Legacy in america today. 1976 reagan on the campaign, he worked on the 1980 campaign, he worked in the white house, he worked on the 1984 campaign, and he has been the longtime chairman of the reagan ranch, which has been one of the three major vantage points in american politics today. There is the library in simi valley, the ranch in santa barbara, and eureka college. Frank, thank you for being here. Thene get right into it, the students will ask questions. Firstganized the very conservative Political Action conference in 1973. Frank 1974, right . Craig 1974. And reagan spoke as the keynote speaker, the star attraction. Frank first of all, thank you for having me. The great baseball player who used to play for the yankees, yogi berra, had a 10 seat to mangle his sin had a tendency to mangle his syntax. Readce was asked if he had a biography about himself. He said, why should i, i was there . We will be talking about things tonight where i was there. First Political Action conference was held in january of 1974, a lifetime ago. There was really a twofold idea behind this. The first was that the Nixon Administration was in all kinds of trouble at that time, being and all theatergate attendant problems. The first goal was to say that the conservative movement is allied with the Republican Party but not the same as the Republican Party. There Republican Party is a political vehicle and the conservative movement we always thought stood for ideas which had a home may be in the Republican Party. That therepoint was was this governor way out in california that was probably the most consistent conservative on the National Scene we had had, but a lot of people nationally did not know about him. Him aea was to give National Forum to introduced him to americans. Remember, this was way before talk radio and cable television. A big deal used to be getting an article about your candidate in the New York Times or washington post, then send it around to people. It was a much bigger job to get the word out. Those were the two main purposes. Craig how many people attended . Frank we put it together in about two months. It wasnt a bad attendance. I would say about several hundred attended. Theut ads in some of conservative newspapers, we did a lot of mailings to donors. The irony was that we did not really know who was going to show up because you did not have instant registration. People might have gotten it in the mail and said, i will go to that. The reagan banquet, which was the highlight of the conference and the most widely attended event, literally 200 people showed up that we did not expect to show up. We were kind of barricading them, holding them outside while the Program Director of the Mayflower Hotel was literally leading an effort to put up more tables. Literally putting up tables and trying to find silverware and so forth. They finally got in. But we had a very good crowd. Craig cpac is a lot different today. Frank now it is institutionalized and there are thousands people who have it on their calendar already for the next year. Craig how did you get involved in politics . Frank two things. One is that i was assigned i went to a Catholic Boys High School in pittsburgh and, believe it or not, i was assigned by our teacher to read the conscience of a conservative by barry goldwater. I came from a democratic family but i remember thinking, i believe in a lot of this stuff. In college, it was the high point of the campus uprisings, the new left and so on. It is an interesting statistic that the leadership of the new left was drawn primarily from upper wealthy families. One of thee in conservative organizations, Young Americans for freedom, and we came primarily from workingclass backgrounds. A lot of bluecollar. 19 76 you worked on the reagan campaign. Frank i did. I was the coyouth director. [laughter] frank i told you not to laugh. Craig he ran briefly in 1968 but even he denied that he ran briefly in 1968. Wasthe 1976 campaign monumental, important, and did change the Republican Party and the ark of reagans future. Frank it definitely did change all of that. It was a long shot because we were challenging and incumbent president. Craig which is very unusual in the Republican Party. The last time was 1912. Frank the other thing you have to remember, president ford, and modern, is thought of as a moderate republican. In the Republican Party in 1975 and 1976, he was conservative. He led the result against led the revolt against what he considered to be a moderate Republican Leadership 30 years before Newt Gingrich did the same thing. Craig when he first ran for congress, it was a primary challenge to a more moderate candidate and he ran to his right, i recall. That as i said, i think ford, if you want to talk about the old conservatism, which was balanced budget conservatism, he would have been a strong conservative. But once you got into talking about a broader panoply of issues, especially social issues and, most amazingly, Foreign Policy, jerry ford had been captured by Henry Kissinger and detente, so that created a big opening. I guess the point i would like to make as we go through this whenssion is that, i think we talk about instances in both the 1976 and 1980 campaign, there are many junctures where reagan is one step removed from disaster and if he falls off the ledge at any of those points, you probably never hear from him again. Said in theonce sports context, great teams arent always great, they are just great when they have to be. I would say, if you look at political record, and each point he faced a crisis, when he had to come up big, he did. Took a lot of times he his own destiny into himself, like the nashua debate, the carter debate. Frank i like to think he had a brilliant staff. Craig because you were on that staff. Frank of course. In point of fact, at these critical junctures, it was him. The race withinto much fanfare and proceeds to lose the first five primaries in a row. His staff is looking for a graceful way for him to withdraw without being humiliated. Reagan goes on National Television before the North Carolina primary and gives one of his patented speeches. The money in those days, 2 million was a lot of money, poured in. Soin, there is no internet, people actually had to take down the address, write a check, put it in the mail, and all that. After that speech, reagan goes wednesdayensive and and wins the North Carolina primary. It rejuvenates him. To that point, all the way through until he wins california decisively, jerry ford is kind of hanging on. Craig to your point about reagan at the precipice, if he loses North Carolina frank i would think that he would have agreed and probably would have withdrawn. And that would have been the end. There would have obviously been no future campaign. He doesnt win 1980, he becomes a footnote. Frank latest crazy person to challenge and incumbent president goes nowhere. Craig North Carolina changes everything. The American People see him now mortgage a more legitimately because he beats an incumbent president. Frank youve got to win. Winning builds credibility. It wasnt just the wind. It was how he won. He won this himself with one speech where he found his voice in Foreign Policy. Craig he started to reject the advice of his Campaign Manager and started going after issues that his Campaign Manager at the time did not want him to go after. Frank it was a Foreign Policy based campaign for the bulk of the campaign. It resonated not only with republican voters, but with a lot of democratic voters. Socially ors, maybe economically liberal, but on Foreign Policy, being tough on the russians, they were on the republican side more than the democratic side. We felt that we had a readymade coalition if we could get the nomination. From North Carolina on, he wins the vast majority of the primaries. He wins a lot of delegates. The only reason we wind up losing in the end is that we outran our supply lines. We had a very small staff and we literally could not put up delegate candidates in some key states. Ohio and new jersey. The last day of the primary campaign, reagan won california overwhelmingly. In those days, it was winner take all. Had like nine out of 88 delegates in ohio and similar in new jersey. In the fall, they all go to ford and he ends up with another with enough uncommitted delegates to win the nomination. Policyit was a foreign election but he threw in some other things. The Ford Administration was handing out federal largess. Sewer contracts, tree cutting contracts, anything they could do, and reagan was on the stump saying, whether they say hail to the chief or santa claus is coming to town. The panama canal treaty, we have not talked about that, but they played a Critical Role. It was still bubbling up as an issue in 1976 because the Ford Campaign was in negotiations with panama to transfer control. Reach full fruition until 1978 but it was starting to bubble up. Frank this was a very difficult time in american life. Especially in the Foreign Policy side. Lostse america had just its first war ever. We were humiliated. We got kicked out of vietnam. We lost the war in vietnam. Craig laos, cambodia. Frank the russians seemed to be on the march and the socalled third world. They had a tremendous presence in africa, for example, and as we later learned, in central america. On top of that, we kind of took a kid gloves approach to the soviet union, even when they imprisoned their own citizens in the gulags, like alexander solzhenitsyn. It seemed like no one was willing to speak up to how america had a Critical Role to play in trying to stem the advance of communism. Reagan spoke up. Craig reagan really, from the mutual containment and cooperation, he is the first one really to break with the bipartisan precedent of everyone Going Forward from truman right up until ford. The soviet union is a thing of permanence, the berlin wall is a thing of permanence. We have to find a way to coexist. He says, we will transcend them. This is terrifying to the establishment. Frank i think that becomes evident in the 1980 campaign. He was able to realize the scenario whereby the soviet union would not be permanent, where we could utilize a combination of diplomatic and especially economic pressure to force them into places where they could not go, because they could not compete with us economically. Therefore, reagan envisioned that, plus, i think, a strong ideological appeal to freedom. He always believed individuals, no matter where they were, wanted to be free and wanted the freedom that we have in the united states. That really resonated behind the socalled iron curtain with the satellites and so forth. Aaig if nixon can run for third cannot run for a third term in 1976, if he survives watergate, if agnew survives watergate, agnew almost certainly runs for the nomination in 1976. I think agnew would have beaten john connolly. Connolly was a lifetime democrat and newcomer to the Republican Party. Agnew runs absent watergate, does reagan challenge him . It is hypothetical. Frank i would say to you that it would depend on what kind of if he wouldew ran have broken, in important ways, and may be adopted some of the things that reagan strongly believed about Foreign Policy, i think there would have been a possibility he could have been coopted. Reagan was a practical man. To be not one that wanted on fools errands. At the 1975 cpac when there was so much pressure to form a third party, reagan was setadult in the room, he everybody down and said, the largest grouping of conservatives is in the Republican Party. Why should we try to start some new organization that we know nothing about . He was always a practical man. I think another thing he would have considered, with agnew running essentially a third term for nixon, would he have been a stronger candidate maybe then reagan would have been as an outside force . Reagan takes on ford, this is pretty monumental. There of the reason are a lot of policy differences, ente, Henry Kissinger, he social issues are just starting to energy independence. And the soviets and all of those other things. But also, there was a personal reagans and the fords did not get along with each other. Frank i think that is fair. I dont think reagan was ever overly personal. I think he grounded his opposition more on policy and on real differences even though he i think he sort of viewed ford as an accidental president. I think ford resented the fact that reagan didnt give him more efforts. He was the president. I think ford felt that he was the president now and he deserved support if reagan wanted to run next time, so be it. Craig but it did get back to reagan that they were jokes being made at his extent at his expense in the ford white house. And ford went to the gridiron speech and said, it is not true that Ronald Reagan dyes his hair, it is just turning prematurely orange. Misses reagan was upset about that. Frank a lot of that was generated by the people around ford. The one exception to that was dick cheney. I once asked cheney about this. He always got along well with Ronald Reagan. I said, i am a little surprised because you started your political life with gerald ford and yet, he and all of his he said, you have to understand that i was more conservative than ford. Obviously, i have sympathy for my boss. But it was not a problem for me when reagan became president or became the nominee, to support him. Interviewed cheney on my book on the 1976 campaign, he said the exact same thing. Because i he said, was a westerner like reagan and i understood what he was talking about as far as the populist resentment toward washington. I dont think Nelson Rockefeller never really got that. By theloses to ford narrowest of margins. This is the last openly it isted nomination and all being broadcast live. The convention hinged on a rule that required the delegates to vote the way their states had voted. We won and let the delegates vote their conscience, i think we had a chance. I was so despondent that night that i remember i walked out and just shook my head. We just blew the best chance we ever had to elected a conservative, thats how down everybody was, because he was soon to be the next governor of california. He was 65 years old which, in those days, was considered old. The idea of him running again in four years was certainly not viable. Frank craig all the newspaper columns and said, into the sunset you tried twice and failed twice. As low as ink i was ever recalled. Craig until he gives the incredible speech. To be ae had intended spectator at the convention. The delegates are the ones that started this, i think. Viva ole,reaming reagan battle cry. Craig the texas delegation would say viva and the california delegation would say ole. Frank we have got to unite the convention. Craig half support ford, half support reagan. Ford invites reagan up to say a few words. I think he was sincere, he won, it should be his night. Craig just prior, tom brokaw was in his skybox live on nbc and he says, governor, are you going to address the convention tonight, and reagan says no. The convention gets louder and louder, so he finally feels he has to Say Something. I think mike dever told me the story, he walks out of his box to walk down and Say Something and he turns and says, what do i say . He says, i dont know, you will think of something. Craig mike told me the same thing. Frank anyway, he gets up and it is like he had a five minute speech prepared. Are you going to show that . Craig yeah. Frank it is not totally extem p, because he had been working on an article that was going to say this same thing. He kind of talked about 50 years from now. The theme of the speech was, 50 years from now, they will know if we met the challenge here tonight because they will know if america was still free or not. Craig he talked about a letter in a time capsule. Frank you will still see that. Typically, so beautifully delivered. Reagan never raised his voice. He is one of the great writers of our time great orators of our time who never had to pound the table or shout. There was a little humor in it. It was just perfect. Unfortunately, the convention erupted. Craig which was embarrassing to ford. Frank in fairness, ford gave a good speech. It was one of the best speeches he ever made. It was a good speech. Him andagan challenged said, i have to step up here. Anyway, that kind of electrified everyone. Ford doesntg, if make it, or if he does, what about reagan in four years . Literally aou that week later, i got a personal note from reagan saying, thank you for everything you have done. I want to let you know, we are not going to just stand around, we will stay in the battle. That made me think, this is more than just a pat on the back letter. Then, i was still executive director of the Young Americans for freedom at the time and we invited to our convention, the next july of 1977. He accepted immediately. So, he is stil