Reagan oreilly by karenwilliams 236

An assassination attempt against Ronald Reagan injured four, including the president and his press secretary, James Brady.

Killing Reagan

66 AARP THE MAGAZINE / Real Possibilities

COLLAGE BY TRAVIS RATHBONE

PHOTO CREDITS ON PAGE 90

An exclusive excerpt from the new best-seller by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard

Park Central Hotel, Washington, D.C. March 30, 1981, 9 a.m.

OHN HINCKLEY is hungry. He turns off the Today show in his AAA-approved budget hotel room and steps out onto the corner of 18th and G streets. The sky is overcast. A light rain settles on Hinckley’s well-worn beige jacket as he strolls three blocks to the K Street McDonald’s. He did not sleep well last night, troubled by how to play out his Jodie Foster obsession once and for all. Money is also on his mind. Once again, Hinckley is almost broke. After spending $47 on his room last night, and then spending a dollar for breakfast, he has less than $130 to his name. This is barely enough for a ticket back home to Denver, but John Hinckley does not care. He will never return to that home again. Two blocks away in the White House, President Ronald Reagan is just concluding a ceremonial 14-minute meeting in the Cabinet Room with a group of Hispanic leaders. It has been a long morning, beginning with a breakfast for his political appointees in the Blue Room at 8:34, then a 15-minute session with his top advisers. Four more meetings round out the morning, each with a cast of dignitaries and administration officials. Among them is a relatively new face: James Brady, Reagan’s recently hired press secretary. As the president eats lunch, John Hinckley is taking a shower. He is deep in thought as the water beats down on him. An item on page A-4 in the Washington Star has caught his eye. Under the heading “President’s Schedule,” the piece mentions that Ronald Reagan will be giving a speech at the Washington Hilton this afternoon. Hinckley rinses off the soap and turns off the water. His mind is made up. He is going to the Hilton. He towels off and gets dressed in a pair of simple trousers, a shirt and ankle-high boots. His wallet contains $129 in cash along with two library cards, a Texas driver’s license, a chess club membership and folded magazine photos of Jodie Foster. There is no guarantee he will fire his gun this afternoon, but if he does get close enough to squeeze off a round, John Hinckley wants Jodie Foster to know he is doing it for her. He sits down at a small wooden desk and composes a letter to his beloved: “Dear Jodie,” he writes. “There is a definite possibility I will be killed in my attempt to get Reagan. This is why I am writing you this letter now.” John Hinckley stands and removes the Saturday Night Special from his suitcase, along with boxes of ammunition. Several types of bullets soon litter his bedspread. Hinckley has the choice of normal, round-nosed bullets or six rounds of an especially brutal bullet designed to blow a hole in the target by exploding on impact, spewing hot shrapnel. Appropriately, these bullets are known as Devastators. He chooses them. Armed and dangerous, Hinckley then takes a cab for the OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2015 67

Killing Reagan

68 AARP THE MAGAZINE / Real Possibilities

was kind of startled.” In the blink of an eye, Reagan is inside the building. The time is 2:02 p.m. Reagan bounds onto the stage to the strains of “Hail to the Chief” and then launches into his speech. Ronald Reagan enjoys public speaking. It comes easily to him. He begins his speech, as usual, with a joke. John Hinckley hears laughter coming from the ballroom. He has left the security rope to step inside the Hilton and wander around the lobby. “Should I? Should I?” he asks himself repeatedly, feeling the heft of the Saturday Night Special in his pocket.

day in Reagan’s last

office

Everyone is paying attention to the media. No one is paying attention to John Hinckley. Hinckley makes up his mind: He will go back to the spectator area and wait. If Reagan does not appear in 10 minutes, Hinckley tells himself, he will leave. The time is 2:19 p.m. Ronald Reagan has five minutes left in his speech. John Hinckley is back in the spectator area outside the Hilton. The gunman notices immediately that the Secret Service has moved Ronald Reagan’s limousine to facilitate an easier departure from the hotel. Rather than being parked just outside the VIP entrance, it is now standing so close to the security rope that the right rear bumper almost touches the spectator area. Ronald Reagan will en-

ter the Lincoln not 40 feet but just 10 feet away from where John Hinckley now stands. All at once, Hinckley is jostled. Newsmen are pushing to get a better position in order to ask Reagan questions. Hinckley is outraged, shouting to the other spectators that the media should not be allowed to push their way to the front of the crowd. But then it becomes clear to him that the press is providing a vital distraction. Everyone is paying attention to the media. No one is paying attention to John Hinckley. The president leaves the stage and immediately follows his Secret Service escort to the car. Press Secretary James Brady stands just inside the VIP door with Deputy Chief of Staff Michael Deaver as Reagan approaches. A wave of Secret Service agents rushes past Brady, taking up their positions near the limousine. Agent Tim McCarthy is tasked with opening the right rear door for Reagan. James Brady steps out of the VIP entrance before his boss, walking next to Deaver. The president has chosen not to take questions, so Brady will now speak with the reporters himself. Agent McCarthy opens the right rear door of the limo. Brady stands 10 feet from him, walking quickly to the security rope to meet with the press. McCarthy stands ready to close the door behind Reagan, unsure if the president will linger to wave to the crowd before getting inside the car. The time is 2:27 p.m. John Hinckley sees Ronald Reagan clearly. He also sees the small crowd of agents—“ body men,” in Secret Service parlance—accompanying the president. Hinckley notices James Brady moving toward the rope line. Things are happening very quickly. The president raises his right arm and waves to the crowd. A woman calls out from the spectator area as if she knows him. A friendly Reagan motions in her direction. Normally the president wears a bulletproof vest

COURTESY RONALD REAGAN LIBRARY

short ride to the Washington Hilton. A small crowd of seven journalists and a dozen eager spectators await Ronald Reagan’s arrival. Pistol snug in his jacket pocket, John Hinckley joins the crowd. The time is 1:46 p.m. At 1:51 p.m., the presidential motorcade arrives at the Hilton. John Hinckley stands in the crowd of spectators behind the security rope, watching the motorcade approach. The main entrance of the Hilton is behind him. The president will not enter through this door. Instead, he will use the canopy-covered VIP entrance just 40 feet away. The would-be assassin feels an unlikely burst of excitement at the prospect of seeing Reagan in person. Hinckley pats the pistol in his right pocket. Ample time at the rifle range has prepared him for what is to come. Hinckley surveys the scene, seeing ABC newsman Sam Donaldson, among others. More than two dozen Secret Service agents stand ready to protect the president. Hotel security and Washington police also crowd around the Hilton, including two police officers facing the crowd on the other side of the security rope. Hinckley notices that there are some Secret Service agents on nearby rooftops. Suddenly, President Reagan’s limousine glides past the security rope and comes to a halt just outside the VIP entrance. An agent steps out the front passenger door and hustles to open Reagan’s door on the right rear side of the vehicle. Quickly, the president emerges into the afternoon drizzle, taking a moment to wave to the crowd. D.C. police officers Herbert Granger and Thomas Delahanty are working the security rope and should be facing toward the crowd, looking for signs of trouble. Instead, they crane their necks to the left to see the president. This is the perfect time for John Hinckley to shoot. But he does not. “He was looking right at me and I waved back,” Hinckley will recall. “I

Killing Reagan

Excerpted from Killing Reagan by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard, published by Henry Holt and Company LLC. 70 AARP THE MAGAZINE / Real Possibilities

RETHINKING

REAGAN

Bill O’Reilly’s latest book casts the Gipper in a human light

By ROBERT LOVE / Photograph by BEN BAKER

FEW WEEKS before the pub-

lication of Killing Reagan, the fifth in Bill O’Reilly’s Killing series, I sat down with him in his New York office for a wide-ranging discussion on presidents, power and history. The interview below was condensed and edited. A longer version can be found online at aarp.org. Q: I notice that this book is dedicated to “all those who are caring for an elderly person.” Did Nancy Reagan inspire the dedication? A: Well, look: In the last 10 years of

his life, Ronald Reagan was dependent upon care, and Nancy Reagan provided that care. So she was a heroine. In the beginning of the book, you might not like Nancy too much. But it takes a turn, as many lives do. That

was one of those fascinating things about the book for me—how Nancy changed after disaster hit her own family. I decided to devote the book to those who are caring for elderly people because our culture doesn’t emphasize that. Q: Did you ever meet Reagan? A: No. I met Nancy. I never met the

president. However, I did cover the inaugurations.

Q: I think the Reagan supporters who expect a hagiography from you are going to be disappointed. This is a warts-and-all portrait. A: It’s the same thing with all of my

books. The Kennedy people who wanted a conspiracy were disappointed with Killing Kennedy because my coauthor and I didn’t come up with a conspiracy. The Patton people who wanted a larger-than-life

when appearing in public, but the walk from the door to the car is so short that the Secret Service did not think he needed it today. John Hinckley braces his right arm against the rough stone wall, dropping his hand into his pocket. Quickly, he pulls the gun out. Just as he has done so many times at the firing range, Hinckley grasps the butt of the pistol with two hands for maximum stability. He bends his knees and drops into a shooter’s crouch, then extends both arms and pulls the trigger. The first bullet hits James Brady square in the head, just above the left eye. He falls face-first to the sidewalk, his blood dripping through a sidewalk grate. The second shot strikes Washington Metro police officer Thomas K. Delahanty in the neck, ricocheting off his spine and lodging against the spinal column. He falls to the ground in agony, screaming. The third shot goes wild, hitting no one. The fourth shot strikes Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy in the torso. He, too, falls to the sidewalk, seriously wounded, a bullet lodged in his liver. The fifth shot bounces off the limousine. The sixth also hits the Lincoln, but ricochets—piercing Ronald Reagan’s body under his left arm. The bullet enters his lung, coming to rest just one inch from his heart. The president of the United States staggers. It takes just 1.7 seconds for Hinckley to fire all six Devastator bullets. He is immediately punched in the head by a nearby spectator, then gang-tackled by the crowd. Hinckley is buried beneath several hundred pounds of angry citizens as Secret Service agents try to take him alive. Ironically, their job is to now protect Hinckley with the same vigor they devote to protecting the president. As Hinckley is subdued, four men are fighting for their lives. One of them is Ronald Wilson Reagan. n

RETHINKING REAGAN guy who never did anything wrong were disappointed with Killing Patton because we told the truth about him, although I think he emerges as a hero. I think Reagan emerges as a hero in this book, too. Q: Is it fair to say that you have great regard for Reagan the man, but might be more measured in your estimation of him as a leader, a president and a chief executive? A: I think Reagan was a president who

guy than a smaller-detail guy. Q: So during Reagan’s decline—tell me if you agree—his greatest moment was at the Berlin Wall in 1987. A: Absolutely. He rallied. Once he saw

momentum was swinging into “capitalism is going to triumph,” he rallied. And he brought himself to that pinnacle. Then, three years later, he was out of it. Q: He was showing signs of confusion and forgetfulness during his first term in office. And I take it you believe that the invasive surgery after the assassination attempt in 1981 had some hastening effect on his memory loss and later on his decline into Alzheimer’s? A: You know, there’s varying opinion

had two big things that he wanted to do, and he accomplished them. He wanted to bring back the free market economy, and he did. He wanted to bring down communism, and ultimately he did. Reagan wasn’t interested in the U.S.-Mexico border or Social Security. He wasn’t a Bill Clinton–type about it. I think the evidence shows policy wonk. So you want to say he’s that he was a different man after he great? I’d say he’s in the top 10. And all was shot. Before he was shot, he didn’t the more impressive was that he did spend time watching soap operas on TV during workdays. it when he was impaired. But later, I think he just He had days where he needed relief. I think didn’t know what he “He was his mind, when focused, was doing. Whether it was sheer force of will not a brooder. worked fine. But on days when he was tired or anor whatever, he overrode He was that and he was able to trained to be noyed or confused— Q: Plus, he was losing his do the things that he had charming, hearing. to do—and mobilize the and he was.” A: Absolutely. And he nation. Q: Going back to Social didn’t want to admit it, Security—he cared enough about it to because that showed weakness. save it for 30 years. He reached across the aisle. A: I know. But at what price? He put

us into a debt-ridden situation that haunts us to this day. The same thing he did with the border. He wanted to please. Reagan was a pleaser, all right? That’s important for every reader to understand. He wanted to please— individuals and collectively. What he didn’t do is batten down the hatches and say, “OK, I’m going to save Social Security, but I’m going save it in a way that doesn’t make it insolvent 30 years from now,” which is where we’re going. He could have done it back then, and he could have sealed the border back then, all right? But he didn’t. Because he was more the big-picture

Q: I am struck by his charm when he looks up from his hospital bed after the assassination attempt and says to Nancy, “I forgot to duck.” A: Right. Q: Or when he comes out of anesthesia and can’t speak, he writes a note to the nurses: “If I’d had this much attention in Hollywood, I’d have stayed there.” A: It all goes back to Reagan being a

pleaser. He was not a cynic; he was not a brooder. He was trained to be charming, and he was.

Q: And he turned out to be a brilliant spokesman for conservatism. A: He did, and he wasn’t really an

ideologue in the sense that he wasn’t poring over the writings of conser-

vative people. It was instinctual—he believed in America, traditional values; you work hard, we give you the opportunity, you rise. He could forge a relationship with a guy like [former Speaker of the House] Tip O’Neill, whereas [President Barack] Obama has trouble on the other side, and some other conservative presidents did as well. But he did believe in traditional values. Traditional rather than conservative. Q: Did Reagan see Iran-Contra as a betrayal? A: I think Reagan just wanted it to go

away. He thought it was an annoyance more than anything else.

Q: There’s an old saying that all politics is local. But after reading this, I got the feeling that all politics is personal. Reagan calls Carter a “little sh-t.” Carter has contempt for him. Reagan hates Jerry Ford, and harbors deep animosity for JFK, even holding a cocktail party two days after the assassination. Was I just being naive? A: I think that was more driven by

Nancy. Nancy wanted to have the party. So Reagan did. I don’t think he would have if Nancy hadn’t wanted to. I do think they lived in a very narrow world, where they surrounded themselves with people who thought the way they did. But I never saw him as malevolent. I really didn’t. He was a man who felt deeply but hid it, like a lot of Irish. He hid it under this facade that “Everything is OK.” And he hated confrontation, didn’t want to upset. He would walk away rather than try to solve the problem.

Q: You were a history major at Marist College and once taught history at a Florida high school. Do you write these books out of a passion for history or to educate our low-information citizenry? A: I think it’s more of the latter. I get

frustrated when I go around the country and people don’t know the elements of how this country started. History classes in some schools don’t even exist. I decided to write these books so people would (CONTINUED ON PAGE 90)

For more on Bill O’Reilly and his new Reagan book, go to aarp.org/magazine.