Reel

Tape 654 Part 1 Edited compilation of speeches by Ronald Reagan made during his Presidency.

Jan 21, 1985 Inauguration: RONALD REAGAN being sworn in as President by Chief Justice WARREN BURGER in the Capitol rotunda. Ron kisses wife NANCY REAGAN. Diss to speech. Four years ago I spoke to you about a new beginning and we have accomplished that. But in another sense our new beginning is a continuation of that beginning created two centuries ago. When for the first time in history, Government, the people said, was not our master it is our servant. Its only power, that which we the people, allow it to have. Let history say of us, these were Golden Years, when the American Revolution was reborn, when freedom gained New Life and America reached for its best.

Jan 25, 1985 Ronald Reagan Remarks at the 1985 Reagan Administration Executive Forum It s been a tremendous four years and I m feeling absolutely bullish on the next four. I was just thinking the other day that in our first administration we made history, and the second, we can change history forever. I think there s an understandable tendency when the second term begins, to think that all the great work is behind us, that the big battles have been fought and all the rest is anti-climax. Well, that s not true. What s gone before is prologue. Our greatest battles lie ahead. All is newness now and the possibility of great and fundamental change. We can change America, forever. And that s some great and beautiful music we been playing these four years, but the way I see it, from here on it s Shake Rattle and Roll. (Loud applause)

Mar 11, 1985 press conference regarding the death of Soviet Head of State Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko, remaining optimistic that arms reduction progress with his sucessor will continue. Today we ve learned of a death of Head of State, Konstantin Chernenko. And I sent my condolences to the Soviet leadership and people. I want them to know that we will deal with Chairman s Chernenko successor with an open mind and will continue our efforts to improve relations between our two nations, to settle our differences fairly and particularly, to lower the levels of nuclear arms. Tomorrow in Geneva, American negotiators will sit down with their Soviet counter parts to begin the most important arms talks, in which our nation will likely to participate, for the rest of this decade. Press, Are you anxious to meet the new Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev? Reagan, Very much so. And I was with the previous three also. (Half laughing) I was ready to have a meeting, and as they themselves said, At such a time if you have a legitimate agenda and not just have a meeting to get acquainted .

Apr 16, 1985, Ronald Reagan Remarks at a Conference on Religious Liberty. He addresses the controversy re: his visit to the Bitburg war cemetery. Now let me turn to an issue if I could for just a moment that has provoked a storm of controversy. My decision to visit the war cemetery at Bitburg and my decision on the state visit to Germany and not to visit the site of the Concentration Camp at Dachau. It is to cement the 40 years of friendship between the free Germany and the United States. Between the German People and the American People, that Chancellor Kohl and I agreed together, to lay a wreath at the cemetery for the German war dead. That s why I accepted the invitation to Bitburg and that s why I m going, to Bitburg. As for the decision not to go to Dachau, one of the sites of the great moral obscenity of that era, it was taken because of my mistaken impression that such a visit was outside the official agenda. Chancellor Kohl s recent letter to me however has made it plane that my invitation to visit a Concentration Camp was indeed a part of his planed itinerary. So, I have now accepted that invitation and my staff is in Germany exploring a site that will fit in to our schedule there. (Applause)

May 5, 1985, Remarks at a Joint German-American Military Ceremony at Bitburg Air Base in the Federal Republic of Germany. Ronald Reagan speaks about touring World War II sites. I have just come from the cemetery where German war dead lay at rest. No one could visit there without deep and conflicting emotions. I felt great sadness that history could be filled with such waste, destruction and evil. But my heart was also lifted by the knowledge that from the ashes comes hope and that from the terrors from the past we have built 40 years, of peace, freedom and reconciliation among our nations. This visit has stirred many emotions in the American and German people too. I ve received many letters since, from first deciding to come to Bitburg Cemetery. Some supportive, others deeply concerned and questioning, and other opposed. Some old wounds have been reopened. And this I regret very much, because this should be a time of healing. Twenty two years ago President John F. Kennedy went to the Berlin Wall and proclaimed that he too, was a Berliner. Today freedom loving people around the world must say, I am a Berliner, I am a Jew in a world still threaten by anti-Semitism, I am a Afghan, and I am a prisoner of the gulag, I am a refugee in a crowded boat floundering off the cost of Vietnam, I am a Laotian, a Cambodian, a Cuban and a Mosquito Indian in Nicaragua, I too am a potential victim of totalitarianism. The one lesson of WW II, the one lesson of Nazism, is that freedom must always be stronger than totalitarianism and that good must always be stronger than evil.

June 20, 1985: Ronald & Nancy Reagan award the Medal of Freedom to MOTHER TERESA (of Calcutta) in the White House. All of us know of that wonderful individual, Mother Teresa, that living Saint. If you ever met Mother Teresa, you know what I mean. She s probably trust into hand to pamphlet, telling you to love Christ. She wouldn t mind my saying that she s no longer young. If she were here, she d say, look who s talking. (Laughter)

June 30, 1985 Ronald Reagan Remarks Announcing the Release of the Hostages From the Trans World Airlines Hijacking Incident (TWA hijacking). The 39Americans held hostage for 17 days by terrorists in Lebanon are free, safe, and at this moment on their way to Frankfurt, Germany. They ll be home again soon. This is a moment of joy for them, for their loved ones and for our nation. And America opens its heart in a prayer of thanks to Almighty God. We can be thankful that our faith, courage and firmness have paid off. This is no moment for celebration. Let it be clearly understood that the seven Americans still held captive in Lebanon must be released, along with other innocent hostages from other countries. The United States gives terrorists no rewards and no guarantees, we make no concessions, and we make no deals. Nations that harbor terrorist undermine their own stability and endanger their own people. Terrorists be on notice. We will fight back against you in Lebanon and elsewhere. We will fight back against your cowardly attacks on American citizens and property.

July 8, 1985: Ronald Reagan Remarks at the Annual Convention of the American Bar Association. He discusses terrorism. It will not surprise any of you to know that in addition to Iran, we have identified another nation, Libya, as deeply involved in terrorism. We have evidence which links Libyan agents or surrogates to at least 25 incidents last year. Colonel Khadafy outrages against civilized conduct are of course infamous as those of the Ayatollah Khomeini. So the American people are not, and I repeat, not, going to tolerate intimidation, terror and outright acts of war against this nation and its people. And we re especially not going to tolerate these attacks from outlaw states, run by the strangest collection of misfits, looney toons and squalled criminals since the advent the Third Reich.

Oct 24, 1985, Ronald Reagan Address to the 40th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, New York He speaks about impending Geneva Talks w/ Mikhail Gorbachev. C/As politicos EDOUARD SHEVARDNADZE, GEORGE SCHULTZ. When Mr. Gorbachev and I meet in Geneva next month. I look to a fresh start in a relationship of our two nations. We can and we should meet in the sprit that we can deal with our differences peacefully. And that is what we expect. The United States never saw Treaties merely to paper over differences. We continue to believe that a nuclear war is one that cannot be won, and must never be fought. And that is why we have sought for nearly 10 years, still seek and will discuss in Geneva, radical, equitable, verifiable reductions in these vast arsenals of offensive nuclear weapons.

Nov 21, 1985 Ronald Reagan Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress Following the Soviet-United States Summit Meeting in Geneva He announces that Mikhail Gorbachev will visit the US and he will visit the USSR. I guess you know that I just come from Geneva, talks with General Secretary Gorbachev. In the past few days, the past two days, we spent over 15 hours in various meetings with the General Secretary and the members of his official party. In approximately 5 of those hours were talks between Mr. Gorbachev and myself, just one on one. That was the best part, our fireside summit. I can t claim that we had a meeting of the minds on such fundamentals as ideology or national purpose. But we understand each other better, and that s a key to peace. I gained a better perspective, I feel he did too. It was a constructive meeting, so constructive in fact that I look forward to welcoming Mr. Gorbachev to the United States next year. (Applause) And I have accepted his invitation to go to Moscow the following year. (Applause) We arranged that out in the parking lot.

Nov 9, 1985, WS Ron and Nancy Reagan welcome PRINCE CHARLES and PRINCESS DIANA to the White House.