Ronald Reagan was born February 6, 1911. This year, President Reagan would have turned 100. In celebrating the 40th President’s centennial, numerous books have been written, and tributes prepared. Unfortunately, one of the books is by Ron Reagan, President Reagan’s youngest son.
In his book, My Father at 100, Ron claims that his father suffered from Alzheimer’s while in office:
Three years into his first term as president, though, I was feeling the first shivers of concern that something beyond mellowing was affecting my father. We had always argued over this issue or that, rarely with anything approaching belligerence, but vigorously all the same. He generally had the advantage of practiced talking points backed up by staff research, but I was an unabashed, occasionally effective advocate for my own positions. ‘He told me you make him feel stupid,’ my mother once shared, to my alarm. I didn’t want my father to feel stupid. If he was going to shoulder massive responsibility, I wanted him to feel on top of his game. If he was going to fulfill his duties as president, he would have to be.” Pages 204-205
“Watching the first of his two debates with 1984 Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale, I began to experience the nausea of a bad dream coming true. At 73, Ronald Reagan would be the oldest president ever reelected. Some voters were beginning to imagine grandpa—who can never find his reading glasses—in charge of a bristling nuclear arsenal, and it was making them nervous. Worse, my father now seemed to be giving them legitimate reason for concern. My heart sank as he floundered his way through his responses, fumbling with his notes, uncharacteristically lost for words. He looked tired and bewildered.” Page 205.
“My father might himself have suspected that all was not as it should be. As far back as August 1986 he had been alarmed to discover, while flying over the familiar canyons north of Los Angeles, that he could no longer summon their names.” Page 218.
The July 4, 1989 horse bucking and discovery of Alzheimer’s:
“In July 1989, barely six months out of office, my father visited friends in Mexico. While out riding he was thrown when his horse shied at something in the trailside scrub. That my father, even at age 78, would be bucked off his mount was, in itself, an ominous sign. It’s a wonder he didn’t break any bones, but he did hit his head hard enough to cause a sizable contusion. After initially refusing medical attention, he ultimately relented and was transported to a hospital in San Diego. Surgeons opening his skull to relieve pressure on the brain emerged from the operating room with the news that they had detected what they took to be probable signs of Alzheimer’s disease. No formal diagnosis was given, as far as I know. I have since learned from a doctor who happened to be interning at the hospital when my father was brought in that surgeons involved in his care, in what my informant characterized as ‘shameful’ behavior, violated my father’s right to medical privacy by subsequently gossiping about his condition.” Page 217.
“Doctors recommended to my mother that further tests of cognition be conducted the following year to measure any decline. Those tests, at the Mayo Clinic, confirmed the initial suspicion of Alzheimer’s.” Page 217.
The conspiracy theory that President Reagan was afflicted with Alzheimer’s while in office is common on the left, despite the fact that it has been thoroughly debunked. In order for President Reagan to keep the lid on such an ailment, his doctors, all of whom deny any signs of Alzheimer’s during Reagan’s Presidency, the Secret Service, and family members would all have had to be co-conspirators. Ron Reagan is a ‘Reagan-Truther.’ His claims are on the same level as the nuts who believe 9-11 was perpetrated by the government.
If Ron Reagan can attribute a poor debate performance to Alzheimer’s, perhaps he should get checked, as it appears that his memory is a bit foggy. U.S. News & World Report fact-checked some of Ron’s claims:
Reagan associates, however, say there was no surgery in San Diego.
What’s more there is no reporting about any San Diego operation on Reagan. News reports at the time of his fall say Reagan was flown to a hospital in Arizona, where he was treated for scrapes and bruises and released after five hours.
There were no reports of Reagan with a shaved head or skull stitches later that month when he served as a guest TV announcer at the July 11 baseball All-Star Game in Anaheim, Calif., or when he was inducted into the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City on July 21.
In September, he went to the Mayo Clinic, where a small burr hole was drilled to relieve a fluid buildup due to the fall.
Reagan visited the Mayo Clinic in 1990 for tests that “confirmed the initial suspicion of Alzheimer’s.” Reagan’s post-presidency history, documented in several archives like University of Texas, reveal no such visit. And Dr. John E. Hutton Jr. his doctor from 1984 through Reagan’s retirement, told the New York Times that Reagan didn’t show the tell-tale symptoms until 1993.
Suffice it to say, there is a mountain of evidence contradicting Ron’s claims.
Michael Reagan, President Reagan’s son, released the following statements:
Ron, my brother was an embarrassment to his father when he was alive and today he became an embarrassment to his mother.
The issue here is Did our Father have Alzheimer’s when he was President. He did not.
What a way for Ron to say Happy 100th Birthday Dad.
Reagan’s last chief of staff, Kenneth Duberstein, told CNN‘s John King:
I think Ron these days is mostly in the business of trying to sell books. That’s what I think. Day in, day out, from beginning to end, he was in command. He was fully in command.
Former Education Secretary, William J. Bennett, said,
In all my interactions with the president, I never witnessed anything in him to give me any concern.
David Gergen, who worked for Presidents: Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton said:
I’m sure that Ron has written a good book and I look forward to reading it. I am surprised he revived these claims because they are dismissed by so many — and doctors who worked with him. And Howard Baker who came in concerned that he might be or had heard rumors that the president was slipping and came out to say ‘I found him as vital as ever’… [President Reagan had a wonderful memory.
Liberals have lied relentlessly about President Reagan. They cannot accepts the fact that he thumped them in two national election, including a 49 state landslide in 1984. The Left cannot admit that in eight years Ronald Reagan killed inflation, created an environment where the jobs market flourished, strengthened the dollar, laid the groundwork for a quarter century of prosperity, all while winning the Cold War. Instead, liberals label the 80s the “decade of greed,” and deride a great man as a senile old fool. For President Reagan’s son to stoop this low, all to sell a book, is both sad and pathetic.
