We Knew That

President Ronald Reagan lacks a vibrant intellect and vital knowledge, two former presidential advisors told a Kennedy School audience last night in a symposium entitled "Presidential Leadership 1936-1986: FDR, JFK and Reagan."

"He [Reagan] is essentially rather passive and fixed in his ideas," said Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. '38, former Harvard professor and assistant to John F. Kennedy '40.

"Ronald Reagan probably works less hard in his job than anyone in this room," Schlesinger, currently a professor at City University of New York, said.

"The President must have a vision of an ideal republic," he said. "He must have a course to steer, a port to seek."

Reagan and Franklin D. Roosevelt '04 both had a vision and used similar means to attain their visions, but the ends were drastically different, Schlesinger said.

McGeorge Bundy, former national security advisor to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, Harvard dean and professor, said that Reagan had a "real absence of serious knowledge" of nuclear danger.

Currently a professor at New York University, Bundy warned against presidential secrets and urged that presidents tell more of the truth more often.

Responding to Schlesinger and Bundy, Richard G. Darman '64, deputy secretary of the treasury, drew a parallel between JFK and Reagan. The two had appealing physical qualities and strong leadership skills, he said.

"Both were in the American romantic tradition." said Darman, who got his start in the Nixon Administration The two presidents gained "triumph and reaffirmation of the traditional American spirit," he said.