Not Even A Hedgehog: The Stupidity of Ronald Reagan

Slate ^ | 6-7-2004 | Christopher "Loved By So Many on FR" Hitchens

[LincolnLover]

*Excerpt*

"...only saw him once up close, which happened to be when he got a question he didn't like. Was it true that his staff in the 1980 debates had stolen President Carter's briefing book? (They had.) The famously genial grin turned into a rictus of senile fury: I was looking at a cruel and stupid lizard..."

[AlbionGirl]

It is a nasty piece, he can be a particularly vicious man (although his writing more often than not, has a touch of the Dentata in it, if you know what I mean), and this piece isn't even really that well written, but I do have one question:

In the Oval Office, Ronald Reagan told Yitzhak Shamir and Simon Wiesenthal, on two separate occasions, that he himself had assisted personally at the liberation of the Nazi death camps.

Is this true?

[Old Professer]

Hitchens is the best-spoken pickled brain I've ever read, but if you pay attention, he thinks all Americans are stupid even his fellow Democrat dung-beetle dumpster dwellers.

[Humidston]

Chris, I've always tried to give you the benefit of the doubt but today all I can say is TODAY YOU SUCK!

[BlazingArizona]

In the Oval Office, Ronald Reagan told Yitzhak Shamir and Simon Wiesenthal, on two separate occasions, that he himself had assisted personally at the liberation of the Nazi death camps. This is pretty pathetic, if true.

I haven't heard this charge before, but this looks like one of those out-of-context quotes like Hitchens' other one, that famous "missiles can be recalled" statement. Reagan was dead right on this one, actually. The context of his remark was a comparison of land-based ICBMs to submarine-launched missiles. In the latter case, the sub acts as a "first stage" of the delivery system. Up to the moment the missile is launched, the sub can be contacted and the launch canceled. This option does not exist with land-based missiles.

[Captiva]

Intelligent discourse is ordinarily not prefaced by, "Dude".

Homey, that's hilarious! Chill, my brutha.

[YaYa123]

On Reagan lying to Yitzhak Shamir and Simon Wiesenthal:

Besides the fact that Ronald Reagan was an honest, ethical man not given to lying, it goes without saying, he wouldn't tell a huge whopper, easily disproven, to two separate men, on two separate occasions, and certainly not in the White House he so honored.

But wait! We've established neither Reagan nor Hitchens lie, that they are honest men, so how to explain this? Easy as pie with google.com.

Here's the straight skinny, at least as reported by "The Washington Monthly"...not a conservative publication!

"In November 1983, Reagan told visiting Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir that he had served as a photographer in a U.S. Army unit assigned to film Nazi death camps. He repeated the story to Simon Wiesenthal the following February. Reagan never visited or filmed a concentration camp; he spent World War II in Hollywood, making training films with the First Motion Picture Unit of the Army Air Corps"

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/0309.mendacity-index.html

It's so obvious to me that this was a simple misunderstanding, most likely a translation snafu, with no self-serving mischief, (on Reagan's part), involved at all. First of all, Reagan wasn't that kind of man, and there's no other occasion (I know of), where he bragged about, or invented accomplishments. And secondly, Reagan wasn't a photographer in his military unit. He acted in army training films, he produced them, and he was the unit's personnel officer.

I can imagine Reagan was looking to seek something in common with these two Jewish men, I can imagine he would have told them his unit was the one assigned to film the concentration camp atrocities, and I can see how easy it was for them to repeat that and have it twisted by those eager to mock President Reagan. Hitchens would have heard that mocking version of the truth and believed it to be true.

Case closed, for me, but how bout some interesting info?

Ronald Reagan - Captain, US Army Air Corps. Because of a severe hearing loss, he was not allowed any flying duties. However, he appeared in training films. Prior to the war, he was a cavalry officer in the Nebraska National Guard. but for Reagan's complete, and I mean COMPLETE military record, go here:

http://www.jodavidsmeyer.com/combat/military/actors_in_wwii.html

And for a wonderful history of "Hollywood's Army", (Reagan's unit), go here:

http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/history/wwii/rr.htm

[LincolnLover]

"You know, I really think we need to consider a ban on Slate like the one DU has. The fact is, you guys have helped keep the site afloat."

Slate has some really good content from time to time. I find the Dispatches from Iraq and the occasional Kausfile (especially when Mickey, as an admitted Democrat, goes off on John Kerry) interesting. Oh, and the weekly Sopranos reviews are good, too.

[YaYa123]

please read my previous reply...I didn't see your question or I would have replied to you as well.

[montag813]

You should only feel pity for Hitchens. An Associate Professor I knew from Georgetown once dated him, and found that although he had much to SAY, when they got to bed, he couldn't get his organ to play, if you know what I mean. She tried to be nice about it, saying "it happens" etc. She said he reacted with furious anger and insults. She left and never saw him again.

He is a lonely impotent drunk. Very sad indeed.

[Mustangcountry]

He didn't say that. I know he didn't. he probably said i was one of the first to see these horrible things on film, etc.

I want to see evidence not leftist crap.

[Mustangcountry]

Lets ask 'em. I'm sure their memories can remember something as eventful as meeting the President.

[Mustangcountry]

I think I screwed up the names. PR didn't write it someone else did.

It might be on the internet.

The whole point of the article is that the hard anti-American left lied about bomb tonnage it's impact, the areas in which were bombed(becaus eof military installions up the ying-yang by the way, along with that distorted quotes, fabricated quotes, etc.

[j_tull]

You are correct, the "opposite" of ballistic missile is guided missile.

Not exactly, ballistic missiles are also guided, but fly a ballistic trajectory.

[Cyber Liberty]

Any object that is designed to move ordnance from one spot to another without a plane is "ballistic". I don't hink it matters if it's "guided".

[Restorer]

Ronald Reagan - Captain, US Army Air Corps. Because of a severe hearing loss, he was not allowed any flying duties.

He was also just about as blind as a bat.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Not exactly, ballistic missiles are also guided, but fly a ballistic trajectory.

The term ballistic missile was originally applied to missiles (like the V-2 and Minuteman-I) which were injected into a trajectory by controlling thrust cut-off and flight path angle. After thrust cut-off they flew ballistically. In missile parlance, the portion of the trajectory from thrust cut off to reentry is called the ballistic portion. In tracking radars, recognition of the thrust cut-off is important because the tracking filters use a different propagation model and process noise after thrust cut off. When thrust stops, the missile is said to "go ballistic", and that is the sense in which I was familiar with it for many years. Sometime around 1986, I remember waiting to enter a conference room behind two TRW software engineers who were discussing having told a particularly hot-tempered manager about a five-million dollar overrun. "It was about this time that Ray went ballistic." That was the first time I had heard the expression "go ballistic" used in this manner, although it soon passed into the vernacular.

[TheRedSoxWinThePennant]

SCREW HITCHENS HE IS A KOOK!!!