The 1988 Francis Boyer Lecture on Public Policy FREEDOM AND VIGILANCE Ronald Reagan With introductions and tributes by CHRISTOPHER C. DeMUTH GERALD R. FORD JEANE J. KIRKPATRICK IRVING KRISTOL American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research FREEDOM AND VIGILANCE The 1988 Francis Boyer Lecture on Public Policy FREEDOM AND VIGILANCE Ronald W. Reagan With introductions and tributes by CHRISTOPHER C. DeMuTH GERALD R. FORD ] EANE j. KIRKPATRICK IRVING KRISTOL MICHAEL NOVAK WILLARD C. BUTCHER American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research Washington, D.C. Distributed by arrangement with UPA, Inc. 4 720 Boston Way 3 Henrietta Street Lanham, MD 20706 London WC2E 8LU, England ISBN 0-8447-1387-2 <D 1988 by the American Enterprise Institute forPublic Policy Research, Washington, D.C. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission in writing from the American Enterprise Institute except in the case of brief quotations embodied in news articles, critical articles, or reviews. The views expressed in the publications of the American Enterprise Institute are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflectthe views of the staff, advisory panels, officers, or trustees of AEI. "American Enterprise Institute" and @) are registered service marks of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. Printed in the United States ofAmerica American EnterpriseInstitute 1150 Seventeenth Street, N. W., Washington, D.C. 20036 CONTENTS ABOUT THE FRANCIS BOYER LECTURES ON PUBLIC POLICY, Christopher C. DeMuth vu INTRODUCTIONS AND TRIBUTES Christopher C. DeM uth 3 Gerald R. Ford 6 Jeane]. Kirkpatrick 8 Irving Kristof 10 Michael Novak 12 Presentation of Boyer Award, Willard C. Butcher 15 THE 1988 FRANCIS BOYER LECTURE ON PUBLIC POLICY "Freedom and Vigilance," Ronald W. Reagan 19 v ABOUT THE FRANCIS BOYER LECTURES ON PUBLIC POLICY The American Enterprise Institute initiated the Francis Boyer Lectures on Public Policy in 1977 to examine the relationship between business and government in Ameri­ can society. The lectures are made possible by a gift from the SmithKline Beckman Corporation in memory of Mr. Francis Boyer ( 1893 - 1972), the late chairman of the board of the corporation and a distinguished business leader for many decades. The lecture is given annually by an eminent thinker who has developed notable insights on the relationship between the nation's private and public sectors. It is intended to illuminate central issues of public policy in contemporary America and contribute significantly to the dialogue by which the public interest is served. The Francis Boyer lecturer is selected by the American Enterprise Institute's Council of Academic Advisers. The Boyer Lecture is delivered in Washington, D.C., during the American Enterprise Institute's annual Policy Conference. These several days of seminars bring together government policy makers, business leaders, and scholars for the purpose of exploring the major policy problems facingthe United States and the world. The Francis Boyer Award for 1988 was conferred upon President Ronald Reagan. By giving the award for Vil the first time to a sitting head of state, we intended to recognize President Reagan's singular contributions to American political dialogue and public policy as his second term drew to a close. We also wished to mark the close relationship between the Reagan administration and AEI. More than forty Institute scholars served in senior government positions under President Reagan, ranging from the cabinet departments to the White House staff, fromthe regulatory agencies to the federal courts. The president's address, Freedom and Vigilance, was delivered before an audience of 1,600 guests at AEI's annual dinner on December 7, 1988. Earlier that day the president, accompanied by President-elect George Bush, had met with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev at Governors Island in New York, and much of his address was devoted to this meeting and to the dramatic changes in U.S.-Soviet relations during his tenure in office. The president's address was preceded by several introductions and special tributes by AEI scholars; we have reprinted these remarks here along with the president's Boyer Lecture. CHRISTOPHER C. DeMuTH President, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research December 1988 Vlll INTRODUCTIONS AND TRIBUTES Christopher C. DeMuth President, American EnterpriseInstitute President Reagan, you honor the American Enterprise Institute and the goals we share by being with us this evening and accepting AEI's Francis Boyer Award for 1988. Your years in office have had a transforming effect on Washington-and also on the American Enter­ prise Institute. AEI has been engaged in public policy research forforty-five years now. For most of these years, ours was a lonely voice crying in the wilderness. And how exhilarating, how deeply gratifying it was! As the Tom Lehrer ditty goes, "They may have had the best armies, but we had all the best songs." To dissent boldly, to demonstrate with analytical precision the follies of the great and powerful, to be gloriously on the attack against an implacable establishment-these were our accustomed roles, and we performed them with relish. But since you came to town things just haven't been the same. First you impressed into public service many of AEI's most accomplished scholars. Then, through your leadership, many of the ideas they and you had been writing about for so many years became actual policy. And finally, many of these ideas, when put to the test, yielded exactly the benefits you had predicted-for domestic prosperity, for national security and interna­ tional peace, for the spread of democratic capitalism around the world. CHRISTOPHER C. DcMUTH / 3 All this success has left those of us who were trained in the skills of dissent and debunking-thinking we had a lifetime's work ahead of us-in a very awkward position. The job retraining program does not apply to economists and political scientists; nor is import relief available, since your revolution has been so thoroughly American. Now I must say that AEI has not been altogether disarmed. We have, as you may have noticed, registered the occasional mild reproach, the polite and respectful suggestion for improvement; as you are yourself a man of ideas, you have surely understood our restlessness. And for all our innate skepticism, we have never been of the despairing, decline-of-the-West school of thought: from Wattenberg to Novak, from Kristal to Burns to Scalia, our iconoclasm has usually been that of the optimist and ever-hopeful reformer, just as yours has been. That you have actually achieved so many of the reforms we had hoped for is therefore reason for the deepest satisfaction-and a galvanizing reminder of the importance of our work in the years ahead, whatever transitory defeats or successes we may encounter. For you have taught us that ideas and power-the best songs and the best armies-are not the irreconcilable forces intellectuals have often (consolingly) supposed and can indeed be potent allies. At the same time, you have taught us that the policy ideas we at AEI traffic in-however true, however skillfully extracted from the tangle of human experience, however brilliantly pro­ pounded-are of small moment in practical affairs until they are catalyzed by that rare and ineffable human substance: political leadership. You have said, Mr. President, that facts are 4 / THE 1988 FRANCIS BOYER LECTURE stubborn things. I must quarrel (true to form!) with this proposition. Facts are not stubborn; they are merely inanimate. They acquire their capacity to stop or move the world only in the hands of men stubborn in the pursuit of large ideals-such as you have been, such as you have taught us to be. CHRISTOPHER C. DeMUTH / 5 Gerald R. Ford Thirty-eighth President ofthe United States and Distinguished Fellow, American Enterprise Institute I am delighted to be part of this tribute to President Ronald Reagan. I must say, President Reagan, you're not the first occupant of the White House to benefit from the wisdom of AEI scholars-nor the first to make ample contributions to AEI's research staff in return. Arthur Burns, Bob Bork, Nino Scalia, Jim Miller, and Larry Silberman are only a few of those who served with great distinction in my administration who later became promi­ nent members of the AEI team-and who were fit, willing, and able to return to public service under your admini­ stration. These examples illustrate the critical role AEI has come to play in American government-not only as a source of independent policy research of the highest quality but as a source of men and women who combine great intellectual abilities with practical experience in the rough-and-tumble world of politics. I know that President­ elect Bush-another individual who held important posts in the Reagan administration and the Ford administration and has been very closely associated with AEI over the years-will rely heavily on both the Institute's analyses and its people in the very challenging years ahead. Eleven years ago this evening I was honored to deliver AEI's first Boyer Lecture-an address that, Chris DeMuth reminds me, concluded with a ringing call for tax 6 / THE 1988 FRANCIS BOYER LECTURE reductions as the best key to economic progress. Let me assure you, it is a great pleasure and a high honor to be here tonight to hear President Reagan's address, with his views after an exciting and, I'm sure, productive day, and after eight years of outstanding leadership in the White House. President Reagan, I salute you for your superb achievements in office, and I want to assure you that there is life after Washington. We are both firm believers in individual liberty-and I know you will be as happy as I was to have a little of it back for yourself after living in the gilded cage on Pennsylvania Avenue.