Ronald Reagan Interview on The Dick Cavett Show 1971

my next guest is someone that you you get to see a lot on television if you happen to live in California it's interesting because almost any evening I think since I've been here you can see him on a primetime news program discussing problems of unemployment or education welfare or whatever may come up and then if you keep a set tuned all evening later you will see him in in a wonderful movie and and then if he stay tuned to the really late shows you'll see him in a very early movie that he made so as the evening goes on he gets younger and younger and I often wonder what he thinks when he's watching all that we welcome plays the former actor and present Governor of California Ronald Reagan [Applause] [Music] anything I obviously have a mixed audience here tonight yes I thought that was rather apparent I got the idea we have every time I've had someone on the show who's in politics within the past year it seems there's one question I can't wait to ask and so I'm not picking on you do you have any kind of announcement that you would like to make your finale it's always fun to get in the news and them know the only announcement I have is that the Lord willing I'll continue to be governor of 1974 [Applause] I thought you I didn't know what it might be but I thought you might be just conceivably planning to run for some higher office like mayor of New York or something like that but nothing that you know but the mayor the mayor of New York and you have a thing in common interestingly enough I realize I mean you both switched you both switched parties in your day yes it wasn't too many years ago that that I switched and of course I wasn't in office at the time when I did it that's right it's a little more geared and I don't remember any great front-page stories about it at that time yeah I'll ask you the question that's on the minds of all Americans when they come to California for the first time what do you see in these nudie shows all along now [Music] [Applause] have you had time to get around any of those I know and no one has there's certain restrictions in this job I have found that I'm immature your time is taken up is it that's right yes little little busy it's amazing how they blossom though and I don't know in our fair city also New York I don't think it speaks well for our civilization then where we've gone I think there's a certain touch of decadence in it can you interpret audience applause whether it's the decadence fans or applauding America no they didn't think that was I thought that was fans that agreed with me separately do you think that it takes more than talent they entertain with your clothes on that yes are you upset about what would you say the major things are that have happened in the last year that you would consider a bad development i Kris I'm thinking of the I guess of the UN exclusion of was it is that it was not only disappointed I was a little indignant about that here is a here's a nation that was one of the founding nations the last of the big four and is still alive Chiang kai-shek from World War two and all these years they have abided by the bylaws and the constitution of the of the United Nations and also while only fourteen million people are on Taiwan they have paid their dues or assessment to the UN on the basis of the 700 million Chinese on the mainland yeah and I know the United States had recognized it didn't have the votes any longer to keep Red China out but the by dropping their opposition the understanding was that other nations would not ask Taiwan and the plain truth of the matter is they just plain double-crossed the United States did you feel that the president should have tried to harder or his team I mean to well I succeeded I don't know if anything they could have done I happen to be on that Asian trip that the president had asked us to make for him at the time and meeting ambassadors in six of the Asian countries and meeting Lee the heads of state of all of those countries everyone was confident that this would not happen that it would wind up with both China's in there because that everyone was aware of the work that had been going on in the part of our country too and to see that that happened first of all the big surprise was when the vote was taken no one expected the vote to be taken for another month and then there were several nations as I say that just deliberately broke their pledged word went the other way and I just do I thought that the United Nations in that action branded itself as a debating society and I honestly don't believe that the United States should feel bound by any of its votes along with Senator Goldwater that we ought to pull out of it then well I think it would be awfully hard I understand it saying it I think it'd be awfully hard for a major nation we all had so much hope in this organization and and still believe and I still believe that some daily the cause of world peace is only going to come about over a table with nations willing to talk instead of in a fight so I think any nation would think a long time before they would deliver the death blow and certainly if the United States withdrew it would be the death blow of the United Nations but I think there are other things we could do I think that the United States for example while I hinted at it a moment ago I think the United States could participate in debate and discussion continue to support many of the agencies as we do that are doing good works the kind of charitable agencies and educational functions and so forth but just not participate in the voting and by not voting ourselves thus remove ourselves from being bound by any votes you see one thing that needs reorganization is the fact that here are more than where more than half of the in the United Nations today can carry a vote as a majority and they represent less than 10% of the world's population before reorganizing that one thing I maybe some of these people who are so strong for one man one vote oughta consider it to regard of the UN we we must take a pause excuse me I don't know wait let's watch the great smell for Men Brut by fabergé talking with Governor Reagan what would you say was your worst movie have a very easy to answer I could answer people are always asked their favorite and and I and I heard you speculating a little while ago out here while I was off stages speculating about what it's like to watch your movies as the hours go on late into the night yes it's a little like watching the Sun you never know your head you see yourself as a young man I've got I've got friends in the business to sit up to what look at their old shows to watch their hairline recede but the worst movie I have never seen Oh to this day I made a picture see when you started in this business back in that golden era they had a thing called the bee unit in his studio and I became the hero of the bees for a while at Warner Brothers it was the Gifford part that broke me out of that and into different kind of picture yeah but I made some that they didn't really I was like an Errol Flynn in a you know low budget sort of way this picture was called Code of the Secret Service elects hands terrific some people some friends of mine have tried to trick me into a projection room a couple of times to see it we have a little surprise for you there is one thought we don't it but it would have been a nice trick wouldn't it we're tired of it around part of the blame was on us the director and myself we got mad at the producer and usually on those things they expected you to patch things up on the set you know that you'd look at the script and he'd say you can't do that and so you'd kind of cook it up and it'd come out a little better than had been written and this one we got mad at the producer and the director and I made up our minds we would shoot it exactly as it was written and that was the worst thing you could did it oh I want to tell you it reached a real low spot when the villains shoots me and then walks away and leaves me for dead and I take a book which is a Spanish American Dictionary I just happened to be in Mexico at the time out of my pocket and I saved at the book you know if you ever need it if you ever need an endorsement call on me and then I put it in my hip pocket I suppose in case he shoots me saved your life what about bedtime for Bonzo that's one of my favorite films Olivia we're gonna listen the funny thing is bedtime for Bonzo was quite a box-office smash and and the funny thing is it proved a rule of comedy that it was a good picture it was a very funny comedy because it was based on truth it was based on the type of experiments that they've been doing a Duke University with chimps and the idea was I was a psychology professor and I was trying to raise a chin as you would a baby and see how far up you could bring it in intelligence before it slowed down and a child would go ahead so it was being raised in my home and closed and with a crib and all of it and Bonzo the night the picture of from Bonzo died in a fire out of jungle and the buns over played the part the you know that's and I hated that because he and I we had a very great understanding I said start it was it was a good picture then to show you the other rule of comedy they violated they made a sequel which I'm happy to say I wasn't in called Bonzo goes to college you know and Hollywood did this a lot if a picture made money they would immediately come back with a sequel but somehow they never seem to be able to realize what it was that made the first one good now the first one was based as I say on a basic sound premise the second one when they tried to have you believe that a chimp could make the college football tell me it was burlesque in burlesque and you know in comedy it never works are there any colleges that you think a chimp could make the I'm leaving you wide open here well no because I've been I never had any quarrel with the the football players I I happen to have a strong affinity and a belief in the kind of guy does playing football today what why I say I know of some that I think could bolster some administrative position CSUN campus I was wondering I was wondering if you might say that why are people leaving the state for the first time in history I was surprised to hear this fact but I always grew up knowing that people were moving by the rate of 400 a day to California or something and I believe it this year for the first time they're hauling out of here well being someone who predicted that I'm not at I've not been too surprised they've always been people leaving well we've always had them coming in they've been coming in Festus big has changed the balance tide has turned in our favor but I think what happened is when I when a state grows to the size of California and has large urban centers it loses some of the appeal that would bringing the people here the people were coming here in a kind of a pioneering sense it was an N frontier new start new jobs and futures and so forth now when you grow up to being well being the most popular state in the Union you lose some of that and you find people here leaving for the same reason they're leaving states back there they're going to Alaska Arizona Oregon Washington get with these to get here and let's kind of create a start yeah let us take this message from our local stations we'll be right back [Applause] that's not here we are we're back talking with with governor runaway would you care to speculate as to whether mr. Agnew will be on the ticket again this why I think he will you do yes of course when I was a sports announcer I also said that Max Baer would lick Joe Lewis so we can take that with with a bag of salt yeah we are no I really I think they're gonna be a lot of speculation I will be down to the to the to the moment that I I think the team you know stick together can you picture a conservative candidate running against President Nixon there are so many disaffected conservatives now over the UN and in China and so on well I know I disagree with the great many of them I think that no one is ever going to do that job to suit everyone but I can't I can't see a really serious but I can see some gestures some symbolic things and such as entering a primary in New Hampshire or something and and almost with the idea of influencing him the President to change his course but I don't see anything wrong with the trip he's taken to Peking I I can understand some people being uncomfortable about it but the president has said he wants to go he hopes that perhaps by at least sitting and talking he can remove us a step further from war and he is he hasn't said he's going to give anything away or trade us down the river he has made it plain that he intends to keep our alliances with all the other Asian nations including the government of Chiang kai-shek and I don't see why anyone should be so disturbed would you say it's conceivable that events could change to the point where you might be approached or have been approached maybe to run against him well no it isn't conceivable I have pledged my support and going to go forward on that basis mm-hm even if they threatened to release that movie that you were talking about Oh governor Reagan I must ask you this I tell me that you didn't say that thing about the redwoods some years ago that when you've seen one redwood you've seen them all as a matter of fact I'd like to match our environmental record here in California against that of most governments including the federal government but no that was during the campaign and my opponent said that I said that and that was the hardest thing to bear because it was contrary to everything I feel I've been an outdoorsman and we've knive had a farm or a ranch for a number of years and I wouldn't even cut down a tree on my own ranch I couldn't imagine that if any I'd seen the redwoods and people who have it can't but it's almost a religious experience to say van it's just incredible the tragedy dick is that so many people in the country still think that there is a great threat to the redwoods and it doesn't do the people to California justice because probably one of the great conservation successes in the whole world has been the work of the people of California to save the redwoods there are almost 200,000 acres well maybe closer to a hundred and fifty thousand acres of the what are called the great Cathedral Ike groves of ancient trees and there are there can't be more than four or five thousand acres of that kind of tree left in private hands they are all that many in our parks now would you be for putting even more in so that we're just well beyond the handsome well here's the greatest proof I can give you when the federal government finally agreed to have a National redwood park they bought about 28,000 acres between two of our state parks now the 20,000 twenty-eight thousand acres they have could not possibly make a park the only way it can make a park it is a kind of a bridge between two of our state parks and if you join these two beautiful state parks to this twenty-eight thousand acre connecting these you will have a good National Park and this is the plan that is he'd like to see you worked out now yes we've been working with a commission with the federal government for quite some time on that to do that but we have saved the redwoods now the redwoods that are being lumbered our commercial trees if the redwood grows very fast and they grow very old but it grows very fast and most of our lumbering in California is approaching what is known as sustained yield meaning that they won't cut any faster than the redwoods grow back in 40 years a redwood forest totally cut down has reached the height at which you can once again go in and and lumber it I got the conservationist feeling the Sierra Club that's that still is not enough that there's still a threat to it there their complaint is one in which now they have to admit that there are no more great Groves to be saved so now they have embarked on saying but we need a shield around them so we want you to take just some of this ordinary forest land around the present redwood parks and get more of that to surround them and there is a certain screening that is done now but the people of California have done this a great many of those 150,000 acres were purchased by the people of California and given to the state so that the trees would be preserved do you belong to any of those conservation groups well the other day the Sierra Club asked me to join and I said I'd be delighted yeah and I waited for the high-rise buildings in San Francisco to fall down they didn't let me know I've always been in there and as a matter of fact we instituted long before everybody discovered ecology and long before some of our young people and I'm glad to say got so carried away from the first day our administration started in 67 we instituted plans whereby we said that we would no longer have highways gothe a straight line if it meant tearing up ecology or going through some historic area or something that they were going to have to respect those we have since won a great many national awards for our preservation of the scenery in doing that we have voluntarily agreed that here after all rights of ways will have to be cleared by a Joint Committee of our Parks and Recreation people as well as the local people and the highway commission to make sure that the beauty is preserved we're out ahead I think of most of the country in this I know you have to leave I just have to ask one question because this recent thing that came up is it possible in high political office like your own governor of state to go broke can a man personally go broke well in high office like that I've often wondered if I don't know just how you how you mean that or not - what you mean - you know I just met suppose if he had anything other than his salary he could he could lose that the same as anyone else could lose it by business reverses as to your income I can say this it's very easy to find that the demands of the position exceed what you get that's what I wonder - figured out laid out more money and this is if your finances all with your investments all went badly yeah I'm an ex-governor could conceivably be oh yes but I won't stay on welfare but in the first place you you you maintain you maintain two homes yeah you you would have to live in a capital but you know you're not gonna be there forever and so you try to keep your home where it is and maybe this is one of the reasons why I've been so interested in trying to get property tax reform out here when I when I pay the taxes or those weekends it's getting like a yacht where you you know if you have to ask how much of course you can't afford it I said but know this you maintain two households and there are just things expected of you that you do and there's no provision for them yeah thank you for being here well say hello to mrs. Prager I certainly will she's spoken very often about what she enjoyed being here on the show and we're glad to have you here in California even if it's my last thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] booing is a bit tacky don't you think

Channel: VCRRepair76

Views: 175,490

Rating: 4.78265 out of 5

Keywords: Ronald Reagan, President, Dick Cavett, show, Bush, governor, California, United Nations, Taiwan, actor, Bedtime for Bonzo, Bonzo Goes to College, exodus, China, Spiro Agnew, Richard Nixon, redwood, preservation, environment, environmental, property tax reform

Id: 0rOebZI3Zgc

Length: 21min 20sec (1280 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 13 2017