An Interview with President Reagan

'There's a desire to see things through, not to duck and run "

Ronald Reagan was exceedingly cheerful when asked, two days before his Sunday-night announcement that he would seek a second term, to discuss his decision and his agenda for the next four years. The President joked at one point that he was so apprehensive about leaks that he did not even tell his diary the day he and Nancy Reagan firmly made up their minds. He allowed his conversation with TIME White House Correspondents Laurence I. Barrett and Douglas Brew to run overtime in order to elaborate on subjects important to him. Highlights of the interview:

Q. When did you decide?

A. Only recently. I actually held off as long as I could, not only in the announcement but in actually approaching the decision. I just felt that there were so many things going on that I did not want to put myself in the frame of mind where I might be shading my decisions with political considerations.

Q. Did you consult with any advisers or just with Mrs. Reagan?

A. The only person I talked it over with at all was Nancy, because we do everything together. And it would be, I think, impossible for either one of us to go off on our own, make some decision and just tell the other about it after the fact.

Q. There were a lot of stories to the effect that Mrs. Reagan was reluctant to go through another campaign. Can you tell us whether you had to persuade her?

A. No. Our thinking kind of tracks together. You can dread something or you can think back to unpleasant features in previous campaigns and hope against hope that those things won't happen again. But we both knew it was a decision that had to be made.

Q. Did you have any reservations, long to go back to California, want to get out from the burdens of this office?

A. There's no question about my love for California and the life we lead when we're there. But on the other hand ... there's a desire to see things through, not to duck and run just because the load is heavy.

Q. What would your two or three highest priorities be in the second term?

A. The economic recovery--which means getting back to a situation in which this Government spends within its means. [We need] a recovery that isn't like the several we've had since World War II, in which we are off on wrong economic policies that get us into trouble. And then we artificially stimulate the economy to get out of that particular trouble, but lay the foundation for another recession two or three years down the road. On the international scene, I think that we've made great progress. I would like to see us continue until there is a feeling that we have peace throughout the world, that we have reduced the danger brought about by the excessive armaments in the world. I would hope in going down that path we could see an end to nuclear weapons.

Q. People are worried that you still might get us into a war somehow. How do you account for this attitude?

A. Could I say bluntly that I think those who for political reasons profit by that misperception about me maybe have more access to media channels than we do. It isn't true. We are safer, we are stronger, and peace is more assured today than it has been in recent years.

Q. But it seems the President always has maximum access. Everything you say can get on the air, into print. And you have a well-earned reputation of being a very fine communicator.

A. I've watched the news sometimes on the air on addresses that I've made and, yes, they show me coming into the hall and they show me up there speaking, maybe one sentence aloud on sound, but then I see myself silently speaking while some commentator goes on for 40 seconds telling the people what he says I said. They don't let the people hear what I said.

Q. Aren't there other elements in this business of your being perceived as reckless overseas? We do have troops in Lebanon, and you have been much tougher than your immediate predecessor, at least in foreign affairs.

A. Not being strong, and not even having the means to be strong, which was true of us in the past, led to someone taking advantage to the point that whether we wanted it or not, we were in a war. Would World War II have occurred if the people of Europe and the people of England had listened to Churchill instead of ignoring him until it was too late? Would World War II have happened if Roosevelt's desire to enhance our armed strength had been heeded?

Q. What are your reflections about the job? Is there anything different you would have done to prepare yourself for this job?

A. I never in my wildest dreams ever aspired to public service. I loved the world that I was in, the entertainment world. So, the very fact that I'd been blessed with some success and could attract an audience, I thought that it was only right that I should use that in behalf of causes that I believed in. So, I don't know what I could have done differently. In fact I'm not sure that people really do plan or should plan to go into public office. Maybe it's better to simply achieve something and [let] your neighbors tell you whether you should serve them.

Q. Do you feel there is a danger of being cut off from the real world?

A. I know there are many people who say that you're isolated in such a way that you just don't have any contact with human beings and you don't know what people are thinking about. I have never felt that once. What you do feel is a personal loss.

You find yourself remembering what it was like when on the spur of the moment you could just yell to your wife that you were going down to the drugstore and get a magazine. You can't do that any more. I made up a joke and told about the first week after I left the Governor's office.

I've told it as if it were true. I've said that Nancy and I were going out one evening and we went out and both of us got in the back seat of the car and waited for somebody to drive us.