Beschreibung:

REAGAN, Ronald. Draft autograph letter signed ("R. R."), as Governor of California, to April Calhoun, n.d. [May 1969]. 1 page, 4to, with Calhoun's letter to Reagan . "IT HAD NEVER BEEN MY INTENTION TO ENTER POLITICS" GOVERNOR REAGAN ANSWERS A HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT'S QUESTIONNAIRE ABOUT HIS POLITICAL CAREER AND AMBITIONS. Young April Calhoun was a student at Baldwin High School in Pacific Palisades, California, taking a class with the very Sixties-ish title: "American Problems." She chose to write about the state's governor and her teacher encouraged her to write Reagan directly. He answers her with disarming candor. To her first question, "What made you decide to enter politics?" Reagan says: "Sometimes I'm not really sure about the answer...myself. It had never been my intention to enter politics; in fact, I was most positive it would never happen." He was content to campaign for others and to speak "throughout the country, usually on the subject of govt. growth." But "following the 1964 campaign, a number of party leaders approached me about running to unseat the eight-year incumbent here in Calif.," and after touring the state Reagan became "convinced of the absolute necessity to have a change." What are his goals as governor? "To put our state back on a sound fiscal basis," he says, "and to reduce the tremendous & inefficient bureaucracy of our state govt." He won't directly answer her question of whether he'll seek a second term, but says, "I'd hate to leave a job half finished." As for possible runs for higher office, the future President says: "last year people who feared [that] Richard Nixon's previous defeat militated against his election, waged a campaign to get me the Republican nomination." Yet he's "happy at the way it all worked out." Finally, will he ever go back into show business? "I doubt that I'll ever try to reestablish myself in pictures," he says, "although I did enjoy that career very much."