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REAGAN, Ronald. Autograph letter signed ("Ronald Reagan"), to unknown recipient ("Dear Jeffery"), Pacific Palisades, 2 July 1977. 1 page, 8vo, FINE.
"WE SHOULD NOT EVEN BE DISCUSSING SUCH A GIVEAWAY"
REAGAN'S FURY AT CARTER FOR RETURNING CONTROL OF THE PANAMA CANAL comes through loud and clear in this note to a supporter: "On the Panama Canal, I feel we should not even be discussing such a giveaway. Americans suffered much for it and, of course, paid for most of it. President Carter would be doing this nation a great injustice by handing it to them." In a postscript Reagan adds: "No, I have not had much time to consider a run for the Presidency but appreciate knowing of your support." But it was precisely this issue of the Panama Canal which kept Reagan's presidential prospects alive during these "wilderness years" of the late 1970s. Reagan's landslide election victories in 1980 and 1984 make his success seem inevitable, but it was anything but. By 1977 he was a two-time loser on the Presidential campaign trail (his 1968 effort fizzled out early in the primary season). He was thought by many to be both too old and too conservative to ever be elected. But Reagan brilliantly caught the mood of the country. In the U. S. decision to devolve control of the Canal to Panama, he saw a great power bowing to the wishes of a weaker opponent. In his syndicated radio program, Reagan consistently played on these themes of America's declining prestige under Carter. By 1979-80, when the Iranian hostage fiasco crippled Carter's presidency, Reagan was no longer a long-shot or a has-been.
"WE SHOULD NOT EVEN BE DISCUSSING SUCH A GIVEAWAY"
REAGAN'S FURY AT CARTER FOR RETURNING CONTROL OF THE PANAMA CANAL comes through loud and clear in this note to a supporter: "On the Panama Canal, I feel we should not even be discussing such a giveaway. Americans suffered much for it and, of course, paid for most of it. President Carter would be doing this nation a great injustice by handing it to them." In a postscript Reagan adds: "No, I have not had much time to consider a run for the Presidency but appreciate knowing of your support." But it was precisely this issue of the Panama Canal which kept Reagan's presidential prospects alive during these "wilderness years" of the late 1970s. Reagan's landslide election victories in 1980 and 1984 make his success seem inevitable, but it was anything but. By 1977 he was a two-time loser on the Presidential campaign trail (his 1968 effort fizzled out early in the primary season). He was thought by many to be both too old and too conservative to ever be elected. But Reagan brilliantly caught the mood of the country. In the U. S. decision to devolve control of the Canal to Panama, he saw a great power bowing to the wishes of a weaker opponent. In his syndicated radio program, Reagan consistently played on these themes of America's declining prestige under Carter. By 1979-80, when the Iranian hostage fiasco crippled Carter's presidency, Reagan was no longer a long-shot or a has-been.