By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

From beginning to end, this movie was flawless. Dennis Quade was perfect in the title role. Jon Voight shined brightly as a Soviet KGB and then Russian intelligence operative. And Penelope Ann Miller played Nancy Reagan to a “t.”[2] I kept waiting for dull moments, but there weren’t any.

Predictably, Leftist woke reviewers have savaged both Reagan the man and the film, or at least damned it with faint praise. The parallels to this election year are striking. Donald Trump is hated by the Left and its inbred media. They have done everything in their power to destroy him too; and both were victims of assassins’ bullets.

Brain-addled Joe Biden and Willie Brown’s former ho Kamala Harris have brought us to the brink of World War III, with wars raging in Ukraine and Russia, the Middle East, and potentially in the Pacific.[3] Reagan sought peace though strength, which Trump does as well. The parallels are uncanny.

I was in Berlin when the “Iron Curtain” divided the West from the East; and one could only walk through at “Checkpoint Charlie.”[4] Years later, I was there when the Berlin Wall separating West and East Berlin was being torn down; and Soviet troops were selling their uniforms and plumbing fixtures from their barracks, and going back to “tent cities” in the USSR.

Those were heady times; and Reagan was responsible for them, along with his counterpart Mikhail Gorbachev.[5]  A friend from California, Susan Borchard, worked in the White House; and she showed my kids and me through the mansion’s offices (including the Oval Office), just after Reagan left by helicopter from the White House lawn.[6]

It would have been great working for him, but there was a tight-knit California clique that “ruled the roost,” and I viewed it as impenetrable. One of his key speechwriters and his wife are my friends to this day. How exciting and demanding it must have been, which is true of working for Trump today.

Lastly, the Reagans lived next door to a multi-billionaire old friend of mine in the Bel Air suburb of Los Angeles. He was responsible for my alma mater UCLA’s world-class medical center being named after the former President; and he bought their home from them.[7]

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© 2024, Timothy D. Naegele

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[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass).  See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6  and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/accomplishments/   He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University.  He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at The Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service).  Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/ and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/articles/), and studied photography with Ansel Adams.  He can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com

[2]  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reagan_(2024_film) (“Reagan (2024 film)”)

[3]  See, e.g., https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/putin-warns-russia-war-west-ukraine-long-range-missiles-biden-starmer-rcna170980 (“Putin warns NATO risks ‘war’ with Russia over Ukraine long-range missiles”)

[4]  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkpoint_Charlie (“Checkpoint Charlie”)

[5]  See, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tear_down_this_wall! (“Tear down this wall!”)

[6]  See, e.g., https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/venturacountystar/name/susan-borchard-obituary?id=1963100 (“Susan Borchard Obituary (1948 – 2018)”)

[7]  See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2017/05/31/jerry-perenchio-kind-and-caring/ (“Jerry Perenchio: Kind And Caring”) and https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3687103/Billionaire-former-Univision-chairman-buys-Ronald-Nancy-Reagan-s-Bel-Air-home-15million.html (“Billionaire former Univision chairman buys Ronald and Nancy Reagan’s Bel-Air home”)