Words To Live By Podcast

‘Tis the season of wearin’ the green which means St. Patrick’s day and we just can’t be true representatives of President Reagan’s “Words To Live By” if we don’t celebrate some of his colorful thoughts on this, one of his beloved holidays. Going through our archives, I noticed the wonderful toasts given on various Irish occasions: things like when he would say, “…in the words of our forefathers, may the sun shine warm upon your face, the wind be always at your back, and may God hold you in the hollow of His hand.” Plus of course, he included plenty of jokes about the Irish…as only he could.

Let’s review a bit: recall when Jimmy Carter became President in the late 70s, believing the Soviets were not a threat, he cancelled the B1 Bomber Program and significantly reduced the American defense budget. What that did was to essentially force the US to accept nuclear parity with the Soviet Union. And yes, there was the SALT I Treaty which recognized the Soviet Union as equal in every respect. SALT II was never ratified by Congress; without ratification, both countries, the US and the Soviet Union were still supposed to hold to the terms. Of course, the Soviets ignored them. They invaded Afghanistan and deployed 200 SS20 missiles in East Germany, causing Europe to beg for help. Chancellor of West Germany Helmut Schmidt was frantic because the SS20 was a new kind of missile. All of Europe was within its range which was about 2300 kilometers. The missile had three warheads and it was mobile so it could easily be moved around wherever the Soviets needed. But the president had a better idea, a defensive weap

I’ve got a question for you today: what do George Balanchine, Paul “Bear” Bryant and Buckminster Fuller, and Clair Booth Luce have in common? The answer is they were awarded, along with 8 others, the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Ronald Reagan in February 1983. This honor is not to be confused with the Kennedy Center Honors which focuses only on the arts. So what’s special about it? Well, the Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, along with the Congressional Gold Medal which is, obviously, awarded by Congress. So now…let’s dive in and listen!

CPAC…do you remember what it stands for? It’s an acronym for the Conservative Political Action Conference, kind of a Woodstock for movement conservatives. Always the headliner, Ronald Reagan appeared in January 1974 as Governor of California in CPAC’s inaugural year. To put it in perspective, that’s just a few months before a Richard Nixon would resign in fear of impeachment. That year, in 1974, CPAC attendees heard California Gov. Reagan urge them to remain united, as the Founding Fathers had, and that America’s responsibility as a world leader had been blessed by God. To be honest, this is a consistent theme throughout all his speeches, and today, we’ll focus on 1983.

Everyone loves a good love story, and presidential love stories are no exception. Since we are in the season of Valentine’s Day, the theme of our podcast is the love story between Ronald and Nancy Reagan, specifically his expressive and loving correspondence which began in the 1950 and continued throughout their marriage. Our archives hold an abundance of letters, telegrams and cards from Ronald Reagan to his beloved wife, and a few cards from her. Because, for holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries, he believed that the best gift he could give her was his heartfelt expression of love and appreciation.

So today, let’s talk about cars, Chrysler, Reagan and…a looming recession. 40 years ago this week, President Reagan addressed the Chrysler plant in beautiful downtown Fenton, Missouri to stoke the fires of recovery and encourage the employees to stay the course. Recall that President-elect Ronald Reagan endorsed the government bailout of Chrysler during the campaign, reversing his initial position, but really never changed his fundamental belief that automakers should stand on their own without government backing. Let’s listen to the President in February 1983 when the economy was just starting to turn around. His hosts were Lee Iacocca, Senator Danforth and Governor Kit Bond.

At the time of this writing, the date for President Biden’s 2023 State of the Union address has not been announced, only a general time frame that it will likely be delivered in February or March. In 1983, President Reagan’s State of the Union Address was given on January 25, 1983, at 9:00 p.m. EST, in the chamber of the United States House of Representatives to the 98th United States Congress. So today we’re going back 40 years to 1983. We’ll just listen to a few sections since this is quite a lengthy address. The thing to remember here is that the President has been in office for two years, so he has had a chance to begin rebuilding the military, start establishing ground rules in dealing with the Soviets, and finally, developing policies to strengthen the economy and just beginning to see growth.

In January 1983, 40 years ago, the President began his third year in office, working desperately to improve the economy while determined to convince the American people that the best was yet ahead. As a true leader, he met with his Executive team, exactly two years after his inauguration, to introduce two new cabinet members and to rally his executive squad to keep pushing the ball up the hill. His remarks are funny, inspiring, engaging and a perfect start to working with a brilliant team of individuals. We thought you’d like a taste of our 40th president’s leadership style in this new year: his vision, communication and optimism. You’ll hear him announce that Elizabeth Dole would replace Drew Lewis as Secretary of Transportation and Margaret Heckler would replace Richard Schweiker as Secretary of Health and Human services.

President Reagan’s courage as a leader, skill as a diplomat, and his willingness to confront communism around the world played a major role in ending the domination of the Soviet Union. He developed and applied with constant purpose a strategy not simply to contain communism, but to end it, and he achieved this goal across much of the globe. Ronald Reagan entered the White House determined to restore the strength of the U.S. military. He insisted on military might not for its own sake, but to discourage threats to American interests, defend freedom around the world, and bring the Soviet Union to the bargaining table. So in January 1983, 40 years ago this month, he faced the press, holding a news conference to clarify his position on Strategic Arms Reduction. In this podcast, we’ll focus on his resolve to clearly define, in his words, what his intentions were. To provide context, the leader of the Soviet Union at the time was Yuri Andropov…Gorbachev would not enter the scene for over two years. Also, this News

Today, we’re being instructed to call them undocumented but most of us still refer to those in this country illegally as…illegals. In the heated debate over immigration reform — despite the politicians and our current president choose to ignore the serious problems, the question that might be asked is “What would Ronald Reagan do?”

In November 2022, state department officials went to great lengths to prevent a meeting at the G20 summit between Biden and Putin. They knew that at some point, the two leaders would cross paths, but US officials ruled out a formal meeting and took steps to ensure that the American president does not encounter his Russian counterpart in a hallway or even in a group photo. Why? Well, the answer is that President Biden thinks Putin is a killer, a war criminal and, you don’t usually meet with killers and war criminals. Both of Biden’s immediate predecessors — Barack Obama and Donald Trump — crafted foreign policies that involved direct engagement with traditionally adversarial leaders; Obama as a matter of bridging difficult diplomatic divides, Trump as part creating personal and political alliances. Biden has had less engagement abroad. And today, Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine is TIME’s man of the year and awarded such an honor for standing up to the Soviet Union. With that in mind…just how did Ronald Reagan h

On January 1, 1985, President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev addressed each other’s people in an unprecedented exchange of televised New Year’s greetings. Remember that in March 1985, Gorbachev came into office, after the death of former Soviet leader Chernenko and after his very long illness. Knowing the voracity of the Cold War makes this exchange even more meaningful. The four major American networks, ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN carried the leaders five minute speeches at 1pm EST. Even more remarkable, Soviet television agreed to broadcast Reagan’s message to the Soviet people simultaneously, or at 9pm Moscow time: prime time in the Soviet Union.

President Reagan, a man of devout faith, loved Christmas deeply. And he chose to share his feelings about the holiday in many different ways over his eight years in office. So today in our podcast, rather than focusing on one single address or message, we’ll take an overview of the President’s eight years in office to look at eight mighty ways to express his joy during the holiday season.

In November 1981, President Reagan delivered what he considered to be the most important foreign policy speech of his administration. Before the members of the National Press Club, he called for a number of things: the elimination of all intermediate range nuclear force weapons – known as the zero zero option – and, he called for a meeting with the Soviet Union (then Brezhnev) to negotiate new reductions in their mutual stockpiles of long range strategic nuclear weapons. But just weeks before this speech he had given final approval to blueprints for a multibillion dollar modernization of our strategic forces to build 100 B-1B bombers to replace our deteriorating fleet of B-52 bombers, to deploy new trident nuclear submarines, to develop the stealth bomber, and to build 100 new intercontinental range missiles known as…the MX Peacekeeper.

Every December, Americans celebrate their memorable cultural icons when the Kennedy Center bestows its annual honors to those in the performing arts for their lifetime contributions. Since 1978, the Honors have been presented annually each December to five honorees followed by a gala celebration. The original strategy was that these unique individuals were people who have contributed to society, not someone who happens to have a pop record hit at the moment. The intention was not to do just another award show. Do you recall the first host? It was Leonard Bernstein in 1978. And the White House got involved by inviting the Honorees first to the White House for an initial presentation by the President. For 2022, who are the Honorees? Well, George Clooney, Amy Grant, Gladys Knight, Tania Leon and U2. In this podcast, we’ll focus on two ceremonies held at the White House. The first, 40 years ago in 1982 honored George Abbott, Eugene Ormandy, Lillian Gish, Benny Goodman, and Gene Kelly. Then, in the second half of

As this podcasts airs, the 2022 November election results have been in the books for 3 weeks. At least most of the results are in the books. As the contentious debates continue, let’s go back over 40 years to some of Ronald Reagan’s thoughts expressed in his radio addresses on…voting – and on another issue – the possibilities of voter fraud with postcard registration.

Thanksgiving is just a few days away, a time when we take stock of our many blessings and take an extra moment to let our loved ones know our deepest feelings of appreciation. As you recall, President Reagan was a deeply grateful man, who told the American people in his first Thanksgiving proclamation, that, “America has much for which to be thankful. The unequaled freedom enjoyed by our citizens has provided a harvest of plenty to this Nation throughout its history. In keeping with America's heritage, one day each year is set aside for giving thanks to God for all of His blessings.” Another example of his commitment to gratitude occurred when the hostages held in Iran for 444 days were freed in January 1981, President Reagan created a special national day of Thanksgiving to honor their sacrifice and safe return.

On November 10, 1982 – 40 years ago – the leader of the Soviet Union, Leonid Brezhnev, died. Immediately after his passing, Yuri Andropov succeeded him as General Secretary. But our subject today is Brezhnev and the hauntingly similar ways both Brezhnev and Putin have ruled.

In today’s podcast, we’ll focus on a wonderful interview conducted by Tom Brokaw just 3 days before the President left office. This is not a gotcha interview or a hard-hitting challenge to the president – rather, Brokaw decided to focus on personal issues. You’ll hear the President reflect on his mother’s religious beliefs, his father’s alcoholism, careers in radio, acting, and politics, and reflections on his eight years as president. As for Brokaw, he was a longtime news anchor and senior correspondent who spent his entire career with NBC news. Beginning the Los Angeles Bureau where he covered Ronald Reagan’s first run for public office, he moved to the nation’s capital in 1973. Ultimately after 55 years with NBC news he retired at the age of 80.

It’s election season which begs the question – why did Ronald Reagan enter politics? What in his life experiences formed the foundation of a fine communicator and a man of great ideas? In this podcast, we’ll go back to his childhood, his collegiate years, and those following which led to his development as a political animal. Yes, he always said, he was an actor, not a politician, but once elected Governor of California, he became a card-carrying member of that elite club known as…politicians.