Ronald Reagan: Reader, Writer, Thinker, Dreamer

Ronald Reagan’s fans often recollect him as portrayed in the recently released film “Reagan”: a one-time athlete who enjoyed horseback riding and the outdoors, an actor who became first a governor and then a two-term president, and the “Great Communicator” whose policies helped bring about the collapse of the Soviet Union.
On both sides of this palisade of opinion are many people ignorant of Reagan’s intelligence, honed by decades of reading and writing. Concealed behind an affable manner and an often self-deprecating sense of humor was a man who had spent countless hours with books and a pen and paper.
In the meantime, however, Reagan was delving into more challenging literary fare that eventually led him into the Republican Party. As Byrne relates, in the 1950s he read books like “The God That Failed,” a crucial collection denouncing communism by writers who had turned their backs on the Soviet Union. Whittaker Chambers’s classic “Witness,” an account of the author’s disenchantment with Marxism and the USSR, was a particular favorite. Reagan was a longtime subscriber to William F. Buckley Jr.’s conservative magazine “National Review.” He read books by economists promoting democracy and free enterprise, like Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and Milton Friedman.
“Within the covers of the Bible,” Reagan once said, “are the answers for all the problems men face.”
In addition, while running for governor of California, Reagan wrote his autobiography with the help of Richard Hubler. The resulting book, “Where’s the Rest of Me?” had the title taken from a line he spoke in his film “Kings Row.” Later came another self-portrait in his 1990 “An American Life,” largely ghostwritten by Robert Lindsey. Though Reagan received help in putting together these books, they again reveal his belief that words on paper possess power.
But as Byrne also notes: “Even more than his photographic memory, Reagan’s greatest intellectual gift was his imagination. Knowledge is important, but it’s limited. Imagination is boundless … Reagan’s imagination surpassed every other post-World War II president … he was one of the few people who could imagine a world without a Soviet Union, a world bereft of the Berlin Wall, a world without communism.”
If we compare Reagan to his predecessors, we find a striking difference in attitude toward totalitarian governments and communism. The presidents after World War II, for the most part, pursued a policy of containment in regard to the ambitions of Marxist regimes. Presidents Nixon and Carter aimed at accommodation by détente, particularly in regard to the Soviets.
Different advantages and circumstances helped carry Ronald Reagan into the White House. His natural physical attributes—his 6-foot-1-inch height, his Hollywood good looks, and his mellifluous voice—these and his generally sunny personality were valuable political assets. His years of experience as a film star made him a natural in front of an audience or a camera. “How can a president not be an actor?” he once said. His persuasive abilities, which he developed from his youth and which came to the fore time and again in his life, were also put to good use in the political arena, whether from behind a speaker’s podium or seated at a negotiating table with world-class figures.