An American Life

Ronald Reagan lived an amazing life in middle America and his story before becoming California’s governor is interesting enough. Growing up in Dixon, his Eureka college days, sportscasting, acting and SAG union presidency are fun. His transformation from New Dealer to fiscal conservative led to his rise as a law and order conservative governor and eventually president. Hearing his philosophy in his own articular words is refreshing and powerful.

He covers the presidency less sequentially and more topically, which can be confusing but has its merits. It’s clear that he is most proud of his strong foreign policy, excellent economic record and successes in Russian relations as these topics get extended coverage. He helped Americans believe in themselves after the tough 70s of watergate, inflation and unrest.

He doesn’t ignore his warts. He is honest about Iran Contra and his attitude toward Israel. While his efforts to influence moderate Arab nations to recognize Israel were a strategy that eventually paid dividends in the Trump era, I feel he at times tried to play to “even” with arabs and Israelis and this caused him to play moderator instead of supporting our strongest ally. It seems this moderator attitude led to some of his weaknesses including Iran contra and the Beirut attack on the marines stationed there. However overall this Patriotic attitude that America is a force for good in the world and should be using her influence for all is the best part about Reagan.

He believed in the American people and got government out of their way. It is amazing that he united our country and won 49/50 states in 1984. May we strive to be the shining city on a hill he helped to promote.

Well written autobiography by Ronald Reagan. His charisma exudes through his writing style, which portrays his sincerity and authenticity as the President of the United States. His journey from a sportscaster to being a leader of the free world is a perfect specimen of the American Dream. His natural leadership through his personal touch (or in his words, personal diplomacy) helped him rise through the ranks to the very top.

Once in office, he demonstrated remarkable political nous in his domestic agenda evident in his success in reduction of size of government, tax cuts plans and increased defence budget. However, when it comes to foreign affairs, his effectiveness proved more inadequate. Mainly being too trusting of the people around him and his tendency to view the issues from an American lens e.g. his handling of Iran Contra affair and his various attempts at personal diplomacy with Soviet leaders to no avails. Nevertheless, one can not blame Reagan for lack of trying with the best with the best intention to achieve world peace.

Reading through 1980s world politics through the eyes of the 40th American President, I cannot help but notice how little did word politics changed over the past 40 years. Few examples:

- US’ double standards when it comes to managing world affairs. Deployment of Pershing II nuclear missiles in Europe posing an obvious threat to the Soviets while Monroe Doctrine preventing Nicaraguans and Cubans to be armed by the Soviets. Draw parallel with today’s US involvement in Europe with NATO and South China Sea
- Middle East turmoil continues till today. Iranian, Syrians, Arabs, Iraqis, Israelis still remain hostile to one another
- US’ tendency to stick their noses into where they don’t belong. Iraq is the new Lebanon
- Anglo-Saxon partnership through shared language

Overall, a very long autobiography but made an interesting read with Reagan’s crisp story telling style.

ronald reagan is on my list.

This was a great book. As one might imagine, it was A LOT of politics. I've read at least one biography before on Reagan, but have wanted to read his autobiography for a long time and glad I finally did. It's 85 chapters and 726 pages and most of it is politics, so not necessarily a "pool side" read. But I found it fascinating. The focus of the book is much more regarding politics than his personal life and I would have liked him to recount a little more on his personal life. Nevertheless, it was so insightful to read so much of his communication with Gorbachev during the Cold War and such. Here are a few excerpts that I loved:

"There probably isn't any undertaking on earth short of assuring the national security that can't be handled more efficiently by the forces of private enterprise than by the federal government."

In regards to Nancy... "If ever God gave me evidence that He had a plan for me, it was the night He brought Nanacy into my life. I have spent many hours of my life giving speeches and expressing my opinions. But it is almost impossible for me to express fully how deeply I love Nancy and how much she has filled my life....Coming home to her is like coming out of the cold into a warm, firelit room. I miss her if she just steps out of the room."

In regards to socialized medicine.... (and he said this when he was still a registered Democrat) "When a lot of the nation's most prominent Democrats got behind socialized medicine, I started speaking out against it. If we didn't head it off, I said, one of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like when men were free."

"Spending for government "entitlement" programs accounts for 48% of federal spending. To many members of Congress, this money is off-limits forever: Once a program gets started, it's virtually impossible to reduce or stop it. Every one of these programs develops a powerful constituency in Congress, and a bureaucracy that is dedicated to preserving it. The tendency of government and its programs to grow are about the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth."

And finally.... he outlines 3 things he feels most strongly about for our government to be successful. 1) "We need more discipline on spending in Congress. 2) We need a constitutional amendment REQUIRING Congress to balance the budget. And 3) we need to give our presidents a line-item veto in order to cut unnecessary spending. He also said that Congressional redistricting (which is done to basically secure the re-election of a particular Congressman/woman) "has becomes a national disgrace and needs to be cleaned up."

Anyway, I learned a ton and would highly recommend this book. Wish we had a President like him today....

Although this book took me WAY longer than necessary to finish I throughly enjoyed this autobiography by President Regan. I agree that at times I struggled with a lot of the political details and his reasoning behind the different laws and political movements that Regan did during his office-and with all the names of his staff it was kind of hard to keep everyone straight; however, it was such a great eye opener into the life of this president. It is the first presidential autobiography that I have read and I hope to read more the future. What I truly loved about this book was the passion, love, and dedication that President Regan had for this country was clearly shown through his writing. He really really loved this country and he loved the people who live here. Loved the personal stories that he wrote about and there was quit a few humous stories as well. And I love the way he ended the book referring to his work not being completely over yet. That is a true president.

Whatever one’s view on Reagan or his policies, this is, for the most part, a great read.
Reagan shows in his book the charm and personality that took him to the highest office in the USA and shows also that he had more to him than just a smile and a good story.

I found the chapters on Central America and especially on the Iran-Contras affair to be quite defensive and perhaps something he felt needed to (over) explain. His allergies to what he calls socialism perhaps also. However the part on negotiations with Gorbachev and his thoughts on the differences between western capitalism and Soviet communism should be required reading and is a part of his legacy for which the world owes him gratitude.

Great insight into both Ronald Reagan himself and many significant world events, both before and during his tenure as President, in his own words and from his perspective. His ideas, struggles and the events that shaped his character, political leanings and lastly his legacy are covered in detail.
I spent more time on this book than usual as I found myself constantly putting the book down and viewing many of his famous speeches as he came to those points in his book – The Reagan Library and Foundation (on YouTube) have almost all of them. Reagan was a great orator and many of these are etched in history – Evil Empire, Brandenburg (“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”), Challenger disaster, Omaha, Pointe du Hoc, British Parliament etc. ‘The Great Communicator’ lived up to his name. There is also a lot of further books I have noted down to delve further into many of the areas he covers.

The book is split into six main parts, the latter five are not linear and it jumps around as he seeks to give each section (e.g Iran-Contra and Arms Control) justice. Frequently there was many different crises going on at once (as would be expected) and whilst he didn’t completely ignore those that weren’t specific to the part he was focusing on in his book, he managed to keep the focus on the topic at hand.

He spends a lot of time on the negotiations with the Soviets and in particular, Mikhael Gorbachev. The content of the letters he includes was insightful and showed how both leaders warmed to each other over time and eventually reached many arms concessions and agreements.

Overall a very worthwhile book from one of the great leaders of the United States. Ronald Reagan had an amazing ability to pick the right words and tone for any given situation, a great sense of humour, a sense of duty to his fellow citizens – not just select groups and was a true statesman. Reading this I couldn’t help but feel disappointment in the US leadership since Reagan – it seems that leaders such as this are currently only in history.

Big 752 page book- Reagan's autobiography written after two terms as California Governor, and two as US President (plus sports caster and actor). I never understood people writing autobiographies in mid life... One reason I read this is that I've always felt bad about dissing Ron and Nancy in an essay I wrote while living in Africa - some insipid little comment about Nancy consulting a horoscope... So part of my reason was to approach this President's book as a mea culpa exercise. I'm glad I did - I find that I typically regret making what appeared to be "sharp, witty" ascerbic comments about leaders at a given time, only to regret them later, while any time I've been able to express mercy, understanding, tolerance, and openness, I've not regretted those stances even if disappointed later.

Right off the bat, I found Reagan's style of speaking coming through again in his writing. No doubt, he had much help writing or editing, but I can clearly hear his voice from TV and radio back in the 80's contained within his writing: warm, inviting, with conviction, yet conversational.

Second, I was struck how humbly he wrote of his many, many, many experiences, and contented or philosophically content perhaps as he looked back. He wrote from this contented standpoint in that he tried as hard as he could to act consistently with his principles. And even when he failed, he could write honestly of disappointment and with apologies. In either case, success or failure or more often he repeatedly talked about shades of success and failure mixed in various proportions, it was always in such a way that the reader could tell Reagan did not believe that the whole world rose or fell according to his actions - more realistically that he was a player on a much larger journey that continues as actors come and go.

Surprises: He came across with much more Christian views of faith than I remember publicly, and that in his most forceful criticism of the book, he was still angry with the actions of Israel led by Begin, and General Ariel Sharon back in the early 80s when he believed there was opportunity for middle east peace. Indeed, his recurring encounters with middle east conflicts and turmoil left him with a broad sorrow that more could not be accomplished - Anwar Sadat of Egypt was one he greatly admired. Reagan gave an honest, or at least coherent accounting of the Iran Contra affair - helpful for me to get the details more clear at any rate. And of course, Reagan provided his thoughts on many controversial aspects of his administration - especially those involving Central America conflicts and US support or resistance...

Reagan spent several chapters on the rearming of America, and its subsequent economic pressure put on the Soviet Union, his negotiations with at least three, if not 4 Soviet leaders - they kept dying on him, - ending with Gorbachev, and arms reductions. This really seemed like Reagan's most important contribution in his mind, was the path he helped create to reduce nuclear arms significantly, and the complexity and sensitive negotiation dynamics we probably under-appreciate 20 years later. SDI, star wars defenses, cruise missile deployment in Europe, etc - all were in Reagan's mind part of a chess match to move away from an even great idiocy - Mutual Assured Destruction - as a strategic foundation.

I'm the first to realize Reagan was and is a controversial President and public figure, in that he was both effective and very clear on his perspective of government vs private enterprise, of good and evil, and personal responsibility vs social oppression, all of which were affronts to sizable segments of America and the world. But that is the point, I suspect, of why he looms large still - a leader whether one agreed with him or not!

The book is another of those, "I thought I knew him/the issue, but I found that I didn't know or remember nearly as much as I thought."