The Reagan Diaries (review)

Tulane historian Douglas Brinkley has provided the first extended look at Ronald Reagan's personal diaries ("The Reagan Diaries" HarperCollins, 2007). He makes clear this is not the entire edited collection, which is being prepared separately, but just a sample---if a large one running 680 pp. He also alerts the reader that perhaps the first genuine, reliable biography of Reagan is forthcoming by former advisor Martin Anderson and his wife, which is reassuring after the debacle of "Dutch" by Edmond Morris.

Several themes stand out. First, any notion that any of the liberal journalists ever had that Reagan was lazy evaporate in the first pages. (One journalist quipped "Reagan rises at the crack of noon." Perhaps that's when the reporter got up---not RR!) Brinkley reprints two sample pages of the President's daily schedule---some of his lighter schedules, judging by the other entires. Merely the numbers of meetings the man had scheduled would tire a 30-year old, never mind someone twice that age, yet the Gipper daily conducted meetings, gave speeches, attended functions at night that easily ran from 6 o'clock to midnight.

Second, and perhaps the most surprising thing to me---though it shouldn't have been---Reagan religiously watched movies while in the White House. At least once a week he and friends watched either a new release or a classic. Predictably, he was generous to those in his former trade, seldom criticizing a film unless it was for too much bad language or sex. He called "Gandhi" a "truly great movie" (128). After watching Jessica Lange in "Country," however, he correctly called it a "blatant propaganda message against our Agri. programs." (271)

Third, Reagan's faith comes through, again and again. Paul Kengor ("God and Ronald Reagan") has already shown that the Gipper had a deep Christianity, and not just a generic "God" faith but a born-again, Jesus-Christ-as-Savior faith. When Nancy's father was seriously ill, Reagan recorded his concern that he make himself right with God ("I believe this is a moment when he should turn to God and I want so much to help him do that" [85]). When John Hinckley shot him, Reagan, before praying for his own health, realized he "couldn't ask for Gods [sic] help while at the same time I felt hatred for the mixed up young man who had shot me" (12). When Reagan received an award from the national convention of religious broadcasters, Reagan noted "Billy Graham called [my speech] the greatest declaration for the Lord any Pres. has ever made. I feel very humble." (128) He called Jerry Falwell "a good friend & highly supportive." (137)

Other interesting comments that surface repeatedly deal with Reagan's sense that the conseravtive establishment thought him too liberal. In July 1982, he wrote "The 'Conservative Digest' came out---an entire issue devoted to cutting me up down and crossways. John Lofton and his compatriots seem to be determined to pain me as a turncoat conservative." (94) In February 1983, he wrote "Front page of Wash. Times (which is becoming as R. Wing as the Post is L. Wing) had a story that the Conservative Union was cool to me Fri. night." Instead, Reagan said, "I was interrupted a dozen times with applause and got a lengthy standing ovation." (132) He also noted "Evidently the Right Wing Rebels have had little effect [in suppressing his support]." (132) After a meeting with N.H. Governor Mel Thompson, Reagan complained "he is convinced I've abandoned my conservative principles . . . . I'm afraid he gets some of his ideas from the Howie Phillips crowd." (184) Barry Goldwater was to Reagan what John McCain has been to George W. Bush: he was "raising h--l as chairman of the Intelligence comm. [saying] he was never briefed [on Nicaraguan harbor mining]. He was briefed on March 8 & 13."(231)

On the other hand, Reagan frequently referred to his Republican supporters in the House and the Senate as "rabbits," and more than once said "We have rabbits when we need Tigers." (142) Frustrated with Congress, he said "I am threatened with defeat by my own party." (170).

Repeatedly, Reagan noted that the press sought to create divisions in his administration, especially to pit Secretary of State George Schulz against other members. However, it is also clear that there were severe internal stresses---Reagan repeatedly has to put out fires, mostly between Richard Allen, Al Haig, and someone else. One gets the sense that both Allen and Haig were more trouble than they were worth.

Certainly, however, Reagan knew that his more dangerous enemies were on the Left: "The d--n media has propagandized our people against our defense plans more than the Russians have." (135) He lamented his daughter Patti "has been taken over by that whole d--n gang" of helen Caldicott's anti-nuke activists. (117) When he spent "a lot of briefing" for a 2-hour CBS special with Dan Rather, he "Saw the show & wonder why we bothered." (65) As for the National Council of Churches, he wrote "Sometimes I think (forgive me) that Nat. Co. believes God can be reached through Moscow." (13) Sen. Alan Cranston (D-CA) met with Reagan and "said nothing" but "tore us apart on the law to the press." (146) Of Cong. Joseph Addabbo [R-NY], who "couldn't kill the B-1 but he tried" Reagan said "I've never heard such pious hypocrisy from him & his storm troopers---especially [TX Cong.] Jim Wright." (117) Of former Republican N.H. Senator Lowell Weicker, Reagan wrote "he was the head ringmaster against us as he is on everything we want. He's a pompous, no good, fathead." (227) After Arlen Spector (R-PA) and Sen. Charles Mathias (R-MD) voted against a USSC nomination of Bradford Reynolds, Reagan glumly wrote "Well there are 2 Sens. I won't have to help campaign."

"Press conferences," he noted, "anymore are an adversary contest. The press isn't after news---they want to trap you into a goof." (170) In 1984, he "Dropped in for a minute on the TV anchor men & women who were being briefed on [the] St. of the Union address. I cannot conjure up 1 iota of respect for just about all of them." (215) "The morning papers were worse than the TV news. I reached the boiling point" on El Salvador aid, he wrote (172). After the 1984 election, he noted, "The press is now trying to prove it wasan't a landslide or should i say a mandate?" When a cancerous polyp was discovered in his colon, Reagan "detected an effort on the part of some" to mischaracterize the surgery. Helen Thomas screeched "The President has Cancer." (343)

When Reagan patiently spoke to opponents of his policies, including students, he often ended with the phrase, "I spoke to ears that wouldn't hear." One time, I mis-read a phrase, which I thought said, "It's hard to keep from slugging Mondale." In fact, it said, "It's hard to keep from slugging AT Mondale." Oh well. We can dream.

There are many more nuggets---his obvious love for Nancy and his despondency when she was not around; his commitment to SDI, which was never, ever a "bargaining chip" to be traded away; and his amazing intellect, which comes through with his analysis of problems. He truly did think he had solved the immigration issue with Mazzoli-Simpson.

One last item worth mentioning is his assessment of Saddam Hussein: "I believe [Iraq was] preparing to build an atom bomb" when Israel bombed Iraq. (24) "Saddam is a 'no good nut' and I think he was trying to build a nuclear weapon. He has called for the destruction of Israel & he wants to be leader of the Arab world---that's why he invaded Iran."

The full diaries will likely offer more texture, but Brinkley has done an exceptional job of "letting Reagan be Reagan." Any Reagan fan should read the diaries.

You are correct. Viguerie and the leaders of “The New Right” backed Phil Crane to the hilt and, truth be told, I can certainly see why they liked Crane. He was conservative to the core in his voting and speaking - and he was one of them: A Washington insider. Still, Congressmen tend not to get elected President!

I loved Phil Crane back in the day because of his overall voting record and his fight against Jimmy Carter’s Panama Canal giveaway. However, when it came to Presidential Primary Politics, Ronald Reagan was the choice.

wikipedia:

“Weicker served in the Connecticut State House of Representatives from 1962 to 1966 and as first selectman of Greenwich, Connecticut before winning election to the U.S. House of Representatives, in 1968, as a Republican. Weicker only served one term in the House before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 1970; he served in the U.S. Senate for three terms, from 1971 to 1989, before being defeated for a fourth term by Joe Lieberman. He gained national attention for his service on the Senate Watergate Committee. During his Senate service, Weicker was always regarded as somewhat of a maverick, and a liberal voice in an increasingly conservative Republican Party. President Reagan referred to him in his diaries as “a pompous, no good, fathead”, a reflection of Weicker’s attitude towards the Reagan administration.

Weicker’s tense relations with establishment Republicans may have roots in receiving strong support from President Nixon in his 1970 Senate bid, support repaid in the eyes of his critics by a vehement attack on the White House while serving on the Watergate Committee. Later, his relations with the Bush family soured, and the brother of then Vice President Bush (Prescott Bush, Jr.) made a short-lived bid against Weicker to gain the 1982 Republican Senate nomination. Finally, conservative animus spilled into overt support for Joe Lieberman in 1988, both from national sources such as National Review (publisher William F. Buckley, Jr., and his brother, former New York Senator James Buckley, both endorsed and campaigned for Lieberman in 1988), but more importantly, from rank-and-file Connecticut Republicans irate with Weicker’s effort to make the local party more liberal and prevent the nomination of conservatives to state office, and the poor showing of Weicker-backed candidates in the 1986 elections. Weicker was defeated in the 1988 election by less than 1% of the vote, owing in large part to defections by Republicans to Lieberman.”

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