Rawhide Down_ The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan - Del Quentin Wilber [3]
When campaigning and after becoming president, Reagan often quoted Thomas Paine, the Englishman who inspired the citizens of the thirteen colonies to fight for their freedom during the American Revolution. Paine once wrote, “I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection.” That man was the Ronald Reagan who survived an attempt on his life and so made possible his historic presidency.
CHAPTER 1
RENDEZVOUS WITH DESTINY
When President Ronald Reagan awoke at seven a.m. on March 30, 1981, the world outside the White House was gray and dreary. Clouds stretched to the horizon, and a wispy mist filtered through the tips of magnolia trees framed by his second-floor window. The president slipped from his bed and strode across the plush beige carpet to the master bathroom, where he showered and shaved. After selecting his day’s attire from the modest wardrobe in his walk-through closet, he donned a monogrammed white shirt and a classic blue tie. He dotted his shirt sleeves with a pair of golden bear cuff links, mementos from his days as governor of California. He slipped into a new dark blue pin-striped suit—made by his personal tailor in Beverly Hills and given to him by his wife—and added a black leather belt with a Gucci buckle, a white handkerchief folded symmetrically into his jacket’s breast pocket, and his nicest watch on his left wrist. Extremely nearsighted, he wore contact lenses in his blue eyes. After massaging Brylcreem into his thick chestnut-brown hair, he parted it with a swoosh to the left.
Reagan’s clothes draped without a wrinkle. Six foot one, lean and muscular, he kept fit by riding horses, cutting wood, and exercising regularly with a wheel that he rolled out and back from his body while kneeling on the floor. The president was proud of his physique and was known, from time to time, to pose for photographs in a way that jokingly showed off his biceps. His handsome face had deep creases that spread from his eyes when he smiled—which was often—and his cheeks were ruddy. Though only seventy days into his presidency, the former movie star appeared distinguished, confident, and entirely comfortable in his new role as the most powerful man in the world.
But his confidence wasn’t simply a pose: Ronald Reagan, unlike so many politicians, was remarkably at ease with himself. Long before his arrival in Washington, he had achieved far more than anyone could ever have expected. Born in 1911 and raised in Dixon, Illinois, he grew up the son of an alcoholic shoe salesman. After high school, he attended nearby Eureka College on a scholarship, whereas most of his friends went to work in factories and on farms. As a boy, he had fallen in love with the movies and acted in high school and college plays; by the time he graduated from Eureka with a degree in economics in 1932 he yearned to make a name for himself on the silver screen.
But getting to Hollywood wasn’t easy, especially during the Great Depression. He started in radio, convincing a station manager in Davenport, Iowa, to let him announce college football games; soon he was a radio personality in Des Moines. By the spring of 1937, he had managed to work his way to Hollywood, where he landed a seven-year contract. Over the next three decades, Reagan would appear in fifty-three movies, which ran the gamut from romances to dramas. His career, like that of many others, was interrupted by World War II. Because he was not allowed to serve in combat—his eyesight was too poor—the army assigned him to make training films. At war’s end, he declined a promotion to major, telling friends that he thought being a captain sounded more dashing.
Originally a Democrat and an ardent admirer of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Reagan evolved into a staunch Republican. He launched his political career in 1964 by delivering a stirring nationally