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TechnoratiGOP's Reaganesque Tall Tales
Sensing their own smallness, contemporary politicians often seek to puff themselves up by appealing to myth and legend. For Republicans, there is no mythology more appealing than that of Ronald Wilson Reagan, as the party's presidential candidates eagerly demonstrated during their May 3 debate in the library that bears his name.
Those charmless imitators seem to believe that the late president's image can not only win primary votes but vanquish America's enemies. As Rudolph Giuliani explained, a Reaganesque glare should be enough to scare the Iranian despot into surrendering any nuclear ambitions: "He has to look at an American president and he has to see Ronald Reagan. Remember, they looked in Ronald Reagan's eyes, and in two minutes, they released the hostages."
Such belligerent invocations of the old actor are standard fare on the GOP primary circuit. The actual circumstances of American relations with Iran during the Reagan years—and indeed of security policy in general back then—were more complex and less inspirational.
The tough gunslinger described by the Republican candidates resembles the real Reagan about as accurately as his movie roles resembled his real life. It was strange to hear him mentioned in the context of Iran, the scene of the worst foreign-policy fiasco of his administration—and the topic that most clearly demonstrates the distance between right-wing fantasy and historical reality.
And it was especially strange to hear those words uttered by Giuliani, who wants everyone to remember that he once served as a top official in the Reagan Justice Department, yet seems to have forgotten the criminal case and constitutional crisis known as the Iran-contra affair. But let's begin at the beginning.
Available evidence strongly indicates that when the Iranian regime released American hostages in January 1981, within hours of the first Reagan inauguration, that decision had nothing to do with fear of the new president and everything to do with a pre-arranged deal. While no proof of that plot has ever emerged, the covert sequel that commenced three years later certainly arouses suspicion.
Between 1984 and 1986, the Reagan administration tried to free American hostages in Lebanon from their Shiite captors, not by confronting the terrorists militarily but by negotiating with their presumed Iranian sponsors. By then, Reagan had already retreated from Lebanon, withdrawing the Marines after the terrorist bombing of their Beirut barracks had claimed 241 American lives.
Instead of retaliating against Iran or any of the organizations that claimed responsibility for the Lebanon attack, Reagan approved a secret initiative to "improve relations" with the Iranian leadership by shipping advanced missiles to them. The immediate objective was to get the Iranians to lean on Hezbollah in Lebanon to release a group of six American hostages.
National Security Adviser Robert (Bud) McFarlane visited Tehran, carrying a Koran and a cake as tokens of presidential esteem. Meanwhile, the profits from the arms transactions—conducted by private citizens working with White House and CIA personnel—were diverted to finance the contra rebellion in Nicaragua.
These bizarre intrigues breached U.S. law and policy in myriad ways, including repeated violations of the statute forbidding aid to regimes that support terrorism. At first Reagan tried to deny that he had "traded arms for hostages," then reluctantly confessed many months later, while seeking to blame his subordinates.
Although there was much more to the amazing scandal that nearly ended Reagan's presidency—including the starring role of neoconservatives who have since masterminded another and worse disaster—the basic outline is clear: Terrorists killed our troops, and Reagan responded by retreating from Lebanon, kowtowing to the terrorists' sponsors, meeting their demand for advanced weapons and pleading for the release of our hostages.
It is easy to imagine how the Republicans would have reacted to this kind of behavior by a Democratic president—and how they would recall such behavior today. Words such as "strong" and "resolute" would not leap to their lips.
With Reagan, however, myth replaces memory. The truth is that he saved his presidency by ousting the hawks and neoconservatives who had almost destroyed it, and by entering into the unprecedented negotiations with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that helped to end the Cold War peacefully. For that momentous decision, he suffered angry public attacks by many of the same conservatives who lionize him today.
The macho posturing in Reagan's name is comical and demeaning, but not without danger. Let's hope this is all just campaign bluster—and that none of the pretenders who may someday achieve power believe in their own fakery.
Joe Conason writes for the New York Observer.
© 2007 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
15 Comments so far
Show AllThank you WMJ for telling the truth about the second worst president in our history.Beside what you pointed out Reagan was thr FIRST PRESIDENT TO ROB SOCIAL SECURITY TO MAKE HIS DEFICIT LOOK BETTER AFTER HIS TAX CUTS TO THE RICH.I couldn't stand that idiot before he was president and after he raped this country I wish I'd never seen him.By trying to make Reagan a hero the rightwing shows just how stupid they are, hell 28% of them would vote again for the moron that's in office now.What's wrong with this country are the brained washed people who vote for these criminal's
My fondest memory of Reagan was his hosting of the "Twenty Mule Team Borax" television drama that helped to mythologize the settling of the American West. It was his life's career to introduce tales of cowboy and indian conflict and sell the mythology of American colonialism under God, with mercy and justice for none. He was proud to appear in black and white t.v., proud to invade Grenada, and happy to finance the death squads who hunted "communists" in the jungles of Honduras and Nicaraqua. At the time of the hostage crisis when the embassy in Teheran was held by Iranian student and religious extremists, George Bush and William Casy made trips to Europe and it is speculated that a deal was made to release the hostages after the presidential election in America so that it would destroy Jimmy Carters' campaign. I think one of his obscene acts was to begin the missile defence system known as "star wars". He announced to the nation on prime time, his dream of an umbrella of protection around North America, and gazed heavenwards, asking America to imagine the kind of security that would stop nuclear missiles raining down from space. Does anyone know how many billions of dollars has gone towards this monster? The star wars monster is still alive; this week Bush slammed democrats as weak for not supporting this abortion.
I watched Robin William mock modern US politics in the new film, MAN OF THE YEAR last night and here we see how the fool can tell the "kingdom" the hard truths. This film did a good job of showing the nonsense candidates share, their indebtedness to paid lobbyist interests, and the inherent compromise to the integrity of computer-defined vote counts.
"more complex and less inspirational"
Alas--many of the current Republican supporters in the electorate really hate those words when confronted with problems. Especially the religious ones that are 90% Republican.
Reagan really clued into the dumb-headed football NASCAR-type mentality so prevalent.
I remember this election quote from him:
"Jimmy Carter said we should give away the Panama Canal or people wouldn't like us...He said we should give away our nuclear missiles or people wouldn't like us...well I say that we should stop worrying about whether people like us and be respected again!"
The jerks in the audience almost passed-out they clapped and cheered so hard.
Kivals: I envy your wealthy friend. Wouldn't it be nice to have the experience of believing that your president was a great person? I hope someday I may have that experience.
It is frustrating but sometimes we must accept that others have different opinions on such speculative matters, such as the virtues of past Presidents, and our powers to change their opinions are limited. I used to know a very wealthy lady (oil money) who was well-educated and quite intelligent and she thought Reagan was the greatest thing since sliced bread. I realized the hopelessness of arguing with her when I informed her that my friends from foreign countries, who at the time were mostly Ph.D. students, all thought Reagan was a laughingstock and a simple-minded fascist. She was shocked and related to me that her friends in other countries, generally very wealthy members of the leisure class, thought Reagan was the best President the US ever had.
As long as our interests are so diverse, our opinions will be diverse as well.
Reagan may go down in history as the number one challenger to orangutan boy as the worst, most destructive president in American history. That is no small feat. The public worship of Reagan by the Republican candidates is an example of the big lie at work. His ratings were abysmal, his credibility globally was non-existent, his sobriquet "the great communicator" made people laugh out loud, his simple-mindedness was even admitted to by his youngest son in a well publicized interview. His "teflon presidency" was shrouded in public relations gauze from the beginning. Today's transparently fraudulent worship of this unworthy murdering nincompoop is merely an extension of the GOP deception campaign and the complicity of the corporate media in the scam.
When confronted with the absurdity of how wonderful Reagan was, some of us remember Iran-contra, his decimation of unions, fiscal irresponsibility, and some other reasons to prove that he WASN'T, but sometimes we blank. That's why it is good to have a list handy. Ken Shade wrote his in a column entitled I wanted Ronald Reagan to Live Forever -- http://www.faulkingtruth.com/Articles/GuyWalksIntoBar/1004.html -- so named because the press tends to glorify newly dead presidents. Another good list made it to my email as a FWD, supposedly appearing in the Nation in March 2, 1998, 66 Things to Think about When Flying in to Reagan National Airport. Googling, I found it several places, including http://www.alternet.org/story/18874/ Let's make note of our favorites and use them to counter the Reagan mystique.
Thanks WJM points well remembered. Let's not forget the Saving and Loan fiasco or the 'winners' he brought with him from California to become key members of his cabinet-'Ed" ,'Casper'et al.
we have run against that incompetent twice and lost twice.
I want to add to what WJM wrote.
Many families lost their farms during the Reagan era.
Given the short attention span of most Americans, it won't matter anyway. In George W. Bush, the Democrats have the greatest incompetent to run against since Herbert Hoover (who was actually less of an incompetent than just plain unlucky and had to politically die for the sins of Harding and Coolidge).
Reagan, in preparation for the global economy with US companies depending on workers and consumers from around the world, began the defunding of the US middle class (well, his gang did while he watched TV). Bush is trying to finish that job, but is so inept he cannot even get that right (he proved he was a pathological liar before he got the chance to try to trick us out of our Social Security). The Republican applicants for the job want to reassure corporate America they are up to the task by comparing themselves with Reagan, the leader of the more successful predatory criminal gang.
Reagan was no hero. He started this right wing fascination with bankrupting the country, he gave us our first 3 TRILLION dollar debt, he turned the mentally ill out on the streets, his first act as president was to go union busting, he ignored AIDS until it was too late to do a thing about it, he preached and lived in fantasy land instaed of the real world, he turned the country against the ability of government to assist or help in our lives, and he turned us all against ourselves. He also sent our economic structure down a path of "let's build everything on paper", thus destroying our manufacturing, engineering and intellectual sectors as well. He was the first real shot across the bow of destroying the working class with working Americans taking a decades worth of paycut virtually overnight so that "business can remain profitable". I don't remember seeing any articles about how terrible it was for business before he came into office, though...
Reagan was no hero to anyone who can think, open their eyes and see for themselves what a screwing this country took from him. It sickened me to have to put up with the 10 day gush fest that was his funeral. I'm absolutely disgusted by their love of a buffoon who couldn't remember a thing, even at the beginning of his presidency.
The truth is that real people lost greatly during his time, but they were too well lied to by the press, who gave him a free pass once it was clear he couldn't remember facts to save his soul. In my estimation, not that it matters, but I put him just below nixon and slightly above W, who is the single worst ever. Reagan, however, runs a close second. At least Nixon opened up China and the Soviet Union. Reagan just screwed us.
Thank You Joe Conason, and I miss you on Al Frankens old radio show, it is not the same without you, we all MISS YOU VERY MUCH Is there any way you can come back doing Al's show?