Reagan. That may be some of you who are reagan aficionados may not have known was influential in reagans overall political career and a relationship that influenced many of the views he became so widely known and praise for throughout the 1980s. Some of you probably do know president reagan had a longstanding and deep relationship with Pepperdine University. In fact president reagan, first , as governor, but then as president , made over half a dozen trips to our malibu campus and also to Downtown Los Angeles and Beverly Hills for events in support of Pepperdine University. I know our speaker tonight is going to be talking about some of those in the beginning of his lecture this evening. But one of those that jumps out at me, a few weeks ago, we had our annual Pepperdine Associates dinner in Beverly Hills at the beverly wilshire. This was on february 9 of 2020. In her remarks in talking about the future of pepperdine under our new president , our chancellor, sarah jackson, remarked that very night, february 9, was the 50th anniversary to the night when thengovernor reagan spoke at an event called the birth of a college, which was the announcement of the building of the pepperdine campus here over the hill in malibu. That night, again as governor, president reagan was so popular that not only did he speak at one event at the beverly hilton, he also spoke at a second event at the Beverly Hills hotel. Between the two events, 3400 people turned out to hear thengovernor reagan talk about the birth of a college, which was the building, the plan and vision for building a campus in malibu, california. He returned on several occasions, planted, when we opened the campus, a fledgling tree, which was named by thenpresident davenport known as the reagan bush, which has since grown into a 40 foot tall cedar tree. No, it still exists. It still does. Again, a long time relationship with president reagan. So, when the opportunity came through some friends, i got connected with gene kopelson, to learn about this run for the presidency 12 years prior to his 1980 run but also this particular relationship with another legendary republican president. That being dwight david eisenhower. I leapt at the opportunity. Dr. Jean colson is actually an md and not a ph. D. Kopelson is a renaissance man. He is a wellknown and renowned cancer doctor. He ran the Cancer Center at Yale University for two decades has had this abiding interest in president reagan, which has led to a number of different writings, including the book we will be discussing tonight, reagans 1968 dress rehearsal. Ike, rfk, and reagans emergence as a world statesman. Without any further ado, please welcome to the stage dr. Gene kopelson. [applause] dr. Kopelson thank you all for coming out this beautiful california evening and thank you to Dean Peterson, to Melissa Espinosa and professor ed larson as well. I very much view the 1980s, the age of president reagan, as a golden age. I set out trying to learn more and understand how and why he ran for the presidency for the first time in the mid to late 1960s. A subject that has been ignored by historians previously. I did research at the reagan and eisenhower residential Library President ial libraries. And i learned Ronald Reagan viewed the 1950s, the president ial era of Dwight Eisenhower, as americas golden age. I am going to like any author, i have to pick out a specific subject matter for a book talk. I have to leave a lot left unsaid. Im not going to go over the mechanics of the 1968 campaign. I hope you will read it in my book. It was an interesting story. By the time of the Republican Convention in august of 1968 in miami beach, more people voted for Ronald Reagan than for Richard Nixon. There were delegates at the convention and although they were obligated to nixon on that first ballot, had he been stopped, they could not wait to vote for Ronald Reagan on the second ballot. Nixon is not made the nominee until the wee hours of the morning until the convention gets to w for wisconsin. Speaking at wisconsin there were , three critical republican primaries in 1968. Wisconsin, nebraska and oregon. History remembers the democratic side. Robert kennedy, Eugene Mccarthy and Lyndon Johnson announcing he is not going to seek reelection. But it was an interesting race on the republican side. I tell all of that. Speaking of the opposition, in the 1960s, Ronald Reagans main political foe of all people is Robert Kennedy. What possibly could Robert Kennedy and Ronald Reagan have to do with each other . Please read that in my book. The subject tonight is ike. You also could say, what possibly could ike and reagan have to do with each other . After all reagan is elected in , 1980, and doesnt Dwight Eisenhower in the 1960s spend time golfing, become ill and pass away . You are going to learn a lot more about a brandnew relationship that is unknown to history before my research. That is their relationship. You are going to be thrilled tonight because youre going to hear the voice you know so well from the president ial years, mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. But youre going to hear him in an earlier era, 15 years earlier discussing World Affairs issues in the 1960s. Subjects you never knew Ronald Reagan spoke out about. Here we are. I have to certainly go over in a little bit of detail what Dean Peterson has mentioned. I will just show you the slides but you can find them for yourself or likely have seen them when you came to pepperdine for the first time. Or considering joining the institution. There is reagan at the birth of the college dinner. Here we are dedicating the redwood tree. He is still governor reagan at this point. Here we are, two years later, back on campus. The reagans were here a lot. When the campus was being built, they came on horseback, nancy and president reagan, to check on the progress of what was happening. In fact nancy had a , longstanding relationship. This is a magazine cover acknowledging the doctorate that pepperdine gave to her. Please read more about it. The one photograph i do not have is when he came after his presidency and was given the gift of a surfboard by Pepperdine University students. Back to the subject at hand. During World War Two is the first interaction between Ronald Reagan eisenhower. Ronald reagan is an actor. He is making publicity films for the army and air force. Dwight eisenhower is planning dday in england. They make a war bonds appeal record that is sent to the American Public. That is the first time they appear together. Of course we win world war ii thanks in no small part to Dwight Eisenhower and the dday landings. Many of you will remember some of the history. Now we are going to go forward a little bit. After world war ii, we get to the 1950s. Around that time the korean war begins. The north invades the south. Ronald reagan is unhappy with president Harry Trumans slow building up of americas troops. Unlike when Dwight Eisenhower launched a massive invasion, truman does it slowly. Reagan is unhappy because the war is becoming a quagmire. Ronald reagan believes in small government and is unhappy truman has continued the bureaucracy that was begun under fdr. He is thinking, who should he support in 1952 . Ronald reagan is still a democrat. He telegrams to Dwight Eisenhower and urges him to seek the presidency. And he becomes, officially, a democrat for ike. A few things about that time period. He famously says i will go to korea and assess the strategy and tactics. That is what he does when he enters the oval office. And, fighting stops in no small part because behindthescenes, Dwight Eisenhower threatens communist china with Nuclear Weapons. That, as well as the death of stalin and other reasons, the fighting stops. Now he is president and in 1953, Dwight Eisenhower delivers and all but forgotten speech at the united nations. He offers to turn over Americas Nuclear arsenal to an International Agency headed under the u. N. , but there is a caveat. The soviets have to agree to turn over their nuclear missiles. They refuse. That is the end of that. In the 1950s, another hot topic, terms you never have heard of, these were two offshore islands of taiwan. Called then formosa. Twice during the 1950s, red china threatened to invade taiwan and shell those islands. President eisenhower had the seventh fleet and said, they will have to crawl over the seventh fleet. That never happened. Around the time of the korean or, actor Ronald Reagan made and all but forgotten film called prisoner of war. He plays a u. S. Army captain who is parachuted in to north korea because of what we hear, america hears is happening to american prisoners of war. They are being tortured and horrendous things happening to them. At the end of the filming, actor reagan tells the press all of the dialogue is made from us u. S. Army survivors of that torture. That will be important for his mind later. In 1960, that is the year where Richard Nixon runs against john f. Kennedy and john f. Kennedy wins. Two years later, nixon decides here in california, he is going to seek the governorship of california. He runs against pat brown, the father of jerry brown. Pat brown will win, nixon will lose. During the campaign, reagan is nixons california cochair and Ronald Reagan becomes a republican at that time. Dwight eisenhower spends his winters in california at palm desert, but he spends the summers in gettysburg, pennsylvania. If you ever visit Gettysburg National battlefield please , visit the eisenhower home there. Its on adjacent land. Eisenhower decides the Democratic Party has much better Marketing Efforts than the Republican Party and hosts a symposium at his gettysburg farm with gop leaders to try to see, how can the Republican Party better market itself, the result of that has never been known to history before. I probably say until i found it. That is this record called mr. Lincolns party today. Its of recording. That is the technology of the era. Here is the back cover. Famous pictures and faces of that era. In the upper left former , president eisenhower out of the white house for two years. Richard nixon, running for the governorship of california two years ago, he was ikes Vice President. On the left is barry goldwater, conservative republican of arizona. In the middle right is nelson rockefeller. On the lower left is the man who just became a republican ronald , reagan. Clearly, him being chosen as the narrator of this important Republican Party record was approved by Dwight Eisenhower. I have listened to the record many times. I have for you a slight little recording of it. It emphasizes the themes of the Republican Party to today. Individual freedom, small government and at the Republican Party has a wide inclusive tent. It can accommodate conservative republicans as well as liberal republicans like nelson rockefeller. Listen to the voice of Ronald Reagan from 1962. Now we hear from one who has served his country all his adult life. Crowning that service with two terms as president of the United States, dwight d. Eisenhower. Thank you, mr. Reagan. Dr. Kopelson that is 1962. A lot happens. The next year is the john f. Kennedy assassination. His Vice PresidentLyndon Johnson becomes president. Now it is 1964. Lyndon johnson is running for the presidency. The republican candidate is barry goldwater. It is now a week before that general election. Barry goldwater is not doing well. The polls do not look good. It is going to probably be and an lbj landslide. Reagan being the famous actor, he has crisscrossed the country for a long time delivering speeches as the spokesperson of General Electric because he was the host of General Electric theater. The public knows him as the actor and speechmaker for ge. This is the first time he will be seen from the American Public as delivering a political speech. It is called the time for choosing. If you have never seen it, go to youtube and watch it. A lot of the issues he discusses are quite relevant to the year 2020. I would like to highlight just one aspect of it. In it, he castigates the west that we never open up our mouths , about the millions trapped behind the iron curtain. Ronald reagan knows all about the evils of communism and socialism. Many of you know the speech. That is termed the speech. That night, not far from here in los angeles, a number of his friends got together. They were financial people in business and said, i think the Republican Party is running the wrong person in 1964. It should not have been goldwater. It should have been Ronald Reagan. Lets convince Ronald Reagan to enter politics for the future. In fact that very night in michigan forms the very first Ronald Reagan for president club. Millions at home watching reagan deliver that speech, but so is Dwight Eisenhower at home. He immediately calls his former attorney general and says, what a fine speech actor Ronald Reagan just delivered. He calls his special assistant and says what an excellent speech Ronald Reagan just delivers. A week later, it is a massive Lyndon Johnson landslide. The Republican Party with a few highlights has suffered greatly at the polls. Everyone is depressed on the gop side. Ronald reagan decides maybe he will enter politics, but how can he do this . He is an actor. Through a mutual golfing friend, six months later, this golfing friend calls Dwight Eisenhower at his home and says, general Eisenhower Ike liked to be called general after he left the white house. He says our mutual friend Ronald Reagan is thinking about entering politics. What advice can you give him . The next day, Dwight Eisenhower pens a thoughtful, multipage, multistep plan for Ronald Reagan to follow should reagan decide to enter politics. Twice in that letter, Dwight Eisenhower uses the term, common sense. it originates during the American Revolution with thomas payne. Dean peterson also famously uses it has been part of the common sense theme not long ago. Reagan will use his advice to the letter. Reagan announces he is going to seek the governorship of california. He wins the republican primary, he becomes the nominee. The very first thing he does june of 1966 is travel east. The first person he meets is Dwight Eisenhower, the man who had been mentoring him. If you do visit gettysburg, you will see a logbook. Mamie eisenhower had every person who entered the home and left including her family sign the logbook in and out. There, on june 15, 1966, is the signature of Ronald Reagan about to meet Dwight Eisenhower for the first time. This is the first of four meetings they hold. They both like to play golf. Those of you who are golfers know it is not a five minute visit and then you take some publicity photos. You are together for hours in the golf cart, with your golf clubs planning strategy. You will learn all they discussed. But it is a shame neither of them took notes of their meetings because these meetings were very critical for world history. They met four times. Reagan is running for the governorship of california. If you were here driving the california freeway, there was much less traffic then, you will see billboards of the smiling picture of Ronald Reagan bringing Common Sense Solut