Thursday, February 5, 2009

Tomorrow, February 6, 2009, Newt Gingrich will "premiere" a DVD commemorating President Ronald Reagan. While this post percolated in the "I'll get a round TUIT'" section of my organic CPU for some time, the imminence of the DVD pushed the project to the front of the queue. To begin, please take a moment to reflect on the following:


Typically, at the change of Presidents, leading historians and political scientists rank every President from George Washington through the departing incumbent. Should the experts vote in 2052, which Presidents will they rate as the top three of the twentieth century?


Your correspondent created the challenge, or puzzle, after many years of listening to people bash President Reagan. Trying to defend President Reagan directly generally proved fruitless; however, giving them a challenge to consider normally moved them from stridency to reflection—perhaps a "Reagan-free reflection." A somewhat reasoned discussion, though certainly not always agreement, typically followed.


Among all of the responses to "the challenge," one stands out. Although your correspondent would not recognize her today, one woman burned her response vividly into my memory. Upon hearing the challenge, she thought a moment, and then followed:


"Franklin Roosevelt, I suppose . . .” , . Then, with an increasingly strident and frustrated tone, "You don't mean Reagan do you!"


Your correspondent diplomatically avoided the terms “checkmate" and "touché." Still, she had quickly reached to the core of the argument. History grades presidents on their accomplishments, not on charisma, looks, or speaking style. Here then, are the top three presidents of the Twentieth Century, the same today as years ago:


1. Franklin Roosevelt (apologies to my fellow Republicans)


2. Ronald Reagan


3. A two and a half way “toss up” among:


a. Teddy Roosevelt


b. Harry Truman


c Dwight Eisenhower - Ike had the "misfortune" of presiding over a period of relative peace and prosperity; this has tended to mask the significance of his accomplishments.


By now, the question burning—perhaps searing—in the hearts of some readers is, "How did Ronald Reagan rank so high/low on this list?" Here, in "sort of" priority order, are some of the accomplishments that earned Ronald Reagan a place in history that many of his peers will and would envy:


<!--[if !supportLists]-->1. <!--[endif]-->Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!


While far from Reagan's greatest accomplishment, someone defending Ronald Reagan does well to start here. Citing this one act blunts the most common Ronald Reagan myths: the myth of Reagan the front man, the puppet; the man reciting the lines fed to him by “his handlers”—those "real powers," and brains, in his Administration who really got everything done. The story of that most famous line in his most famous speech obliterates those ill-informed claims.


The man who wrote the speech included the line in his first draft after a visit to Berlin. Those “puppeteers” and “tune callers” repeatedly deleted the line from the speech over the following months. Each time, Ronald Reagan put the line back in. While flying to Berlin on Air Force One, the President was still receiving messages and Faxes begging him to take that "inflammatory remark" out of the speech. If Reagan were only a puppet or a toady, the world would never have heard those now universally recognizable words.


<!--[if !supportLists]-->2. <!--[endif]-->Won the Cold War


Despite the claims of Mikhail Gorbachev and hoards of others to the contrary, polices implemented by Ronald Reagan ultimately buried the System that so confidently planned to bury us. Many specifics that follow will buttress this claim; so only two need appear here: ramping up the arms race; supporting the Afghan resistance. These two much maligned polices went far to bankrupt the Soviet Union and end the Cold War.


<!--[if !supportLists]-->3. <!--[endif]-->Regained strategic nuclear supremacy conceded by Carter


While "conceded” in this context could have several meanings, we will focus on the more important one. During the only Presidential debate of 1980, President Jimmy Carter acknowledged the Soviet lead; although he did not mention that he had lost it. President Carter probably felt quite smug after asking:


"Governor Reagan, what do you suppose would be the response of the Politburo if Secretary Brezhnev told them he planned to concede nuclear supremacy [back] to the United States?"


As in so many cases, President Carter apparently failed to consider the implications of his little coup. The answer in the end was of course, "Go broke trying to keep up."


<!--[if !supportLists]-->4. <!--[endif]-->Regained, or extended, supremacy in conventional arms


Reagan took office at the lowest point of American power, relative to our adversaries, since about 1942. The world viewed Communism as the wave of the future, and America as beginning her inevitable decline. Ronald Reagan left America with a restored and peerless military; the Navy was the strongest we have ever had. No one believed that the Soviets could cavalierly threaten Western Europe, Asia or anyone outside of Eastern Europe.


<!--[if !supportLists]-->5. <!--[endif]-->START talks


Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon began the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) in the late 1960s. These were an effort to reduce the rate of increase in the deployment of nuclear weapons and delivery vehicles. While SALT may have slowed the rate of increase somewhat, nuclear weapons continued to increase in number. Ronald Regan had a different vision—perhaps more accurately he had a vision. START stands for Strategic Arms Reduction Talks.


During the 1980 Campaign, when Ronald Reagan proposed START, few believed he was serious, much less that he could pull it off. In rather unkind and cynical terms, some of Candidate Reagan’s detractors said START was just campaign rhetoric; that he had no intention to pursue the idea beyond Election Day. Your correspondent considered START a good, but probably doomed, idea. Fortunately, one “amateur” believed the idea was achievable; when he left office in 1989, the world the super powers had far fewer nuclear weapons aimed at each other than when that same “amateur” took office in 1981. Moreover, START not only survived his return to California, much of it remains in force at this writing.


<!--[if !supportLists]-->6. <!--[endif]-->INF Treaty


INF stands for “Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces.” In many ways, the INF Treaty highlights the most effective way to negotiate with a bully. In the mid-1970s, the Soviet Union began deploying what became 300 SS20 “Intermediate-Range” ballistic missiles, aimed them at the Western European NATO nations. President Carter began, and President Reagan carried through with, a plan to counter to the Soviet threat with additional ballistic missiles and cruise missiles that employed new technologically.


As negotiations dragged on, and American plans moved ahead, the Soviets pulled out all the stops to halt the NATO deployment. “Pulling out the stops” meant setting in motion what one might call their “Western European Assets”—leftists, pacifists, agents, fellow travelers and others—both on and off the Soviet payroll. In huge demonstrations, tens of thousands of people protested the U.S. Missiles. Banners, signs, and effigies of skeletons and missiles abounded. Oddly, no one seemed to protest the already deployed Soviet SS-20s. As stated above, “Assets . . . both on and off their payroll.”


Throughout the protests, and both diplomatic and domestic opposition, President Reagan and Margaret Thatcher stood resolute; eventually, leading to the treaty in Reykjavik eliminating intermediate range weapons in Europe. Many may remember watching the nightly news and seeing large explosions on TV as Soviet SS-20 and American Perishing and cruise missiles were blown up.


By standing firm in the face of intense pressure, President Reagan achieved a second deep reduction in deployed nuclear weapons: 900 Soviet warheads on 300 missiles—fewer NATO weapons because the Soviets backed off before NATO completed its deployment. Incidentally, the “Nuclear Freeze” movement emerged in the United States at this time, added its weight to the protests overseas, and eventually faded away along with the SS‑20s.


President Reagan could have gone along with advice to negotiate rather than risk provocation. That was the view of many experts, those masterminds “pulling his stings.” Had he done so, the Soviets would probably have long ago replaced aging SS-20s with updated SS-40s—incidentally, the Soviets never produced a missile that NATO named the SS-40.


Is this getting long? Consider a bookmark. Just don’t blame your correspondent; Ronald Reagan did all of this stuff; yours truly only reports it.


<!--[if !supportLists]-->7. <!--[endif]-->SDI – Star Wars


SDI—Strategic Defense Initiative—Star Wars—the final nail in the coffin of the Soviet Union. Need one say more? Only that we should hope someone finishes enough of SDI to stop incoming missiles launched from some rogue state. Dick Morris coined the term “Kamikaze Country” to describe the new threat.


<!--[if !supportLists]-->8. <!--[endif]-->From National Ennui to National Confidence and Optimism


In a rare moment of clarity and candor, Jimmy Carter characterized the mood of America at one point during his presidency as “a state of national ennui.” Paraphrased that meant a we were all “bummed out”; bummed out by Post Viet Nam Syndrome; bummed out by American decline internationally; and most of all, bummed out by the horrible state into which Jimmy Carter had plunged both the nation and the world. It is rare that a peacetime president can have as huge an impact as did Jimmy Carter; sadly, that huge effect was a nightmare.


As Carter before him, Ronald Reagan had a material effect on America and the world; and he did so during a time of relative peace. President Reagan took office with America in a state of national ennui; and he left office with America in a state of unparalleled, to then, optimism and prosperity. The 1984 Reelection Campaign used the theme, “It’s Morning Again in America”; and truly, it was.


<!--[if !supportLists]-->9. <!--[endif]-->From Stagflation to Growth and Prosperity


In his 1976 Campaign, Jimmy Carter developed the “Misery Index”: defined as the rate of inflation plus the rate of unemployment. Candidate Carter castigated President Ford, saying that he, or anyone, should be ashamed to run for reelection with a misery index above 10. In 1980, the rate of inflation was 13% (Wikipedia says 11.8%); unemployment was around 9% (Wikipedia says 7.5%); the Prime Interest Rate was 21%; Jimmy Carter did not make much of the Misery Index in 1980.


When Ronald Reagan left office, Inflation was about 6.5% and falling; the Prime Rate was around 9%, and falling; the January 1989 unemployment rate was 5.4%, well below Carter’s.


<!--[if !supportLists]-->10. <!--[endif]-->Income Tax Reform


In what one could arguably call the most important single domestic policy stroke of an American presidential pen, Ronald Reagan eliminated the profit that had accrued until then to the Federal Government from inflation. The action in question was the 1981 tax law that indexed the basic income tax tables. In addition to bringing about an end to inflation, indexing slowed, if it did not completely halt, the phenomenon known as bracket creep.


Bracket creep came about when, because of your pay rate went up to match inflation. Your increased money income put you in a higher bracket despite the fact it did not purchase any more. In 1980, I received a 16% pay increase—13.5% for the Cost of Living plus 2.5% for merit. The inflation part alone pushed me into a higher tax bracket. Thus, the money I received just to “tread water” caused my tax rate to go up and my real income to drop. Indexing fixed most of that by moving up all the numbers when the CPI went up. Lacking an incentive to cause inflation, Federal Policies changed; and since then, inflation has remained quietly lurking in the background. While more important than “Stagflation” and “National Ennui”, they came first to lay a foundation for the importance of tax indexing.


The much-maligned Tax Reform Act of 1986 further improved the tax code by reducing the number of tax rates from 24 to three and then two. The law offset revenue losses by eliminating most tax loopholes. Both of these measures increased incentives for entrepreneurs and decreased the negative affect of the tax code on the economy. Perhaps least known, the Tax Reform Act of 1986—backed by Democrat Tip O’Neil—dropped about 16 million poor families from the income tax rolls. Not a bad piece of legislation.


<!--[if !supportLists]-->11. <!--[endif]-->Leon Klinghoffer / Achille Lauro


For those who do not recall, Leon Klinghoffer was an American passenger on the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro. Palestinians hijacked the ship; and, because Klinghoffer was a Jew and an American, the hijackers murdered him. The ship then sailed into Egypt amid a hero’s welcome. Later, the “heroes” boarded an airliner for Libya, their point of origin; presumably, expecting another hero’s welcome. Moments after Egyptian airliner entered international air space, the landing, and running lights on a flight of American Navy F-14 fighters suddenly “lit up” all around the plane. The F‑14s ordered the Egyptians to follow them or be forced down. The plane landed in Italy where the terrorist murders received long prison sentences. Sadly, one, Ibrahim Fatayer Abdelatif, was released in 2008.


In his speech announcing the capture President Reagan gave a memorable warning to the terrorists, “You can run; but you cannot hide.” Few Presidents would have “the moxie” to order such a bold action; but then, Ronald Reagan was both a visionary, and bold.


<!--[if !supportLists]-->12. <!--[endif]-->Berlin Night Club Bombing Response


On April 5, 1986, terrorists bombed a discothèque in Berlin killing several Americans, including two soldiers, and injuring many more. Nine days later, after finding evidence of Libyan complicity, the United States bombed that nation in retaliation for the attack. Among the targets of the American planes was the home of Muammer Gaddafi. Sadly, his stepdaughter died in the raid. After the retaliatory bombing, Gaddafi “cooled his jets” somewhat. That is, he apparently decided to tone down his support for terror—although the Lockerbie bombing, one month before Ronald Reagan left office, was a noteworthy exception.


<!--[if !supportLists]-->13. <!--[endif]-->Grenada Rescue


In late October 1983, a pro Castro radical wrested control of the small island nation of Grenada from an ostensibly more moderate pro Castro regime. Chaos immediately erupted; order broke down. Cuban construction workers, probably combat engineers as events would show, continued their work of building a military grade extension of an airport runway they had begun months before. The chaos led to concerns over stability of the Caribbean; and, over the fears that about 800 Americans attending medical schools on the island would become hostages. Remember that President Reagan took office literally during the closing moments of the Iran Hostage Crisis; the Iranians released their last prisoners just as Ronald Reagan finished taking the oath of office.


President Reagan doubtless had all of this on his mind as he listened to pleas for help from the leaders of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States and weighed his options. As was his way, Reagan acted quickly, sending troops to liberate the tiny island nation and rescue the American students—likely averting a second national humiliation. At the time, a friend at work observed that the Cuban "construction workers" were almost certainly soldiers; "civilians do not fight that well,” he said. Incidentally, this Marine Reservist friend did not say "almost certainly”; he said, "were.”


<!--[if !supportLists]-->14. <!--[endif]-->Latin America


When President Reagan took office, dictators or authoritarian regimes ruled much of Latin America. When he left office, all but two Latin American nations were representative republics with free and frequent elections. Technically, only Cuba remained a dictatorship; however, in one Latin American country, the same political party won every Presidential election from 1924 through 2000. Somehow, counting that nation as a representative republic, as of 1989, seems less than accurate.


Part of the liberation of Latin America involved toppling the Marxist Sandinista regime in Nicaraguathis brings up the Iran-Contra Affair. Given the overall outcome, historians will probably treat Iran-Contra much more gently than do most Reagan detractors of today. Keep in mind what happened when the Sandinistas boldly believed their own bilge. They recklessly held a fair election and got tossed out on their collective ear; the entire nation then spontaneously partied in the streets for a week.


<!--[if !supportLists]-->15. <!--[endif]-->PATCO Strike


In 1981, the Air Traffic Controllers staged an illegal strike that tied up air travel nationwide, and threatened to continue doing so until the Federal Government caved in. During a hastily called Cabinet meeting, all but one person there was engaged in a rather heated, if not frantic, discussion of options and risks. One of them though seemed so disinterested that he had begun to "doodle" on a yellow pad. That was, of course, the President.


After doodling a while longer, President Reagan nudged James Baker, showed him the yellow pad, and told him to call a press conference in a few minutes. There, President Reagan read his "doodles" to the world. In short, precise and firm words, he told the strikers to return to work in 48 hours or find other jobs.


Nobody believed President Reagan would carry out his threat; the end of air travel and commerce would follow? When the deadline passed, those controllers who stayed home lost their jobs. Amid much hand wringing, commentators nationwide predicted disaster; one in Los Angeles gravely stated, "people will die." In the end, no one died, air travel resumed, and commerce continued. Again, the bold decisiveness of Ronald Reagan had triumphed over the sober, experienced, thoughtfulness of "his handlers."


Naturally, you have seen a somewhat winnowed down list of Reagan accomplishments. Some readers probably still feel that the author omitted some critical Reagan achievement; of course some will wonder how I, or anyone, could admire Ronald Reagan. Many readers may have noticed that "PATCO" would have gone well with the story of the Berlin Speech. It seemed fitting though to put PATCO here. It makes a nice bookend to emphasize that Ronald Reagan kept a firm hand on the tiller of policy during his Presidency. PATCO also demonstrates how President Reagan so often accomplished the unthinkable; all the while proving that he meant what he said; and making every effort to do what he promised. Contrary to what the “best minds in America” believed, this unique individual proved that he could indeed become, Ronald Wilson Reagan, 40th President of the United States.