Part: 1234         Session: 12345         Page 473474475476477478479480481482483484485486487488489490491492493494495496497498499500501502503504505506507508509510511512 of 512

Yes.

Well, I think that Reagan was very guilty of wildly unnecessary, so-called defense -- military -- spending; wildly reduced social services; wild increase of the national debt along with reductions in taxes --

I know it's hard to not look at it totally from a hindsight point of view, but trying to get you back to where you were in the early 1980s, you wrote an article called “Tragicomedy, Act I,” December 10, 1981, where you said, “The intellectual springboard of this administration is not academia, it's not even supply-side academia. It isn't Wall Street. It isn't Middle America, the Pacific Coast or the Sun Belt. It is Hollywood.”

Hollywood! Well!

I wanted to ask you about the responses to that piece, internally, at the Times. Did you get a response from the publisher on that, or how did those pieces go across?

I don't think I ever got specific reproofs from the publisher about any of my very, very strongly anti-Reagan, very strongly anti-Watt, pro-environment pieces in that period. But I occasionally did get very strong notes of approbation from his mother -- from Iphigene Sulzberger --

Really?