#41 George H.W. Bush Part 2

Really Cool Stuff about George H W Bush
1. George H W Bush was, at one time, the youngest pilot in the Navy. “George Bush chose to become a naval aviator, earning his wings in June 1943 and becoming the youngest pilot in the entire US Navy” (p. 7).
2. Bush’s plane was shot down in the war. “Failing to make a clean jump, Bush hit his head on the back of the plan and ripped his chute. Tumbling 2,000 feet into the water—moving faster because of the hole in his chute—Bush nevertheless escaped major injury. He deployed a small life raft and began paddling. A pilot seeing him in distress strafed Japanese ships on their way to capture Bush. A few hours later a US submarine fished the young lieutenant out of the water. Bush was the only man of his plane to survive” (p. 8).
3. George H W was the fourth generation of his family to attend Yale. “The fourth generation of the Bush family to attend Yale, George made a conscious effort to emulate his father’s collegiate achievements and succeeded for largely the same reasons” (p. 9).
4. Bush desperately wanted to be Ford’s vice president and was disappointed when Ford chose Nelson Rockefeller instead. “No American politician had ever tried so hard to be vice president and failed” (p. 30).
5. The election of 1988 was abysmal in terms of voter turnout. “Only 50 percent of eligible American voters bothered to participate, the lowest turnout rate since World War II” (p. 63).
6. Congress decided to decline Bush’s nomination of John Tower as defense secretary, thereby making history. “These enemies sank the nomination by allowing gossip about Tower’s womanizing and drinking so cloud the matter that he became the first cabinet nominee of an incoming president to lose a confirmation vote” (p. 70).
7. Interesting fact about the Panamanian coup of 1990: “Only twenty-four US servicemen lost their lives in the largest American military operation since the end of the Vietnam War” (p. 89). This coup also allowed us to arrest Noreiga and send him to Miami for trial.
8. Not only did George H. W. suffer from the extremely rare Graves’ disease but his wife, Barbara, did as well. “(In a remarkable coincidence, Barbara Bush had already been diagnosed with this same rare disease in 1989)” (p. 130-31).
9. The end of the Soviet Union had major ramifications for the US. “By year’s end Gorbachev himself announced that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics would itself be dissolved. For the first time, the United States was the world’s lone superpower” (p. 138). We weren’t alone as a superpower for that long because China nipped up behind us when we weren’t looking…
10. In 1992, Bush’s approval rating tanked. “After the Democratic convention in July, Bush’s approval rating dropped to 29 percent. Only Harry Truman during the impasse of the Korean War (23 percent), Richard Nixon in the Watergate year of 1974 (24 percent), and Jimmy Carter in 1979 (28 percent) had been more unpopular” (p. 145).
11. I lived through Hurricane Andrew in southern Florida so I’m adding this little tidbit to the list. “With estimates of $45 billion in damage, Andrew exceeded the cost of any previous natural disaster in US history” (p. 148). Even though I lived only an hour and a half north of Miami-Dade County, all we experienced was some heavy rain, a few palm fronds jogged loose from their moorings, and one day off school. That is all.
12. Here’s something else I remember: Dana Carvey playing George H. W. on SNL! “To perk up his staff and lay to rest the
rumors [that Bush would retire before Clinton was sworn in], he invited to the White House Dana Carvey, a comedian who had achieved fame impersonating Bush’s nasally halting cadence on the popular television show Saturday Night Live. Without letting the staff in on the surprise, he asked Carvey to appear as him at the start of the Christmas party” (p. 152).
13. In April 1993, Bush traveled to the Middle East in order to be honored and feted by the Kuwaiti people. Little did he know that there was an Iraqi assassination plot afoot. “The Kuwaitis arrested seventeen people, some of whom confessed to being on a mission from Baghdad. The plan was to detonate a car bomb, and, indeed, the Kuwaitis found a Toyota Land Cruiser with eighty to ninety kilograms of plastic explosives…After the FBI gather some additional corroborating information from the suspects, the Clinton administration concluded without a doubt that Saddam Hussein had authorized the assassination of George Bush. To send a message to Baghdad, Bill Clinton ordered a cruise missile strike on the headquarters of the Iraqi Intelligence Service on June 26, 1993…George Bush was the first US president, sitting or former, to be the target of a foreign assassination plot” (p. 156-57).
14. Although he was over eighty years of age, George H. W. decided, after being a guest of honor at the annual meeting of the International Parachute Association, to try the extreme sport of sky diving. “Oddly, the action that had the greatest influence on Bush’s public appeal in the second half of the 1990s involved jumping out of an airplane at 12,500 feet…Covered by newspapers and on television around the world, the jump revealed a different George Bush than the stiff and awkward man who had served as president for four years” (p. 162-63).

Well we’re getting down to the very end of this list of presidents and I’m confronted with what I know (or think I know) about these men and what is the truth. I was surprised, therefore, with how much I disliked George H.W. before he became president. And I wasn’t the only one—due to very specific word choices, I was convinced that the author, Timothy Naftali, did not like him either. The reason that I make the distinction of disliking him pre-presidency is due to the fact that I really quite liked him afterwards. It’s hard to explain but before he was elected president, I felt that George was simply a political chameleon, ready to change his mind and his stance on any issue that would reflect voter attitudes. He mirrored Nixon when those ideas were expedient and replicated Reagan when that was necessary to further his political career.

All that being said, however, I really grew to like this guy during his tenure as president and since then. I feel that the presidency really agreed with him, for the most part, and through being president, he was able to find his political identity, which he’s stood by all these years. It’s kinda cool to watch a grown man find his way during all those tricky foreign and domestic issues he faced. Also I think it couldn’t have been easy following in the hallowed footsteps of old Ronald Reagan. It just couldn’t. “Ronald Reagan was a hard act to follow…Yet the campaign of 1988, so long on patriotic symbols and so short on substance, had left only a vague impression of the incoming president, certainly nothing as powerful as the public image of Ronald Reagan, who despite Iran-Contra appeared to be departing directly from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for Mount Rushmore” (p. 65).

I have to take a moment to mention this really interesting fact but it’s about Reagan so I didn’t include it up top. It’s about the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project and I’ve seen evidence of it in Georgia. “In 1997 a nationwide Ronald Reagan Legacy Project established the goal of naming something—a bridge, a highway, a park—for Reagan in every one of the United States’ 3, 067 counties” (p. 161). Near where I live there are several things named after Ronald Reagan so I think it’s cool to finally find out why.

The author did a good job of portraying this misunderstood man and in quite a funny way too. For instance, “The weather turned horrible the next day—the worst in decades, according to the Maltese—and what was supposed to be a two-day visit of choreographed shuttling between the U.S. cruiser and the Soviet ship because a superpower struggle against seasickness” (p. 87). Here’s another example, detailing the circus surrounding the Clarence Thomas affair. “By the end, the nation had been exposed to discussions of sexual harassment, pornographic videos, and pubic hair left on a Coke can” (p. 134). I got a crack outta this next event. “In August 1991 Bush used a speech in Kiev to send a message over the heads of his Ukrainian audience to the Yugoslaves to slow the disintegration of their state, so that political will and diplomacy, not violence, would dictate the outcome…Derided at home as the ‘Chicken Kiev’ speech, because it implied a lack of support for Ukrainian self-determination, the speech captured Bush’s belief that national self-determination alone was not a guarantee that the successor states of any empire would be liberal democracies” (p. 138-39).

Sometimes truth is indeed stranger than fiction. Once such instance of this phenomenon is the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent end of the Soviet Union. For something that was so serious and engulfing as the Cold War, it ended in a complete fizzle. “The last act of the nasty East German police state came in a moment of farce. At a press conference on November 9 [1989], designed to introduce new rules for travel to West Germany, the party chief in East Berlin, who was poorly briefed on the new system, mistakenly told reporters that free travel to the West would begin immediately. East Germans took him at his word and approached the Berlin controls. The police there, just as confused as the party chief, assumed it was all right to let them pass. That night thousands of Berliners jumped onto the Berlin Wall and, meeting no resistance from East German border guards, began to take sledgehammers to it. The twenty-eight-year-old wound dividing Berlin was no more” (p. 84-85). The Soviet Union would not last much longer. Ha!

Unfortunately, the end of this book was all about George W and that bothered me. I understand that it was inevitable that George W make an appearance in this book, considering he is the son of Geroge H.W., but I thought the author spent too much time and page content on the presidency of the son. This aspect of this biography annoyed me until I reached the last page in which Naftali explains his emphasis on George W. “When George W. Bush had spoken confidently in 1997 of how history would revise his father’s reputation, he had no reason to assume that it would be because of his own shortcomings as president…A decade later, as the younger Bush’s own presidency limped to an end, many missed the elder Bush’s realism, his diplomacy, his political modesty, and yes, even his prudence” (p. 176). What do you think? Did the morphing of George H. W.’s presidential reputation occur due to his son’s inanity in the White House? Discuss.

#41 George H. W. Bush (1924- )

When I was twelve, I distinctly remember when George HW Bush came on television and announce that the United States had gone to war. Along with a host of other nations thrown together in a hastily-concocted alliance, the US was avenging the invasion of Kuwait by that bully, Iraq. Even preoccupied with the quotidian minutiae of prepubescent life, I was aware that I was witnessing history. It wasn’t everyday that your country went to war and with such a noble purpose. I knew less about the oil fields then and more about the egregious nature of Iraq’s greed but still if there was ever a just cause for war then we were looking at it. Operation Desert Storm was under way.

Little would I realize it then but the war and Bush’s subsequent stratospheric approval ratings were over way, way too soon. A little over a year later, Bush would go down in resounding defeat at the poles and with all the good that he did as president, I’m sure most people were like “golly, how did this happen?” So did I ask as I roamed the library for answers. I turned to my fav—the American Presidents Series—and got down to reading. I chose to consult George H. W. Bush: American Presidents Series by Timothy Naftali (New York: Times Books, 2007) about what exactly went wrong with Bush senior’s presidency.

George Herbert Walker Bush was born to Prescott and Dorothy Bush in Milton, Massachusetts on June 12, 1924. Several years later, the family moved to Greenwich, CT. By 1937, young George joined Phillips Academy in Andover, MA where he was captain of the baseball and soccer teams, he edited the school paper, and he was senior class president. In his senior year, George nearly died from a serious staph infection but on the plus side, he met Barbara Pierce at a country club dance.

After graduation, in 1942, George enlisted as a navy pilot and was trained in photographic intelligence. Before he was sent overseas in the war, he got engaged to Barbara. “After a brief courtship, Barbara would become the ‘girl back home’ that George Bush would write to from his bunk and after whom he would name his airplane, for good luck” (p. 7). In 1944, he was sent to the Pacific Theater aboard the San Jacinto where he participating in bombing runs on Japanese positions around Wake Island. “In November [1944] he went home with 58 missions and 126 carrier landings to his credit” (p. 9).

By January 6, 1945, George and Barbara were married and George was accepted to Yale for college. He was captain of the baseball team, in Skull and Bones, and also a father (George W was born in 1946). After graduation, the Bushs moved to Odessa, TX where George worked for Dresser Industrial and he soon got into the oil business. In 1950, George teamed up with a friend to create Bush-Overby Oil Development Company. Though he was financially successful, these were not happy days for George and Barbara. His young daughter died, in 1953, of leukemia and her death, understandably, put a severe strain on the family.

Once George made his first million (!!), he moved the entire family to Houston for work-related reasons and once there, he became more active in politics. By 1963, he became chairman of the Harris County Republican Party and then ran for the Senate the next year but lost. In 1966, he ran instead for the House of Representatives from Houston’s district and won that. Thanks to his father’s numerous contacts in Washington DC (Prescott became a Senator from CT in 1953), George was placed on the prestigious Ways and Means Committee even though he was a freshman congressman.

While in DC, Bush began to formulate his political ideas…or…er…”tendencies.” “Bush disliked extremism of any kind; he preferred to seek solutions outside of the federal government; he believed in a strong defense and in strong support for the US military; he preferred spending cuts over higher taxes; and he opposed segregation and racial discrimination, but he was uncomfortable in having Washington mandate good behavior” (p. 16-17). Bush decided to use these tendencies as a springboard into the other house of Congress but he lost again when he tried running for the Senate in 1970.

Since he was rather at an occupational loss (having elected not to run for his own congressional seat in 1970), George jumped at Richard Nixon’s offer to become the permanent representative to the United Nations. While there it was his job to deal with the fallout from Nixon’s idea to embrace Communist China. He did as well a job as he could (Kissinger continually kept him out of the foreign policy loop) but was happy to move on in 1972 when Nixon made him the Chairman of the Republican National Committee. “Unlike [Robert] Dole, who had to balance the needs of his constituents and his Senate office, Bush could devote himself full-time to building the party and collecting chits for a future run for higher office” (p. 26). Bush embraced his task fully but was derailed early on by Watergate. For months, Bush continued to defend his friend the president but as the evidence continued to mount, he found it expedient to leave his post as Chairman. In fact, there was talk that Bush was considered for Gerald Ford’s vice president but when Ford chose Rockefeller, Bush was made ambassador to China instead.

George moved the family to Beijing where he tried to make a good impression at the local level there. “He set a precedent by using bicycles and attending events at foreign embassies, which his predecessor, the patrician David Bruce, had not attended. He also opened the US mission to guests, serving them American fare and treating them to games” (p. 30).

Bush and the family returned stateside when Ford announced that he, Bush, was to be the new head of the CIA. “In his short tenure Bush witnessed the launch of the KH-11, the first spy satellite to transmit real-time photographs via relay stations to Washington, and broadened the key US liaison with the British to include sharing this new satellite imagery” (p. 32). He also created “Team B,” which was an outside panel designed to creatively and truthfully analyze the Soviet Union’s situation. With the realignment that comes with the election of a new president, Bush resigned in 1977 in order for Carter to instill his own men in the system. Bush and his family headed back, once more, to Houston.

The next year, he and Barbara decided to do something different. They went on a grand trip around the world, meeting dignitaries and staying in the thick of things. They even met the Shah of Iran before he was exiled. When they arrived back in the US, Bush opted to come out as a Republican candidate for the 1980 election and so began campaigning. In the primaries, he came head-to-head with Ronald Reagan and even coined the term “voodooeconomics” when he debated Reagan’s economic plan. But Bush was not strong enough to counter the growing conservative majority that firmly backed Reagan and so was tagged as Reagan’s VP instead.

When they won in 1980, Bush embarked on an eight year course as vice president. Unlike other presidents, though, Reagan treated him well and included him in many things. Bush chaired the National Security Council’s Crisis Management Center and the National Security Planning Group. Bush, with the most at stake, also shone after Reagan’s assassination. He calmed everyone down, made sure that business went on as usual, and handed the reins back when Reagan returned. In the second term, Bush attended the morning National Security meetings and chaired the Task Force on Combating Terrorism. Unluckily, he was also involved in the Iran-Contra mess. “When the US Congress placed restrains on funding the counterrevolutionary guerrillas in Nicaragua, the Contras, Bush lent his support to finding private sources of funding” (p. 43). Questioned on his role in future interviews, Bush would always say that he was kept out of the loop.

As the 1988 elections rolled around, no one was surprised when Bush announced his candidacy. He won the Republican nomination and then beat Democrat, Michael Dukakis, the Massachusetts governor, in the presidential elections. He started out on a bad foot, however, when he chose Dan Quayle for vice president without consulting anyone about the appointment and later he would have to deal with his campaign promise to “Read My Lips—No New Taxes.” “On the eve of attaining the presidency, a prize he had pursued for years, George Bush faced a daunting domestic challenge made worse by the manner he had employed to get his prize” (p. 63-4).

Domestically, there was a major crisis on the horizon. Not only was there a budget deficit of an astronomical amount but there was also a toxic Savings and Loan situation brewing. Budget problems would continue to haunt the Bush administration because he felt compelled to not raise taxes as he had promised in his campaign. However, nothing else seemed to be working and the US economy looked to be on the brink of a recession. It also didn’t help that halfway through his presidency several upstart Republicans, including Newt Gingrich, began to openly criticize the president over his budget deal. “The budget deal, as worked out by the parties, initiated a whole range of restraints on federal spending, including on entitlements for veterans, students, farmers, and federal employees. It included an unprecedented enforceable cap on all federal discretionary spending and introduced a ‘pay as you go’ system, meaning that any new congressional spending initiative had to be twinned with a tax increase or a spending reduction to pay for it” (p. 115). There would never be a workable conclusion to the budget problem during Bush’s tenure.

In the foreign policy arena (where Bush was way more comfortable), there was plenty to stay busy with, including all the Central American stuff. First, Congress decided to send humanitarian contra aid to Nicaragua and then the government decided to create a coup in Panama to overthrow Noriega, which didn’t quite work out. “Within a matter of hours, Noriega was back in power, the leaders of the coup were dead, and the United States looked impotent” (p. 72). Then Bush had to decide how to handle Gorbachev and the Soviet Union. “The pause in managing Gorbachev created a bad first impression about Bush’s abilities as president” (p. 78). It was evident that the Soviet empire was crumbling when other political parties were suddenly allowed to be elected in Poland and when Hungary opened its border to Austria. In a truly ironic fashion, the Berlin Wall fell on October 25, 1989 when an East German politician accidently misinterpreted his instructions and announced that all borders were open. After that, like dominos, many other East European nations began falling out of the Iron Curtain.

On June 4, 1989, there was a massacre of students in Tiananmen Square in Beijing while in December 1989, we invaded Panama. Bush began meeting Gorbachev on a regular basis. They met first, in November 1989, in Malta and then in May 1990 in Washington DC. “In one of the most dramatic diplomatic about-faces in the history of US-Soviet summits, Gorbachev changed his mind and his country’s policy on Germany [unification] on the spot and in front of his advisers” (p. 95-6). While Bush was being harshly critiqued at home for the financial situation, he was doing stellar with international issues. “Ironically, this harsh political criticism from American conservatives for showing too much realism at home coincided with George HW Bush achieving one of the greatest foreign policy victories of any US president in peacetime” (p. 99). With a minimum of apparent effort and with agreement on all sides, Germany was reunified within months of the Berlin Wall’s demise.

And this gets us nicely right up to the moment when, on August 2, 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait. Instead of going into the Middle East with guns blazing, Bush handled the situation by instituting a ‘tin cup’ tour. “Doing what’s right was going to be very expensive, so Bush sent Baker around the world, on what became known as the ‘tin-cup’ tour, to raise money from allies for the US deployment in the Gulf. Ultimately the effort was so successful that the United States would make a profit on the war. Thirty-three countries would join the coalition, including Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and five other Arab states” (p. 107). To institute Operation Desert Shield, the US military was sent to Egypt to start occupying a defensive position in that area of the world. Despite this unusual alliance, Bush also needed the UN sanction to go ahead with any offensive military maneuvers. “It was a happy accident of history that this former UN ambassador was now a head of state at a time when the United Nations could matter” (p. 110).

Bush also took some time to meet Gorbachev once more for a Helsinki summit in September 1990. He decided to ask if the Soviet Union wished to be included in the decision-making process for the war and even if they wanted to contribute troops. “Bush’s tactic of showing empathy to the Soviet reformers worked like a charm” (p. 112). It was apparent that Gorby and Bush were all but BFFs now. This was good timing because it just so happened that in November 1990, it was the US’s turn to be president of the UN Security Council. The Security Council then passed Resolution 679 which called for January 15, 1991 as the final date for Saddam to extricate himself and his army from Kuwait. Similarly, Congress passed the Gulf War Resolutions giving Bush the final go-ahead. Thus, on January 17, 1991, Operation Desert Storm commenced with air attacks on fortified Iraqi positions. In retaliation, Iraq bombed Israel but Bush was able to convince Israel to not get back at Iraq alone but to allow the alliance forces to do so. In late February, Iraq began to withdraw but only after the ground troops were activated. “The ground war began with the invasion of Kuwait by the US Marine Corps” (p. 125). By February 28, there was a general cease fire, thereby ending the Gulf War. Afterwards, there was a bloody civil war in Iraq when many factions tried to oust Hussein and failed.

At this time, Bush found out that he had a rare illness, called Graves’ Disease, which gave him problems with his thyroid. Once this was under control though Bush went full force into dealing with the imminent 1992 elections and began to campaign. Unfortunately his approval rating, which had peaked after the Gulf War, slowly began to ebb. “A closer look at Bush’s approval numbers shows that the Gulf War—when foreign policy seemed to matter again—had given an artificial bounce to what had been a steady erosion of the presidential popular support since the end of his first year in office” (p. 133). There were still foreign policy matters to consider however. In June 1991, Boris Yeltsin was voted in as President of Russia and then systematically dismantled the Soviet Union. Serbia, Croatia and the other former Yugoslavia nations began to fight over their land and in July 1991, Bush and Gorbachev met for the very last US-Soviet summit. Finally, issues in Somalia in November of 1992 led Bush to send American military units there (see the movie Black Hawk Down).

Bush passed the 1990 Clean Air Amendment and then the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1991 but nothing seemed to help his approval rating. It didn’t help either that this was the moment that the Clarence Thomas scandal hit and while Thomas was eventually sworn in as a Supreme Court justice, the whole situation seemed sordid. As 1992 wore on, the country slid into a bonafide recession and Bush looked silly when he vomited on the Prime Minister of Japan. There were also the Rodney King riots that tore apart Los Angeles and the Hurricane Andrew debacle that left thousands of people without food, water, or shelter in southern Florida.

Needless to say, Bush was soundly defeated by Arkansas governor, Bill Clinton in the November elections. Bush, bitter and uncomprehending, flew back to Houston to embark on the long post-presidential retirement (he was only 68 years old). Instead of sitting around though, he traveled to the Middle East and then came home to help his sons campaign for various governships (Jeb for Florida and George W for Texas). Both sons would eventually become governors of those states. Bush senior would try not to rile the political waters during his retirement, a la Jimmy Carter, but sometimes he would speak out against certain things like Aristide in Haiti. In 1995, he took a trip to Hanoi and then in ‘97 he dedicated his presidential library, housed at Texas A&M University.

He also wrote a couple books. He co-wrote A World Transformed with his former Secretary of State, Brent Scowcroft and then he published a collection of diary entries and letters in style:italic;">All the Best, George Bush. In 2000, he campaigned in the presidential election for his son, George W and was proudly able to witness his son’s victorious election to the presidency over Al Gore. Bush senior then visited China and spent years working with former president Bill Clinton on behalf of the Indian Ocean Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina relief. Recently, he won the NIAF One America Award for his work on behalf of all Americans and was present at the commissioning of the USS George H. W. Bush, a supercarrier of the US Navy.

#40 Ronald Reagan Part 2

Really Cool Stuff about Ronald Reagan
1. During his tenure as lifeguard at Lowell Park, Ronald Reagan saved 77 lives. “But a delegation of men and women who owe their lives to ‘Dutch’ was on hand to present him a clock bearing the simple message, ‘From 77 Grateful People’” (p. 184).
2. Reagan loved horseback riding and because of it, joined the Cavalry Reserve. “So on March 18, 1935, ‘Ronald W. Reagan, Civilian’ enrolled at 322d Cavalry HQ, Des Moines, and began to take extension courses toward a commission in the Army” (p. 123).
3. There are rumors that Reagan, at one point, tried to join the Communist Party. “So what if Dutch, young and ardent in 1938, thrilled to the message of Marx for a few experimental months? Minds colder and clearer than his fortunately he saw that he was not socialist material” (p. 159).
4. I thought it was so cute that, during the war, Reagan was enlisted by the First Motion Picture Unit. “Jack [Warner] told Hap that what the Air Corps needed was ‘a very effective propaganda department’ to stimulate recruitment by means of movies. What could be better than a special military production unit at Warners, headed by himself in full uniform?...Undertook to produce at least 6 big pics and 18 to 26 shorts a year—all inspirational & educational & instructional” (p. 190).
5. As governor, Reagan pushed through the legislature an extremely extensive welfare reform program. “The California Welfare Reform Act finally became law on August 13, 1971. Reagan did not exaggerate when he called it ‘probably the most comprehensive’ such initiative in American history…While fully compatible with AFDC (a reluctant concession on Reagan’s part), it would save three hundred million dollars a year through sheer operational efficiency” (p. 376).
6. Reagan has the largest presidential library in the United States. “The largest archive of its kind, it is also the least patronized by serious scholars” (p. 381).
7. Gerald Ford tried time and again to get Reagan on his side by trying to appoint him to important posts. “President Ford, suspicious of Ronald Reagan’s future intentions, kept trying to distract him with appointments. He asked him to serve on the Rockefeller Commission investigating CIA domestic activities during the Watergate era, and offered him another Cabinet job, this time, Secretary of Commerce” (p. 391). The original offer was for Secretary of Transportation.
8. As president, Reagan sent through a revolutionary budget bill. “There was no doubt, however, that Reagan and his economic aides had brought about the largest spending-control bill, and the largest tax reduction, in American history. Their budget was revolutionary in that it reversed—or, more properly, inversed—an economic theory dating back the final days of the New Deal. Hallowed by Franklin Roosevelt, intellectualized by John Maynard Keynes, trumpeted by John Kenneth Galbraith, and codified by the social engineers of the Sixties and Seventies, the theory called for high, progressive tax rates, manipulative government spending, welfare-state ‘entitlements’ centering around Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid, plus forcible downward redistribution of wealth and capital” (p. 446).
9. Reagan was the first to place a woman on the Supreme Court. “Polls and media commentary showed a tendency to regard the Administration as a club for rich white men, notwithstanding his widely praised appointment of Sandra Day O’Connor to the Supreme Court” (p. 451).
10. The 1983 bombing of an American barracks in Beirut is one of the worst in our history. “That total was finally drawn at two hundred and forty-one, making the barracks bombing the worst surprise attack on a US military installation since Pearl Harbor” (p. 502).
11. The election of 1984 held a couple of interesting moments. First of all, Ronald Reagan became the oldest elected president of the United States and secondly, he received one of the largest electoral votes in American history. “Had the Speaker been in government since 1800, he still would not have witnessed such an electoral-vote landslide. Reagan had swept every state but Walter Mondale’s own Minnesota, and, even there, the popular majority could barely have filled a football stadium. Every age group in the national franchise had voted four more years for the oldest President in history” (p. 512).
12. He won the Medal of Freedom. “Four years later Ronald Reagan returned to the White House, at the reluctant invitation of President Bush, to receive the Medal of Freedom before William Jefferson Clinton took office” (p. 655).

On page one, I fell completely in love with Morris’ magical prose. I’m not even kidding. Right then and there, I knew that I was reading a biography that was completely beautiful and masterfully well-written. But then I had to put the book down. It’s no secret that I’m a sucker for good writing and that a well-turned phrase can seriously spike my endorphins but I didn’t want to be hypnotized into loving Ronald Reagan. I wanted him to stand on his own merits and not because Edmund Morris spoke luscious poetry into my ear. Hmmm…

It didn’t help either that, for this particular book, Edmund Morris came up with an interesting new style of biography. I’ll admit that it took me several chapters to pick up on it but when I did, I was absolutely blown away with the possibilities of it. Morris decided to write himself into the story. Not necessary himself but…well…let’s just call him the “narrator.” In this biography, aptly named a memoir, the narrator knows Dutch Reagan from childhood and therefore can describe scenes and events as if he had been there himself. It is deftly done. What’s fun about it is that Morris even includes the pictures that he used to describe scenes in such detail. I enjoyed this treatment of Reagan due to the fact that Morris, through his use of fictitious people and events, is able to give both sides of the story. The narrator, for the most part, restrains judgment over Ronald Reagan but there are numerous ancillary characters of the book that dislike Dutch or are surprised by him. Initially I thought it odd that Morris used yin-yang symbols to break up chapters instead of the usual bullet points or dots. At first, I thought the yin-yang symbol referred to Reagan’s famously difficult personality to understand but after finishing the book, I’ve determined that the yin-yang stands more for the author’s ambivalent and uncertain view of Reagan. Even now, and like Edmund Morris, I’m not quite sure whether Ronald Reagan was a truly great man or simply in the right place at the right time.

Another bonus about this biographical style was the oodles of local color and historical background that Morris effortlessly pours into each moment of Reagan’s life. From his humble beginnings in mid-west of 1911 to the war years in Hollywood to the tumultuous Sixties and life in the governor’s mansion, we, the readers, are a part of it all and not only from Reagan’s perspective but the narrator also has his own opinions on each matter. For instance, the narrator’s son, Gavin, is a student at Berkeley for the riots in 1969 and he writes letters to his dad that include all the odd phraseology and slang of that time. “All this I learned later, since Gavin, like most young destructors, was more interested in pulling down pillars that pondering the rights of women, let alone babies. He delightedly reported that some armed Black Panthers (‘bad cats I dig in Oakland”) had managed to bluster their way into the State Capitol. His only regret was that they had not gotten into the Executive Wing ‘and scared the shit out of Reagan’” (p. 354).

Morris also makes some fascinating connections, such as the abortion bill that Reagan signed as governor of California. It was called the Therapeutic Abortion Act and “he [Reagan] signed it into law nevertheless, comforting himself that he had helped purge it of eugenics and that no abortions of any kind would be permitted without strict medical or legal review. Only as time went by and abortion became an extension of welfare, would he wish he had paid more heed to the bill’s manipulative language…Before the end of his first term as Governor, some eighty-two thousand souls would be debited to that signature, as against the seventy-seven he took credit for as a lifeguard” (p. 352). I also thought it significant that out of all the presidential biographies I’ve read, this was the first to mention the MLK riots in Washington DC. How did those other biographies miss something like this!?!

As you may imagine, Morris had plenty to say about Reagan himself. In fact, I loved the detailed daily routine that Morris included as a real means of getting to know this guy. And not only that but it was awesome to get a picture of what a president of the United States is faced with on a daily basis. Also I knew that Reagan did not care for Ford at all but it was neat to finally figure out why. “Pressed again, he [Reagan] explained, ‘The people never voted for him; he was appointed to that position for two years’” (p. 391).

This next quote is actually about Jimmy Carter and his administration and not Reagan but it’s so well-said that I had to include it. “Contraction, or the state of self-withdrawal Germans describe as innigkeit, was indeed the characteristic of the Carter years, at least what I perceived of them as I labored to complete my Roosevelt book. An obsession with allegedly dwindling national resources; a smallness of outlook, from the cancellation of supersonic transports to the issuance of bills for White House hospitality; public lights dimmed, cardigans unbuttoned, hemorrhoids proclaimed, human rights called for, the Panama Canal forfeited; fifty-two American hostages taken hostage in Iran; eight helicopters sent in to rescue them, in a demonstration of dragonfly wrath; and finally, a front-page image that burned itself, I should think, onto the retinas of every citizen who saw it: two bearded hostage-holders using the Stars and Stripes to carry garbage out of the US Embassy in Tehran. The flag’s heavy curve represented the nadir (nadir-es-semt, as they say in Arabic) of American prestige in the post-Eisenhower era” (p. 407).

I’ll leave you with a cute little story about Reagan. In 1985, Reagan flew to Switzerland for a meeting with Gorbachev and while there, he and Nancy stayed in a private residence (Masion de Saussure, Prince Karim Aga Khan’s lakeside villa) where it was up to the President to feed the young son’s fish. On the last day of the conference, tragedy struck. “He [Reagan] shamefacedly confirmed the death of one of young Hussain Aga Khan’s goldfish, despite his conscientious feeding. An urgent search of Geneva pent shops had yielded two identical replacements, who were now happily swimming at Saussure. Any normal head of state would have decamped without further notice, but Dutch had felt impelled to leave behind a not explaining the mysteries of death and transfiguration:
‘Dear Friends
I put the white half dome in the tank according to the directions and fed them with 2 good pinches morning and night from the big food container.—Now and then I added some of the colored flakes…
On Tuesday I found one of your fish dead in the bottom of the tank. I don’t know what could have happened, but I added 2 new ones (same kind0. I hope this was alright.
Thanks for letting us live in your lovely home.
RONALD REAGAN’” (p. 575).

#40 Ronald Reagan (1911-2004)

Now here’s a president that I can really remember! Not anything important, mind, but his craggy countenance was certainly a familiar part of my childhood. In recent years, though, I’ve noticed that Ronald Reagan is, to this day, still a controversial figure. Either people loved him passionately or they detested him but there are not many who are truly indifferent. That makes him an interesting case and one I’m really looking forward to cracking.

As a youngster, I have one good memory of our 40th president. Growing up I was aware of who he was and if shown a picture I could have proudly displayed my knowledge. But there came a moment when I—yes, I—was nonplussed by Ronald Reagan. My mother was (and is) a great adherent of old movies (a quality that I take from her, no doubt) and since we didn’t have cable at home, she would watch gads of them during our annual beach trip to Ocean Isle Beach, NC. I have a very clear memory of watching movies with my mom one particular rainy day when the movie Bedtime for Bonzo began. Suddenly I sat up straight. “Mom, who is that man?” And I’ll never forget her calm voice saying the words Ronald Reagan, our president. Worlds were shifting together, colliding. “But…but…,” I choked, “he’s so…handsome!” The point is this, people: there was a time, decades ago, when Ronald Reagan was the not merely the grandfatherly gent in the White House. There was a time when he was a pretty hot Hollywood actor and it totally Blew My Mind.

Now that I’m a bit older I have to admit that it’s still hard to wrap my mind around that concept but after Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sonny Bono, and Jesse Ventura all were voted into public office, the idea that Ronald Reagan, B-movie extraordinaire, became the head of our country is not as fantastical as it once seemed. Ah well. God Bless the USA. On the other hand, I was fairly eaten up with curiosity. How on earth did an actor seriously become President of the United States? As I should know, we’ve had an odd myriad of men assume the presidency from its inception but Ronald Reagan is the first of his kind.

It was with a spring in my step that I headed to the library. The details of his rather remarkable presidency are distinctly hazy so it was important that I get a good bio! I really thought that I wouldn’t have any trouble finding a good comprehensive work on the life of Ronald Reagan but when I was faced with the selection before me, I knew that I had been mistaken. Most of the books on Reagan’s life were entitled “Ronald Reagan and the Cold War” or “Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.” Where, oh where, was a simple tome focusing on this guy alone!?! Well I found one and it was better and more entertaining than anything else I could have selected. There before me was Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan by Edmund Morris (New York: Random House, 1999). My squeal of delight, however, was less for the actual book and more for the author who had written a truly awesome trilogy on Theodore Roosevelt (I own Theodore Rex—book #2—but for obvious reasons did not include them in the PRP)! Edmund Morris is a masterful biographer and I looked forward with nerdy delight to getting my hands (and mind) on Ronald Reagan’s whole story. Allons-y, y’all!

Ronald Wilson Reagan was born on February 6, 1911 in Tampico, IL to an alcoholic salesman of a father and a religious, actress-y mother. Almost immediately upon birth, his father nicknamed him “Dutch.” “He weighed ten pounds. Perhaps it was this amplitude of flesh, and the durchkomponierte quality of his crying, that made Jack Reagan compare him to a ‘Dutchman.’ For the next twenty-six years, the boy would be known as ‘Dutch’—and ‘Dutch’ he has remained to all who knew him in his midwestern days” (p. 14). Due to the intransient nature of his father’s work, the Reagans (Ronald also had a younger brother, Neil) would move quite a bit in the coming years. In 1915, they moved to the south side of Chicago and after that it was Galesburg, Monmouth, Tampico (again), and Dixon.

Amidst all the chaos of moving, little Ronnie continued to thrive. “He turned out to be an extraordinarily bright pupil, with perfect marks in spelling and arithmetic, scoring a 97 percent average in his final report of March 1, 1918” (p. 28). By the time, he arrived in Dixon, Reagan was a force in the schoolroom and outside it. In high school, he dated a pretty girl named Margaret Cleaver and he worked as a caddy, a surveyor, a contractor and finally, a lifeguard during the summers. His one true love, however, was football. Unfortunately, he wasn’t Gerald-Ford good at football; in fact, Reagan was routinely picked for Team B but he loved it unrequitedly nonetheless.

In 1928, Reagan was admitted to Eureka College in Eureka, IL. “For the rest of his life he [Reagan] would insist there was no lovelier college in the United States, and even after he let the silks of Notre Dame and Oxford fall on his shoulders, he made plain that the only degree he ever cared for was his B.A., Eureka 1932” (p. 66). While at Eureka, Reagan was something of a BMOC, if you know what I mean. He majored in sociology with a minor in economics and he participated in the school paper, the dramatic society, Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity and he was president of the senior class. He also was blessed with a phenomenal photographic memory.

After graduating, Reagan tried getting a job in radio and was hired by WOC Davenport as a sportscaster. He moved to Iowa and by 1933 he working for WHO Des Moines where his voice went national. “Here, over the next three years, he mastered the essentials of radio announcing, with the exception of sight-reading, a process that bother him well into middle age. The natural equipment of a sportscaster he already had: lucidity, enthusiasm, an eye for visual detail, and a mouth that moved as fast as his mind” (p. 117). He got a big break in the summers of 1936 and 1937 when he was sent to Santa Catalina, CA to cover spring training. It was here, in Southern Cal, that he began to dream about being in movies. In fact during his second trip, he even made an audition video and worked with an agent which led to Warner Brothers hiring him on April 2, 1937.

Reagan packed up his meager belongings, put them in his little car, and drove to his new home, Los Angeles. It took him several days to familiarize himself with the Warner Bros way of life. “The giant studio lay like a compressed and teeming city on the far side of the Los Angeles River, geographically separated from Hollywood. In practical fact, it was a city, walled and gated. It had its own police department and fire company and power plant and hospital and school, not to mention four cinemas, thirty miles of streets, a working railroad, and a rather dusty-looking quay, whence a seventeenth-century galleon seemed about to sail for San Bernardino” (p. 134). After sitting around for a bit, Reagan got his first acting job on the movie, Love is On the Air, where he met a young newly-remarried Jane Wyman. He joined the Screen Actors Guild.

On January 26, 1940, Reagan married the newly-divorced Jane Wyman and immediately began the prime of his acting career with his role in Knute Rockne: All American. Unfortunately, at this stage of the game, World War II began and movies, such as they were, needed to change with the changing times. Since he was legally blind, Reagan was never to see active duty but he was made a colonel, then a captain, with a special unit at Warner Bros that made war movies. By 1943, Reagan was a top box office star.

By 1945-46, the years of the Hollywood strikes, things were looking grimmer for our boy. He contracted acute viral pneumonia and almost died while, at the same time, his premature daughter did not live. Reagan was looking noticeably older after all this and his stock as a leading man declined. In the ultimate irony, Jane, also looking older, saw her stock as an actress rise when she won a Best Actress Oscar for Johnny Belinda (1948). It was sad but things had gone rather cold for Ronald and Jane and in 1948, Jane divorced him.

Meanwhile, Reagan had become president of SAG in 1947 and was even made to testify at the House UnAmerican Committee’s hearings in October of that year. (This was before the hearings went very mean.) He was also made Chairman of the Motion Picture Industry Council (MPIC) and even continued to star in some limp flicks, such as A Hasty Heart with Patricia Neale. It was also around this time that Reagan began to notice a young actress named Nancy Davis.

Reagan left SAG in 1951 and then married Nancy on March 4, 1952. They retired to their newly-purchased ranch, Yearling Row, where they bred and raced horses. However, they needed money. Reagan was used to earning a steady income from the movies but that had all but dried up (In 1957, he and Nancy would star in their only picture together Hellcats of the Navy) so he hired himself out to General Electric as a corporate spokesman. For years, Reagan travelled around the country, meeting GE employees and giving speeches on the glories of electricity and technology. Also he appeared regularly on “GE Theater,” a weekly television show.

All this speechifying gave Reagan a hankering for political life. In fact, the GE speeches at this time held a marked resemblance to a great many political speeches; so much so that Reagan was eventually let go by the CEO of GE. Also Reagan went through a personal political shift at this point. He had grown up Democrat and had greatly admired FDR and the New Deal (not to mention, most people working in movies were Democrat as well.) However, as he grew older, he became increasingly unhappy with the Democratic ideal of Big Government so beginning in 1960 and continuing on, he threw his support behind the Republican candidates of the time. He campaigned for Richard Nixon for Governor in 1960 and then for Barry Goldwater for president in 1964. It was due to the Goldwater campaign that a large segment of the population began to see Ronald Reagan as something more than just your average movie star—he had a real knack for propounding political prose in a familiar and easily-understood manner. “The brilliance of his performance [an emergency television address], beamed nationwide on October 27, transformed him overnight into a serious contender for the governorship of California” (p. 329). It didn’t hurt either that a small group of Republican millionaires asked to fund any future political effort on behalf of Ronald Reagan.

Reagan’s backers convinced him to write a political autobiography during his own 1966 campaign for the governorship of California. The product was entitled Where’s the Rest of Me? and despite its odd title, it helped propel Reagan to victory on November 8. Next move: Sacramento. Reagan had hitherto held very few executive positions so it makes perfect sense that “Dutch’s first remark to his senior staff, when the joined him to take up state business on January 5, has become legendary: ‘What do we do now?’” (p. 347).

During this term in office, he put down a particularly-vicious student strike at Berkeley and he signed a controversial abortion bill into law. He easily won reelection in 1970 where he spent most of his time battling welfare and working with Nixon. Actually Nixon liked Reagan so much that he sent him, as the special envoy to Taiwan in 1971, to try to explain to the Taiwanese (our allies) that the United States was going to change policy and become friends with the Chinese communists on the mainland instead. Reagan complied and even returned to the US in time to campaign heavily for Nixon in ’72. “Reagan emerged as a potent campaigner for Nixon and Spiro Agnew in the West and Southwest…Nixon appreciatively asked Reagan to undertake another roving embassy, this time to Europe in July, and afterward to serve as chairman pro tem of the Republican National Convention” (p. 379).

Reagan decided not to run for a third term as governor in order to run for president of the United States. In 1975, he announced his candidacy and began campaigning in the primaries against Gerald Ford. Ford won the Republican nomination and so Reagan “retired” to his new ranch, Rancho del Cielo in Malibu, CA (helped paid for by the ‘backers’).

Carter beat Ford in the next election and created a situation ideal for Republican candidates in 1980. Economic, political and international problems simply abounded during the Carter presidency and it allowed a growing conservative majority to finally nominate Ronald Reagan to confront Big Government. “From that moment on, as the hostage crisis worsened, there was an inevitability to Reagan’s forward motion. The liberal press, incredulous that a man so old, so Western, so quaintly sure of himself could sweep this far, cited poll after poll to show that President Carter would hold him back” (p. 408-9). Unfortunately, Carter was unable to solve the hostage crisis in time for the election and so Ronald Reagan won the 1980 election in a landslide. Next move: Washington, DC.

On March 30, 1981, only months after assuming office, Reagan was caught in a spray of bullets in an attempted assassination. He had been leaving the Washington Hilton after giving a speech when John Hinckley (to impress Jody Foster) began firing while several men around Reagan were hit. One bullet lodged itself near Reagan’s heart as he was thrown into his limo. It says something for medical technology that Reagan was able to walk out of the hospital just eleven days later. (See James Garfield for more information on this topic).

Afterwards, and back in the presidential saddle, Reagan thought up the idea of the “Program for Economic Recovery” which included trickle-down economics. “And so he committed the American economy to eight years of self-compounding deficits, and a trillion-dollar shortfall, greater than the entire debt of the past two centuries” (p. 447). He engaged in the G7 summit between all the major democratic leaders of the world (aka Margaret Thatcher, Helmut Kohl, Canada’s PM, etc), broke the air controllers strike, and sent ships to Libya. He signed National Security Directive 13 which “authorized a menu of nuclear-war plans for him to choose from in the event of strategic attack” (p. 453). There were also American soldiers, under the Multinational Force (MNF), dying in a war in Lebanon (241 died total). And there was the American invasion of Grenada, a small British-affiliated island in the Caribbean. Grenada was flirting with the Communists so several neighboring island nations begged the US to do something about it or communism might just overpower the whole area. “’Operation Urgent Fury’ was an embarrassingly clumsy success. The world’s ranking superpower, hampered by old tourists maps and incompatible radio frequencies, needed two full days to overcome the resistance of an island not much bigger than Washington, DC” (p. 504).

Reagan won the 1984 presidential election versus Walter Mondale with ease.

In 1985, Reagan, on the advice of the West German prime minister, scheduled a visit to Germany to visit an old Nazi cemetery at Bitburg. Of course, this situation enraged the Jewish community because Reagan was not also scheduled to visit a concentration camp. In the end, he went to Bergen-Belsen to quell the furor (no pun intended. Ha!) Upon his return, he found that he was suffering from colon cancer and so he went under the knife for prostrate surgery.

Also internationally, it was leaked that the hitherto-indomitable USSR was in a fix. Occupying Afghanistan was draining their treasury while decades-long mismanaged farming practices were leading to a severe economic crisis really, really soon. Gorbachev, the young new leader of the Soviet Union, was certainly feeling the pressure and so announced not only perestroika, or reconstruction of the whole system, but also a meeting with Reagan to be held in Iceland. The subsequent meeting did not finalize a whole bunch of stuff but many people site it as a key event in the end of the Evil Empire.

The next year was a serious one in terms of deadly incidents. There was the explosion of Challenger and the nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl in the USSR. The Libyans bombed an American disco in Berlin and, of course, we followed that up with a retaliatory strike. Reagan visited Tokyo. 1986 was also the year that saw the Iran-Contra scandal blow up.

Ooo, this was one doozy of a scandal too (and I think that I have the authority to make that remark). Reagan and, let’s be honest, all his senior advisors, were obsessed with the idea that Central America could possibly become Communist Any Minute Now. In order for Nicaragua to remain safely pro-West then, the Reagan administration, beginning in 1981, secretly funded the contras to subvert the ruling pro-Communist Sandanista government. “Initially set at twenty-million dollars, to allow Argentina to train a Honduras-based guerrilla band, this commitment had now, in 1983, escalated to twenty-six million dollars in support of an army of nearly eight thousand insurgents, including not a few nostalgic Somocistas” (p. 482). Confused yet? Just wait—you will be. Ok, add to that the fact that Americans in the Middle East kept getting kidnapped and you’re beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. So, also secretly, Reagan, in desperation, decided to trade missiles for the release of the hostages. It was only later that he found out that some of the money the US received from the missiles had magically found its way into funding the contras in Central American. “If we are to believe Donald Regan, a man of generally accepted honesty, the blood drained from the President’s face when Meese told him at 4:30pm that some of the money paid by Iran for TOW missiles had been siphoned off from Israel by Colonel North and funneled, through a Swiss bank account, to the contras” (p. 615). Classic! Let me break it down for you: missiles for hostages in Middle East + money received from Iran - missile money to support dubious anti-Communistic coup in Central America=1 effed up situation. Ha! Now you know.

In 1987, Reagan declared that AIDS was Public Health Enemy #1. Nancy Reagan was diagnosed with breast cancer, Gorbachev visited Washington DC and signed the INF Treaty and the stock market crashed. The very next year Reagan, in a reciprocal visit, went to Moscow and upon returning to the United States, handed the reins of government over to his former Vice President and the newest President of the United States, George Bush.

The Reagans retired to their ranch in Malibu and soon dedicated Reagan’s presidential library. Unfortunately, it was clear the Ronald was not well. In fact, in 1994, he was diagnosed with “degenerative cognitive dementia,” otherwise known as Alzeimer’s. It soon became so bad that he had to distance himself from public life and lived the next ten years in self-induced obscurity. He died of pneumonia in 2004.

#39 Jimmy Carter Part 2

Really Cool Stuff about Jimmy Carter
1. Jimmy was the first one in the Carter family to graduate high school. “In June 1941, Jimmy became the first person in his father’s family to receive a high school degree” (p. 10).
2. In order to become a recognizable national figure, Carter wrote and published his own autobiography. “In 1975, Carter published an autobiography entitle Why Not the Best?, which sold almost 1 million copies and helped build his grassroots support” (p. 30).
3. Jimmy was the first candidate to use his born-again Christian faith as a factor in a presidential race. “Carter was also the first presidential candidate to openly and proudly embrace his evangelical faith…Evangelical voters were also a group that, prior to Carter’s run, had tended to be apolitical; now it was more likely that they would show up and vote” (p. 47).
4. During the 1976 presidential campaign, Carter also was interviewed for an article for Playboy. “It was not uncommon in this era for politicians to do interviews or even to write for Playboy, where the articles did matter, in addition to the photographs of nude women” (p. 50). Unfortunately, Jimmy said a lot of indiscriminate things, things that were eventually published, about past presidents and his Christianity (or lack thereof) that pissed a lot of people off.
5. The 1976 presidential debates between Carter and Ford were the first ones televised since the memorable 1960 election.
6. Carter won the 1976 election but only by a teensy-weensy amount. “In November, Carter won, but by one of the narrowest margins in US history…Carter received 50.1 percent of the popular vote and 297 electoral votes to Ford’s 48 percent of the popular vote and 240 electoral votes” (p. 52).
7. Billygate: While Jimmy was president, his brother, Billy, had allegedly received money from Libya but Jimmy protested that his brother was instead working through Libya to get the hostages released. “Billy, an alcoholic, inflamed the situation when he responded with anti-Semitic comments to a question about whether the scandal would influence Jewish voters. There was no smoking gun evidence of illegal wrongdoing, but ‘Billygate’ damaged and distracted Carter at a tense moment in his campaign [1980 primaries]” (p. 109).
On a separate note, my mom told me years ago about Billy Beer, a beer brewed for Billy Carter himself (and which turned out to be another embarrassment for Jimmy. ) I investigated this rumor and found it to be true! In 1977, Billy Beer hit the market. I’m not sure how good it tasted or even how long it was available, but now the cans are mostly collector’s items. PS In the Billy Beer advertising, I like how Billy states that he should know good beer because “I’ve tasted a lot.”
8. During the lame-duck period, Carter actually got a lot done legislatively. “One of his most important pieces of legislation was the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, which created the Superfund, a trust fund to be used for toxic cleanups…Carter also signed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which protected almost 56 million acres of land and rivers in Alaska. This was considered one of the biggest environmental measures in American history” (p. 126).
9. One of the reasons that Carter had such a prominent post-presidential career was due to the auspices of Ted Turner and the newly created (1980) news network, CNN. “As he reentered the public arena, one of the most important relationships for Carter was with Atlanta businessman Ted Turner, the creator of CNN cable television network…Turner liked Carter very much, and his network devoted extensive attention to the activities of the former president. CNN offered Carter an international platform to promote his ideas and maintain media attention even after his departure from Washington” (p. 131).
10. Throughout his lifetime, Carter wrote over 25 books! “Carter was also a productive author, publishing a number of books, starting with his memoirs, which he wrote without the assistance of a ghost writer and published in 1982. One of his best sellers was called Turning Point. Released in 1992, the book recounted Carter’s rise to power in Georgia politics and described how he joined a group of young southern Democrats to break the hold of the old guard Democratic establishment” (p. 143).
11. In 2002 (and right after 9/11), Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize. “The Nobel Committee was not subtle about its position, announcing that ‘In a situation currently marked by threats of the use of power, Carter has stood by the principles that conflicts must as far as possible be resolved through mediation and international cooperation based on international law, respect for human rights, and economic development’” (p. 143).
12. Out of all the American presidents, Carter had one of the most successful and active postpresidential eras ever. “He embarked on one of the most active postpresidential periods in American history” (p. 150).

I thought this biography was well-written and interesting but it’s rather clear, at least to me, that Zelizer does not quite fancy Jimmy Carter. One obvious example of this is the quotes the author includes at the beginning of most chapters. These quotes, you can tell, are meant to illustrate the coming chapter through the words of people in the know but, in this instance, the quotes were slightly derogatory regarding Jimmy Carter. For example, here is a quote from Ronald Reagan that sets up Chapter 7, “A recession is when your neighbor loses his job, and a depression is when you lose your job, and a recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his” (p. 111). Overall, the book was well-balanced but I especially liked the way the author began the book. Instead of starting at page 1 of Jimmy’s life, Zelizer has Chapter 1 summarizing Jimmy’s presidency and the problems inherent therein while Chapter 2 does a kind of flashback-type thing to introduce us to Jimmy’s antecedents and then rising political career.

When reading about the American presidents, it’s hard not to notice all the intricate twists and turns that our political parties have taken since their inception around 1796. Sometimes I’ve detailed the changes that take place, like the Know Nothing Party of the 1840s and 50s, but most of the time I haven’t due the lack of space or time (or it’s really, really boring), like the Democratic realignment of the FDR era. During Jimmy Carter’s lifetime, a pretty significant political change occurred that affected (and still affects) the Democratic presidential nominating system and it is one of the reasons that Carter, a relative nobody, was nominated in the first place. It was due to the pandemonium of the 1968 Democratic convention when most Democrats realized that something needed to change about the current system. Thus, “Primaries and caucuses were declared to be the sole mechanism through which presidential candidates were selected, and states were urged to shift to proportional voting rather than a winner-take-all system. The party also recommended that women, minorities, and young people be represented among the state’s delegates in proportion to their populations. The changes signaled the end of the all-powerful party establishment. As party leaders lost the ability to control a majority of the delegates or appoint ex officio delegates, the machine would slowly grind to a halt, opening up the political process to a wave of fresh and much more diverse players” (p. 27).

To get into the spirit of things, my friend and I recently took a field trip to the Carter Center. I figured that I’m here in Atlanta: what better way to learn about Jimmy Carter than visit this really cool place? And I really liked it. Basically in the heart of Atlanta, Carter set aside several acres of land for lush gardens and walking trails. In the midst of all that is his presidential library and museum which was also very well done. It was fun being able to take the PRP to the next level by doing some actual legwork and then of course we had to take a long nap to relax afterwards. (PS The picture at the beginning of this blog is actually a really cool painting that we saw at the Carter Center. Jimmy’s portrait is actually made up of buildings, boats, planes, etc. Look closely!)

I realize that Jimmy Carter is considered one of our worst presidents of all time but it’s rather hard to say. I do think that Carter, as a president, was less than effective but if you take his whole career into consideration, he has done some amazing things. The problems with his presidency, as I see it, were due to friction with Congress (a Democratic Congress at that!), his maverick/outsider attitude to the inner workings of Washington (which alienated a lot of people), and his single-minded pursuit of foreign approbation. This last characteristic was the one that would get him into most of the trouble here in the United States with our current leaders in the so-called ‘postpresidential period.’ But, by and large, I felt that Jimmy Carter stuck true to his code (whatever that was) and as misguided as he sometimes seemed, his commitment to certain American ideals is estimable.

#39 Jimmy Carter (1924- )

“Jimmy Carter was an exceptionally smart man. He could also be very engaging; few failed to be dazzled by his memorably wide smile. And, at least early on, he sometimes demonstrated a real sense of what many Americans wanted, whether that was the desire for an antiestablishment politics or the need for a new moral framework, such as human rights, for debating foreign policy” (Zelizer, p.4).

Yay! We’re emerging from the dark ages and into what I like to call ‘modern times.’ Why would I place Jimmy Carter’s presidency in the ‘modern times’ category? Well, silly, it’s because I…yes, I (Vanya Elise Starr) was born during this blessed time (and if you think I’m anything but modern, well then, I will cut you. Ha!) Whether Carter’s administration was any good or not remains to be seen but the fact that my presence graced the scene…well…it speaks very highly for him. Hahaha. I know this particular blog is about Jimmy Carter and his impact on the American landscape but I’m just going to warn you that you’re probably going to hear more about me as well. (PS Every single time I even think about Jimmy Carter, I start singing the song “Jimmy” from the musical Thoroughly Modern Millie. Argh!)

Also, let’s not forget that Jimmy Carter was (is?) from Georgia, my very own adopted state. I mean, it’s weird how many coincidences there are between us but somehow I’m convinced that this is where they all end. Sigh. To become more personally acquainted with this man, I hied myself off to ye olde local biblioteca and checked out Jimmy Carter: American Presidents Series by Julian Zelizer (New York: Times Books, 2010). From his bio, it looks like Julian (the author) is more than qualified to treat the subject of Jimmy Carter. His books include Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security—From World War II to the War on Terrorism, On Capitol Hill: The Struggle to Reform Congress and its Consequences, 1948-2000, and Taxing America: Wilbur D. Mills, Congress and the State, 1945-1975, not to mention he’s edited and co-edited countless other works. (Am I a dork or what: when I saw his list of books I was like ‘Ooo interesting!?’)

Little James Earl Carter Jr was born to proud parents, James and Bessie, on October 1, 1924 in Plains, GA. Only a few years later, the Carters moved out of Plains to nearby Archery and there established a huge farm (Growing what? You guessed it! Peanuts…aka Death.), warehouse and grocery store. Jimmy grew up helping out on the farm and doing chores around the house. “One of his favorite things to do outdoors was to sit with his father in the evenings, listening to boxing matches, baseball games, and political conventions on battery-operated radio; there was no electricity in their home before the late 1930s” (p. 8). His father was a very strict man with definite rules and strictly kept all his children (Gloria and Ruth would follow Jimmy) in line. “Some observers blamed his father’s tough demeanor for instilling two traits in Jimmy: his propensity to exaggerate accomplishments, which they said came from a desire to please his father, and his ability to smile in almost any situation, which he used to mask anger toward his dad” (p. 8).

Luckily, the Great Depression did not hit the Carters too hard and Jimmy was able to progress through school and work at a normal pace. In June 1941, he graduated high school and then spent one year at Georgia Tech before he could officially be accepted to the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. “The first few years at the academy were grueling. His physical limitations—he stood at 5 feet 9, weighing about 121 pounds—made training especially difficult” (p. 10).

One month after graduating college, Jimmy married a girl he had known since childhood—Rosalynn Smith. They moved immediately to Norfolk, Virginia in the summer of 1946 because Jimmy, with his background in engineering, was scheduled to work aboard the USS Wyoming in a submarine training program. After that, the Carters moved locations at a pretty regular pace. In March 1949, they were in Pearl Harbor aboard the USS Pomfret and after that they were onto Groton, Connecticut. He was stationed in San Diego during the Korean War and they then found themselves in Washington DC, then in New York. “All of these years as an engineer helped to shape Carter’s approach to tackling issues. He developed a technical and managerial, as well as nonideological, mind-set to problem solving that would inform him throughout his career” (p. 12).

In 1953, Jimmy’s father died from pancreatic cancer and so Jimmy quit the Navy to move back to Plains to help keep up the farm and the other Carter family interests. While there, the farm prospered and the Carters were well known in the vicinity, especially when Jimmy aided desegregation in the community. Because he made such a name for himself by this time, Jimmy was persuaded, in 1962, to run for a seat in the state senate. He did but ended up losing the race. However, it turned out that the reason he lost was due to corruption from the other side (his opponent had men physically rip up Carter votes and substitute his own) and when he asked for a recount, it was determined that Carter really did win. Jimmy also won re-election in ’64. In 1966, however, he decided to run for the big prize—Governor of Georgia—and lost in the primaries. He then returned to the family farm where he not only got back into the business but he also became a born-again Christian.

By 1970, Jimmy was ready to try his hand at politics once more. At this juncture, he was known more throughout the state and so this time when he ran for governor, he won! As a relative outsider to the usual political circles in Atlanta, he made a massive program for his government. “His major objective was to streamline the state government by eliminating unnecessary agencies and centralizing control under the governor…In addition, Carter introduced zero-based budgeting, which forced agencies to rewrite their budgets each year to justify annual spending” (p. 25). He also focused on corruption (since he already experienced it) and transportation issues and was a moderate when it came to race relations.

With the presidential election of 1976 on the horizon, Carter announced in December 1974 that he was going to run for president. Although he was relatively unknown on the national stage, he won the Democratic nomination due to the fact that there was a vacuum in the head Democratic ranks at the moment. During the presidential campaign against incumbent Gerald Ford, Carter stressed the fact that he was an outsider and not a part of the current mess up in Washington. He wanted to clean up the corruption in the national government like he did in Atlanta and he emphasized his background in Christianity. “Carter refused to take a strong stand on most issues, including the big foreign and domestic policy questions…His goal was to appeal ideologically to moderates and independents through a centrist agenda. Defending himself from the accusations that he avoided specific answers, Carter said, ‘I’m not an ideologue and my positions are not predictable’” (p. 47-48). Maybe it was Carter’s intransience on the major issues, but he barely squeaked by with the victory over Ford. Either way, the peanut farmer from Georgia was now the 39th President of the United States.

Immediately, Carter surrounded himself with trusted friends and associates (soon to be known as the Georgia Mafia) and he announced that he would pardon all draft dodgers of the Vietnam War. This act received mixed reviews and it didn’t help that within the first year of his presidency, Carter managed to upset Russia, the Democratic Congress, and other legislators. But that was Carter’s M.O: since he was a Washington outsider, he owed no one anything. “In fact, Carter was sometimes able to obtain what he wanted precisely because he did not feel beholden to congressional powerhouses” (p. 59). In the domestic arena, he vowed to reorganize the federal government and combat the serious energy crisis that American’s were facing while his foreign policy centered on peace in the Middle East and human rights around the globe. With this in mind, Carter created the Bureau of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs in the State Department. However, this policy received mixed reviews as well. “The administration’s focus on practical ways to gain recognition for minorities meant that it was not always consistent in how it implemented human rights policy” (p. 63)

Domestically, the United States was in a bind. Not only was there an energy crisis but there was also stagflation plaguing the country as well (high inflation, high unemployment). Carter proposed a stimulus bill that, after it went through Congress, left everyone unhappy. Carter was also hurt by a mini-scandal that involved the head of the Office of Management and Budget, Bert Lance. There were rumors that he had engaged in some illegal activities at his last job in Atlanta and that he was unfit for the position in Washington. The reason this hurt Carter was that he promised the American people that his administration would be squeaky clean and he absolutely would not give up on his friend. “Carter had promised to uphold the highest ethical standards in presidential history and said that his administration would not even give the appearance of impropriety” (p. 69). There was a huge media frenzy over the whole affair and eventually Carter, under pressure, allowed Lance to resign.

Another unpopular move on Jimmy’s part was the treaty he signed with Panama guaranteeing to turn over the Panama Canal by the year 2000. Most Americans wanted to keep control of the Canal but Carter thought it would be a smart foreign relations move, showing the Central and South American nations that the USA was no hemispherical bully. He also pushed through a Social Security amendment, visited Iran (and became very buddy-buddy with the Shah), and dealt with national health insurance issues. “National health insurance was another uphill battle in an era of changing political loyalties, rampant inflation, and growing conservative strength. It also turned out to be the issue, more than any other, that created huge fissures between Carter and congressional liberals” (p. 78). Carter also promoted an Airline Deregulation Act, which “transformed the industry by allowing for competitive fare setting, phasing out the Civil Aeronautics Board, and allowing new companies to enter the market” (p. 84).

“By the end of his second year, Carter was facing a rebellion from his own party and real pressure from his conservative opponents, who were now looking like a serious force. It was a politically dangerous combination. The economic context of his presidency—an ongoing energy crisis and stagflation—created a public mood that was increasingly disenchanted with the White House. Unfortunately for Carter, the worst was yet to come” (p. 87).

Carter went to considerable trouble to host the Camp David Accords in September 1978 in an effort to bring peace the Middle East. He mitigated the conference between the Israel and Egypt (Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin) and eventually brought about some sort of closure for the area. After then traveling to Cairo and Jerusalem to promote this peace, Carter finally got the treaty signed on March 26, 1979. While things were apparently humming right along for Israel and Egypt, events in Iran were slowly spiraling out of control. The Shah had made himself terribly unpopular with his own countrymen over the years and beginning in 1978, the Ayatollah, who had been exiled, finally succeeded in fomenting rebellion. The Shah then had to escape the country and fled to where else? The US! Actually he was a very sick old man and needed a certain surgery that only we could provide but most countries around the world were furious that we would harbor that criminal. Sentiment against the United States ran very high in Iran and that contributed to an awful situation when the rebels captured the US embassy and held over fifty diplomats and soldiers hostages.

That’s not all. On March 28, 1979, only 2 days after the euphoria over the Camp David Accords, there was a nuclear meltdown at a reactor in Pennsylvania (Three Mile Island), sparking thousands to protest. This event caused the Carter administration no end of hardships mainly because Carter wanted to solve the energy crisis with nuclear power. Then, in the spring of 1979, the US faced a major gas shortage that soon turned the country’s mood sour. “Approximately 50 percent of the gas stations in the United States did not have fuel and the stations that had fuel were charging prices that were 50 percent more than the year before. Drivers were forced to line up for gas, frequently for over an hour, on specified days” (p. 92). On December 27 of that same year, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan.

The hostage crisis, which Carter wanted to end quickly, continued to dominate the media and they highlighted the fact that Carter just didn’t seem to know what to do. There was a rescue attempt made but it backfired and the administration merely looked stupid. With the Soviets advancing in Afghanistan and problems in Iran, Carter then declared a new ‘Carter Doctrine.’ “He called for a 5 percent annual increase in defense spending and outlined a more aggressive posture in the Persian Gulf that would make the region the center of national security policy. Carter also decided that the United States would boycott the Moscow Olympics” (p. 103). Quick note: As a fanatical devotee of the Olympics (winter and summer!), I am frankly horrified by this decision. Horrified!

On top of all that, the election of 1980 rolled around, as it tends to do every four years. Carter declared that he was running again and was duly nominated by the Democratic Party. “Without question, Carter was now running as the president, not as the maverick. He surrounded himself with the glory of the White House rather than running away from it. Throughout the next two months, he marshaled all of the resources that he enjoyed in his position and tried to make the case to voters that he had the experience and skill to be commander in chief again” (p. 116). However, he then ran up against the wall that was Ronald Reagan and the new Republicans. Carter was unable to stage a brilliant rescue of the hostages in time for the election and so he ended up losing pretty much at the last minute.

“Iran might very well have made the difference, but the broader political picture told another story. Carter had run as a maverick in 1976 and he governed as one for must of his presidency, failing to secure the support of many key segments of the Democratic coalition. When faced with the twin challenges of a strong opponent, who was connected to a vibrant grassroots movement, and a series of difficult policy crises, Carter’s political standing collapsed. As Reagan’s advisers realized, by 1980 Carter was running with the thinnest possible base of support, a fact that Republicans exploited to move conservatism into the White House” (p. 128).

Carter, though a lame-duck president, could not stop trying to resolve the hostage crisis situation. In his last months he spent nearly every waking moment searching for the solution for a peaceable, speedy recovery of the Americans overseas. Soon a diplomatic channel opened and Carter was able to guarantee the release of all the hostages. On January 20, 1981(Inauguration Day),444 days later, the hostages were flown to Germany where Carter was on hand to greet them.

The Carters moved back to Plains, Georgia where Jimmy took up farming again but managed to keep his nose in the public bidness. On October 1, 1986, he opened the Carter Center as a peaceful place for politicians to meet (along the lines of Camp David). “It’s designers wanted to create a site that would serve as host to international leaders from all over the world and where opposing sides would be able to hammer out the major conflicts of the day” (p. 132). Carter became very involved with Habitat for Humanity and created the Atlanta Project. “Run through the Carter Center, the objective of the project was to strengthen impoverished communities and foster working alliances between government and community organizations” (p. 143).

In 1989, President H. W. Bush asked Carter to monitor elections in Panama for signs of corruption. Carter was shocked by the disgraceful tactics of the Sandinistas and publicly proclaimed that the elections should be considered void. “The speech generated international praise for Carter and gave him credibility around the world” (p. 134). He did the same thing (election watch!) in Nicaragua in 1990.

Unfortunately, Carter was still a bit of a maverick and that earned him some lifelong enmity here in the United States. During the Iraqi war, Carter went behind Bush’s (and the US’s) back and tried to negotiate a peace settlement that was not sanctioned by our government. In 1994, Carter met with the North Koreans and pretty much did the same thing as before which severely pissed off Clinton. He was quite vocal against the war in Iraq. Carter stirred up even more controversy with all the books he wrote after leaving the White House. Since a major pet project of his was Palestinian independence, one of his books, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, stated that most of the problems in the Middle Eastern area were due to the Israelis and this position stirred up deep anti-Carter feeling in the American Jewish communities. “The controversy exemplified Carter’s postpresidential career. Carter defiantly took unpopular stands about foreign affairs, but stands that he fervently believed in, displaying almost no concern about who would dislike him as a result” (p. 144).

“Without the challenges that came with being in elected office, and with a substantial institutional base at his disposal, this ex-president has neared the end of his career as an enormously powerful figure on the international stage” (p. 146).