WAR & CONSCIENCE

Clyde Beane

"Reagan was a visionary." "He was the commander." "You have the commander who makes the decisions — and you have the subordinates who do a lot of the studying of different matters and bring them to the commander to decide upon."

"He was very good at delegating." "He generated TRUST in the American people!"

Beane had always been interested in writing, even back in junior high school, writing for the school paper in Little Rock Arkansas. He worked as an intern for the NBC radio affiliate in his hometown, moved to Los Angeles. became a disc-jockey for radio station KUTE, read the UPI wire service reports, re-wrote and delivered some of those into newscasts, later went to work for UPI, moved over to CNS, the local L.A. wire service — then had a stint in the news departments of each of the Big Three T.V. networks in L.A. — (No 24 hr. cable news back then) — always with an interest in politics.

Beane ended up as a reporter for the Santa Ana Register Newspaper, now the Orange County Register. When in January of 1966, after spending three months of the previous year visiting and talking with Spencer-Roberts ("We had some spirited, lively conversations.") and expressing his interest in working for Ronald Reagan, he was hired with the caveat that he would be working in the Press Relations Department for the newly appointed Press Director, Lyn Nofziger.

Clyde Beane and I worked out of the same steaming-hot, dusty and, with the leaky roof and an occasional rain storm, musty old building we called the Headquarters, in the Miracle Mile section of the Wilshire District of L.A. At one time the shopping hub of West Central L.A. on the main thoroughfare that leads to the La Brea Tar Pits, Beverly Hills, Westwood and the Pacific Ocean.

It was spacious, available, suffered from functional obsolescence, but was highly visible and close to the Spencer-Roberts' offices.

In the interview with Beane, I reminded him of several key people who worked alongside us and in neighboring offices of the H.Q., every day, such as one of the most serious, focused and brilliant of them all, long-time Southern California business leader, almost a father-figure to RR; well known auto dealer and key member of the Kitchen Cabinet, Holmes Tuttle. His personal conversations with me, many times, were conducted while I stood at the entrance to the office he shared with respected L.A. banker, Ed Mills.

Mr. Tuttle would be standing over his long desks and tables pushed together to accommodate his spreadsheets showing donations and outgo for the campaign or, more than likely, actually on his knees on the floor with piles and piles of — checks — which had come in from citizens all over everywhere, who wanted to make some contribution to Reagan's spirited campaign to unseat the Democrat kingpin of the powerful political machine controlling California, Governor Pat Brown. I asked Beane if he remembered some of these vignettes. "No!" Beane, however, did offer this comment, "I noted that the Kitchen Cabinet, as they were called, showed great respect for and deference to Lyn Nofziger. I noticed that they were anxious to get his opinion — his 'take' on things — and really had towering respect for him, which didn't surprise me — but it sure was noticeable!"

Actually, Clyde didn't focus on anything, other than his tasks and job at hand, rather than the bigger picture. Over and over again I would ask him if he remembered something so obvious to anyone working in that venue or with those people, that it would be nearly impossible not to see or to ignore, certain blatant characteristics, idiosyncrasies or features of the volunteers, the staffers, the jobs various individuals were doing — or the surroundings — but Clyde was oblivious to outside forces of any kind, unless they affected the candidate or were generated by the candidate! We're not talking about dementia here — that is just Beane's focused nature — and something Lyn Nofziger, Stu Spencer and Bill Roberts, under the ever-watchful eyes of Nancy Reagan, insisted on from everyone;

TOTAL DEDICATION!

* * *

I asked Clyde if he remembered the first time he met Ronald Reagan.

He nearly shouted, which was not the norm for a quiet, keep-to-himself-kind of guy like Clyde, "Yes, Yes!" "That was in 1964. I was working as a press representative for the California Goldwater for President Campaign Committee. Their State Headquarters was in Westwood, near UCLA. Reagan was sharing an office with his campaign co-Chair, banker M. Philip Davis in an upstairs office and I was shown in to meet Mr. Davis and, of course, I was especially excited about meeting Ronald Reagan. "I remember — it was a perfunctory handshake — I thought he seemed kind of tentative — and I always have felt that RR had this certain reserve about him — nothing like the exaggerations that 'He was not enigmatic in the least'— like he's portrayed in that terrible, so-called biography, DUTCH, by Edmund Morris — but he did have his reserve and I always observed that."

"I think that's just what I was seeing for the first time — was this certain reserve that he had. It wasn't that he didn't shake hands cordially and smile — but I mean — one time when we were in the Governor's Office in Sacramento — he slapped me on the back, real big — I NEVER saw him slap anybody else on the back or do very much of that kind of thing. He was with a group of dignitaries — all suits — and I was just walking down a corridor there in the Executive Office suite and ran into him — I was absolutely startled when he slapped me on the back and said, "Well Clyde, How have you been?" And some other similar questions. He didn't usually do that."

How did you feel about that? I asked Clyde.

"Oh, I felt exultant — jubilant — you know — Great! Great!!! I felt great being asked about that, by the governor, in the presence of his guests and — he really was very warm — (he rarely forgot a staffer's or guest's name) — you know he could be very warm when he wanted to be; and he was! I think I just came along at the right time," he said and laughed. "He must have just cemented the deal that made him feel good or something — then here I...