Sometimes when newspapers printed interviews with President Ronald Reagan or excerpts from his press conferences, they could not report exactly what he said. If they did, few people would understand him; therefore his quotes had to be altered in order to get across what he was trying to say. However in 1981, a few newspapers did decide to quote him directly. Here are some of those quotations.
When asked whether a U.S./Soviet nuclear confrontation could be limited, Reagan replied (remember, this quote is verbatim), “I don’t honestly know. I think, again, until someplace – all over the world this is being, research going on, to try and find the defensive weapon. There never has been a weapon that someone hasn’t come up with a defense. But it could – and the only defense is, well you shot yours and we’ll shoot ours.” (These are completely free of typos, I promise.)
When asked about the soviet’s SS-20s, he asserted, “Well, the SS-20s will have, with what they’re adding, 750 warheads, one of them capable of pretty much leveling a city, and they can sit right there and that’s got all of Europe, and including England, on target.”
When asked if there could be a tactical exchange of nuclear weapons without a strategic exchange, Reagan explained, “Well, I would – if they realized that we – again, if – if we led them back to that stalemate only because that our retaliatory power, our seconds, or strike at them after our first strike, would be so destructive that they couldn’t afford it, that would hold them off.”
On another occasion he was asked about gross national product. “Well,” he explained, “you can’t have the gross national products… here’s a thing for the return of the people and so forth on that without reflecting those who are paying for the taxes.”
Source:
Stephens, John Richard. “American Presidents.” Weird History 101: Tales of Intrigue, Mayhem, and Outrageous Behavior. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2006. 264. Print.
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Is it bad that I understand what he was saying for most of that?
He lost me on the GDP thing.
Still this is nothing compared to Nancy Pelosi!