Killing Reagan

by Bill O'Reilly

    4. Reagan might also have been fired from GE Theater because he was speaking out against the Tennessee Valley Authority, in which General Electric had a financial interest. And there was also a drop in the ratings, due to Bonanza being moved to a Sunday night slot opposite GE Theater. The popular Western won the top spot easily.

    5. The lone American student on the panel is a former Princeton basketball player and Olympic gold medalist currently attending Oxford University on a Rhodes scholarship. Bill Bradley is twenty-three years old and will one day go on to play ten seasons in the National Basketball Association and serve three terms in the U.S. Senate. He was called upon to speak just once during the Kennedy-Reagan debate, and his comments were notable for his civil tone and a failed attempt to defuse the arrogant hostility of many of his fellow panelists.

    6. The 1968 election was one of the closest in American history. Nixon beat Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey by winning thirty-two states and 301 electoral votes. The results were so close that Nixon was not assured of victory for more than fifteen hours after the polls closed on Election Day.

  Chapter Nine

    1. “Pat” Nixon was born Thelma Catherine Ryan in 1912. She earned the nickname Pat as a child because of her family’s Irish heritage and because she was born the day before St. Patrick’s Day. She is older than her husband by ten months.

    2. Nixon slept in the very bed used by Truman and Eisenhower. It was not until Gerald Ford’s residence that a president and First Lady slept in the same bedroom. Pat Nixon’s room was officially known as the master bedroom of the White House and was where Abraham Lincoln slept. The room we know as the Lincoln Bedroom was actually an office used by Lincoln and is often said to be the scene of ghost sightings. The White House was completely gutted during the 1948–52 renovation.

    3. An anti-Reagan group led by organized labor and the California teachers’ unions failed to collect the signatures necessary to recall Governor Reagan. The only successful recall attempt in that state occurred in 2003, when Governor Gray Davis was removed from office and replaced by Hollywood actor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

    4. Sinatra was furious when President John Kennedy refused to stay at his Palm Springs home because of the singer’s alleged Mafia connections. Sinatra switched his allegiance to the Republican Party as a result.

    5. Nixon accepted the resignations of advisers H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, as well as that of Attorney General Richard Kleindienst. He fired White House counsel John Dean for his role in a Watergate cover-up, despite the fact that Dean had been ordered by the White House to lie. This makes an enemy out of Dean, who will subsequently provide very damning testimony against Nixon.

    6. Spiro Agnew served as vice president from 1969 to 1973. He was very controversial, particularly because he attacked the press, once famously calling journalists “nattering nabobs of negativism.” He was accused of taking bribes and kickbacks from contractors during his time as governor of Maryland, a practice that continued into his vice presidency. He was ultimately accused of tax evasion, conspiracy, bribery, and tax fraud. However, he plea-bargained those charges down to just one: income tax evasion, to which he pleaded no contest. The terms of this deal included three years’ probation and resignation from the office of vice president of the United States. Agnew never spoke to Richard Nixon again once he left office, but he was in attendance at Nixon’s funeral in 1994. Spiro Agnew died of leukemia in 1996 at seventy-seven.

    7. Voice-activated tape recorders were located in the Oval Office, the Executive Office Building office, the Cabinet Room, and in the Aspen Lodge at Camp David. In addition, microphones were placed inside telephones in those locations and in the Lincoln Sitting Room. Nixon was taping the conversations for posterity, knowing that one day historians would be interested in the 3,700 hours of conversations that he taped between the installation of the tape recording system in early 1971 and July 12, 1973, when he stopped recording due to the Watergate scandal. Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson had also made it a habit to tape White House conversations.

    8. Edward Cox, who is married to Nixon’s daughter Tricia, had been a staunch defender of Nixon throughout Watergate. But by August 6, 1974, he realized that Nixon was no longer capable of governing. When Michigan senator Robert Griffin told Cox that Nixon seemed completely rational, Cox informed him, “The President was up walking the halls last night, talking to pictures of former presidents—giving speeches and talking to the pictures on the wall.”

    9. The Presidential Succession Act of 1792 (amended in 1886, 1947, and 1967) stipulated which individual would be next in line for the presidency. It was always understood that a president would leave office before the completion of his term only through death, not resignation. However, in the unlikely event resignation should take place, Section 11 of the act requires the president to submit an instrument of resignation in writing to the secretary of state.

  10. Nixon’s helicopter takes him to Andrews Air Force Base, where he boards Air Force One with his family. The plane flies to El Toro Marine Corps Station in Orange County, California, where Nixon then travels by car to his home on the ocean in San Clemente. Air Force One is thirteen miles southwest of Jefferson City, Missouri, when Gerald Ford takes the oath of office as president of the United States. As Air Force One carries that designation only when the president is on board, pilot Ralph Albertazzie radios ground control to ask for a new call sign. Thus, Richard Nixon’s presidency finally and officially comes to an end.

  Chapter Eleven

    1. Bureau of Labor Statistics adjust this figure to roughly $872,000 in today’s currency.

    2. The Department of Defense once considered January 1, 1961, as the first official day of the Vietnam War. However, American military advisers were in the country long before that. This meant that the name of U.S. Air Force Technical Sergeant Richard Fitzgibbon Jr., who died in 1956, before the war officially began, could not be listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. The policy was changed in 1998, shifting the start of the war to November 1, 1955. Fitzgibbon and eight others are now listed on the wall. Fitzgibbon’s son was killed in action in Vietnam on September 7, 1965. This makes them one of only three father-and-son service members to die in that conflict. The others were Leo Hester Sr. and Leo Hester Jr.; and Fred and Bert Jenkins.

    3. The amiable Ford is a good sport about the send-up. He and Chase will go on to become friends, and Ford will even host a special comedy symposium at his presidential library in 1986—at which Chase will appear.

    4. Patti Reagan takes her mother’s maiden name while in college because her liberal political views clash with those of her father. Beginning in 1974, she has a four-year relationship with Bernie Leadon, a founding member of the Eagles. Together, they write the song “I Wish You Peace,” which appears on the Eagles’ One of These Nights album.

    5. The marriage of Kristin and Rick Nelson is already strained at the time, thanks to the constant travel required by his musical career—and to his womanizing. They will reconcile and split several times before finally divorcing in 1982. Rick Nelson left his entire estate to his four children, leaving Kristin Nelson with nothing after he died in a plane crash in De Kalb, Texas, on New Year’s Eve 1985. Kristin Nelson is the older sister of television star Mark Harmon.

    6. The quote comes from White House counselor to the president Robert T. Hartmann, who is best known for penning Ford’s inaugural address in 1974.

    7. On that same day, November 4, 1975, Ford also appoints Donald Rumsfeld as secretary of defense, Dick Cheney as White House chief of staff, and George H. W. Bush as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. All three men will play pivotal roles in American politics for the next thirty years.

    8. Michael Lance Carvin is an admirer of convicted mass murderer Charles Manson’s acolyte, Squeaky F
romme, who tried to assassinate Gerald Ford. The pistol turns out to be a toy replica of an actual pistol. Carvin, who phoned the Denver office of the Secret Service two weeks earlier to make death threats against Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and Nelson Rockefeller, is arrested and later convicted of eight felony charges on April 19, 1976. Carvin is released on bail while awaiting sentencing and promptly flees. Federal agents finally capture him in Lake City, Florida, and Carvin is sent to prison. He is released on January 4, 1982, and resumes a normal life, including getting married and landing a steady job. However, in 1998 he is accused of making death threats against controversial disc jockey Howard Stern. He is sentenced to two years in federal prison, a period reduced to seven months. His current location is unknown.

    9. The enmity between Reagan and Ford only grew in the months leading up to the convention. Ford cleverly hired Stuart Spencer to run his campaign, well aware that Spencer managed both of Reagan’s gubernatorial victories in California. This insider knowledge of Reagan’s rhetoric helped Ford win the opening primary in New Hampshire by painting Reagan as keen to levy taxes. Should Ford have lost in New Hampshire, the election might have been over. Yet he continued his string of victories in Massachusetts, Florida, and Illinois. Then, just as Reagan’s staffers were suggesting their candidate quit the race, Reagan won the North Carolina primary. He accused Ford of letting the United States fall behind the Soviet Union in the global arms race, which played into America’s mourning over the loss in Vietnam. Ford countered with an attack ad suggesting Ronald Reagan would be quick to start a nuclear war. Ford also sowed seeds of discontent among Reagan backers by inviting influential delegates to the White House, campaigning for delegates seeking political office, and allowing key delegates to be seen with him at important celebrations, such as the 1976 U.S. Bicentennial gala in New York.

  10. Reagan is quoting Gen. Douglas MacArthur, in his final address to Congress on April 19, 1951, in which he concluded fifty-two years of military service with the same words. MacArthur also famously uttered the line “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.”

  Chapter Twelve

    1. Turnout for the Truman-Dewey race in 1948 was 51.1 percent. Carter-Ford in 1976 was 53.55 percent. The lowest turnout in modern history is 49 percent for the Clinton-Dole contest in 1996. Until 1900, voter turnout in the United States frequently exceeded 75 percent. The highest in recorded U.S. history was 81.8 percent in 1876, when Republican Rutherford B. Hayes of New York lost the popular vote but won the election over Democrat Samuel Tilden of New York by one vote cast by the congressionally appointed Electoral Commission.

    2. Nancy Reagan and Betty Ford were a study in contrasts, with Betty’s fun-loving persona a polar opposite to Nancy’s steely self-control. The press called their appearance at the 1976 Republican National Convention the “battle of the queens” and wrote extensively on their choices of dress and hairstyle. At one point during the convention, an ovation for Nancy Reagan was cut short when the band launched into “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree,” whereupon Betty Ford and singer Tony Orlando got up onstage and danced. Nancy Reagan seethed. The competition did not end at the convention, with Nancy making it a point to write critically of Betty Ford in her 1989 memoir, My Turn.

    3. Reagan normally tapes just fifteen radio spots at a time. He does this with producer Harry O’Connor. Each address is three minutes long and most are written by Reagan himself.

  4. Just as they did with Ford’s pratfalls, Saturday Night Live was quick to spoof Carter’s gaffe. In a skit that aired the night of October 16, 1976, Dan Aykroyd played the part of Carter in a mock interview with a female journalist, Liz Montgomery of the New York Post, played by Jane Curtin.

  MONTGOMERY: Governor Carter, you have said that the Playboy interview may have been a mistake. Do you think you are being too honest with the American people, and do you still lust after women?

  GOVERNOR CARTER: Well, I don’t think there’s such a thing as being too honest, uh, Ms. Montgomery, and just to prove it I’m going to answer honestly how I feel right now … I want to say that you’re a very attractive woman, and your hair looks kind of silky and kind of soft and, uh, at this moment, in my heart, I’m wearing a leather mask and breathing in your ear.

    5. Carter narrowly beat Ford in the popular vote, 50 percent to 48 percent. However, he garnered 297 of the electoral votes to Ford’s 240, thus sealing his victory.

  Chapter Thirteen

    1. The twenty-one-year-old Bremer attacked Wallace at a campaign rally in Laurel, Maryland, firing four bullets into Wallace’s body at close range. One bullet lodged in Wallace’s spine, paralyzing him for life. Three other bullets wounded nearby police officers and campaign volunteers. Bremer was sentenced to fifty-three years in prison but was released after thirty-five. He is now a free man.

    2. Foster won the role over a reported 250 other actresses, including Kim Basinger, Mariel Hemingway, Carrie Fisher, Bo Derek, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Debra Winger, and Eve Plumb, best known for playing Jan Brady on the wholesome television show The Brady Bunch. Despite the extensive casting search, Scorcese told Brandy Foster, Jodie’s mother, that he had never considered anyone else for Iris.

    3. Robert De Niro reportedly stole the line from Bruce Springsteen, who said it onstage in response to fans shouting his name.

    4. This condition is known as erotomania, in which an individual believes someone he or she admires is harboring the same feelings toward him/her. It is often associated with mental illness.

  Chapter Fourteen

    1. The shortage of American gasoline was caused by the overthrow of the shah of Iran in January 1979. The Iranian ruler, Ayatollah Khomeini, cut Iran’s oil production, drastically reducing the shipment of crude-oil shipments to the United States. The soaring price of gasoline plunged the American economy into a recession and sent interest rates soaring to as much as 20 percent.

    2. Operation Eagle Claw was aborted at the behest of its commanders shortly after the would-be rescuers arrived at Desert One, their preliminary staging area in the Iranian Dasht-e Kavir desert, due to mechanical problems with the mission’s helicopters. Carter approved their request. However, as the Special Forces units began pulling out of Iran, a helicopter collided with a C-130 transport. The subsequent explosion resulted in the deaths of five air crewmen aboard the C-130 and three from the RH-53D helicopter. The press was informed of the debacle at 1:00 a.m.

    3. A gift from Britain’s Queen Victoria to the United States in 1880, the desk was made from timbers of the Arctic exploration vessel HMS Resolute, which was frozen in ice and later retrieved by American whaling vessels before being returned to Great Britain. It was used by Presidents Kennedy, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, Bush II, and Obama in the Oval Office. The first President Bush used the Resolute desk for the first five months of his presidency, then had it moved into his private study.

    4. Every effort was made to keep Ted Kennedy’s name out of the media regarding the accident, but shortly after noon on July 19, 1969, radio station WBZ in Boston broke the story that Kennedy was the driver. The lurid headline in the New York Daily News the next day read, “Teddy Escapes, Blonde Drowns.” The scandal was forced out of the headlines later that day, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to land on the moon. However, the story was quickly revived and followed Kennedy for the rest of his life.

    5. The body of Mary Jo was buried in Pennsylvania, where in December 1969 a local judge denied a request by the State of Massachusetts to exhume the body for a further inquiry into the cause of death.

    6. Despite the lopsided total, Kennedy’s victories in the crucial California and New York primaries kept him in the race.

    7. Though often discussed as a candidate, Edward Moore “Ted” Kennedy never again sought the presidency after Carter defeated him in 1980. He went on to serve forty-seven years in the Sen
ate, the fourth longest of any senator in U.S. history. Despite many legislative achievements, his career was tarnished by a propensity for drink and women. He divorced his wife, Joan, in 1982, and married for a second time, to Victoria Reggie, in 1992. After his nephew John F. Kennedy Jr. was killed in an airplane crash in 1999, Ted Kennedy appeared to settle down, adopting the role of family patriarch. He died of brain cancer on August 25, 2009. Ted Kennedy was seventy-seven years old.

    8. Reagan won the popular vote 50.8 percent to 41.0 percent, with third-party candidate Illinois senator John Anderson getting 6.0 percent. The results were even more punishing in the Electoral College, where Reagan won 489–49. Despite these lopsided numbers, Carter later blamed his loss on the participation of John Anderson in the race.

  Chapter Fifteen

    1. Hinckley made this comment to court psychiatrists when he went on trial for shooting the president.

    2. Hinckley usually checked his luggage, knowing his guns would not be x-rayed. The practice of x-raying carry-on luggage began in 1973, in an effort to curb the extremely high rate of airline hijackings (forty in 1969 alone). At the time, most airlines were opposed to individual passenger screening, and it was not even necessary to show identification when checking in for a flight. The Air Transportation Security Act of 1974 made x-raying carry-on luggage the law. Checked luggage was not x-rayed or searched until 1988, in response to the bombing that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

    3. Hinckley was charged with possession of concealed weapons. Carrying a gun without a permit was not against the law in Tennessee at the time.

  Chapter Sixteen

    1. At the time of its shooting by Hungarian big-game hunter Joseph Fénykövi on November 12, 1955, it was the largest-ever African elephant in recorded history. On March 6, 1959, Fénykövi donated the preserved hide of the elephant to the Smithsonian, where a team of taxidermists labored for sixteen months to prepare it for display.