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Reagan, In His Own Hand: The Writings of Ronald Reagan That Reveal His Revolutionary Vision for America

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This selection of 670 radio commentaries Ronald Reagan wrote between 1975 and 1979 astonishes me to no end. Although I was an ardent supporter of the former President, it seemed to me that Reagan's intellect left much to be desired. At best I concluded that Reagan had superb gut instincts, but was primarily the mouthpiece of those far more intelligent than himself. The first question concerning--Reagan, In His Own Hand--that came to mind was whether Reagan relied upon a ghost writer. After all, it is well established that some political leaders such as John F. Kennedy were credited for books they never wrote. I was therefore amazed to learn that it appears Ronald Reagan didn't even have an editorial assistant. These writings are indeed the result of Reagan's many years of intellectual inquiry in issues dominating the last three quarters of a century.

The editors of this collection rightfully describe Reagan as "a one-man think tank." His insights on why Communism would inevitably disintegrate alone justifies the purchase of this work. Reagan's detractors were upset when the President called the now defunct Soviet Union an "evil empire." Nevertheless, Reagan refused to mealy mouth the truth. In the end Reagan insisted that we stay the course in our opposition to World Communism. A weaker but still dangerous Soviet Union might still exist today had it not been for President Reagan. He was proven correct and his opponents should have the integrity to admit their errors in judgment. The great leader also clearly understood the values of Democratic Capitalism. Some may legitimately nit-pick Reagan on some of the specifics, but substantially he was on target. Reagan's own words reveal a profound realization that dire poverty can only be eradicated by an essentially free economic system; government policies may be well meaning, but inadvertently often do more harm than good.

Ronald Reagan was one of the greatest Presidents in our nation's history. Even many professional Liberal historians are favorably reevaluating Reagan's Presidency. --Reagan, In His Own Hand--deserves a prominent place in one's library. These radio commentaries allow us to more fully comprehend how fortunate we were that Ronald Reagan lead our nation during such a crucial era.

Before I begin my review, I must first say that I did not vote for Ronald Reagan. While I agree with his views on foreign policy, I did not support his stands on economic and social issues.

What I liked about this book was Reagan's writing. He was quick, to the point and consistent. You have to admire a politician that rarely waivers from his views, even if you do not agree with them. You might not have agreed with this man, but his views on the Soviet were the same when he took office as they were in his writing. The same with China, Panama, Isreal and economics.

In his writing, you see that this is a more thoughtful man than he is portrayed by others. I am sure he was more capable of having an intelligent conversation than people believed. While I would not have called Reagan a 'policy wonk', he communicated his views and ideas far better than Clinton-a man who acts like he knows he is smart.

I've read other Reagan bios and letters and memoirs of other Presidents-Roosevelt, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Bush and Clinton. I liked the Ambrose series on Nixon best, but this comes real close.

Anyone who is considering running for office should read this book. Reagan showed the way on how to explain complicated ideas in basic terms. All politicians of all views could learn a lot from him.

What a fine book that finally reveals the real Ronald Reagan in his own words that no media revisionists can change or condemn. Here is a man rising to prominence from unassuming beginnings not on blood, nobility or background but on the basis of his words, abilities and actions. The book counters all the Liberal Leftists who took great joy in making fun of Ronald Reagan claiming many untruths, portraying him an incompetent boob and one who simply slept through his presidency.

Nevertheless Reagan's own words have responded, Reagan like all people has succumb to old age and his depraved faultfinders thought he could not respond. The book proves otherwise. All those shameful nefarious reports and unkind whispers of senility were intended to act like acid to slowly corrode Reagan's legacy. But these critics' discord have been made impotent by the only shield Reagan always had, his own words and writings.

The authors reveal three aspects of Reagan's character which are hard work, competent delegation and definable actions. Now the world stands in wonderment of a conundrum having to admit they can do nothing to tarnish the brilliance of Reagan's presidency. What I found enlightening is how Ronald Reagan would dictate a memo from Ronald Reagan to Ronald Reagan when he disagreed with a particular policy. Even though our Foreign Policy had to support China, Reagan disagreed in abandoning an Allied like Taiwan and wrote why he did so in a separate memo. Such memos make known an shrewd and knowledgeable man of principle.

The book clearly refutes anyone saying he slept in the afternoon, was too old and feeble or simply was a puppet president. The people who created these false rumors were either ignorant, misinformed or outright liars. Reagan's legacy in his own words, memos and deeds prove it time and time again. The tooth of envy is now powerless regarding Reagan's enduring legacy as bear witness with his own words in the book.

The book confirms that Ronald Reagan accomplished so much through his own judgment, acumen and energy. This is the imprint that will remain in history invalidating all those humorless cynics now left in their own dust of self created ridicule. The world must recognize a lofty attitude of praise when speaking about Ronald Reagan.

I highly recommend this book. It is superb and gives you a window of a man who loved this nation and led it with dedicated work and devotedly attached actions.

This is a must read for both avid admirers of Ronald Reagan (disclaimer: that's me), and his would-be detractors in the liberal arena. Far from being an "amiable dunce", this collection of radio broadcasts and essays, mostly written in the 1974-1980 period, shows Reagan's keen intellect and focus on his areas of greatest interest, such as the superiority of capitalism over communism, and the cause of freedom throughout the world. His radio broadcasts were short, only about 5 minutes, but they show that he was well-read and informed on any number of topics. Probably the most fascinating aspect was his ability to not only write a compelling, concise story, but to edit his own material. The compilers of this material wisely chose to include the words and phrases that were lined out in favor of the final, broadcast version. This gave me some real insights to Mr. Reagan's line of thought as the essays were composed. The final essay in this book is Reagan's farewell to the American people upon his learning of that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and is one of the most tender and touching messages I have ever read. God bless you, Ronald and Nancy Reagan.

Ronald Reagan unjustifiably has the reputation of being vacuous with his subordinates implementing his vaguely defined policies. This view of Reagan is utter nonsense. In fact, if you remember the 1980 presidential debates against Jimmy Carter, Reagan is a man with both a vision and an understanding of the details to implement that vision. If he did not tend to the day to day details while in office, that was a concious management decision, not a failure to grasp the issues. As the writings, reproduced in this book, demonstrate, Reagan understood the details of his positions and, in radio adresses he gave over the years between his governorship and presidency, he set them forth cogently and convincingly. Despite the calumnies against him, he was, in fact extremely intelligent and insightful.

Reagan had no speechwriter prepare his radio addresses. He prepared them in longhand on legal pads and then, he edited them. This book gives examples of his editing drafts. Since Reagan carefully prepared the addresses in advance, they are preserved as "writings." I wonder how well Clinton, Gore, Bush, or anyone else would stand up if they were to speak, every week, in their own words without their remarks being ghostwritten, or at least heavily edited, by their speechwriters. I suspect none of them would hold a candle to Reagan. In addition to these speeches, this book includes other writings of Reagan. I was impressed with Reagan's understanding of issues and his attention to detail, something heretofor he has not been credited with. In seeing his foreign policy set for and his anticommunism articulated, before he was president, I am impressed that we had a president who understood the Soviet Union well and handled the "evil empire" better than any other president before him.

I am reminded of Eisenhower who also had the reputation of being ditzy and not in control. Recent biographers have shown that to be utterly false. In fact, according to Stephan Ambrose, Eisenhower had the stregnth to stand up to severe pressure to launch a first strike nuclear attack against the Soviet Union in 1957. So too Reagan was very much in control and he courageously pursued his policies as regards to the Soviet Union. Whereas Eisenhower's pressures came from hawks, Reagan's came from those mindlessly urging disarmament. Like Eisenhower, he did what was right and this book sets forth his understanding of the right course to follow. I recommend this book of writings of our most eloquent president.

I came to this book as a student of political science and an admirer of Ronald Reagan. But a snide admirer in that I held the widespread belief that while a man of courage, conviction and vision, he was "an amiable dunce" who generated his beliefs from some hidden wellspring of unspoken, unexamined character.

This evidence refutes that belief.

I finished this book with a fundamentally altered appreciation of Reagan as perhaps the greatest, and certainly the most effective, political thinker of the second half of the 20th century (we must reserve the first half for Winston).

If you love or hate Reagan, you will accordingly love or hate this book, so I'm not going to review the man but rather, the arguments presented as political philosophy and the style of rhetoric as political communication. Each display a striking command and fine nuance of their subject.

Kudos, first of all, to the editing team. In a unique innovation, they have taken Reagan's hand-written scripts for 5-minute radio addresses delivered between 1975 and 1979 and reproduced them , en toto, with strike-outs, add-ins, and re-edits included in the main body of the draft. Thus we see Reagan constantly re-working his craft: changing a passive to an active voice, clearing out a thicket of prepositions to strengthen and clarify, re-doubling or eliminating emphases, and always, always, writing to be heard. (It is interesting to note that the most re-edited piece here is his sole radio address on abortions - he is clearly struggling with the two legitimate, honestly held claims.)

In his foreword, Reagan's Secretary of State, George Shultz writes:

"And that is the reason why this book is so important. It provides a key to unlocking the mystery of Reagan that has baffled so many for so long. How could a man of supposedly limited knowledge and limited intelligence accomplish so much? How did he get elected and reelected governor of our largest state? How did he get elected and reelected president of the United States? How did he preside over a time of unprecedented prosperity, the winning of the cold war, and the demise of communism worldwide? How?"

"Well, maybe he was a lot smarter than most people thought."

What comes across in each radio address, clearly, repeatedly, is the man's rigorous thinking, connection of facts to results, and his program for how he would effect change. What is only understood across the entire corpus is that he is also promoting a consistent, cohesive political philosophy in the tradition and spirit of the classic liberals.

To take just one example, here is Reagan teaching comparative economics:

"I'm going to talk figures & statistics today which make you wonder how long communist leaders can hide from themselves the fact that our system is infinitely better than theirs.
I'll be right back.
There are 3 so called superpowers based on size & population in the world, two are communist one is free. If you don't mind trying to follow some figures you'll discover just how superior freedom is to the `worker's paradise' that accepted the idiocy of Karl Marx....
We produce 7 times as many automobiles as Russia & more than 600 times as many as China. Those autos travel on more than 3 mil. miles of paved road in the U.S. and only 1/15 of that in Russia, 200,000 miles & in China 161,000.
Now let's get down to some of the differences in daily living. The average wage in our country is $13,400 that is about 4 ½ times Russia's $3000 and 37 times Chinas $360. Perhaps you think their money goes farther than ours. Well not if you translate purchase into how long you have to work at the average wage to buy something - say a bicycle. An American would only have to work a day plus 2 hrs. The Russian has to work 7 full days and the Chinese worker puts in 67 days."

This is fine political education, and let's not forget, a controversial viewpoint at the time. It is, after all, eight years *before* Dan Rather insisted (in 1987) that, "despite what many Americans think, most Soviets do not yearn for capitalism or Western-style democracy."

There's simply too much to excerpt here, but the book ably covers everything from communist expansion to taxation to regulation to arms treaties to marijuana ("If adults want to take such chances that is their business." !!! Reagan nakedly exposes his libertarian principles throughout, by the way.)

To those who would assert the 80s just happened, this is their refutation. Reagan repeatedly highlights a Carter or Democratic initiative, policy, or platform, explains why it is bad, predicts (or recapitulates) the bad consequences, proposes his alternative and asserts what fruit this future course would bear. As we march through four long years of Ford-Carter with Reagan as our guide, we get increasingly impatient for the clock to hurry up and bring our man into the Oval Office so he can put a halt to this idiocy. It is only with this pre-1981 look into the thinking of the man and the circumstances of the day, that I have understood the impact of his will on the country.

For here is a man who understands words, deeds, and consequences. At a time when the opposition and the newsmen insisted that he not inflame the Soviets, this is a man who went to knock on the door and inflame with the truth. This is the man who stood at Brandenburg Gate and said: "General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

And the wall fell.

In his own hand, with his own voice, Ronald Reagan spoke his beliefs, led his country, and changed the world.

Reagan, In His Own Hand, is a treasure trove of writings that provide the reader with a unique window on Ronald Reagan's detailed vision of foreign and domestic policy. Throughout the book, Reagan defines the agenda that he would eventually take to the White House. It is striking that on several occasions, Reagan writes of the demise of communism, an idea scoffed at by leading foreign policy experts in the 1970's as well as during his presidency. Reagan, In His Own Hand, defines the vision and conviction of a man who made his mark on history with courage and optimism. The legacy of Ronald Reagan will be defined by his relentless pursuit of these ideas throughout much of his adult life. Historians will likely conclude from these writings that Ronald Reagan assumed the presidency better prepared to lead the nation than any other leader of the 20th century. Here finally, is the opportunity to see how "Reagan the Thinker" transformed the political landscape of America and the world.

The Publishers Weekly review of this book starts with the words: "Ronald Reagan is a puzzle." To those on the left, that may be the case. For those Americans who believe in the greatness of this country, who value integrity, who recognize greatness; Ronald Reagan is no more puzzling than a polish Rubik's Cube. To us, Ronald Reagan is a hero, nothing more nothing less. Ronald Reagan was man of simplicity, a man of simple faith, a man of his word. Consider the words of another editorial review listed here on Amazon. "These writings show that Reagan had carefully considered nearly every issue he would face as president. When he fired the striking air-traffic controllers, many thought that he was simply seizing an unexpected opportunity to strike a blow at organized labor. In fact, as he wrote in the '70s, he was opposed to public-sector unions using strikes. There has been much debate as to whether he deserves credit for the end of the cold war; here, in a 1980 campaign speech draft, he lays out a detailed vision of the grand strategy that he would pursue in order to encourage the Soviet system to collapse of its own weight, completely consistent with the policies of his presidency." Reagan's private ideals were "completely consistent with the policies of his presidency." Imagine that, a leader who keeps his word. A leader who doesn't sacrifice his integrity to gain or keep power. Obviously such a man would be a puzzle to those with no concept of integrity. Nothing is as confusing to the dishonest man as honesty. Ronald Reagan was our Churchill. He was a hero, a concept completely foreign to some in this country, second nature to others.

Let's get it over with--all those people who always called Ronald Reagan some kind of dunce or dullard are finally proven wrong by these actual scripts from his radio broadcasts that show wit, intelligence, and profound understanding of the issues of his era. The editors have decided for some unknown reason to leave all the misspellings, edits, and the like in, and after all these are to be read aloud on the radio, but this shows the inner Reagan to be a deep thinker and yet a plain-spoken man of the people who truly was "The Great Communicator" long before he became one of our greatest presidents. A spectacular collection of heretofore unknown and unseen manuscripts, a must for any serious student of the man, history, and American life.

The ivory tower of academia has long shunned Reagan as a nostalgic simpleton. Lou Cannon's authoritative Reagan biography upgraded Reagan's standing slightly, depicting a man with singular emotional intelligence but otherwise writing Reagan off as intellectually incurious.

Reagan in His Own Hand shatters all these myths, and it should force historians and Reagan scholars all over to rethink their conclusions about Reagan the man. Far from the rather dim portrait that has prevailed on the Left (and in some corners of the Right), Reagan was in fact very intelligent and had a unique grasp of facts and statistics, knowing exactly when and where to deploy them to deliver the most effective argument. This collection of hundreds of Reagan's radio addresses shows that the Great Communicator spoke not only in vague and soothing generalities. Specificity was part of his eloquence too: "Our productivity is phenomenal. ... We are 6% of the worlds population on only 7% of the worlds land we produce almost half the worlds corn, 2/3 of the soy beans, 1/3 or more of the worlds paper, electrical power, college graduates and almost 1/3 of the farm machinery. Just to round it off we make more than 2/3 of the computers & 80% of all the worlds passenger aircraft." The man's optimism, even in a time of national "malaise", was irresistible.

One essay in the beginning of the book illuminates why Reagan enjoyed such a strong connection with America and Americans. Reagan describes looking out of a high-rise hotel window and seeing the hundreds of headlights and taillights circulating on the streets below: "I wonder about the people in those cars, who they are, what they do, what they are thinking about as they head for the warmth of home & family. Come to think of it I've met them--oh--maybe not those particular individuals but I still feel I know them. Some of our social planners refer to them as 'the masses'... They are not 'the masses,' or as the elitists would have it, 'the common man.' They are very uncommon. Individuals each with his own hopes & dreams, plans & problems and the kind of quiet courage that makes this whole country run better than just about any other place on earth."