Michael Koziarski Leadership Biography Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States, is one of the most

consequential Presidents of all time, and certainly the 20th century. Reagan was not only a leader of a movement, the Conservative movement, but he was a leader of all Americans and the entire Western world. His nickname, the great communicator, is entirely appropriate considering both his profession earlier in life, and his ability to inspire and uplift an entire nation. Born in Tampico, Illinois to a mother who was a devout Christian and a father who was a traveling salesman, with a penchant for drunkenness, Reagan would spend his adolescence, along with his mother, traveling from one mid-west town to the next following his father.1 This early life experience was significant in that it forced Reagan to constantly meet new people and make new friends.2 By the time Reagan got to High School he was living in Dixon Illinois, where he excelled in sports and became a town hero saving lives as a lifeguard. Reagan would attend Eureka College after high school where he majored in Economics and Sociology, while playing football and participating in Drama. Fortunately for Reagan this was stage drama, not day to day drama. Reagan was not an excellent student; in fact according to Steven Hayward an historian from the Claremont Institute, he was a B and C student who would regret his inattention to his studies later on in life.3 After graduating from Eureka in 1932, Reagan would begin his career in broadcasting. He worked at several radio stations across the western region of Iowa until 1937 at which time he joined the Army reserves as a Calvary officer. Reagan was literally riding on horseback just two years prior to the Blitzkrieg attack on Europe by the Nazis. Reagan would begin his acting career in the late 30s, he landed his most notable role in the film Knute Rockne All American in which he played George gip Gipper, this is where his iconic nickname came from. In fact one could easily say he is known more as Gipper than the actual Gipper is. Reagan would eventually leave acting after the start of WWII to enter the Army as a lieutenant; his poor vision would land him a spot producing training film much like other actors of the time. Reagan would marry actress Jane Wyman in 1940, with whom he had two children, one of them adopted. Eventually Jane and Ronald divorced, and he married Nancy Davis in 1953. The two had one boy and one girl, and settled in California while Ronald was the President of the Screen Actors Guild. This is indicative of Reagans natural ability the two had one boy and one girl, and settled in California

1 2

Kevin Knoblock, Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous With Destiney, Citizen's United, DVD, 2009. 00:06. Steven Hayward, Ronald Reagan: Conservative Statesman" The Heritage Foundation, 2003. June 4, 2013. www.heritage.org/research/reports/ronald-reagan-conservative-statesman (accessed April 1, 2014). 3 Ibid.,

while Ronald was the President of the Screen Actors Guild. This appointment is indicative of Reagans natural ability to lead and communicate.4 It is during this time that Reagan was considered, and self-identified as a liberal democrat, he supported both FDR and Harry Truman for President and supported labor. As President of SAC he was also very much opposed to the growing communist presence in Hollywood. Reagan spoke out frequently against Marxism, Leninism, Trotskyism, or whatever you want to call it. He supported Senator Joe McCarthys inquisition into the matter as the chairman of the Senate Committee on Un-American Activities. It is during this period that Reagan began his evolution to Conservatism. Reagan took a job with General Electric, who had been promoting their new technology and free market principles. Reagan began to listen to all of the industrial workers he met during his travels and began to loath government regulation and ill-informed bureaucrats. Reagans can- do spirit, blue collar demeanor and his intellectual charm, were featured in a number of televised adds, making him even more familiar to a national audience. Then by 1964 Reagan started a movement with one unforgettable speech. In October of 1964, the first strong conservative candidate ran for office since Calvin Coolidge in 1924, his name was Barry Goldwater. The Senator from Arizona was being crushed by his crafty opponent, Lyndon Baines Johnson. Goldwaters candidness and bold explication of policy initiatives were preyed upon by Johnson who even ran a TV ad depicting a young girl picking daisys followed by an atomic blast. This was completely unfounded and ridiculous, however it was effective and Goldwater faced imminent defeat. Ronald Reagan was supposed to give a short speech introducing Goldwater, however, he had been viewed by Goldwaters campaign staff as too far to the right and they didnt want Reagan to appear and canceled the speech. Goldwater and his donors caught wind of this and immediately put Reagan back in the time slot. The speech Reagan would deliver on that fall evening excoriated the bureaucratic machine that had grown out of control since the days of FDR. Reagan cited incredible financial mismanagement, fraud, arrogance and accused the Johnson administration of being a small and far away intellectual elite who thought they knew better. He would say, The problem with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, it is just that they know so much that isnt so. This was a light jab and was related to by the people, especially conservatives. Reagan used this political popularity to win in a landslide against Pat Brown for Governor of California. As Governor Reagan was faced with the daunting task of a wholly Democratic legislature and being a Conservative Governor in 1960s California, where the famous hippy counter culture movement was taking place. Reagan was able to work with the legislature and he often clashed with the young people at UC Berkeley. Reagan won re-election in 1970 and even got several votes at the Republican National Convention in 1967, a nomination in which he never sought.

Ibid.,

After the Watergate scandal the Republican Party was in shambles, and Gerald Ford was running to keep the Oval Office in 1976. Reagan challenged a sitting President in a primary. Reagan had felt that Ford was not sufficiently addressing a growing national debt and his foreign policy of dtente was illadvised. Reagan was nearly successful in his primary bid, taking it to the Convention where he was unable to conjure the support of the Pennsylvanian delegates. In what was supposed to be a concession speech Reagan delivered a speech that prompted the audience to come to a sobering realization, we have nominated the wrong guy. If I could just take a moment, I had an assignment the other day. Someone asked me to write a letter for a time capsule that is going to be opened in Los Angeles a hundred years from now, on our Tricentennial. It sounded like an easy assignment. They suggested I write something about the problems and the issues today. I set out to do so, riding down the coast in an automobile, looking at the blue Pacific out on one side and the Sana Ynez Mountains on the other, and I couldnt help but wonder if it was going to be that beautiful a hundred years from now as it was on that summer day. . . we live in which the great powers have poised and aimed at each other horrible missiles of destruction, nuclear weapons that can in a matter of minutes arrive at each others country and destroy, virtually, the entire civilized world we live in. . . We have got to quit talking to each other and about each other and go out and communicate to the world that we may be fewer in numbers than we have ever been, but we carry the message they are waiting for. We must go forth from here united, determined that what a great general said a few years ago is true: There is no substitute for victory, Mr. President.5

Here Reagan was speaking to a nation that was witnessing the massive buildup and modernization of the USSRs nuclear stockpile, while simultaneously seeing a war weary nation deplete its military and toasting wine with the Communist Chinese. This was a call for strength that would go unanswered until he answered his own call in 1980. Ronald Reagans leadership during an the early 1980s was the centrifugal force that led to the Reagan Revolution. This revolution brought America out from under malaise and toward prosperity. He turned the tables on our global enemy as we rose from being a second tier global power to the most formidable democratic power in human history. In 1979 the Cold War had been seen as a perpetual conflict and administrations under Nixon, Johnson and Carter viewed the war as one of balance, and one that must be fought defensively. This tactic resulted in what can be compared to a perpetual chess match, and the existence of Communism was accepted readily by most if not all. Ronald Reagans had a unique vision, it was unique in that it boldly sought to alter this view defensive view, which sought to tolerate and contain Soviet conquest, to one which sought to defeat Communism on the offensive. Reagan viewed Communism unlike most at the time, he viewed it not as an economic model or a political system, and he viewed it as a pathogen

Steven Hayward, Reagan: The Fall of the Old Liberal Order: 1964-1980. Three Rivers Press: Pittsburgh, 2009. 306.

which threatened the virtues and principles of the enlightenment and as a violation of mans natural and inalienable rights.6 Reagan understood that we must offer a formidable deterrence to Soviet aggression, and the only deterrence in which they would significantly respond to was strong leadership, firm opposition, and a military presence which paralleled their own. Reagan used his uncanny ability to communicate to the people of both the U.S. and the world. Reagan identified to the public, as he had been for years prior to 1980, that our military was incapable of projecting any deterrence toward the Soviets as they lacked training, proper equipment and most of all a nuclear arsenal that would deter Soviet use of their own fully updated arsenal. By increasing military expenditures, Reagan had to go against his own fiscally responsible principles, as prudence dictated to him, in a strikingly Aristotelian way, that the defense of our nation and the war against tyranny was worth the price. He worked with an entirely democratic congress; in fact only 102 Republicans even sat in the House of Representatives when he took office, in order to increase military expenditures. He and Tip ONeil, despite their polar views, were able to work together on this pressing matter. This was due in part to a greater sense of urgency in light of the Ayatollahs capturing of American passengers and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, but it was also a product of two men who understood what necessity dictated and what politics were supposed to be about. Among Reagans accomplishments as a Cold War leader included modernizing our military, advancing US interests in Europe by strategically placing missiles along the Soviet borders and outwitting Secretary Gorbachev. All of these were helpful; however, it was his dedication to principle, his fearlessness, his understanding of communism and his diplomatic leadership which struck the most punishing blow during his 8 years as President. He was able to collaborate with the most powerful western leaders, such as Margaret Thatcher who swayed a nation not far removed from an era which featured a strong communist party to fight with America; and Pope John Paul, the first Polish pope, who was able to help inspire the Solidarity movement within Poland which ultimately sparked the fall of the USSR. Reagan was able to use his charming and loveable demeanor to win over his advisories and solidify his supporters. However, his amazing dynamism, which was a product of his acting career, was not always able to keep his true feelings at bay. Reagans stern, blunt and often humorous rhetoric toward the USSR was perhaps the most pivotal factor in the fall of the USSR. He openly called the Soviet Union an Evil Empire which according to political prisoners in Soviet Gulags caused a massive uproar and celebration. One prisoner said, it was greater than any missile that could have been fired, finally somebody was calling a spade a spade. People began talking through toilets, yelling from cell to cell, ignoring the warnings of the guards. Reagan inspired the people in the USSR, a tactic that had not been

. Steven Hayward, Ronald Reagan: Conservative Statesman" The Heritage Foundation, 2003. June 4, 2013. www.heritage.org/research/reports/ronald-reagan-conservative-statesman (accessed April 1, 2014).

sufficiently explored by previous administrations, but Reagan knew that the people of the Soviet Union wanted to be free.7 Another instance of leadership and ingenuity is exemplified in his plan for Star Wars. This was a satellite system which would provide the homeland with a defensive shield capable of striking down any missile before it came close to America. OF course this was a hoax, and was conjured up by Reagan alone. The Soviets actually believed it, leading to a greater willingness to negotiate reductions.

Bibliography Buckley Jr., William F., The Reagan I Knew. New York, New York: Basic Books, 2008. Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous with Destiney. Directed by Kevin Knoblock. Performed by Citizen's United. 2009. Hayward, Steven. Reagan: The Fall of the Old Liberal Order: 1964-1980. Three Rivers Press: Pittsburgh, 2009. "Ronald Reagan: Conservative Statesman" The Heritage Foundation, 2003. June 4, 2013. www.heritage.org/research/reports/ronald-reagan-conservative-statesman (accessed April 1, 2014). II, William J. Middendorf. A Glorious Disaster: Barry Goldwater's Presidential Campaign and the Origins of the Conservative Movement. New York : Basic Books, 2006. ..Reagan, Ronald. The Reagan Diaries. New York: Harper Perennial, 2009.

Knoblach., 00:45