by Wendy Walker
It took the president thirteen days in the hospital to recover from the lung puncture as his medical team administered intravenous fluids, oxygen, tetanus toxoid, and chest tubes.
He later described that night on our show on January 10, 1991:
REAGAN: I didn’t know I was shot. I heard a noise when we came out of the hotel and headed for the limousine, and I heard some noise, and I thought it was firecrackers. And the next thing I knew, one of the Secret Service agents behind me just seized me here by the waist and plunged me headfirst into the limo.
I landed on the seat, and the seat divider was down, and then he dived in on top of me, which is part of their procedure to make sure that I’m covered. As it turned out later, the shot that got me careened off the side of the limousine and hit me while I was diving into the car. And it hit me back here, under the arm, and then hit a rib, and that’s what caused extreme pain, and then it tumbled and turned—instead of edgewise, it went tumbling down to within an inch of my heart.
But when I got in the car, I hadn’t felt anything. He landed on top of me, and then the pain, which now I know came from the bullet hitting that rib, that terrific pain, and I said: “Jerry, get off, I think you have broken a rib of mine.” And he got off very quickly. And just then, I coughed. And I had a handful of bright, red, frothy blood. So I said: “Evidently, the broken rib has pierced the lung.” He simply turned and said, “George Washington Hospital,” and we were on our way.
When First Lady Nancy Reagan arrived in the emergency room after being informed that her husband had been shot, Reagan famously remarked to her, “Honey, I forgot to duck.” He borrowed that line from boxer Jack Dempsey, who said that to his wife when his opponent Gene Tunney knocked him out.
Jim Brady lived but was not as lucky as Reagan since he was permanently disabled. Hinckley was found “not guilty by reason of insanity” and lives in a psychiatric facility, St. Elizabeths, to this day, while they are allowing him extended visits with his mother.
As for Sam, he wrote a book some years later, in 1987, called Hold On, Mr. President, and I was surprised to see that he was still angry about the pool tape. The following is an excerpt:
I got to the Hilton in time to hear Reagan’s speech. We had two camera crews there, one set up on a tripod to photograph the President head-on, a second to roam through the ballroom getting reaction shots to use in editing the report. The second cameraman was Hank Brown, his partner carrying the videotape machine, Harry Weldon. I told Brown that when Reagan finished, I wanted him to stay on until the President left the room. I told him I would go upstairs and save a spot for him on the rope line outside to get Reagan’s departure from the hotel. “Get up there as fast as you can,” I said, “but I want the pictures of the President leaving the room, and if you don’t make it outside in time, I’ll work around that.” Brown got outside and into place on the rope line about thirty seconds before Reagan appeared.
I have often thought what might have happened to my career if he hadn’t made it. Later, when the furious postmortems would have been conducted as to why ABC News had none of its own pictures of the assassination attempt, Brown would have to say it was because I had told him to linger downstairs. Of course, Cable News Network had none of its own pictures that day (it hadn’t scheduled a camera crew outside), but it didn’t stop CNN; it just “lifted” ours off the air and used them as its own. No one at ABC knew it until a week later when a CNN producer friend of mine, Wendy Walker, told me how nice she thought it was for ABC to give permission for them to use our tape. Permission, hell. Walker wasn’t aware of it but it was pure theft.
Like it or not, we had become a permanent member of the pool and our status was rising steadily. All thanks to Ted, who thought bigger than anyone else dared.
THINK BIGGER THAN BIG
When I come up with an idea and I need courage and inspiration, I think of Ted Turner as the archetype for thinking big. Imagine the mind of someone who makes a determination that what the world needs most is a network that will provide the news twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Ted thought so big, so outside the box, that today, none of us could begin to imagine a world without being able to turn on the news at any time of night or day. And he didn’t care what anyone else thought. In fact, Ted was ridiculed, marginalized, and made fun of constantly while he allowed his mind to create a network so large and all-encompassing, it would become a household word.
This kind of man doesn’t care what anybody else thinks and is guided by his ability to think bigger than anyone else. And so, it made perfect sense that once Ted had created his idea of CNN and actually implemented it, he was fully prepared to sue the White House to be allowed in as part of the pool. While everyone was ridiculing him, he was busy creating a massive empire, based solely on what he had envisioned, which existed nowhere else in the world.
Did you know that one of our most common household items, the Post-it, was invented twice? The first man who thought of it, Spencer Silver, felt it was not useful because it didn’t have enough glue, and he let it go. Then, some years later, a forward-thinking man named Art Fry found a way to utilize Silver’s invention to locate certain passages in his church hymnal. In the end, these two mad scientists got together and became wealthy for creating something no one else believed in.
There are people all throughout history who took risks and thought bigger than big.
• Think about Ronald Reagan, an actor who became president.
• Computer genius and billionaire Bill Gates said, “The value of having everybody get the complete picture and trusting each person with it far outweighs the risk involved.”
• President Barack Obama said, “It’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you will realize your true potential. And if we’re willing to share the risks and the rewards this new century offers, it will be a victory for each of you, and for every American.”
• Author T. S. Eliot said, “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”
CHAPTER 9
Should You Really Care Who Gets the Credit?
When it came to pulling off TV coverage of summits that involved hundreds of crew, producers, and reporters, no one person could ever take credit for anything that happened. It was a group effort with so many twists, and so many fires that needed be put out, that it took all of us to untangle the confusions and extinguish the proverbial flames. And when a summit was over, I couldn’t believe we had gotten through it!
At the 1987 NATO summit in Berlin with the Soviets, for example, I recall the anticipation of waiting for Reagan’s speech at the Berlin Wall. CNN White House correspondent Charles Bierbauer was in a prime stand-up position on June 12, where he could see everything as it occurred. Charles, incidentally, was a perfect choice because he had lived in Germany for five years, working for CNN. An avid student of the Cold War, he was on the platform in front of the Berlin Wall as the anticipation for Reagan’s speech escalated.
Frank Sesno, also a CNN White House correspondent, was doing the pool and he and I were in the makeshift control room. We had gotten an advance copy of Reagan’s speech and there was a line that made all of us cringe. “I don’t know about him asking Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall,” Frank said. “It’s so in your face that it could be interpreted as a cynical cheap shot. I don’t know how people are going to take this.”
We weren’t the only ones who felt that way. We didn’t know at the time that Reagan had just finished a raging debate with the State Department and his aides who also advised him to take out the provocative line. In fact, they came as close to insisting as they could manage, but Reagan would not budge.
That turned out to be a golden decision on his part since his appeal to the Soviet leader, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” would eventually become the definitive signature line of his eight-year presidency. A signature line stays with a president for better or worse, and some other presidents
have not been so lucky. Think about George H. W. Bush, whose signature line was, “Read my lips. No new taxes.” Or Bill Clinton, whose unfortunate signature line was, “I did not have sex with that woman.”
We sat there in the control room on the fourth floor of a building that overlooked the Brandenburg Gate. It was really creepy to peer over the wall from where we sat and gaze down at what looked like a prison camp. During the pre-advance trip, Gary Foster, head of Reagan’s press advance office, and I had been standing at the gate, discussing the staging for the talk to come, when I realized that Reagan would not be facing the wall. That meant his back would face East Berlin. Amid his Secret Service detail who were milling around and working out security arrangements, I said a little too loudly to Gary, “Aren’t they afraid he could get shot from East Berlin?”
Gary literally put his hand over my mouth. He was mortified that someone from security would make us leave.
Now, with his back to the gate, President Reagan delivered his highly dramatic appeal:
We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. 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!
“I looked at the sound man who was standing next to me,” says Charles Bierbauer, “as we were hearing these words come out of the president’s mouth. ‘Nice rhetoric,’ I said with sarcasm, ‘but that’s never going to happen.’ ”
Charles saw the rhetoric as a substitute for reality, the very thing that had torn apart the German nation. After all, he had lived there for years and in his opinion, “It felt like Reagan’s plea to the Soviet leader was more like Kennedy saying, ‘Ich bin ein Berliner.’ That was rhetoric, too, and the irony was that Kennedy didn’t speak it correctly. The word ‘Berliner’ was also the name of a dessert. When Kennedy left in the ‘ein,’ that made the actual translation something you would say in Germany when you ordered a jelly donut.”
Later in his speech, President Reagan said:
As I looked out a moment ago from the Reichstag, that embodiment of German unity, I noticed words crudely spray-painted upon the wall, perhaps by a young Berliner, “This wall will fall. Beliefs become reality.” Yes, across Europe, this wall will fall. For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom.
He also called an end to the arms race, which was met with polite applause. In fact, there was no wild reaction one way or the other until three years later, in September 1990, when former President Reagan returned to Berlin where he personally took a few symbolic hammer swings at a remnant of the wall.
I happened to be in Malta at the time, doing a pre-advance for an upcoming summit and I wanted to see this historic moment for myself. After all, I had been there when he gave the speech three years prior. I remember running around Malta, a somewhat isolated island, searching for a way to watch CNN. I finally found one hotel with communications that were advanced enough to pick up our network. As I watched the Berlin Wall fall, I remembered an inspiring motto that sat on President Reagan’s desk in the Oval Office of the White House:
THERE IS NO LIMIT TO WHAT A MAN CAN DO
OR WHERE HE CAN GO
IF HE DOESN’T MIND WHO GETS THE CREDIT.
When I first saw it, I copied it down on a piece of paper that sat on my desk for a long time. It was also on my close friend Ali’s desk. Today, they sell this adage on plaques at the Reagan Library, and as tough as it is, I do my best to live up to it every single day.
The lesson here is that the tearing down of the wall will always be seen as a defining moment in Cold War history. For me, watching Reagan beseech Gorbachev to end the boundaries between East and West Berlin was a moment I will never forget. But to this day, there is disagreement over how much influence, if any, Reagan’s bold speech actually had. No one can say for sure who deserves the credit, but most people are relieved that the wall is down, whoever caused it to happen.
As a producer, I am like a ghost person who stands in the background. All my decisions are made strategically for the good of the network and the current situation. In the end, no one can take credit for anything because it takes a large group of people, including mostly unsung heroes, to create a summit and to pull it off. Since I am not in a position where people credit me for whatever success we are having, I have learned not to measure my self-esteem by somebody noticing my work. As a producer, that isn’t going to happen. It’s an old story: When you make a mistake, you get called onto the mat and everyone tells you about it. At CNN, we try to remember to credit the people who deserve it, but sometimes we get so caught up in what we’re doing, we forget. That doesn’t mean that people are not appreciated, though. When times are chaotic and you do something wrong, you’ll be called out. But when you do something right and you hear nothing from anyone, that just might be the highest compliment of all.
A great irony is that after all the years I produced TV coverage for summits between the Soviet Union and the United States, I had never met or even seen Mikhail Gorbachev in person. I was always in the control room when he was onstage, and by the time it was over, he was gone. This was true in Malta, Geneva, and Reykjavik, as well as our other venues, because as much as I wanted to meet the Soviet president and shake his hand, I was too busy doing my job.
It is doubly ironic, then, that I finally met Mikhail Gorbachev years after I left my job as White House producer. Skip forward to when I was working with Larry. I thought that Mikhail Gorbachev would be our dream guest, so I sent him a book about Russian and American art. The card said, “I covered all of your summits and now, I’m producing Larry King Live.”
Maybe he got it and maybe he didn’t. But we eventually landed an interview with him on our show when he wrote a book he wanted to promote. I suggested to Larry that we take him to dinner before the show to break the ice. We agreed to meet at a restaurant called Duke Zeibert’s, a DC political hangout on Connecticut Avenue, and I was in awe as I stood at the escalator, waiting for Mikhail Gorbachev to arrive. When I spotted his balding head and the telltale scar on his forehead at the bottom of the escalator, I was stunned at my good fortune.
He and his interpreter began to ride up, and when they arrived at the top of the escalator, I put out my hand. “How do you do, Mr. Gorbachev?” I said. “My name is Wendy Walker and I produced eleven US-Soviet summits for CNN from 1983 to 1993. And this is the first time I’m meeting you in person.”
His eyes got wider and his smile became warmer. He looked like he felt that, just maybe, he was in good hands as I escorted him to the table where Larry was already seated. As we ordered and engaged in some conversation, I couldn’t help but marvel at the way things had worked out. During a decade of summits, I had been all over the world with the Soviet president, in Geneva, Malta, Helsinki, Berlin, Reykjavik, and Moscow, and many more places. Now, after leaving the White House job and signing on with Larry King, here I was, meeting and having dinner with Mikhail Gorbachev for the very first time.
When anyone asks me to name the biggest guest we ever had on the Larry King Live show, I always answer, “Mikhail Gorbachev.” It meant so much to me personally because his appearance on our show represented so much history and so much effort to get to that moment.
On a CNN live special at the funeral site of President Reagan, in June 2004, Larry hosted a final farewell to President Reagan. Former president Mikhail Gorbachev spoke with Larry, through a translator, about his former friend and opponent:
GORBACHEV: I’ve been thinking again about many things that happened in the past. It was the will of destiny that at the most difficult time that the world was going through, when it seemed that only a miracle
could stop the process of confrontation and of tension, we were able together to stop it, and this was done, thanks to the fact that the US leadership, particularly the president of the United States, President Reagan, and the Soviet leadership understood where the world was moving and how far the arms race had gone.
I remembered, when I was there, the history between us. It is really unique. It all began when, after the first meeting in Geneva, we even exchanged some bitter remarks. But in Geneva, two days were enough for us to begin to understand each other, and we adopted a statement saying that nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. It was a difficult dialogue. I do not want to be simplistic… But then trust emerged and it became easier to solve problems. And he turned out to be the person [with] whom we were able to get along and then to become friends.
He was a person who had a big heart, a person who had his values, and a person for whom the wish to do something… to make a difference, to support his friends, but in particular to support the mood of the entire nation, this was very, very typical of him. I saw that, and I valued those qualities of President Reagan. He was a wonderful man. He was an extraordinary person.
How amazing that after having such a close relationship with Reagan, Gorbachev would be talking to Larry during the funeral coverage. I will never forget Gorbachev looking at Reagan’s coffin covered with an American flag at the rotunda in Washington. Two enemies who had turned into profound friends. What a lesson! What a moment!
SHOULD YOU REALLY CARE WHO GETS THE CREDIT?
Even when no one gives you personal credit for what you did to make something a success, they know who you are. It always comes out eventually, even if someone else claims credit for what you did. More times than I can count, I worked my butt off on something and then someone took my ideas, put them in a memo, and claimed them. But the right people knew where the ideas came from, and these days, so do I.