A Visit With Colleen January 2023

Did You Know? - Reagan wanted to get involved in the entertainment industry. So, following his graduation from college in 1932, he auditioned for jobs at many different radio stations. He was hired by the University of Iowa to broadcast football games. Although he didn't make a lot at the University of Iowa job, other individuals recognized his talent. He was hired by another radio station in Davenport for a staff announcer's job. He quickly found another job as an announcer for the Chicago Cubs baseball team.

Did You Know? - Ronald Reagan started out in life as a Democrat and supported the New Deal efforts of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Reagan officially became a Republican in 1962, but he had grown more conservative during the 1950s as he toured as a General Electric spokesman.

Reason for Becoming a Republican - When Ronald Reagan began his political career in the 1950s, he was the official spokesperson for the GE Company, preparing and giving speeches on GE's behalf. He professed to be a liberal Democrat and was a member of the Democratic Party at that time, even though many of his stances and views were supportive of Republican ideals. Additionally, he openly supported the candidacies for presidential nominations for both Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon.

He gave many speeches for the GE company, most of them being written from a non-partisan point of view, though they were often big-business friendly and conservative in nature.

Because of his acting experience, Reagan delivered most of these speeches via the platform given to him by GE in the form of his show, which was cancelled in 1962 when GE dropped him as a representative.

By 1962 he had already recorded a spoken word album condemning socialized medicine, along with backing Republican candidates, and had decided to make the official change from liberal Democrat to Republican.

Reagan endorsed Barry Goldwater for United States President in 1964 and gave several televised speeches for him. When he delivered his "Time for Choosing" speech, he raised over $1 million dollars for the Goldwater campaign.

In his speech, Reagan spoke fervently about his belief in a smaller government, condemning the use of coercion and force by governments as a means of controlling the public stating,

"so we have come to a time for choosing."

Even though Goldwater did not win, many people liked what they saw in Reagan.

He switched to the Republican Party because politics and his views shifted and his ideals and political beliefs were more in line with the Republican viewpoint.

When Ronald Reagan was asked why he left the Democratic Party, he simply stated,

I didn't leave the Democratic party, the Democratic Party left me.

Did You Know?  The Resolute desk, also known as the Hayes desk, is a nineteenth-century partners desk used by several presidents of the United States in the White House as the Oval Office desk, including the five most recent presidents. The desk was a gift from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880 and was built from the oak timbers of the British Arctic exploration ship HMS Resolute. The 1,300-pound (590-kilogram) desk was created by William Evenden, a skilled joiner at Chatham Dockyard in Kent, probably from a design by Morant, Boyd, & Blanford.

Did You Know? - The Resolute desk was received at the White House on November 23, 1880, and shortly thereafter was moved to the second floor. It stayed in the President's Office and President's Study until the White House Reconstruction from 1948 to 1952. After the reconstruction, it was placed in the Broadcast Room where Dwight D. Eisenhower used it during both radio and television broadcasts. Jackie Kennedy rediscovered the desk and had it brought to the Oval Office in 1961.

The desk was removed from the White House after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and went on a traveling exhibition with artifacts of the Kennedy Presidential Library. It was then put on display in the Smithsonian Institution. President Jimmy Carter brought the desk back to the Oval Office in 1977, where it has remained since, save that George H. W. Bush used the C&O desk in the Oval Office but kept the Resolute desk in the White House. T

he desk has been modified twice. Franklin Roosevelt requested the addition of a door with the presidential seal to conceal his leg braces and a safe, but it was not installed until 1945, after his death. A 2-inch-tall (5.1 cm) plinth was added to the desk in 1961 and replaced in 1986.

Many replicas have been made of the Resolute desk. The first was commissioned in 1978 for a permanent display at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, Massachusetts, and since then five other presidential libraries and many museums, libraries, tourist attractions, and private homes and offices have acquired copies of the desk.

Did You Know? - Reagan had several nicknames throughout his life, but his first was given to him by his father "Jack" Reagan shortly after he was born on February 6, 1911 in Tampico, Illinois. Marveling at his son's heft, Jack referred to the baby as a "fat little Dutchman," a nickname strengthened by the "Dutch boy" haircuts he received as a child. According to Reagan's autobiography, when he was older he began asking people to call him Dutch because he didn't feel "'Ronald' was rugged enough for a young red-blooded American boy."

Did You Know? - The KG-84A and KG-84C are encryption devices developed by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) to ensure secure transmission of digital data. The KG-84C is a Dedicated Loop Encryption Device (DLED), and both devices are General-Purpose Telegraph Encryption Equipment (GPTEE).

The KG-84A is primarily used for point-to-point encrypted communications via landline, microwave, and satellite systems. The KG-84C is an outgrowth of the U.S. Navy high frequency (HF) communications program and supports these needs.

The KG-84A and KG-84C are devices that operate in simplex, half-duplex, or full-duplex modes. The KG-84C contains all of the KG-84 and KG-84A modes, plus a variable update counter, improved HF performance, synchronous out-of-sync detection, asynchronous cipher text, plain text, bypass, and European TELEX protocol.

The KG-84 (A/C) is certified to handle data at all levels of security. The KG-84 (A/C) is a Controlled Cryptographic Item (CCI) and is unclassified when unkeyed. Keyed KG-84 equipment assumes the classification level equal to that of the keying material used.

Did You Know? - Reagan really did enjoy jelly beans. According to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, his favorite flavor was licorice. Reagan started eating jelly beans in 1967 as he was trying to quit a pipe-smoking habit. He switched to Jelly Bellies a decade later.