| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
|
Transcripts of oral history
interviews of the Ronald W. Reagan Presidency, 1995-1996
(continued) |
|
Oral history interview with James
Watt, 1996-05-28
(continued) |
|
Interview conducted by Deborah Hart Strober and
Gerald S. Strober on May 28, 1996 ; recorded via telephone. |
|
Watt was U.S. Secretary of the Interior, 1981-1983.
Watt resigned in 1983 after making a series of controversial statements and
policy decisions on environmental issues, rock and roll bands performing on the
National Mall, and affirmative action. |
|
Watt discusses his appointment as U.S. Secretary of the Interior; U.S.
President Ronald Reagan's decision to use the Interior Department to support
energy development for military expansion; and the assassination attempt made
on Reagan's life. |
|
BOX-FOLDER 6/48 |
Oral history interview with Caspar
Weinberger, 1996-01-10
|
|
Interview conducted by Deborah Hart Strober and
Gerald S. Strober on January 10, 1996 ; recorded via telephone. |
|
Weinberger was U.S. Secretary of Defense, 1981-1987.
In 1992, he was indicted by a Federal grand jury on charges relating to
Weinberger's role in covering up the Iran-Contra Affair, but received a pardon
by U.S. President George H. W. Bush later that same year. |
|
Weinberger discusses his appointment and role as U.S. Secretary of Defense; the
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI); the 1983 U.S. intervention in Grenada; the
Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) known as the MX missile; U.S.
intervention in Lebanon; the Iran-Contra Affair; convicted Israeli spy Jonathan
Jay Pollard; Soviet Union General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev; and the
Reykjavik, Iceland summit meeting between Gorbachev and U.S. President Ronald
Reagan. |
|
BOX-FOLDER 6/49 |
Oral history interview with
Benjamin Weir, 1996-07-11
|
|
Interview conducted by Deborah Hart Strober and
Gerald S. Strober on July 11, 1996 ; recorded via telephone. |
|
Weir was a minister in the Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.) serving as a missionary in Lebanon and Syria, 1953-1985. In May 1984,
Weir was taken hostage in Beirut, Lebanon by members of Islamic Jihad and held
until September 1985, when he was released as part of the arms-for-hostages
negotiations between the United States and Iran. He later served as national
moderator of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 1986-1987. |
|
Weir discusses his imprisonment by Iranian funded terrorists in Lebanon; Weir's
return to the United States after being released, and his meetings with U.S.
National Security Council staff member Oliver North, Vice President George H.
W. Bush and President Ronald Reagan; Weir's views of his captors, and concerns
by U.S. authorities that Weir was uncooperative in helping to identify the
hostage takers; and his views of the effectiveness of the arms-for-hostages
negotations between the United States and Iran. |
|
BOX-FOLDER 6/50 |
Oral history interview with John
Whitehead, 1995-12-22
|
|
Interview conducted by Deborah Hart Strober and
Gerald S. Strober on December 22, 1995 ; recorded at New York City, New
York. |
|
Whitehead was senior partner and co-chairman of
investment bank Goldman Sachs, 1976-1984, and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State,
1985-1989. |
|
Whitehead discusses his recruitment by U.S. Secretary of State George Pratt
Shultz to serve as Shultz's Deputy Secretary; Whitehead's duties as Deputy
Secretary of State; and the hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro. |
|
BOX-FOLDER 6/51 |
Oral history interview with
Charles Wick, 1996-07-01
|
|
Interview conducted by Deborah Hart Strober and
Gerald S. Strober on July 1, 1996 ; recorded at Malibu, California. |
|
Wick was Director of the U.S. Information Agency,
1981-1989. |
|
Wick discusses his personal friendship with Ronald Reagan; working on Reagan's
1979-1980 U.S. Presidential election campaign; and President Reagan's character
and personality. |
|
BOX-FOLDER 6/52 |
Oral history interview with
Dessima Williams, 1995-11-14
|
|
Interview conducted by Deborah Hart Strober and
Gerald S. Strober on November 14, 1995 ; recorded at Cambridge,
Massachusetts. |
|
Williams was a Grenadian citizen living in America
who from 1979-1983 served the Grenadian government under Maurice Bishop's New
Jewel Movement in numerous diplomatic capacities, inclusing permanent
representative to the Organization of American States (OAS), deputy governor of
the World Bank, permanent representative to the United Nations, and
ambassador-delegate to the United States. The latter appointment was not
accepted by the U.S. government. In 1984, on the one-year anniversary of the
U.S. invasion of Grenada, Williams was arrested for having an expired passport,
but was later released. |
|
Williams discusses the U.S. President Ronald Reagan's foreign policy in the
Caribbean region; Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice Bishop; the 1983 coup that
ousted Bishop's government; U.S. medical students in Grenada during the coup;
assertions that Grenada's New Jewel Movement government was interested in
exporting Communism throughout the region; and the 1983 U.S. invasion of
Grenada. |
|
BOX-FOLDER 6/53 |
Oral history interview with Oliver
Wright and Marjory Wright, 1995-07-04
|
|
Interview conducted by Deborah Hart Strober and
Gerald S. Strober on July 4, 1995 ; recorded at Purley, England. |
|
Oliver Wright was Ambassador of Great Britain to the
United States, 1982-1986. Marjory Wright was Oliver's wife. |
|
Oliver Wright discusses the U.S. President Ronald Reagan's image as viewed by
Europeans; the development of Reagan's anti-Communist world view; First Lady
Nancy Reagan; U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig; U.S. Vice President
George H. W. Bush; the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI); the 1982 Falkland
Islands War between Great Britain and Argentina; and the 1983 U.S. invasion of
former British dependency and Commonweath member Grenada. Marjory Wright
discusses Reagan's personal charisma. |
