11/20/80
President-elect Reagan arrives at the White House to receive a job briefing from President Carter, who later reveals that Reagan asked few questions and took no notes, asking instead for a copy of Carter's presentation.

1/21/81
At his first Cabinet meeting, President Reagan is asked if he intends to issue an expected Executive Order on cost-cutting. He shrugs. Then, noticing Budget Director David Stockman nodding emphatically, he adds, “I have a smiling fellow at the end of the table who tells me we do.” (see 11/10/81) Richard Allen, on his first day as National Security Adviser, receives $1,000 and a pair of Seiko watches from Japanese journalists as a tip for arranging an interview with Nancy Reagan. (see 11/13/81)

2/2/81
At his hearing to become Undersecretary of State, Reagan associate William Clark answers no to all of the following: “Are you familiar with the struggles within the British Labour Party?” “Do you know which European nations don't want U.S. nuclear weapons on their soil?” “Can you name the prime minister of South Africa?” “Can you name the prime minister of Zimbabwe?” All of the above questions were being addressed in the daily news at the time. Despite his lack of knowledge in current events, he is confirmed.

2/5/81
James Watt is asked at a Congressional hearing if he agrees that natural resources must be preserved for future generations. “Yes” he says, then adds “I do not know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns.” (see 12/14/81)

2/18/81
President Reagan warns a joint session of Congress that the national debt is approaching $1 trillion. “A trillion dollars,” he explains, “would be a stack of $1,000 bills 67 miles high.” (see 10/23/81)

3/18/81
The Gallup Poll: Reagan Approval Rating Trails Earlier Presidents – The Washington Post

5/11/81
Ed Meese, White House counselor with Cabinet rank, calls the American Civil Liberties Union a “criminals' lobby.”

5/21/81
White House Seeks Eased Bribery Act. Says 1977 Law Inhibits Business Abroad By U.S. Corporations – The New York Times The U.S. casts one of only three votes against a World Health Organization ethics code preventing the sale of American infant formulas to Third World countries, where their use with contaminated water has killed thousands of babies.

6/16/81
At his third press conference, President Reagan responds to the following:
· The Israeli attack on Iraq – “I can't answer that”
· Israels' refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty – “Well, I haven't given very much thought to that particular question there”
· Pakistan's refusal to sign the treaty – “I won't answer the last part of that question”
· Israeli threats against Lebanon – “Well, this is going to be one, I'm afraid, that I can't answer now”
· The tactics of political action committees – “I don't really know how to answer that.”
When faced with skepticism about his administration's grasp of foreign affairs, the President declares “I'm satisfied that we do have a foreign policy.”

6/29/81
“I regard voting as the most sacred right of free men and women” – President Reagan, although he refuses to commit to supporting an extension of the Voting Rights Act.

6/30/81
“We love your adherence to democratic principle, and to the democratic processes.” – George Bush, toasting newly re-inaugurated President Ferdinand Marcos, whose fondness for democracy is less celebrated by those who know him better.

7/23/81
“Heck, no. I'm going to leave this to you experts. I'm not going to get involved in details.” President Reagan declining Treasury Secretary Donald Regan's invitation to join the negotiation session at which his tax-cut bill is being shaped.

8/6/81
White House Seeks To Loosen Standards Under Clean Air Act – The Washington Post

9/15/81
President Reagan says he is “as committed today as on the first day I took office to balancing the budget.” (see 10/23/81)

10/19/81
California state senator John Schmitz tells a TV interviewer that if Reagan's policies fail, “the best we could probably hope for is a military coup or something like that.” He explains that he is talking about “a good military coup, not a bad military coup.”

10/23/81
The national debt hits $1 trillion.

11/10/81
Atlantic Monthly publishes William Greider's article “The Education of David Stockman”, in which the Budget Director: · Admits “None of us really understands what's going on with all these numbers” · Acknowledges that supply-side economics “was always a Trojan horse to bring down the top rate” · Says of the Reagan tax bill “Do you realize the greed that came to the forefront? The hogs were really feeding.” President Reagan is unaware of the article until brought to his attention at his fifth press conference by Leslie Stahl.

11/13/81
The Justice Department begins investigating a $1,000 payment given to National Security Adviser Richard Allen for arranging an interview with Nancy Reagan. “I didn't accept it, I received it,” says Allen. “It would have been an embarrassment” to the Japanese to have returned the money. Asked if Allen will stay on the job, President Reagan says, “On the basis of what I know, yes.” Nancy Reagan is said to be furious that she has been dragged into the story. (see 1/4/82)

11/23/81
President Reagan vetoes a stopgap spending bill, thus forcing the federal government – for the first time in history – to temporarily shut down. Says House Speaker Tip O'Neill, “He knows less about the budget than any president in my lifetime. He can't even carry on a conversation about the budget. It's an absolute and utter disgrace.”

11/27/81
In an interview with Barbara Walters, President Reagan describes his academic record: “I never knew anything above Cs.”

11/30/81
President Reagan tells a $2,500 per ticket GOP fund-raiser in Cincinnati about a letter from a blind supporter. “He wrote in Braille,” the President says, “to tell me that if cutting his pension would help get this country back on its feet, he'd like to have me cut his pension.” The identity of this generous fellow is never revealed.

12/14/81
“Mr. Reagan has the White House, I have Arlington.” – James Watt justifying his decision to hold two private cocktail parties at Arlington Cemetery's Lee Mansion at the taxpayer's expense.

12/17/81
When asked at his sixth press conference if he agrees with his Justice Department's efforts to overturn the Webber ruling, which allows unions and management to enter into voluntary affirmative action agreements, President Reagan says he “can't bring to mind as to what it pertains to and what it calls for.” When a reporter explains it to him, he says he supports the decision. White House aides later say he thinks it should be overturned.

12/20/81
Reagan Officials Seek To Ease Rules On Nursing Homes. Proposals Include Repeal Of Regulations On Sanitation, Safety And Contagion – The New York Times

12/22/81
President Reagan claims, during a PBS interview, that New Deal proponents actually “espoused” fascism. Roosevelt biographer Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., calls this “a gross distortion of history.” (see 12/23/81)

12/23/81
Asked to comment on his wife's higher-than-usual disapproval rating, President Reagan says, “I just heard earlier today – and maybe Larry can tell me if this is true – I just heard that some poll or something has revealed that she's the most popular woman in the world.” White House spokesman Larry Speakes says he has seen no such poll. (see 2/24/82)

Ronald Reagan – The Bonzo Years

1982

1/4/82
Despite being exonerated of any lawbreaking, Richard Allen is forced to resign. President Reagan hails his integrity, then appoints William Clark to succeed him.

1/8/82
The White House announces President Reagan has signed off on Ed Meese's plan to grant tax-exempt status to South Carolina's Bob Jones University and other schools that, like it, practice racial discrimination. (see 1/15/82)

1/15/82
President Reagan phones The Washington Post to explain that when his new policy toward segregated schools was announced, he “didn't know at the time that there was a legal case pending.” CBS quickly obtains a memo in which intervention in the Bob Jones University case was specifically requested, and on which Reagan had written, “I think we should.” (see 2/24/82 and 5/10/82)
Press Secretary Sheila Tate says that Nancy Reagan “has derived no personal benefit” from her acceptance of thousands of dollars worth of free clothing from American designers, explaining that the First Lady's sole motive is to help the national fashion industry. It seems getting fabulous clothes for free isn't considered a personal benefit.

1/19/82
At his seventh press conference, President Reagan:
· Claims there are “a million more working than there were in 1980,” though statistics show that 100,000 fewer people are employed. (see 2/24/82)
· Contends his attempt to grant tax-exempt status to segregated schools was to correct “a procedure that we thought had no basis in law,” though the Supreme Court had clearly upheld a ruling barring such exemptions a decade earlier.
· Claims he has received a letter from Pope John Paul II in which he “approves what we've done so far” regarding U.S. Sanctions against the USSR, though the sanctions were not mentioned in the papal message.
· Responds to a question about the 17% black unemployment rate by pointing out that “in this time of great unemployment,” Sunday's paper had “24 full pages of … employers looking for employees,” though most of the jobs available – computer operator, or cellular immunologist – require special training, for which his administration has cut funds by over 30%.
· Misstates facts about California's abortion law and an Arizona program to aid the elderly (see 2/24/82)
· Responds to a question about private charity by observing, “I also happen to be someone who believes in tithing – the giving of a tenth,” though his latest tax returns show charitable contributions amounting to 1.4%. (see 2/24/82)

2/9/82
George Bush denies that he ever used the phrase “voodoo economics” and challenges “anybody to find it.” NBC's Ken Bode promptly broadcasts the 1980 tape.

2/16/82
“She really just got tired of people misinterpreting what she was doing.” – Aide telling the public that Nancy Reagan will no longer accept free clothing “on loan” from top designers.

2/24/82
Addressing the Voice of America's 40th Birthday celebration, President Reagan reminisces about making up exciting details while announcing baseball games from wire copy. “Now, I submit to you that I told the truth,” he says of his enhanced version of a routine shortstop-to-first ground out. “i don't know whether he really ran over toward second base and made a one-hand stab or whether he just squatted down and took the ball when it came to him. But the truth got there and, in other words, it can be attractively packages.” No one questions his apparent premise that embellishing the truth does not compromise it. (see 3/24/82)

2/27/82
The Congressional Budget Office finds that taxpayers earning under $10,000 lost an average of $240 from last year's tax cuts, while those earning over $80,000 gained an average of $15,130.

3/1/82
Sen Bob Packwood (R-OR) claims President Reagan frequently offers up transparent fictional anecdotes as if they were real. “We've got a $120 billion deficit coming,” says Packwood, “and the President says, 'You know, a young man went into a grocery store and he had an orange in one hand and a bottle of vodka in the other, and he paid for the orange with food stamps and he took the change and paid for the vodka. That's what's wrong.' And we just shake our heads.” (see 3/24/82)

3/16/82
“Is it news that some fellow out in South Succotash someplace has just been laid off, that he should be interviewed nationwide?” – President Reagan, complaining about coverage of the nation's economic suffering. (see 9/4/82)

3/24/82
Agriculture official Mary C. Jarratt tells Congress her department has been unable to document President Reagan's stories of food stamp abuse, pointing out that the change from a food stamp purchase is limited to 99 cents. “It's not possible to buy a bottle of vodka with 99 cents” she says. Deputy White House press secretary Peter Roussel says Reagan wouldn't tell those stories “unless he thought they were accurate.” (see 4/15/92)

4/4/82
2nd Year Slump – Reagan's Popularity Nosedives in a Familiar Presidential Pattern – The Washington Post

4/15/82
“The statisticians in Washington have funny ways of counting” – President Reagan's explanation to Illinois high school students as to why he thinks unemployment has declined in the face of Bureau of Labor statistics.

“In England, if a criminal carried a gun, even though he didn't use it, he was not tried for burglary or theft or whatever he was doing. He was tried for first degree murder and hung if he was found guilty” – President Reagan citing a favorite example of British law. (see 4/16/82)

4/16/82
“Well, it's a good story, though. It made the point, didn't it?” – White House spokesman Larry Speakes on being informed that President Reagan's story about British gun law is “just not true.”

5/10/82
President Reagan explains to a Chicago high school why his revised tax exemption policy could not have been intended to benefit segregated schools: “I didn't know there were any. Maybe I should have, but I didn't.”

5/13/82
At his 10th press conference, President Reagan states, that while “there is no recall” for missiles fired from silos, “those that are carried in bombers, those that are carried in ships of one kind or another, or submersibles…can be recalled if there has been a miscalculation.”

6/8/82
Secretary of State Al Haig: “Do I think US foreign policy is inept?…At times it is. At times it's not. At times it's even brilliant. At times it's rather stupid. It would be very hard for me to label it.” (see 6/25/82)

6/12/82
Regarding the 750,000 supporters who showed up for the largest disarmament demonstration in US history in Central Park, President Reagan opines that “the Commies are behind it.”

6/25/82
“With great regret, I have accepted the resignation of Secretary of State Al Haig. I am nominating as his successor – and he has accepted – George Shultz to replace him.” – President Reagan surprising Al Haig, who had not actually submitted a letter of resignation, but had threatened to quit numerous times.

8/11/82
President Reagan tells The Time's Hugh Sidey that he sometimes feels trapped in the White House. “You glance out the window and the people are walking around Pennsylvania Avenue and you say, 'I could never say I am going to run down to the drugstore and get some magazines,'” he says. “I can't do that anymore.” (see 12/9/82)

9/4/82
“South Succotash, with its population of nearly 11 million, must be a considerable place.” – AFL-CIO president Lane Kirkland on the unemployment figures.

9/30/82
David L. Reagan (no relation to the President) becomes the first Marine killed in Lebanon, where President Reagan had committed troops for an indefinite stay two days before.

10/9/82
Jobless Rate Is Up To 10.1% In Month. Worst In 42 Years. 11 Million Are Idle – The New York Times

10/19/82
During a White House meeting with Arab leaders, President Reagan turns to the Lebanese foreign minister. “You know”, he says, “your nose looks just like Danny Thomas's.” The Arabs exchange nervous glances.

11/03/82
The GOP loses a net total of 26 House seats, seven governorships, and six state legislative houses in the mid-term election. “We feel very good about what has happened,” says President Reagan incongruously. Observes Ed Meese, “There was nothing to suggest a need to change the basic course.'

11/11/82
“It would be a user fee” – President Reagan explaining why his proposed five-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax would not be a tax at all.

11/25/82
The White House announces it is considering a proposal (conceived by Ed Meese) to tax unemployment benefits. This, says Larry Speakes, would “make unemployment less attractive.”

12/04/82
U.S. Jobless Rate Climbs To 10.8%, A Postwar Record. 11.9 Million Out Of Work – The New York Times

12/09/82
“Sometimes I look out there at Pennsylvania Avenue and see people bustling along, and it suddenly dawns on me that probably never again can I just say “Hey, I'm going down to the drugstore to look at the magazines,'” – President Reagan discussing his feelings of confinement with a People reporter (see 12/16/82)

12/16/82
“Sometimes I look out the window at Pennsylvania Avenue and wonder what it would be like to be able to just walk down the street to the corner drugstore and look at the magazines. I can't do that anymore.” – President Reagan conveying one of his regrets to The Washington Post (see 12/18/82)

12/18/82
“Sometimes I look out the window at Pennsylvania Avenue and wonder what it would be like to be able to just walk down the street to the corner drugstore and look at the magazines. I can't do that anymore.” – President Reagan sharing a sudden thought with a radio interviewer

Ronald Reagan – The Bonzo Years

1983

1/16/83
Rating On Reagan Lags At Midterm – Gallup Poll Says Public Finds Job Performance Is Poorer Than 4 Predecessors – The New York Times

1/19/83
President Reagan tells reporters about “the ten commandments of Nikolai Lenin…the guiding principles of communism,” among them “that promises are like pie crust, made to be broken.” Soviet scholars claim that no such commandments exist, and point out that Lenin's name was Vladimir.

4/18/83
Seventeen Americans and 46 Lebanese are killed when a truck bomb plows into the US embassy in Beirut.

6/9/83
In his book, “Gambling With History”, time correspondent Laurence Barret reveals that Reagan campaign aides had “filched” the Carter camp's briefing papers to help prepare him for the 1980 debate. David Stockman turns out to have been Barret's source.

6/16/83
Ariela Gross, a 17-year old New Jersey student, meets with President Reagan to present him with a petition supporting a nuclear freeze. She reports that the President “expressed the belief that there must be something wrong with the freeze if the Soviets want it.”

6/24/83
Dismissing the whole Carter briefing book affair as “much ado about nothing”, President Reagan expresses doubt that “there ever was a briefing book as such.” As to how his aides could have no memory of receiving the book – if it did exist – he says, “Look, ask me what paper came to my desk last week and I couldn't tell you.”

6/29/83
President Reagan suggests that one cause of the decline in public education is the schools' efforts to comply with court-ordered desegregation.

7/8/83
“It would be totally uncharacteristic and quite incredible that I would hand anybody a book I knew to be from the Carter campaign and say this might be helpful to the debate” – William Casey denying James Baker's accusation that he was the source of the Carter briefing book.

7/26/83
In response to a question at his 19th press conference as to why there are no women on his 12-man commission on Central America, President Reagan says “Maybe it's because we're doing so much and appointing so many that we're no longer seeking a token or something.”

8/2/83
Poverty Rate Rose To 15% In '82, Highest Level Since Mid-1960's – The New York Times

9/6/83
Two more US Marines are killed in Lebanon.

10/4/83
At a meeting with congressmen to discuss arms reduction, President Reagan (now in office for almost three years) says he has only recently learned that most of the USSR's nuclear arsenal is land-based.

10/19/83
At his 20th press conference, President Reagan is asked about the safety of US Marines in Beirut. “We're looking at everything that can be done to try and make their position safer,” he says. “We're not sitting idly by.”

10/23/83
A truck bomb at the US barracks in Beirut kills 241 Marines.

10/24/83
Larry Speakes calls speculation about a US invasion in politically torn Grenada “preposterous”.

10/25/83
Claiming that US medical students are in grave danger, President Reagan launches an invasion of Grenada. Photos are released to the press showing President Reagan, clad in pajamas at 5:15 am, being briefed on the situation. Reporters are not allowed to cover the actual invasion.

11/7/83
For the second time in four months, George Bush breaks a Senate tie by voting to resume the production of nerve gas.

11/22/83
Navy Secretary John Lehman announces changes in procurement techniques designed to eliminate expenditures like $780 for a screwdriver, $640 for a toilet seat, and $9,606 for an Allen wrench.

12/3/83
Concrete barricades are erected in front of the White House to prevent truck bombers from repeating the massacre in Beirut.

12/8/83
In response to accusations that the administration's policies toward the poor are unnecessarily cruel, Ed Meese says “I don't know of any authoritative figures that there are hungry children. I've heard a lot of anecdotal stuff, but I haven't heard any authoritative figures…I think some people are going to soup kitchens voluntarily. I know we've had considerable information that people go to soup kitchens because the food is free and that that's easier than paying for it…I think that they have money.”

12/12/83
President Reagan, addressing the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, tells of the captain of a B-17 who went down with his plane voluntarily when he and the crew were unable to rescue the trapped and wounded ball-turret gunner. “The last man to leave” said the President, “saw the commander sit down on the floor. He took the boy's hand and said 'Never mind, son, we'll ride it down together.' Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously awarded.” (See 12/16/83)

12/15/83
Ed Meese, to the National Press Club: “Ebenezer Scrooge suffered from bad press in his time. If you really look at the facts, he didn't exploit Bob Cratchit.” Explains Meese, “Bob Cratchit was paid 10 shillings a week, which was a very good wage at the time… Bob, in fact, had good cause to be happy with his situation. His wife didn't have to work…He was able to afford the traditional Christmas dinner of roast goose and plum pudding…So let's be fair to Scrooge. He had his faults, but he wasn't unfair to anyone.”

12/16/83
“…Dickens is saying that the poor deserve to live not on the margins, but with comfort and love and with freedom and medical attention. I mean, isn't that the very point about Tiny Tim? He desperately needs a doctor and can't get to one because his family is so poor…He's dying because he can't get medical care…” University of Pennsylvania Victorian literature scholar Nina Auerbach on the Meese interpretation of A Christmas Carol.

Columnist Lars-Erik Nelson-after checking the citations on all 434 Congressional Medals of Honor awarded during WWII-reveals that none of them match President Reagans' story. “It didn't happen,” writes Nelson. “The President of the United States went before and audience of 300 real Congessional Medal of Honor winners and told them about a make-believe Medal of Honor Winner.” Responds Larry Speakes, “If you tell the same story five times, it's true.” (See 12/28/83)

12/20/83
At his 21st press conference, President Reagan claims El Salvador has “a 400 year history of military dictatorships.” The first military regime didn't take power until 1931.

12/21/83
The Washington Post reports the White House is searching the Medal of Honor files in an effort to verify President Reagan's story. Says a researcher, “We will find it.” They never do.

12/28/83
Lars-Erik Nelson reports that a reader saw a scene very similar to President Reagan's Medal of Honor story in the 1944 movie “Wing And a Prayer.”

Ronald Reagan – The Bonzo Years

1984

1/4/84
Deputy defense secretary Paul Thayer resigns amid charges of insider trading. He eventually serves 19 months for perjury and obstruction of justice.

1/10/84
Reagan Task Force Finds No Evidence of Great Hunger – The Washington Post

1/11/84
Columnist Nelson suggests another source for the Medal of Honor story: a war-time story in the April 1944 issue of Reader's Digest (a lifelong favorite magazine of President Reagan). The story ends: “The ball turret gunner was badly wounded and stuck in the blister on the underside of the fuselage. Crewmen worked frantically to extricate the youngster, but there was nothing they could do. They began to jump. The terror-stricken lad screamed in fear as he saw what was happening. The last man to jump heard the remaining crewman, a gunner, say, 'Take it easy, kid. We'll take this ride together.'”

1/23/84
President Reagan nominates Ed Meese as the new Attorney General (head of the Justice Department).

1/27/84
“You find yourself remembering what it was like when on the spur of the moment you could just yell to your wife that you were going down to the drugstore and get a magazine. You can't do that anymore.” – President Reagan telling Time magazine about being President.

1/31/84
President Reagan on Good Morning America, defending his administration against charges of callousness: “You can't help those who simply will not be helped. One problem that we've had, even in the best of times, is people who are sleeping on the grates, the homeless who are homeless, you might say, by choice.”

2/2/84
“He may be ready to surrender, but I'm not.” – President Reagan responding to Tip O' Neill's advocacy of a pullout from Beirut.

2/7/84
President Reagan announces plans to get the Marines out of Beirut, describing the action as “decisive new steps.” Larry Speakes explains, “We don't consider this a withdrawal but more of a redeployment.”

2/22/84
“The only difference between a board of directors…and our Cabinet meetings is when it comes time for decision we don't take a vote. The decision is mine.” – President Reagan defending himself against media claims that he is told what to do.

3/7/84
Appointee Tells of Loans Arranged For Meese – The New York Times

3/13/84
Attorney General-designate Ed Meese admits that he “inadvertently failed to list” a $15,000 interest-free loan from a man who later received a federal job (as did his wife and his son) in his financial disclosure statements. He explains that “it never occurred to me that an interest-free loan was a thing of value.”

4/9/84
The day after his administration announced it would not recognize the World Court's jurisdiction over the U.S. mining of Nicaraguan harbors (which violated international law), President Reagan proclaims May 1 as “Law Day USA”. “Without law,” says the President, “there can be no freedom, only chaos and disorder.”

4/26/84
William Casey apologizes to the Senate Intelligence Committee for keeping the Nicaraguan mining a secret. Barry Goldwater, among others, called it an “act of war”.

5/22/84
Asked about the possibility of secret funds going to the contras, President Reagan declares, “Nothing of that kind could take place without the knowledge of Congress.”

6/12/84
Discussing US-Soviet relations with GOP leaders, President Reagan announces, “If they want to keep their Mickey Mouse system, that's okay.” “It's a change in his view,” says an official. “It's not an evil empire. It's a Mickey Mouse system.”

7/24/84
At his 26th press conference, President Reagan claims that “not one single fact of figure” backs up Democratic “demagoguery” that his budget cuts have hurt the poor. The next morning, a congressional study reports that cuts in welfare have pushed more than 500,000 people – the majority of them children – into poverty.

8/3/84
The Census Bureau reports that 35.3 million Americans were living in poverty in 1983 – an 18-year high rate of 15.2% of the population.

9/20/84
A suicide bomber drives into the US embassy annex in Beirut, killing two Americans. It is the third such incident in 19 months.
George Bush, explaining the evils of the Sandanistas: “The Sandanistas came in. They overthrew Somoza, killed him and overthrew him. Killed him, threw him out.” – Somoza actually fled Nicaragua when he was overthrown, and was later assassinated in Paraguay.

9/26/84
President Reagan claims the latest Beirut bombing is the fault of Jimmy Carter, who he said “presided over the destruction of our intelligence capability.” Carter responds that Reagan tends “to blame his every mistake and failure on me and others who served before him.”

10/3/84
A House Intelligence Committee report finds “no logical explanation” for the lapse in security at the embassy in Beirut, since State Department and embassy officials had plenty of reason to suspect that a bombing attempt was not only possible but probable.

10/5/84
“I don't think he's read the report in detail. It's five and a half pages, double-spaced.” – Larry Speakes responding to the question of whether President Reagan has read the House report on the latest Beirut truck bombing.

10/7/84
President Reagan engages in his first debate with Walter Mondale. He does so badly his wife confronts aides afterwards, demanding “What have you done to Ronnie?” Some “special moments”:
· Talks about a law he signed in California as if it had been signed by his Democratic predecessor
· Reprises his “hit” line, “There you go again”, only to have it thrown back at him with a sharp rejoinder by Mondale, whose handlers knew the President would use it.
· Blanks out completely in the middle of an answer, bringing up subsequent questions about his mental fitness
· Claims that the increase in poverty “is a lower rate of increase than it was in the preceding years before we got here,” though in fact it is higher
· Explains that a good bit of the defense budget goes for “food and wardrobe”, becoming the first US President to so refer to military uniforms
· Says “I'm all confused now.” as he prepares to deliver his closing statement.

10/10/84
“With regard to the age issue and everything,” says President Reagan, “if I had as much makeup on as he did, I'd have looked younger, too.” He goes on to claim that he not only went makeup-free during the debate, but “I never did wear it. I didn't wear it when I was in pictures.” This statement is promptly disputed the next day by G.E. Theater makeup man Howard Smith, Death Valley Days makeup man Del Acevedo, and debate panelist James Weighart, as well as Mayor Edward Bergin, recalling a recent presidential visit to Connecticut.

10/11/84
“I don't think it's winnable. I was quoted wrong, obviously, 'cause I never thought that.” – George Bush denying that he told journalist Robert Scheer that he thought nuclear war is “winnable”, though Scheer actually has a 1980 tape of him saying that.

10/15/84
After Mondale makes an issue out of President Reagan's stated belief that nuclear missiles fired from submarines can be recalled, the President claims he “never said any such thing.”
The Associated Press reports the existence of a CIA-prepared manual teaching Nicaraguan rebels how to, among other things:
· How to blackmail unwilling citizens into supporting their cause
· How to arrange the deaths of fellow rebels to create martyrs
· How to kidnap and kill (the manual uses the word “neutralize”) government officials.

10/18/84
A senior administration official says President Reagan did not know about the CIA manual until “after it appeared in the newspaper yesterday.”

10/19/84
Lucille Levin, wife of one of the three Americans kidnapped by Lebanese terrorists in March, takes the media to task for failing to remind the public of how tough President Reagan claimed to be when he took office. “Why aren't we talking about these hostages?…Why is it allowed to stand when Ronald Reagan says America won't have hostages again?…Are we bored with hostages now?”

10/25/84
CIA Director William Casey writes to Congress to explain that the “thrust and purpose” of the CIA manual was to improve the effectiveness of the Nicaraguan rebels in “face-to-face communication.”

10/28/84
“Mr. Reagan's ignorance about the Soviet Union and his air-headed rhetoric on the issues of foreign policy and arms control have reached the limit of tolerance and have become an embarrassment to the U.S. and a danger to world peace.” – The Chicago Tribunes piece which actually endorses the President, despite the above considerations.

11/3/84
President Reagan, although he has not read the manual, says that the word “neutralize” means “remove from office,” not “assassinate.” When asked how to remove an unwanted official, he replied, “You just say to the fellow that is sitting there in the office, 'You're not in the office anymore.'”

11/6/84
President Reagan wins re-election, announced by Dan Rather at 8:01 p.m. EST. His 525 electoral votes are the most ever won, his 49 states (he loses DC and Minnesota) tie Nixon's 1972 landslide, and he wins the popular vote 59% (54,450,603) to Walter Mondale's 41% (37,573,671).

11/10/84
The White House announces that two Reagan-ordered investigations have concluded that there was “no violation” of the law when the CIA manual was written for the Nicaraguan rebels.

Ronald Reagan – The Bonzo Years

1985

1/2/85
Secretary of the Interior William Clark resigns.

1/28/85
Lawyers for Ed Meese, who has been renominated for Attorney General, reveal that the Office of Government Ethics found him in violation of federal ethical standards.

1/30/85
UN ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick informs President Reagan that she is leaving.

2/4/85
Sen. William Cohen and Sen. William Roth reveal that the Navy has been paying $640 each for toilet seats that sell to consumers for $25.

2/21/85
At his 28th press conference, President Reagan says he is not seeking the overthrow of the Sandinista regime – he'd be satisfied “if they'd say 'uncle'” to the contras and abdicate.

2/23/85
The Senate confirms Ed Meese as Attorney General.

2/28/85
Defending the President's decision to abolish the Small Business Administration, David Stockman is shown a two-year old tape of Reagan praising the agency. “We at the White House,” says Stockman, “have come to enjoy watching old films of the President.”

3/1/85
In an effort to wind contra aid, President Reagan says the Nicaraguan rebels are “the moral equival of our Founding Fathers.” Historical novelist Howard Fast calls this “an explosion of such incredible ignorance that…he is not fit for public office of any kind.”

3/15/85
Labor Secretary Raymond Donovan resigns after being ordered to stand trial on fraud and larceny charges.

3/21/85
At his 29th press conference, President Reagan explains that he has no intention of visiting a concentration camp site during his upcoming visit to West Germany. To do so, he explains, would impose an unpleasant guilt trip on a nation where there are “very few alive that remember even the war, and certainly none of them who were adults and participating in any way.” A soldier who was twenty in 1940 would only be 65 at the time this was said.

4/8/85
Deputy White House Chief of Staff Michael Deaver is asked, in light of his announced intentions to step down, if he has any plans to write a White House memoir. “Never, never,” he says. “You can't take a special relationship of trust and then do a kiss-and-tell book.”

4/11/85
The White House announces that President Reagan will lay a wreath at the Bitburg, West Germany, military cemetery housing the graves of both American and Nazi soldiers. It is quickly noted that there are, in fact, no Americans buried there.

4/16/85
As the contra aid vote approaches, President Reagan claims he “just had a verbal message delivered to me from Pope John Paul, urging us to continue our efforts in Central America.” The Vatican quickly issues a denial.

4/18/85
While Michael Deaver is in West Germany searching for an “appropriate” concentration camp for the President to visit, President Reagan defends his visit to Bitburg by claiming the German soldiers “were victims, just as surely as the victims in the concentration camps.”

4/29/85
President Reagan defends the Bitburg visit as “morally right,” adding, “I know all the bad things that happened in that war. I was in uniform for four years myself.” President Reagan spent his time during World War Two in Hollywood, making training films.

5/5/85
After having visited the Bergen-Belsen death camp, President Reagan makes an eight minute stop at Bitburg. During the ceremony, he cites a letter from 13-year-old Beth Flom who, he claims, “urged me to lay the wreath at Bitburg cemetery in honor of the future of Germany.” In fact, she urged him not to go at all.

5/8/85
Opponents of President Reagan's Nicaraguan policies heckle him at the European Parliament. “They haven't been there,” he says. “I have.” In actuality, he had not been there.

5/10/85
Micheal Deaver resigns.

6/5/85
David Stockman observes that if the Securities and Exchange Commission had jurisdiction over the way the executive and legislative branches of government have handled the deficit, “many of us would be in jail.”

7/9/85
David Stockman resigns as Budget Director to take a job on Wall Street and write his White House memoir.

8/24/85
President Reagan tells an interviewer that the “reformist administration” of South African president P.W. Botha has made significant progress on the racial front. “They have eliminated the segregation that we once had in our own country,” says the President, “the type of thing where hotels and restaurants and places of entertainment and so forth were segregated – that has all been eliminated.”

8/25/85
The White House confirms reports that during his days as head of the Screen Actors Guild, President Reagan doubled as an FBI informant (T-10) whose area of expertise was Communist influence in post-World War II Hollywood.

8/26/85
In response to questions as to whether President Reagan actually thinks racial segregation has been eliminated in South Africa, Larry Speakes said “Not totally, no.”

10/6/85
The New York Times Magazine runs a cover story on “The Mind of the President”, in which it is pointed out that though Reagan “likes to say…that he is a 'voracious reader' and 'history buff'…neither he nor his friends, when asked, could think of particular history books he had read or historians he liked.” Says a White House aide, “You have to treat him as if you were the director and he was the actor, and you tell him what to say and what not to say, and only then does he say the right thing.”

11/13/85
“He's just so programmed. We tried to tell him what was in the bill but he doesn't understand. Everyone, including Republicans, were just shaking their heads.” – Rep. Mary Rose Oskar (D-OH) on President Reagan's reaction to the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings balanced budget bill.

12/4/85
John Poindexter becomes President Reagan's fourth National Security Adviser when Robert McFarlane resigns.

Ronald Reagan – The Bonzo Years

1986

2/11/86
With Ferdinand Marcos having stolen the election, President Reagan states that he is “encouraged” by evidence of a “two party system in the Philippines,” even if only one is allowed to win.

3/3/86
President Reagan claims that victory for the Sandinistas would create “a privileged sanctuary for terrorists and subversives just two days' driving time from Harlingen, Texas.”

3/21/86
President Reagan again tells his version of British gun laws, despite it's repudiation four years ago, during an interview with The New York Times. It is not challenged by the three veteran reporters.

4/4/86
“I wonder what people thought I was going to do when I left the White House? Be a brain surgeon?” – Michael Deaver defending himself against charges that he has cashed in on his White House connections with unseemly speed and behavior.

4/12/86
Excerpts from David Stockman's memoir, “The Triumph of Politics: Why the Reagan Revolution Failed”, appear in Newsweek. Although it has many anecdotes, the media focuses on the author's alleged betrayal of the President, characterized by sections like: “What do you do when your President ignores all the palpable, relevant facts and wanders in circles?”

5/21/86
President Reagan tells a group of students, “I don't believe that there is anyone that is going hungry in America simply by reason of denial or lack of ability to feed them. It is by people not knowing where or how to get this help.” Asked what this observation is based on, Larry Speakes says, “That is his view.” Critics note that the Reagan administration eliminated the program that informed needy people of available benefits.

5/29/86
Former government prosecutor Whitney North Seymour, Jr., is appointed to investigate conflict-of-interest charges against Michael Deaver.

6/11/86
During his 37th press conference, President Reagan:
· Responds to a question about abortion with an answer about an unrelated case
· Displays confusion about whether or not the SALT II treaty exists and about whether or not he plans to order construction of another space shuttle
· Claims that the government is providing 93 million meals a day to hungry Americans. That would amount to one in three people.
He later explains he spent too much time concentrating on which reporters to call on. “Next time, I'm going to concentrate not on who I'm calling on, but what I'm going to say.”

7/9/86
Standing in front of a bare-breasted statue at the Justice Department, Ed Meese accepts the 1,960 page report from his $500,000 pornography commission. Available in two volumes from the government for $35, the report becomes a cult item for its 100-plus page listing of book, movie and magazine titles (including Teenage Dog Orgy, Cathy's Sore Bottom, Lesbian Foot Lovers – The Movie and others) and 200 pages of detailed descriptions and excerpts from said material.

7/30/86
At his confirmation hearing for the post of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, , William Rehnquist:
“separate but equal” doctrine represented the views of the justice he was clerking for, not his own.
· Explains that a 1952 memo he wrote supporting of minority voters in the early '60's. Four witnesses rebut this two days later.
· Claims to have no recall that his Vermont vacation home came with an unlawful covenant prohibiting its sale to anyone of the “Hebrew race”, though a 1974 letter from his lawyer informing him of this is soon discovered.

9/14/86
The Reagans, seated on their living room couch, urge a “national crusade” against “the cancer of drugs.” The President will cut funding for anti-drug programs immediately after the upcoming election.

9/17/86
William Rehnquist is confirmed as Chief Justice.

10/5/86
Three American mercenaries die on a supply run to the contras when their cargo plane is shot down by Nicaraguan government forces. Survivor Eugene Hasenfus is captured in the jungle. The White House, the State Department, the Defense Department and the CIA all claim non-involvement.

10/9/86
Although President Reagan has stated that the downed cargo plane had “absolutely” no connection to the US government, Eugene Hasenfus-imprisoned in Managua-says his mission was supervised by the CIA.

10/10/86
Senator John Kerry suggests that the Foreign Relations Committee question Lt. Col. Oliver North, a National Security Council member reportedly close to the Nicaraguan rebels, in connection with White House involvement in the private arming of the contras.

10/11/86
President Reagan arrives in Reykjavik, Iceland, to meet with Mikhail Gorbachev for their first summit session.

10//12/86
The summit collapses amid mutual charges of intransigence and confusion about just which and how many weapons President Reagan suggested getting rid of.

10/17/86
George Shultz releases the text of President Reagan's arms control proposal to prove that he did not suggest getting rid of all nuclear weapons. Larry Speakes says the President may have been “misunderstood.”

10/23/86
Meese Says High Court Doesn't Set 'Law Of Land'. Asserts Rulings Of Top Justices Bind Only Those In Case – The New York Times

10/24/86
Ed Meese urges employers to begin spying on workers in “locker rooms, parking lots, shipping and mail room areas and even the nearby taverns” to try to catch them using drugs.

11/3/86
In Lebanon, the pro-Syrian magazine Al Shiraa reports that the US has secretly been supplying arms to Iran.

11/4/86
Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, speaker of the Iranian Parliament, says that former NSC adviser Robert McFarlane and four other Americans, carrying Irish passports and posing as members of a flight crew, recently traveled to Iran on a secret diplomatic mission to trade military equipment for Iran's help in curbing terrorism.

11/13/86
In an address to the American people on the Iran arms deal, President Reagan states: “For 18 months now, we have had under way a secret diplomatic initiative to Iran. That initiative was undertaken for the simplest and best of reasons: to renew a relationship with the nation of Iran; to bring an honorable end to the bloody six-year war between Iran and Iraq; to eliminate state-sponsored terrorism and subversion, and to effect the safe return of all hostages…”
“During the course of our secret discussions, I authorized the transfer of small amounts of defensive weapons and spare parts for defensive systems to Iran…These modest deliveries, taken together, could easily fit into a single cargo plane…We did not – repeat – did not trade weapons or anything else for hostages, nor will we.”
This last part was to deny the rumour that the US had traded arms for hostages, implying that it wasn't a swap because we didn't give them very much, and what we did give was for defense.

11/14/86
In the wake of world denouncement over President Reagan's speech, Donald Regan is asked if it isn't hypocritical to ask other nations not to ship arms to Iran while we do just that. 'Hypocrisy is a question of degree,” he responds.

11/15/86
A Nicaraguan court sentences Eugene Hasenfus to 30 years in jail. The Sandinistas decide to release him to get home in time for Christmas.
In response to charges of incompetency, Donald Regan tells The New York Times “Some of us are like a shovel brigade that follow a parade down Main Street cleaning up. We took Reykjavik and turned what was really a sour situation into something that turned out pretty well.”

11/16/86
George Shultz appears on Face The Nation. When asked directly whether he can assure the public that no more arms will be sent, the Secretary of State says “No.” He is the chief architect of the national foreign policy.

11/18/86
79% Reject President's Explanation Of Iran Deal – Los Angeles Times

11/19/86
At his 39th press conference, President Reagan describes the arms shipment as “really miniscule,” again claiming that “everything that we sold them could be put in one cargo plane and there would be plenty of room left over.” He also states four times that Isreal had no involvement in the Iran arms deal, but later makes a correction: “There may be some misunderstanding of one of my answers tonight. There was a third country involved in our secret project with Iran.” He does not explain how something stated four times could be misunderstood.

11/21/86
The shredding machine in White House aide Oliver North's office jams.

11/25/86
President Reagan appears in the White House briefing room to say he “was not fully informed on the nature of one of the activities” undertaken as an off-shoot of the Iran arms deal. He announces that National Security Adviser John Poindexter has resigned and NSC staffer Oliver North has been fired, then introduced Ed Meese to explain why.
“Certain monies which were received in the transaction between representatives of Israel and representatives of Iran were taken and made available to the forces in Central America which are opposing the Sandinista government there,” says Meese. “We don't know the exact amount yet. Our estimate is that it is somewhere between $10 and $30 million…The President knew nothing about it.”
“If he knew about it, then he has willfully broken the law; if he didn't know about it, then he is failing to do his job. After all, we expect the President to know about the foreign policy activities being run directly out of the White House.” – Senator John Glenn

11/26/86
Ed Meese appears on TV to assure viewers that “the President knows what's going on.”

12/1/86
In a Time interview, President Reagan:
· Calls Oliver North “a national hero”
· Dismisses the furor over the growing scandal as “a Beltway bloodletting”
· Blames the press for interfering with the release of more hostages “There is a bitter bile in my throat,” he says. “This whole thing boils down to great irresponsibility on the part of the press.”

12/2/86
President Reagan names Frank Carlucci as his fifth National Security Adviser.

12/6/86
President Reagan concedes that “mistakes were made,” though he does not suggest who made them.

12/8/86
“If Colonel North ripped off the Ayatollah and took $30 million and gave it to the contras, then God bless Colonel North!” – Pat Buchanan addressing a pro-Reagan rally in Miami.

12/9/86
Oliver North and John Poindexter invoke their Fifth Amendment rights and refuse to testify before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Says North, “I don't think there is another person in America that wants to tell this story as much as I do.”

12/11/86
President Reagan are reportedly “stunned” by his allies' refusal to defend him on the Iran-contra matter. Explains Robert Dornan, usually a staunch Reagan supporter, “When someone says, 'But he was giving arms to people he knew had killed our Marines,' it's hard to respond to that.”

12/16/86
Daniel Inouye (D-HI) and Warren Rudman (R-NH) are chosen to head the 11-member Senate committee investigating the Iran-contra scandal. The House appoints Lee Hamilton (D-IN) to chair a 15-member group.

12/18/86
“There have been a number of people who have suggested that I abandon my individual rights under the Constitution of the United States. The President has not asked that I do that. I don't believe the President really wants me to abandon my individual rights under the Constitution. People have died face down in the mud all over the world defending those individual rights.” – Oliver North, responding to Nancy Reagan's insistence that he “talk”.

12/20/86
Meese Now Says Reagan, Under Sedation After Surgery, May Have Ok'd 1st Arms Deal – New York Newsday

12/23/86
“The President ordered this whole operation on Iran. He ordered his Administration not to tell the intelligence committees what he was doing. Now he wants the intelligence committee to tell him what his Administration was doing during the time they were under his orders not to tell the intelligence committee. Even Alice in Wonderland doesn't get this twisted around.” – Senator Patrick Leahy on President Reagan's eagerness to receive the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on the arms deal.

Ronald Reagan – The Bonzo Years

1987

1/8/87
NBC reports that John Poindexter told Donald Regan he'd condoned the diversion of funds because he “felt sorry for the contras.”

1/9/87
The White House releases the finding – signed by President Reagan on January 17, 1986 – authorizing the sale of arms to Iran and ordering the CIA not to tell Congress. Also released is the 2 1/2 page memo justifying the policy, which the President had not read.

1/12/87
The White House announces that George Bush's press secretary, Marlin Fitzwater, will replace Larry Speakes.

1/20/87
George Bush says President Reagan “is certain to this very day that he did not authorize arms-for-hostages.” Contra Arms Crew Said To Smuggle Drugs – The New York Times

1/25/87
Four university professors are kidnapped in Beirut, bringing to 14 the number of Americans taken hostage under President Reagan, who once promised “swift and effective retribution” for such incidents. Several hostages have actually been in captivity longer than any under President Carter, who President Reagan frequently criticizes.

1/26/87
The Tower Commission interviews President Reagan about the Iran-contra scandal. Though he is said by a source to lack a “highly detailed recollection,” he acknowledges having authorized the arms sale to Iran in August 1985. This corroborates Robert McFarlane's testimony and directly contradicts Donald Regan's.

1/28/87
“On the surface, selling arms to a country that sponsors terrorism, of course, clearly, you'd have to argue it's wrong, but it's the exception sometimes that proves the rule.” – George Bush on Good Morning America.

2/11/87
President Reagan tells the Tower Commission that after discussing it with Don Regan, he now remembers that he did not authorize the arms sale in advance. Commission members are disheartened when, while reciting his recollection from a staff-supplied memo, he mistakenly reads his stage instructions aloud.

2/19/87
Retrieved computer messages show that Oliver North shared secret information with the Iranians. Says a source, “Ollie was running his own covert operation within the authorized covert operation.”

2/20/87
“The simple truth is, 'I don't remember – period'” – President Reagan writing to the Tower Commission to set the record straight about whether he authorized the arms shipment in advance.

2/22/87
Oliver North's secretary, Fawn Hall – who has been granted immunity – admits helping her boss destroy documents last November.

2/26/87
Pledging to “carefully study” it over the next several days, the President accepts his copy of the Tower Commission Report, which:
· Blames Regan for “the chaos that descended upon the White House”
· Says Shultz and Weinberger “simply distanced themselves from the program”
· Concludes that Casey “appears to have been informed in considerable detail”
· Euphemistically attacks Reagan's ignorance and sloth by faulting his “personal management style.”
The paperback edition is an instant best seller.

2/27/87
Donald Regan storms out of the White House after hearing on CNN that Howard Baker is replacing him. It is the culmination of the escalating feud between Nancy Reagan and himself.

3/1/87
“The record is that he was either absent or silent. I don't know what that does for him.” – Senator Bob Dole attacking presidential rival George Bush's ineffectiveness in the Iran-contra scandal.

3/4/87
President Reagan responds to the Tower Commission with a 12-minute speech in which he:
· Acknowledges that the Iran-contra affair “happened on my watch”
· Says nobler aims of long-term peace “deteriorated…into trading arms for hostages”
· Calls the deal “a mistake”
As for his “management style”, the problem was that “no one kept proper records of meetings or decisions,” which led to his inability to recall approving the arms shipment. “I did approve it,” says the President. “I just can't say specifically when.” He adds, “Rest assured, there's plenty of record-keeping going on at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”
Says Indiana senator Dan Quayle after the speech, “The Gipper's back.”

3/18/87
Michael Deaver is indicted on five counts of perjury. He is the seventh senior administration official to be indicted, and the first under the provisions of the 1978 Ethics in Government Act.

4/1/87
A White House official admits that President Reagan has never discussed AIDS with Surgeon General C. Everett Koop and has yet to read Koop's six-month—old report, which predicted 180,000 deaths from the disease by 1991.

4/7/87
Meese Acknowledges Interceding For Wedtech – The Washington Post

4/8/87
Ed Meese, whose ties to the principals in the growing Wedtech scandal have become public, removes himself from the investigation.

4/9/87
President Reagan tells reporters the Soviet bugging of the US embassy in Moscow was “outrageous”. When asked about the US bugging of the Soviet embassy in Washington, the President says further discussion “wouldn't be useful.”

4/28/87
Benjamin Linder, an American volunteer working in Nicaragua, is shot to death by the contras.

5/3/87
The Iran-contra hearings get underway in Washington. The first witness, arms profiteer Gen. Richard Secord, claims the administration approved his pro-contra activities with Oliver North, who stood at attention while talking to the President on the phone. “I hope I'm finally going to hear some of the things I'm still waiting to learn,” said President Reagan.

5/6/87
Less than 24 hours after Richard Secord implicates him in the Iran-contra scandal, William Casey, 74, dies of pneumonia.

5/11/87
Senate counsel Arthur Liman questions Robert McFarlane about Oliver North's destruction of documents as the Iran-contra scandal unraveled. “What did he tell you abut a 'shredding party'?” Liman asks. “Well,” says McFarlane, “just that there had to be one.”

5/12/87
Investigators discover that the $10 million solicited for the contras by Elliott Abrams from the Sultan of Brunei – which had been missing for nine months – was mistakenly deposited to the account of a Swiss businessman after Oliver North transposed two digits in his arms network's secret account.

5/15/87
President Reagan says he was “very definitely involved in the decisions about support to the freedom fighters. It was my idea to begin with.” Asked about the conflict between this statement and previous claims of abject ignorance, Marlin Fitzwater says, “They're going to stay in conflict.”

5/17/87
Thirty-seven sailors are killed aboard the USS Stark when the ship – in the Persian Gulf to protect Iraq's ally Kuwait's oil tankers from Iranian attack – is hit by an Exocet missile fired (accidentally) by an Iraqi fighter jet.

5/27/87
CIA operative Felix Rodriguez (aka Max Gomez) testifies that Oliver North once said of a congressional investigating committee, “These people want me, but they cannot touch me because the old man loves my ass.”

6/1/87
Washington police don large yellow rubber gloves to arrest 64 demonstrators protesting Reagan AIDS policies, while at an international AIDS conference, George Bush is booed by several scientists when he endorses increased AIDS testing.

6/2/87
Assistant Secretary of State Elliot Abrams acknowledges to the Iran-contra committee that it was “a mistake” for him to have misled Congress in earlier testimony. He explains that he answered “No” when asked if he'd discussed contra fund-raising because he had been involved in fund-raising for the contras, not by them.

6/9/87
Describing Oliver North as “every secretary's dream of a boss,” Fawn Hall defends him against charges of illegality. “Sometimes,” she observes, “you have to go above the written law, I believe.”

7/7/87
Lt. Col. Oliver North begins six nationally televised days of testimony before the Iran-contra committee.

7/8/87
Oliver North testifies that the late William Casey helped run the secret contra program.

7/9/87
On his third day of testimony, Oliver North states that he shredded documents in the presence of Justice Department officials.

7/10/87
Manucher Ghorbanifar denies Oliver North's story that they negotiated the Iran arms deal in a men's room.

7/15/87
John Poindexter claims that he kept the President uninformed of the fund diversion – though he was sure he would “approve if asked” – in order to “provide some future deniability.” He adds, “On this whole issue, you know, the buck stops here with me.”

7/23/87
John Poindexter is reported to have used the phrase “I can't recall” (or some variation thereof) 184 times during his five days of testimony.

7/29/87
During two days of testimony, Ed Meese used the phrase “I can't recall” (or some variation thereof) 340 times.

8/3/87
The Iran-contra hearing close.

9/30/87
President Reagan complains to the Washington Times that a Soviet “disinformation campaign” has made anti-Communism in the US “unfashionable.” He speaks nostalgically of the good old days when Sen. Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee would investigate suspected subversives. “They've done away with those committees,” says the President. “That shows the success of what the Soviets were able to do in this country.”

11/5/87
With Robert Bork being rejected for the Supreme Court by the largest Senate margin ever (58-42), his replacement nominee Douglas Ginsburg admits that “once as a student in the 1960s and on a few occasions in the '70s”, while he was a Harvard law professor, he smoked marijuana. He calls it a “mistake.”

11/6/87
With Ginsburg's survival as a candidate in jeopardy (it was already in trouble before the pot-smoking revelation), conservative try to downplay his admitted drug use. “He was not an addict,” says President Reagan, not previously known for condoning recreational usage. “He was nothing of that kind.” Georgia congressman Newt Gingrich admits that he smoked marijuana once, 19 years ago, but it had no effect on him.

11/7/87
Douglas Ginsburg asks President Reagan to withdraw his nomination.

11/8/87
Rep. Connie Mack (R-FL) tells a reporter he smoked marijuana “more than once,, but not often” when he was in his 30's, “but I have not done it in years.

11/11/87
President Reagan, in a show of support, embraces his embattled Attorney General just before Meese returns to the US Courthouse to resume his sixth appearance before a federal grand jury.

11/18/87
The Iran-contra committee's final report says President Reagan bears ultimate responsibility for the scandal because he failed to carry out his oath to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” Ed Meese is singled out for having “poorly served” the President – first, with his advice on the legality of the arms deal, and then when he “departed from standard investigative techniques” in conducting his probe.

11/20/87
The administration announces and immigration agreement that will send more than 2,500 Cuban prisoners in US jails home against their wishes. Ed Meese fails to anticipate prisoner reaction, and inmates in Atlanta and Louisiana seize hostages. Meese agrees to a moratorium on deportations.

12/3/87
President Reagan, in an interview with four news anchors, criticizes opponents of the arms treaty he is about to sign, although their objections are similar to the ones he himself raised against previous treaties. Far-right activist Howard Phillips denounces him as a “useful idiot for Soviet propaganda.”

12/8/87
Before signing the arms treaty, President Reagan once again cites his favorite Russian proverb, “Doveryai, no proveryai – trust, but verify.” An exasperated Mikhail Gorbachev says, “You repeat that at every meeting!”

12/16/87
Describing the difference between his relationship with President Reagan and George Bush's, Al Haig says, “When I disagreed with him he heard it from me. I didn't sit there at his side to say 'yeah' to every cockamamie idea that came before the President and then claim I didn't know about it afterwards unless it was a winner.”

Ronald Reagan – The Bonzo Years

1988

1/7/88
Bush Regularly Attended Meetings On Iran Sales – Records Indicate Knowledge Understated – The Washington Post

3/1/88
George Bush attacks Congress for cutting off aid to the contras, claiming it “pulls the plug out from under the President of the United States.”

3/16/88
President Reagan claims Nicaragua has invaded Honduras – just as he claimed two years earlier – and send 3,200 US troops as a show of support. Even so, Congress pass no aid to the contras.
Oliver North, John Poindexter, Richard Secord and Albert Hakim plead not guilty to charges of conspiracy, theft and fraud in connection with the Iran-contra scandal. North, who calls the indictment a “badge of honor”, retires from the Marines to defend himself more freely. Says President Reagan of the indictments, “I have no knowledge of anything that was broken.”

4/11/88
The media discovers a confession in Larry Speakes book, “Speaking Out”, released four days earlier: during the Geneva summit, he twice made up quotes and attributed them to President Reagan, whose utterances had in fact been “very tentative and stilted.” He also admits having assigned words actually spoken by George Shultz during the Korean air liner crises to Reagan, “since the President had had almost nothing to say.” Speakes, who notes that his creativity “played well”, explains that fabricating quotes “is not lying” because “I knew those quotes were the way he felt.” In another part of the book, he stated that preparing President Reagan for a press conference was “like re-inventing the wheel.”

4/19/88
The Senate Labor Committee is told George Bush recently pressed for easing requirements for toxic gas ventilation in the workplace. The Bush plan, which had the advantage of being cheaper, was to make the workers wear personal respirators, an unquestionably less effective method of protection.

4/27/88
President Reagan is asked if he could imagine any circumstances that would prompt him to demand Ed Meese's resignation. Almost all of Meese's staff have recently resigned, he has been under numerous investigations over the last two years, and even right wing Senator Strom Thurmond had said “That boy's got to go.” President Reagan responds, “Well, maybe if he had a complete change of character.”

5/5/88
After it's most famous teacher, Jamie Escalante, is immortalized in a Hollywood film, East L.A.'s Garfield High School gets a visit from George Bush.
“You don't have to go to college to be a success,” says Bush, apparently unaware that the school sends 70% of its mainly Hispanic students to college. “We need the people who run the offices, the people who do the hard physical work of our society” continues the man who will claim to be “the Education President”. The speech becomes referred to by aides as the “You, too, can be a janitor” speech.

5/30/88
At a state dinner at the Kremlin, the President falls asleep during Gorbachev's toast.

5/31/88
In a speech to students at Moscow State University, President Reagan explains the American Indian situation: the US has “provided millions of acres” for “preservations – or the reservations, I should say” so the Indians could “maintain their way of life,” though he now wonders, “Maybe we should not have humored them in that, wanting to stay in that kind of primitive lifestyle. Maybe we should have said, 'No, come join us. Be citizens along with the rest of us.'” For the record, Indians have been citizens since 1924.

6/8/88
“You know, if I listened to him long enough, I would be convinced that we're in an economic downturn, and that people are homeless, and people are going without food and medical attention, and that we've got to do something about the unemployed.” – President Reagan accusing Michael Dukakis of misleading campaign rhetoric.

6/19/88
“I didn't know anything about it.” – Former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger responding as a huge Pentagon bribery scandal begins to unfold.

6/21/88
At a press conference following his last economic summit in Toronto, President Reagan says that neither he nor Caspar Weinberger could have been expected to have known about the burgeoning Pentagon scandal. “It should be understandable how such things can happen in something as big as our government is,” says the President by way of explanation.

6/29/88
With three White House guards suspended for suspected off-duty cocaine use, a random drug-testing policy is announced for all executive office employees.

7/3/88
When the U.S. battleship Vincennes mistakes Iran Air Flight 655 for a fighter plane and blasts it out of the sky, killing 290, President Reagan calls the incident an “understandable accident.” Vincennes is one of the Navy's ultra-sophisticated computer-supported Aegis cruisers. Though reliable reports say the Soviet downing of KAL 007 was also inadvertent, he insists there is “no comparison” between the events. Says George Bush, “I will never apologize for the United States of America! I don't care what the facts are!”

7/18/88
Independent counsel James McKay reports that though he thinks prosecution is unwarranted, he has concluded that Ed Meese “probably violated the criminal law” four times since becoming America's chief law enforcement officer. McKay says Meese filed a false income tax return, failed to pay capital gains taxes on time, and participated in decisions about matter in which he had a financial interest. A furious Meese responds, “McKay doesn't know beans about criminal law, let alone taxes. I've had a reputation all my life for scrupulous honesty and integrity, and frankly I'm outraged by this sort of report. The only person who says there is a criminal violation is Mr. McKay and he's wrong.”

7/19/88
The Justice Department opens an investigation into Ed Meese's possible violation of federal ethics laws.

8/12/88
Ed Meese serves his last day as Attorney General. He is replaced by former Pennsylvania governor Richard Thornburgh.

8/21/88
“This was a PR outfit that became President and took over the country.” – former Reagan press aide Leslie Janka, as quoted by Mark Hertsgaard in “On Bended Knee: The Press and the Reagan Presidency.”

8/25/88
Vice Presidential candidate Dan Quayle cites, among his qualifications to be President, eight years on the Senate Armed Services Committee, where his work on cruise missiles involved “getting them more accurate so that we can have precise precision.” Asked by a farmer about a local pork issue, Quayle says, “Whatever you guys want, I'm for,” explaining that he knows “quite a bit about farm policies” because “I come from Indiana, a farm state.” And what, then, is his message to farmers? “My message?” says Quayle, looking confused. He smiles and says nothing.

8/28/88
Asked what qualifications he would bring to the role of anti-drug czar, should he be so assigned, Dan Quayle claims to be familiar with the National Narcotics Border Interdiction System “in a general sense.” He is asked who runs it. “Who is the head of it? I don't know who the head of it is,” says Quayle. The correct answer is “George Bush”.

8/31/88
Sen. Orrin Hatch calls the Democrats “the party of homosexuals,” then denies he said it. A radio station produces the comment on tape.

9/4/88
“Perestroika is nothing more than refined Stalinism.” – Dan Quayle

9/7/88
“Today, you remember – I wonder how many Americans remember – today is Pearl Harbor Day. Forty-seven years ago to this very day we were hit and hit hard at Pearl Harbor…Did I say September 7th? Sorry about that. December 7th. – George Bush

9/8/88
Marilyn Quayle defends her spouse's much-maligned intellect, claiming that he “really is the studious sort” and points out that “Franklin Roosevelt was a lousy student. He failed the bar exam seven times.” In fact, FDR took the test once, as a second-year law student, and passed.

9/11/88
Bush campaign aide Fred Malek resigns after the resurfacing of a previously reported revelation that, in 1971, he followed President Nixon's orders and compiled a list of Jews at a government bureau.

9/12/88
Six more Bush campaign advisers quit amid charges of anti-Semitism.

9/14/88
“Landslide: The Unmaking of the President: 1884 – 88", by White House correspondents Jane Mayer and Doyle McManus, reveals that Reagan was so detached during the Iran-contra scandal that aides signed his initials to documents without his knowledge. Says an aide to Howard Baker of Reagan's underlings, “They told stories about how inattentive and inept the President was…They said he wouldn't come to work – all he wanted to do was to watch movies and television at the residence.”

9/15/88
Asked about the Holocaust during a rare news conference, Dan Quayle calls it “an obscene period in our nation's history.” Reminded that the Holocaust did not take place in America, he explains that “in this century's history” is what he meant to say. “We all lived in this century,” he says, adding “I didn't live in this century.”

9/16/88
Defending his campaign against charges of ethnic prejudice, George Bush says, “I hope I stand for anti-bigotry, anti-Semitism, anti-racism.” He goes on to misquote the Pledge of Allegiance: “And to the liberty for which it stands, on nation under God with freedom and justice for all.” Bush has made a campaign issue out of the Pledge of Allegiance (Dukakis vetoed a bill that would have required teachers to recite it).

10/17/88
Elaine Crispen confirms that, despite her February 16, 1982 announcement that she would not do it anymore, Nancy Reagan has continued to receive free designer clothing over the past six years. “She made a promise not to do this again and she broke her little promise,” says Crispen, who points out that no actual laws were broken.

10/21/88
“If I'm elected President, if I'm remembered for anything, it would be this: a complete and total ban on chemical weapons. Their destruction forever. That's my solemn mission.” – George Bush, who cast several tie-breaking votes in the Senate to resume production of nerve gas.

10/27/88
“I would guess that there's adequate low-income housing in the country.” – Dan Quayle's view on the homeless situation.

11/8/88
George Bush and Dan Quayle are elected by a 54% – 46% margin, with polls showing that Quayle cost the ticket at least 2% of the vote. Democrats win 10 states and 112 electoral votes, their best showing since 1976. Voter turnout – 50.16% – is the lowest since 1924.

11/9/88
George Bush names campaign chief James Baker Secretary of State.

11/17/88
George Bush names New Hampshire governor John Sununu as White House chief of staff and campaign manager Lee Atwater as the new Republican party head.

11/24/88
Reagan Pocket-Vetoes Stricter Ethics Rules – The Washington Post

12/2/88
“The thing is if you control the Senate meetings, you control the gavel. And the gavel is a very important instrument…and instrument of power. An instrument that establishes the agenda.” – Dan Quayle suggesting that he's considering presiding over the Senate. He has not discussed this with Majority Leader George Mitchell or Minority Leader Bob Dole.

12/8/88
President Reagan holds his 44th and final news conference, for an average of one every 66.4 days. As he has at almost every previous one, he blames the Congress and previous Democratic Presidents for his budget deficits.

12/13/88
President Reagan delivers his farewell address on domestic policy, in which he continues to deny that his defense spending increases and tax cuts were in any way responsible for the $155 billion deficit, blaming instead an “iron triangle” of congressmen, lobbyists and journalists.

12/16/88
George Bush names John Tower to run the Pentagon.

12/22/88
President Reagan – whose tenure has coincided with a huge increase in the homeless population – uses his last interview with David Brinkley to again claim that many of these unfortunates are homeless by “their own choice,” as must be many of the jobless, since he again points out that the Sunday papers are full of want ads.

Ronald Reagan – The Bonzo Years

1989

1/5/89
The Reagans return to the White House for the last time, with the President having spent a total of 458 of his terms in office in California. This equals a little over 8 weeks per year.

1/17/89
“We found that the independent counsel's report far from vindicates Mr. Meese; rather, it details conduct which should not be tolerated by any government employee, especially not the attorney general of the United States.” – Justice Department report on the ethics of Ed Meese.

1/20/89
President George Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle are sworn into office. As the Reagans depart, the backwash of their helicopter blows the small blue “sailor” hat off Marilyn Quayle's head.

From:

www.quickchange.com/reagan/
Reagan was in many ways the founder of the modern Republican Party. His redefinition of fiscal conservatism as being focused on tax cuts without regard to a balanced budget Reaganomics”); his opposition to progressive taxation, greater environmental protection and regulation, and abortion; the importance of the Moral Majority and its supporters in his governing coalition; and even his support of missile defense systems.

He embarked upon the path that led him to a career in politics during his tenure as president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), aligning himself with Senator Joseph McCarthy and cooperating with the House Un-American Activities Committee to “expose Communist influence in Hollywood”.

Reagan proved to be a stern leader when on August 5, 1981 he fired 11,359 striking air traffic controllers who ignored his order to return to work.

In the Iran-Contra Affair, United States President Ronald Reagan's administration secretly sold arms to Iran, which was engaged in a bloody war with its neighbor Iraq from 1980 to 1988 (see Iran-Iraq War), and diverted the proceeds to the Contra rebels fighting to overthrow the leftist Sandinista government of Nicaragua. Some claim there is also evidence that the CIA and perhaps other parts of the US government may have been involved with drug trafficking to raise money for the Contra campaign. The 1988 report from the Senate Subcommittee on Narcotics, Terrorism and International Operations concluded that various individuals in the Contra movement were involved in drug trafficking, that other drug traffickers provided assistance to the Contras, and that “there are some serious questions as to whether or not US officials involved in Central America failed to address the drug issue for fear of jeopardizing the war effort against Nicaragua.” At a minimum, Oliver North's notebooks indicate that he was informed repeatedly of Contra involvement in drug trafficking, and there is no record of his passing this information along to the DEA. Reagan's policies in the “ War on Drugs” emphasized imprisonment for drug offenders while cutting funding for addiction treatment. This resulted in a dramatic increase in the USA's prison population.

Reagan was widely critized in 1985 for a few incidents in East and West Germany. First, he announced he would not visit a concentration camp in West Germany because there were “very few alive that remember even the war, and certainly none of them who were adults and participating in any way.” On April 11, the White House announced that Reagan would be visiting the Bitburg, West Germany military cemetery, to lay a wreath in honor of the Americans and Nazis buried there. There are no U.S. soldiers buried in Bitburg.
World Timeline (1981-1988)

Browse a chronology of major events that occurred during Reagan's presidency.

1981

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is first identified
Francois Mitterand becomes president of France
President of Egypt Anwar Sadat is assassinated
Israeli air force bombs a nuclear plant in Iraq
Americans held hostage in Iran freed

1982

UN Conference adopts the “Law of the Sea”
Martial law ends in Poland; Solidarity leader Lech Walesa is released from prison
Falkland War between Great Britain and Argentina occurs
Israeli troops invade Lebanon

1983

Millions starve in Ethiopian drought
Pope John Paul II visits Poland
Benino Aquino, political opponent of Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos, is murdered
US embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, is bombed by Shiite Moslems
Violent conflict breaks out between Tamils and Sinhalese in Sri Lanka
US troops invade Grenada
South Korean airliner shot down by Soviets, killing 269 people

1984

Poisonous gas leak kills 2,500 people in Bhopal, India
Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi assassinated
UK and China agree that Hong Kong will revert to Chinese rule in 1997
Soviet leader Andropov dies; succeeded by Chernenko

1985

British scientists discover a hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica
An earthquake hits Mexico City, killing 7,000 people
Live Aid concerts are held in England and the U.S. to provide famine relief to Ethiopia
UK and Ireland sign the Anglo-Irish Agreement
Palestinian terrorists hijack the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro
French intelligence agents sink a Greenpeace ship in New Zealand
Soviet leader Chernenko dies, succeeded by Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev unilaterally stops nuclear missile deployment in Europe

1986

Nuclear reactor disaster in Chernobyl, USSR, occurs
U.S. space shuttle “Challenger” explodes on takeoff, killing the entire crew
Swedish prime minister Olof Palme is assassinated
U.S. air force bombs Tripoli and Benghazi in Libya
Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda flee the Philippines; Corazon Aquino is elected president

1987

Stock markets around the world crash
Soviet leader Gorbachev begins policies of “glasnost” and “perestroika”
U.S. and USSR sign INF treaty banning short- and medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe
Riots in Mecca result in the deaths of 402 Moslem pilgrims

1988

Earthquake in Armenia kills 80,000 people
Terrorists blow up a Pan American 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all aboard and several people on the ground
“Intifada” Palestinian resistance movement begins in the Israeli-occupied West Bank
Benazir Bhutto becomes president of Pakistan and the first female to lead a Moslem country