The World as a Grade-B Hollywood Shoot ‘Em Up Movie


Back in “Fabulous Fifties” America, a has-been Grade-B Hollywood movie actor named Ronald Reagan revived a floundering acting career by taking a job as corporate spokesman for General Electric, a leader in the burgeoning “Military/Industrial Complex”. Reagan’s Hollywood “Good Guy” image and his ability to read a script from a teleprompter served his new employers well, and enabled Reagan to quickly advance to the top of the ranks of corporate shills.

As 1950’s America sought escape and refuge in the “Never Never Land” of their television sets, they found comfort, reassurance and solace in the feigned sincerity of television actors who sold them various products along with a sanitized, fictional version of American history.

In spite of his growing mental confusion, the increasingly addled Reagan was able to retain his abilty to read a teleprompter convincingly, while remembering the script for the GE public relations speech he was taught. Those skills, along with an aging, grandfatherly image, further endeared Reagan to a brainwashed and ignorant American public, thus adding to his usefulness to his employers. The single most useful trait Reagan possessed was the fact that he actually believed the Good Guy Vs. Bad Guy fairy tales himself.

Reagan is credited with the defeat of the “Evil Empire”, the Soviet Union. Reagan had many friends and helpers in his fight against evil around the world, including Saddam Hussein of Iraq and the fanatical Muslim extremists in Afghanistan that founded the Taliban regime and spawned al-Qaeda terrorism.
Now, the U.S. is asking Russia for help in the war against Reagans’ former “brave freedom fighters”. Now Reagan’s robber baron bosses have another befuddled but likeable puppet leader under their influence. The Bush regime includes former members of the Reagan-Bush administration. They have succeeded in turning the U.S. into the new Evil Empire. Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle and other holdovers from the Reagan admimistration helped to set the stage for the “War on Terror”. Reagans’ “brave freedom fighters” are now Bushs’ “evildoers” who “hate our freedoms”. Colin Powell was there too, he played important behind-the-scenes roles in missile shipments to Iran, arms to Iraq and in the coverup of the Iran-Contra scandal.

Project for the New American Century (PNAC), the blueprint for American global dominance, was founded by none other than Cheney, Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Donald Rumsfeld, and other former Reagan and Bush administration hawks. The plans for the invasion of Iraq were made years before 9/11/2001. The Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon simply provided the perfect rationale to implement existing plans.




The Reagan-Bush bunch armed and supported the Afghan Islamic fundamentalists in order to “bleed the USSR white”. The monster they created grew too big to control, and now the U.S. is bleeding white trying to stop it. Now the U.S. is seen by people around the world as the “Evil Empire”.



President Ronald Reagan, honoring Afghan “freedom fighters” at the White House in 1893: “The Afghan Mujaheddin are the moral equivalent of the Founding Fathers of America.”

Afghanistan 1979-1992: Americaís Jihad
by William Blum

His followers first gained attention by throwing acid in the faces of women who refused to wear the veil. CIA and State Department officials I have spoken with call him “scary”, “vicious”, “a fascist”, “definite dictatorship material”.

This did not prevent the United States government from showering the man with large amounts of aid to fight against the Soviet-supported government of Afghanistan. His name was Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. He was head of the Islamic Party and he hated the United States almost as much as he hated the Russians. His followers screamed “Death to America” along with “Death to the Soviet Union”, only the Russians were not showering him with large amounts of aid.

The United States began supporting Afghan Islamic fundamentalists despite the fact that in February of that year some of them had kidnapped the American ambassador in the capital city of Kabul, leading to his death in the rescue attempt. The support continued even after their brother Islamic fundamentalists in next-door Iran seized the U.S. embassy in Teheran in November and held 55 Americans hostage for over a year. Hekmatyar and his colleagues were, after all, in battle against the Soviet Evil Empire; he was thus an important member of those forces Ronald Reagan called “freedom fighters”.

A “favorite tactic” of the Afghan freedom fighters was “to torture victims [often Russians] by first cutting off their noses, ears, and genitals, then removing one slice of skin after another”, producing “a slow, very painful death”. The Mujaheddin also killed a Canadian tourist and six West Germans, including two children, and a U.S. military attachÈ was dragged from his car and beaten; all due to the rebelsí apparent inability to distinguish Russians from other Europeans.


Like everything spawned in Hollywood, the Reagan myth is nothing at all like the reality of what really went on behind the scenes. Read on to learn the God-awful truth about the Reagan-Bush administration.

Nixon Called Reagan ‘Strange’
Dec. 10, 2003

COLLEGE PARK, Md.(AP) - President Nixon didn’t think much of fellow Californian and Republican icon Ronald Reagan, calling him “strange” and not “pleasant to be around,” newly released White House tapes show.

Talking politics with White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman at Camp David in August 1972, Nixon switched the conversation to two Republican governors, Reagan of California and Nelson Rockefeller of New York. Both men unsuccessfully sought the 1968 Republican presidential nomination that Nixon received.

“Reagan is not one that wears well,” Nixon said. “I know,” Haldeman agreed.

“On a personal basis, Rockefeller is a pretty nice guy,” Nixon said. “Reagan on a personal basis, is terrible. He just isn’t pleasant to be around.”

“No, he isn’t,” Haldeman said.

“Maybe he’s different with others,” Nixon said.

“No,” Haldeman said.

“No, he’s just an uncomfortable man to be around,” Nixon said, “strange.”

The conversations are part of the 240 hours of White House tape recordings from the Nixon administration released Wednesday by the National Archives. Covering July through October 1972, the tapes are the 10th batch of Nixon recordings, totaling 2,109 hours, that the Archives has released since 1980. In all, there are about 3,700 hours of Nixon White House tapes.

In 1980, Nixon told Parade magazine that he had several good talks with Reagan. “I think he values my foreign policy advice,” the magazine quoted Nixon as saying. “I will be available for any assistance or advice.”

Reagan had corresponded with Nixon for years. When Reagan was elected president, he sought Nixon’s advice.

Later, Nixon said Reagan’s economic policies were unduly harsh and cautioned against giving him too much credit for winning the Cold War. “Communism would have collapsed anyway,” he told Monica Crowley, a Nixon aide in in his last years, according to her 1996 book, “Nixon Off the Record.”











Reagan’s last TV role

In the “Death Valley Days” episode entitled ‘Raid on the San Francisco Mint’, newly elected Governor Reagan played the unlikely role of the man who saves San Francisco from financial ruin.

Portraying banker William Chapman Ralston, the affable Reagan pulls a fast one on the U.S. Mint in order to convince his depositors that the city’s economy is stronger than it is.

Mr. Reagan was cleverly able to take the plot of this TV show (based on a true story), rename it ‘Reaganomics’, and sell it to the entire country all over again on television in his role as President.



VIDEO CLIPS FROM RONALD REAGAN’S LAST
“DEATH VALLEY DAYS” TELEVISION EPISODE/ 1967





Nancy Davis, later Nancy Reagan, helped land Ronald Reagan a job for General Electric as their spokesman. Reagan not only appeared every week on TV as the host of General Electric Theater, he also traveled extensively, visiting all 135 of G.E.’s plants and speaking to 250,000 employees. At each stop he made what became to be known as “The Speech.” It was a patriotic, anti-communism, and pro-business speech that eventually became the ideology for Reagan in politics in the years to come.

From CNN’s “Reagan Years

By the mid-1950s, Ronald Reagan had made the full transformation from liberal to Republican and his acting career had taken a backseat to his political aspirations. In September 1954, he agreed to host television’s “General Electric Theater” -- a move that helped speed his transition from actor to full-time politician.

While serving as a corporate ambassador for GE, appearing at functions across America, Reagan developed what came to be known as “The Speech” -- a sentimental, anti-big government paean to a romantic America of a bygone era. In 1964, he delivered a rousing address on behalf of Barry Goldwater, the ultra-conservative Republican presidential candidate, running against President Lyndon B. Johnson. While the speech did not salvage Goldwater’s campaign, the former GE host electrified the audience, effectively launching his own political career.



Charles Wilson, Chairman of the Board of General Electric (whom Truman had just appointed to head the Office of Defense Mobilization), in a speech to the Newspaper Publishers Association in 1950:

“If the people were not convinced that the free world is in danger it would be impossible for Congress to vote for the vast sums now being spent to avert this danger. With the support of public opinion, as marshalled by the press, we are off to a good start. It is our job - yours and mine - to keep our people convinced that the only way to keep disaster away from our shores is to build up America’s might.”


On January 24, 1997 GE was identified as the world’s biggest company, heading the Financial Times Global 500 list. GE was also named the most profitable U.S. company, with after-tax profits of $7.28 billion, as sales grew 13% to $79 billion. Financial Times, January 24, 1997, p. 17. GE has an estimated 250,000 employees and is ranked number ninety-six out of the top one hundred U.S. defense contractors. Aviation Week and Space Technology, vol. 146, no. 2, January 13, 1997, p. 235.

Read Human Rights Watch’s The Case Against General Electric

By far the most recognizable name on the list of landmine component producers is General Electric - the U.S. multinational that says it “brings good things to life.” For more than a dozen years these “good things” included parts for deadly antipersonnel landmines.

General Electric’s involvement in the landmines business first came to Human Rights Watch’s attention when GE showed up on a 1994 Pentagon list of suppliers of landmines and mine components.



Reagan was a firm adherent to Biblical prophecy; specifically, he believed that the end of the world -- the Battle of Armageddon -- was close at hand.

PHOTO: Reagan with Jerry Falwell. Falwell called Reagan his “favorite Christian”.

While he was running for office in 1980, candidate Reagan announced during an interview with televangelists Jim and Tammy Bakker that “We may be the generation that sees Armageddon.” But that certainly wasn’t the first time. At a 1971 banquet for California state senator James Mills, then-Governor Reagan broke it all down for the honoree during the dessert course:


“In the 38th chapter of Ezekiel, it says that the land of Israel will come under attack by the armies of the ungodly nations, and it says that Libya will be among them. Do you understand the significance of that? Libya has now gone Communist, and that’s a sign that the day of Armageddon isn’t far off.

“Biblical scholars have been saying for generations that Gog must be Russia. What other powerful nation is to the north of Israel? None. But it didn’t seem to make sense before the Russian revolution, when Russia was a Christian country. Now it does, now that Russia has become communistic and atheistic, now that Russia has set itself against God. Now it fits the description of Gog perfectly.

“For the first time ever, everything is in place for the battle of Armageddon and the Second Coming of Christ. It can’t be too long now. Ezekiel says that fire and brimstone will be rained upon the enemies of God’s people. That must mean that they will be destroyed by nuclear weapons.”


In an interview published in a December 1983 issue of People magazine, the most powerful man in the world revealed that:

“[T]heologians had been studying the ancient prophecies -- what would portend the coming of Armageddon-- and have said that never, in the time between the prophecies up untiI now, has there ever been a time in which so many of the prophecies are coming together. There have been times in the past when people thought the end of the world was coming, and so forth, but never anything like this.”


He was also an ardent supporter of school prayer and anti-abortion laws. He withheld funding from international contraception programs. Over complaints by the ACLU, he officially declared 1983 to be “The Year of the Bible.” And he appointed likeminded Jesus freaks to his cabinet. During a 1981 Congressional hearing, Reagan’s first Secretary of the Interior, James Watt, revealed the depth of his commitment to preserving America’s environment for posterity:

“I do not know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns.”
21 Sept. 1983 James Watt, describes his staff’s racial diversity to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce: “We have every mixture you can have. I have a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple. And we have talent.” Watt is forced to resign 18 days later over these comments.




Ronald Reagan was famous for not understanding how government works and not particularly caring about it. His job was to read speeches off the Teleprompter, shake hands with foreign dignitaries, pose for pictures, and maybe go out and visit a flag factory or a steel mill every once in a while. Otherwise he was busy sleeping in, eating jellybeans, and watching television.

Even so, Reagan got deferential treatment from the press, so the news coverage almost always cast him in the best possible light. He was extremely comfortable in front of the cameras, as you would expect -- after all, he had been a movie star prior to becoming a politician. And he could be disarmingly affable. He often shared jokes and anecdotes and brilliantly-scripted one-liners that sounded spontaneous. But none of that explains why the journalists decided to take it easy on him.

The reason Reagan got a free ride in the media stemmed from his fortuitously-timed assassination attempt.


The American people immediately rallied around their wounded leader. Reagan’s popularity ratings suddenly went through the roof, inflated by public sympathy. The nation’s news editors and publishers chose to play along, rather than risk appearing cold and heartless. This deference persisted throughout his Presidency. So when Reagan would say something phenomenally stupid during a press conference, most news outlets just let it go. Even when he was obviously lying, he never really got called on it. Reagan received the nickname “The Teflon President” thanks to this phenomenon, the name being that of a nonstick coating applied to cookware.

After the shooting, First Lady Nancy heard from her part-time astrologer, Joan Quigley, that they could have and would have predicted that March 30 was destined to be a bad day for her husband... if only Quigley had been on the payroll. Rather than risk a similar incident happening, Nancy decided that it would be prudent to keep the astrologer in the loop. She ordered dedicated phone lines be installed at the White House and Camp David, just so she would never be without the wisdom of the Zodiac.

For the next eight years, Quigley determined the most opportune timing for all of the President’s crucial activities. The First Lady would furnish Ronnie’s tentative itinerary, which the astrologer would optimize and return. Then the White House staff would make the necessary adjustments. This tinkering affected the scheduling of press conferences, Air Force One departures, even the timing of international summits.

As former White House Chief of Staff Don Regan later wrote in his memoirs:

Although I had never met this seer -- Mrs. Reagan passed along her prognostications to me after conferring with her on the telephone -- she had become such a factor in my work, and in the highest affairs of the nation, that at one point I kept a color-coded calendar on my desk (numerals highlighted in green ink for “good” days, red for “bad” days, yellow for “iffy” days) as an aid to remembering when it was propitious to move the president of the United States from one place to another, or schedule him to speak in public, or commence negotiations with a foreign power.


“Mrs. Reagan’s dependence on the occult went back at least as far as her husband’s governorship, when she had depended on the advice of the famous Jeane Dixon.  Subsequently she had lost confidence in Dixon’s powers.  But the First Lady seemed to have absolute faith in the clairvoyant talents of a woman in San Francisco.”

“Virtually every major move and decision the Reagans made during my time as White House Chief of Staff was cleared in advance with a woman in San Francisco who drew up horoscopes to make certain that the planets were in a favorable alignment for the enterprise.”
--Donald Regan (Reagan’s former chief of staff), For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington


“According to a list provided by Mrs. Reagan to [scheduling aide] Bill Henkel, [Quigley] had made the following prohibitions based on her reading of the President’s horoscope:

Late Dec thru March    bad
Jan 16 - 23    very bad
Jan 20    nothing outside WH--possible attempt
Feb 20 - 26    be careful
March 7 - 14    bad period
March 10 - 14    no outside activity!
March 16    very bad
March 21    no
March 27    no
March 12 - 19    no trips exposure
March 19 - 25    no public exposure
April 3    careful
April 11    careful
April 17    careful
April 21 - 28    stay home

“Obviously this list of dangerous or forbidden dates left very little latitude for scheduling.”

“The frustration of dealing with a situation in which the schedule of the President of the United States was determined by occult prognostications was very great--far greater than any other I had known in nearly forty-five years of working life.”
--Donald Regan, For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington


It wasn’t widely circulated until the publication of Donald Regan’s memoir, For the Record in 1988, that President Reagan and his influential wife sought the advice of an astrologer.  Time magazine would later identify Ron and Nancy’s chart reader as being San Francisco astrologist Joan Quigley.


Quigley was not the first astrologer the Reagans had consulted.  Ronald and Nancy Reagan had a long history of involvement with astrologers and psychics.  During the 1950’s and 1960’s, Ron and Nancy enlisted the services of Hollywood astrologer Carroll Righter, and later Jeane Dixon.  In his 1965 autobiography, Where’s the Rest of Me, Reagan said that he and Righter were friends, and that he and Nancy read Righter’s column “regularly.”  (It was on Righter’s advice that Reagan postponed his inauguration as governor of California for 9 minutes until the auspicious moment of 12:10 a.m.)


For fundamentalist preachers like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell--who promoted the myth of Reagan as a standard-bearer of Christian righteousness--the astrology matter should have been of particular concern.  Astrology is a branch of the occult and is inimical to Christianity.  However, if the fundamentalist leaders were concerned or embarrassed by the astrology revelations, they didn’t show it.


For those who had already sized up Ronald Reagan for the flake that he was, the disclosure of astrology in the White House came as no big surprise.  It was consistent with the goofy statements and eccentric policy decisions that Reagan had made throughout his presidency.


For the record:  Joan Quigley became Nancy Reagan’s astrologer after the two met on “The Merv Griffin Show” in the 1970’s.  She reportedly provided astrological advice during Reagan’s bid for the Republican nomination in 1976.  After reaching the White House, the Reagans sought Quigley’s horoscope readings even more.  Nancy had special private phone lines installed in the White House, and at Camp David, expressly for talking to Quigley.

Shortly after President Reagan was shot by John Hinckley, Merv Griffin informed Nancy that he had spoken to Quigley.  Quigley told Griffin that if Nancy had only called her on the day of the assassination attempt, she could have warned Nancy that the President’s charts foretold a bad day.

Following the astrologer’s instructions, the selection of Anthony Kennedy for the Supreme Court was announced to the press at precisely 11:32:25 A.M. According to Quigley’s memoir, the President was cued by “a man with a stopwatch” to make sure he hit the exact moment. (She does not mention whether she gave similar assistance to the President’s two previous selections to fill that seat, Robert Bork and Douglas Ginsburg, who both failed to gain Senate confirmation.)

Ronnie was himself a superstitious man. He always carried a lucky charm in his pocket. He knocked on wood, avoided walking under ladders, and made a habit of tossing salt over his left shoulder before each meal. So it shouldn’t be surprising that the astrology stuff would appeal to him. Throughout the 1950s, Ron and Nancy sought out the services of Carroll Righter, astrologer to the stars. When Reagan won California’s governor seat, he scheduled his inauguration for 12:10 A.M., on Righter’s insistence. And in the 1960s, Ron had been consulting with psychic Jeane Dixon over whether to run for President someday.


“I’d heard my parents [Ron and Nancy] read their horoscopes aloud at the breakfast table, but that seemed pretty innocuous to me.  Occasionally, I read mine, too--usually so I can do the exact opposite of what it says.  But my parents have done what the stars suggested--altered schedules, changed travel plans, stayed home, cancelled appearances.”
--Patti Davis (formerly Patricia Ann Reagan), The Way I See It


“Emerging from a particularly credulous Southern California culture, Nancy and Ronald Reagan relied on an astrologer in private and public matters--unknown to the voting public.  Some portion of the decision-making that influences the future of our civilization is plainly in the hands of charlatans.”
--Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World





On Tuesday, March 31 the Houston Post published a copyrighted story under the headline: “BUSH’S SON WAS TO DINE WITH SUSPECT’S BROTHER, by Arthur Wiese and Margarte Downing.” The lead paragraph read as follows:

Scott Hinckley, the brother of John Hinckley Jr., who is charged with shooting President Reagan and three others, was to have been a dinner guest Tuesday night at the home of Neil Bush, son of Vice President George Bush, The Houston Post has learned.

According to the article, Neil Bush had admitted on Monday, March 30 that he was personally acquainted with Scott Hinckley, having met with him on one occasion in the recent past. Neil Bush also stated that he knew the Hinckley family, and referred to large monetary contributions made by the Hinckleys to the Bush 1980 presidential campaign. Neil Bush and Scott Hinckley both lived in Denver at this time. Scott Hinckley was the vice president of Vanderbilt Energy Corporation, and Neil Bush was employed as a land man for Standard Oil of Indiana. John W. Hinckley Jr., the would-be assassin, lived on and off with his parents in Evergreen, Colorado, not far from Denver.

Neil Bush was reached for comment on Monday, March 30, and was asked if, in addition to Scott Hinckley, he also knew John W. Hinckley Jr., the would-be killer. “I have no idea,” said Neil Bush. “I don’t recognize any pictures of him. I just wish I could see a better picture of him.”

Sharon Bush, Neil’s wife, was also asked about her acquaintance with the Hinckley family. “I don’t even know the brother,” she replied, suggesting that Scott Hinckley was coming to dinner as the date of a woman whom Sharon did know. “From what I know and have heard, they [the Hinckleys] are a very nice family...and have given a lot of money to the Bush campaign. I understand he [John W. Hinckley Jr.] was just the renegade brother in the family. They must feel awful.” - read more about the Hinckely-Bush coincidence




“The Great Communicator”
(As long as he read from a script)

After Reagan made several misstatements and gaffes early in his presidency, White House aide David Gergen said in Reagan’s defense, “The man has a reputation as a great communicator.”  However, there was something that Gergen didn’t say about Reagan:  without a script to read from, Reagan was often lost.  Without a script, Reagan would frequently make erroneous and outlandish comments. 

One of Reagan’s aides would later remark:


“You have to treat him [Reagan] 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.”
--”The Mind of the President,” The New York Times Magazine, October 6, 1985


Yet it was not so easy for Reagan’s aides to script him for press conferences where unforeseen questions lurked.  This is one reason that Reagan limited his meetings with the press.


Reagan himself was aware that he was inept at handling reporters.  On several occasions, he allowed his press secretary, Larry Speakes to intervene when he became confused, or was confronted with a difficult question:


‘My guardian says I can’t talk.’’
--President Reagan explaining that he can’t answer a reporter’s question after his press secretary, Larry Speakes steps forward and orders the lights turned off, July 10, 1984


“They turned out the lights.  That tells me I can’t talk anymore.”
--President Reagan explaining that he is not allowed to answer any more questions, June 19, 1985


Not only did Larry Speakes worry that an unprepared Reagan would put his foot in his mouth, so did Reagan’s wife Nancy.  At a 1983 press conference, when Reagan began to stumble, Nancy burst on stage carrying a birthday cake.  She successfully turned a news event into a party where reporters stopped asking questions and sang “Happy Birthday” to Reagan.





The wit and wisdom of Ronald Reagan

“I never knew anything above Cs.”
--President Reagan, in a moment of truthfulness, describes his academic record to Barbara Walters, November 27, 1981




 


“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.”
--Jim Cannon (an aide to Howard Baker) reporting what Reagan’s underlings told him, Landslide: The Unmaking of the President: 1984-88


“This President is treated by both the press and foreign leaders as if he were a child....  It is major news when he honors a political or economic discussion with a germane remark and not an anecdote about his Hollywood days.”
--Columnist Richard Cohen


“What planet is he living on?”
--President Mitterand of France poses this question about Reagan to Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau.


“He demonstrated for all to see how far you can go in this life with a smile, a shoeshine and the nerve to put your own spin on the facts.”
--David Nyhan, Boston Globe columnist


“an amiable dunce”
--Clark Clifford (former Defense Secretary)


“Poor dear, there’s nothing between his ears.”


--British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher


 


“...like reinventing the wheel.”


--Larry Speakes (Reagan’s former press secretary) describing what it was like preparing the President for a press conference, Speaking Out: The Reagan Presidency from Inside the White House


 


“The task of watering the arid desert between Reagan’s ears is a challenging one for his aides.”


--Columnist David Broder


 


“He has the ability to make statements that are so far outside the parameters of logic that they leave you speechless”
--Patti Davis (formerly Patricia Ann Reagan), talking about her father, The Way I See It


 


“This loathing for government, this eagerness to prove that any program to aid the disadvantaged is nothing but a boondoggle and a money gobbler, leads him to contrive statistics and stories with unmatched vigor.”
--Mark Green, Reagan’s Reign of Error


 


“President Reagan doesn’t always check the facts before he makes statements, and the press accepts this as kind of amusing.”
--former president Jimmy Carter, March 6, 1984


“His errors glide past unchallenged.  At one point...he alleged that almost half the population gets a free meal from the government each day.  No one told him he was crazy.  The general message of the American press is that, yes, while it is perfectly true that the emperor has no clothes, nudity is actually very acceptable this year.”
--Simon Hoggart, in The Observer (London), 1986


Reagan quotes:

“A tree’s a tree.  How many more do you need to look at?”
--Ronald Reagan (Governor of California), quoted in the Sacramento Bee, opposing expansion of Redwood National Park, March 3, 1966

“I don’t believe a tree is a tree and if you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all.”
--Governor Ronald Reagan, in the Sacramento Bee, September 14, 1966

“All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk.”
--Ronald Reagan (Republican candidate for president), quoted in the Burlington (Vermont) Free Press, February 15, 1980.  (In reality, the average nuclear reactor generates 30 tons of radioactive waste per year.)

“I have flown twice over Mount St. Helens.  I’m not a scientist and I don’t know the figures, but I have a suspicion that one little mountain out there, in these last several months, has probably released more sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere than has been released in the last ten years of automobile driving or things of that kind.”
--Ronald Reagan, quoted in Time magazine, October 20, 1980.  (According to scientists, Mount St. Helens emitted about 2,000 tons of sulfur dioxide per day at its peak activity, compared with 81,000 tons per day produced by cars.)

“Growing and decaying vegetation in this land are responsible for 93 percent of the oxides of nitrogen.”
--Ronald Reagan, quoted in the Los Angeles Times, October 9, 1980.  (According to Dr. Michael Oppenheimer of the Environmental Defense Fund, industrial sources are responsible for at least 65 percent and possibly as much as 90 percent of the oxides of nitrogen in the U.S.)

“Approximately 80 percent of our air pollution stems from hydrocarbons released by vegetation.  So let’s not go overboard in setting and enforcing tough emission standards for man-made sources.”
--Ronald Reagan, quoted in Sierra, September 10, 1980

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.  The U.S. Geological Survey has told me that the proven potential for oil in Alaska alone is greater than the proven reserves in Saudi Arabia.”
--Ronald Reagan, quoted in the Detroit Free Press, March 23, 1980.  (According to the USGS, the Saudi reserves of 165.5 billion barrels are 17 times the proven reserves--9.2 billion barrels--in Alaska.)

“Why should we subsidize intellectual curiosity?”
--Ronald Reagan, campaign speech, 1980

“Trains are not any more energy efficient than the average automobile, with both getting about 48 passenger miles to the gallon.”
--Ronald Reagan, quoted in the Chicago Tribune, May 10, 1980.  (The U.S. Department of Transportation calculates that a 14-car train traveling at 80 miles per hour gets 400 passenger miles to the gallon.  A 1980 auto carrying an average of 2.2 people gets 42.6 passenger miles to the gallon.)

“It’s silly talking about how many years we will have to spend in the jungles of Vietnam when we could pave the whole country and put parking stripes on it and still be home by Christmas.”
--Ronald Reagan (candidate for Governor of California), interviewed in the Fresno Bee, October 10, 1965


“I have a feeling that we are doing better in the war [in Vietnam] than the people have been told.”
--Ronald Reagan, in the Los Angeles Times, October 16, 1967


“...the moral equal of our Founding Fathers.”
--President Reagan, describing the Nicaraguan contras, March 1, 1985


“Fascism was really the basis for the New Deal.”
--Ronald Reagan, quoted in Time, May 17, 1976


“I know all the bad things that happened in that war.  I was in uniform four years myself.”
--President Reagan, in an interview with foreign journalists, April 19, 1985.  (”In costume” is more like it.  Reagan spent World War II making Army training films at Hal Roach Studios in Hollywood.)


“They’ve done away with those committees.  That shows the success of what the Soviets were able to do in this country.”
--Ronald Reagan, quoted in the Washington Times, September 30, 1987.  (Reagan longs for the days of Sen. Joseph McCarthy and the HCUA witch hunts.)


“We think there is a parallel between federal involvement in education and the decline in profit over recent years.”
--President Reagan, quoted in USA Today, April 26, 1983


“What we have found in this country, and maybe we’re more aware of it now, is one problem that we’ve had, even in the best of times, and that is the people who are sleeping on the grates, the homeless who are homeless, you might say, by choice.”
--President Reagan, defending himself against charges of callousness on Good Morning America, January 31, 1984

“I favor the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and it must be enforced at the point of a bayonet,  if necessary.”
--Ronald Reagan, Los Angeles Times, October 20, 1965


“I would have voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”
--Ronald Reagan, Los Angeles Times, June 17, 1966


“If there has to be a bloodbath then let’s get it over with.”
--Ronald Reagan (Governor of California), quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle, May 15, 1969.  (Reagan reveals how he intends to deal with student protesters at the University of California, Berkeley.)


“Today a newcomer to the state is automatically eligible for our many aid programs the moment he crosses the border.”
--Ronald Reagan, in a speech announcing his candidacy for Governor, January 3, 1966.  (In fact, immigrants to California had to wait five years before becoming eligible for benefits.  Reagan acknowledged his error, but nine months later said exactly the same thing.)


“...a faceless mass, waiting for handouts.”
--Ronald Reagan, 1965.  (Description of Medicaid recipients.)


“Unemployment insurance is a pre-paid vacation for freeloaders.”
--California Governor Ronald Reagan, in the Sacramento Bee, April 28, 1966


“We were told four years ago that 17 million people went to bed hungry every night.  Well, that was probably true.  They were all on a diet.”
--Ronald Reagan, TV speech, October 27, 1964


“But I also happen to be someone who believes in tithing--the giving of a tenth [to charity].”
--Ronald Reagan, from The Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, February 8, 1982.  (He may believe in tithing, but he doesn’t practice it.  Reagan’s total charitable giving of $5,965 did not approach 10% of total income.  It was more like 1.4%.)


“[Not] until now has there ever been a time in which so many of the prophecies are coming together.  There have been times in the past when people thought the end of the world was coming, and so forth, but never anything like this.”
--President Reagan revealing a disturbing view about the “coming of Armageddon,” December 6, 1983


“History shows that when the taxes of a nation approach about 20 percent of the people’s income, there begins to be a lack of respect for government....  When it reaches 25 percent, there comes an increase in lawlessness.”
--Ronald Reagan, in Time, April 14, 1980.  (History shows no such thing.  Income tax rates in Europe have traditionally been far higher than U.S. rates, while European crime rates have been much lower.)


“Because Vietnam was not a declared war, the veterans are not even eligible for the G. I. Bill of Rights with respect to education or anything.”
--Ronald Reagan, in Newsweek, April 21, 1980.  (Wrong again.)


“Politics is just like show business.  You have a hell of an opening, coast for a while, and then have a hell of a close.”
--Ronald Reagan to aide Stuart Spencer, 1966




Early Signs of Alzheimers’ Disease:

Killer Trees.
After opining in August 1980 that “trees cause more pollution than automobiles do,” Reagan arrived at a campaign rally to find a tree decorated with this sign: “Chop me down before I kill again.”

Guns of Brixton.
“In England, if a criminal carried a gun, even though he didn’t use it, he was tried for first-degree murder and hung if he was found guilty,” Ronald Reagan claimed in April 1982. When informed that the story was “just not true,” White House spokesman Larry Speakes said, “Well, it’s a good story, though. It made the point, didn’t it?” Reagan repeated the story again on March 21, 1986 during an interview with The New York Times.

The Liberator.
In November 1983, Reagan told visiting Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir that he had served as a photographer in a U.S. Army unit assigned to film Nazi death camps. He repeated the story to Simon Wiesenthal the following February. Reagan never visited or filmed a concentration camp; he spent World War II in Hollywood, making training films with the First Motion Picture Unit of the Army Air Corps.

Arms for Hostages.
“We did not--repeat, did not--trade weapons or anything else for hostages, nor will we,” Reagan proclaimed in November 1986. Four months later, on March 4, 1987, Reagan admitted in a televised national address, “A few months ago, I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that’s true, but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not.”

Cadillac Queens.
Over a period of about five years, Reagan told the story of the “Chicago welfare queen” who had 80 names, 30 addresses, 12 Social Security cards, and collected benefits for “four nonexisting deceased husbands,” bilking the government out of “over $150,000.” The real welfare recipient to whom Reagan referred was actually convicted for using two different aliases to collect $8,000. Reagan continued to use his version of the story even after the press pointed out the actual facts of the case to him.

Balance the Budget And Increase Defense Spending?
The Reagan administration introduced the 1981 Economic Recovery Act by claiming that it would cut taxes by 30 percent, increase defense spending by three-quarters of a trillion dollars, and achieve a balanced budget within three years. Budget director David Stockman admitted in November of 1981 that, “None of us really understands what’s going on with all these numbers” and that supply-side economics “was always a Trojan horse to bring down the top rate.”




William Casey was the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1981 to 1987.

Casey directed the successful presidential campaign of Ronald Reagan in 1980. After Reagan was elected president, he named Casey to the post of Director of Central Intelligence (DCI). During his tenure at the CIA, Casey played a large part in the shaping of Reagan’s foreign-policy, particularly its approach to Soviet expansionism.

This period of the Cold War saw a ramping up of the Agency’s anti-Soviet activities around the world. Casey was the principal architect of the arms-for-hostages deal that became known as the Iran-Contra affair. He also oversaw covert assistance to the mujahadeen resistance in Afghanistan, the Solidarity movement in Poland, and a number of coups and attempted coups in South- and Central America.

Prior to heading the CIA, in the 1960s, Casey served as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. In World War II, he was a member of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).

Under William Casey, CIA covert operations proliferated. Casey was featured prominently in Bob Woodward’s book Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA (ISBN 0671601172).

Casey and vice presidential nominee Bush met face-to-face with Iranian mullahs in 1980. According to one set of allegations, the pair slipped off to Paris for such a meeting on Oct. 19, 1980.

Four French intelligence officials, including France’s spy chief Alexandre deMarenches in statements to his biographer, placed Casey at the Paris meeting. But two other witnesses, a pilot named Heinrich Rupp and Israeli intelligence official Ari Ben-Menashe, also claimed to have seen Bush in Paris that day. Ben-Menashe testified that Casey and Bush were accompanied by active-duty CIA officers.

A Washington Post article from 1992 says:

“On a secret visit by the CIA director to plan strategy for the war against Soviet forces in Afghanistan, helicopters lifted CIA director William Casey to three secret training camps near the Afghan border, where he watched mujaheddin rebels fire heavy weapons and learn to make bombs with CIA-supplied plastic explosives and detonators.

During the visit, Casey startled his Pakistani hosts by proposing that they take the Afghan war into enemy territory -- into the Soviet Union itself. Casey wanted to ship subversive propaganda through Afghanistan to the Soviet Union’s predominantly Muslim southern republics. The Pakistanis agreed, and the CIA soon supplied thousands of Korans, as well as books on Soviet atrocities in Uzbekistan and tracts on historical heroes of Uzbek nationalism, according to Pakistani and Western officials.






Iraqi President Saddam Hussein greets Donald Rumsfeld,
then special envoy of President Ronald Reagan,
in Baghdad on December 20, 1983.

Shaking Hands with Saddam Hussein:
The U.S. Tilts toward Iraq, 1980-1984
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing



Edited by Joyce Battle


Ronald Reagan issued National Security Decision Directive (NSDD) 114, dated November 26, 1983, concerned specifically with U.S. policy toward the Iran-Iraq war. The directive reflects the administration’s priorities: it calls for heightened regional military cooperation to defend oil facilities, and measures to improve U.S. military capabilities in the Persian Gulf, and directs the secretaries of state and defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to take appropriate measures to respond to tensions in the area. It states, “Because of the real and psychological impact of a curtailment in the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf on the international economic system, we must assure our readiness to deal promptly with actions aimed at disrupting that traffic.” It does not mention chemical weapons [Document 26].


Soon thereafter, Donald Rumsfeld (who had served in various positions in the Nixon and Ford administrations, including as President Ford’s defense secretary, and at this time headed the multinational pharmaceutical company G.D. Searle & Co.) was dispatched to the Middle East as a presidential envoy. His December 1983 tour of regional capitals included Baghdad, where he was to establish “direct contact between an envoy of President Reagan and President Saddam Hussein,” while emphasizing “his close relationship” with the president [Document 28]. Rumsfeld met with Saddam, and the two discussed regional issues of mutual interest, shared enmity toward Iran and Syria, and the U.S.’s efforts to find alternative routes to transport Iraq’s oil; its facilities in the Persian Gulf had been shut down by Iran, and Iran’s ally, Syria, had cut off a pipeline that transported Iraqi oil through its territory. Rumsfeld made no reference to chemical weapons, according to detailed notes on the meeting [Document 31].


Rumsfeld also met with Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz, and the two agreed, “the U.S. and Iraq shared many common interests.” Rumsfeld affirmed the Reagan administration’s “willingness to do more” regarding the Iran-Iraq war, but “made clear that our efforts to assist were inhibited by certain things that made it difficult for us, citing the use of chemical weapons, possible escalation in the Gulf, and human rights.” He then moved on to other U.S. concerns [Document 32]. Later, Rumsfeld was assured by the U.S. interests section that Iraq’s leadership had been “extremely pleased” with the visit, and that “Tariq Aziz had gone out of his way to praise Rumsfeld as a person” [Document 36 and Document 37]. - Read entire article at National Security Archive, George Washington University






Rumsfeld ‘offered help to Saddam’


Declassified papers leave the White House hawk exposed over his role during the Iran-Iraq war

Tuesday December 31, 2002 The Guardian

WASHINGTON POST - 12-30-02

U.S. Had Key Role in Iraq Buildup

Trade in Chemical Arms Allowed Despite Their Use on Iranians, Kurds

“...Among the people instrumental in tilting U.S. policy toward Baghdad during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war was Donald H. Rumsfeld, now defense secretary, whose December 1983 meeting with Hussein as a special presidential envoy paved the way for normalization of U.S.- Iraqi relations. Declassified documents show that Rumsfeld traveled to Baghdad at a time when Iraq was using chemical weapons on an “almost daily” basis in defiance of international conventions. ...”

“...The administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush authorized the sale to Iraq of ... poisonous chemicals and deadly biological viruses, such as anthrax and bubonic plague. ...”



CNN Transcript - Interview with Rumsfeld - Sept 21, ‘02:


MCINTYRE: Well, let me take you back about 20 years ago. The date, I believe, was December 20th, 1983, you were meeting with Saddam Hussein. I think we have some video of that, of that meeting. Tell me what was going on during this meeting.

RUMSFELD: Where did you get this video? From the Iraqi television...

MCINTYRE: You were pressed during the briefings -- during the hearings this week by Senator Byrd on the question of whether the U.S., in any way, aided Saddam Hussein in his chemical weapons program. At the time, during the hearings, you said you had no knowledge of it. Have you looked into it since then?

RUMSFELD: I had no knowledge. I have no knowledge today.



Hmmmmm.......Rummy looks and sounds like Reagan in the early stages of dementia. Will Rumsfeld be the next member of the Reagan bunch to be diagnosed with Alzheimers disease?

Exclusive: Saddam key in early CIA plot
By Richard Sale
UPI Intelligence Correspondent
Published 4/10/2003



U.S. forces in Baghdad might now be searching high and low for Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, but in the past Saddam was seen by U.S. intelligence services as a bulwark of anti-communism and they used him as their instrument for more than 40 years, according to former U.S. intelligence diplomats and intelligence officials.


United Press International has interviewed almost a dozen former U.S. diplomats, British scholars and former U.S. intelligence officials to piece together the following account. The CIA declined to comment on the report.


While many have thought that Saddam first became involved with U.S. intelligence agencies at the start of the September 1980 Iran-Iraq war, his first contacts with U.S. officials date back to 1959, when he was part of a CIA-authorized six-man squad tasked with assassinating then Iraqi Prime Minister Gen. Abd al-Karim Qasim.


Saddam, in the meantime, became head of al-Jihaz a-Khas, the secret intelligence apparatus of the Baath Party.

The CIA/Defense Intelligence Agency relation with Saddam intensified after the start of the Iran-Iraq war in September of 1980. During the war, the CIA regularly sent a team to Saddam to deliver battlefield intelligence obtained from Saudi AWACS surveillance aircraft to aid the effectiveness of Iraq’s armed forces, according to a former DIA official, part of a U.S. interagency intelligence group.

This former official said that he personally had signed off on a document that shared U.S. satellite intelligence with both Iraq and Iran in an attempt to produce a military stalemate. “When I signed it, I thought I was losing my mind,” the former official told UPI.

A former CIA official said that Saddam had assigned a top team of three senior officers from the Estikhbarat, Iraq’s military intelligence, to meet with the Americans.

According to Darwish, the CIA and DIA provided military assistance to Saddam’s ferocious February 1988 assault on Iranian positions in the al-Fao peninsula by blinding Iranian radars for three days.

The Saddam-U.S. intelligence alliance of convenience came to an end at 2 a.m. Aug. 2, 1990, when 100,000 Iraqi troops, backed by 300 tanks, invaded its neighbor, Kuwait. America’s one-time ally had become its bitterest enemy. - Entire UPI article




Proclamations, March 21, 1983
Proclamation 5034
Afghanistan Day, 1983 March 21, 1983
By the President of the United States of America



A Proclamation


The tragedy of Afghanistan continues as the valiant and courageous Afghan freedom fighters persevere in standing up against the brutal power of the Soviet invasion and occupation. The Afghan people are struggling to reclaim their freedom, which was taken from them when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December of 1979.

In this three-year period the Soviet Union has been unable to subjugate Afghanistan. The Soviet forces are pitted against an extraordinary people who, in their determination to preserve the character of their ancient land, have organized an effective and still spreading country-wide resistance. The resistance of the Afghan freedom fighters is an example to all the world of the invincibility of the ideals we in this country hold most dear, the ideals of freedom and independence.

We must also recognize that the sacrifices required to maintain this resistance are very high. Millions have gone into exile as refugees. We will probably never know the numbers of people killed and maimed, poisoned and gased, of the homes that have been destroyed, and of the lives that have been shattered and stricken with grief.

It is, therefore, incumbent upon us as Americans to reflect on the events in Afghanistan, to think about the agony which these brave people bear, and to maintain our condemnation of the continuing Soviet occupation. Our observance again this year of Afghanistan Day on March 21, the Afghan New Year, will recall for all the world America’s unflagging sympathy for a determined people, its support for their refugees and commitment to achieving a political settlement for Afghanistan which will free that country from tyranny’s yoke.

The Congress, by Senate Joint Resolution 65, has designated March 21, 1983 as ``Afghanistan Day’’ and has requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of that day.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate March 21, 1983 as Afghanistan Day.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-first day of March, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and seventh.

Ronald Reagan [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 3:10 p.m., March 24, 1983]



Blowback: Bin Laden, the CIA and US war against Afghanistan


Compiled by Richard Sanders,
Coordinator, Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade


Blowback is the term that the CIA uses to describe a situation when a some operative, a terrorist, or some situation that they’ve created gets out of their control and comes back to haunt them. It’s a situation where the scientist (Frankenstein) creates a monster that “blows back” on its creator.


Manuel Noriega, Saddam Hussein, Timothy McVeigh and Osama bin Laden are all pretty good examples of blowback. They were all nurtured for many years by the CIA, the US military or military intelligence. They all eventually “blew back.”


Below you’ll find some background on the CIA war against Afghanistan. More research is needed on bin Laden’s connection to the CIA and it’s counterparts in Pakistan. Does anyone out there have time to spend a few hours finding the info on bin Laden’s CIA connections? It would be very useful to dig that info up. You’d think people might want to know this guy’s connection to US-sponsored terrorist groups.


Here are some basic facts on the context from which bin Laden emerged. All but one of the following articles are from COAT’s issue on the CIA (#43) http://www.ncf.ca/coat/our_magazine/links/issue43/issue43.htm (January 2001: A People’s History of the CIA: The Subversion of Democracy from Australia to Zaire)






Pre-1979-1989, Afghanistan: The CIA’s Biggest Covert War


By Mark Zapezauer


During the Reagan years, the CIA ran nearly two dozen covert operations against various governments. Of these, Afghanistan was by far the biggest; it was, in fact, the biggest CIA operation of all time, both in terms of dollars spent (US$5 to US$6 billion) and personnel involved.


Its main purpose was to “bleed” the Soviet Union, just as the U.S. had been bled in Vietnam. Prior to the 1979 Russian invasion, Afghanistan was ruled by a brutal dictator. Like the neighboring shah of Iran, he allowed the CIA to set up radar installations in his country that were used to monitor the Soviets. In 1979, after several dozen Soviet advisors were massacred by Afghan tribesmen, the USSR sent in the Red Army.


The Soviets tried to install a pliable client regime, without taking local attitudes into account. Many of the mullahs who controlled chunks of Afghan territory objected to Soviet efforts to educate women and to institute land reform. Others, outraged by the USSR’s attempts to suppress the heroin trade, shifted their operations to Pakistan.


As for the CIA, its aim was simply to humiliate the Soviets by arming anyone who would fight against them. The agency funneled cash and weapons to over a dozen guerrilla groups, many of whom had been staging raids from Pakistan years before the Soviet invasion. For many years, long after the Soviets left Afghanistan, most of these groups were still fighting each other for control of the country.


One notable veteran of the Afghan operation is Sheik Abdel Rahman, famous for his role in the World Trade Center bombing.


The CIA succeeded in creating chaos, but never developed a plan for ending it. When the ten-year war was over, a million people were dead, and Afghan heroin had captured 60% of the U.S. market.





Source: Excerpted from CIA’s Greatest Hits
<http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/cia%20hits/afghanistan_ciahits.html>


From January 2001: A People’s History of the CIA: The Subversion of Democracy from Australia to Zaire
<http://www.ncf.ca/coat/our_magazine/links/issue43/issue43.htm>




Reagan supported the brutal, genocidal Guatemalan dictator Rios Montt. It was during the same time period that Saddam Hussein was killing Shiites.

Rios Montt killed many more “of his own people” than Saddam did.

A UN-sponsored Truth Commission held the Guatemalan army responsible for 85 percent of all violations in the 30 year war, which ended in l996. Some 200,000 died, more than 80 percent of them unarmed Maya, including women and children.

“. . .after meeting Rios Montt in Honduras later that month, President Reagan insisted that the regime was ëgetting a bad dealí from the accusations of massacres and deserved renewed military aid from the United States (which he granted the following month). Had not the White House received a flood of letters calling for renewed arms sales to Guatemala after Pat Robertson appealed to his 700 Culb television show for prayers and money for the regime?
- Gerard Colby and Charlotte Dennett, Thy Will Be Done: The Conquest of the Amazon: Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil, HarperCollins Publisher, 1995, p. 818-19



Pat Robertson’s organization funded Gospel Outreach to help Rios Montt build ëmodel villagesí for the Guatemalan peasants. Gospel Outreachís fundraising arm in the U.S., International Love Lift, was able to raise $1.5 million for Rios Monttís program. The authors of Thy Will Be Done: The Conquest of the Amazon: Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil, describe the fruit of Gospel Outreach - which turned out not to be model villages, but a genocidal campaign that was perpetuated largely because of Evangelical funding and petitions to President Reagan:

“The irony of [Gospel Outreachís] name was outranked only by the name of its fund-raising arm in the United States, which was endorsed by TV evangelist Pat Robertson: International Love Lift. . . .

“Within three months of Rios Monttís self-declaration as ëG