Ronald Reagan Made Central America a Killing Field

[Judi Lynn]

9. It may easy be that you're unaware of a longer view of Reagan's history, but it does extend.....

back to his earlier days in California, when his career as an actor was less than stellar, and he became the head of the Screen Actors Guild, and started throwing fellow actors under the Joe McCarthy Communist Witch Hunt bus:

Hollywood blacklist


The blacklist begins (1946–1947)
On July 29, 1946, William R. Wilkerson, publisher and founder of The Hollywood Reporter, published a "TradeView" column entitled "A Vote For Joe Stalin". It named as Communist sympathizers Dalton Trumbo, Maurice Rapf, Lester Cole, Howard Koch, Harold Buchman, John Wexley, Ring Lardner Jr., Harold Salemson, Henry Meyers, Theodore Strauss, and John Howard Lawson. In August and September 1946, Wilkerson published other columns containing names of numerous purported Communists and sympathizers. They became known as "Billy's List" and "Billy's Blacklist".[13][14] In 1962, when Wilkerson died, his THR obituary stated he had "named names, pseudonyms and card numbers and was widely credited with being chiefly responsible for preventing communists from becoming entrenched in Hollywood production – something that foreign film unions have been unable to do."[15] In a 65th-anniversary article in 2012, Wilkerson's son apologized for the paper's role in the blacklist, stating that his father was motivated by revenge for his own thwarted ambition to own a studio.[16]

In October 1947, drawing upon the list named in The Hollywood Reporter, the House Un-American Activities Committee subpoenaed a number of persons working in the Hollywood film industry to testify at hearings. The committee had declared its intention to investigate whether Communist agents and sympathizers had been planting propaganda in American films.[14][17]

The hearings began with appearances by Walt Disney and Ronald Reagan, then president of the Screen Actors Guild. Disney testified that the threat of Communists in the film industry was a serious one, and named specific people who had worked for him as probable Communists.[18] Reagan testified that a small clique within his union was using "communist-like tactics" in attempting to steer union policy, but that he did not know if those (unnamed) members were communists or not, and that in any case he thought the union had them under control.[19] (Later his first wife, actress Jane Wyman, stated in her biography written with Joe Morella [1985] that Reagan's allegations against friends and colleagues led to tension in their marriage, eventually resulting in their divorce.) Actor Adolphe Menjou declared: "I am a witch hunter if the witches are Communists. I am a Red-baiter. I would like to see them all back in Russia."[20]

More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_blacklist

It picked up speed when he was the Governor of California, and started acting as the hand of right-wing racist reactionary god, attacking poor people of color who needed government assistance, making it a central point of his public posture, then moved on to end government involvement in providing care for mentally ill Americans, closing hospital care sections for them, literally sending them out into the streets without anywhere to go. Some towns actually herded them onto buses and sent them to other towns.

He also prided himself on his extreme treatment of war protesters during the VietNam war.

~ ~ ~

Ronald Reagan’s Long-Hidden Racist Conversation With Richard Nixon
In newly unearthed audio, the then–California governor disparaged African delegates to the United Nations.

JULY 30, 2019
Tim Naftali
Clinical associate professor of history at NYU

The day after the United Nations voted to recognize the People’s Republic of China, then–California Governor Ronald Reagan phoned President Richard Nixon at the White House and vented his frustration at the delegates who had sided against the United States. “Last night, I tell you, to watch that thing on television as I did,” Reagan said. “Yeah,” Nixon interjected. Reagan forged ahead with his complaint: “To see those, those monkeys from those African countries—damn them, they’re still uncomfortable wearing shoes!” Nixon gave a huge laugh.

https://soundcloud.com/user-154380542

More:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/ronald-reagans-racist-conversation-richard-nixon/595102/

~ ~ ~

US citizens at the time he was doing these things, long before his Presidency, were well aware of the path he took to get there, and it was an unpleasant one, I'm sorry to say. I feel sorry for his biological son when I see him on TV, as he is such a bright, personable man, and I regret he has had to pretend he is proud of his dad's career, as it's clear he cared for him.

Reagan of course had so many supporters, just like Nixon, and they are clearly everywhere now as evidenced by the awakening created by Trump which brought the very loud "silent majority" out in droves.