Inside Ronald Reagan

A Reason Interview

From the July 1975 issue

(Page 7 of 7)

REASON: What about in the last 10 years?

REAGAN: I disagreed with it, and I’ll tell you why: I believe Lenin also on that. Lenin said that he would force the capitalist nations to maintain military conscription until the uniform became a symbol of servitude rather than patriotism.

REASON: Governor, what about the United Nations? Are you in favor of the United States withdrawing from the UN?

REAGAN: Well, I am in favor of certainly a different policy than we’ve had. I think the United States should have taken a very drastic action; perhaps it should have staged a walk-out at the time of the recognition of Red China. I think that the United Nations today is virtually impotent when you stop to think that countries representing two-thirds of the votes of the United Nations represent less than 10 percent of the world population. It’s a funny thing that everybody who wants one man-one vote doesn’t hold it true for the United Nations!

REASON: Governor if the Republicans were to nominate a candidate that was unacceptable to you in 1976, could you support a Libertarian third party candidate?

REAGAN: I have to wait and see what you’re doing and what you are standing for.

REASON: Are there any particular books or authors or economists that have been influential in terms of your intellectual development?

REAGAN: Oh, it would be hard for me to pinpoint anything in that category. I’m an inveterate reader. Bastiat and von Mises, and Hayek and Hazlitt–I’m one for the classical economists....

REASON: What about Rand or Rothbard?

REAGAN: No. I haven’t read Ayn Rand since The Fountainhead. I haven’t read Atlas Shrugged. The last few years, I must say, have been a little rough on me for doing that kind of reading–for eight years I found that when I finished reading the memorandums and reports and so forth, then I found myself digging into nonfiction, economists and so forth, for help on the problems that were confronting me.

REASON: As far as problems confronting us, a quick response if you could, Governor: the pro and con assessment of Jerry Brown. How do you think he’s doing so far?

REAGAN: Well, he is an enigma. I am overjoyed, of course, at his budget approach. And I just assume that that probably stems from his Jesuit training– that that has him thinking in terms of property and economy. I think he’s going to find that some of his own appointees are not sympathetic to his budgetary approach. They’ve got their own constituencies and pretty soon they’re going to be wanting to do things for those constituents and that’s going to call for spending and then he’s going to find that he might be battling the legislature on one side and his own appointees on the other.

REASON: Governor, you’ve taken a lot of time out of your busy schedule and we appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Comments

Pingback| 10.7.09 @ 7:36AM

The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : Pinkerton Redefines Conservatism links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…I am doing the very best I can." Robert Poole, one of the early editors of Reason magazine, has called Goldwater “20th-century America's first libertarian politician.” And as for Ronald Reagan, he himself declared that, “If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism… The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more…

Pingback| 10.7.09 @ 4:48PM

My Kids Deserve Better | My Kids Deserve Better links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…very best I can.” Robert Poole, one of the early editors of Reason magazine, has called Goldwater “20th-century America’s first libertarian politician.” And as for Ronald Reagan, he himself declared that, “If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism… The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more…

Pingback| 10.10.09 @ 12:54PM

Modlitba s médii, 10.10.2009 « Bolkův blog links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…aby si Cameronův projev prostudoval sám a aby se případně podíval i na první část knihy Život jednoho Američana od Ronalda Reagana, která mi skutečně mnoho dala. Přidávám také odkaz na zajímavý rozhovor s Ronaldem Reaganem. Média často přináší různé zprávy o kriminalitě, ale také o úspěších v boji proti ní. A tak jsme se mohli dozvědět, že policie dopadla gang zlodějů železničních modelů, britské námořnictvo zadrželo…

|10.25.09 @ 11:01PM|#

I like Reagan, but I wonder sometimes how different and how better the world might be had he read Atlas Shrugged. Oh if only!

|11.2.09 @ 7:11PM|#

I have a feeling he did. Google Reagan and "Red Hen" - he had his own mini-fable version of Atlas Shrugged that he told many times.