Nofziger Unleashes His Poetic Inner Self

0 Comments | Insight on the News, June 19, 2000 | by Stephen Goode

Some of the biography is very good, but the problem is you don't know what is fact and what is fiction.

Insight: Didn't Morris complain about the "mystery" of Reagan and his greatness, how he couldn't get a handle on Reagan's personality?

LN: There ain't no mystery to Ronald Reagan -- Morris just couldn't figure him out. But I will say this: From the time I first met him (and many people who know him will tell you the same thing) there was a kind of veil so that you cannot get all the way into Ronald Reagan, which I think speaks well for him. Why should it be his duty to tell us his innermost thoughts and beliefs and loves and hates?

There's always a little reserve in Reagan, and I think that's one of the things that will continue to be attractive and appealing about him over the centuries.

Insight: When you think of Reagan, which of his characteristics stands out strongest in your mind?

LN: Several things about Reagan are unusual in a public man. He was not a typical politician at all, but a private man in public life. Most politicians -- those people who live, eat and breathe politics -- like to sit around and talk about politics and tell political war stories. Reagan didn't do that. His war stories were movie war stories and Hollywood war stories. He loved that. He never walked away in his own mind from Hollywood or his career there.

Another thing about Reagan is that he was always a nice man. More than anything else, the thing that strikes me about him is that when I first met Reagan back in 1965 he was a nice, decent, courteous, considerate individual. When he left the White House in 1989, he was still a nice, decent, courteous, considerate individual.

He never got a fat head. He'd never gotten to the place he believed he was better than anybody else. He never reached the point where he wouldn't listen to you and where you couldn't argue with him or kid with him. He never changed as a human being. He got smarter, obviously, as he had more experience, but he never changed as a human being.

Insight: That's unusual, because Washington and other political towns have the reputation of ruining character.

LN: Oh, this town [laughs]! I always remember what happened to Bob Haldeman. I knew Bob in California before he got to be chief of staff [in the Nixon administration]. A nice fellow. Not particularly likeable, but a nice enough fellow. Got into the White House and he was the worst kind of arrogant bully. Got out of the White House and then out of jail, and he turned right back into the nice fellow he'd always been.

But you know a lot of people come here and they forget that they're admired and catered to and invited out not because of who they are, but because of the job they hold. They can't understand it when they no longer have the job and "society" in this town pushes them over to one side.

Insight: It's difficult to imagine Reagan ever worrying publicly about the "legacy" he's leaving the country.

LN: No, not Reagan. Never Reagan. The people who worried about his legacy were those around him in his second term. If they had left him alone, he probably would have done even better, because people who worry about their legacy don't act in the best interests of the country; they act in the best interests of themselves. I think this is what happened with Clinton. He's not interested in the country; he's interested in how he will appear in history books.