Table of Contents
AVAILABLE UP CLOSE TITLES:
RACHEL CARSON by Ellen Levine
JOHNNY CASH by Anne E. Neimark
W. E. B. DU BOIS by Tonya Bolden
ELLA FITZGERALD by Tanya Lee Stone
BILL GATES by Marc Aronson
JANE GOODALL by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen
ROBERT F. KENNEDY by Marc Aronson
THURGOOD MARSHALL by Chris Crowe
ELVIS PRESLEY by Wilborn Hampton
RONALD REAGAN by James Sutherland
JOHN STEINBECK by Milton Meltzer
OPRAH WINFREY by Ilene Cooper
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT by Jan Adkins
FUTURE UP CLOSE TITLES:
HARPER LEE by Kerry Madden
THEODORE ROOSEVELT by Michael Cooper
BABE RUTH by Wilborn Hampton
To my wife. If I had known when we met that you were going to make each day seem like a wonderful adventure where everything is possible, I would have asked you out even sooner. Thank you for everything.
FOREWORD
IM PRETTY SURE my parents thought there was something wrong with me when I was ten years old. I was not a normal kid.
Normal boys had posters of sports stars on the walls of their bedrooms. I had pictures of Americas fortieth president. Ronald Reagan was my hero.
When Reagan ran for reelection in 1984, I had my first taste of politics. I loved it. I subscribed to Time magazine so I could read about the campaign each week. (My parents didnt realize what I had done until the bill arrived.) I didnt have much of a grasp of the issues in the campaign, but I knew that Reagan made me feel proud to be an American. When he spoke about this country, he made it sound like a special place, an example to the world of what freedom meant. He was such an incredible communicator, who inspired you and made you feel like he was a friend. I called him Ronnie.
As I grew older, I kept following Ronnies every move. I started to gain an understanding of his beliefs and politics, his desire for a smaller government and a strong foreign policy. When I was fourteen, I was chosen to play the part of George H. W. Bush, Ronnies vice president, who was running to succeed him, in a mock debate at school. For an hour, I spoke about what I would do in office. I wore a tiny Ronnie doll clipped to my tie for good luck.
A year later, I traveled to the Soviet Union on a summer exchange program. If Ronnie was able to make peace with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, maybe the Soviets werent the strange, villainous people all of us growing up during the Cold War were taught to believe. A summer with Russian kids taught me that the world was a big place, but most people were friendly if you attempted to reach out to them and understand their point of view.
Later, my political views changed. I became pretty liberal for a while, then more moderate. Then I became a political reporter. People ask me if most political reporters are Republicans or Democrats, but I think most of us belong to the Skeptical Party. Were skeptical of all politicians.
But Reagan continued to fascinate me. He was an enigma. People close to him never really knew what he was thinking. On the surface he seemed like a simple man, but the truth is he was complicated. He had a difficult childhood but pursued his dreams until he was a movie star and then president. He was underestimated for most of his political career but found a way to succeed. What was his secret? Who was the real Reagan?
Top: Reagan leaving the Washington Hilton Hotel seconds before an assassination attempt.
Bottom: The scene immediately after the assassination attempt. James Brady and police officer Thomas Delahanty lie wounded on the ground.
INTRODUCTION
MONDAY, MARCH 30, 1981.
The president of the United States had been shot and was close to death, and all he could think to do was crack jokes.
At 2:25 P.M., Ronald Reagan had finished giving a speech at a union meeting at the Washington Hilton Hotel. The Republican president, in office for just two months, left the hotel by a side entrance, escorted by Secret Service. Just before he got to his car, a noise that sounded like firecrackers rang out. What the hells that? Reagan asked.
Suddenly, a Secret Service agent grabbed Reagan by the waist and threw him into the back of the limo, then jumped on top of him. Reagan felt a horrible pain in his back. Jerry, get off, I think youve broken one of my ribs, he gasped. Jerry Parr, the lead agent assigned to protect Reagan, yelled to the driver to take them to the White House. He got off Reagan, who sat up, coughed into his hand, and saw blood. You not only broke a rib, I think the rib punctured my lung, Reagan said. Parr yelled to the driver to take them to George Washington University Hospital, the nearest in the area.
Reagan was coughing up blood, soaking his handkerchief red. No matter how hard he tried to breathe, he couldnt get enough air. But as the car pulled up to the emergency room entrance, the president insisted on walking in. With great effort, he got out of the car, buttoned his jacket, and walked twenty feet. As soon as he got inside, he collapsed. Doctors and nurses crowded around him, loading him on a gurney, wheeling him to an empty room, and cutting off all his clothes. I cant breathe, Reagan said, and then he passed out.
Reagan continued to slip in and out of consciousness as the doctors tried to determine the extent of his injuries. A nurse noticed a small slit under the presidents left armpit. It was a bullet hole.
Reagans wife, Nancy, had arrived at the hospital ten minutes after he got there, but could not enter his room until his breathing stabilized. When she did, he opened his eyes, saw her, and said, Honey, I forgot to duck.
At 3:24 P.M., doctors wheeled Reagan into the operating room. The bullet was still inside him. As he was rolled by James Baker, his chief of staff, he winked at him. He passed his friend Senator Paul Laxalt and said, Dont worry about me. Ill make it.
Reagan was unconscious as the doctor widened the incision under his arm and inched a catheter in. After searching carefully, the doctor found the bullet. It had hit the limo, flattened like a dime, ricocheted off, and entered the presidents body. It hit one of his ribs and stopped less than an inch from his heart. One inch farther and he would have been dead.
He could have died regardlesseven after they removed the bullet, the doctors could not stop the bleeding. Reagan had already lost ten pints of blood. He was alive only because they were transfusing blood into him, and because Reagan was in great physical shape for a seventy-year-old man. They would need to operate again shortly, opening up his chest this time. While they were preparing, and before they administered more anesthetic, Reagan opened his eyes. I hope youre a Republican, he said to the doctor closest to him. The doctor responded, Mr. President, were all Republicans today.
