Shultz Recalls Reagan Years at Book, Author Luncheon in Irvine

As secretary of state during the 1980s, George P. Shultz had to contend with the Cold War, terrorism and a host of other pressing foreign policy issues. Although his new book provides a detailed examination of those tumultuous years, Shultz told a book-and-author luncheon Thursday that the Reagan Administration was not without its fun.

Citing the first presidential trip he took with Ronald Reagan, Shultz recalled the President making a toast at a late dinner that followed a full day of events in Brazil.

“He was a little tired and he wound up saying: ‘It is so nice to be here in Bolivia,’ ” Shultz said, grinning. “Everyone went bananas. The next day we learned that the Brazilians have a great sense of humor because we choppered into Sao Paulo and there was this huge banner which the Brazilians were holding which said: ‘The people of Bolivia welcome the President of Canada.’ ”

Shultz was one of three authors on the bill at The Times Orange County Edition’s sixth annual Book and Author Luncheon at the Irvine Marriott hotel.

Speaking before a sold-out crowd of nearly 900, Shultz was joined by suspense novelist Mary Higgins Clark (“I’ll Be Seeing You”) and National Public Radio correspondent Susan Stamberg, whose book, “Talk,” highlights 20 years of her interviews.

Stamberg, who culled 85 “conversations” for her book from the 20,000 interviews she has conducted over the past two decades, told a story of former First Lady Nancy Reagan emptying every ashtray in the room they were in before she sat down for their interview. And she spoke of Helen Hayes’ sweet tooth: Upon meeting the legendary actress, Stamberg presented her with a packet of M&Ms.; Hayes was so excited, Stamberg said, “that you would have thought I had given her a handful of diamonds.”

Clark, the best-selling “queen of suspense,” talked of her role as a “storyteller,” the importance of not becoming discouraged by rejection slips--an editor once wrote her that her “stories are light, slight and trite”--and offered this advice to aspiring writers: “Look at your bookshelves: What do you like to read?”

Shultz, who is now a distinguished fellow at the Hoover Institute on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University, said that in writing his book (“Turmoil and Triumph: My Years as Secretary of State”) he “tried to tell the story of what happened in years that turned out to be on the hinge of history.”

In referring to Reagan, Shultz said that “I’ve tried to describe him and to set out his contribution, which I think can be boiled down to two (characteristics): A capacity for vision and a stiff backbone.”

Reagan’s “backbone” was especially evident in 1988 during discussion about how to handle Panamanian dictator Manuel A. Noriega. At the time, Shultz said, Reagan was arguing to use the indictment against Noriega on drug trafficking charges as a bargaining tool to get him out of power and out of Panama. Vice President George Bush, Chief of Staff Howard H. Baker Jr., Atty. Gen. Edwin M. Meese III and other White House officials, however, disagreed.

Shultz said that an exasperated Reagan finally said: “I’m not giving in. This deal is better than going in and counting our dead. I just think you’re wrong as hell on this.”

President Bush ultimately ordered an invasion of Panama in December, 1989.

Shultz concedes that no one in Congress would have supported Reagan’s plan in 1988, “but if you think back in light of everything that happened, don’t you think President Reagan was right? At any rate, he was willing to stand up for what he thought.”