“Howard Baker . . . told me on the steps of the capitol, at the time of the inaugural, ‘Mr. President, I want you to know I will be with you through thick.’ And I said, ‘What about thin?’ and he said, ‘Welcome to Washington.’”—Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan’s political career began in the same year—1966—that I was first elected to the United States Senate from Tennessee. He became governor of California and launched a political movement that fourteen years later would catapult him to Washington and the White House as the fortieth president of the United States.
Years later, our paths crossed again on the political landscape. In 1976, when he challenged President Gerald Ford for the Republican nomination, my wife, Joy, and I invited the Reagans to be our guests at our home in Huntsville, Tennessee. It was a social visit and a night of “Southern hospitality.” He was campaigning in my home state, and I was a supporter of President Ford. The media had fun with the overnight stay, trying to sort out how the Ford operatives would react to my invitation to the Reagans to spend a night in the hills of east Tennessee.
I competed against him in 1980 for the right to carry the Republican banner in the presidential election. He won, and I did not. Within a few months, I found myself standing with him as the majority leader in the U.S. Senate, committing to carry the agenda that he laid out for the country.
I had a notion that another person should be sitting in the Oval Office—me. In announcing my bid for the presidency in 1979, I said that for America to regain its greatness, the country needs “a president who can unite the people, chart a new course, and launch a new generation of confidence.” It turned out that these words and phrases reflected the character and the essence of Ronald Reagan.
From his first days in office in 1981, I found that Ronald Reagan had a central core of convictions that focused his attention, his direction, and his leadership. Washington may expect a president to be mired down in details, but for President Reagan, that was not why he ran for the country’s highest office or what he expected to achieve as its chief executive. He was comfortable with who he was and what he wanted to accomplish.
With a new Republican majority in the United States Senate, President Reagan laid out an agenda to move the country ahead. An early vote on budget reconciliation that led to the Reagan economic revolution stands out as the defining test for his new Republican majority and his direction for America. What I may have at one point termed “a riverboat gamble” turned out to be the right course. The cornerstone of Reagan’s economic policy was curbing government spending coupled with tax reductions.
When he was elected president, the country was saddled with double-digit interest rates, high inflation, and unemployment. In dozens of White House meetings and sessions held in the Capitol with bipartisan congressional leaders, President Reagan laid out his approach and listened to differing points of view with an open mind. In crafting legislative solutions, President Reagan realized that if 80 percent could be achieved on the first pass, take it. The other 20 percent could be picked up later.
The most remarkable thing about him was his constant ability to surprise. This is how, as a consummate Washington insider, I remember Ronald Reagan. His first term as president put the nation’s economy back on track and restored the respect for America across the world. As the leader in the U.S. Senate for his first term in office, I found him to be a reliable partner.
He stood tall for the things that he believed in and did not hesitate in the face of opposition to remain steadfast to his core convictions. He reached outside of Washington and touched the core of America to build his coalition for change.
In 1987, our paths crossed once more.
I recall vividly his request that I return to service, but as his chief of staff—not exactly how I imagined serving in the White House. But the president asked, and I accepted. I have never known how you turn down the president of the United States.
From the first days as his chief of staff, there was no doubt that Ronald Reagan had things he wanted to accomplish. A crucial budget agreement was reached, and a significant arms-reduction treaty was signed that marked a redefining of the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Although he was no longer in office when the Berlin Wall—that iconic symbol of oppression—fell, his address to thousands of Germans at the Brandenburg Gate set in motion the tearing down of that concrete barrier, which scarred a country and separated families.
I got to know Ronald Reagan in a different way while serving as his chief of staff. He was a true patriot and considered it an honor to serve the American people. In his eyes, you could see the awe that a child from humble beginnings in the small town of Tampico, Illinois, could achieve the highest office in the country. He was a special man, with heartfelt compassion. He was an optimist who loved this country, its people, and the right for every man, woman, and child to be free.
For those who advocated the politics of no new ideas, no incentives to save and to work, and no firm security for the nation, he countered with, “Yes, we can have a brighter tomorrow.” He said “yes” is the one word we understand because that “is what we have grown up with as a country.”
Ronald Reagan had a special touch conveyed through his choice of words, which calmed a nation in times of trouble and disappointment and celebrated the greatness of things both large and small.
When he spoke to the nation and to the families of those lost in the shuttle Challenger tragedy in 1986, I recall his words describing those seven astronauts waving goodbye as they “slipped the surly bonds of earth . . . to touch the face of God.”
Or as he stood on the windswept hill overlooking the steep cliff that American Rangers scaled some forty years earlier as part of the D-Day invasion. He called them the men “who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.”
He talked about the Shining City on the Hill, of a “divine plan that placed this great continent between two oceans to be sought out by those who have an abiding love of freedom and a special kind of courage.”
And he loved to tell stories, sprinkling his speeches with one-liners. Humor helped him warm up a crowd and connect to his audience—the American people. As he told the Associated General Contractors of America in 1981, “Status quo, you know, is Latin for ‘the mess we’re in.’”
Over my career, I have had the privilege to know eight presidents of the United States—each have had their own particular strengths and weaknesses. Ronald Reagan understood what it took to be president—he knew where he wanted to go and how to get there.
In his later years, as his health took its toll, Ronald Reagan remained interested in the lives of his friends. I recall his good wishes and genuine happiness when I married “my Nancy” in 1996. As Alzheimer’s disease entered his life, he did what one would have expected from the Great Communicator—he shared the news with his fellow citizens.
He was a great American. I am proud to have been his friend and to have had the opportunity to serve with him and for him.
—SENATOR HOWARD H. BAKER, JR.