Reagan
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“If you were to call”: Robert Roubik, interview with author, June 2, 2015.
Neither of them was: Joanne Bell, interview with author, June 19, 2015.
“That day, everyone’s blood pressure”: Joanne Bell, interview with author, June 19, 2015.
“Can anybody tell me”: Wesley Price, quoted in Pekkanen, “The Saving of the President.”
“Look, Bill,” Price said: Robert Roubik, interview with author, June 2, 2015.
“The amount of noise”: Ibid.
“Am I dying?”: Wilber, Rawhide Down, pp. 109–10.
After clearing the corridors: “Young staffers were parading around crying, ‘Oh my God, the President’s been shot.’ We didn’t have all the information at the time.” Richard Allen, interview with author, Aug. 14, 2014.
“George, it’s Al—turn around”: Richard V. Allen, “The Day Reagan Was Shot,” The Atlantic Monthly, April 2001.
“sat against the wall”: Richard Allen, interview with author, Aug. 14, 2014.
“Nobody in the Sit Room”: Fred Fielding, interview with author, Sept. 30, 2014.
“two minutes closer”: Caspar Weinberger, quoted in declassified top-secret transcript, Mar. 30, 1981, Richard V. Allen Papers, RRPL, p. 23.
“We determined it was eight”: Richard Allen, interview with author, Aug. 14, 2014.
As a result, Weinberger increased: “I then told General Jones that we should increase the alert for the Strategic Air Command forces.” Caspar Weinberger, Fighting for Peace (New York: Warner Books, 1990), p. 87.
The president, if he felt: “It is being prepared right now.” Caspar Weinberger, quoted in declassified top-secret transcript, Mar. 30, 1981, p. 16.
But the president was currently: David Gergen, quoted in declassified top-secret transcript, Mar. 30, 1981, p. 16.
And at 3:25 p.m.: Tom Mathews, “Reagan’s Close Call,” Newsweek, Apr. 13, 1981.
“The helm is right here”: Alexander Haig, quoted in declassified top-secret transcript, Mar. 30, 1981, p. 16.
accordingly “Fuck you!”: “We rolled our eyes and just went: ‘Fuck you!’” Richard Allen, interview with author, Aug. 14, 2014.
“blood in the pleural cavity”: Herbert L. Abrams, “The President Has Been Shot” (New York: W. W. Norton, 1992), p. 61.
“The President’s blood pressure”: Joseph Giordano, “How We Saved Reagan’s Life,” Newsweek, Mar. 13, 2011; Rachel Muir, “Saving the President,” GW Today (website), gwtoday.gwu.edu.
“‘Where do we go’”: “They were remarkably calm.” Robert Roubik, interview with author, June 2, 2015.
“Ronnie looked pale and gray”: NR/MT, p. 6.
CT scans of Brady’s brain: Pekkanen, “The Saving of the President.”
Known as a Devastator: “Mr. Hinckley fired six shots with a .22-caliber revolver loaded with explosive bullets called Devastators.” “‘Six Shots’: A Presidential Assassin Fails—Just Barely,” New York Times, Apr. 5, 1981.
“We are not going to”: Arthur Kobrine, quoted in Robert Roubik, interview with author, June 2, 2015.
“Who’s minding the store?”: RR, quoted in Lyn Nofziger, interview, MCPA, p. 42; Edwin Meese, interview with author, Mar. 18, 2015; James Baker, quoted in Weinberger, Fighting for Peace, p. 93.
“He looked terrible, pale”: Edwin Meese, interview with author, Mar. 18, 2015.
Certainly the surgeon, Ben Aaron: “He didn’t want to be wheeling a 70-year-old patient who was in shock into the operating room for chest surgery.” Pekkanen, “The Saving of the President.”
led by “extremely aggressive”: Joanne Bell, interview with author, June 19, 2015.
CBS was the first: “Dan Rather reported on television that Jim Brady had died from his wounds.” Weinberger, Fighting for Peace, p. 92.
Bill Plante, the ABC News: “He saw me nod my head affirmatively and took that as confirmation that Jim had died.” David Prosperi, interview with author, Sept. 24, 2014.
Howard Baker, the Senate: “Here it is: Howard Baker announced that Jim Brady is dead.” Declassified top-secret transcript, tape 3, Mar. 30, 1981, Richard V. Allen Papers, RRPL.
Dick Allen was infuriated: “Gergen would come into the Sit Room from time to time, and then he would leave. I knew he was leaking.” Richard Allen, interview with author, Aug. 14, 2014.
“He’s making a mess”: Al Haig, quoted in Ibid.
“Who’s running the government”: Larry Speakes with Robert Pack, Speaking Out (New York: Chas. Scribner’s Sons, 1988), p. 7; Alexander M. Haig, Jr., Caveat: Realism, Reagan and Foreign Policy (New York: Macmillan, 1984), p. 159.
“This is very bad”: Richard Allen and Alexander Haig, quoted in declassified top-secret transcript, Mar. 30, 1981, Richard V. Allen Papers, RRPL, p. 16.
“We’ve got to get”: Ibid., tape 2, p. 26.
“He started to quiver”: Richard Allen, interview with author, Aug. 14, 2014.
“Constitutionally, gentlemen, you have”: Alexander Haig, quoted in declassified top-secret transcript, tape 2, p. 14, Mar. 30, 1981, tape 2, p. 26, Richard V. Allen Papers, RRPL.
“What’s this all about?”: Donald Regan, quoted in Richard V. Allen, “When Reagan Was Shot, Who Was ‘In Control’ at the White House?” Washington Post, Mar. 25, 2011.
Cap Weinberger very calmly announced: “He said that I should read the Constitution.” Weinberger, Fighting for Peace, pp. 89–90; Richard Allen, interview with author, Aug. 14, 2014.
“They were not getting”: Edwin Meese, interview with author, Mar. 18, 2015.
“Please tell me”: Pekkanen, “The Saving of the President”; Giordano, “How We Saved Reagan’s Life.”
“He didn’t look much different”: Robert Roubik, interview with author, June 2, 2015.
“a physique like”: Max Friedersdorf, interview, MCPA, Oct. 24, 2002, p. 61.
“I’ve got it!”: Wilber, Rawhide Down, p. 184.
“We are not going”: Arthur Kobrine, quoted in Robert Roubik, interview with author, June 2, 2015.
Heartbroken, Allen picked up: Richard Allen, interview with author, Aug. 14, 2014.
he grew groggy: “About 8 p.m. the President experienced pain and was given morphine.” Pekkanen, “The Saving of the President.”
“Am I alive?” he wrote: Ibid.
“All in all, I’d rather”: “Seriously, Folks . . . ” Time, Apr. 13, 1981.
“I’d like to do this scene”: Michael K. Deaver with Mickey Herskowitz, Behind the Scenes (New York: William Morrow & Co., 1987), p. 23.
Joanne Bell, the change nurse: “The Secret Service had told me, ‘Do not tell him anyone else was hurt.’” Joanne Bell, interview with author, June 19, 2015.
“deranged loner,” as far: “The President’s Close Call,” Newsweek, Apr. 13, 1981.
“a friend of mine”: John Hinckley, quoted in Wilber, Rawhide Down, p. 128.
“Jodie,” he had scrawled: “John Hinckley’s Last Love Letter to Jodie Foster,” Newsweek, Apr. 13, 1981.
“Let the machine breathe”: Joanne Bell, interview with author, June 19, 2015.
“This is it . . .”: Pekkanen, “The Saving of the President.”
“What was that guy’s beef?”: Wilber, Rawhide Down, p. 210.
“Mr. President,” she said: Joanne Bell, interview with author, June 19, 2015.
“What makes you think”: Reeves, President Reagan, p. 44.
“It was the first: Kenneth Duberstein, interview with author, June 16, 2014.
“a great big burly bear”: “Tip O’Neill was pretty brusque.” Max Friedersdorf, interview, MCPA, Oct. 24, 2002, p. 59.
THIRTY-THREE: CRACKS IN THE FOUNDATION
Following the assassination attempt: An NBC/Associated Press poll reported RR’s favorable rating at 77 percent. White House News Survey, Apr. 18, 1981,
RRPL.
Even reluctant Democrats began edging: Among Democrats his approval rating was 64 percent. Ibid.
“That reception,” he joked: AAL, p. 285.
“In order to win in the House”: Kenneth Duberstein, interview with author, June 16, 2014.
“I’d been handed a steamin’ turd”: Richard Allen, interview with author, Aug. 14, 2014; “AWACS was a stone that came down the Hill on top of us.” Max Friedersdorf, interview, MCPA, Oct. 24, 2002, p. 66.
“the Saudis, who were notoriously”: Max Friedersdorf, interview, MCPA, Oct. 24, 2002, p. 66.
An early loose poll: Ibid.
“Totally hopeless” was how: Ibid., p. 67.
“We pulled out all the stops”: Edwin Meese, interview with author, Apr. 24, 2015.
The president leveraged his support: Kenneth Duberstein, interview with author, Oct. 1, 2014.
“reminding Heflin that the Bible”: Richard Reeves, President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005), pp. 94–95.
“Now Ronnie, you remember”: Max Friedersdorf, interview, MCPA, Oct. 24, 2002, p. 67.
Four rabbis appeared: “AIPAC is making all sort of religious bigotry remarks up here.” Warren Rudman, quoted in Ibid., p. 68.
“It is not the business”: “Ron to Israel: Butt Out—Raps Jewish Anti-AWACS Lobby,” New York Daily News, Oct. 2, 1981.
“It was my job to bring”: Richard Allen, interview with author, Aug. 14, 2014.
“His philosophical approach”: Jim Wright, quoted in Laurence Barrett, Gambling with History: Reagan in the White House (New York: Doubleday, 1983), p. 15.
“The President has become a hero”: Tip O’Neill, quoted in John A. Farrell, Tip O’Neill and the Democratic Century (Boston: Little, Brown, 2001), p. 556.
But in mid-May: David E. Rosenbaum, “First Major Cuts in Social Security Proposed in Detailed Reagan Plan,” New York Times date?
He had been told: Lou Cannon, President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991), p. 804.
“The president primarily wanted”: Edwin Meese, interview with author, Apr. 24, 2015.
“A woman’s so-called right”: Ibid.
O’Connor was personally against: Reeves, President Reagan, p. 74.
“she was a woman of great”: AAL, p. 280.
“Dammit,” he fumed: RR, quoted at Cabinet meeting, July 7, 1981, in handwritten notes taken by David Gergen, David Gergen Papers, Box 1, RRPL.
“too few people working”: RR, letter to Robert E. Poli, Oct. 20, 1980, David Gergen Papers, Box 1, RRPL.
But Drew Lewis reported: “Drew says they’re overstaffed now.” Notations ascribed to Drew Lewis by David Gergen, written in the margins of the Poli letter, Ibid.
the FAA proposed $50 million: Craig Fuller, “Memorandum for the President,” June 18, 1981, David Gergen Papers, Box 1, RRPL.
“The foremost factor in the front”: Edwin Meese, interview with author, Apr. 24, 2015.
“desertion in the face of duty”: RR, quoted at Cabinet meeting, July 7, 1981, Gergen notes.
“her appointment would cause”: Memorandum, “Congressional Telephone Calls,” July 7, 1981, Max Friedersdorf Papers, RRPL.
In particular, they protested: Phil Gailey, “Reagan Accused of Betraying Right,” Washington Star, July 10, 1981.
“the bête noire of pro-family”: Michael Uhlmann, White House memo to Edwin Meese, “Candidacy of Judge O’Connor for the Supreme Court,” July 6, 1981, Edwin Meese Papers, Box 57, RRPL.
“the best thing he’s done”: Tip O’Neill, quoted in Newsweek, July 20, 1981.
“Every good Christian ought”: Barry Goldwater, quoted in Reeves, President Reagan, p. 75.
But Reagan believed that: “All we are asking is that the Constitution be interpreted, as I believe it really reads, to say that if someone wants to have prayer in school, they can have prayer in school.” Thomas Plate, “Reagan on the American Family,” Family Weekly, June 1984.
“practiced and revered”: RR, president’s weekly radio address, Feb. 25, 1984, RRPL.
“faith in a Creator”: Howell Raines, “Reagan Endorses Voluntary Prayer,” New York Times, May 7, 1982.
“Our strategic forces were growing”: AAL, p. 205.
“There was a perception”: John Lehman, interview with author, Oct. 16, 2014.
The Air Force claimed: Richard Perle, interview with author, Apr. 25, 2015.
“a one-way street”: RR, press conference, Jan. 29, 1981, transcript, RRPL.
“would be of great benefit”: Lou Cannon, “Arms Boost Seen as Strain on Soviets,” Washington Post, June 19, 1980.
“I wanted to let him know”: AAL, p. 270.
“Reagan had looked”: Richard Allen, interview with author, Aug. 14, 2014.
Al Haig called it “naïve”: quoted in Cannon, President Reagan, p. 301.
“it was crazy”: Richard Allen, interview with author, Aug. 14, 2014.
“This isn’t what I had written”: RR and Mike Deaver, quoted in Deborah Hart Strober and Gerald S. Strober, Reagan: The Man and His Presidency (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998), p. 116.
“Ronald Reagan loved it”: Richard Perle, interview with author, Apr. 24, 2015.
“a frivolous propaganda exercise”: Alexander M. Haig, Jr., Caveat: Realism, Reagan and Foreign Policy (New York: Macmillan, 1984), p. 229.
“still the greatest guarantor”: Al Haig, interview with Lou Cannon, June 6, 1989, LCA, Box 23, Folder 2, p. 4.
“I remember one meeting”: Richard Perle, interview with author, Apr. 24, 2015.
“They cannot fly”: Robert Poli, quoted in Los Angeles Times, July 15, 1981.
“If passengers are killed”: Robert Poli, quoted in “Who Controls the Air?” Newsweek, Aug. 17, 1981.
“I must tell those”: Ronald Reagan, “Statement Before the Press,” Aug. 3, 1981, transcript, David Gergen Papers, Box 1, RRPL; Howell Raines, “Reagan Warns Controllers to Return or Face Dismissal,” New York Times, Aug. 4, 1981.
A federal judge in Brooklyn: Joseph B. Treaster, “Crowds and Confusion Are Easing as Delays at Airports Are Reduced,” New York Times, Aug. 5, 1981.
“The weekend before the strike”: Edwin Meese, interview with author, Apr. 24, 2015.
“I’m doing the right thing”: Fred Fielding, interview with author, Sept. 30, 2014.
A Gallup poll: “Who Controls the Air?” Newsweek.
“The message is getting around”: David Broder column, Washington Post, Aug. 9, 1981.
Qaddafi “a madman”: “Qaddafi was an unpredictable fanatic.” AAL, pp. 280–81.
“You can follow them”: RR, quoted in Edwin Meese, interview with author, Apr. 24, 2015.
“Let’s make sure we have”: Ibid.
“He made a serious mistake”: NR/MT, p. 241.
“Meese’s decision not to notify”: Washington Post, Aug. 18, 1981.
“The balanced budget is long gone”: William Greider, “The Education of David Stockman,” The Atlantic Monthly, Dec. 1, 1981.
“Federal interest rates soared”: Nicole Lewis, “Did Ronald Reagan’s Tax Cut Super-Charge the Economy?” “Fact-Checker” column, Washington Post, Nov. 8, 2017.
“A slight one”: Washington Post, Oct. 22, 1981.
“your ass is in a sling”: Jim Baker, quoted in David Stockman, The Triumph of Politics: Why the Reagan Revolution Failed (New York: Harper & Row, 1986), p. 4.
“I urged the president”: Edwin Meese, interview with author, Apr. 24, 2015.
He regularly undercut Haig: Lou Cannon, Reagan (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1982), p. 395.
“had a lot of hostility”: “Mike didn’t like Dick, pure and simple.” Edwin Meese, interview with author, Apr. 24, 2015.
“I went across”: Richard Allen, intervie
w with author, Aug. 14, 2014.
“Al hasn’t steered me wrong”: Cannon, Reagan, p. 396.
“we had the Soviets”: Alexander Haig, interview with Lou Cannon, June 6, 1989, LCA, Box 23, Folder 2, p. 17; “[The Soviets] are in very bad shape.” AAL, p. 316.
an “arch villain”: “No sooner did the President approve something than he would sabotage it.” Ibid., p. 16.
“There was hardly an issue”: Ibid., p. 12.
“He isn’t a mean man”: Alexander Haig, quoted in Reeves, President Reagan, p. 111.
“We’ll see who has”: “I couldn’t believe he said that.” Richard Allen, interview with author, Aug. 14, 2014.
removed from a receiving line: “In the protocol line, Al was gently asked, ‘Mr. Secretary, would you take your place here on the floor?’ And Al got really mad about that.” Robert McFarlane, interview with author, Sept. 30, 2014.
a scheme his own lieutenants: “I disagreed, which may be why he got rid of me and sent me back to the White House.” Ibid.
Six months later: “I wrote a memorandum to him at the end of February.” Alexander Haig, interview with Lou Cannon, June 6, 1989, LCA, p. 20.
“There was a clash”: Robert McFarlane, interview with author, Sept. 30, 2014.
“This mustn’t happen again”: RR, quoted in Haig, Caveat, p. 311.
“guerrilla warfare by a bunch”: Alexander Haig, interview with Lou Cannon, June 6, 1989, LCA, p. 21.
“the crucial give-and-take”: George P. Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph: My Years as Secretary of State (New York: Scribner, 1993), p. 33.
Weinberger also believed that Shultz: Caspar Weinberger, Fighting for Peace (New York: Warner Books, 1990), p. 159.
“we should push very hard”: Cannon, President Reagan, p. 310.
“The brutal fact is”: George Shultz to Lawrence Eagleburger, quoted in Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph, p. 105.
“Ronald Reagan was just livid”: Robert McFarlane, interview with author, Sept. 30, 2014.
“If we show ourselves unable”: RR, quoted in Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph, p. 106.
“The nation,” as Tip O’Neill: Reeves, President Reagan, p. 121.
Unemployment had risen: Lewis, “Did Ronald Reagan’s Tax Cut.”