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RONALD
REAGAN LIBRARY & AIR FORCE ONE
Presidential Museum of 40th President
On
September 6, 2011, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation will be
hosting the Reagan Centennial GOP Candidates Debate at the Reagan
Foundation Library and Museum, where undoubtedly all the Republican candidates
will invoke the conservative smaller government ideals and fond memory
of the nation’s
40th President. And just as surely, images of the Air Force One Presidential
jet and
longing for a return of “Morning In America” will draw a
whole new generation of visitors on a pilgrimage to the museum of presidential
history
northwest of
Los Angeles.
Our
great Americans of history, founding fathers and great presidents of
the past get enshrined in symbols and in physical sites. Abraham Lincoln,
George Washington and Thomas Jefferson have architectural shines in the
capitol city, faces of later presidents are carved on Mt Rushmore. We
don’t
carve great stone monuments much anymore. The modern shrine for a president
is the Presidential Library. There are two in California (the
Nixon Library is further south in Yorba Linda near Disneyland). The
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Museum and Air Force One Exhibit
in Simi
Valley
California,
certainly
fits that role for Ronald Wilson Reagan. I’ll have to admit for
full disclosure that Ronald Reagan is not my personal hero. But on a
recent visit to the institution among the grassy hills of Southern California,
I had to buy some Ronald Reagan Presidential Seal souvenir golf balls,
and a logo golf towel as a gift for my brother - who sees things a bit
differently than do I. The bronze laconic statue of a relaxed Ronald
Reagan in his western garb from his retirement days on the ranch outside
the door of his library is perhaps more California casual than the columned
marble solemnity of Lincoln‘s, but the journey inside is equally
as reverential.
Ronald Reagan Museum
The
museum at the library has been recently renovated in 2011 in time for
the centennial of his birth in 1911, and an impressive experience,
worth a visit for those of any political stripe, though perhaps more
emotionally fulfilling for those more attuned to the Reagan ideal. The
museum begins with a photo opportunity for the family to gather around
life-sized statues of Ronald and Nancy. Then, a self-guided journey through
the life story of Ronald Reagan, from his youth and college football
days, his acting career, to President of the Screen Actors Guild, Governor
of California and President of the United States. Eighteen new galleries
pay tribute to his accomplishments and his philosophy. Interactive exhibits
allow the visitor to act in a movie scene with Ronald Reagan, read his
handwritten diary, turning the pages on a digital screen, stand at the
podium behind the Teleprompters and deliver the inaugural address. Ronald
Reagan’s sonorous follows through every hall, with speeches from
phases of his political life and his lifelong love affair with Nancy.
The exhibit turns somber in the attempted assassination, surprisingly
early in his term and ends with his days on the Rancho del Cielo in Santa
Barbara. Nancy is ever present, including a collection of her gowns and
dresses.
The Oval Office Replica
Central
to the museum is the replica of Ronald Reagan’s Oval Office,
furnished as he occupied it. There’s actually a bit of Democratic
presidential memorabilia in the Reagan Library exhibits as well, like
a subversive reminder that after all, U.S. Presidents don’t get
all their own stuff. The great desk in the Oval Office, known as the
Resolute
Desk, made from the oak timbers of the H.M.S. Resolute, a captured British
ship returned to England and given as a present by Queen Victoria, was
used by every President, Democratic and Republican, since Rutherford
B. Hayes, (except for Johnson, Nixon and Ford). It is the desk seen in
the photo of little Jon-Jon Kennedy playing underneath. The Oval Office
recreation around it is all Reagan, the western art, bronzed saddles,
and jar of
Jelly
Bellies. It is rather like standing in the presence, reverentially quiet
and muted, as if waiting for the great man to return to office.
Air Force One
A must see for anyone interested in presidential history is Air Force
One, tail number 27000, the Flying White House, which served seven
U.S Presidents from 1973 up to 2001, including Presidents Nixon, Carter,
Ford, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. For
President Reagan, this was the plane in which he hand-wrote many of
his speeches, signed important legislation and even officially started
the Daytona Beach, Florida NASCAR race from his phone. The plane is
mounted with its tires on pedestals facing a massive wall of glass
as if it might fly out of the hanger at any moment.
The tour through Air Force One begins with a photo op before boarding
(photo to be collected afterward), then a stroll through the narrow aisle
of the plane, with a look into the presidential office, the staff room,
press rooms and galleys. On board you’ll find “the Football” the
actual briefcase full of nuclear codes, which followed the president
where ever he went. Below the gleaming aluminum wings is a motorcade
of one of Reagan’s presidential limousines with the license plate “Gipper” and
Secret Service Suburban escort vehicles. The other presidential aircraft
on display is a Marine One helicopter which flew President Lyndon Johnson.
The plane stands over the museum snack bar, an Irish Pub, a real one
from Ballyporeen, Ireland which Mr. Reagan visited on a diplomatic trip
in 1984, reassembled in the Air Force One Pavilion.
Berlin Wall
“Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! " went
the world famous speech made from Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate on
June 12, 1987, and a symbol for the end of the Cold War. The Berlin Wall
came down two and half years later on November 9, 1989, when President
Reagan was no longer in office (see Fall of Berlin Wall). The words were
part of a deliberate strategy to move the Soviets to the end of the vastly
expensive
weapons
race.
On April 12, 1990, a 9 ½ foot high, 3 ton section of the Berlin
Wall, covering in graffiti arrived at the Ronald Reagan Presidential
Library and Museum. A walk through the recreated wall exhibit explores
the chess game relationship and numerous diplomatic summit meetings between
Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, which lead toward détente and the
ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union. The actual section of the wall
is on display outside, near where Ronald Reagan is buried.
Reagan Memorial
Following
his death after a long bout with Alzheimers on June 5, 2004, President
Ronald Reagan was buried on the grounds of the Reagan Foundation
Library. A short path leads to along to the semi-circular granite memorial
facing
the
Pacific
Ocean,
rather subdued compared to Grant's Tomb. Every February 6th on
his birthday,
a
celebration of his life is held at the Memorial, with the Marine
Corps from Camp Pendleton placing a wreath on the gravesite, accompanied
by
patriotic music from the military band and a 21-gun salute. This annual
event is open to the public and free to attend.
Visiting the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Air Force One
The
library museum campus is located off the 33 Moorpark Freeway at Madera
Road exit, near Thousand Oaks, which can be approached from the 101
Ventura Freeway or 118 Simi Valley Freeway. The regular museum hours
are 10 am to 5 pm daily (except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s
Day). Admission is $12 for adults (18-61) $9 Seniors (over 62) and $6
for Youth (11-17), children under 11 free. You can rent a handheld audiovisual
tour museum guide for $7 dollars. This device allows you to take pictures
which will be emailed to you when you turn it in. Photos are allowed
throughout the museum, except inside Air Force One. Guided group tours
are available for 15 or more. Two restaurant options are available, the
Reagan Country Kitchen Restaurant and the Ronald Reagan Irish Pub. A
wide range of Reagan and Presidential Seal memorabilia is available in
the gift shop. There is free parking - which makes up for the price of
the golf balls. © Bargain
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Reagan
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