Hes a political scientist at grove city college, which along the institutions as hilldale college, they dont which any federal money, means he doesnt have to bend. He can tell it as it is. That is fabulous because we we do not accept any of taxpayers money. Paul kingery is a public intellectual on the conservative side. Hes one of the few who has to break through he has written a number of books on conservative issues, including very , including gays marriage. Thingswritten a few about Ronald Reagan, including the crusader. Last but not least i would like to recognize talking her for appreciating the institute of politics. He has been around the institute , including my mentor such as it is onlyofessor because of the junkyard dog qualities at some of the dinosaurs keep even cap. I have begged them forever, please write books, please provide the truth. Narrative alternative that would shed to shed true light into the past. Instead, most of the cold warriors have left everything in the evil hands of the evil ones, such institutions like the washington compost or the new york slime. [laughter] fortunately for us, and for posterity we have dr. Canker. Without much more do, please welcome him. Yay. [applause] i appreciate that. Imagine an Educational Institution not taking federal government money. How can you not exist without government money . Is it possible to run an Educational Institution without government money . Taxpayer money, the city college has been doing that for a long time. And we lost that case. In the end we may be one thing maybe one day longer battle. Im so glad that cspan is here. Thank you for coming. And above many reasons, not just to cover this but to also be threat the institute of world politics. Hopefully more young people will learn about the institute of world politics. I recommend my students here all the time. A pope and a president , Ronald Reagan and john paul ii. This is a subject i have been researching for a long time. Freedom of information act requests back in 2000 at the reagan library. I have written a dozen books in the interim between filing those foils and when this came out. Project they couldnt walk away from. And really a product of people giving me information and telling me things that i was astounded to hear. Finally got to the point where ive got to write this. Theres too much Important Information being given to me that people dont know about. That others knew about. The history had to be told. Presentation on a 640 page book. Where do you even start with this . You should be doing pr for me. In 2004. Came out that was half the length of this book. I had a chapter in this book on ragan and john paul ii, but i needed more pages to be able to fully tell that story. Where do you start in a presentation . In 1917. In the book you can go through 600 pages in an hour. Im going to start on october 16, 1978. Long sovietdecade war on religion, me kyle Gorbachev Mikhail gorbachev called it a war on religion. He and ingalls used phrases in a communist manifesto such as abolition of religion. Of a said all worship divinity is a necrophilia. He said there is nothing more abominable than religion. These men hated religion. They shut down churches. They blew up churches. They destroyed them. They literally banned the ringing of church bells. They crashed the bells to the ground. They melted them down into useful things, as one aide of stalin put it, as opposed to unuseful things like clanging for got in a church. After all of these six decades, this goes on, persecuting the religious, Russian Orthodox priests, rabbis, anybody who believed in god. October 16, 1978, the college of cardinals, the conclave, out of the heart of the communist soviet bloc in poland, the only country where the war on religion totally failed. The communists had some success in czechoslovakia squashing report religion. But they couldnt stop it in poland, were Something Like 90 of the country was still practicing Roman Catholic. After a pope who lives for 33 days, the conclave meets again and they picked the first nonitalian pope in 406 he five years. 455 years. Think about how long that is. The pope was italian. They picked the first slavic pope ever, and it is the archbishop from krakow, from poland. Shows in the 264th heir to the chair st. Peter. Polls were ecstatic when they heard about this, when they heard rumors of first. Is this even possible . They went to the communistcontrolled media to try to find at any confirmation if this had truly happened. If a polish priest had become pope, there is no way this could have possibly happened. Christophe meister, a polish physicist, talks about watching the communist evening news broadcast. They put it this way. An announcer came on with a very, very sad face and said that a new pope had been elected and it was cardinal boy diva. That was it. They did not say anything else. Then the announcers switched to the harvest for years the potato crop. It was absolutely amazing. The reaction by moscow was also very subdued. The public reaction was very subdued. All i could find in the archives i found three senses reported under the title new head of the catholic church. The head of the new Roman Catholic church was announced here. He is a polish cardinal. He has taken the name john paul ii. That was it. The head of the kgb telephoned and he asked how could you possibly allow the election of a citizen of a socialist country as pope . The chief said he should direct his question to officials in rome rather than in poland. He was not amused. He is somebody who was not often amused anyway. He was not amused. Pollens monsignor put it this polands monsignor put it this way. Square, st. Peters that was the end of communism. He turned to a cardinal, who is still around to this day, and he said what have they done . [laughter] do they know what they have done here . Moscow was wondering the same thing. To 26, 19 some the eight, october 6, 1978. His first sunday homily, john paul ii exhorted the faithful with these words. You probably know the first three. The not afraid. Open the doors to christ. Open them wide. Open the borders of states. Economic and political systems, open the vast domains of culture. Open them to his saving power. Open the borders of states, economic and political systems. Some moscow was very afraid of this. They were even more afraid and apoplectic when the new pope announced that his first foreign visit was going to be to poland, of all things. If there is a story running through this book am in the case of both reagan and john paul ii, among the different branches that they shared, it was courage. My first visit will be to poland. They are not going to like it in moscow. Of course they are not going to like it moscow. My first foreign visit will be to poland. Brezhnev called edward garrick, his commonest puppet in poland, literally called him on the phone we know have a transcript of the conversation and told him to tell the pope no, he cant come to poland. And garrick said to him how can i not receive a polish pope when the majority of my country or catholics . He told them to come up with a nifty excuse. Tell the pope. He is a wise man. That he can announced the book he he cannot come because he has taken ill. [laughter] and imagine that. Garrick gently told his boss that he couldnt say that. In reply, brezhnev barked at him that was a better communist than you. And slander down the phone. So john paul ii goes to poland. Nine days to poland, huge crowds. Hundreds of thousands, millions of people. Imagine a Million People standing in line to receive communion, right . Thats have a some of these masses were. The head of the Solidarity Movement said this he comes to poland, and the 20 who followed me in the Solidarity Movement were suddenly 10 million. It was a greater multiplication than the loaves and the fishes. Indeed, it was. Go from 20 to 10 million. For his opening homily at victory square on june 2, imagine the symbolism of fat of that, right . Victory square. Victory square is the spot he chooses. John paul ii said that christ cannot be kept out of the history of man in any part of the globe, at any longitude latitude. The excursion of christ from the history of man is an act against man. Without christ, it is impossible to understand the history of poland. What Ronald Reagan would call the martyred nation of poland. And then he said this. There can be no just europe without the independence of poland marked on its map. That was a shot heard around the world. In reaction to this, the New York Times any chance i get to take a shot at the New York Times, i take it wrote an editorial on june 5, 1975. This is so snooty. They said this. As much as the visit of john paul ii to poland must reinvigorate and reinspire the Roman Catholic church in poland, it does not threaten the political order of the nation or eastern europe. [applause] [laughter] so tell that to moscow. Ronald reagans reaction to this we know, because he was watching footage of it in his living room in california. He was an ex governor at that point. Reagan was watching this and there were tears in his eyes. And reagan said, thats it, thats it, thats it. The pope is the key. The pope is the key. We need to get elected. We need to reject the pope and the vatican and make them an ally. As alan put it, he said then and there that the pope was the key figure in determining the fate of poland, and the fate of poland would affect the state of the comments block. He saw the popes visit as an extra ordinary wedge into the very hearts, into their center of the communist domain. Reagan immediately went into a radio studio in california. He was doing a daily radio broadcast, the gray can indicator right . He understood the power of radio the great communicator, right . He understood the power of radio. They were three to 400 300 to 400 words each. They were two to three minute radio broadcasts. He recorded two or three of them on the popes visit to poland. Stalin once asked how many , divisions does the pope have . Reagan said, now weve seen have many divisions the pope has. Wherever he went in poland, crowds, 400,000, 500 thousand, one million, 5 million. Then reagan asked will the kremlin ever be the same again . Will any of us, for that matter, ever be the same again . And reagan was never the same again after he saw them. November 13, 1979, this document was found a few years ago by john kohler, the cold war researcher, from ap reporter. It is a Central Committee meeting. Nine soviet officials met on that day. One of them was mikael gorbachev, who would it who would later deny the negative interpretation of this is what he saw it intended to mean. They were furious, apoplectic over this new polish pope. They were try to figure out what to do about him, about this menace, who take october 1979 and shook a poland, called for the independence of poland. So the issue of this edict use all possibilities available to the soviet union to prevent the new course of policies initiated by the polish pope. Use all possibilities available to the soviet union. If necessary, with additional measures beyond this information and discredit ancient. Kohler put it this way. In laymans terms, this was unordered for sassy nation four assassination for as sassination. Kohler was given this by the Italian Secret Service agency. He said the translated text that he got from a highranking italian official, the very bottom of it said this document found in moscow points the plan for the physical elimination of jp ii. And it may indeed have. At some point, somebody called for the physical elimination of jp ii. Is just a matter of when and whether the documentation existed, in paper or whatever. Back to Ronald Reagan, he wants to reach out to them, the vatican and the pontiff, and make them an ally. Hes got to get elected first, right . That occurred november 4, 1980. He defeated jimmy carter. He won 44 out of 50 states in that election. Can you imagine that . This is unbelievable. For the record, when reagan was reelected in 1984, he won 49 at a 50 states. Which state did he not win . Minnesota. Exactly. Minnesota. Ronald reagan in 1984, the Electoral College was 52513. Reagan twice won california, new york, new jersey, my own state of pennsylvania, and even massachusetts. Its not going to happen again. Its hard to imagine it even happened twice. With reporters in poland, he told them i envisioned what would happened in your president ial election. Reagan will settle things. You wait and see. Ronald reagan will make things better. Reagan was inaugurated jerry 20th, 1980 1 p. M. He was one invite chief justice inaugurated january 20, 1981. He was sworn in by chief justice warren. He carried his mothers bible. She made this president. The bible is open to the old she was there. This doesnt happen without her. The bible is open to the old testament, second chronicle 7 14, which says if my people turn from their wicked ways, i will hear the i will heal their land. She had written a wonderful verse for the healing of a nation. And reagan, then and there, pledged his country to what he called an area of national renewal. He wanted to change america and he wanted to change the world. He wanted to win the cold war. And people in this room who lived through it, nobody thought it was possible at the time, right . Reagan did. Jump on the second maybe did. Thats about it. Nobody else did. John paul ii a be dead. Thats about it. Nobody else did. In the week after reagans inauguration, the soviets started blasting reagan and john paul ii. They even called them out. This is amazing language. The kind of language and soviet publications was so incendiary and so overthetop and so vitriolic, theres nothing like it anywhere. Reading this stuff hurts your stomach, its so bad. But they denounced john paul ii, the soviet press. This piece was february 1981. A malicious, lowly, perfidious and backward toady of american militarists. This is the guy theyre talking about. This is a guy whos now a saint in the catholic church. Seeking to undermine time in his him with his overseas accomplices and his new boss in the white house. Right . His new boss in the white house. Moscow, if only these two guys could be dead, right . To quote joseph stalin, death solves all problems. No man, no problem, right . March 30, 1981, 2 25 p. M. , Ronald Reagan spoke to the aflcio at the washington hilton. Is just a few weeks into his presidency. He is just a few weeks into his presidency. The press is outside. They yell out to him. He lists his arm as if to deflect questions. John hinckley is waiting outside. Hinckley is not part of any international conspiracy. He was just trying to get the attention of jodie foster. That was it. He had a crush on duty foster and he was tried to get her attention. He pulls out a pistol, using. 22 devastator bullets, which explode on impact. Reagan was shot underneath the arm. Jerry parr, the secret service agent, thrusts reagan and the limousine and lands on top of him and orders the driver to take off. And reagan says, jerry, get off of me. I think you broke one of my ribs. He sees frothy bubbles from reagans lips. He ordered the driver to go to George Washington university hospital. That split decision probably saved his life. It was reported by some news organizations that reagan wasnt even hit, and if he was head, he wasnt badly wounded pair nancy reagan did not know what she was going to see when she got a hospital. He might just be fine when she gets there. Ronald reagan got out of the car. He wants to walk in. Fell down. Went right down. Went inside, immediately started working on him. Before he went out, Ronald Reagan would later write to this i focused on the tile ceiling and i prayed. This is no reagan this is noel reagan and him. I realized i couldnt ask got for help while having hatred for the mixed up young man who shot me. Isnt that the lost sheep . I began to pray for his soul, that he would find his way back into the fold. John paul ii would forgive his assassin, too. In prison, he would meet with him. When john a when Ronald Reagan died, Washington Post published a letter to the editor. It was John Hinckley psychiatrist, his doctor, who said Ronald Reagan contacted me in the 1980s and asked if he could meet with john higley to forgive him. I told him i dont know if that would be good for hinckley. And reagan said, doc, if it isnt good for the patient, i wont do it. If we can do it, i will. So reagan never met with him. Louis evans, the pastor at the Presbyterian Church over here, he talked to Ronald Reagan about this and reagan told him reagan had the sense that, if he didnt forgive his assassin, his wouldbe assassin, he was going to die. Got was going to take his life. Reagan felt his survival was contingent upon his forgiveness, that that was something he needed to do. Reagan would survive and go on to telling number of people, his son michael, his daughter marine, the reverend louis evans, billy graham, he would tell this to mother teresa, to Cardinal Cooke in new york, that he believed he was spared by godfrey special purpose. And as Edmund Morris put it, he believed that this reagan wrote this in his diary whatever happens now, i om i like the got and i will try to serve him in every way i can. Morse said that mr. Reagan it was time to take on that institutional murder of also liberty is known as soviet communism. Institutional murderer of all liberties known as soviet communism. Seven accomplices were named, conceived by the bulgarian secret service. He got to st. Peters square early that morning, probably first arrived around 9 00 a. M. , waited all day. On the other side of st. Peters square, one of his accomplices is waiting with a panic bomb that he is going to detonate as soon as the first shoots. That way the bomb will the verge attention from the shooting on the other side. He is concealing a. 9 millimeter semiautomatic browning. About 5 00, 5 15 p. M. , john paul ii comes riding up in the whit