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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThat Time The Reagan White House Press Briefing Erupted With Laughter Over AIDS 13 Times
: Larry, does the President have any reaction to the announcementthe Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, that AIDS is now an epidemic and have over 600 cases?
MR. SPEAKES: Whats AIDS?
Q: Over a third of them have died. Its known as gay plague. (Laughter.) No, it is. I mean its a pretty serious thing that one in every three people that get this have died. And I wondered if the President is aware of it?
MR. SPEAKES: I dont have it. Do you? (Laughter.)
Q: No, I dont.
MR. SPEAKES: You didnt answer my question.
Q: Well, I just wondered, does the President
MR. SPEAKES: How do you know? (Laughter.)
Q: In other words, the White House looks on this as a great joke?
MR. SPEAKES: No, I dont know anything about it, Lester.
Q: Does the President, does anybody in the White House know about this epidemic, Larry?
MR. SPEAKES: I dont think so. I dont think theres been any
Q: Nobody knows?
MR. SPEAKES: There has been no personal experience here, Lester.
Q: No, I mean, I thought you were keeping
MR. SPEAKES: I checked thoroughly with Dr. Ruge this morning and hes had no(laughter)no patients suffering from AIDS or whatever it is.
Q: The President doesnt have gay plague, is that what youre saying or what?
MR. SPEAKES: No, I didnt say that.
Q: Didnt say that?
MR. SPEAKES: I thought I heard you on the State Department over there. Why didnt you stay there? (Laughter.)
Q: Because I love you, Larry, thats why. (Laughter.)
MR. SPEAKES: Oh, I see. Just dont put it in those terms, Lester. (Laughter.)
Q: Oh, I retract that.
MR. SPEAKES: I hope so.
Q: Its too late.
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That Time The Reagan White House Press Briefing Erupted With Laughter Over AIDS 13 Times (Original Post)
Quixote1818
Oct 2014
OP
indepat
(20,899 posts)1. Republican stewardship: the gift that keeps on killing on and on
adigal
(7,581 posts)2. Ronald Reagan evil bastard - sadly, he was senile most of his presidency
I despised him.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)4. Any wonder who was in charge?
George Bush Takes Charge
The Uses of "Counter-Terrorism"
By Christopher Simpson
Covert Action Quarterly 58
A paper trail of declassified documents from the Reagan‑Bush era yields valuable information on how counter‑terrorism provided a powerful mechanism for solidifying Bush's power base and launching a broad range of national security initiatives.
During the Reagan years, George Bush used "crisis management" and "counter‑terrorism" as vehicles for running key parts of the clandestine side of the US government.
Bush proved especially adept at plausible denial. Some measure of his skill in avoiding responsibility can be taken from the fact that even after the Iran‑Contra affair blew the Reagan administration apart, Bush went on to become the "foreign policy president," while CIA Director William Casey, by then conveniently dead, took most of the blame for a number of covert foreign policy debacles that Bush had set in motion.
The trail of National Security Decision Directives (NSDDS) left by the Reagan administration begins to tell the story. True, much remains classified, and still more was never committed to paper in the first place. Even so, the main picture is clear: As vice president, George Bush was at the center of secret wars, political murders, and America's convoluted oil politics in the Middle East.
SNIP...
Reagan and the NSC also used NSDDs to settle conflicts among security agencies over bureaucratic turf and lines of command. It is through that prism that we see the first glimmers of Vice President Bush's role in clandestine operations during the 1980s.
CONTINUED...
CovertAction Quarterly no 58 Fall 1996 pp31-40.
Kali
(55,014 posts)3. k and r
just disgusting.