Book Review: President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon (1991, revised edition 2000)

 

Cover of President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, first published in 1991, this revised edition was published in 2000. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

Journalist Lou Cannon, with a photo of him and Ronald Reagan in the background.

Ronald Reagan was one of the most significant Presidents of the 20^th century. Reagan’s electoral victories of 1980 and 1984 fulfilled the Republican dream of having a true conservative in the White House. Reagan has remained enormously popular with Republicans ever since. Journalist Lou Cannon covered Reagan from the very beginning of his political career, after Reagan won the governorship of California in 1966. Cannon was well-prepared to write the definitive biography of Ronald Reagan, and it’s hard to imagine anyone topping President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime, first published in 1991 and updated in 2000. (Cannon covered Reagan’s California years in 2003’s Governor Reagan: His Rise to Power.)

Ronald Reagan the man remained an enigma to many of the people around him. Was he simple? Complex? Complexly simple? Cannon digs into Reagan’s personality in detail, and various chapters of President Reagan deal with Reagan’s humor, his intelligence, and other aspects of his personality.

The stereotype about Reagan is that he wasn’t the brightest bulb on the block. Cannon spends a good deal of time dissecting Reagan’s intelligence. He writes: “What I knew was that he understood all manner of things that suggested powers of analysis without possessing any visible analytic ability.” (p.111) What finally made things click for Cannon was psychologist Howard Gardner’s work on multiple intelligences. Briefly, Gardner suggested that rather than using an IQ test as a measure of intelligence, there are many different types of intelligence. Gardner’s work hasn’t always been well-received by the psychological community, but I think there’s something to it. Gardner told Cannon that Reagan ranked high in interpersonal intelligence, but low in logical-mathematical intelligence. Gardner emphasized Reagan’s reliance on stories and anecdotes as a prism through which he viewed the world. Gardner’s analysis makes sense—Reagan was superb at charming people and being well-liked. Seemingly everyone who ever met Ronald Reagan has good things to say about him personally. Reagan was good with people, but he was not the smartest person in the room, the way that Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are. I’d put George W. Bush in the same category as Reagan—not a genius by any means, but skillful at personal relationships. I think both Bush and Reagan were much smarter than the media made them out to be.

In my readings about Reagan, he strikes me as an odd mix of intuitive intelligence and a shocking lack of curiosity. During a 1983 summit, Chief of Staff James Baker asked Reagan why he hadn’t opened his briefing book. Reagan’s answer? “Well, Jim, The Sound of Music was on last night.” (p.37) Well, we always knew he was a fan of the movies.

Ultimately, Reagan found it hard to separate fact from fiction. He was fond of telling a story about a World War II pilot sacrificing himself to stay with his wounded machine gunner as the crippled craft nose dived towards the ground. But was the story true? Nope. Reagan said the pilot was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. A reporter went through all 434 Medal of Honor winners from World War II and couldn’t find any that matched Reagan’s story. That’s because Reagan’s story came from Reader’s Digest. (p.38-39)

Reagan also stretched the truth when he made it sound as though he had filmed Nazi death camps as Europe was liberated at the end of World War II. Reagan in fact did no such thing. He never left the United States during World War II. Reagan served in the First Motion Picture Unit of the Army Air Corps and helped make propaganda films for the military. Important work perhaps, but not the same as filming Nazi death camps. Even more bizarrely, Reagan made these to claims to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and renowned Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal. (p.428-431) Reagan also claimed that he had saved a copy of the death camp film for himself and then showed it to people when they doubted the truth of the Holocaust.

The larger point about Reagan’s stretching of the truth with these stories is that he had a sometimes tenuous grasp on reality, and he was seemingly able to convince himself of just about anything. Consider, for example, Reagan’s infamous statement about Iran-contra: “A few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that’s true, but the facts and the evidence tell me that it’s not.” (p.580) It doesn’t really matter what your heart tells you if the facts and the evidence don’t match it.

I’d be fascinated to know what conservatives think of Cannon’s book, since it seems to me a thorough debunking of the myth of Reagan’s greatness. Ultimately, Reagan comes across as an extremely poor manager of people, despite his formidable charm and charisma. Could Reagan give great speeches? Sure, absolutely! The ceremonial aspect of the Presidency was one that Reagan whole-heartedly embraced and thrived in. (He was an actor, after all.) But the actual nuts and bolts of governance? That was much harder for Reagan.

As Cannon writes, “The limits of Reagan’s management style became more fully evident in the second term, when his detachment encouraged Chief of Staff Donald Regan to function as a surrogate president and the National Security Council staff to serve as a secret government.” (p.150)

Much of the second half of President Reagan is about the Iran-Contra scandal, in which NSC staff, with Reagan’s approval, secretly traded arms to Iran, hopeful that American hostages would then be released. Long story short, it proved to be a disaster. Some hostages were released, but then other Americans were captured. Supposedly the NSC staff were dealing with “Iranian moderates,” who would then hopefully become our friends. That didn’t happen. The profits from the arms for hostages deals were then used to fund the Contra rebels fighting the socialist government in Nicaragua. Needless to say, when all of this became public knowledge, it created a huge scandal and tarnished Reagan’s image.

Iran-Contra also highlighted Reagan’s weaknesses as a manager of his staff. Cannon writes: “On balance, Reagan was a strong man, but an extraordinarily weak manager. He restored public confidence in the presidency without mastering the difficult art of wielding presidential power.” (p.296) I agree with Cannon—by being so passive, Reagan surrendered a lot of power to his advisers for no good reason. Reagan was rarely decisive in his actions, and he rarely put forth his own initiatives or policy ideas.

Throughout Reagan’s presidency, his cabinet was sharply divided between Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and Secretary of State George Shultz, who were usually on opposite sides of issues. (George Shultz just celebrated his 100^th birthday on December 13^th, and he marked the occasion by publishing an Op-Ed in The Washington Post titled “The 10 Most Important Things I’ve Learned About Trust Over My 100 Years.”) Reagan tried to play conciliator in the disagreements between Weinberger and Shultz and take a middle path, but that just made things worse. At some point, Reagan simply should have chosen either Weinberger or Shultz and had the other man resign. (If it were up to me, I would have kept Shultz.) Weinberger and Shultz both opposed the arms for hostages trades with Iran that Reagan approved, but they were cut out of the decision-making process early on because of their opposition, and because of their mutual antagonism, they were unable to unify and work together to stop a foolish plan before it was implemented.

I think what will ultimately be seen as Ronald Reagan’s greatest accomplishment is the peaceful conclusion of the Cold War, and the INF Treaty of 1987, which eliminated an entire class of nuclear weapons. Despite his image in the popular media as a warmonger, Reagan was a peacenik when it came to nuclear weapons, and he long advocated for the elimination of all nuclear weapons. Reagan’s meetings with Mikhail Gorbachev are always fascinating to read about. Gorbachev was willing to deal with the West, in part because sky-high defense spending was bleeding the Soviet economy dry. Reagan and Gorbachev came agonizingly close to agreeing to eliminate all nuclear weapons during their 1986 summit at Reykjavik. I’ve always thought of the Reykjavik Summit as an agonizing failure, in part because of Reagan’s stubborn insistence that he wouldn’t scrap the SDI missile defense system. But if the United States and the Soviet Union had agreed to eliminate their nuclear weapons, what would the other nuclear powers have done? Would the other nuclear powers have agreed to eliminate their nuclear weapons as well? Ultimately, Reykjavik paved the way for the INF Treaty, an important step in the lessening of tensions in the Cold War.

George Shultz was a vital part of the negotiations for the INF Treaty, and in his Wall Street Journal op-ed, he reveals that he earned the trust of Soviet leaders when he saluted the fallen Russian soldiers of World War II at a wreath-laying ceremony in Stalingrad in 1973. Another important figure in the INF Treaty was Colin Powell, who was then National Security Advisor. In my review of The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan, I found it fascinating that Reagan was focused on when he should give Gorbachev a pair of cuff links. Powell kept trying to return the subject to Soviet missiles, but Reagan was stubbornly focused on the cuff links. Was this a sign that Reagan was mentally slipping? Or an indication of his interpersonal intelligence, that he knew the personal relationship he had with Gorbachev was as important as the weighty matters they were discussing? Thanks to Cannon’s book, I now know that the cufflinks were ultimately unimportant. Gorbachev did not seem impressed by them, perhaps because, as Colin Powell told Cannon, “I had been trying to tell Reagan that the Russians don’t wear French cuffs.” (p.696) All that time spent worrying about the cuff links for nothing!

Ronald Reagan was an interesting man, and although I disagree with most of his policies, I have no doubt that if I had met him in person I would have been charmed by his charisma. I’d be able to bring up that I went to Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, where Reagan lived for a year or so during his childhood. No doubt that would have set him off on a series of stories about growing up in Illinois. President Reagan is the definitive book on Ronald Reagan’s presidency, although I’m sure it will not be the final word, as writers continue to analyze his place in history.

Robyn Hitchcock and Emma Swift: "Sweet Home Quarantine" Week 16: the 1980's, Part 2

Robyn Hitchcock and Emma Swift singing "Addicted to Love," July 10, 2020.

On Wednesday, July 8^th, Robyn Hitchcock and Emma Swift performed week 16 of their Stageit concert series, “Sweet Home Quarantine.” The theme this week was the 1980’s, part two. Robyn and Emma performed a great 80’s show in June, which I wrote about here. Wednesday’s show was another fun look at the decade, although it didn’t quite match the heights of the first 80’s show.

Robyn opened the show with a great Roxy Music song, “Take a Chance With Me,” from their last album, 1982’s Avalon. Robyn captured the elegant central riff of the song perfectly, a testament to his skill as a guitarist. I always love hearing Robyn sing Roxy Music/Bryan Ferry songs, and I’m hoping some week he’ll do a show of just those songs. He’s already done three of the eight non-instrumental songs from Avalon.

Robyn sang Simple Minds’ big hit “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” a song that was originally offered to Bryan Ferry, who turned it down. Robyn pulled out the harmonica for this tune, and according to the comments of other viewers, he had attempted to play the harmonica once before on a Stageit show and just about blew out the sound system. (I didn’t see that show.) But last week it sounded fine, although once Emma appeared, she made Hitcho ditch the harp rack very quickly.

Emma joined Robyn for a lovely version of John Lennon’s wistful “Watching the Wheels,” from Double Fantasy. It’s always a treat hearing Robyn sing John Lennon. Next up was a spirited version of Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love,” which Robyn and Emma changed at the very end to “Addicted to Tubs,” in honor of their cat Tubby.

REM’s “King of Birds” was a solo from Robyn, with superb guitar playing. Emma then got her solo on Echo and the Bunnymen’s “The Killing Moon.” As usual, Emma’s vocals were amazing. She was reading the lyrics off her phone, and still nailing it. Emma also debuted her guitar playing on “Sweet Home Quarantine” on a version of “Wide Open Road” by the Australian group the Triffids. It’s a lovely song that I hadn’t heard before.

Robyn sang solo on “All that Money Wants,” a Psychedelic Furs song. Emma returned to join Robyn for a lovely version of Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’” a great example of how a much-overplayed song can benefit from a stripped-down arrangement. Emma had a great solo on “Don’t Dream It’s Over,” by Crowded House, one of those songs where I go, “No, I don’t know that song. Oh, THAT song!”

The last song of the night was a brief version of the Human League’s 1981 hit, “Don’t You Want Me.” Robyn sang the first verse in a very low voice, and Emma joined him for the chorus. That prompted me to watch the music video of Human League’s version of the song.

On Friday, Robyn and Emma did their version of “Sweet Home Quarantine” for the European audience. I tuned into this show as well, because the video teaser was Robyn singing Nick Lowe’s “All Men Are Liars.” It was similar to Wednesday’s show. One difference was that Robyn played Telecaster on “Take a Chance With Me” on Friday, whereas he had played it on acoustic on Wednesday. Robyn’s vocals on “Addicted to Love” were even more animated than on Wednesday, which had Emma laughing and saying to Robyn “I love how much you love this!” New additions to the setlist on Friday were Emma singing the Cure’s “Friday I’m In Love,” which people were quick to point out was released in 1992. Still, it was a great version. Robyn wore his top hat for “Free Fallin’” in homage to Tom Petty. Robyn sang “All Men Are Liars” solo and told a story about how he met Nick for the first time in 1977 when the Soft Boys opened for Elvis Costello. I’d love to see a trans-Atlantic Robyn and Nick Stageit show. “Don’t You Want Me” was reworked with Emma singing part of “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac as her verse of the song, which worked nicely. Robyn also did a little Lou Reed impression at the beginning of “Don’t You Want Me” which was fun to hear.

Book Review: Reagan: The Life, by H.W. Brands (2015)

Paperback cover of Reagan: The Life, by H.W. Brands, 2015.

Historian and author H.W. Brands.

Deified by conservatives and demonized by liberals, Ronald Reagan was one of the most significant presidents of the 20^th century. H.W. Brands’ 2015 biography Reagan: The Life is a cradle to grave examination of Ronald Reagan’s extraordinary life. 

Most of Brands’ book focuses on Reagan’s eight years in the White House, but he does a good job of outlining Reagan’s unlikely path to the presidency. Reagan started out as a radio announcer, and then became a film actor. In 1953, as Reagan’s career in the movies was tapering off, he accepted a job on television as the host of General Electric Theater. Reagan also became a spokesman for GE, and at the end of nine years, he estimated that he had toured 135 GE plants and spoken in front of 250,000 people. Reagan’s time at GE proved to be the perfect training ground for his next career move. 

Originally a New Deal Democrat, Reagan had gradually moved to the right politically during the 1950’s and early 60’s. In 1964, Reagan gave a televised, 30-minute speech in support of conservative Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater. Titled “A Time for Choosing,” the speech did little to aid Goldwater’s hopeless campaign, but it boosted Reagan’s standing considerably. For the first time, people began to talk about the 53-year-old Ronald Reagan as a possible political candidate. Reagan was elected Governor of California in 1966, and re-elected in 1970. Ten years later, he won the presidency.

Reagan was “an intuitive student of history and politics rather than an analytical one.” (p.424) Long policy discussions were not Reagan’s forte. Reagan dealt in the factual rather than the theoretical. Brands compares Reagan to FDR, and makes the point that they were not strict ideologues. They both had strong ideological beliefs, but both men were willing to be pragmatic and compromise when they had to. Reagan wasn’t quiet about his admiration for FDR, saying in 1989, “Franklin Roosevelt was the first president I ever voted for, the first to serve in my lifetime that I regarded as a hero.” (p.706) 

Reagan’s leadership style was laid-back in the extreme. Since he was a big-picture visionary and not a detail person, he was more than happy to cede the management of those details to his staff. While that can work fine if you’re delegating tasks to, say, Secretary of State George Shultz, trouble might ensue if you’re delegating things to people like National Security Advisors Bud McFarlane and John Poindexter, two of the major figures in the Iran-contra scandal. 

Reagan had a fascinating personality for someone who became President. Non-confrontational in the extreme, Reagan was carried through life to a large degree by his considerable charm and charisma. Brands explained some of Reagan’s appeal, writing: “People could disagree with Reagan, but rarely did they find him disagreeable.” (p.209) I think people are sometimes tempted to read more into Reagan’s personality than was really there. You might think there must have been some hidden depths to this man who seemed so nice and positive and so untroubled by life. But I’m not sure there were any turbulent waters in the psyche of Ronald Reagan. Donald Regan, Secretary of the Treasury and later Chief of Staff for Reagan, wrote of his boss: “Never—absolutely never in my experience—did President Reagan really lose his temper or utter a rude or unkind word. Never did he issue a direct order, although I, at least, sometimes devoutly wished that he would.” (p.487) Unlike politicians who constantly curse, in the diary that Reagan kept during his Presidency, he wrote dashes in swear words, so hell and damn become “h—l” and “d—n.” (p.564) I can’t imagine Richard Nixon doing that.

A key to Reagan’s appeal was his relentless optimism. As Brands writes: “Reagan focused on the positive parts of any experience, convinced they held the key to its meaning. This habit constituted one of his great personal strengths, making him almost unsinkable emotionally. It was also central to his political success. Pessimism pervades the thinking of conservatives, who tend to believe the world is going to hell in a handbasket. They might be right, but they aren’t fun to be around.” (p.630) 

For me, one of the highlights of the book was Brands’ recounting of the October 1986 Reykjavik Summit, where Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev almost agreed to the elimination of all nuclear weapons. The two leaders came heartbreakingly close to an agreement, but Reagan’s refusal to agree to any limitations on the Strategic Defense Initiative, commonly known in the media as “Star Wars,” scotched the deal. However, the talks at Reykjavik led to the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, one of the highlights of Reagan’s foreign policy. 

Brands is a sympathetic biographer of Reagan, and there are times when he gives Reagan perhaps more of the benefit of the doubt than he deserves. Brands doesn’t dwell on the parts of Iran-contra that Reagan didn’t play a part in—like Oliver North shredding documents. And Brands isn’t critical of Reagan’s light schedule as president, never mentioning that Reagan spent 345 days of his presidency at his California ranch, Rancho del Cielo. (President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, p.465)

Unless you’re a detailed student of history, most presidents are reduced in the collective memory to a few sound bites. John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan have a few more sound bites in the collective memory than most other presidents. Kennedy and Reagan don’t have the longest list of legislative accomplishments from their terms in office. However, both these men have inspired countless people, in large part because they were such excellent public speakers. As Brands writes, “Reagan communicated effectively not least because he gave essentially the same speech again and again. The particulars and the anecdotes varied, but the message never did.” (p.734) That might be Ronald Reagan’s ultimate gift: that he made people feel good about America again.