Ronald Reagan
The Power of Conviction and the Success of His Presidency
Thursday, January 16, 2003 | 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Wohlstetter Conference Center, Twelfth Floor, AEI 1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036
-
-
Email Event
-
-
About This Event
In Ronald Reagan: The Power of Conviction and the Success of His Presidency (Westview Press, January 2003), former White House counsel and now AEI resident fellow Peter J. Wallison describes Ronald Reagan's unique governing style. He compares this style with those of other presidents and with the dominant academic and media view of what it takes to be a successful president. Wallison argues that Reagan was successful because--unlike other modern presidents--he was willing to stake his presidency on his beliefs and relied on ideas and principles to focus and unite his administration. Wallison, who was general counsel of the Treasury during the first Reagan administration and counsel to President Reagan during the second, provides an inside view of the press's impact on the functioning of the White House staff and of the events and strategies that pulled President Reagan back from disaster in the Iran-Contra scandal. He shows how Reagan's extraordinary attachment to his beliefs was both responsible for his success and for prolonging and deepening the Iran-Contra crisis. 
