Peggy Noonan’s book “What I Saw at the Revolution” is a memoir about her time at the White House during President Reagan’s time in office. In this book, Noonan gives a little background about her coming of age and becoming a writer at CBS. She then moves on to talk about her experiences in the White House as a woman amongst many men. She also reflects on her time writing speeches for President Reagan and his Vice at the time George H. W. Bush, some of which to this day are iconic. This paper intends to talk about her book and make connections with events that happened before and during her time as the president’s writer.
The book begins with her talking about her parent having two girls and wanting their third child to be a boy. But when she was born and they realized she was a girl, the doctor said, “At least this is one child who does not have to go to war.” Noonan was born in 1950, just a few years after World War II when boys aged 18 to 25 were being drafted into the military. In the year she was born, the U.S. had gotten involved in the Korean War months earlier with claims to contain communism. So, during this time America was in a string of wars.
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The American people who were in supported President Truman's wanting to get involved with the Korean War because, of tensions that were still present from the Cold War but as time went on, Americans realized they had made the wrong judgment getting into a war that had nothing to do with them and wanted American troops pulled off the war. They feared that the involvement would lead to another war, so they wanted America out and respected the UN’s efforts to try and promote peace.
Moving forward, Noonan goes on to graduate from college and starts working with CBS as a radio commentary writer. She later becomes a news writer in Boston. During this time, even though she does not make mention of this, Jimmy Carter was president of America, and the country was facing some energy crisis. President Carter decided to address this issue during his address to the Nation speech of 1979. Though the speech focused on other goals for the nation, it focused more on the energy crisis and how to deal with it. Carter outlined ways as to how the government planned to deal with this crisis like cutting dependence on foreign nations and developing alternate energy sources etc.
Unfortunately for Carter, California Governor Ronald Reagan was nominated by the republican party. Noonan was a supporter of Reagan and she makes mention of being one of two people at CBS offices who support Reagan. Reagan during his acceptance speech convention, made the people feel empowered. As an actor, Reagan knew how to come off and look convincing. He also called out the bad work that Carter had done in office “Can anyone look at the record of this Administration and say Well done?”
President Carter over his four years in office had seen the economy worsen, energy crisis, and other international issues. Reagan did not have to say much or attack him because the people felt the uneasiness. During the presidential debate, Carter attacked Reagan as a war hawk willing to start nuclear wars for calling for nuclear build-up during the Cold War. Carter also tried to make Reagan look like he did not care about the people due to his stance against Medicare.
Reagan looked the more convincing and relaxed during the debate even though he seemed to be at of the most attacks. He defended Carter’s Medicare accusation by saying he only stood against it because it had certain bills attached to it, that he did not believe in. At the end of the debate, Reagan in his closing statement asked, “Are you better off than you were four eyes ago?” a question which I believe got a lot of voters including Noonan thinking and reflecting on the previous years. This question carried a lot of substance. It made you look at not just how your life had been but also how the country was being run; was it for the better or for the worse?
Reagan wins the elections and becomes president. Over the next four years, Noonan says she listened to the president and she noticed he was tired. Through this, she realized what she wanted to do “I yearned to help the president whose views I shared, I ached to write his words.” As a supporter of Reagan, Noonan noticed Reagan's speeches were not as she used to know them and wanted to be his writer since they shared the same views. Fortunately for her the was a writing position open and she was able to get the job.
As the book got further, she talked about the process of writing speeches for the president. She did not just up and write a speech, advisors had to make a decision, and some research had to be done and other stuff before she did her writing. She recalls writing many speeches during her time in the White House but one that stood out was the D-day speech.
The D-Day speech is something that has become a part of American politics. Every president after that horrific event happened has given a speech about it. Europeans and even Americans, I believe to be a soft spot for this very day due to how horrific this day was even though the Allies got the victory. And for Noonan to write a speech concerning such a day I could only imagine what she went through.
According to Noonan, she read books and previous speeches about D-Day, knowing she had to pack a lot into it and make it strong enough to touch Americans. She said, “A good speech is a sausage skin,” she wrote. “The stronger it is the more you shove in.” I believe she understood the speech was important and she delivered it. One thing about the speech that stood out was her suggestion that Reagan speak directly to the men from Pointe du Huc. The impact the speech had could have been a factor in Reagan’s reelection as president because the people could relate and felt like Reagan was a man of goodwill. I have seen the speech and it is very inspirational. People relate more to people they can take inspiration from, and this speech did that for Reagan.
Reagan was a man of goodwill, by the account of Noonan, talks about how Reagan responded to letters from the American people and made people who came to the White House feel at home and important. I could say that his compassion served as a tool as to why he cared about the people and it also served as a drive to make him want to do better, hence being reelected to continue doing good work for the American people.
Noonan went on to write more speeches for Reagan including his 1985 inaugural speech. As Reagan's time in office was coming to an end, George W. Bush ran for president and as Reagan went into his second term Noonan helped with his speeches, speeches that made an impact and helped Bush win the Presidency. Noonan recounts Reagan’s final days and how they had to go through drafts to find the perfect speech and helped Bush with his inaugural speech that aimed to promote unity and strength as a nation.
In conclusion, Peggy Noonan’s book tells the story of her time in the White House as a writer for President Reagan and Bush. The book does not focus much on the White House and its affairs but rather on her experiences in the house and some of the things she was involved in. Her writing did make an impact on the people of America even though she does not acknowledge it, she did, and it is with her words Reagan looked to be a good speaker.
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