Michael T. Mondak speaks: 40 til 40 day 14

We have reached day 14 in the 40 til 40 series of blog entries about anything and everything relevant to the number 40 leading up to my 40th birthday on July 10.

Last time I talked about 40 of my fellow natives of Portsmouth, Virginia.  Today I will talk about our 40th United States president, Ronald Reagan, who was the president when I was born.

On February 6, 1911, Tampico, Illinois gave the world the future 40th United States president, Ronald Wilson Reagan.  He was the youngest son of the former Nelle Clyde and Jack Reagan.  Growing up, his family, which included a brother named Neil, lived in Chicago, Galesburg and Monmouth before returning to Tampico.  When Ronald was nine years old, the family settled in Dixon, Illinois.

Ronald graduated from Dixon High School where he was a member of the drama club and football team.  His first job was as a lifeguard at the Rock River in Lowell Park.  At Eureka College, he served as the president of the student body and was a member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity, which he served as president.  Following his graduation in 1932, Ronald took a job in Davenport, Iowa where he called four Big Ten Conference football games.  This led to him joining WHO radio in Des Moines where he broadcasted Chicago Cubs games.  By 1936, when the Cubs began spring training in California, Reagan took a screen test, and was rewarded with a seven-year contract with Warner Brothers.

In 1937, a 26-year-old Ronald arrived in Hollywood and made his film debut in Love is in the Air, where he portrayed radio commentator Andy McCaine, who got into trouble after attacking a corrupt city government, and is forced by his boss to host an innocuous kiddie program as punishment.  That same year, he enlisted in the Army Reserves.

In 1940, Ronald played George Gipp in the film Knute Rockne, All American, which told the story of legendary Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne, played by Pat O’Brien.  This role led to him being nicknamed “The Gipper” during his run for president many years later.  That same year, Ronald married the former Jane Wyman, whom he had met when they co-starred in the 1938 film Brother Rat.  They had two biological daughters Maureen and Christine, then adopted a son, Michael, who later hosted the game show Lingo.  The marriage ended in divorce in 1949.

During World War II, Ronald transferred to the Army Air Forces where he became a public relations officer starting in Culver City and ended at Fort MacArthur upon his 1945 discharge where he attained the rank of captain.

Less than two years after his discharge, Ronald became the president of the Screen Actors’ Guild following the resignation of Robert Montgomery.  He served two terms in this role, where he oversaw various labor management disputes, the Hollywood blacklist and the implementation of the Taft-Hartley Act.  After the House Un-American Activities Committee questioned him if he was aware of communist efforts within the Screen Writers Guild, he called such information “hearsay” and stepped down as guild president, but retained his on the board.  During this term, he married the former Nancy Davis in 1952.  They met when she called him to clear up confusion for another Nancy Davis, who was on the Hollywood Blacklist.  They had two children, Patti and Ron, and three grandchildren.

Ronald would be elected for a second term as Screen Actors’ Guild president in November 1959.  He was successful in the guild’s efforts to seek payment of residuals for actors whose films were theatrically released between 1948 and 1959 and later televised.  Reagan was able to reach a compromise where producers were required to provide pensions and pay residuals for films made after December 31, 1959.  Six months later, Reagan resigned his presidency of the Screen Actors’ Guild and his position on the board.

Ronald also dabbled in television when he hosted the General Electric Theater between 1953 and 1962.  In 1965 he became the host of Death Valley Days, succeeding Stanley Andrews.  He left in 1966 to run for governor of California; Robert Taylor succeeded him.

Reagan ran for California governor as a Republican.  He defeated George Christopher in the primary, earning him the opportunity to challenge incumbent Democrat governor Pat Brown.  Though Brown labeled him as an extremist, Reagan countered that he was a political outsider and accused Brown of being responsible for the Watts riots and being lenient on crime.  Reagan won the election, defeating Brown 57 percent to 42 percent.

During Reagan’s first term as California governor, he froze government hiring and also balanced the budget, raising taxes on sales, income tax brackets, banks, corporate profits, inheritances, liquor and cigarettes.  He also signed the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act into law, which ended the practice of sending patients to mental institutions indefinitely or without their consent.

As the national debate on abortion began, he signed the Therapeutic Abortion Act into law, which decriminalized abortions when performed to protect the health of the mother.  Reagan also signed the Mulford Act into law, which prohibited the carrying of firearms in public.  He also followed through on a promise he made during his campaign to clean up the mess at Berkeley in response to the Free Speech Movement of 1964.  He did so in 1967 by appointing several new regents to the University of California Board of Regents and joined them in a 14-8 majority vote to terminate university president Clark Kerr.

One year into his first term as governor, Reagan explored running for president as part of a “Stop Nixon” movement in an attempt to cut into Richard Nixon’s supporters from the South.  Reagan finished third behind Nixon and Nelson Rockefeller at the Republican National Convention.  He did end the year by being named the chairman of the Republican Governors’ Association and also survived a failed attempt to recall him.

On May 15, 1969, Reagan sent the California Highway Patrol and California National Guard troops to People’s Park to quell protests in an event nicknamed “Bloody Thursday” in response to changes made to the park.

As a supporter of Taiwan, Reagan took a shot at the United Nations delegation from Tanzania after that country and several other delegations declined to recognize the People’s Republic of China.

Reagan was re-elected governor in 1970.  During his second term, the California Supreme Court thwarted his support for capital punishment when their ruling in People v. Anderson invalidated all death sentences in the state prior to January 1, 1972, but was overturned when the constitution was amended.  By this time, Reagan had only carried out one execution in 1967 when convicted murderer Aaron Mitchell was executed via the gas chamber in San Quentin.  He had nearly carried out the execution of convicted murderer Robert Lee Massie, but stayed it three times so that Massie could testify against his alleged accomplice.  It wasn’t until 2001 when Massie was executed for a separate murder.

Following the Serrano v. Priest ruling in 1971, California was required to equalize spending on schools between rich districts and poor districts.  Reagan was able to negotiate compromises with house speaker Bob Moretti to keep costs low by cutting property taxes for homeowners, limit school spending and provide higher spending for poor districts.

Reagan declined to seek a third term as California governor in 1975 and was succeeded by Jerry Brown.  He then set his sights on the White House, where he sought to oppose President Gerald Ford’s detente policy with the Soviet Union by preferring “peace through strength”.  Sadly, Ford won the Republican nomination over Reagan.  Ford was then defeated by Jimmy Carter.

In December 1979, Reagan decided to run again for the presidency by taking a shot at the federal government over the signing of the Panama Canal Treaty, the oil crisis, and a rise in the interest, inflation and unemployment rates.  He wanted to stress the fundamental principles of tax cuts to stimulate the economy and having a small government and strong national defense to catch up to the Soviet Union.  His age did become an issue among the press during a time the United States was in a severe recession.

Despite this, Reagan won the Republican primary over George H.W. Bush, and selected Bush as his running mate at the Republican National Convention in Detroit.  Reagan and Carter squared off over a multitude of domestic concerns and the ongoing Iran Hostage Crisis.  Reagan decided to focus more closely on social issues such as abortion and gay rights.  Reagan won the presidency over Carter in an Electoral College landslide.

On January 20, 1981, Reagan was inaugurated as the 40th President of the United States at the age of 69.  His first inaugural address focused on the economic malaise, where he stressed that government was the problem, not a solution to the problem.  While he was delivering this inaugural address, Iran released the American hostages.  Reagan also proposed a laissez-faire economic philosophy by promoting a set of neoliberal reforms including monetarism and supply-side economics.  These reforms were referred to as “Reaganomics”.

During his first term in the White House, Reagan was successful in his efforts to nominate Sandra Day O’Connor as the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court.  But only 69 days into his first term, Reagan, his press secretary James Brady, Washington Police officer Thomas Delahanty and Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy were struck by gunfire from a would-be assassin named John Hinckley Jr. outside the Hilton hotel in Washington.  Reagan was rushed to George Washington University Hospital where he underwent successful surgery and quickly recovered from a broken rib, a punctured lung and internal bleeding.  He was released on April 11.  Hinckley would be found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1982 as he claimed that he committed the crime to impress an actress who was also a freshman at Yale University named Jodie Foster.

Nevertheless, Reagan oversaw the strengthening of the military and the war on drugs, which was championed by his wife Nancy, who was now the First Lady.  This led to the successful “Just Say No to Drugs” campaign, which led to a music video created by Tim Reid of Simon & Simon with a song by Michael Stokes titled “Stop the Madness”.  The campaign was also a success in Europe, leading to similar campaigns in Germany, Italy and other countries.  Following the successful campaign, CBS adopted the “Stop the Madness” name for a series of 15 second public service announcements addressing forms of drug abuse, addictions, alcoholism, and other issues of public concern to television viewers delivered by then-current stars of CBS programs such as Bob Barker, Bob Goen, Vanna White, Teresa Ganzel, Ray Combs and Doug Davidson.

Reagan then introduced the Reagan Doctrine to provide overt and covert aid to anti-communist resistance movements in an effort to roll back Soviet-supported governments in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Reagan easily won re-election to the Oval Office in 1984 when he defeated Walter Mondale in another Electoral College landslide.  This win was made possible as Reagan declined to introduce new legislative proposals, instead preferring to focus on events such as the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and the 40th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy.

During Reagan’s second term, he spoke out against proposed tax hikes by threatening to veto them in less time “than it takes Vanna White to turn the letters V-E-T-O!”  He also oversaw the opposition to Apartheid in South Africa.

However, his second term as president was marred by the Iran-Contra scandal where the United States was selling weapons to Iran due to a perceived threat by the Ayatollah Khomeini to export Islamic doctrine within the Middle East and the Persian Gulf.  But Colonel Oliver North, who was a member of Reagan’s National Security Council, destroyed or hid pertinent documents and would be tried in 1989.  This led to many of Reagan’s cabinet members to be tried and his approval rating drop significantly.

Despite this, Reagan oversaw the beginning of the end of the Cold War when Mikhail Gorbachev was elected Soviet leader in 1985.  Two years later, Reagan demanded, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”, in a speech delivered at the Berlin Wall.  Although it was ignored at the time, it was recast retroactively as a soaring achievement in November 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell.

During his time in the White House, Reagan played host to Super Bowl champion teams from the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders, San Francisco 49ers, Washington Redskins, Chicago Bears and New York Giants.  He also played host to NBA champions from the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, and Philadelphia 76ers, World Series champions from the Philadelphia Phillies, Los Angeles Dodgers, St. Louis Cardinals, Baltimore Orioles, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, New York Mets and Minnesota Twins.  In addition, he played host to two college football national champion teams from Penn State coached by Joe Paterno.

Under the Twenty-Second Amendment, Reagan could not seek a third term as president.  However, his vice president George H.W. Bush defeated Michael Dukakis in the 1988 election.

After leaving the White House on January 20, 1989, Ronald and Nancy Reagan spent their retirement years in Bel Air and Santa Barbara.  He also supported the Brady Bill mandating federal background checks on would-be purchasers of firearms.

Sadly, in August 1994, Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, which he announced in November of that year.  He passed away on June 5, 2004 at the age of 93.  Among those who attended his state funeral, in addition to his widow Nancy and president George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush, were former presidents and first ladies Bill and Hillary Clinton, George H.W. and Barbara Bush, Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter, and Gerald and Betty Ford.  They were joined by vice president Dick Cheney and second lady Lynne Cheney, former vice presidents and second ladies Al and Tipper Gore, and Dan and Marilyn Quayle, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Secretary of State General Colin Powell, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, Prince Charles, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney and his wife Mila, former Polish president Lech Walesa, Mexican president Vicente Fox, Russian president Vladimir Putin, Belgian Crown Prince Philippe, former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, the Sinatra family, television producer Merv Griffin and Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak and his wife Lesly.  Reagan was interred at his presidential library which had opened in 1991.

Nancy Reagan died on March 6, 2016 of congestive heart failure at age 94.  She was interred next to Ronald.