Reagan

Movie of the Week, December 2, 2024

Reagan

By Catherine Austin Fitts

Hollywood cameos on U.S. presidents are never going to tell the whole story. Nevertheless, the new movie Reagan manages to be an entertaining review of the highlights of the Reagan Administration and reminds us of the reasons why Reagan was popular. The movie is absolutely made by an astonishing and Oscar-worthy performance by Dennis Quaid as President Reagan.

I was in the HUD Secretary’s office when we learned that the Berlin Wall had come down. It is hard to imagine the excitement and electricity of that moment—and what it meant to billions of people around the world. For one brief period, we felt the hope for real peace and prosperity. One of the best scenes in the movie is Reagan’s speech at the Berlin War demanding that Gorbachev tear down the wall—a speech given over the adamant opposition of his Secretary of State, George Schultz:

“Today I say: As long as this gate is closed, as long as this scar of a wall is permitted to stand, it is not the German question alone that remains open, but the question of freedom for all mankind…. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace—if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe—if you seek liberalization: come here, to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

Two Reagan Administration policies helped contribute to the fraying of the Soviet economic fabric and eventual “tearing down of the wall.” One of them—discussed in Jim Norman’s insightful 2008 book The Oil Card (see the two interviews with Norman in the Solari Library)—involved using a low-price strategy for oil to deprive the Soviets of hard currency. Combined with the “Star Wars” Strategic Defense Initiative, which forced increases in Soviet military expenditures, the two economic weapons created considerable friction.

The movie also revisits the assassination attempt that Reagan survived in March 1981 just two months after his swearing-in as President—a reminder of how close we came to having Vice President George H.W. Bush as President for the decade. Thankfully, the Secret Service and the George Washington Hospital surgeons made sure that did not happen.

If you have ever worked in Washington, you learn to love great Ronald Reagan quotes. Two of my favorites are, “We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone” and the quote that sat on Reagan’s desk as both California governor and U.S. president: “There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn’t mind who gets the credit.”

Both are good advice for Americans transitioning into a new Administration in January.