Before Reagan

It occurs to me that many readers have no way of grasping what some people from my generation and before were facing when Reagan took office. Here's a picture of American life just prior to Reagan's presidency so you can get an idea of why some of us reacted to him as we did.

JFK was prez during a time when Americans believed they were just tha Bomb and the Poo. He said we would go to the moon and we went there. He spoke eloquently and was movie star handsome. His wife was a beauty. He was a Catholic and therefore at least moderately "moral."

There was an excellent movie made for TV called "The Missiles of October" that painted a picture of the nuclear terror we faced back then. I saw short films in school about what to do if an atom bomb exploded! That can only mess with the mind of a child. Recently there was a Costner film called "Thirteen Days." I saw it a few days ago at a truck stop drivers lounge and was gripped by it again (even after seeing it in the cinema when it was released). That was the world during JFK's reign. And when Kennedy successfully out-stared the Soviets and nuclear missiles were removed from Cuba, suddenly America felt like maybe we would dodge the radioactive bullet.

Then he took a bullet to the brain.

His vice-prez — Lyndon Bains Johnson, or LBJ — moved in and cranked up Vietnam. Vietnam stained every American achievement in the eyes of most of the world, and most Americans. We became ashamed of ourselves, and at the same time we dreaded the nukes of the Soviet Union and of Red China.

Then Richard Nixon came into office. Nukes were still a horrible, black ceiling of demonic clouds over our heads and Vietnam was still a stinking albatross around our necks. We continued to be fearful AND ashamed, as a nation. Then the president participated in stupid crimes and resigned. More shame.

Ford maybe did the best for the country by just being quiet and not rocking any boats, but we continued to worry over nukes and our loss in Vietnam. At last the United States had been defeated in war.

Score so far: an assassinated president, nuclear insecurity, a criminal president, a wrongful war that failed.

Jimmy Carter came to office. Gasoline went over $1 a gallon for the first time and stayed there. Then our embassy in Tehran, Iran, was captured and the best Carter could do was send in a rescue mission that panicked and pulled out, leaving dead service people in the desert that we had to beg the Iranians to return.

We were embarrassed, fearful and believed that the United States of America had gone from Good Guys to Three Stooges. The world feared our weapons and our stupidity to maybe use them. We no longer ruled the oil producing world. We no longer ruled in space exploration.

That is the environment Ronald "The Actor" Reagan found when he ran for and won the office of the presidency.

Whatever else may be said for or against him, when he left office a big percentage of the country was back on the road to confidence and national self esteem. And the Soviet nukes were no longer dangling over our heads.