Adrian Lee is a solicitor-advocate in London, specialising in criminal defence, and was twice a Conservative parliamentary candidate.
On 5th June 2004, Ronald Wilson Reagan, former lifeguard, sports commentator, Hollywood star, Screen Actors’ Guild President, television presenter, Governor of California, and the fortieth President of the United States, died aged 93. Reagan’s death at 668 St. Cloud Road, Bel-Air, his Los Angeles home, had been anticipated since 1994, following his Alzheimer’s Disease diagnosis.
On 7th June, his casket was transported by hearse to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. Approximately 108,000 Californians passed before him at the library. Two days later, it was flown to Washington D.C. so that the former President could lay in state under the Capitol dome.
For the next 34 hours, another 104,684 well-wishers filed past all day and night. It was estimated that they passed at a rate of 5,000 per hour. Americans are usually highly respectful to former Presidents in death, but the scale of public grief was unusual. The events of early June 2004 more closely resembled Winston Churchill’s funeral in January 1965.
The state funeral service was held at Washington National Cathedral on the morning of 11th June, a day declared as one of national mourning by George W. Bush, the then President. Four previous U.S. Presidents (Ford, Carter, Bush Snr, and Clinton) and their wives attended, along with 4,000 others.
Of this total, over forty were past and present heads of state and government from 167 nations. These included Mikhail Gorbachev, Margaret Thatcher, and Lech Walesa, the leading protagonists of the late Cold War. The then Prince of Wales represented the Royal Family.
Reagan’s funeral was the largest in the United States since that of John F. Kennedy. Twenty-four-hour news channels across the world (including all of those in Britain and Europe) suspended their scheduled programmes for continuous coverage of events in Washington and California.
Margaret Thatcher delivered the first eulogy. Due to her suffering a series of strokes, it was felt appropriate to pre-record her comments and broadcast them throughout the Cathedral on television screens. Despite her increasing frailty, she finished with a flourish:
“We have lost a great president, a great American, and a great man, and I have lost a dear friend.”
The second eulogy was given by George H.W. Bush, who had served as Reagan’s Vice-President. Bush had been defeated by Reagan for the Presidential nomination in the primaries in 1980. George Bush, along with his supporters Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, represented the Republican Establishment in that contest. Reagan was the candidate of the Right, arguing against Détente and for a radical tax-cutting agenda.
Bush was aware that if Reagan had not picked him as his running mate, his political career could have ended. He was also aware that Reagan’s advisors were opposed to him being on the ticket. He recounted that not only did Reagan choose him, but he also made him a member of his Cabinet and consulted him on key decisions.
Reading the eulogy, Bush’s remarks are reminiscent of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s account of the development of Lincoln’s administration in her study Team of Rivals: The Political Genuis of Abraham Lincoln, which would be published in 2005. Like Lincoln, Reagan had initially been underestimated by his more worldly colleagues, but in both cases, they had come to revere their Commander-in-Chief.
Towards the end of his eulogy, Bush became emotional and at one point, almost broke down in tears. They had become close friends during their eight years in government together.
The third and final eulogy was delivered by the then President, George W. Bush. He stated:
“Ronald Reagan belongs to the ages now, but we preferred it when he belonged to us. In his later years he saw through a glass darkly. Now he sees his Saviour face to face. And we look for that fine day when we will see him again, all weariness gone, clear of mind, strong and sure and smiling again, and the sorrow of this parting gone forever.”
So far, the funeral had been impressive, but it had followed the course of previous similar occasions. The noticeable change came when the casket was conveyed in a cortege of vehicles to Andrews Air Force Base. The remains of the former President were to be interned in California and close family and friends would fly with the casket. As the cortege passed through the streets of central D.C. the crowds of mourners were several rows deep, more than anticipated.
However, the full extent of the nation’s sorrow only became apparent when the cortege joined the freeway. Spontaneously and without precedent, motorists travelling in neighbouring lanes stopped their cars and trucks, exited their vehicles, and stood with heads bowed as their former President passed by. In a country as busy as the U.S.A. such behaviour was normally unthinkable.
The same pattern of events occurred five hours later when the motorcade passed through the streets of southern California. The degree of reverence closely resembled that given to a British monarch.
A second service was held at the graveside. Seven hundred invited guest attended, these included members of Reagan’s Cabinet, Hollywood stars, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Governor of California. Margaret Thatcher also attended and stood next to Reagan’s widow, Nancy, closely giving her support.
The casket was lowered into the vault just as the sun was setting on the horizon. A horseshoe-shaped monument enveloped the gravesite and inscribed in the marble was a quote by Ronald Reagan in 1991, following the collapse of Communism:
“I know in my heart that man is good, that what is right will always eventually triumph, and there is purpose and worth to each and every life.”
Did Ronald Reagan really warrant this level of affection? Wasn’t this the same person who, when in office, the English-speaking media had denounced as either a simpleton or an irresponsible Right-wing warmonger? What had changed?
Firstly, there was the success of his foreign policy. By pursuing a completely original strategy regarding the USSR, he had succeeded in bringing about positive change. Whereas his predecessors had immediately rushed to the negotiating table, Reagan bided his time, rebuilt America’s military machine, strengthened existing alliances, and forged new ones.
In contrast to Trump, he did not favour détente with the slave masters of the people living in captive nations. Neither did he admire the supposed strength of the dictators, believing that greater strength was exhibited by those who had to endure their rule.
Reagan realised that his opponent could not be trusted, and he only chose to negotiate from a position of strength. He made it clear to the USSR that they had no chance of beating America and her allies. Because of their superior market economies, the West outgunned Russia in terms of both money and technology.
Faced with this challenge, the communist bloc collapsed and Reagan was responsible for liberating 100 million people in Central and Eastern Europe. He had won his war without a shot being fired.
Secondly, Reagan was appreciated as a person of decency, humour, judgement, and purpose. Reagan’s conservatism came from a combination of practical experience and wide reading. He had read the works of authors like Russell Kirk, Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek.
Meanwhile, Reagan, the man, lived a decent moral life with his wife and family. He did not brag of his personal achievements. In short, Reagan represented the best of the human character in public office. He showed conservatives how an individual, in the right office, could make a huge difference.
