Didnt know that at the time because the government didnt come around and tell us we were poor. And she was always finding someone worse off that we would help, and i would remember that about her. This kindness, and all at the same time, she could be firm like the time in an even smaller town where i was born, 800 people, and we lived across a little park from the railroad station. And in those days, the biggest Treat Wasnt the Ice Cream Wagon coming around. It was the Ice Wagon. And kids would get chips of ice from the Ice Man that was chipping the pieces out to put in the ice boxes along the way. And the Ice Wagon had pulled up over there, and my brother and i saw it. And he being the older took the lead and we started across the little park. But a train pulled in between us and the Ice Wagon. And my mother came out on the porch just in time to see us get down and crawl under the train to get to the other side. And we were barely through to the Ice Wagon when the train pulled out. She met us in the middle of that little park, and we felt a very firm hand, both of us, applied along about midway our backs. Did she teach you other things as well, like how to read and how to get on in life, about the values of life . Oh, yes. She was always talking about things like that, but making great sense with them. But with regard to the reading, i dont know that she was aware that she was teaching us, but when we were very young, and at that point, we lived in galesburg in a rented house there, my father was traveling around looking for better jobs. And she would read to my brother and me when we went to bed, she would get between us on the bed and read the bedtime story, but she always did it in holding the book and running her finger under the line she was reading. And the two of us were there, and we could watch and we could at the same time hear, of course. I dont know whether she was doing that deliberately, and i have no recollection of ever learning to read. But i was one night when i was 5 years old, i was lying on the Living Room Floor with a newspaper, and my father came in and he said, what are you doing . I said, reading the paper. And he thought i was being a smart alec, and he said, go ahead, read me something. And i did. And the next thing i knew, he was out on the front Porch Yelling for the neighbors. He brought the neighbors in and made me read for them because there was no kindergarten. I had never been anyplace but at home at that time, and a year away from starting regular school, but yes, i was reading the paper. You mother had very strong religious values as well. Yes. She believed in the power of prayer, for example. You believe in the power of prayer. Yes. Can you recall incidents in your life when you have prayed and god has answered your prayer . Almost in a specific way . Yes, i think i can. And i believe very much in what Abraham Lincoln said when he had this job. He said he couldnt perform the functions, the duties of this job for 15 minutes if he didnt know that he could call upon one who is wiser and stronger than all others. But in that connection, i think my mother, a lesson that was hammered over and over again, and as i grew up, i really began to realize, and that is when there was a great disappointment, something went wrong, she would say to us, look, just everything happens for a reason. And for the best. Now, she said you may feel bad about this right now, but down the road, something will happen good, and you will appreciate that look back and say if this, if that hadnt happened, that supposed bad thing, this good thing would not have happened. And i had a classic example in my growing up. I graduated from college in 1932. I was hitchhiking around. I set my mind on a career in the entertainment world, so i thought starting, if i could ever get in and be a Sports Announcer would be radio was pretty new in those days. And finally, i was disappointed. I had advice to just try to get a job in a station. Never mind what you wanted to do, and then take your chances on moving on from there. But i couldnt. And a very wise woman in a major station in chicago told me that i was going at it the wrong way. I shouldnt be trying for those big stations where they couldnt afford to hire inexperience. Go out there to the smaller stations. I hitchhiked home and arrived and was told that a Montgomery Ward Store had opened in dixon. And they had a sporting goods department. And they were looking for someone that was kind of well known in the town for his high school athletics there and so forth to head up that department. Well, i went down and applied. And i didnt get the job. A fella a couple years after me in high school had been quite a basketball sensation, he got the job. I was pretty disappointed. My father loaned me the car. I told him all the things i had been doing. A family car, and i drove 75 miles in my disappointment to the tricities, Rock Island and moline and davenport, iowa. There in a station in davenport, iowa, i met a program director, he still couldnt use me, and but where was i because they had just hired an announcer a few days before. I didnt tell him i didnt listen to his station, but on the way out, talking to myself, really, i said how do you ever get to be a Sports Announcer if you cant get a job in a Radio Station, and when im down the hall and pretty soon i hear a clumping. He was very badly crippled with arthritis and had two canes. And he was yelling out, you big soandso, wait. And he caught up with me, the Elevator Wasnt there yet. And he said, what was that you said about sports . And i said, thats what i would like to be. He said, you know anything about football . I said i played it for eight years. He said, could you tell me about a Football Game and if i was at home listening to the radio, make me see it . I said i think so. He took me to the studio, stood me in front of a microphone and said, now, when the red lights goes on, ill be in another room listening. You start broadcasting an imagination Football Game. I stood there waiting for the light, and i knew i had to have names and i remembered the year, the previous fall, my senior year, playing in a game in eureka when we went 65 yards on the last play for the winning touchdown. And it was the last play of the game. And i knew all our players names and enough of the opponents names so i started in the fourth quarter. And i had the long blue shadow settling over the field and the wind coming in through the end of the stadium. We didnt have a stadium, we had bleachers. Then i ran a few plays and finally i came up to the big play, and i had this, and did the big play and made the touchdown with only 20 seconds to go and so forth, and then i grabbed the microphone and said thats all. He came in and said be here saturday. Ill give you 5 and car fare. You are broadcasting the Iowa Minnesota Game for us. Do you think if Montgomery Ward had hired you for the Sports Department . I might still be there. And not president of the United States. Well, all the things in between that resulted in this wouldnt have happened. You and i come from similar roots. I grew up in a small town in the midwest as well, and life has changed for both of us, obviously. On many of the grand occasions that i have been privileged to be a part of, i have often thought back to my roots to particular friends or incidents in my life and wondered what they were like. Does that happen to you . When youre at a State Dinner or at the kremlin or when youre presiding at some ceremony, for example, in normandy, does dixon flash through your mind in those days . There are things. I think it takes reminders, so far removed from that way of life and this one, but there are reminders every once in a while, just like this one at length that i gave you that you will think back and say, hey, this maybe had a beginning there. You went from dixon to Eureka College and studied economics among other things. You reminded your advisers from time to time. What do you remember from your economics courses that have helped you in dealing with the national economy . Well, i majored in economics and sociology. They were combined so it was a singer major. But then, you were really studying at a time when life was in the raw. This was the depths of the depression. We had a professor, wonderful old daddy gray, and he used to give us outside reading. Books by economists to read, and then we would come in with a Book Report and so forth and discuss it. I can remember him. He had a sense of humor also. There we were in the depths of the depression, a book by a noted economist, and when we would finish reporting and everything, just as the class was concluding, he would say, its interesting to note that the author of this book five weeks before the crash said he saw no reason why stocks should not continue to rise indefinitely. Well, that set you a little straight. Did it make you suspicious of economists forever more after it . Well, no, but the thing, as i say, at that time, you were really studying in a classic example of economics. And what was going to happen. This was prior to the election of fdr. And all of the recessions we have had since, no one who didnt go through the through the depression can ever visualize what it was like, 26 unemployment nationwide. The government going on radio with announcements, dont leave home looking for a job. There are none. Well, there were no government programs at that time to take care of the people that suddenly were just destitute. My father from managing a Shoe Store with a kind of Work Partnership and the ownership was out, the Shoe Store was gone. And this was happening in little towns like dixon as well as in the great cities. The national guard in illinois was mobilized and sent to parade in chicago, simply because there were so many people living in doorways and the streets by that time, in the streets just off michigan boulevard, that there was real concern about rioting and so forth. And they just did that as a show of strength. There are still people in this country now who are homeless who are still struggling economically and so on, and for some of them, its a kind of continuation of the depression. Is there a parallel between whats going on for some families in this country now and what happened then . There may be some because there are a few spots in the country where due to a change in industry and so forth, the principle industries in those communities are gone. And its a case of either move or bring a new industry into the community and so forth, so there are a few trouble spots, but basically, as you know, 19 million new jobs have been created, and the largest percentage of those has gone to the people most in need. And they are better jobs than ever before. And over 90 of them are fulltime, not parttime jobs. So it isnt a situation comparable to that. And i think that you have to recognize that some of the people in the street have chosen that because right here in washington, shelters, both private and public, that have been opened for those people have space in them, and people that can go there and prefer to be out there on the streets and so forth. And whatever their reason is, just remember that recently in new york, a young lady took a case to court to force them under her constitutional right to let her go back and live in that Cardboard Box out on the street. Let me ask you about your hollywood career. You went from a good job in des moines, iowa, as a Radio Broadcaster in the height of the depression to hollywood where you were making 200 a week at a Contract Player at warner brothers. Did you begin to think, gee, maybe theres a lucky star hovering over Ronald Reagan, that luck is going to be a part of your life. Whether i call it luck or an answer to prayers, i realized that i was very blessed. And thats why i thought that also and for those blessings, i kind of i ought to pay my way by doing whatever i could in return for others. Were all starstruck in this society a little bit. When you arrive in hollywood, who were the big stars you remember seeing that really made an impression on you . Oh, this was in the wonderful era of hollywood that exists no more. The era when the seven major studios all had their list of Contract Players and stars, their directors were under contract, the producers and writers. It was like a family in the studio. And at warner brothers, there was Jimmy Cagney and pat obrien and Betty Davis and Wayne Morris had just become a young new star there. And Dick Powell and jack carson. You can go along with the with the trying to think of them all at the same time, but you would eat at the commissary at lunch and they were all around you and be at the same table with you. It was a wonderful time. But also, you were made to realize you were under contract now. They took me in and sat me down, and it was if i couldnt hear because they were all talking about me in front of me, and they were trying to decide on a name for me. I had always used my kid nickname, dutch, as a Sports Announcer, dutch reagan. And they were talking and talking. And finally, i was getting a little uncomfortable, and finally i said to them, because that was a pretty big Radio Station by then. I said, look, you know, my name is rather well known in a large section of the country. Do you think we just toss it off . He said dutch reagan . And i said, well, my real name is Ronald Reagan. I had never used the ronald. I liked dutch better. And he said ronald. Ronald reagan. Hey, thats not bad. I got to keep my own name, Ronald Reagan. Who are the actresses you liked playing with in those days . Starring with in films that you remember. Oh, my goodness, the lane sisters had just come on big in pictures. Priscilla lane, i was in a picture with Betty Davis and it was a wonderful experience. Such a great actress. And jane bryant. Oh, good lord. Im forgetting some of the names. How about Ann Sheridan . Oh, yes. Pictures with Ann Sheridan. She was a great gal. Just wonderful. You watch films, i know, now. You know who the contemporary film stars are. Its very possible that theyre going to make a story of Ronald Reagan. If you could cast that story of Ronald Reagan, who would you like to play the part of you . I would rather they didnt make the story. If i cant play it, i dont know that i want to recommend anyone else. Do you like current film stars . Do you have some favorites among the current crop of stars . I tell you, the lack of continued publicity as we had when the fan magazines existed and everything, and each studio had a Publicity Department with men that were assigned to a group of performers there to see that their names were constantly before the public, that doesnt exist anymore. I find a great difficulty in remembering the names. Ill see a face on the screen and say, oh, yeah, i remember. I saw them in another picture, but the names just dont linger. You recently talked in your Farewell Address to the nation about films that had strong moral values and celebrated american patriotism. What are some of those films that you remember that did that . Oh, my. Well, if you remember, constantly there were movies that were made, cant remember titles, but movies that were made, say, about West Point or annapolis, and movies of that kind that the plot took place in the story with regard to cadets that were there in those schools. And then there were, of course, the service pictures. And when the wars came, war pictures that were built and based on patriotism and so forth and were pretty factual in their portrayal of those times. Yes, i think there was a great thought in hollywood to make pictures that tied in to the things that people understood and knew. Mr. President , you also said in that Farewell Speech that you directed american children to sit down with their parents and talk about what america stands for. And what there is to celebrate in this country. If you could lead that kind of a discussion at a dinner table, who would be the people in your lifetime that you would put forward as patriots, the kind of model americans who would serve to inspire coming generations . Oh, i think there are any number. You could start with people who go abroad or go up into space in the shuttle. But you could come back to the heroes of our time. But i think also, its more general than that. That i remember as a little kid, you knew that when the flag went by, you were to stand up and put your hand on your heart. You knew you were to stand and sing the national anthem. And you learned to recite the pledge of allegiance. And you also, history was required. And therefore, you knew the beginnings of this country. And you knew the names of the great patriots and who George Washington was, but all the others. And i dont think thats true today. So often, well, and i wont name the university, dont want to embarrass anyone, but when not too long ago, third year students, juniors in one of our large universities couldnt tell anyone which side in World War ii hitler was on. Now, is there anything wrong with thinking that history, not with regard to whether its going to help you make a Living Or Anything of that kind, but that everyone should know the background and the history of their country . How it came to be, and thus what our citizens responsibilities are. Isnt it a little shameful that in this country, which had to fight for the independence of we the people, is now smaller and smaller growing the number of people who bother to vote. How does anyone have the nerve to complain about any level of government if they didnt go to the polls . Will rogers once said that people elected to public office are no better and no worse than the people who send them there. But theyre all better than those who dont vote at all. Mr. President , you have had such an extraordinary life. Starting as i say from that small town in dixon, illinois, when you were coming of age. Working Class Family there. You have risen to these great heights of being president of the United States. You leave office with the goodwill of the american people behind you. Whats the difference between being in this kind of a position, a member of the haves, i suppose, is the best way to describe it in american life, and the earlier days of your life when you were a member of the have nots . Well, again, as i say, i recognize that for whatever reason i had been blessed. And never a day goes by that i dont say a thanks for that blessing. And also, i ask that i be given the wisdom to do something to show my thanks for that, that blessing. Im going to just pause here for a minute. There are a couple things we havent been able to get to that i would like to get back to the anecdotal stuff. Five more minutes. If we could just agree on that. Well be all right. Okay. Mr. President , you had a very strong relationship with someone named Margaret Cleaver. Yes. You were all but engaged to her. Was engaged. I hung my Fraternity Pin on her. You talked about your future together probably. Well, yes. She was the daughter of the minister of my church. And i know that she was going to Eureka College, and it was really i made the decision then to go there. I had already made that when i was much younger. My biggest hero happened to be the son of the then minister of the church, and he was a great high school football star. And as a kid, i saw him and thought he was great, and he went to eureka and played football there. He later for a time, i think, was the chaplain at yale university. But yes. We went together in high school. Eureka college, before we got out of college, i dont know whether it still exists today, but yes, engagement. You buy rings, you put your Fraternity Pin on each other. How did you think your life together would take shape . What were you hopes when you were going with Margaret Cleaver . I knew from my own background and so forth, i knew i had to achieve a certain level of income before i could contemplate marriage. But i think thats the thing that our romance didnt survive. She became a school teacher, and i was way over in iowa there as a Sports Announcer. And a long separation. There wasnt a chance or a possibility of visiting each other frequently. And then one day, i received a notice that she was engaged and marrying someone else. She broke it off, you didnt break it off . No. And a former teacher in high school of mine, one that kind of teacher that every student has that you remember throughout your life, he wrote me a letter. He had also seen what had happened, and he wrote me a letter telling me how i was to react and that i wasnt to do any foolish things like going off the deep end or anything. And i remembered him, but again, it must have been one of those things that the disappointment that now you look back on and say, well, if that had happened, what i have now might not have happened. Theres a celebrating story at your years of Eureka College about one of your College Football teammates, william burkeheart, a black member of the team, and he couldnt get into the hotel, so you took him to your home where he was immediately put up with another black teammate. People who look at that story say, well, Ronald Reagan seemed to be more sensitive about those kinds of things then than he has been as the president of the United States and maybe its because he bumped up against them in a firsthand way back in eureka. That whole thing has been the hardest burden i think of all that i have borne here, is that idea that i am not sensitive and somehow i am discriminating and so forth. And it is not true. That household i was raised in, my mother and father, the thing my brother and i grew up knowing was that there was no greater sin than prejudice or discrimination, and this was back in the days when there was discrimination generally. And in Eureka College, yes, what happened was that we had to stay overnight in our hometown on the way, the Bus Load of players on the way to a saturday game. And i took the coach in, introduced him to the manager of the hotel, and he said that he would take everybody but those two. Well, our coach, mack, he said well, well sleep in the bus. And he turned, because the man said also that no other hotel would either. There werent many hotels in that little town. We started out, and i told mack, i said we cant do that. I said, theyll know what the reason is and be embarrassed. He said what can we do . When he had told me that i couldnt stay at home even though i had a home there. And i said, well, why dont we just say there isnt enough room for everybody . And you put me and the two fellas in a cab and well go home. And even then, he, feeling as upset as he did, he said, are you sure you want to do that . I said yes. I knew my home. No chance to call or anything. Went home, rang the Door Bell and nelly came to the door. My brother and i decided to call my parents by the first name after we got to a certain age. I said, nelly, there isnt enough room in the hotel for all of us. Can we put up here . Of course you can put up here. And we came. And that wasnt unusual for the way i was raised or brought up at all. And i still feel the same way. As governor of california, i appointed more blacks to Executive And Policy making positions than all the previous governors of california put together. Im going to ask you about your family because it was such an important part of your early childhood. You didnt have a lot of money in that family. Your father, as you have written in your own book, drank too much. He wasnt able to hold a job in a lot of different places, yet you always stayed together as a family. Even though there are big differences between you and your brother, moon, for example, about how you see life and how you conduct yourselves. And here you are, the president of the United States, your financial future is secure. You have a very good marriage. But within your own family now, there are these strains. Michael has written a book that that been critical of the way the family has been conducted, patty and mrs. Reagan are not talking. Is that just an affliction of modern life . Is that how we have changed in this country . It might be. Patty now, we feel, and we havent given up. But patty came up at that age when all the rioting was going on on the campuses. And if i went near one, they would burn me in effigy, but the rest of the family is united, and the book by mike, if you read it, its a very unusual book. Mike was adopted. And this was a book about this. And so the first part of the book is his attitude, which hes now confessing to, but the last part of the book, its almost as if its by a different human being. Nancy was the one who told him how to find his real mother when he wanted to. And she was dead, but he finally has a brother. And so the last part of it, and were as close as could possibly be. And he is i would recommend that book to anyone with adopted children. He was writing of the resentment that was within him about his situation, and its a fascinating book. Mr. President , youre about to go off into retirement. Richard Nixon Studies international affairs these days. Gerald ford works on his commission for the new presidency and plays a lot of golf and does a lot of speaking. Jimmy carter pursues his interest in the Carter Library and in terms of the middle east and the problems of the inner cities. I will not back out on the mashed potato circuit. Im trying to arouse the public to demand some changes which it is their right to demand. The Line Item Veto for the president , the balanced Budget Amendment that most of the states have, but the federal government doesnt have. Thomas jefferson called attention to that. And there are things that, well, for example, the 22nd Amendment that was passed by our own party here as revenge for roosevelt that says that two terms is the limit for a president. This is the only office thats elected by all the people. I think that is an inflinjment on the democratic rights of the people. And now that im out of office so that they cant accuse me of wanting to do it for myself, im going to see if i cant mobilize the people to demand the repeal of that amendment. It is an invasion of their democratic rights to vote for whoever they want to vote for and for however long. So well see a lot of Ronald Reagan speaking around the country . Yeah. If you look. Mr. President , as you look back on this extraordinary life that you have had, covering most of the 20th century in america, going from dixon, illinois, to the heights of power, president of the United States. Whats the one thing that really sticks out in your mind about made the difference for you, made it possible . Well, i think maybe the teaching that i had and the faith that i had in prayer. And incidentally, were leaving out a lot of hometowns and when you mentioned my fathers drinking, let me point out, he was an alcoholic. Yes, our family stayed together because my mother took the two of us aside, my brother and myself, and said youll see things, and sometimes your father, but you must not turn against him. He has a sickness. And its a sickness that we must try to help him with. It wasnt a case of just, you know, a lush coming home. I have seen him go two or three years without a drink. But he was in the classic sense an alcoholic. And once that first drop went down, thats the thing with an alcoholic. Theyre no different than anyone else until they take that first drink. And then, it would be a bender all the way to where he would be flat on his back and you called the doctor. Tidthat make you conscious of your own drinking habits . Yes. Yes, i think so. I have never felt any thing of that kind because it is an illness. And i can remember very much that, you know, Medicine Cant explain it yet. Some want to look for a psychopathic or psychologic reason. Others look for physical. There has been one about shortage of sugar. I know when in all the periods of soberness, my father was the biggest Dessert Eater i ever saw. And in fact, he wasnt above he did it good naturedly, he would say whats out the window . If i would look out or my brother, he would take a spoonful of our dessert. Was that the key, the Family Strength you had when you look back over the last 50 years of your life . Yes, there was never a hint in our family that there could ever be a dissolution of the family. As a matter of fact, we were even split religiously. My father was a catholic and my mother was a protestant, but if we were to get any religion, it was to come from her because for a period there, i think he gave up going to church for lent. But toward the end of his life, he went back. He was in the church. And no, and hometowns, starting with tampico and then chicago, and then galesburg, and then monmouth, illinois, then back to tampico, and then to dixon. And it was about eight or nine that i went years old that i went to dixon. Thank you, tom. Thank you, mr. President. Population of china in 1949 when the communists took control was 540 million people. During the 72 years, the prc has had five principal leaders, mao, deng, jiang, hu, and since 2012, the current head of state, xi jinping. George Washington University Professor David Shambaugh has written close to 30 books devoted to the subject of asia. We talk with the professor about his newest Book Titled Chinas leaders from mao to now. Listen to booknotes plus at cspan. Org podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. In the fall of 1964, Ronald Reagan entered the national political stage with his, a time for choosing speech in support of republican president ial nominee barry goldwater. In 1966, he ran and won his campaign for california governor. Next on reel america, Ronald Reagans critique of president Lyndon Johnsons policies in this speech called the mithd o