronald Reagan filled out his personnel security questionnaire as part of this investigation, he failed to list a number of organizations that he was involved in, in Hollywood in the '40s, organizations that had been designated by the federal government as being subversive.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;">Normally, this would send up red flags with the FBI. It would be seen as a serious omission. But in Ronald Reagan's case, the FBI did not report that he had failed to include these organizations.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;">DAVIES: Seth Rosenfeld's book "Subversives" is now out in paperback. This is FRESH AIR.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;">...<h1 id="seo_h1_tag" class="5gmx" data-testid="event-permalink-event-name" style="margin: 0px 12px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 28px;">KPFA Radio Presents Seth Rosenfeld june 28? 2014</h1><div>
</div><div>aoki_  che<a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/Author-of-Subversives/134586"> https://www.chronicle.com/article/Author-of-Subversives/134586</a></div><div></div><div>When the dust settles, The Chronicle and its handful of critics will have no choice but to revise their accounts of Richard Aoki, who turns out to have been a far more complicated person than they knew.</div></div></div>=https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/02/trump-epa-environment-conservation-reagan-bush/no linke present EPA with its shredders, improper contacts with the regulated community, conflicts of interest, and the like appears to be substantially more  venal [than other federal agencies].”
This effectively sums up the state of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) less than two weeks into the presidency of Donald Trump. But it was written thirty-four years ago.
For those who don’t have copies of the Atlanta Constitution sitting around, this quote comes from a 1982 editorial about Reagan’s EPA. Unfortunately, not much has changed today.
Since being elected, Donald Trump has launched what some call an unprecedented attack on the environment and the agency tasked with protecting it. He’s appointed hard-right conservatives and members of regulated industries to shape the EPA; continued to deny the urgency of climate change and operated in accordance with that belief; pledged to open protected lands and other sensitive ecosystems to mining and drilling; and is set to starve the EPA of funding and slash its workforce by as much as half, just to name a few of his key policies.
Trump appears to be taking right-wing anti-environmentalism to new extremes. Just yesterday, the man behind Trump’s EPA transition told the Guardian that Trump’s ultimate goal was the wholesale abolition of the EPA via incremental dismantlement, bit by bit over time.
It’s certainly terrifying.But is it unprecedented?
The narrative surrounding Trump’s environmental policies follows the contours of the general narrative around his presidency, painting him as a singular threat to politics as usual who has veered sharply away from accepted norms — including when it comes to the environment. Indeed, a large part of Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful campaign involved trying to “abnormalize” Trump, painting him as far outside even today’s historically extreme Republican Party.
To be sure, Trump veers away from the “mainstream” right on many topics — his promise (now fulfilled) to ban Muslims being the operative example, even if many Republicans have walked back their opposition to this policy.
But when it comes to environmental policy, Trump isn’t the exception. He’s the rule.
All Roads Lead to ReaganAs with much of twenty-first century conservatism, you can find the roots of Trump’s environmental approach in Ronald Reagan.
Reagan entered office with a never-before-seen hostility toward not just environmental regulations but the environment itself, based in equally unprecedented ignorance.
While running for governor of California, he defended opening the state’s centuries-old redwood trees for logging because “a tree is a tree, how many more do you need to look at?” Later, as president, he claimed that “trees cause more pollution than automobiles do” and, in an act of historic pettiness, removed the solar panels Jimmy Carter had installed on the White House.
Like Trump, Reagan’s platform explicitly opposed environmental regulations. He assailed the Clean Air Act and claimed without evidence that it and the EPA had raised prices, “helped force factories to shut down and cost workers their jobs.”
He even declared that “air pollution has been substantially controlled,” which he then repeatedly denied saying.
He promised to eliminate “thousands of unnecessary regulations,” complained about “environmental extremists,” and said that “if [EPA officials] had their way, you and I would have to live in rabbits’ holes and bird’s nests.”
Two things shaped Reagan’s policy. One was the conservative Heritage Foundation, whose 1,100-page Mandate for Leadership Reagan handed out to staff members at his first cabinet meeting and used as the policy blueprint for his administration. (The Trump administration is also relying on the think tank’s 2017 version as the basis for gutting the EPA and other agencies.) The Mandate warned that “regulatory procedures must be reformed to expedite decision making” and that “environmental protection must not become a cover for a ‘no-growth’ policy and a shrinking economy.”
The other influence was James G. Watt, then president of the Mountain States Legal Fund, a conservative group that fought environmental regulations. Joseph Coors, the far-right heir to the the brewing company of the same name and funder of numerous right-wing causes, and Senator Paul Laxalt recommended Watt. All three belonged to the Sagebrush Rebellion, a Western movement aimed at forcing the federal government to relinquish ownership of hundreds of millions of acres of public land.
Watt was an ideological warrior. He told Human Events in 1982 that conservatives represented the real conservationist movement and that “the liberal has prostituted the word in an effort to achieve his political objectives.” The year before, he said: “I never use the words Democrats and Republicans. It’s liberals and Americans.”
As Michael Kraft and Norman J. Vig wrote at the time, the Reagan administration’s environmental policy reversed popular assumptions about the weak presidency, and showed “how an incoming presidential administration strongly committed to reversing previous policies can achieve systemic, nonincremental policy change.”
Its playbook for doing so will sound familiar for anyone following recent events. The administration asked a Heritage Foundation employee (and later EPA official) to draw up “pro and con assessments” of existing and prospective EPA personnel, recruited officials from the industries they were meant to regulate — the EPA’s general counsel had worked for Exxon for twelve years, for instance — and made steep budget cuts to the EPA to undermine its programs. Between 1979 and 1984, the agency’s budget was slashed by 45 percent even as its responsibilities increased, hamstringing even the most committed agency hires.
The hires weren’t always committed, however. Watt became secretary of the interior, promising national park concessionaires that he would reverse “fifty years of bad government” and that “if a personality is giving you a problem . . . we’re going to get rid of the problem or the personality, whichever is fastest.” He fired other presidents’ appointees and openly stated that “we will use the budget system to be the excuse to make major policy decisions.”
As head of the EPA, Reagan appointed Anne Gorsuch, a Watt protégé (and mother of Trump’s Supreme Court pick Neil Gorsuch) who had experience in neither management, environmental policy, nor Washington. Rather than protecting the environment, she believed her task was to carry out the administration’s deregulatory goals and make the agency more efficient and business-friendly.
The triumvirate of Reagan, Gorsuch, and Watt took a hacksaw to environmental regulations. They slashed Carter’s renewable energy programs. They slowed Superfund payments, which were supposed to clean up hazardous waste. They delayed all attempts to deal with acid rain, claiming that it wasn’t clear if sulfur dioxide really caused the phenomenon. Enforcement cases filed to EPA headquarters plummeted.
The administration went about this in ways that paralleled some of the Trump administration’s current actions. Much as the Trump administration has put EPA scientists and climate change workers in its crosshairs, Gorsuch reduced the agency’s research staff and budget.
Meanwhile, similar to Trump’s surprise executive orders, Watt abruptly revealed a plan to dismantle strip-mining regulations without consulting important federal and state officials.
Under Gorsuch, the EPA went from “one of the most efficient and capable agencies” to one of the least effective, one critic charged. When one senior official resigned, he left a farewell note:
There is a critical shortage of filing cabinets; access to our unlighted, unheated building on weekends is always difficult and often impossible . . . The quality and quantity of the work product has begun to reflect the fatigue and low morale of the staff.
The Reagan administration did lasting damage to the environment. A Democrat-dominated Congress, however, tempered the executive branch, fighting off a number of its more alarming proposals with help from Republicans crossing the aisle at a time when the party was less rigid.
When Reagan vetoed the reauthorization of the Clean Water Act in 1987, Congress overrode it. Congressional Democrats also fought back industry attempts to rewrite the Clean Air Act, prevented Watt from opening up wilderness areas to fossil-fuel drilling, and blocked Reagan’s plan to lease the entirety of the 1.4-million-acre outer continental shelf — the country’s coastline, essentially — for oil drilling. Under Trump, however, environmentalists won’t have a Democrat-heavy Congress to stem the worst proposals from the Right.
What ultimately cost Watt and Gorsuch their jobs wasn’t their extreme positions, but unrelated scandals. Watt’s intransigence and outspokenness frequently got him into trouble: he was nearly held in contempt of Congress for withholding subpoenaed documents, closed a historic mansion in Arlington Cemetery to throw a private cocktail party and then charged the event to the Parks Service, and threatened that the US-Israel relationship could be undermined if “the liberals of the Jewish community join with the other liberals of this nation to oppose” energy exploration.
A joke finally triggered his departure. In 1983, he told listeners about his coal advisory commission: “I have a black, I have a woman, two Jews, and a cripple.” In the ensuing fervor, he resigned.
Gorsuch had evacuated her position earlier the same year when she became the first-ever cabinet-level appointee to be cited for contempt of Congress. A House committee investigating the Superfund’s workings voted for the charge after Gorsuch refused — at Reagan’s direction — to hand over subpoenaed documents. Fifty-five Republicans joined 204 Democrats in support of the resolution.
Again, we will likely see some parallels in the present. The Trump administration seems equally, if not more, scandal-prone than Reagan’s, as the half-baked Muslim-ban order has demonstrated. Although the administration appears to hold public opinion in contempt, this weekend’s mass protests do seem to have played a role in the administration’s decision to rein in its immigration order.
And Reagan’s anti-environmental campaign eventually fostered a massive uptick in environmentalist mobilization at the time. Such mobilization will likely intensify when it involves the much more widely disliked President Trump.
Changing Tack
Watt’s and Gorsuch’s departures didn’t occasion a sea change in the Reagan administration’s policies, however — only a change in strategy. This next stage may preview where the Trump administration will go after what is shaping up to be an initial round of highly public, controversial fights over environmental policy.
Instead of replacing Watt and Gorsuch with equally polarizing ideologues, Reagan went moderate. William Ruckelshaus, the agency’s first head, replaced Gorsuch and helped revive the agency’s credibility and morale.
Neocon William Clark, who knew little about the environment, replaced Watt. He immediately tried to toe a softer, more conciliatory line and fired three of Watt’s top underlings. Of course, as the Wilderness Society’s director observed, “after Watt it’s impossible not to look reasonable.”
At the same time, watching disapproving opinion polls, the administration began courting environmentalists and launched what the Washington Post called “an extensive public relations drive to sell its environmental policies to the electorate and convey an image of moderation.” In his 1984 State of the Union speech, Reagan promised to reauthorize the soon-to-expire Superfund law.
The administration thus kept on the same path forward while projecting a moderate image to win the public over. Clark made a few cosmetic changes to Reagan’s plan to lease the coastline to oil companies, slightly reducing its scale and adding more public transparency, but the National Resources Defense Council charged that he “essentially reaffirmed the Watt program.”
Meanwhile one prominent environmentalist charged Ruckelshaus with acting “as a front man for Ronald Reagan’s disastrous environmental policies.” Rolling Stone said that he “restored a patina of gentility to an office that had become sullied,” but that “little . . . changed” in his first year.
Apparently facing too much opposition from within the administration, Ruckelshaus further delayed action on acid rain and pollution laws. The continued budget cuts also put Ruckelshaus in a straightjacket. He reportedly personally appealed to Reagan to spare EPA funding before ultimately resigning less than two years after taking the position.
It remains to be seen if the Trump administration has the discipline or political skill to follow Reagan’s example and moderate its image in order to push through a more radical agenda. But it’s a possibility environmentalists should plan for.
Come 1984, Marion Edey — the founder and then director of the League of Conservation Voters — suggested to the Wall Street Journal that she missed James Watt because it was easier to keep voters interested in the environment when seemingly intemperate radicals were attacking it. “We can no longer expect the administration to provide ammunition for us,” she said.
Thanks to a disgruntled populace and a strong congressional opposition, eight years of Reagan did not bring about environmentalists’ worst-case scenarios. But as the president of the Wilderness Society said in 1989, it represented eight “years of lost time that cannot be made up and where a lot of damage was done that may not be reparable.” We have much less time today.
The Right HeirGeorge W. Bush’s presidency, which had close ideological and personnel ties to Reagan, followed closely in his predecessor’s footsteps.Bush was similarly clueless regarding the environment. He repeatedly called nuclear power a “renewable” energy source and once claimed there were “250 million years of coal” left. His gubernatorial record on the environment was dismal, with Texas leading the nation in smog and toxic-chemical emissions.Upon winning the presidency, Bush staffed key environmental posts with lobbyists and lawyers working for regulated industries: the EPA’s deputy administrator had been a Monsanto lobbyist, the Interior Department’s number two worked for the fossil-fuel industry, and one of the department’s envoys to Alaska had led the charge for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — which Trump and the GOP are now trying to allow. The administration’s interior secretary lobbied for a company that spent much of its history promoting and spreading the use of toxic lead paint.
Like Trump’s promise to exit from the Paris climate deal, Bush quickly killed the Kyoto Protocol, which aimed to curb global greenhouse gas emissions. And, similar to the Trump administration’s plans to reform “the agency’s use of science,” the Bush administration regularly edited science reports on climate change.The rest of the Bush administration’s environmental policies, which you can read if you’re feeling sadomasochistic, will sound eerily familiar: EPA budget cuts, gutting the Clean Air and Clean Water acts, slashing the Superfund program, opening up wilderness to logging, mining, and drilling, and trying to redefine “waters of the United States” to exclude most rivers, lakes, and streams. Indeed, Trump promised on the campaign trail to eliminate the Obama administration’s 2015 rule, which expanded this definition.In 2008, the House global warming committee wrote that “the first 100 days of the Bush administration initiated perhaps the worst period of environmental deregulation in American history.” It was all the more damaging because Bush’s appointees had more political savvy than Reagan’s, allowing them to avoid controversy while advancing more radical, far-reaching measures.And while Trump’s goal to demolish the EPA certainly sounds (and is) extreme, it’s very much in the mainstream of the Republican Party over the last few years. One of the first things Republicans did upon their 2010 “shellacking” of the Democrats was make plans to dramatically defund the agency (as well as the Interior Department) in the hopes that it would “go the way of the dinosaurs that became fossil fuels.” A whole host of GOP candidates advocated gutting or abolishing the agency in 2011, from Newt Gingrich to the wildly popular Ron Paul.Meanwhile, between 2011 and 2012, legislation to dismantle the Clean Air Act was voted on ninety-five times. Reagan’s obsession never left the party.
Beyond TrumpRather than serving as a recipe for despair, this should serve as an important lesson: limiting the scope of our activism to Trump and Trump alone — loathsome as he is — will lead to failure. Far from an aberration, the Trump administration continues the Bush and Reagan administrations’ environmental policies, even as some on the Right (and the Left) pine for the supposedly more sensible policies of previous “mainstream” Republican presidents and candidates.
Whether Trump resigns, is impeached, or voted out, the next GOP administration will still rely on think tanks like Heritage, will likely hire from within regulated industries, and will continue a militant commitment to rolling back environmental regulations. Unlike Trump and Reagan, they may not always provide the necessary “ammunition” to awaken public outrage. The Left should plan accordingly.
<div>=</div><div>
</div><a href="http://www.exposedbycmd.org/2017/06/28/reagan-vs-cities-battle-south-african-apartheid-lessons-trump-era">http://www.exposedbycmd.org/2017/06/28/reagan-vs-cities-battle-south-african-apartheid-lessons-trump-era</a><div>
</div><div>With the Trump administration threatening to withhold federal funds from cities and states offering protections to undocumented immigrants, a new report details similar tactics used by the Reagan administration to pressure cities and states to abandon anti-apartheid sanctions and divestment legislation.The report <a href="http://jobstomoveamerica.org/research/reagan-vs-cities-20th-century-battle-south-african-apartheid-lessons-trump-era/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">“Reagan vs. Cities: The 20th Century Battle Over South African Apartheid & Lessons For The Trump Era”</a> provides historical examples of how cities and states can wield power in the face of threats of retaliation for local policies that defy a president’s political agenda.Between December 2016 and June 2017, researchers from <a href="http://jobstomoveamerica.org/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">Jobs to Move America</a> combed through thousands of pages of declassified documents from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library — legal memos, policy guides, court briefings, and correspondence between companies and the Reagan administration.“Reagan Vs. Cities and States: The 20th Century Battle over South African Apartheid” tells the story of how cities and states joined the fight against apartheid in South Africa and won even as the Reagan administration and special interest groups like the <a href="http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">American Legislative Exchange Council</a> (ALEC) sought to suppress those efforts.ALEC was an early opponent of divestment efforts, distributing a report against divestment to federal, state, and local officials. As this new report details, ALEC was imbedded in the Reagan Administration’s push back on the sanctions movement and was considered by White House insiders to be crucial to providing the intellectual “firepower” for the push back in cities and states. ALEC opposed divestment throughout Reagan’s entire term and up until the dismantling of the apartheid regime, applauding Oregon for rolling back divestment in 1991.ALEC has never apologized for those activities. ALEC has also long opposed socially responsible investing by states and cities, and to this day has been opposing shareholder responsibility efforts.Now, the Trump administration is borrowing an idea from the ALEC playbook, threatening “sanctuary cities” with the removal of federal funds if they continue to aid immigrants. ALEC has long had a <a href="http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/No_Sanctuary_Cities_for_Illegal_Immigrants_Act_Exposed" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">“model bill”</a> condemning sanctuary cities.From the report:<blockquote style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 40px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">By 1991, 28 states, 1 territory, and 92 cities had imposed sanctions, divestment, or other measures on companies doing business in South Africa, costing U.S. corporations substantial sums — in order to stand up for the human rights of black South Africans repressed by a white supremacist regime. The Reagan administration continued to oppose these local efforts, as it had in the case of the New York City law, by implementing measures to undercut cities and states including the threat to withdraw federal funding for many local initiatives.Notwithstanding the Reagan administration’s efforts, sustained opposition to the apartheid system caused its downfall in 1991. The sanctions and divestment movement is credited for playing a critical role in apartheid’s demise.In 2017, President Donald Trump’s advisors have revisited the Reagan playbook to advance his bid to engage in mass deportations of undocumented immigrants working in the U.S. A few days after assuming office, Trump signed Executive Order 13768, “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States.” The Order requires state and local officials to share information about individuals’ immigration status with federal immigration officials. Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from cities that provide “sanctuary” to undocumented immigrants and do not abide by the Order. Although San Francisco and several other U.S. cities brought legal challenges to the order, the Trump administration continues to look for ways to implement their policies.In the Trump era, as cities and states around the country prepare to challenge the White House, they can look to the example of the anti-apartheid movement, when grassroots groups and activists joined together with cities and states to fight the federal government’s threats and together helped the movement of black South Africans triumph over a repressive regime.</blockquote>The report was written by Jobs to Move America, a national organization uniting community, labor, faith, civil rights, philanthropic, academic and environmental groups and the Center for Media and Democracy. CMD’s Executive Director, Lisa Graves, JMA’s Madeline Janis, and Dr. Mary Frances Berry, a leader of the Anti-Apartheid movement, participated in a call to announce the findings of the report this week.<a href="http://jobstomoveamerica.org/research/reagan-vs-cities-20th-century-battle-south-african-apartheid-lessons-trump-era/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">Read the full report here.</a>=</div><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/01/ronald_reagan_s_conservative_conversion_as_spokesman_for_general_electric.html">http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/01/ronald_reagan_s_conservative_conversion_as_spokesman_for_general_electric.html</a>...The steady paycheck MCA found for him in 1954 was made possible by the waiver he’d granted to Revue. It was hosting a television program suggested by MCA toGeneral Electric’s advertising agency, BBDO, at a starting salary of $125,000 a year. The public aspect to his role was hosting and occasionally acting in half-hour episodes of General Electric Theater, which was broadcast Sunday nights on CBS. This anthology program was devoted to adaptations of novels, plays, and short stories, often featuring top stars such as Jimmy Stewart, Jack Benny, and Judy Garland. Over eight seasons, it became the epitome of midcentury middlebrow entertainment. On any given week, General Electric Theater might feature a crime thriller, a romantic comedy, or a dramatic fable.

The program was a rapid success, becoming the third-best-rated show on television in 1956–57, lagging behind only The Ed Sullivan Show and I Love Lucy, both also on CBS. The content was controlled by GE, which wanted to avoid controversy and make sure it didn’t clash with its slogan, “Progress is our most important product.” The Reagan family was enlisted to represent the slogan “live better electrically” in their new, modernist ranch house, which was kitted out as a showcase for GE products. It had a retractable roof over the atrium, a heated swimming pool with underwater lights, intercoms in every room, and an elaborate lighting system that could produce a variety of colored effects. There was an electric barbecue, a refrigerated wine cellar, three TVs, three refrigerators, two freezers, two ovens, and a dishwasher with a built-in garbage disposal. The company had to install a three-thousand-pound switch box to handle the electric current. A series of three-minute commercials featured the Reagans telling three-year-old Patti about their “electrical servants,” such as the vacuum and waffle iron that “make Mommy’s work easier.” Dad told viewers that “when you live better electrically, you lead a richer, fuller, more satisfying life.” The endorsement came naturally to Reagan, who regarded scientists as wizards who could solve any problem, from cancer to pollution.

His broadcast presence was reinforced by his role as a goodwill ambassador for GE, spending up to 12 weeks a year touring the company’s plants around the country. After World War II, GE’s president, Ralph Cordiner, had delegated authority over its manifold business, ranging from household appliances to airplane engines, to 120 separate department heads. Having a visible spokesman who toured these decentralized operations would help sell the company’s policies in the provinces and reinforce a common culture. Ultimately, Reagan would spend what he estimated to be two full years on the road, visiting all 139 facilities and addressing most of GE’s 250,000 employees. On tour, he might deliver as many as 14 speeches a day, starting on a factory floor and finishing as the after-dinner speaker for a local chamber of commerce or Rotary Club branch.<a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/01/ronald_reagan_s_conservative_conversion_as_spokesman_for_general_electric.html">
</a>...
Boulware was known for a strategy of collective bargaining, under which the company would listen to union demands, do extensive research, and then come back with what he called a “fair, firm offer.” According to union leaders, it meant “telling the workers what they are entitled to and then trying to shove it down their throats.” Boulware wanted management to bypass union leadership to speak directly to workers, enlisting them as “mass communicators for GE.”<div class="text parbase text-10 section">Though he had no documented interaction with Boulware himself, Reagan was spending many weeks a year in conversation with midlevel executives, plant managers, and workers steeped in Boulware’s antiregulatory views. According to Dunckel, Reagan “didn’t want to be at a loss to discuss it, if they wanted to discuss it.” Over time, Reagan’s speeches came to match the message from headquarters about the inefficient, irrational, and meddlesome federal government. After a couple of years, Reagan was professing concern about the “business climate,” a term Boulware coined, and recounting tales of “government interference and snafus.” Now that he could no longer shelter his income through the “temporary corporation” loophole, high marginal tax rates were a constant preoccupation of his.</div><div class="text-11 text parbase section">It was during his years traveling with Dunckel in 1955 and 1956 that Reagan “came to the realization that he was no longer a Democrat, that the gap had widened too far to be bridged,” as he put it. In 1957 he returned to his alma mater, Eureka College, as graduation speaker. His speech echoed his <a target="blank" href="http://reagan.convio.net/site/DocServer/Echoes_from_the_Woods_America_the_Beautiful_Article_0652.pdf?docID=785">Fulton commencement address</a> of five years earlier: Americans were a people on a mission from God. But now his vision was less about chosen-ness than about technological progress and consumerism. Having soaked up Hayek and Hazlitt and Boulware, he warned against freedom being lost from within through “carelessness and apathy.”</div><div class="text-12 text parbase section"><blockquote>It’s just that there is something inherent in government which makes it, when it isn’t controlled, continue to grow. ... Remember that every government service, every offer of government financed security, is paid for in the loss of personal freedom. ...</blockquote></div><div class="text-13 text parbase section">America, he contended, was pretty far along on Hayek’s road to serfdom. It was evolving toward socialism without ever choosing it, simply by piling one federal program on top of another. But the risk wasn’t purely bureaucratic accretion; it was also placing limits on what individuals would be allowed to accomplish. People trying to construct a floor under America’s standard of living were actually building a ceiling “above which no one shall be permitted to climb.” Reagan’s “America the Beautiful” 1952 had become “Government the Ugly” by 1957.</div><div class="pagebreak section"><div class="text text-14 parbase section">Here, to pin it down, is Reagan’s decisive break with New Deal liberalism, and the first developed expression of his philosophical alternative. Roosevelt, coming from the American upper class, saw the unregulated power of business as the threat to the people, and government as a hero to the rescue. Reagan, coming from the American lower middle class, now saw those roles reversed: taxation and regulation were the villains, corporations and markets his heroes. Years before the Great Society and the Civil Rights Act, Reagan was framing continued expansion of federal authority not just as wasteful, but as the primary threat to individual liberty.</div><div class="text text-15 parbase section">Reagan’s 1959 address “Business, Ballots, and Bureaus,” delivered to a meeting of GE executives at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York, took this charge a step further, arguing that the perils of communism and government expansion were intertwined. This is the earliest-surviving version of what became known as “The Speech,” Reagan’s political credo, which ended up as “A Time for Choosing,” his famous televised endorsement of Barry Goldwater in 1964. Once, Reagan said, Americans’ main contact with the federal government was through the Post Office, but “today there is hardly a phase of our daily living that doesn’t feel the stultifying hand of government regulation and interference.” He called this shift in power away from individuals and toward bureaucratic institutions “the very essence of totalitarianism.” This was just what the Communists had planned. Reagan quoted Karl Marx that the best way to impose socialism is “to tax the middle class out of existence,” and Nikita Khrushchev’s remark that “your country is becoming so socialistic that in fifteen years the causes of conflict between our two countries will have disappeared.” Both quotations are undocumented....</div>
<div class="text parbase text-17 section">Reagan’s favorite example of creeping socialism was the Tennessee Valley Authority, the New Deal planning agency that controlled power and water in much of the South. But the TVA was one of GE’s biggest customers, buying fifty million dollars’ worth of turbines a year. In Reagan’s 1965 autobiography, he writes that when he heard that his criticism was causing consternation at headquarters, he phoned Cordiner to discuss it. Cordiner told him that as a GE employee he was free to speak his mind. In return, Reagan offered to substitute some other example of overweening government in his speeches—there were so many to choose from. Cordiner said that would make his life easier.</div><div class="text parbase text-18 section">What Reagan fails to mention is that the TVA was then suing GE as part of a price-fixing conspiracy that implicated Cordiner. During the 1950s, executives from GE, Westinghouse, and other companies met secretly to rig bids for large customers. In late 1960, after a series of highly publicized Senate hearings, the Justice Department handed down indictments, and several GE executives went to prison. The company also paid tens of millions of dollars in fines and civil settlements. Its stock price dropped 40 percent. The real story of GE and the TVA in 1960 wasn’t about a corporation being timid about criticizing the government. It was about a company that got caught trying to cheat the government. But Reagan had by that time developed a blind spot about corporate abuse, one that paralleled his inability to see government as a force for good.</div>
RR as tipping pt:  ~ unions, deregulation (heritage mandate)Merger mania (media consolidation)unleashed Rush (--. fox --> trump?!)gov't is the problem memebankrupted the country but teflon sainthood --> drinking gameuprising 12/30/15 kpfa wendell potter deadly spin AMA hired RR to make LP for dr wives to play in coffee klatches on evils of medicare (enslave us?);"bible" from heritage: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_for_Leadership">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_for_Leadership</a>
srcwatch:Ronald Reagan (died June 5, 2004) was the first professional actor to become an American president. A <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Conservative&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Conservative (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">conservative</a> <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Republican" title="Republican" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Republican</a>, he was elected to office in part because of dissatisfaction over a weak economy. Reagan's legacy includes unprecedented federal budget deficits fueled by tax cuts made at the same time the federal budget grew, due to massive increases in military spending (which the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Soviet_Union" title="Soviet Union" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Soviet Union</a> could not match). Conservatives credit him with winning the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Cold_War" title="Cold War" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Cold War</a> against the Soviet Union. However, critics fault his involvement in the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Iran/Contra_scandal" title="Iran/Contra scandal" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Iran-Contra arms scandal</a> and his support for the anti-Soviet <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Mujahideen" title="Mujahideen" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Mujahideen</a> in <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Afghanistan" title="Afghanistan" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Afghanistan</a> (part of which went on to become the basis for <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Osama_bin_Laden" title="Osama bin Laden" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Osama bin Laden</a>'s <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Al_Qaeda" title="Al Qaeda" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Al Qaeda</a>)."Reagan is the one who freed presidential politics from the last vestiges of an obligation to make sense, and quickly ushered in the era where presidents are nothing but products, feel-good media creations that cheerlead for the active governmental maintenance of superstitions and traditional 'values'. He is a saint to people who were desperate to find reasons to feel good about being conservative."—<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://forums.alternet.org/guest/motet?show+-uiksuZ+-hk+Election_2004+13+2338" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaaveleqvr42n3pgqkaiaheuxdqj3dqj3e6iotpusqcgj4eq5iluile0jil3pecxhchgbhz8kg4hwxau3mzecgeyfnaxp4hqnqpnt7ql0nadpd6whcclvnakksq8iiaaaaaaelftksuqmcc="AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" no-repeat="no-repeat" style="text-decoration-line: none; padding-right: 13px; background: url(" xmlns:data="data">Jon Tviete</a>.<div id="toc" class="toc" style="border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 7px; display: table; zoom: 1; line-height: 19.2px; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><div id="toctitle" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center;"><h2 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border: none; display: inline; background: none;">Contents</h2>  [<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ronald_Reagan#" class="internal" id="togglelink" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">hide</a>] </div><ul style="line-height: 1.5em; list-style-type: none; margin: 0.3em 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ronald_Reagan#Tobacco_issues" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1 Tobacco issues</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ronald_Reagan#Published_Works_about_Ronald_Reagan" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2 Published Works about Ronald Reagan</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ronald_Reagan#Related_SourceWatch_Resources" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3 Related SourceWatch Resources</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ronald_Reagan#External_links" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4 External links</a><ul style="line-height: 1.5em; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ronald_Reagan#Profiles" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4.1 Profiles</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ronald_Reagan#Websites" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4.2 Websites</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-7" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ronald_Reagan#By_Ronald_Reagan" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4.3 By Ronald Reagan</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-8" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ronald_Reagan#Articles.26_Commentary" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4.4 Articles & Commentary</a></li></ul></li></ul></div><h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 19.2px; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Tobacco issues</h2>In 1980, when campaigning to become U.S. President, Reagan wrote to a North Carolina tobacco farmer reassuring him of his strong support for the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Tobacco_industry" title="Tobacco industry" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">tobacco industry</a>. "I also want to assure you that my Administration will end what has become an increasingly antagonistic relationship between the Federal government and the tobacco industry. The <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Jimmy_Carter" title="Jimmy Carter" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Carter</a> <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Carter_administration" title="Carter administration" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Administration</a> has all too often singled out the tobacco industry for selective criticism and damaging restrictions. … I can guarantee that my own Cabinet members will be far too busy with substantive matters to waste their time proselytizing against the dangers of cigarette smoking," Reagan wrote. <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/giq92f00" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaaveleqvr42n3pgqkaiaheuxdqj3dqj3e6iotpusqcgj4eq5iluile0jil3pecxhchgbhz8kg4hwxau3mzecgeyfnaxp4hqnqpnt7ql0nadpd6whcclvnakksq8iiaaaaaaelftksuqmcc="AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" no-repeat="no-repeat" style="text-decoration-line: none; padding-right: 13px; background: url(" xmlns:data="data">[1]</a>Reagan was featured in advertisements for Chesterfield cigarettes in the 1950s.<a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://tobaccodocuments.org/pollay_ads/Ches06.01.html?ocr_position=hide_ocr" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaaveleqvr42n3pgqkaiaheuxdqj3dqj3e6iotpusqcgj4eq5iluile0jil3pecxhchgbhz8kg4hwxau3mzecgeyfnaxp4hqnqpnt7ql0nadpd6whcclvnakksq8iiaaaaaaelftksuqmcc="AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" no-repeat="no-repeat" style="text-decoration-line: none; padding-right: 13px; background: url(" xmlns:data="data">[2]</a><a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://tobaccodocuments.org/pollay_ads/Ches08.04.html?ocr_position=hide_ocr" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaaveleqvr42n3pgqkaiaheuxdqj3dqj3e6iotpusqcgj4eq5iluile0jil3pecxhchgbhz8kg4hwxau3mzecgeyfnaxp4hqnqpnt7ql0nadpd6whcclvnakksq8iiaaaaaaelftksuqmcc="AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" no-repeat="no-repeat" style="text-decoration-line: none; padding-right: 13px; background: url(" xmlns:data="data">[3]</a><h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 19.2px; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Published Works about Ronald Reagan</h2><ul style="line-height: 19.2px; margin: 0.3em 0px 0.5em 1.6em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaauaaaanaqmaaabb8jblaaaablbmvex="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAUAAAANAQMAAABb8jbLAAAABlBMVEX" auow5qsojaaaaaxrstlmaqobyzgaaabnjrefucb1jyeabbqw="AUow5QSOjAAAAAXRSTlMAQObYZgAAABNJREFUCB1jYEABBQw" wlcagqeagpidyt0ivcsaaaaasuvork5cyii="); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" xmlns:data="data"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Lou Cannon, President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime. Public Affairs, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Special:BookSources/1891620916" class="internal mw-magiclink-isbn" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">ISBN 1891620916</a>.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Lou Cannon, Govenor Reagan: His Rise To Power, Public Affairs, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Special:BookSources/1586480308" class="internal mw-magiclink-isbn" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">ISBN 1586480308</a>.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Lou Cannon, Ronald Reagan: The Presidential Portfolio, Public Affairs, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Special:BookSources/1891620843" class="internal mw-magiclink-isbn" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">ISBN 1891620843</a>.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Mark Green and Gail MacColl, There He Goes Again: Ronald Reagan's Reign of Error, Pantheon Books, New York 1983.</li></ul><h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 19.2px; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Related SourceWatch Resources</h2><ul style="line-height: 19.2px; margin: 0.3em 0px 0.5em 1.6em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaauaaaanaqmaaabb8jblaaaablbmvex="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAUAAAANAQMAAABb8jbLAAAABlBMVEX" auow5qsojaaaaaxrstlmaqobyzgaaabnjrefucb1jyeabbqw="AUow5QSOjAAAAAXRSTlMAQObYZgAAABNJREFUCB1jYEABBQw" wlcagqeagpidyt0ivcsaaaaasuvork5cyii="); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" xmlns:data="data"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/America_is_a_shining_city_upon_a_hill" title="America is a shining city upon a hill" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">America is a shining city upon a hill</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Evil_empire" title="Evil empire" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">evil empire</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Inter-American_Foundation_during_the_Reagan_era" title="Inter-American Foundation during the Reagan era" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Inter-American Foundation during the Reagan era</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Peter_Hannaford" title="Peter Hannaford" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Peter Hannaford</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Reagan_doctrine" title="Reagan doctrine" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Reagan doctrine</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Ronald_Reagan_Presidential_Library" title="Ronald Reagan Presidential Library" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Ronald Reagan Presidential Library</a></li></ul><h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 19.2px; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">External links</h2><h3 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; line-height: 19.2px; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Profiles</h3><ul style="line-height: 19.2px; margin: 0.3em 0px 0.5em 1.6em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaauaaaanaqmaaabb8jblaaaablbmvex="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAUAAAANAQMAAABb8jbLAAAABlBMVEX" auow5qsojaaaaaxrstlmaqobyzgaaabnjrefucb1jyeabbqw="AUow5QSOjAAAAAXRSTlMAQObYZgAAABNJREFUCB1jYEABBQw" wlcagqeagpidyt0ivcsaaaaasuvork5cyii="); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" xmlns:data="data"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Wikipedia article on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan" class="extiw" title="w:Ronald Reagan" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Ronald Reagan</a>.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/rr40.html" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaaveleqvr42n3pgqkaiaheuxdqj3dqj3e6iotpusqcgj4eq5iluile0jil3pecxhchgbhz8kg4hwxau3mzecgeyfnaxp4hqnqpnt7ql0nadpd6whcclvnakksq8iiaaaaaaelftksuqmcc="AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" no-repeat="no-repeat" style="text-decoration-line: none; padding-right: 13px; background: url(" xmlns:data="data">Official Whitehouse bio</a>.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.usa-presidents.info/reagan.htm" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaaveleqvr42n3pgqkaiaheuxdqj3dqj3e6iotpusqcgj4eq5iluile0jil3pecxhchgbhz8kg4hwxau3mzecgeyfnaxp4hqnqpnt7ql0nadpd6whcclvnakksq8iiaaaaaaelftksuqmcc="AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" no-repeat="no-repeat" style="text-decoration-line: none; padding-right: 13px; background: url(" xmlns:data="data">Ronald Reagan Biography</a>, USA-Presidents.info.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://tobaccodocuments.org/pollay_ads/Ches09.12.html" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaaveleqvr42n3pgqkaiaheuxdqj3dqj3e6iotpusqcgj4eq5iluile0jil3pecxhchgbhz8kg4hwxau3mzecgeyfnaxp4hqnqpnt7ql0nadpd6whcclvnakksq8iiaaaaaaelftksuqmcc="AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" no-repeat="no-repeat" style="text-decoration-line: none; padding-right: 13px; background: url(" xmlns:data="data">Ronald Reagan featured in 1953 advertisement for Chesterfield cigarettes</a>.</li></ul><h3 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; line-height: 19.2px; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Websites</h3><ul style="line-height: 19.2px; margin: 0.3em 0px 0.5em 1.6em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaauaaaanaqmaaabb8jblaaaablbmvex="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAUAAAANAQMAAABb8jbLAAAABlBMVEX" auow5qsojaaaaaxrstlmaqobyzgaaabnjrefucb1jyeabbqw="AUow5QSOjAAAAAXRSTlMAQObYZgAAABNJREFUCB1jYEABBQw" wlcagqeagpidyt0ivcsaaaaasuvork5cyii="); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" xmlns:data="data"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.ronaldreagan.tk/" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaaveleqvr42n3pgqkaiaheuxdqj3dqj3e6iotpusqcgj4eq5iluile0jil3pecxhchgbhz8kg4hwxau3mzecgeyfnaxp4hqnqpnt7ql0nadpd6whcclvnakksq8iiaaaaaaelftksuqmcc="AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" no-repeat="no-repeat" style="text-decoration-line: none; padding-right: 13px; background: url(" xmlns:data="data">RonaldReagan.tk</a> - a pro Reagan website - little in the way of authored content, mostly hot-links to other sites, but many public domain photographs.</li></ul><h3 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; line-height: 19.2px; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">By Ronald Reagan</h3><ul style="line-height: 19.2px; margin: 0.3em 0px 0.5em 1.6em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaauaaaanaqmaaabb8jblaaaablbmvex="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAUAAAANAQMAAABb8jbLAAAABlBMVEX" auow5qsojaaaaaxrstlmaqobyzgaaabnjrefucb1jyeabbqw="AUow5QSOjAAAAAXRSTlMAQObYZgAAABNJREFUCB1jYEABBQw" wlcagqeagpidyt0ivcsaaaaasuvork5cyii="); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" xmlns:data="data"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/giq92f00" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaaveleqvr42n3pgqkaiaheuxdqj3dqj3e6iotpusqcgj4eq5iluile0jil3pecxhchgbhz8kg4hwxau3mzecgeyfnaxp4hqnqpnt7ql0nadpd6whcclvnakksq8iiaaaaaaelftksuqmcc="AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" no-repeat="no-repeat" style="text-decoration-line: none; padding-right: 13px; background: url(" xmlns:data="data">"Letter to Mr Galloway,"</a> Bates No TIMN0089856, September 24, 1980.</li></ul><h3 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; line-height: 19.2px; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Articles & Commentary</h3><ul style="line-height: 19.2px; margin: 0.3em 0px 0.5em 1.6em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaauaaaanaqmaaabb8jblaaaablbmvex="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAUAAAANAQMAAABb8jbLAAAABlBMVEX" auow5qsojaaaaaxrstlmaqobyzgaaabnjrefucb1jyeabbqw="AUow5QSOjAAAAAXRSTlMAQObYZgAAABNJREFUCB1jYEABBQw" wlcagqeagpidyt0ivcsaaaaasuvork5cyii="); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" xmlns:data="data"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.pulitzer.org/bycat/National+Reporting" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaaveleqvr42n3pgqkaiaheuxdqj3dqj3e6iotpusqcgj4eq5iluile0jil3pecxhchgbhz8kg4hwxau3mzecgeyfnaxp4hqnqpnt7ql0nadpd6whcclvnakksq8iiaaaaaaelftksuqmcc="AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" no-repeat="no-repeat" style="text-decoration-line: none; padding-right: 13px; background: url(" xmlns:data="data">Michael Kranish and Murray Waas</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://murraywaas.net/murraywaas_irancontra.html" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaaveleqvr42n3pgqkaiaheuxdqj3dqj3e6iotpusqcgj4eq5iluile0jil3pecxhchgbhz8kg4hwxau3mzecgeyfnaxp4hqnqpnt7ql0nadpd6whcclvnakksq8iiaaaaaaelftksuqmcc="AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" no-repeat="no-repeat" style="text-decoration-line: none; padding-right: 13px; background: url(" xmlns:data="data">"Reporters Battle Over Final Report on Iran-Contra," Boston Globe,</a> November 27, 1993.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Robert_Parry" title="Robert Parry" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Robert Parry</a>, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/060704.html" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaaveleqvr42n3pgqkaiaheuxdqj3dqj3e6iotpusqcgj4eq5iluile0jil3pecxhchgbhz8kg4hwxau3mzecgeyfnaxp4hqnqpnt7ql0nadpd6whcclvnakksq8iiaaaaaaelftksuqmcc="AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" no-repeat="no-repeat" style="text-decoration-line: none; padding-right: 13px; background: url(" xmlns:data="data">"Rating Reagan,"</a> Consortiumnews, June 7, 2004.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.economist.com/world/na/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2747437" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaaveleqvr42n3pgqkaiaheuxdqj3dqj3e6iotpusqcgj4eq5iluile0jil3pecxhchgbhz8kg4hwxau3mzecgeyfnaxp4hqnqpnt7ql0nadpd6whcclvnakksq8iiaaaaaaelftksuqmcc="AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" no-repeat="no-repeat" style="text-decoration-line: none; padding-right: 13px; background: url(" xmlns:data="data">"Ronald Reagan's Legacy,"</a> The Economist, June 10, 2004. Subscription required.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Robert Parry, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/012907.html" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaaveleqvr42n3pgqkaiaheuxdqj3dqj3e6iotpusqcgj4eq5iluile0jil3pecxhchgbhz8kg4hwxau3mzecgeyfnaxp4hqnqpnt7ql0nadpd6whcclvnakksq8iiaaaaaaelftksuqmcc="AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" no-repeat="no-repeat" style="text-decoration-line: none; padding-right: 13px; background: url(" xmlns:data="data">"Reagan & the Salvadoran Baby Skulls,"</a> Consortiumnews, January 30, 2007.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Jerome Doolittle, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://badattitudes.com/MT/archives/2007/04/bushs_role_mode.html" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaaveleqvr42n3pgqkaiaheuxdqj3dqj3e6iotpusqcgj4eq5iluile0jil3pecxhchgbhz8kg4hwxau3mzecgeyfnaxp4hqnqpnt7ql0nadpd6whcclvnakksq8iiaaaaaaelftksuqmcc="AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" no-repeat="no-repeat" style="text-decoration-line: none; padding-right: 13px; background: url(" xmlns:data="data">"Bush's Role Model,"</a> Bad Attitudes, April 7, 2007.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">------</li></ul><div>=</div><div>wikifluff:</div><div>
</div><div>Ronald Wilson Reagan (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none !important;">/</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none !important;">ˈ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none !important;">r</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none !important;">ɒ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none !important;">n</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none !important;">əl</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none !important;">d</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none !important;"></a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none !important;">ˈ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none !important;">w</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none !important;">ɪ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none !important;">l</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none !important;">s</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none !important;">ən</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none !important;"></a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none !important;">ˈ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none !important;">r</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none !important;">eɪ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none !important;">ɡ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none !important;">ən</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none !important;">/</a>; February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American actor and politician. He was the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Presidents_of_the_United_States" title="List of Presidents of the United States" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">40th President of the United States</a> (1981–89). Prior to his presidency, he served as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Governors_of_California" title="List of Governors of California" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">33rd</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor_of_California" title="Governor of California" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Governor of California</a> (1967–75).Born and raised in small towns in Illinois, Reagan graduated from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_College" title="Eureka College" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Eureka College</a> and then worked as a radio broadcaster. In 1937 he moved to Hollywood, where he began a career as an actor, first in films, and, later, in television. Reagan served as President of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_Actors_Guild" title="Screen Actors Guild" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Screen Actors Guild</a> and later as a spokesman for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Electric" title="General Electric" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">General Electric</a>(G.E.); his start in politics occurred during his work for G.E. Originally, he was a member of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party(United_States)" title="Democratic Party (United States)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Democratic Party</a>, but due to the parties' shifting platforms during the 1950s, he switched to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party(United_States)" title="Republican Party (United States)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Republican Party</a> in 1962.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#cite_note-reagansheritage.org-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[1]</a>After delivering <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Time_for_Choosing" title="A Time for Choosing" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">a rousing speech</a> in support of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Goldwater" title="Barry Goldwater" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Barry Goldwater</a>'s presidential candidacy in 1964, he was persuaded to seek the California governorship, winning <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_gubernatorial_election,1966" title="California gubernatorial election, 1966" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">two years later</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_gubernatorial_election,1970" title="California gubernatorial election, 1970" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">again in 1970</a>. He was defeated in his run for the Republican presidential nomination in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1968" title="United States presidential election, 1968" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">1968</a> and in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1976" title="United States presidential election, 1976" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">1976</a>, but won both the nomination and general election in<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1980" title="United States presidential election, 1980" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">1980</a>, defeating incumbent <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter" title="Jimmy Carter" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Jimmy Carter</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#cite_note-reagansheritage.org-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">[1]</a>As president, Reagan implemented sweeping new political and economic initiatives. His <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply-side_economics" title="Supply-side economics" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">supply-side economic</a> policies, dubbed "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaganomics" title="Reaganomics" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Reaganomics</a>", advocated reducing tax rates to spur economic growth, controlling the money supply to reduce inflation, deregulation of the economy, and reducing government spending. In his first term he also survived <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reagan_assassination_attempt" title="Reagan assassination attempt" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">an assassination attempt</a>, took a hard line against <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Air_Traffic_Controllers_Organization(1968)" title="Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (1968)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">labor unions</a>, and announced a new <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Drugs" title="War on Drugs" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-position: 0% 0%; background-clip: border-box; background-origin: padding-box; background-size: auto;">War on Drugs</a> In foreign policy, he stepped up the Cold War by denouncing the Soviet Union as evil, spending heavily on new weapons, putting missiles in Europe, supporting anti-Communist movements in Latin America, Afghanistan and Poland, and invading the Caribbean island of Grenada to roll back a Communist coupHe was re-elected in a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1984" title="United States presidential election, 1984" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-position: 0% 0%; background-clip: border-box; background-origin: padding-box; background-size: auto;">landslide in 1984</a>, proclaiming that it was "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_in_America" title="Morning in America" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-position: 0% 0%; background-clip: border-box; background-origin: padding-box; background-size: auto;">Morning in America</a>". His second term was primarily marked by foreign matters, such as the ending of the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War" title="Cold War" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-position: 0% 0%; background-clip: border-box; background-origin: padding-box; background-size: auto;"> Cold War</a>, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_bombing_of_Libya" title="1986 bombing of Libya" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-position: 0% 0%; background-clip: border-box; background-origin: padding-box; background-size: auto;">1986 bombing of Libya</a>, and the revelation of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Contra_affair" title="Iran–Contra affair" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-position: 0% 0%; background-clip: border-box; background-origin: padding-box; background-size: auto;">Iran–Contra affair</a>. Publicly describing the Soviet Union as an "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_empire" title="Evil empire" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-position: 0% 0%; background-clip: border-box; background-origin: padding-box; background-size: auto;">evil empire</a>,"<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#cite_note-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[2]</a> he supported anti-communist movements worldwide and spent his first term forgoing the strategy of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9tente" title="Détente" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">détente</a> in favor of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollback" title="Rollback" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">rollback</a> by escalating an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_race" title="Arms race" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">arms race</a> with the USSR. Reagan subsequently negotiated with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Secretary_of_the_Communist_Party_of_the_Soviet_Union" title="General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Soviet General Secretary</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Gorbachev" title="Mikhail Gorbachev" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Mikhail Gorbachev</a>, culminating in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INF_Treaty" title="INF Treaty" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">INF Treaty</a> and the decrease of both countries' nuclear arsenals. The fall of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall" title="Berlin Wall" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Berlin Wall</a>and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union" title="Dissolution of the Soviet Union" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">dissolution of the Soviet Union</a> occurred soon afterward.Reagan left office in 1989. In 1994, the former president disclosed that he had been diagnosed with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alzheimer%27s_disease" title="Alzheimer's disease" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Alzheimer's disease</a> earlier in the year; he <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_and_state_funeral_of_Ronald_Reagan" title="Death and state funeral of Ronald Reagan" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">died ten years later</a> at the age of 93. A <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatism_in_the_United_States" title="Conservatism in the United States" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">conservative</a> icon, he ranks highly in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_of_Presidents_of_the_United_States" title="Historical rankings of Presidents of the United States" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">public opinion polls of U.S. Presidents</a> and is credited for generating an ideological renaissance on the American <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_right" title="Political right" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">political right</a>.
<div id="toc" class="toc" style="border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 7px; display: table; zoom: 1; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><div id="toctitle" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center;"><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border: none; display: inline; line-height: 1.3; background: none;">Contents</h2>  [<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#" class="internal" id="togglelink" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">hide</a>] </div><ul style="line-height: 1.6; list-style-type: none; margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Early_life" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1 Early life</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Entertainment_career" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2 Entertainment career</a><ul style="line-height: 1.6; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Radio_and_film" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2.1 Radio and film</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Military_service" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2.2 Military service</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#SAG_president" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2.3 SAG president</a><ul style="line-height: 1.6; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Secret_FBI_informant_in_Hollywood" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2.3.1 Secret FBI informant in Hollywood</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-7" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Television" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2.4 Television</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-8" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Marriages_and_children" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3 Marriages and children</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-9" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Early_political_career" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4 Early political career</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-10" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Governor_of_California.2C_1967.E2.80.9375" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">5 Governor of California, 1967–75</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-11" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#1976_presidential_campaign" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">6 1976 presidential campaign</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-12" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#1980_presidential_campaign" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">7 1980 presidential campaign</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-13" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Presidency.2C_1981.E2.80.9389" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">8 Presidency, 1981–89</a><ul style="line-height: 1.6; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-14" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#First_term.2C_1981.E2.80.9385" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">8.1 First term, 1981–85</a><ul style="line-height: 1.6; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-15" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Assassination_attempt" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">8.1.1 Assassination attempt</a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-16" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Air_traffic_controllers.27_strike" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">8.1.2 Air traffic controllers' strike</a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-17" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#.22Reaganomics.22_and_the_economy" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">8.1.3 "Reaganomics" and the economy</a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-18" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Escalation_of_the_Cold_War" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">8.1.4 Escalation of the Cold War</a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-19" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Lebanese_Civil_War.2C_1983" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">8.1.5 Lebanese Civil War, 1983</a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-20" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Operation_Urgent_Fury.28Grenada.29.2C_1983" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">8.1.6 Operation Urgent Fury (Grenada), 1983</a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-21" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#1984_presidential_campaign" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">8.1.7 1984 presidential campaign</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-22" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Second_term.2C_1985.E2.80.9389" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">8.2 Second term, 1985–89</a><ul style="line-height: 1.6; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-23" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#War_on_Drugs" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">8.2.1 War on Drugs</a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-24" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Libya_bombing" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">8.2.2 Libya bombing</a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-25" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Immigration" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">8.2.3 Immigration</a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-26" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Iran.E2.80.93Contra_affair" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">8.2.4 Iran–Contra affair</a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-27" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#End_of_the_Cold_War" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">8.2.5 End of the Cold War</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-28" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Health" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">8.3 Health</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-29" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Judiciary" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">8.4 Judiciary</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-30" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Post-presidential_years.2C_1989.E2.80.932004" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">9 Post-presidential years, 1989–2004</a><ul style="line-height: 1.6; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-31" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Alzheimer.27s_disease" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">9.1 Alzheimer's disease</a><ul style="line-height: 1.6; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-32" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Announcement_and_reaction" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">9.1.1 Announcement and reaction</a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-33" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Progression" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">9.1.2 Progression</a></li></ul></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-34" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Death" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">10 Death</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-35" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Legacy" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">11 Legacy</a><ul style="line-height: 1.6; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-36" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Cold_War" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">11.1 Cold War</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-37" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Domestic_and_political_legacy" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">11.2 Domestic and political legacy</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-38" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Cultural_and_political_image" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">11.3 Cultural and political image</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-39" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Honors" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">11.4 Honors</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-40" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#See_also" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">12 See also</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-41" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Citations" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">13 Citations</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-42" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#References" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">14 References</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-43" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Further_reading" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">15 Further reading</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-44" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#External_links" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">16 External links</a><ul style="line-height: 1.6; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-45" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Official_sites" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">16.1 Official sites</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-46" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Media" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">16.2 Media</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-47" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#News_coverage" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">16.3 News coverage</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-48" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Timeline" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">16.4 Timeline</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-49" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Essays_and_historiographies" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">16.5 Essays and historiographies</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-50" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Site_directories" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">16.6 Site directories</a></li></ul></li></ul></div></div><div></div><div>huac; REAGAN: Well, sir, my testimony must be very similar to that of Mr. (George) Murphy and Mr. </div>(Robert) Montgomery. There has been a small group within the Screen Actors Guild which has 
consistently opposed the policy of the guild board and officers of the guild, as evidenced by the 
vote on various issues. That small clique referred to has been suspected of more or less 
following the tactics that we associate with the Communist Party.<div>...</div><div>Whether the party should be outlawed, that is a 
matter for the government to decide. As a citizen, I would hesitate to see any political party 
outlawed on the basis of its political ideology.  However, if it is proven that an organization is an 
agent of foreign power, or in any way not a legitimate political party -- and I think the 
government is capable of proving that -- then that is another matter. I happen to be very proud of 
the industry in which I work; I happen to be very proud of the way in which we conducted the 
fight. I do not believe the communists have ever at any time been able to use the motion picture 
screen as a sounding board for their philosophy or ideology.CHAIRMAN: There is one thing that you said that interested me....<div>
<div><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20071215050331/http://www.twcnet.edu/cschutz/history-page/Consensus/Reagan-huac-testimony.html">https://web.archive.org/web/20071215050331/http://www.twcnet.edu/cschutz/history-page/Consensus/Reagan-huac-testimony.html</a></div><div>
</div><div>time mag:</div><div>Ronald Reagan's acting career hit a lull in the late 1940s. Despite parts in minor films such as The Voice of the Turtle and That Hagen Girl, he became increasingly preoccupied with his more important role during Hollywood's "Red Scare" as head of the Screen Actors Guild. It was revealed last week that the future President played another role as well: as a secret FBI informant, code name T-10. According to an article published in the San Jose Mercury News, documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act indicate that Reagan and his first wife, Actress Jane Wyman, provided federal agents with the names of actors they believed were Communist sympathizers.The FBI papers report that despite his work as an informant, Reagan disagreed with some of the tactics of organizations like the House Un- American Activities Committee. In one FBI interview, Reagan takes issue with a group of actors and producers attempting to fire any alleged Reds. Protests Reagan: "Do they expect us to constitute ourselves as a little FBI of our own and determine just who is a Commie and who isn't?"
Investigative journalist Seth Rosenfeld’s new book, "Subversives: The FBI’s War on Student Radicals, and Reagan’s Rise to Power," is based on more than 300,000 pages of records Rosenfeld received over three decades through five Freedom of Information lawsuits against the FBI. The book tracks how then-FBI director J. Edgar Hoover ordered his agents to investigate and then disrupt the Free Speech Movement that began in 1964 on the Berkeley campus of the University of California. In part two of our interview, Rosenfeld discusses how Ronald Reagan collaborated with the FBI to target California’s student movement and strengthen Reagan’s own rise to power. <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2012/8/23/subversives_how_the_fbi_fought_the" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px; line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Click here to watch part 1.</a> [includes rush transcript]<a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2012/8/24/book_reveals_extensive_effort_by_reagan">http://www.democracynow.org/2012/8/24/book_reveals_extensive_effort_by_reagan</a>
<div>=</div><div id="mw-content-text" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr" lang="en" style="direction: ltr; line-height: 19.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The "Kitchen Cabinet" of <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Ronald_Reagan" title="Ronald Reagan" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Ronald Reagan</a> consists of many prominent conservative businessmen who served as unofficial advisers parallel to the United States cabinet. Many of these individuals advised Reagan throughout his political career. These various actors were so influential in Reagan's decision making that in 1981, they helped pick Reagan's original Presidential cabinet.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Reagan_kitchen_cabinet#cite_note-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[1]</a> Listed below are the names and brief profiles of the members of Reagan's Kitchen Cabinet.
<div id="toc" class="toc" style="border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 7px; display: table; zoom: 1; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><div id="toctitle" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center;"><h2 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border: none; display: inline; background: none;">Contents</h2>  [<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Reagan_kitchen_cabinet#" class="internal" id="togglelink" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">hide</a>] </div><ul style="line-height: 1.5em; list-style-type: none; margin: 0.3em 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Reagan_kitchen_cabinet#Kitchen_Cabinet_Members" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1 Kitchen Cabinet Members</a><ul style="line-height: 1.5em; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Reagan_kitchen_cabinet#Thomas_Roe" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1.1 Thomas Roe</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Reagan_kitchen_cabinet#Joseph_Coors" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1.2 Joseph Coors</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Reagan_kitchen_cabinet#Edwin_Meese_III" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1.3 Edwin Meese III</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Reagan_kitchen_cabinet#Justin_Dart" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1.4 Justin Dart</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Reagan_kitchen_cabinet#William_A.Wilson" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1.5 William A. Wilson</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-7" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Reagan_kitchen_cabinet#Holmes_Tuttle" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1.6 Holmes Tuttle</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-8" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Reagan_kitchen_cabinet#William_French_Smith" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1.7 William French Smith</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-9" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Reagan_kitchen_cabinet#Resources_and_Articles" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2 Resources and Articles</a><ul style="line-height: 1.5em; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-10" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Reagan_kitchen_cabinet#Related_SourceWatch_Resoures" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2.1 Related SourceWatch Resoures</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-11" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Reagan_kitchen_cabinet#References" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2.2 References</a></li></ul></li></ul></div><h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); background: none;">Kitchen Cabinet Members</h2><h3 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; background: none;">Thomas Roe</h3><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Thomas_A.Roe" title="Thomas A. Roe" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Thomas A. Roe</a> was a businessman and industrialist from Greenville, South Carolina. He was chairman of the board of Builder Marts of America, Inc., which has since become <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.guardianbp.com/content.php?id=1" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaaveleqvr42n3pgqkaiaheuxdqj3dqj3e6iotpusqcgj4eq5iluile0jil3pecxhchgbhz8kg4hwxau3mzecgeyfnaxp4hqnqpnt7ql0nadpd6whcclvnakksq8iiaaaaaaelftksuqmcc="AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" no-repeat="no-repeat" style="text-decoration-line: none; padding-right: 13px; background: url(" xmlns:data="data">Guardian Building Products</a>.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Reagan_kitchen_cabinet#cite_note-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[2]</a> He was also the founding chairman of the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/State_Policy_Network" title="State Policy Network" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-position: 0% 0%; background-clip: border-box; background-origin: padding-box; background-size: auto;">State Policy Network</a> (SPN) and founder of early SPN member state think tank the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/South_Carolina_Policy_Council" title="South Carolina Policy Council" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-position: 0% 0%; background-clip: border-box; background-origin: padding-box; background-size: auto;">South Carolina Policy Council</a>. He died in 2000, but his <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Roe_Foundation" title="Roe Foundation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Roe Foundation</a> "continues to provide financial support to free-market policy groups across the country."<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Reagan_kitchen_cabinet#cite_note-spn-3" style="text-decoration-line: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[3]</a><h3 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; background: none;">Joseph Coors</h3><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Joseph_Coors" title="Joseph Coors" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Joseph Coors</a>, former President of the Coors brewing company, is the founder of the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Council_for_National_Policy" title="Council for National Policy" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Council for National Policy</a> (CNP, the far right's answer to the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Council_on_Foreign_Relations" title="Council on Foreign Relations" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Council on Foreign Relations</a>). He put up the initial $250,000 in seed money to start the<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Heritage_Foundation" title="Heritage Foundation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-position: 0% 0%; background-clip: border-box; background-origin: padding-box; background-size: auto;"> Heritage Foundation</a> in 1973. Since then, he has funded <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Paul_Weyrich" title="Paul Weyrich" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-position: 0% 0%; background-clip: border-box; background-origin: padding-box; background-size: auto;">Paul Weyrich</a>'s <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Free_Congress_Foundation" title="Free Congress Foundation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-position: 0% 0%; background-clip: border-box; background-origin: padding-box; background-size: auto;">Free Congress Foundation</a>, the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Hoover_Institution" title="Hoover Institution" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-position: 0% 0%; background-clip: border-box; background-origin: padding-box; background-size: auto;">Hoover Institution</a>, and <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Accuracy_in_Media" title="Accuracy in Media" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-repeat: repeat; background-attachment: scroll; background-position: 0% 0%; background-clip: border-box; background-origin: padding-box; background-size: auto;">Accuracy in Media</a>.<h3 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; background: none;">Edwin Meese III</h3>Prior to serving as Attorney General under Reagan from 1985 to 1988, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Edwin_Meese_III" title="Edwin Meese III" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Edwin Meese III</a>, a wealthy California attorney, was a prominent adviser in the administration and worked under Governor Reagan in California. He was also on the CNP Executive Committee in 1994 and CNP President in 1996. He has been "distinguished fellow and holder of the Ronald Reagan Chair in Public Policy" for the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Heritage_Foundation" title="Heritage Foundation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Heritage Foundation</a>. In early 2013, he held fellowships and chairmanships with several public policy councils and think tanks, including the Constitution Project,<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Reagan_kitchen_cabinet#cite_note-4" style="text-decoration-line: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[4]</a> and say on the board of directors of The <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Federalist_Society" title="Federalist Society" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Federalist Society</a> for Law and Public Policy Studies.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Reagan_kitchen_cabinet#cite_note-5" style="text-decoration-line: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[5]</a><h3 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; background: none;">Justin Dart</h3><h3 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; background: none;">William A. Wilson</h3><h3 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; background: none;">Holmes Tuttle</h3><h3 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; background: none;">William French Smith</h3><h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); background: none;">Resources and Articles</h2><h3 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; background: none;">Related SourceWatch Resoures</h3><ul style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.3em 0px 0.5em 1.6em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaauaaaanaqmaaabb8jblaaaablbmvex="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAUAAAANAQMAAABb8jbLAAAABlBMVEX" auow5qsojaaaaaxrstlmaqobyzgaaabnjrefucb1jyeabbqw="AUow5QSOjAAAAAXRSTlMAQObYZgAAABNJREFUCB1jYEABBQw" wlcagqeagpidyt0ivcsaaaaasuvork5cyii=");" xmlns:data="data"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/The_Strategy_To_Privatize_The_Public_Domain" title="The Strategy To Privatize The Public Domain" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">The Strategy To Privatize The Public Domain</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Wise_Use_Movement" title="Wise Use Movement" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Wise Use Movement</a></li></ul><h3 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; background: none;">References</h3><ol class="references" style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.3em 0px 0.5em 3.2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li id="cite_note-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Reagan_kitchen_cabinet#cite_ref-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><span class="cite-accessibility-label" style="top: -99999px; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important;">Jump up↑</a> Stewart, Gwendolyn, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://primepicturepolitics.blogspot.com/2012/05/ronald-reagans-kitchen-cabinet-and.html" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaaveleqvr42n3pgqkaiaheuxdqj3dqj3e6iotpusqcgj4eq5iluile0jil3pecxhchgbhz8kg4hwxau3mzecgeyfnaxp4hqnqpnt7ql0nadpd6whcclvnakksq8iiaaaaaaelftksuqmcc="AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" no-repeat="no-repeat" style="text-decoration-line: none; padding-right: 13px; background: url(" xmlns:data="data">Kitchen Cabinets Then and Now</a>, Prime Picture Politics blog, accessed January 25, 2013.</li><li id="cite_note-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Reagan_kitchen_cabinet#cite_ref-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><span class="cite-accessibility-label" style="top: -99999px; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important;">Jump up↑</a> John Gizzi, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-50809990.html/print" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaaveleqvr42n3pgqkaiaheuxdqj3dqj3e6iotpusqcgj4eq5iluile0jil3pecxhchgbhz8kg4hwxau3mzecgeyfnaxp4hqnqpnt7ql0nadpd6whcclvnakksq8iiaaaaaaelftksuqmcc="AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" no-repeat="no-repeat" style="text-decoration-line: none; padding-right: 13px; background: url(" xmlns:data="data">Thomas A. Roe, Jr., R.I.P.</a>, Human Events, March 10, 2000, accessed via Highbeam.com September 2012.</li><li id="cite_note-spn-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Reagan_kitchen_cabinet#cite_ref-spn_3-0" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><span class="cite-accessibility-label" style="top: -99999px; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important;">Jump up↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.spn.org/about/spn-leadership-team" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaaveleqvr42n3pgqkaiaheuxdqj3dqj3e6iotpusqcgj4eq5iluile0jil3pecxhchgbhz8kg4hwxau3mzecgeyfnaxp4hqnqpnt7ql0nadpd6whcclvnakksq8iiaaaaaaelftksuqmcc="AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" no-repeat="no-repeat" style="text-decoration-line: none; padding-right: 13px; background: url(" xmlns:data="data">About</a>. State Policy Network. Retrieved on 2011-04-19.</li><li id="cite_note-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Reagan_kitchen_cabinet#cite_ref-4" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><span class="cite-accessibility-label" style="top: -99999px; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important;">Jump up↑</a> Heritage Foundation, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.heritage.org/about/staff/edwinmeese.cfm" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaaveleqvr42n3pgqkaiaheuxdqj3dqj3e6iotpusqcgj4eq5iluile0jil3pecxhchgbhz8kg4hwxau3mzecgeyfnaxp4hqnqpnt7ql0nadpd6whcclvnakksq8iiaaaaaaelftksuqmcc="AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" no-repeat="no-repeat" style="text-decoration-line: none; padding-right: 13px; background: url(" xmlns:data="data">Edwin Meese</a>, organizational biography, accessed January 2013.</li><li id="cite_note-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Reagan_kitchen_cabinet#cite_ref-5" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><span class="cite-accessibility-label" style="top: -99999px; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important;">Jump up↑</a> Federalist Society, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.fed-soc.org/aboutus/page/board-of-directors" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaaveleqvr42n3pgqkaiaheuxdqj3dqj3e6iotpusqcgj4eq5iluile0jil3pecxhchgbhz8kg4hwxau3mzecgeyfnaxp4hqnqpnt7ql0nadpd6whcclvnakksq8iiaaaaaaelftksuqmcc="AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" no-repeat="no-repeat" style="text-decoration-line: none; padding-right: 13px; background: url(" xmlns:data="data">Board of Directors</a>, organizational website, accessed January 2013.</li></ol></div><div id="catlinks" class="catlinks" style="border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 5px; margin-top: 1em; clear: both; line-height: 19.2px; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><div id="mw-normal-catlinks" class="mw-normal-catlinks"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Special:Categories" title="Special:Categories" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Categories</a>: <ul style="line-height: 1.5em; list-style: none none; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; display: inline;"><li style="margin: 0.125em 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.25em; border-left-style: none; padding: 0px 0.5em 0px 0.25em; zoom: 1;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Right_wing" title="Category:Right wing" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Right wing</a></li><li style="margin: 0.125em 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.25em; border-left: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 0px 0.5em; zoom: 1;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Conservatives" title="Category:Conservatives" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Conservatives</a></li></ul></div></div>=LISA GRAVES: Well, it’s interesting. It’s some of the same long-standing funders of ALEC, including the oil industry. Exxon is one of those corporations. Also some companies that have not been so widely associated with ALEC, like IBM and others, were funders of ALEC back then. ALEC also had events backed by the diamond industry, with prizes for its legislators backed by the diamond industry. And it was really pushing this corporate—this corporate agenda to stop divestment, because it was going hurt the bottom line because, quite frankly, as people know, apartheid was extremely profitable for companies because the workers had little to no rights. And ALEC was relying on really flawed polling that was put forward by a white professor at an all-white university, claiming that most South Africans didn’t want divestment. It was really an extraordinary campaign, and they were quite successful in getting leaders of the Reagan administration to adopt their policies, to credit them for pushing for the anti-anti-apartheid efforts to oppose—to oppose divestment. And they even reached out to the Reagan administration to try to get rewards for their legislators for pushing this agenda in the states.rt nation: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Right-Nation-Conservative-America/dp/0143035398">http://www.amazon.com/The-Right-Nation-Conservative-America/dp/0143035398</a>The Right Nation: Conservative Power in Ameri… (Paperback) by John Micklethwait, Adrian WooldridgeRR beleived in space aliens and appted Commerce sec b/c he roped cattle for fun, opposed CR acts. 50 members of anti-detente comm on the Pres Danger appted  admin. increased spending but no cuts, so upped debt by 1.5 trillion$. fired 10K atc tho one of few unions to support him.  promoted rehnquist and appted scalia.RR met w/ PR guys from P-M, ATT, H&K, GM, alcoa  CoC gave list of JVC civil servants to sack 261 under b2 coc guy ~v refs head of osha (their legal arm got roberts and alito confirmed) 266Michael Baroody fil NAM lobbyist nom b2 head consumer product safety comm but howled down) 267=gop thought won permanent in 1968 and 1980, but no, tho BC got slapped whenever he went Left and al lost 96B1 17pts down, but LA went for blue collar pro Am approach (horton, tank ads) card carrying ACLU. b1 a pragmatist, to hard core right Kristol in VP office and kemp's HUD98 RR paid by GE $125,000 to give speeches to employees, got more pol.  progressive tax idea of karl marx, slavery on installment plan 114 = RR comb 2 strands (trad and libertar) sep from 3rd till 90's, then corp'ism added
(any conservative who wishes to conserve will not be funded" 20 strat ignorcoors in kitchen cab
 
Mandate for Change became blueprint (Coors in kitchen cab). rfk 22-5--<div id="siteSub" style="display: inline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</div><div id="contentSub" style="margin: 0px 0px 1.4em 1em; width: auto;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_for_Leadership#p-search" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"></a><div id="mw-content-text" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr" lang="en" style="line-height: 22.4px; direction: ltr; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_for_Leadership#p-search" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Mandate for Leadership is a series of books published by </a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Heritage_Foundation" title="The Heritage Foundation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">The Heritage Foundation</a>, an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatism_in_the_United_States" title="Conservatism in the United States" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">American conservative</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think-tank" title="Think-tank" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">think-tank</a>based in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington,D.C." title="Washington, D.C." style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Washington, D.C.</a> They are intended to serve as guidelines for reducing the size and scope of the federal government through specific policy recommendations.The books have traditionally been released to coincide with an incoming <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States" title="United States" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">U.S.</a> presidential administration, starting with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reagan_administration" title="Reagan administration" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Reagan administration</a> in 1981. The latest edition was published in 2005.<div id="toc" class="toc" style="border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 7px; display: table; zoom: 1; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><div id="toctitle" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center;"><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border: none; display: inline; line-height: 1.3; background: none;">Contents</h2>  [<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_for_Leadership#" class="internal" id="togglelink" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">hide</a>] </div><ul style="line-height: 1.6; list-style-type: none; margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_for_Leadership#Early_development" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1 Early development</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_for_Leadership#Mandate_I" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2 Mandate I</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_for_Leadership#Mandate_II_and_III" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3 Mandate II and III</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_for_Leadership#Mandate_IV" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4 Mandate IV</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_for_Leadership#Mandate_V" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">5 Mandate V</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_for_Leadership#Mandate_VI" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">6 Mandate VI</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-7" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_for_Leadership#References" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">7 References</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-8" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_for_Leadership#External_links" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">8 External links</a></li></ul></div><h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 1.3; background: none;">Early development</h2>In 1979, at a Heritage Foundation trustees' meeting, it was suggested by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Eckerd" title="Jack Eckerd" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Jack Eckerd</a>, former head of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Services_Administration" title="General Services Administration" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">General Services Administration</a> under <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Ford" title="Gerald Ford" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Gerald Ford</a>, that the Foundation draw up a conservative plan of action for the next presidential administration in January 1981. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Krieble" title="Robert Krieble" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Robert Krieble</a> proposed that Heritage produce a manual to help policymakers “cut the size of government and manage it more effectively.”<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_for_Leadership#cite_note-TPOI-3-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[1]</a>The overall direction of the Heritage study was undertaken by Charles Heatherly, a former field director of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intercollegiate_Studies_Institute" title="Intercollegiate Studies Institute" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Intercollegiate Studies Institute</a>. In late January 1980, Heatherly produced a five-page outline titled “Mandate for Leadership.” Heatherly explained that the purpose of the project was to present concrete proposals to “revitalize our economy, strengthen our national security and halt the centralization of power in the federal government.”<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_for_Leadership#cite_note-TPOI-3-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[1]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_for_Leadership#cite_note-Mandate-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[2]</a>Both the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan_presidential_campaign,1980" title="Ronald Reagan presidential campaign, 1980" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Reagan-Bush</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Carter-Mondale&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Carter-Mondale (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Carter-Mondale</a> campaigns were approached by Heritage to discuss the project. However, they only received a reply from the Reagan–Bush campaign, and in July 1980, Reagan aide <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Meese" title="Edwin Meese" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Edwin Meese</a> was a surprise guest at a dinner held by Heritage for the project’s team chairmen and co-chairmen. There, Meese gave the Heritage study “his blessing,” which was seen as a sign of the Reagan administration's receptiveness of the project.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_for_Leadership#cite_note-TPOI-3-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[1]</a><h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 1.3; background: none;">Mandate I[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mandate_for_Leadership&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Mandate I" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h2>In January 1981, Mandate for Leadership was released as a 20 volume, 3,000 page publication. Mandate contained more than 2,000 individual suggestions to move the federal government in a conservative direction, focusing on management and administration. The report did not take a stand on social issues. Specific suggestions included raising the defense budget by $20 billion in fiscal year 1981 and increasing it by an average of $35 billion over the next five years; establishing urban “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_zone" title="Enterprise zone" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">enterprise zones</a>” to encourage businesses to move into the nation’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_city" title="Inner city" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">inner cities</a>; reducing personal income tax rates by 10 percent across the board; calling for line-item veto power by the president; and developing a new strategic bomber by using<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockwell_B-1_Lancer" title="Rockwell B-1 Lancer" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">B-1</a> and advanced bomber technology.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_for_Leadership#cite_note-TPOI-3-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[1]</a>At the first meeting of his cabinet, President Reagan passed out copies of Mandate, and many of the study’s authors were recruited into the White House administration. In particular, the Reagan administration hired key Mandate contributors <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bennett" title="William Bennett" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Bill Bennett</a> as chairman of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Endowment_for_the_Humanities" title="National Endowment for the Humanities" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">National Endowment for the Humanities</a> (and later as Secretary of Education) and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_G.Watt" title="James G. Watt" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 102);">James G. Watt</a> as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Secretary_of_the_Interior" title="United States Secretary of the Interior" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Secretary of the Interior</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_for_Leadership#cite_note-NRO-3" style="text-decoration-line: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[3]</a>According to the authors of Mandate, around 60% of Mandate for Leadership's 2,000 proposals had been implemented or initiated at the end of Reagan’s first year in office.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_for_Leadership#cite_note-TPOI-3-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[1]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_for_Leadership#cite_note-Holwill-4" style="text-decoration-line: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[4]</a>Mandate for Leadership appeared on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Post" title="Washington Post" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Washington Post</a>'s paperback bestseller list<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_for_Leadership#cite_note-TPOI-3-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[1]</a> and the Post called it “an action plan for turning the government toward the right as fast as possible.”<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_for_Leadership#cite_note-Omang-5" style="text-decoration-line: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[5]</a> The New York Times in 2002 called it “the manifesto of the Reagan revolution.”<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_for_Leadership#cite_note-Dowie-6" style="text-decoration-line: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[6]</a>
</div>rww: In 1980, Heritage published a 1,077-page book called Mandate for Leadership, which contained 2000 policy recommendations. It was presented to Attorney General Ed Meese a week after Reagan's election. Meese was quoted as saying that "the Reagan Administration will rely heavily on the Heritage Foundation." These recommendations included: rollback of minority programs, dramatic increase in military spending, and cutting taxes. In 1985 Heritage claimed that the Reagan administration's policy reflected 60 to 65 percent of their policy measures. Heritage publishes a new edition every four years for subsequent administrations. - See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/heritage-foundation#sthash.IhBAqG3Z.dpuf
<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/heritage-foundation">http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/heritage-foundation</a>Sagebrush rebellion RR: I am a S rebel"  Heritage shadow cabinet, 2k ppomg<a href="http://www.booktv.org/Program/14782/Sagebrush+Rebel+Reagans+Battle+with+Environmental+Extremists+and+Why+It+Matters+Today.aspx">http://www.booktv.org/Program/14782/Sagebrush+Rebel+Reagans+Battle+with+Environmental+Extremists+and+Why+It+Matters+Today.aspx</a>"Sagebrush Rebel: Reagan's Battle with Environmental Extremists and Why It Matters Today"William Perry PendleyAbout the ProgramWilliam Perry Pendley talks about Ronald Reagan's energy and environmental policies and discusses President Reagan's efforts to balance environmental protection and economic growth.  This event was hosted by the Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC.   About the AuthorsWilliam Perry PendleyWilliam Perry Pendley served as deputy assistant secretary for energy and minerals at the Department of Interior during the Reagan administration and helped to author President Reagan's environmental policies.  He is currently president and chief legal officer of Mountain States Legal Foundation.  Mr. Pendley is the author of "It Takes a Hero" and "Warriors for the West."   ---RRStockman admits tax cuts a trojan horse to dismantle social pgms  24-5RR dereg thrifts cost $1 billion  Big Lies p 76Move abroad, beyond the reach of U.S. regulators. Tobacco's future depends on increasing sales overseas; protecting the domestic market is an interim maneuver. As former tobacco lobbyist Victor Crawford put it, "Our job was to hold the front until they could flood the Third World." The industry persuaded Reagan and Dole to strong-arm other countries, especially in Asia, to allow the import of American cigarettes and to accept tobacco ads on TV—advertising prohibited here. mojo 1996 
<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=uYDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT53&lpg=PT53&dq=james+ellis+reynolds+tobacco+ramhurst&source=bl&ots=tKPeSllZiS&sig=Bc7z9FVmRIw3TK3xXIAmt3dUOY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=LMQfUcK7GMaiyAHR-IHoBA&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAQ">http://books.google.com/books?id=uYDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT53&lpg=PT53&dq=james+ellis+reynolds+tobacco+ramhurst&source=bl&ots=tKPeSllZiS&sig=Bc7z9FVmRIw3TK3xXIAmt3dUOY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=LMQfUcK7GMaiyAHR-IHoBA&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAQ</a>
 
heritage report given to cabinet (heist)
 =
cf subversives book on FBI, said if student blood need to be shed, so be it
  ==legacy/relevance:Addressing a CNBC “Fast Money” panel last year, movie director Oliver Stone was taken aback when one CNBC talking head gushed how Stone’s “Wall Street” character Gordon Gecko [based on ? ---]had been an inspiration, known for his famous comment, “Greed is good.” A perplexed Stone responded that Gecko, who made money by breaking up companies and eliminating jobs, was meant to be a villain.However, the smug attitude of the CNBC stock picker represented a typical tribute to Ronald Reagan’s legacy. After all, greed did not simply evolve from some vague shift in societal attitudes, as the Post suggests. Rather, it was stimulated – and rewarded – by Reagan’s tax policies.Reagan’s continued popularity also makes it easier for today’s “no-tax-increase” crowd to demand only spending cuts as a route to reducing the federal debt, an ocean of red ink largely created by the tax cuts of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.Tea Partiers, in demanding even more cuts in government help for average citizens and even more tax cuts for the rich, represent only the most deluded part of middle-class America. A recent poll of Americans rated Reagan the greatest U.S. president ever, further enshrining his anti-government message in the minds of many Americans, even those in the battered middle class.When a majority of Americans voted for Republicans in Election 2010 – and with early polls pointing toward a likely GOP victory in the presidential race of 2012 – it’s obvious that large swaths of the population have no sense of what’s in store for them as they position their own necks under the boots of corporate masters.The only answer to this American crisis would seem to be a reenergized and democratized federal government fighting for average citizens and against the greedy elites. But – after several decades of Reaganism, with the “free market” religion the new gospel of the political/media classes – that seems a difficult outcome to achieve.<div class="copyright-info" style="line-height: 1.2em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">© 2011 Robert Parry  <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/06/28-12">http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/06/28-12</a></div><div class="clearfix user-profile" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(231, 231, 231); margin-bottom: 20px;"><div class="author-wrapper" style="line-height: 1.2em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="clearfix author-bio" style="border-top: 1px solid rgb(231, 231, 231); padding: 15px 0px 20px;"><div class="author-image" style="float: left; padding: 1px 15px 15px 0pt;"><div class="author-brief-article">Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1893517039?tag=commondreams-20/ref=nosim" target="blank">Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush</a>, was written with two of his sons, Sam and Nat. His two previous books are <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1893517012?tag=commondreams-20/ref=nosim" target="blank">Secrecy & Privilege: The Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1893517004?tag=commondreams-20/ref=nosim" target="blank">Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth'</a>.</div></div></div></div>
said heritage Fdn was central?Iran Contra <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Contra_affair">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Contra_affair</a><a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reagan/peopleevents/pande08.html">http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reagan/peopleevents/pande08.html</a>October Surprise <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_surprise">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_surprise</a> <h2 style="line-height: 1.2em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">1980 Carter vs. Reagan</h2><div class="rellink relarticle mainarticle" style="line-height: 1.2em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Main article: <a title="October surprise conspiracy theory" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_surprise_conspiracy_theory">October surprise conspiracy theory</a></div>During the <a title="Iran hostage crisis" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_hostage_crisis">Iran hostage crisis</a>, the Republican challenger <a title="Ronald Reagan" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan">Ronald Reagan</a> feared a last-minute deal to release the hostages, which might earn incumbent <a title="Jimmy Carter" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter">Jimmy Carter</a>enough votes to win re-election in the <a title="United States presidential election, 1980" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1980">1980 presidential election</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_surprise#cite_note-observer-1">[2]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_surprise#cite_note-NYT_1993-01-13-2">[</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_surprise#cite_note-NYT_1993-01-13-2">3]</a> As it happened, in the days prior to the election, press coverage was consumed with the Iranian government's decision—and Carter's simultaneous announcement—that the hostages would not be released until after the election.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_surprise#cite_note-NYT_1993-01-13-2">[3]</a>It was first written about in a <a title="Jack Anderson (columnist)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Anderson%28columnist%29">Jack Anderson</a> article in the <a title="Washington Post" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Post" class="mw-redirect" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Washington Post</a> in the fall of 1980, in which he alleged that the Carter administration was preparing a major military operation in <a title="Iran" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Iran</a> for rescuing U.S. hostages in order to help him get reelected. Subsequent allegations surfaced against Reagan alleging that his team had impeded the hostage release to negate the potential boost to the Carter campaign.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_surprise#cite_note-3" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">[4]</a>After the release of the hostages on the same day, literally 5 minutes following Reagan's inauguration on January 20, 1981, some charged that the Reagan campaign made a secret deal with the Iranian government whereby the Iranians would hold the hostages until Reagan was inaugurated, ensuring that Carter would lose the election.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_surprise#cite_note-NYT_1993-01-13-2">[3]</a><a title="Gary Sick" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Sick">Gary Sick</a>, member of the National Security council under Presidents Ford and Carter (before being relieved of his duties mere weeks into Reagan's term) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_surprise#cite_note-4">[5]</a> made the accusation in a New York Times editorial <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1992_cr/h920205-october-clips.htm" class="external autonumber">[4]</a> in the run-up to the 1992 election. The initial bipartisan response from Congress was skeptical: House Democrats refused to authorize an inquiry, and Senate Republicans denied a $600,000 appropriation for a probe.Eight former hostages also sent an open letter demanding an inquiry in 1991 <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1992_cr/h920205-october-clips.htm" class="external autonumber">[5]</a> In subsequent Congressional testimony, Sick said that the popular media had distorted and misrepresented the accusers, reducing them to "gross generalizations" and "generic conspiracy theorists." Sick penned a book on the subject and sold the movie rights to it for a reported $300,000. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,309302,00.html" class="external autonumber">[6]</a> His sources and thesis were contested by a number of commentators on both sides of the aisle. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/october-surprise--by-gary-sick-7983" class="external autonumber">[7]</a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.danielpipes.org/1654/the-october-surprise-theory" class="external autonumber">[8]</a><a title="Abolhassan Banisadr" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abolhassan_Banisadr" class="mw-redirect">Bani-Sadr</a>, the former President of Iran, has also stated "that the Reagan campaign struck a deal with Teheran to delay the release of the hostages in 1980," asserting that "by the month before the American Presidential election in November 1980, many in Iran's ruling circles were openly discussing the fact that a deal had been made between the Reagan campaign team and some Iranian religious leaders in which the hostages' release would be delayed until after the election so as to prevent President Carter's re-election"<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_surprise#cite_note-5">[6]</a> He repeated the charge in "My Turn to Speak: Iran, the Revolution & Secret Deals with the U.S."<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_surprise#cite_note-6">[7]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_surprise#cite_note-7">[</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_surprise#cite_note-7">8]</a>Two separate congressional investigations looked into the charges, both concluding that there was no plan to seek to delay the hostages' release.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_surprise#cite_note-NYT_1993-01-13-2">[3]</a> At least three books have argued the case.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_surprise#cite_note-8">[9]</a>=Rambo is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film" title="Film" style="text-decoration-line: none; line-height: 22.4px; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">film</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_series" title="Film series" style="text-decoration-line: none; line-height: 22.4px; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">series</a> based on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Morrell" title="David Morrell" style="text-decoration-line: none; line-height: 22.4px; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">David Morrell</a> novel <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Blood(novel)" title="First Blood (novel)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none 0% 0% repeat scroll transparent;">First Blood</a> and starring <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvester_Stallone" title="Sylvester Stallone" style="text-decoration-line: none; line-height: 22.4px; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Sylvester Stallone</a> as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rambo" title="John Rambo" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none 0% 0% repeat scroll transparent;">John Rambo</a>, a troubled <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_veteran" title="Vietnam veteran" style="text-decoration-line: none; line-height: 22.4px; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Vietnam War veteran</a> and former <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Forces(United_States_Army)" title="Special Forces (United States Army)" style="text-decoration-line: none; line-height: 22.4px; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Green Beret</a>who is skilled in many aspects of survival, weaponry, hand to hand combat and guerrilla warfare. The series consists of the films <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Blood" title="First Blood" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none 0% 0% repeat scroll transparent;">First Blood</a> (1982), <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambo:First_Blood_Part_II" title="Rambo: First Blood Part II" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none 0% 0% repeat scroll transparent;">Rambo: First Blood Part II</a>(1985), <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambo_III" title="Rambo III" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none 0% 0% repeat scroll transparent;">Rambo III</a> (1988), and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambo(2008_film)" title="Rambo (2008 film)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none 0% 0% repeat scroll transparent;">Rambo</a> (2008).RRStockman admits tax cuts a trojan horse to dismantle social pgms  24-5RR dereg thrifts cost 1 billion  Big Lies p 76Bass bros and Ronald Perelman 76  Team 1003 trillion debt 77gop claimed BC tax hike biggest in hist, but actually RR 77 (BC's on top 1.2%)=Incumbent Democratic governor Pat Brown ran for a 3rd consecutive in a rough political year. The now conservative dominated CRA wholeheartedly endorsed Ronald Reagan for governor. Reagan, a former liberal New Deal Democrat, had grown more conservative and became a Republican in 1962.Trivia: The last time Ronald Reagan actively supported a Democratic candidate was in 1950 when he helped Helen Gahagan Douglas in her unsuccessful Senate campaign against Richard Nixon. Yes that's the same Douglas who Nixon once labeled as the "pink lady" for her supposed communist leanings.Reagan had gained much of his conservative fame from when he gave his "a time for choosing" speech in which he endorsed Goldwater's campaign for president. Running against anti war protests, and welfare, Reagan upended Brown in a landslide election. Republicans won 5/6 of the statewide partisan offices.The 1968 elections came with mixed results for the GOP. Nixon easily carried the state and GOP won 2 house seats along with control of the state assembly. At the same though, Senator  Thomas Kuchel was narrowly defeated in the primary by the conservative Max Rafferty. Many consider Kuchel's loss to his increasingly liberal views in a party that was rapidly moving rightward. Rafferty proved to be too conservative for CA and was defeated by Democratic State Controller, Alan Cranston. The senate seat has been in Democratic hands ever since.Ronald Reagan had now become a darling of the conservatives, with his tough tactics against Berkley anti-war protesters during "Bloody Thursday" at the people's park protests. In 1970 Reagan faced a spirited challenge from former Democratic Assembly Speaker Jesse Unruh, but was easily given a 2nd term30/Dec/2011

The wrecking crew:
How a gang of right-wing con men destroyed Washington and made a killing

By Thomas Frank  harpers aug 2008

http://harpers.org/archive/2008/08/0082132

...Conservatism-as-revolution was not always such a ridiculous idea. In the Fifties and Sixties, conservatism was widely regarded as a deluded relic of an earlier age. The Republican Party itself was dominated at that time by its moderate faction, which conservatives defeated only after a titanic struggle spanning many years. Then, in the Seventies, right-wing insurgencies spread across the country: conservative cliques took control of the Southern Baptists and the National Rifle Association, and in 1978 the first of a wave of tax revolts shook California. In 1981 came the turn of the College Republicans, where the right-wing takeover was led by none other than the future supercorruptionist Jack Abramoff. This uprising holds special significance for the historian, since it not only introduces us to the cast of characters who went on to dominate Washington during the Gingrich and Bush eras but also provides a window into the conservative soul.

The story begins in 1980, the year of the “Reagan Revolution,” when there appeared on the national scene a phenomenon that bewildered political observers: legions of politicized, energetic college students who were conservatives rather than liberals or radicals, as had been typical in the two decades previous. And not only were their politics deeply square but the idol of this unlikely youth craze was the oldest president ever. Reagan’s entire Pennsylvania campaign, for example, was run by a lad of twenty. In 1984, the aged actor won 60 percent of the college-student vote. The historical turnabout was irresistible, and Reagan Youth became one of the great journalistic clichés of the period, powering hundreds of newspaper columns and at least one beloved TV sitcom.

These sons of Reagan had a strong sense of generational self-awareness, and they loudly told the world how they had come by it. In the midst of the interminable Iran hostage crisis, a crowd of them at one college campus were supposedly so moved by a showing of Patton that they demonstrated spontaneously in favor of a nuclear attack on that country, shaking the ivory tower with chants of “First strike now!” Another well-known story of the era was how a bunch of privileged kids at Dartmouth College, a traditional fortress of privilege, decided that embracing the traditional politics of privilege and mimicking the traditional manners of the privileged were actually acts of great daring, exposing them to persecution by tyrannical liberals. Then there was Jack Abramoff, a College Republican leader in the Boston area who gained, according to the John Birch Society’s Review of the News, a “reputation as one of the most innovative of the national Conservative youth leaders” after he mounted such a massive grassroots push for Reagan in 1980 that he almost single-handedly shifted Massachusetts into the Republican column.

Abramoff, a burly fellow from Beverly Hills, came to Washington in 1981 to assume the chairmanship of the College Republican National Committee. Back in the Vietnam days it had been leftists who fought the power, he explained to reporters. But “now we’re the campus radicals.” His newly energized College Republicans (CRs) fanned out across the nation, instructing clean-cut kids on how to use the tactics of the Sixties left for their own causes. A snapshot of Abramoff using a bullhorn to rally a conservative throng was proudly reproduced in the CRs’ Annual Report for 1983, just across the page from a photo of Ralph Reed, who was then Abramoff’s right-hand man, pumping his fist at the head of a swarm of angry, sign-waving conservatives. In both instances the young men had gone into action wearing neckties.

It was Abramoff’s friend Grover Norquist, then a recent graduate of Harvard Business School, who came up with a plan for changing the very nature of the College Republicans. Norquist made a study of the CRs, developing a scheme to transform them from “a resume-padding social club,” as one account puts it, into “an ideological, grassroots organization.” Abramoff made Nor-quist the College Republicans’ executive director, and the two put Norquist’s theory into action. They purged the “old guard.” They amended the group’s constitution, establishing a structure that made the Washington office more powerful, and rewarded proselytizing on campus.

What the rising conservative sensibility of those years treasured above all else was “confrontation” with the left. It called for a quasi-military victory over liberalism; it would have no truck with civility or fair play; and it made heroes out of outrage-courting lib-fighters like Reagan’s communications director Pat Buchanan, the organizer Howard Phillips, and the young Jack Abramoff.

The first and most noticeable characteristic of this new militancy was an air of swaggering truculence. There are, of course, bullies from every walk of life and every political persuasion, but on the right bullying holds a special, exalted position. It is no accident that two of the movement’s greatest heroes—Tom DeLay and Oliver North—had the same nickname: “the Hammer.”

Jack Abramoff filled this bill perfectly. He had reportedly been something of a bully in high school and had now grown into a “hard-charging” and “dynamic” leader, in the assessment of conservative magazines, an ass-kicking weight lifter who could quiet the commies with his fists if they got out of line. The gangster fetish of his later years is by now familiar to the whole world—his constant references to The Godfather, his black trench coat and fedora, his Meyer Lansky memorabilia, the murderer argot that will no doubt serve him and his friends well during their prison years.

Abramoff himself derided the moderates he had ousted from control of the CRs as “wishy-washy country-clubbers” and insisted that he had transformed the organization into an “ideological, well-trained, aggressive, conservative” outfit. “Fighting the Left with a goal of victory” became the official, stated purpose of his College Republican cadres, according to an essay Abramoff wrote for the group’s 1983 Annual Report. The CRs were “fighting America’s last stand,” he blustered; they would“defund the enemy wherever possible,” one of his lieutenants added. According to the journalist Nina Easton, CR officers had their underlings memorize the gory opening monologue from the movie Patton, only with the word “Demo crat” standing in for the word “Nazi.” Other young rightists of the period went a step further. J. Michael Waller, the editor of the Sequent, a student paper at George Washington University, actually took breaks from red-baiting professors in order to zip down to Central America and hang out with the Nicaraguan Contras and the death-squad faction in El Salvador.

War was the order of the day, from President Reagan’s fight with the air-traffic controllers right down to the college campus, where Abramoff became famous for his declaration: “It is not our job to seek peaceful coexistence with the Left. Our job is to remove them from power permanently.” War plus revolution, actually. Abramoff liked to describe his CRs as “the sword and shield of the Reagan Revolution,” and in 1984 the young firebrand used his moment at the rostrum of the G.O.P. convention in Dallas to lecture the assembled small-business types on revolutionary theory.

Whether the small-business types grasped it or not, a revolution was indeed under way. Conservative politicians had long served business interests, and so businesspeople had long tended to be conservatives, but now would come a new turn: conservatism as business, conservatism as a source of profit for the people Jack Abramoff once referred to as “political entrepreneurs.”

In its embryonic form, conservatism-as-industry consisted mainly in peddling right-wing grievances to the like-minded. In those days there were dealers in precious metals who used a towering contempt for liberalism as a sales pitch for gold coins. There were outfits raising money to help beleaguered conservative politicians who were in fact not beleaguered and had not asked for the help. There were anti-union charities and even fake anti-union charities, all of them capitalizing on the keen hatred for labor shared by so many businessmen. “There was so much money ready for conservative organizations in the United States,” said Spitz Channell, a freelance conservative fund-raiser later involved in the Iran-Contra scandal, that the problem was finding “ways to spend that money.”

Abramoff quickly established himself as an entrepreneur with promise. When the “campus radical” took over as the CRs’ chairman in 1981, the group’s budget came directly from the Republican National Committee. That had been sufficient for the old CRs, who liked to party and aimed to anger nobody. But Abramoff started to complain about the arrangement in his first year. And he schemed to achieve autonomy. He didn’t want “to be the youth arm of the Republican National Committee,” his onetime lieutenant David Miner remembers. He wanted

a very strong, viable organization. And instead of once a year sitting down with the budget director and the political director of the RNC and making a twenty-minute case about why they should donate $100,000 a year to the College Republicans, Jack decided he was going to run the College Republicans just like the Republican National Committee was run: he was going to have his own direct mail list, he was going to have prominent members of Congress sign letters for him, and he was going to raise his own money. That’s a pretty bold statement for someone to do at twenty-two years old.

It was so bold, in fact, that it infuriated the RNC officials charged with supervising the college auxiliary. They kicked the CRs out of their building.

No matter. Under Abramoff’s leadership, enthusiasm was high, membership soared, and revenues quintupled; what’s more, fully 70 percent of that income came from individual donors, dwarfing contributions from the RNC itself. “Jack was a very creative, smart executive,” Miner told me. He was “a hell of a CEO.”Before Abramoff’s name became so poisonous, most College Republicans regarded this era as their finest hour. In 2001, then-chairman Scott Stewart introduced the lobbyist to the CRs’ convention as “probably the best national chairman we’ve ever had.”

As entrepreneurs are supposed to do, Abramoff and Norquist opened themselves to the market, setting up incentives for growth and looking for investors outside the parent organization. And what did the College Republicans have to offer these investors, these donors? Outrage. Activism. The right-wing position rammed home with force. To see college kids in the street, chanting the slogans of the hard right—this was a spectacle for which older Republicans, angered by what they had seen in the Sixties, were willing to pay a great price. And Abramoff’s CRs delivered, with constant protests in Washington and a series of insulting posters, the most famous of which slyly implied that liberals were communist dupes.

I have managed to unearth a single specimen of direct mail from the CRs’ Abramoff period, and it is typical of the genre circa 1983: by turns chummy, frightening, confiding, and apocalyptic. As was common in those days, the letter is signed by an elected official—in this case by New York Representative Jack Kemp, then the best-known conservative in Congress. (Today Kemp advises John McCain on economic policy.) It pleads with the recipient to “dig down deep” for the College Republicans, led by “my good friend Jack Abramoff.” And why should Mr. and Mrs. America give to Jack Abramoff’s CRs, of all groups? Because, according to Kemp, they are “the most important Republican organization in America today,” prepared to do all manner of grassroots electioneering in the upcoming 1984 contest. And why should the reader care about that? Because “our nation is in grave danger of sliding into another depression” should liberals be permitted to resume their tax-and-spend ways. “That’s right,” Kemp warned. “A depression worse than the so-called Great Depression.” Thankfully, though, Jack Abramoff and his “dedicated group of young leaders . . . understand what must be done to return economic prosperity to America.”[actually RR runs up huge deficit, that BC prosperity fixes]

The larger mechanism CEO Abramoff used to break free from his stodgy, moderate Republican elders was a tax-exempt fund-raising group called the United Students of America Foundation (a.k.a. the USA Foundation, or sometimes just USAF), which was technically nonpartisan but in reality simply added its voice to whatever cause the CRs happened to be pushing. While direct mail solicited funds from individual conservatives, the USA Foundation allowed Abramoff and his crew to go after hefty contributions from the real powers of American conservatism: corporations. And with the support of corporate money came, wouldn’t you know it, support for corporate-friendly causes in the world at large.

Going freelance, as Abramoff did with the USA Foundation, soon became a popular career move among the sons of Reagan. Ralph Reed launched a group called Students for America, a Southern outfit designed to bring evangelicals into the conservative mix. Students for a Better America, which warred on liberal professors, was set up by Steve Baldwin, also a onetime Abramoff lieutenant. The Conservative Youth Federation of America was launched by Amy Moritz, yet another Abramoff associate. And let us not forget the Conservative Action Foundation, the Conservative Student Support Foundation, and the mysterious Young Conservative Foundation, “America’s premier Human Rights organization.”

It was through the USA Foundation that Abramoff seems to have discovered the profitable side of politics. The occasion for this discovery was the College Republicans’ongoing war with Ralph Nader’s Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs), student-activist outfits that were set up in the Seventies and funded at most colleges by “activity fees” that all students were required to pay unless they checked a box on a form. This was the point on which the CRs challenged them, insisting on campus after campus that it was “sinful and tyrannical” to compel students to fund an obviously political organization.

Like other Nader groups, the student PIRGs were something of a nuisance for business, and at some point it apparently occurred to Abramoff or Norquist that defunding and thus “killing” campus PIRG chapters was a service for which the targeted businesses ought to be paying. So the young entrepreneurs of the USA Foundation got out there and sold themselves as political hit men. According to one 1986 study, by the journalist Allan Nairn, the group managed to collect tribute from canning and bottling companies, two oil companies, an electric company (PIRGs were then working to set up utility watchdog groups), Amway, Coors, an assortment of San Francisco landlords worried about the possibility of rent control, and the Campbell Soup Company, which paid the USA Foundation to undermine a campus support group for a migrant farmworkers’ union. It was pugnacity for pay.

The USA Foundation’s motto was “Promoting a free market of ideas on the nation’s campuses,” and here we encounter yet another of the Washington right’s signature lines. Like so many conservative ideas—anticommunism, for example—it sounds fine at first. A “free market of ideas” sounds like “free inquiry” or a “free exchange of ideas,” an environment in which hypotheses are tested and bad ones are weeded out while good ones go on to earn the respect of the community of scholars. But this is not what the phrase means at all. Markets do not determine the objective merit of things, only their price, which is to say, their merit in the eyes of large corporations and the very wealthy.

The point, and the profit, was in getting the people with money to understand which ideas served their common interests, which ones didn’t, and then to act together as a class—supporting the good ideas and crushing the liberal ones. This was a plan with legs: When I spoke to Grover Norquist in 2006, he was still insisting that businesses had to be instructed on big-picture thinking, on the amazing returns to be realized through funding conservatism. By then, of course, Grover Norquist was no longer some campus activist; he was the architect of the most effective defund-the-left program Washington has ever seen. And his old friend Jack Abramoff was on his way to jail.

Side by side with the Entrepreneur in those days stood another great conservative hero: the Freedom Fighter, a ragged warrior who had, according to myth, spontaneously taken up arms against communism in Third World countries around the globe. American conservatives came to love these freedom fighters intensely, and for a simple reason. These tough anticommunists in faraway lands validated the conservatives’ most cherished fantasies of the Sixties turned right-side up. The freedom fighters proved it: Reagan’s revolution was for real.

Traditional conservatives had generally regarded anticommunist guerrilla movements as necessary evils, doing important if ugly work. The transforming fire of Reaganism, however, turned all such cutthroats and mercenaries into patriots. It was our guys who were the heroic underdogs now, disrespected and ill-supplied, going up against the high-tech, organization-men monsters of the Soviet Union—and, of course, its liberal proxies here in the United States.

The peerless darling of the freedom-fighter fan club was Jonas Savimbi, the charismatic Angolan guerrilla leader whose every utterance seemed to strike young Eighties conservatives as a timeless profundity. Angola had been one of the very last countries in Africa to be freed from colonial domination, but, unlike seemingly every other “national liberator” in the preceding decades, Savimbi was not a communist. In Angola, the communists were the ones who grabbed power in the capital as soon as the Europeans left; Savimbi, who fought them with the backing of the apartheid government in South Africa, supposedly believed in free enterprise and balanced budgets.

Conservatives were smitten with this self-titled general who struggled for free markets in his remote land. They fell for Savimbi as romantically, and as guilelessly, as Sixties radicals once did for Che, Ho, and Huey. Savimbi was “one of the few authentic heroes of our time,” roared Jeane Kirkpatrick, queen of the neocons, when she introduced him at the 1986 Conservative Political Action Conference. Grover Norquist followed the great man around his camp in Angola, preparing magazine articles for Savimbi’s signature. Jack Abramoff made a movie about Savimbi, depicting him as a tougher, African version of Gandhi. Even Savimbi’s capital—the remote camp called “Jamba”—was described in conservative literature with elevated language such as “Savimbi’s Kingdom.”

In truth, Savimbi’s main achievement was to keep going, for nearly thirty years, a civil war that made Angola one of the worst places on earth—its population impoverished, its railroads and highways and dams in ruins, its countryside strewn with land mines by the millions, even its elephant herds wiped out, their tusks hacked off to raise funds for his army.

This was the man the rebel right chose for the starring role in one of the strangest spectacles in American political history, a media event designed to cement conservatism’s identification with revolution. The organizer was Jack Abramoff; the place was Jamba; the model, I am told, was Woodstock—only a right-wing version, with guerrillas instead of rock bands. Every kind of freedom fighter was there, joining hands in territory liberated by arms from a Soviet client regime. There were Nicaraguan Contras, some Afghan mujahedeen, an American tycoon—and they all got together at Savimbi’s hideout.

This “rumble in the jungle,” as skeptics called it, came to pass in June of 1985. Of course, bringing it off required considerable assistance from Savimbi’s South African patrons. Nobody else even knew how to find Jamba.

Since these freedom fighters had no actual issues to discuss—no trade agreements or mutual-defense plans or anything—they signed the Jamba Declaration, a bit of high-flown folderol written by Grover Norquist that aimed for solemnity but sounded more like the work of a fifth-grader who has been forced to memorize the Gettysburg Address and the Declaration of Independence and has got them all jumbled up somehow.

Jamba was meant as a celebration of freedom, a word revered by Americans generally and a term of enormous significance to conservatives in particular. Yet as freedom’s embodiment Abramoff had chosen a terrorist: Jonas Savimbi, the leader of an armed cult. To fill the main supporting role in this great freedom-fest, meanwhile, the organizers turned to apartheid South Africa, a place where only a small, correctly complexioned percentage of the population possessed even the most basic democratic rights.

And here we encounter one of the right’s great lost causes. You don’t have to dig very deep into the conservative literature of the Eighties before you hit apartheid South Africa. Today the issue makes conservatives uncomfortable, naturally, and few of them will own up to the passion with which they once worked to rationalize that government or to vilify its foes. But in those days, South Africa’s agonizing racial problems, its prosperous but beleaguered business community, and its stout defiance of all things communist made it a potent symbol for American conservatives: South Africa was essentially like us, and yet the liberals, with their sanctions and divestment strategies, with their airy do-gooder moralism, were prepared to sell out this loyal friend, just as they had sold out so many others.

As it happened, Jack Abramoff had visited South Africa in 1983 to meet with student leaders, presumably including Russel Crystal, who headed an energetic right-wing outfit on that nation’s campuses. Crystal was a sort of South African doppelgänger to Abramoff, echoing not only the American’s tactical thinking but his combative style as well. In the early Eighties, Crystal’s group declared “all-out war” on its campus adversaries, who, he said, were “undermining the will of the Western world”; on one occasion his followers reportedly threatened a peaceful left-wing demonstration with baseball bats. Just like the College Republicans, Crystal’s student organization spent heavily, and Crystal boasted about its financial “support from the business community.”

One month after Jamba, Crystal’s student group hosted a second right-wing Woodstock, bringing together conservative college students from around the world. The event was called “Youth for Freedom,” and a “Dear Delegate” letter given to each participant explained its purpose: It was 1985, the U.N.’s “International Youth Year,” and high-minded youth congresses were happening all over the world—most of them “under the leadership of . . . communist front organisations . . . to propagate their own marxist/leninist agenda.” The duty of the righteous was obvious: “to gather the true defenders of liberty and freedom”; to ponder “the security and prosperity of the free world”; and to draft a statement to which “conservative students worldwide” might rally. Norquist, Abramoff...,Although Abramoff is listed as the very last speaker on the official “Youth for Freedom” program, none of the attendees I talked to remember seeing him there. and a gaggle of College Republicans made up the American contingent. Color was added by a representative of the German extreme right. (Bonus points: he had been a U-boat captain during World War II.) The delegates listened to a denunciation of divestment. They received an expensively printed booklet about the martial and philosophical achievements of Jonas Savimbi. After the conference, the kids were given a treat: some of the “youth for freedom” got to go to a military base to see a riot-control demonstration.

Coverage of the conclave in the South African press focused on the lavishness of the proceedings and the great expense involved in flying everyone to Johannesburg. The participants stayed in the finest hotel in the city, and the conference provided a squad of interpreters and a video crew to document it all. Obviously, Russel Crystal’s tiny student group couldn’t have paid for all of this by itself, and Crystal himself kept mum about the financing. But other freedom-youths confirmed that the gathering had been at least partly funded by South African corporate concerns, in the now-familiar political-entrepreneur pattern: “The business community in South Africa is very enthused about any face-lift possibility that they can gain,” one of the organizers told Allan Nairn.

Out of the Youth for Freedom conference came an organization called Liberty and Democracy International, which didn’t last long, perhaps because of the neck-snapping contradiction between its dreamy title and its South African reality. Out of that organization, in 1986, came the International Freedom Foundation—the IFF—the strangest scheme hatched to that point by the sons of Reagan for bringing the power of money to bear on politics and the world of ideas.

Not one of the many former IFFers I contacted, either in the United States or in South Africa, would consent to an interview, but we do know the most basic facts about the group. According to the official report of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the duties of the IFF included supporting Jonas Savimbi and fighting trade sanctions against South Africa. The IFF’s head office was in Washington, where Abramoff served as executive director. But the shots were called by the organization’s South African branch, headed by Russel Crystal. There was an office in London and, eventually, one in West Germany. We also know that the IFF was an expensive proposition and that the apartheid government spent millions of dollars propping it up. The group hosted speakers, conferences, and presentations; it published several magazines and a flock of newsletters; its principals constantly traveled the globe, spreading their toxic trinity of “Liberty, Security, Prosperity.”

The Washington branch of the IFF, it seems, was particularly successful at courting politicians. The group’s “advisory board” listed, among others, Senator Jesse Helms and Representatives Phil Crane, “B-1 Bob” Dornan, James Inhofe (a stout family-values supporter), and “Buz” Lukens (an egregious family-values violator). The group also tried their hand at influence-buying. In 1987, the IFF’s Washington office requested $450,000 from South Africa in order to buy a jet plane for the presidential campaign of Jack Kemp, then the idol of the conservative movement. According to internal IFF documents, this bauble would be an investment sufficient to make Abramoff’s gang “the ‘kitchen cabinet’ types of the Kemp administration.” The South Africans turned the proposal down, realizing even then what a long shot Kemp was.

The IFF made no direct attempt to justify apartheid, for the simple reason that racism as a philosophy of government was flatly irredeemable in the West. Instead the IFF aimed to tarnish apartheid’s enemies, “to paint the ANC as a project of the international department of the Soviet Communist Party.” This was merely a large-scale replay of the political entrepreneurship we saw at the USA Foundation, with Jack and the gang yet again hiring themselves out to a wealthy client to perform a hit on a troublesome left-wing group. High points in this campaign included hearings by the House Republican Study Committee in 1987 to blame “the plight of the children of South Africa” on the commie-terrorist ANC; reports playing up the ANC’s commie-derived taste for atrocities against kids; newspaper ads designed to throw cold water on Nelson Mandela during his triumphant visit to America in 1990; and an endless war on Ted Kennedy, a leading proponent of the 1986 sanctions against South Africa.[mandela on terror watch list till----?]

The real, confessed éminence grise behind the IFF was South Africa’s infamous “superspy” Craig Williamson, a man whose bloody escapades deserve an entire volume in the annals of Cold War espionage. Williamson infiltrated South Africa’s main leftist student group in the Seventies and rose to its leadership; he used the connections thus made to assist in the imprisonment and murder of the movement’s other leaders. A respected South African historian, asked for his opinion of the man, said simply, “Craig Williamson was the scum of the twentieth century. He murdered friends of mine. I spit on the ground he walks on.”

When the IFF’s true identity was exposed in 1995, the Americans questioned by the media denied any knowledge of its ugly provenance. In most cases this was plausible enough; after all, the basic principle of a clandestine operation is secrecy. But Jack Abramoff almost certainly knew. Still, he denied it—“categorically,” he exclaimed—when the truth came out. Plus, he had an explanation for all the bad press: “It’s pay-back time in South Africa.”

The single biggest scandal of the Eighties resulted from a confluence of the two great conservative themes I have been describing: the “freedom fighter” mentality and the cult of political entrepreneurship.

The outlines of the Iran-Contra story are well known. President Reagan’s CIA was waging a “secret” war against the Sandinista government of Nicaragua; the Democratic Congress understandably objected, as we were technically at peace with that nation, and, in 1983, cut off funds to the CIA-backed Contras. Over at the National Security Council, however, Marine Lieutenant-Colonel Oliver North came up with a scheme to get money to the Contras anyway, using a network of private donors, weapons sales to Iran, and private supply operations. He also organized behind-the-scenes efforts to lobby Congress to change its mind.

Quite early on in the annals of Iran-Contra our pioneering political entrepreneurs make their inevitable appearance. Jack Abramoff crops up in North’s notebook for February 14, 1985, his name misspelled but the beginnings of a great lobbyist unmistakable. On March 26, Abramoff showed up on a list of people helping North to influence the upcoming Contra-aid vote in Congress. Later that day, Abramoff phoned North and told him that a number of “votes” were available in exchange for some or other favor.

We do not ordinarily remember Iran-Contra for the business opportunities it generated, but in the long, winding history of conservatism-as-industry it remains a particularly instructive chapter. The aforementioned political entrepreneur Spitz Channell, for example, sensed the Contras’ potential early on and used them to become the most successful fund-raiser in all of Washington, circa 1985. Channell’s marks were conservative widows; he made his pitches in person, often using a scary slide show put together by Oliver North about the dangers of Nicaraguan communism. Not only did his donors reap tax write-offs by giving to one of the “nonprofit” groups Channell had set up but they sometimes got to meet President Reagan too, a favor the fund-raiser arranged simply by throwing some change to one of the president’s former aides.

None of this put much money into the pockets of the Contras, though. On the right, the fund-raiser typically prospers, even if the cause does not. And Channell was a professional; he later admitted that he became interested in Nicaragua only after he noticed how the subject ticked off rich folks. He proceeded to take the customary profiteering to dizzy entrepreneurial heights. Of the $12 million raked in by Channell’s empire of fund-raising organs in 1985 and 1986, it is estimated that only $2.7 million actually made it to the Contras. Huge sums were diverted to Channell’s friends, his lover, and his friends’ lovers. All the middlemen between here and Managua took a cut, too.

Iran-Contra was the scandal with the Midas touch, and it continued to rain money on the faithful even after the whole rotten operation had been rolled up. One day in July 1987, as the Democrats in Congress screeched hysterically about the White House and its illegal foreign policy, Ollie North put on his uniform, stood before the cameras, raised his hand, and summoned up a backlash that ultimately crushed the liberals and brought a flood of prosperity to the political entrepreneurs of the right.

Jack Abramoff’s IFF, for example, started selling copies of an Ollie North videotape made up of a slide show that was almost certainly the one Spitz Channell had used to scare his dotards, advertising it with a photo of the stern-faced Marine testifying before “the so-called Iran/Contra congressional committee.” Oliver North videotapes eventually became something of an industry unto themselves, but the one made by Abramoff, titled Telling It Like It Is, is almost certainly the only bit of filmed entertainment ever to be dedicated “to the memory of William J. Casey,” the CIA director made famous by his unabashed contempt for Congress.

The trade in Olliana boomed for years, as the persecuted patriot was indicted for his crimes and came to require a legal-defense fund (and also, apparently, a host of fake legal-defense funds). Jerry Falwell compared Ollie to Jesus Christ. There were Oliver North keychains and pocketknives and T-shirts and eventually even a TV show in which Ollie told America the secrets of war. There was the usual round of plunder, as funds raised to help Ollie stayed with the fund-raisers instead. And inevitably there was “Ollie, Inc.,” as the man himself went into the nonprofit direct-mail business. By 1994, when he ran for a Senate seat in Virginia, Oliver North had become the most successful political fund-raiser in the land, bringing in some $20 million over the course of his campaign. Remarkably, he lost anyway.

Prodigious though they may seem, these acts of retail profiteering were minuscule compared with the colossal entrepreneurial gambit that the Iran-Contra investigation revealed. The insiders called it “the Enterprise”: private money, raised through the sale of government favors and property, would go to fund private armies of “freedom fighters” operating overseas. The ultimate aim of the Enterprise, as envisioned by CIA Director Casey, was privatization on the grandest scale imaginable: the construction of a foreign-policy instrument that was free from the meddling of Congress, financed by sales of weapons and another precious commodity that government had in abundance but had hitherto been reluctant to market—access.

The Enterprise eventually fell apart under congressional scrutiny, but fifteen years later this very bad idea was back again in even more grandiose form: a vast selling-off of government favors to those willing to fund the conservative movement, a wholesale transfer of government responsibilities to private-sector contractors, and even private armies, unaccountable to Congress or to anyone else.

Today industry conservatism includes specialists in dozens of fields. There are professionals and amateurs; those who do it because they’re paid to do it and those who do it because their eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Entrepreneur. It includes establishment firms and feisty start-ups, megacontractors taking billions to do work that the government used to do itself for far less, young men with a nice smile and a single client— who just wants to do a little clear-cutting out West somewhere. In conservative circles you encounter entrepreneurs both formally and casually, at carefully programmed events laying out the opportunities for profit opened up by Hurricane Katrina, or in conversation at a banquet celebrating some right-wing anniversary or other. At one such event in 2004, waiting for the presentation of a “Charlton Heston commemorative firearm,” I made the backslapping acquaintance of a freelance motivational speaker who, upon discovering that one of my tablemates was an officer of the Transportation Security Administration, immediately sought his confirmation that “we’re gonna privatize that, right?”

For some in winger Washington this is an idealistic business, but what gives it power and longevity is that it is a profitable business. I mean this not as polemic but as a statement of fact. Washington swarms with conservative ideologues not because conservatives particularly like the place but because there is an entire industry here that supports these people—an industry subsidized by the nation’s largest corporations and its richest families, and the government too. We are all familiar with the flagship organizations—Cato, Heritage, AEI—but the industry extends far beyond these, encompassing numerous magazines and literally hundreds of lobbying firms. There is even a daily newspaper—the Washington Times—published strictly for the movement’s benefit, a propaganda sheet whose distortions are so obvious and so alien that it puts one in mind of those official party organs one encounters when traveling in authoritarian countries.

There are political strategists, pollsters, campaign managers, trainers of youth, image consultants, makers of TV commercials, revolutionaries-for-hire, and, of course, direct-mail specialists who still launch their million-letter raids on the mailboxes of the heartland. Remember the guy who wrote all those sputtering diatribes for your college newspaper? Chances are he’s in D.C. now, thinking big thoughts from an endowed chair, or churning out more of the brilliant usual for one of the movement’s many blogs. The campus wingnut whose fulminations on the Red Menace so amused my friends and me at the University of Virginia, for example, resurfaced here as a columnist for the Washington Times before transitioning inevitably into consultancy. A friend of mine who went to Georgetown recently recalled for me the capers of his campus wingnut, whom he had completely forgotten until the guy made headlines as the lead culprit in a minor 2004 scandal called “Memogate.” Later he worked for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, teaching democratic civics to Iraqi politicians.

There is so much money in conservatism these days that Karl Rove rightly boasts, “We can now go to students at Harvard and say, ‘There is now a secure retirement plan for Republican operatives.’” The young people who, like Jack Abramoff before them, have answered conservatism’s call over the past three decades were obeying their conscience, perhaps, but they were also making a canny career move.

Canny career moves are just about all we can expect from conservative government these days: tax breaks for wealthy benefactors, wars started and maintained for the benefit of American industry, fat contracts granted to the clients of the right consultant. Like Bush and Reagan before him, John McCain is a self-proclaimed outsider, but should he win in November he will merely bring us more of the same: an executive branch fed by, if not actually made up of, lobbyists and other angry, righteous profiteers. Washington itself will remain what it has been—not a Babylon that corrupts our pure-hearted right-wingers but the very seat of their Industry Conservatism, constantly seething and effervescing, with tens of thousands of individuals coming and going, each avidly piling up his own tidy pile but between them engaged in an awesome common project.

Take a step back, reader, and see what they have wrought.=http://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1983/03/03/denver-allies-became-keepers-of-the-rules-they-had-attacked/109df6dc-81a4-4a08-b478-e1853a7cee5d/=
Denver Allies Became Keepers of the Rules They HadAttackedBy Dale Russakoff March 3, 1983n the Colorado Legislature they were known as the "House Crazies," a band of militant conservatives who rose topower in 1979 and made war on government regulation.They voted to kill measures to control toxic waste dumps, force reductions in car pollution, require immunization ofschool children against mumps and measles, regulate development of nature areas, provide bilingual education forminorities and teach skiing to the handicapped with state funds."People called us 'crazies' because when we started out everybody said we were crazy to think we could change thegovernment," said Steven J. Durham, a former Young Americans for Freedom activist who captained the rise of theconservative caucus in the Colorado House. "They were wrong."Today, Colorado's "crazies" are President Reagan's top environmental officers, enforcers of the same federalregulations they attacked under the golddomed state capitol a few years ago. Their Denver histories, well knownhere, are only now receiving scrutiny in Washington as one element of the controversy over the EnvironmentalProtection Agency.Colorado Rep. Anne M. Gorsuch, who in 1980 voted to kill major hazardous waste regulation bills, is today theadministrator of the EPA, Anne M. Burford.Rep. Durham, who opposed state waste dumping laws and pushed to relax Colorado Health Department controlsover quality of drinking water, is today regional administrator of the EPA, in charge of regulating air and waterpollution and the dumping of toxic waste in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota.Considered the master strategist of the House, Durham, 36, led Gorsuch/Burford and other conservativecompatriots in a 1979 uprising that ousted the moderate Republican leadership, installing rancher Robert F. Burfordas the new speaker of the House. He and Gorsuch were recently married, and she has changed her name to his.Robert Burford is now director of the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management, responsible for federalprograms to develop or protect more than 300 million acres of western public lands. (He has promised to take nopart in BLM decisions affecting his relatives, who hold permits to graze sheep and cattle on thousands of acres offederal land.)After winning the speaker's seat by one vote, Burford appointed Durham, Gorsuch and others to chair key Housecommittees. From these berths, they caught the attention of presidential advisers after Ronald Reagan's election inthe national conservative tide of 1980.Rep. Tom Tancredo, the Burfordappointed education committee chairman who sought cuts in state povertyprograms because "too much government in the realm of social services takes away the individual's responsibility," isnow Denver regional director of the Department of Education.Rep. Frank DeFilippo, a Burfordappointed committee vice chairman who is sponsoring a state bill to reopen a toxicwaste dump shut down by health authorities, served on Reagan's transition team.Speaker Burford assigned several major regulatory bills to Gorsuch's State Affairs Committee, where they oftendied, according to several panel members. As a result, other legislators nicknamed the committee "the killingground." It was through this procedure that the hazardous waste bill reached Gorsuch's panel in 1980, over theprotests of legislators who said it belonged in committees that specialize in health, the environment, water or landuse.At the time, Gorsuch said she moved to kill the billthe product of a monthslong study to create state rules on thelocation and operation of hazardous dumpsbecause federal rules were too unsettled for the state to move aheadwith its own controls.A state health official who monitored the committee hearings said that Gorsuch and other opponents "seemed lessconcerned about public health than the burden on industry." The official noted that the views of the conservativecaucus were not ususual here in the prodevelopment atmosphere of the Rockies."I don't think they were in anyone's pocket. They obviously had very deep personal convictions about the problemsof overregulation," the official said. "It's just that this led them to do exactly what industry wanted."One of the chief lobbyists against the 1980 bill was Thornton Field of the Adolph Coors Co., the brewery andmanufacturing complex run by Reagan intimate Joseph Coors. Gorsuch hired Field as her special assistant on toxicwastes at the EPA. He is now in the agency's enforcement division.In all, the militant conservative caucus numbered about a dozen, and rarely broke ranks on budget or social policyissues. They retained James G. Watt, then head of the Mountain States Legal Foundation here, to sue the EPA in1979 in an attempt to block the federal agency from forcing Colorado to monitor and control air pollution fromautomobiles. Watt is now secretary of the Interior Department.Gorsuch was not among the 27 legislators who filed the suit. A reporter quoted her as saying she had intended to jointhe plaintiffs but was out of town at the time. The next year, Gorsuch was the House sponsor of a proenvironmentcar pollution inspection program, but a weaker one than many advocates favored.Assisting Watt in the antiEPA suit was another conservative Denver attorney, James W. Sanderson.Sanderson, who was chosen by Gorsuch for the No. 3 post at the EPA, worked for more than a year as her closeconsultant, helping to staff and reorganize the agency. He withdrew from consideration for a permanent top EPA joblast year, after the Justice Department began investigating him for possible conflicts of interest for allegedly takingpart in agency decisions that could have affected his clients. The probe remains "active," according to the JusticeDepartment.Congressional critics and environmentalists have insisted since the dawn of the Reagan administration that theappointments of Watt, Gorsuch and others were tantamount to dismantling environmental protections. The WhiteHouse and senior officials at the EPA and the Interior Department have asserted repeatedly that they seek only a"reasoned" approach to regulations on business.Still, Colorado Democrats insist that the lineup at the EPA and Interior bears the imprint of Coors, one of the chiefpolitical patrons of the Burfords, Durham and others who share their political views.Coors was a member of the "kitchen cabinet" that advised Reagan on setting up the administration, and hisobjections to many environmental regulations are welldocumented. He created the Mountain States LegalFoundation, which filed dozens of lawsuits against EPA and Interior actions during the Carter administration, andhired Watt to head it.Coors declines to discuss his influence on federal environmental policy. "He considers his politics to be his personalbusiness," said Whit Sibley, a company spokesman.While the furor over the Reagan administration's environmental policies has kept Gorsuch/Burford and Watt underclose national scrutiny, Durham, the architect of the conservative revolution here, has so far escaped theWashington spotlight.But in Denver, Durham has a profile as high as the Rockies. He recently decried the congressional probes of theEPA's toxic waste program as "hysteria," saying that no toxic dumps pose serious dangers to human health. In aspeech, he dared critics to "give me a list of one person who has died as a result of a hazardous waste site."Aides to Democratic Gov. Richard D. Lamm promptly pointed reporters to the deaths of two Denver Water Boardcrewmen from a methane gas explosion at the site of an abandoned dump in Sand Creek.Lamm said Durham's remarks show that he "misunderstands the whole last century of public health development.You don't have to wait for bodies to show" before acting."They Democrats have no chance of gaining sympathy on the economic issues, so they're trying to make hay on EPA,"Durham said in a recent interview. "There's no greater political issue than convincing people they're going to die."Hazardous wastes, Durham said, are "like any other potentially dangerous substance. Take a hazardous waste knownas gasoline. We all handle it every day."Durham has come under congressional scrutiny as part of the Sanderson investigation. The Denver EPA chief wasaccused of holding up for months Colorado's strict state water quality standards, which would increase costs forSanderson's client, the Denver Water Board. Durham said he did not talk with Sanderson about the matter.Durham observed, however, that Sanderson was only a consultant to the EPA at the time, not a fulltime official. "Hewas a private citizen. Under the law, he can do whatever he damned well pleases. He can talk to me or anyone else."Asked if this freed Sanderson to influence EPA decisions affecting his clients, Durham said, "That could be aproblem, I suppose."Durham said he had little interest in environmental issues before taking the EPA job. "Why did I want the job?" hesaid in response to a question. "Anne recruited me, and I was looking for an opportunity to try and changegovernment. This was one of them.==

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