March 1, 1981
Margaret Thatcher in Washington
In the television interview on “Face the Nation,” hosted by Barbara Walters, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher commented on questions of European security. Leonid Brezhnev had recently proposed a summit meeting to discuss a moratorium on nuclear weapons in Europe. Asked what she thought of this proposal, Thatcher replied that the Soviet Union presently has absolute superiority in tactical nuclear weapons in Europe. As long as this imbalance exists, a moratorium is out of the question. The security of Europe depends without a doubt on the United States.
Note
[Margaret Thatcher had come to Washington on February 27, 1981, at the invitation of President Reagan. The purpose of the visit was to establish first contacts with the new Administration. Thatcher was of the opinion that Brezhnev’s proposal for a summit meeting was premature and that his offer of a moratorium on nuclear weapons in Europe was deceptive. As, on the one hand, the Soviet Union had already deployed the SS-20 intermediate-range missiles, and, on the other hand, Europe had not as yet installed the Pershing II missiles, freezing the status quo would have given the Soviet Union “overwhelming superiority,” to which Europe would have remained exposed. That was neither for Thatcher nor for Ronald Reagan acceptable. (On her visit to Washington, see Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street Years, pp. 158-60.)]
South Bend, March 30, 1981
Not Again!
When this afternoon about 3 p.m. the news spread like wildfire that President Reagan, after delivering a speech having left the Washington Hilton Hotel, was shot at and wounded, the first reaction was disbelief and the outcry: “Not again!” As if time had shrunk, it could not have happened again. It took several hours until it was possible to get, to some extent, a clear picture of the incident. Only when word came from the George Washington University Hospital that the surgery went well and that the President is out of danger of life, one could breathe a sigh of relief.
The Press Secretary of the White House James Brady was seriously injured in the incident. With a bullet wound in his head, he is presently fighting for his life in the George Washington University Hospital.
Addendum
[The assassination attempt on President Reagan was the deed of a psychologically disturbed young man. The injury Reagan had suffered was much more serious than it had at first appeared to be. The bullet, closely passing his heart, penetrated the lung. It was a close encounter with death. James Brady remained handicapped and partially paralyzed. For a detailed description of the events on that fateful afternoon of March 30, 1981, in Washington, see Edmund Morris, Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan (New York: Random House, 1999), pp. 427-32. As a child Ronald Reagan was called “Dutch” by his parents. This affectionate nickname stayed with him for a long time.]