Then and Now: Thinking About Ronald Reagan's 100th Birthday

In 1981, when Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as President of the United States, I was a 36-year-old major in the U.S. Army, looking to my retirement the following year. Having served nearly 20 years in the military, it goes without saying that I was an avid supporter of strong defense and loved my country with every fiber of my being.

During the following year, as I watched Reagan begin the process of eroding America's image as a caring country, I myself suffered a crisis of confidence. While I gave Reagan strong marks for his firm stand against the Soviet Union, his administration's jettisoning of safety nets for the vulnerable in our own country, and its high handed way of dealing with our friends and potential friends abroad gave me pause.

After hanging up my uniform, rather than returning to the routine of an average American, more concerned about having enough snacks for the weekend football game, I joined the U.S. Foreign Service. I felt that our country was in for rough sledding, and if everyone who believed in projecting an image of a country that was willing to cooperate with others left government, we would be irretrievably lost.

As I look back on the 1980s; a period of coming of age for me; I quake inside at how close we came to stepping over the precipice; I saw the dangers, not that we were constantly trumpeting, but those that if we did not take care, would create for ourselves.