Having taken a break from the monitor, and turned my computer over to my son for the weekend, I return refreshed to comment on the next 150 pages of the Morris biography of Ronald Reagan:
By the time Fort Roach was closed, Reagan was acting commander, and responsible for wrapping up its business. He mustered out as a Captain, however, never having achieved permanent command of the post. He retained copies of the edited footage from the extermination camps, and made Michael and Ron view them when they were each 14, as a kind of rite of passage.
He returned to Hollywood with a contract and a desire to re-establish normal family life. He was, however, brooding a great deal over the future of the post-War world, and became one of the leading liberals of Hollywood, active in a variety of political and professional organizations. He was known as one of the best informed actors around, but he was also known for being able to talk about little else than politics. Although he resumed his career, things were not going as well as he would have liked, which only increased his preoccupation with politics.
He was involved in conflicts with Communists in many of these organizations. The Communists, though a minority, would attempt to pack meetings, or use parliamentary procedure to wear out their opponents, so that they would leave and allow the voting to be controlled by Communists and fellow travellers, or put forth ambiguous language for resolutions that they could later interpret as they pleased, as well as using the usual tactics of smear campaigns and threats. Reagan himself was threatened, in one instance with having acid thrown in his face, and for periods of time required body guards.
As time went on, these experiences made Reagan increasingly anti- communist. He was the chairman of the Hollywood committee for the election of Truman, and spoke for other Democratic candidates, but he spoke out against the Communist menace with increasing frequency, which began to take its toll on the Reagan's social life. He was a friendly witness before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, but did not finger anyone as a Communist. Nevertheless, Jane Wyman, his wife, began to find his political obsession tiresome, and eventually asked for a divorce. Reagan was devastated, although their's has been characterized as a very amicable divorce.
Not only had his family fallen apart, but his career was stalling. He remained a prominent figure in Hollywood, and was elected president of the Screen Actor's Guild five terms in a row, then a later sixth term, primarily on the basis of his negotiating skills, but he himself was soon to jump to television. Eventually, with GE Theater, he not only had a regular spot on television, but was hired as a corporate spokesman on the general themes of free enterprise and progress.
Although he carried a torch for Wyman for awhile, and did some late sowing of wild oats, he eventually married Nancy Davis, a starlet from an upper middle class background, who shared his interest in politics, and thought that he could go far. They started a new family. Overall, Morris characterizes Reagan as a dutiful but detached father, and gives the credit to the mothers for choosing the boarding schools each child ended up at.
His growing hatred of Communism gradually disillusioned him with the Welfare State, which he began to see as a harbinger of socialism, and by the mid- '50s he was campaigning, as a Democrat, for Eisenhower. He continued to campaign for various GOP candidates, and to make his speeches for GE. (By the way, he wrote the overwhelming majority of his speeches before becoming President). Interestingly, his growing propensity to attack Washington led to his eventual loss of his position with GE.
Although he was asked to run for the House or Senate from time to time, he continued to resist into the '60s. Then, he made what has come to be called "The Speech" for Goldwater, actually a version of the stump speech he had been making, only broadcast nationally, and suddenly he was a political property too hot to leave alone. He was finally talked into running for the Governorship of California, and, of course, won handily. Although raw, he assembled a good team, many of whom stayed with him in subsequent years, and began to get the fiscal house in order. Interestingly, that involved a massive tax increase, along with spending cuts, to cure the deficit that Brown had left him (when he later had a surplus, he rebated it). It also involved law and order issues, especially at Berkeley and in Oakland, which would make him a prime target of radical hatred for years to come, as when he called out the National Guard to break up a student occupation of buildings on campus. He decreased the welfare rolls, while increasing the size of the average allotment to better reflect the cost of living. And he continued to be the leading "conservative hope" for the Presidency.
He made a half- hearted exploration of the nomination in '68, instead obtaining a second term as the governor of California. He did not feel the time was right.....
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