Reagan: His Life and Legend
Time may not heal all wounds, but it can help former presidents become more popular.
That is the case with Ronald Reagan, whom many on the left thought of as close to the devil incarnate during and after his two terms in the White House, from 1981 to 1989. The coarseness of President Donald Trump and of politics in general has made many people nostalgic for what they (if inaccurately) remember as a gentler period.
The Reagan Renaissance will no doubt be helped by Max Boot’s thorough, engaging, and balanced new biography, Reagan: His Life and Legend. Although the book is 736 pages, it rarely drags and while the author admires his subject, he is not blind to Reagan’s faults. He sometimes goes on tangents, especially on Reagan’s pre-presidential years, which history aficionados will love but general readers might be tempted to skim over.
Boot writes that his goal is to strip away the legends “that have accreted like barnacles around the Reagan legacy. The real story is far more interesting and complex than most have realized–less flattering in some respects, more flattering in other ways.” (xxxviii)
While the bulk of the book tackles Reagan’s presidency, Boot’s discussion of his pre-White House life is at times equally compelling. To be sure, the arc of the narrative is well known to many, although it is always helpful to tell it to newer generations for whom Reagan is just a figure in history books, rather than someone they remember.
Reagan’s improbable rise from a small-town working-class childhood in Illinois to the Oval Office is a classic Horatio Alger story. His father was an alcoholic who had trouble keeping a job, so the family moved a great deal and never had much money. However, Reagan’s charm, athletic prowess, and acting skills got him attention from teachers and popularity among his peers. Boot’s account of this period is solid but does not break much new ground. Those who want to learn how that period shaped Reagan’s worldview should read Reagan’s Roots: The People and Places That Shaped His Character, 1 by his former adviser (and full disclosure, a friend and mentor of this writer) Peter Hannaford.
Always fiercely competitive, after graduating from Eureka College, a religious institution in Illinois, Reagan parlayed his skills into a job as a radio broadcaster. Among his tasks was to make up radio broadcasts of baseball games, based on accounts received over the wire. This helped cement Reagan’s vivid imagination, which sometimes led him to believe things that were not true, such as his initial belief during the Iran-Contra scandal that he was not really trading arms for hostages.
Reagan had his first taste of politics during that time as president of the Screen Actors Guild (1947-1952, 1959-1960) where he was involved in labor disputes and controversially named names of people who were communists.
Reagan moved to Hollywood and enjoyed considerable success but was never a top star or award winner, like his first wife Jane Wyman, or his close friend and ideological soulmate Jimmy Stewart. Most of Reagan’s film roles were eminently forgettable. An exception was playing Notre Dame football star George Gipp in Knute Rockne, All American (1940). Boot, a scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations, treats Reagan’s movie career with respect, but cannot resist the chance to play film critic. At times he goes into too much detail and should have made more use of the delete key on his computer.
“His identification with the fictionalized George Gipp would become so complete that he would become known as ‘the Gipper’ himself,” Boot writes. “A mediocre football player in real life, Reagan, with one stirring screen performance, appropriated the identity of one of the all-time greats of the college game.” (122)
Reagan had his first taste of politics during that time as president of the Screen Actors Guild (1947-1952, 1959-1960) where he was involved in labor disputes and controversially named names of people who were communists. This was during a period of major U.S.-Soviet tensions after World War II (during which Reagan made propaganda films and never saw combat) and the height of the influence of the red-baiting Senator Joseph McCarthy, a Wisconsin Republican.
At the time, Reagan was a moderate-liberal Democrat who idolized FDR but never flirted with the far left. Neoconservatives would later describe themselves as liberals mugged by reality. Reagan was a liberal who was traumatized by his ever-increasing tax rates.
He was also uncomfortable with the Democrats’ increasing support for civil rights. Boot noted that: “Reagan took at face value white Southerners’ incredible protestations that denying them the right to oppress their Black neighbors was an infringement on their freedom.” (250)
That, plus his experience as a television host and spokesman for General Electric, cemented his move to the Republican Party. Reagan would later say “I never left the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me.” However, Boot shows that some of Reagan’s critiques, such as accusing JFK and LBJ of advocating socialist policies, were way off base.
He made a career switch when he lost his GE job and other roles were not forthcoming. A group of wealthy businessmen thought he would be the ideal candidate to challenge California Governor Pat Brown. Although Reagan had been interested in politics when he tossed his proverbial hat into the ring it surprised some. Reagan’s one-time boss studio owner Jack Warner famously said, “No, Jimmy Stewart for Governor, Ronald Reagan for best friend.”
In 1966, Reagan defeated Brown whose moderate views meant that neither conservatives nor liberals felt he was one of them.
Although Reagan campaigned as a conservative with similar views as failed 1964 GOP presidential nominee Barry Goldwater, he governed pragmatically. He signed a liberal abortion bill, raised taxes, and increased government expenditures during much of his eight-year tenure.
One of Boot’s main arguments is that Reagan was often more willing to make deals than his rhetoric would suggest. He describes Reagan as a “pragmatic idealist.” (522)
The focus on Reagan’s pragmatism has been explored in several previous books, including several biographies by journalist Lou Cannon and works by and about former Reagan aides.2 The two best are a memoir by former speechwriter Peggy Noonan3 and a biography of Reagan’s chief of staff and treasury secretary James A. Baker.4
Although Reagan campaigned as a conservative with similar views as failed 1964 GOP presidential nominee Barry Goldwater, he governed pragmatically. He signed a liberal abortion bill, raised taxes, and increased government expenditures during much of his eight-year tenure.
During one of my conversations with Hannaford, I asked him why Reagan could get away with betraying conservative principles while other politicians, such as his successor President George H.W. Bush were punished for doing so. Hannaford explained that Reagan’s communication skills enabled him to frame his decisions in a way that made them less distasteful and also Reagan established a bond with voters that most politicians only dream of.
Reagan took that approach and skill set when he won the presidency on his third try in 1980. Although he was detached from much of the day-to-day policymaking, he set the overall goals and was an effective messenger, even if he sometimes got the facts wrong. Boot correctly notes that Reagan “lacked intellectual depth or curiosity.” (xxx) But he had a great sense of messaging and often improved upon the speeches and talking points that others prepared. He was comfortable in his own skin and Boot observes that he “utterly lacked the resentments and paranoia of presidents such as Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Donald Trump.” (xxx)
His domestic economic policies did not spread economic prosperity equally, although his optimism and partial success enabled him to seek a second term by proclaiming “It’s morning again in America.”
On foreign policy, Reagan’s record is even more complicated. The weapons buildup and use of force showed that America was taking a more assertive role in the world. But Reagan dragged his feet and backed oppressive regimes in places such as the Philippines and South Africa longer than he should have.
The Iran-Contra affair, in which administration officials greenlighted the sale of weapons to Iran and used the proceeds to fund the anti-communist rebels in Nicaragua, was the biggest scandal in Reagan’s presidency. Boot writes that it “was the only one that directly implicated the president and therefore, the only one that threatened his survival. The damage was severe and self-inflicted but, as it emerged, ultimately survivable.”(679)
The Democrats in Congress, who loathed Reagan as much as their modern-day counterparts loath Trump, smelled blood and thought this might echo Watergate. Reagan’s popularity and his willingness, after considerable prodding from his wife Nancy and others, to admit his mistakes enabled him to survive. Speaking of Nancy Reagan, her not-always-hidden hand involvement is a key theme in the book. Those wanting an even more detailed look at the topic should read Karen Tumulty’s biography of her.
While many of the seeds of the Soviet Union’s eventual collapse were sown during Reagan’s presidency Boot is reluctant to give him too much credit. He writes that many of the Soviets’ problems were self-inflicted and that “(C)ontrary to so much mythologizing from Reagan supporters (but not from Reagan himself), the Cold War ended not because of Reagan’s confrontational approach but because of his willingness to cooperate with [Soviet leader Mikhail) Gorbachev.”
Boot’s description of Reagan’s decline and eventual death from Alzheimer’s disease is poignant and might bring a tear to readers’ eyes, even though they know how the story ends. Even a man with Reagan’s luck and skills as a performer and script doctor, could not rewrite this script to have a happier ending.
These days, many “never Trump” Republicans even say that cannot support Trump because he has sullied the conservative tradition and is not following Reaganite principles on policy. They are engaging in a bit of historical revisionism.
While Trump has shattered the Reagan legacy on trade, immigration, and certain aspects of foreign policy, in other ways Reagan would feel right at home in today’s GOP. Like Trump, Reagan liked to “own the liberals,” but Reagan was a more eloquent speaker, and his rhetorical approach was usually kinder and gentler. And many, though not all, GOP tax and budget priorities are in keeping with Reagan’s priorities.
Boot’s description of Reagan’s decline and eventual death from Alzheimer’s disease is poignant and might bring a tear to readers’ eyes, even though they know how the story ends. Even a man with Reagan’s luck and skills as a performer and script doctor, could not rewrite this script to have a happier ending.
Boot concludes that Reagan “helped set the GOP–and the country—on the path that ultimately led it to embrace divisive figures such as Donald Trump. Reagan’s legacy included, after all, not only empowering the Christian Right and a growing White backlash against minority empowerment but also economic policies that helped hollow out the middle class, thereby creating the conditions for Trump’s populist movement. (Of course, once in office, Trump’s policies favored the well-off as much as Reagan’s had.)” (729)
We are still living with the impact of Reagan’s presidency and Reagan: His Life and Legend is an important roadmap to his life and times. Those who admire Reagan will find much to support their position and will also get a better understanding of his flaws. Those who loathe him will not necessarily change their minds but might come away with a better understanding of why Reagan had such a hold on the American people.
