William it is indeed. President captivated our founder for four and a half hours and then had to leave to make a speech. It was a wonderful lunch. Would like to do here, sir, is ask you some questions so that our readers have a better idea of president reagan, the man. I would like to start off by asking what has surprised you the most pleasantly and unpleasantly about being inside the government you have for so long observed from the outside . All. Reagan well, first of , one surprise, pleasant or how little i was surprised. Years ashe eight governor of california, i realize when i came in here, suddenly it wasnt the great shock that becoming governor had been. The routine and all of that. While there was the international situation, the rest was, as i say, not too shocking. There was, however, there was a surprise having to do with being the commanderinchief and things of that kind one part that shocked me a little bit was week after we had been here, we were invited to lunch. The helicopter picked us up on the lawn. Shortly we landed at his farm and he told me that they had been there several days installing phones. I said what do you mean . Thats when i found out that i cannot even go across town to a lunch or private dinner without phones being installed. Jackxplained to me explained it, they had explained it to him that wherever i was i had to have the ability to communicate, anyplace in the world. And in telling him this, they told him they could reach to inform imputed inform me. They challenged him on that. A son on Embassy Guard in africa and they got him on the phone and he and his wife got to talk to his son. I asked him if he wanted someone else and had another son a quartermaster on a destroyer out in the six fleet the mediterranean. When he said, do you get him, they said no. He said, you can get anyone. They said the fleet is on maneuvers. The only one that can get the fleet on maneuvers is the president. So jack was telling me all this and we got there and got in the house. , aet the young mans wife very sweet young lady, had not seen her husband for months. I excused myself, went back out, and i said is it right that i could get someone from the six fleet . They said yes for, and i said quartermaster kilpatrick and i went in and got her. She got to talk to her husband whom she had not seen for all of those months. I did not realize what i have done. It was a surprise to find out what just a few words for me i had to think better because i got a letter from quartermaster kilpatrick and he told me i would be surprised what air traffic was light. I hadnt even thought it through that the last portion of the call would be by radio. The air was admirals talking to admirals and ships talking to ships constantly and then a voice on the air said white house calling. Another voice said what code is that . Another voice said maybe it is not a code, maybe it is the white house. He said even hollywood could not have silenced the air as quickly as it was silenced and they got to the phone. God hadit was as if called the vatican and asked for an altar boy by name. William that is great. Making that call was obviously not the toughest decision you have had to make. What has been the toughest decision in 4. 5 years . Pres. Reagan there are a lot of tough decisions, a lot that there is so much right on both sides. I have a cabinet go over and over these things. There are differences of opinion, split between right and wrong. When i have heard enough, i make the decision. I have always used the cabinet, as i did as governor, as a kind of board of directors, except for one thing. They dont vote. I have to make the decision. Ones wille hardest where be those instances order our young men in uniform to go someplace where their lives will be endangered. That is without doubt the most difficult. William when you became president , you did not have any foreign experience. Has your view of the world changed in the 4. 5 years . Pres. Reagan i have to tell you, the premise is a little wrong. Not that i had been a diplomat in any way, except again, having been governor of california, while it did not have a foreign policy, if california were a nation, it would be the seventh ranking economic power in the world. Andd some interest in i guess it is the biggest percentage of trade in and out of our country, by way of california. But i had always had an interest in international affairs, particularly because of the soviet union and when i was president of the Screen Actors Guild, the effort of the communists to move in on the Motion Picture industry. All i can tell you is when i was running for governor, some of the press editorialized that if i did not stop talking about international affairs, i could never become governor. But i did have that interest. Timesen as governor, four the president asked me to do some missions, errands for him abroad that took me 218 Different Countries in the world. Some of them several times. More than once. That has always been an interest of mine. There wasnt much that had to be changed in my opinion about the good guys and the bad guys and what our responsibility was. Bother you that when you came into office, some or maybe even many european intellectuals or elitists viewed you as an actor, cowboy with simplistic views about the world . And if it did bother you, do you think that view has been altered during your term . Pres. Reagan it did not really bother me so much because i had gone through that same thing being governor. Some people thought to go straight from the acting profession to governor without having held any other political itices was, as you described. It did not bother me so much. I do think there has been a change now that we have become personally acquainted. When i say we, i mean heads of state of a number of our allies. All on a very cordial first name basis at, say, the economic summit. I dont think that prevails now. William what oaks and what thinkers most influenced you before coming to the white house . Pres. Reagan that is a tough question. I have been a four gracias voraciousether a reader, whether it has been nonfiction or fiction. That and articles, publications and so forth. I had to try to pick out someone in particular, i dont the guy can. Have opened myself up to just about all of the viewpoints there are in that sense. Nightmare, dread, my is that sometime i might be caught in a hotel room someplace with nothing to read. I dont think i could go to sleep or shut my eyes if i did not read myself to sleep at night. William you mentioned before in passing your role as president of the Screen Actors Guild. I read that that period in your life perhaps more than any other shaped your attitudes and policies. What did your experiences as a labor leader teach you . Pres. Reagan i was very proud of the Screen Actors Guild at that time. When i went into the job, i existed on some very firm principles. For one thing, the Screen Actors Guild said the guild would not be engaged in politics and nor would there be politics in the guild. We believed our members were of every kind of philosophy and there was no way even by majority vote we had a right to take a position politically that might be counter to the views of our members. , and for two decades i was in charge most of the time of our negotiations of the reinstitution of the basic contract producers. I discovered i did not instituted, it was already there. The Screen Actors Guild had its own rule, which was the qualities it could be viewed we stuck it could be. We stuck to those things. I had the pleasure after some of those years of negotiating to have the head of one of the studios, who was always very prominent in their negotiating committee, tell me one day that when the guild was first proposed, the idea of an actors guild, he was one who fought the hardest against it. But he said i have come to believe that the Screen Actors Guild is the most constructive force for good in the Motion Picture industry. But william could you describe briefly the fight with the communists over control of the Screen Actors Guild . Pres. Reagan yes. Incidentally, i was a new Democrat Fresh out of the war, in uniform. Beent out and there had the aflcio, they had pledged no strikes. And yet of the 43 guilds and unions in the Motion Picture business, divorce were aflcio weres most of us aflcio unions. This was a jurisdiction strike. It was called over whether some 350 people in the entire industry should be members of the Stagehands Union or members of the trade union. We had that mix. Back from the days of the great strike on broadway in the theater days, there had been a tradition in the picture reconcile the differences between stagehands what had happened in the theaters in the old days was a stagehand did every thing in the theater, not just ask stage but the stage. If a seat needed fixing in the front, he came out like a carpenter and fixed the seat. This had led to the jurisdictional strike on broadway. The settlement finally was that everything behind the proscenium arch was the stagehands, and everything in front of it belonged to the craft unions lammerss, carpenters, so forth. Theollywood, they made presidium arch the soundstage door. Stagehands,there but every studio had mills where they made in sections the sets. At the end of the day, you would see the sets for the next days shooting being wheeled down on rollers down the studio streets, huge sections like a whole wall of this room here, and all of it, into the soundstage. In the soundstage, the erectorss union set put the pieces together, it was then behind the presidium arch. The issue they picked for this erectorss that the set should be carpenters. Carpenters worked in the mail and made those sections and these fellows only put them together. This led to the jurisdictional strike. Czar of the Carpenters Union had always had a rivalry with the stagehands. So that was the cause of it. Had comee war, there subversion and infiltration of some of the union, even some of the aflcio unions. They had formed a rump group called the hollywood conference of studio unions. This was in contrast to the aflcio labor council. So they were on one side and we were on the other. I was not prepared i was not a new dealr, i was democrat and i had never gone for all of the stories. I had been told when i got back by some there had been and infiltration of the picture business. I was not prepared to believe it. I am the one who made the motion on the board of the guild, i was a board member at the time, not president i made the motion that as long as there was this difficulty, that both sides giving a different reason as to why there was a strike, why didnt we, the actors, who were not involved in any way, why didnt we involve management and both factions to sit down at a table with us present, as a of be then, to kind mediator . Men whorotect against had nothing to do with the outke, to sit down and find because we had to tell our members whether to go through the picket lines are not. When a lottake sides of the unions are in the studios and a lot of them are on the street picketing . This idea. Rd bought we invited them. There was great reluctance on the part of the striking unions to join us, but they did not see any way to say no. Day, it ended up almost seven months. Trying to settle these things. Before long, there was no question about it and i was completely converted when i found out that yes, this was not a legitimate strike. I learned it even better when we had made that decision and called a mass meeting of the screen actors for the hollywood legion fight stadium. It was voted that i was going to report the result of these meetings to the membership and give them the boards recommendation that we continue to go through the picket lines and honor our contract with the studios. That was to be on a wednesday night. On a monday afternoon, i was on location on a picture we were making on the beach and i was called to the phone at an oil station some distance away. They came and got me and drove me down there. I was told on the phone that if i made that report to the guild membership, there was a squad that would see i would never work in pictures again. I made the report to the guild. Were pickets outside the Guild Meeting and so forth. I had about three quarters of a block walk to the parking lot where my car was parked afterward. I felt very comfortable when i eight of the Teamsters Union about the size of pro Football Players decided to walk to the car with me. That, by the time i got back to the studio that day after that call, and i had never heard about this and lawenforcement before, but the burbank police, where the studio was located, and the representatives of the studio, and special police, the guards of the studio, were assigned to my house 24 hours a day around the clock. For also gave me a permit revolver under my arm on a shoulder holster. That was the beginning. Did go on for a number of months until finally there was no giving in at all. We kept the studios open with the help of the unions and management. As long as we were in front of the cameras, there wasnt any way to stop making pictures. Whichy it was a case of we said to the people in the strike, you can get back to the studios the best way you know how. In some of those meetings with them, the strike committee, they were not all communists, i sat and heard Union Executives of some of the unions speaking to their chairman and saying look, gotnow the communists have control of the strike and weve got to get it back in our hands. They were legitimately fooled and do not realize. That was the history of it, and it was in that that i learned something that set the stage for me as governor and later on here. During all of months, there could not help be times when i , to be myself, oh my making these decisions for thousands of actors and actresses whose careers are at stake. What i out that imended they would do decided the only way to sleep at night was to make up my mind that if i did what i honestly ,elieved in my heart was right and i may make a mistake, but if i believed it was the right thing to do, that is what we would do. When i became governor, i told the cabinet that on any issue that would confront us, i did not want to hear any of the political ramifications of the issue. I only wanted to hear what was right or wrong for the people, and we would make the decision on that basis, not on a political basis. I found i do sleep very well. William if i can ask you one more hollywood question. As an actor, you played many roles. Is there anyone role you would have liked to have played but did not given opportunity to . Pres. Reagan oh. I have to tell you, there were many such. Once you are in that business and doing it, you see a picture and you find out the things you would do different. But yes, there was one. Being under contract with warner bros. , a picture called santa fe trail, i was the second lead, not the star, to errol flynn. It was a historical picture. He played jed stewart and i played gorge custer. And all of the others were there westhey had graduated point into the calvary and it was the story of the capture of john brown. People sayand cowboy actor, good lord, my biggest fight with warner bros. Is would not let me do pictures like that. I was doing drawing room comedies and so forth. They died with their boots on, the story of george custer. I had played him once. I played himaid once in that part is mine now. But errol flynn played george custer. William commentators and some formal president s have talked of the loneliness of the president the the presidency. You seem to approach the job with great relish. Do you find it lonely or burdensome . How would you describe it . Pres. Reagan no, i dont. Peopleunded myself with i have confidence in and believe in. I dont think i sit here all alone and decide everything by myself. As i say, i want to hear everybodys viewpoint. I dont give any indication of lean while i hear those viewpoints. Members whoabinet were under other president s who tell me they had not been in meetings that were as fruitful before. Apparently some president s use the cabinet as they meet periodically and different members report what their departments were doing. The word i have gotten from these others is they never found in cabinet members where everybody, regardless of whether it affected their particular agency, were involved in the discussion. And amy again and maybe again, it was the eight years experience. Taken president s from the ranks of the legislators i closest drop to being president of the United States is being governor. A legislator is used to being in a group and on a committee and making decisions on a rolling basis, majority rule. Has sat therer and knows that the final decision has to be his or hers. I attribute part of this to that. Theret say it is easy, have been a lot of decisions whereafter i have heard all of that, the ones where there is so much right on both sides, it is very difficult. Have thatdont feeling. William every day you receive detailed Intelligence Briefings on the entire world. What information have you received that most shocked or worried you . Course,agan well, of the greatest shock was the telephone call on a weekend, morning, a fewhe at augusta country club, i had never been before, we were down there for a weekend of golf. It was the word about the bombing of the marine in lebanon. There is no way to describe the as the wordrief came in about that. My great concern stems from the same thing, the increased use of terrorism, which we have to believe is backed by some governments. Fight becauseto in less you could infiltrate and know in advance unless you could infiltrate and know in advance, there is no way to know where they will strike next. You could retaliate with outright revenge if you did not care how much terrorism you those, until you know who individuals are and where they could be reached, ive never believed we have a right to simply go into an area of people who might be of the same general background and slaughter some of them in revenge. It is one of the most and causing the greatest concern because you know you cannot abandon your positions in the world, you andot withdraw ambassadors diplomatic staff and so forth, or the terrorists have won. But you know those people are at risk every minute. William i could ask you for your reactions to two other moments of crises in your administration what was your feeling when you decided finally to send american troops to granada . Knew itagan again, you was going to be a hazard and you were endangering their lives. On that same weekend as the things,n beirut, of all come up dawn with a phone call, and it seems the several small island states, those that have been are in the commonwealth of the united have word of what is going on in granada. They felt it was of such importance that action had to be taken. Together,all in union but they knew some of them dont even have an army. They knew they did not have the military strength to do it. They made an outright request to us. I did not feel there was any way we could, in the face of the evidence, that we could turn down that request and never be anyted were believed in place in the free world. Sitting in those before dawn hours on the phone with george bush at this end and the Emergency Group assembled, we that we weresion going to do what they had asked. Thing,an international we provided the bulk of the force. Staff arehief of entrusted with putting the mission team together, i made only one suggestion. When you decide how many you think it will take, double it. This one we managed to keep a complete secret. And it worked. There were some deaths, but i have never been so proud of any thing in my life. Imore so when about 400 should not have left this out. This was a great consideration of ours. We had 800 young medical students, americans, on that island. And the thought of another hostage situation with 800 young americans, there was no way we can tolerate that. Factors the big deciding in addition to the other thing i said. Then one 400 of them came here to say thanks on the south lawn, and we had about 40 of the returned servicemen by that time back, about 10 each from the four services, and to see these young people, people in uniform and medical students, those medical students would come back to me and say, i never thought much about the people in uniform before. They were kind of that rebellious type. But not anymore. They said they saved our lives onei heard a story of some in their dormitory had been under the bed for 24 hours. They said from downstairs, they heard a voice, it was an american sergeant, a ranger. And identify himself, and called up for them to come down. There,dents said he was the rangers, to take them to the helicopters, and they told us that when they went to the helicopters, those young men in uniform put themselves between the students and where any firewood come from, from the hills, from the opposition. Literally shielded them with their own bodies getting them to the helicopters. So i had great pride when it was over. It made me realize what other president s who had to ask for a declaration of war, what it meant. Reactionone other question. What was your reaction when you ht 007,bout kal flig and how did you hear about it . Pres. Reagan i am trying to think now, where i was. I cannot remember exactly where i was, but the there you will remember, was still some question before final verification of what had actually happened, that it was gone and the people were dead. And then of course, it was i thoughtn though that it was it verified what i believed about the lack of respect for human life that is felt by those in charge of the soviet union. That that iwing made a statement about an evil empire. William you did call the soviet union the evil empire. Soviets murdered an american major. And at other times you and mr. Gorbachev could Work Together to achieve peace. Are those contradictory positions . Pres. Reagan not at all. At the beginning of this administration, when questions were asked of me in press conferences about the soviet union, i spoke bluntly about what i felt i knew about them and the fact they are expansionist, they are neversive, they have withdrawn or retracted the lenin statement that their mission is a one world communist state. At the same time, we have to live together. I believe the only way there will be world war iii is the soviet union once a war. If they want peace, there will be peace, because no one else wants a war. We certainly dont. Of a war in known my lifetime that we started. That it is necessary that we face each other. Ournow they dont like system and we dont like their system. Cannothave to see if we get along in the world. They are the only ones that can cause a war. William do you expect to be meeting with mr. Gorbachev . Pres. Reagan i am hopeful that will come about. We have had expressions that yes, they are willing. The ball is in their court. We are ready when they are. Know necessary for them to that we dont have any illusions. At the same time, we are willing to exist in a world with them. We sat down and found out where the parameters are. Day theoted the other soviets spent 5 million to prop up the marxist regime in nicaragua. The house has refused to commit even 14 million to help freedom fighters. Why have you not been able to convince the people that the cause of the contras and aiding the contras is the right call . Pres. Reagan part of it is the sophisticated Disinformation Campaign apparatus the communist bloc has worldwide. They have been able to confuse a great many of our people. Even the terms we use, and i wish we had not. I wish we started doing something im going to do from here on. If we have referred not to the sandinistas, but to the communists, not to the contras, but the freedom fighters, these are nicaraguans fighting for freedom in their own country against a communist takeover. , pollsu say those terms have revealed that a lot of our people out there, most people are not fully aware of the countries in central america, who they are, what they are, and so forth. Hearing these terms, sandinista government, contras and so forth, they are not sure which side we are on or what is at stake. After vietnam, there is vietnam syndrome. There is a feeling this is the United States sticking its nose in something that is none of our business. Yet when you ask them questions about, do you want another cuba . The mainland of the americas here, a communist, then the people say no, they dont want that. Part of that is the disinformation and we have not been able to overcome it, but also our lack of outright explanation. We found after i made that one speech on nicaragua on the air, there was a great turnaround. But that was one speech. The disinformation kept on and on. , constantly worried away and it went back again to the people. They were doing the wrong thing in nicaragua. William what is the significance of pardon me . Two questions. Make them good. William i will. Mr. President , if we could do what we did when we interviewed you, if there are still more questions, if i can leave them to get to you in the next couple of days pres. Reagan that is fine. I would be very happy to. William let me see. Being aagan reader of readers digest. William thank you. In 1981 wasishment to push the red tax cut. Now you are pushing for a revamping of the tax code. Why did you start thinking of the disgraceful inequities you say of texas . Pres. Reagan i have always believed and those in those. It has gotten so complicated. I thought most of our peoples or discussed eoples disgust with the tax system was not the size of the text, but the comp location. In 1981, we were faced with the emergency, the recession, what had to be done, so we could not think reform. In talking about our first tax program many times, we said, this is only the first stage. This is not the end. We want to come back. What we wanted to come back with was a reform that could make it thatfair, more simple, and has been on our minds from the very beginning. William one last question, then i will leave extra questions with pat. It has been four years since you were shot. Has that attempt on your life changed your life, the way you look at it . Pres. Reagan i dont know whether it has changed my life or not. I always was a pretty good boy about mining the security people when they told me not to go there and not to go there. It has changed my life physically in a number of ways. Now, coupled with the terrorist thing. With the whole terrorist thing, there are things i cannot do anymore, and i recognize it. We cannot go to church, and i miss that. Me. I recognize, is not just i am a threat to other people. If i go someplace like that with the various terrorist practices, car bombs and everything else, i could be responsible for the lives of other people. I am reconciled to that. The whole thing of that shooting, you know, i went all the way to the hospital, i walked into the emergency room on my own not knowing i had been shot. I was shot in midair. Secret service behind me i thought it was firecrackers. I just finished saying what was that when i was grabbed and thrown into the limousine. The door was open. As it turns out, i was shot on the way in. The bullet careened off the side of the car, came from the gap in the door, the hinge gap. They showed me the bullet. It was flattened and covered with paint from the car. I thought because then he did what the secret service practice. He dived on top of me to shield me. It was then for the first time i felt pain. I assumed after all those movies were if you were shot, you grab yourself and fell down, i always thought you felt it when it hit you. It was after healing that on me. Done it, andhe had feeling thing i can reconcile, the paralyzing pain, was he must have broken my ribs. I told him, get off. And he did, very quickly. By that time, the door was closed and we were moving. He said, sit back. I said, i cant, it hurts too much. By this time i had sat up. Suddenly i coughed and i had a handful of blood. Till said i must have punctured my lung. By this time he was saying George Washington hospital. I used my handkerchief, then i used of his. Up his. Seemed to me i was having i was getting less air every time i breathed in. But it was not until they peeled me because there was no great flow of blood on the outside. It was explained because when they found it back here, it was just a narrow slit. The flattened bullet had gone in edgewise and hit a rib, tumbled down through the lungs, and stopped just short of the heart. Afterward, with time of recovery i feel selfconscious saying this, i had a feeling in timetever was left to me belonged to someone else. William thank you, mr. President. Thank you, sir, very much. Good to see you again. Thank you. From George Washington to george w. Bush. We feature the presidency our weekly series following the president s, policies, and legacies. You are watching American History tv close out every weekend on cspan 3. On the presidency, Godfrey Hodgson sat down with Ronald Reagan. He talked about arms control, the irancountry controversy, and the assassination attempt that left him wounded. The Ronald Reagan president ial library provided this video. Godfrey