The Teflon President

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Have you ever wondered why Ronald Reagan was called the “Teflon President?” Many views of president Reagan have depicted a detached, disinterested president who asked no questions, ignored details, and allowed subordinates to run amok. Notable books written by David Stockman and Donald Regan as well as several books written by journalists, such as Hedrick Smith’s “The Power Game,” and “The Acting President” by Bob Schieffer and Gary Paul Gates,paints a frightening picture of Reagan as ill informed and disengaged.

Yet through it all Reagan kept a high approval rating. The teflon image was simply his uncanny ability of keeping controversies and inefficiency from sticking to him. The American hostages being freed at the moment Reagan took office, through no effort of his own, gave him his first wave of popularity and good will. He got another boost when he survived the assassination attempt on March 30, 1981. America got a kick out of how he joked with the emergency room staff. The surge in his approval rating helped him get the tax cuts and Pentagon spending plans he called for. Reagan’s affability carried him through scandals at the highest level, at which he was able to shrug off with a bemused chuckle. Even the public embarrassment of his wife feeding him lines to shout to reporters didn’t faze him.

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The sleaze that bubbled underneath the surface for his eight years as president continued after his departure. Every major screw-up rolled off his back. When a terrorist bombing of a U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut killed 239 marines assigned to an indefensible position with no justification for their presence other than to assert American interest in the area, Reagan’s image was not damaged. Reagan’s armour got it’s severest test during the “Iran-Contra” event. The full story of this event was never completely understood. The facts in this case are still shrouded in denials and silence from the key participants. William Casey, Director of Central Intelligence died before the full extent of his involvement was known.

The situation facing Reagan was a number of separate hostages held in the chaotic anarchy of Lebanon by mysterious parties, assumed to be linked to Iran. One of those hostages was the head of the CIA, William Buckley. In the summer of 1985 Robert McFarlane, Reagan’s National Security Adviser was approached by a group of Israelis with a plan for winning the release of the hostages. it involved a dubious Iranian arm’s merchant who proposed Tehran would use it’s influence to free the hostages in return for a few hundred U.S. antitank missiles, which Iran wanted to carry out its long war with Iraq. In Mcfarlane’s account Reagan gave the go ahead. Reagan later said he didn’t remember it and there was no formal record. In the meantime Buckley was already dead, having been tortured and executed.

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While this was going on, the Democratic controlled Congress in a power struggle with the White House passed an amendment that cut off all aid for the rebel army know as the Contras but the White House to get around Congress was soliciting money from the Saudis. Reagan was advised that sending the money might be an impeachable offense but the plan went ahead and the money was turned over to the same man who was in charge of the Iranian situation- Oliver North. The White House and a seemingly befuddled Ronald Reagan personally was unscathed but it did serve to cripple his administration in it’s final days.

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