Cast Two Giant Shadows

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“Define or be defined; he who wins that debate wins the argument,” said L. Brent Bozell III, founder and president of Media Research Center and nephew of William F. Buckley, Jr., at a Heritage Foundation event. He holds that Ronald Reagan understood this, and nobody could touch him because of it. Nicknames like “the Teflon president” were given to him because no bad press would stick to him. He says, “He understood that there is perception and there is reality, and the perception of reality is all that matters, not the reality itself…genuine good cheer, genuine personality, genuine optimism—it all came natural to Ronald Reagan because that’s who Ronald Reagan was. ”

Bozell also argues that the same could be said of Buckley. He relates, “Bill Buckley knew that there was one thing he had that his opposition never had. He had the ability to slaughter them in a debate. So he let them come after him, and he responded. He responded with a full-frontal assault. He responded with both guns blazing…. But he did it with a smile because he was loving it. And that undid his opposition.”

Buckley’s book, The Reagan I Knew, showed a different side of Reagan, Bozell argues, than any other biography about Reagan: a very personal side. Buckley and Reagan were friends, and corresponded with each other almost regularly. Through their correspondence, Bozell claims, Reagan’s sense of humor shines through like it does not in any other book about him.

The Reagan I Knew goes through Reagan’s and Buckley’s friendship during different periods of time. It posts letters between Reagan and Buckley, but also between Nancy Reagan and Buckley. The letters give a glimpse of the friendship between Reagan and Buckley by showing their correspondence. They often talk about family, but they also talk about policy—both on their agreements and disagreements. They both disliked when they disagreed, but they remained friends through any disagreement.

Following a debate over whether or not the Panama Canal should be returned to the Panamanian people, Buckley says to Reagan, “You were in marvelous form the other night, and whatever pleasure I took from the event, which had its transcendent disadvantage in having publicly to disagree with you, derived from what I hope was the obvious respect and admiration I feel for you. I profoundly disagree with the conclusions at which you have arrived, but I know that you credit my disagreement with you as sincere and thoughtful…” Reagan responds: “I know you ‘profoundly disagree’ with my conclusions, and that is fair enough because I feel that way about your position.” “A few months after the debate,” Buckley was on his way to dinner at Reagan’s home. On the Reagans’ lawn were three hand-painted cardboard signs that said, “WE BUILT IT. WE PAID FOR IT. IT’S OURS!” Such was the nature of the friendship between Buckley and Reagan.

Buckley closes his book in praise of Reagan as a president: “The Reagan years accustomed us to a mood about life and about government. There were always the interruptions, the potholes of life. But Ronald Reagan had strategic vision. He told us that most of our civic problems were problems brought on or exacerbated by government, not problems that could be solved by government. That of course is enduringly true. Only government can cause inflation, preserve monopoly, and punish enterprise. On the other hand it is only a government leader who can put a stamp on the national mood. One refers not to the period of Shakespeare, but to the period of Elizabeth. Reagan’s period was brief, but he did indeed put his stamp on it. He did this in part because he was scornful of the claims of omnipotent government, in part because he felt, and expressed, the buoyancy of the American Republic.”

Heather Latham is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.