Ronald Reagan: Martin Anderson and the Reagan Revolution
IN MEMORIAM
MARTIN ANDERSON
1936-2015
“One eyewitness is worth more than ten who tell you what they have learned.”
~Plautus, Roman Playwright, C. 190 B.C.
“Dear Marty…I am indebted to you personally for your dedication and the many contributions
you have made to ``our crusade’’ through the years.”
~Ronald Reagan, February 4, 1982
President Reagan with Martin and Annelise Anderson
© 2014 The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. All Rights Reserved.
President Reagan’s essential and incomparable policy adviser Martin Anderson had not been
born when John Donne wrote in 1624, “No man is an island.” Yet 350 years later, when a young Marty
Anderson joined the ‘Reagan for President’ campaign in 1975, all who were part of that experience
witnessed Donne’s concept come to life. Sure, there were many important advisors yet none as steady,
as bright, as essential and as valuable to the Reagan presidency and to the Reagan legacy as Martin
Anderson.
Martin Anderson Confers with President Reagan in the Oval Office
February 1981
Academia or Politics or Both?
His work on ten presidential campaigns began after graduating from Dartmouth with a M.S. in
engineering and business administration, followed by a Ph.D. in industrial management from MIT, and
teaching finance at the Graduate School of Business, Columbia University.
But how did Martin Anderson get his start in politics? Through an oral history, he tells the story
about a dinner party in late 1966 when he was at Columbia. Apparently, the evening was “fun” and filled
with intense and lively political debate. A few weeks later, “I got a call,” he recalled, “that basically said,
‘We hear there’s a crazy professor up at Columbia that likes Nixon.’ So I admitted to that and he said,
‘Listen, would you like to come down? We’d like to meet you.’ So I took the subway down to Wall Street. I
was invited to come down after work. When I got there, what I discovered was there was a small group—
Len Garment, Pat Buchanan, Ray Price—and we were in a small room like this and I got introduced to
them. They were planning the 1968 Presidential campaign.”
That was the beginning. Between campaigns, he took periodic leaves to return to Columbia and
© 2014 The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. All Rights Reserved.
then in 1971, became a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, a prominent think tank at Stanford
University. From 1969-1971, he served as a special assistant to Richard Nixon and is credited with
creating the essential proposal that led to the end of the draft – military conscription – in the United
States.
While Nixon tried to re-sign Marty in the fall of ’71 to run the policy operation for the Committee
to Re-Elect the President, the deal wasn’t solidified. Anderson noted that he thought to himself, “Oh
God no, I don’t want to do that.” Nixon even tried to sweeten the deal by making Marty’s wife, Annelise
a Special Assistant to the President too, but the two bright economists held their ground and stayed at
Hoover.
Even before serving in the Nixon administration, the free-market ideas of Barry Goldwater,
along with his pursuit of individual liberty, less government and more national defense got the young
economist’s attention. And after Goldwater, another man got his attention. “I liked Reagan a lot,”
Anderson wrote. “We had followed him very carefully, watched what he was doing and I thought he was
terrific. I loved his policies.”
Enter Stage Right: Ronald Reagan
By 1975, the phone rang again. “I got a call from the people that had run the Nixon campaign…
John Sears, Lyn Nofziger…and they said, ‘Do you want to do it again?’ I said, ‘Absolutely.’”
But it wasn’t easy. “It [1976 Reagan presidential campaign] was probably a classic case of
someone beginning a campaign and not fully understanding all the things that had to be done. I guess my
job was to set up the policy shop. Dick Allen…was the main staff on foreign policy, defense policy, but
that was later on. ..we were very short-handed.”
What Anderson learned in 1976 was why Reagan was determined to run against an incumbent, an
unpopular decision within the party at the time. In fact, “the Republican Governors were all calling on him
to get out of the race and don’t destroy Ford.” The real reason Reagan ran? “It was national security,”
Anderson recalled. Governor Reagan was deeply concerned “about the possibility of an all-out nuclear
war” and was opposed to the current limp-wristed policy of détente.
“And we were out of money,” Anderson continued, “We were about $2 million in debt. We couldn’t
buy anything unless we paid cash in advance. I remember when we had to get rid of our plane.”
Along comes the North Carolina primary and at this point, Reagan had lost five straight contests.
The campaign coffers were empty so the team shared a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken for dinner
every night. Then a fellow from Texas, named Jimmy Lyon, said he was willing to “to lend us $100,000 – if
we use that money to run the talking head.” He wanted us to just focus on Reagan speaking about the
weak defense policies of Ford. “That’s it,” Anderson said.
Reagan didn’t hesitate, but reluctantly complied, “God almighty, this is a kamikaze flight we’re on
here.”
So the strategy focused on one issue and miraculously, the Reagan campaign triumphed in the
North Carolina primary and “he won a lot of the following primaries,” Anderson recalled, “so that when
we went on to the convention, it was the most dramatic convention that’s happened.”
A tough campaign through the mud against formidable obstacles, Anderson was impressed with
© 2014 The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. All Rights Reserved.
Reagan’s resilience. “This is when I was getting to know Reagan,” he said, “…he didn’t blink an eye. He
was just straightforward. He was going to the mat. He does not give up. …”
And while Ronald Reagan lost the nomination, he didn’t go silently into that good night. Someone
commented on the considerable respect Governor Reagan had earned by saying, “Look, this party is
split in two. Unless we can bring it back together tonight, it will be a disaster for everyone. Reagan has to
speak.”
Immediately, Anderson went to Deaver and while there was much conversation, the message
had already been delivered to Ford who announced, “I’d like to have Ronald Reagan come on down and
speak.” With delegates standing and applauding throughout the address, Martin Anderson remembered
“he gave a tremendous speech. The other critical thing about that speech under that kind of incredible
pressure, first of all, he never mentioned Ford’s name. He talked about the challenges the country would
face, not the party. And the main thing he was talking about was the threat of nuclear war.”
After the speech, he heard several say, “we may have nominated the wrong person.”
Above all, Reagan’s toughness, his determination and resolve throughout the tough campaign
impressed Anderson who described him as “warmly ruthless…. He was incredibly smart. I’ve dealt with
professors at Columbia and professors at Stanford, but he could look at something and understand it
and grasp it and turn it around and work with it and play with it. He was incredibly quick.”
The Revolution Continues
After the ’76 election, Martin Anderson returned to Hoover. Only to hit the campaign trail again
with Reagan in 1979.
While work was beginning on the campaign, Martin Anderson witnessed an important event in the
Cheyenne Mountains in Colorado. The two men, Anderson and Reagan, on July 31, 1979, toured the
North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). Reagan was stunned to know how our radar
could track an incoming missile but could not stop it. “We have spent all that money,” he told Anderson
© 2014 The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. All Rights Reserved.
missile from hitting us.”
From this experience, Governor Reagan’s “epiphany” on missile defense took flight. Literally and
figuratively.
Working on the 1980 campaign presented Martin Anderson the opportunity to shape the
Republican platform as well as codify various economic strategies. With Alan Greenspan, “he helped
Reagan formulate a coherent policy from conflicting advice given by traditional and supply-side
economists,” recalls journalist Lou Cannon. His wife, Annelise, worked on the vice presidential
George H.W. Bush campaign and was the lead person in developing recommendations for presidential
appointments in the departments of Treasury, Commerce, and Transportation.
Once the 40th president was inaugurated, Martin became assistant to the president for policy
development and Annelise became an associate director of the Office of Management and Budget. But
by 1982, he was ready to move on. “We didn’t need to develop any new ideas for Ronald Reagan,” he
observed. “He had been examining public policy issues for most of his adult life. He had a long, long list
of specific policy changes that he thought were very important and that he wanted to make right now.”
The Return to Academia
After leaving Washington and returning to the Hoover Institution, his work made a significant
contribution to both the theory and practice of public policy as a result of his many influential books.
Writing about Reagan’s first term in his book Revolution, he created a comprehensive account of the
conservative movement characterized by President Nixon, “Anyone who really wants to understand why
the potent ideas of the last 20 years should have been conservative ones should read Revolution.”
Anderson observed that Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan were all parts of the
Revolution, a movement that was given life by the demands and expectations of the American people.
“What this means,” Anderson wrote, “is that when President Reagan retires, the set of policies known
as the Reagan revolution will not retire with him….this political movement transcends personality,
transcends political party.”
Perhaps one of his most important contributions to the Reagan Legacy was created in concert with
his wife and fellow economist, Annelise Anderson and colleague, historian Kiron Skinner. Their work in
Reagan in His Own Hand and Reagan: A Life in Letters validated President Reagan’s clear insights and
ideas, his intellect, and his dedication to the Constitution.
Finally, in 2009, he once again collaborated with his wife, Annelise, to write Reagan’s Secret
War: The Untold Story of His Fight to Save the World from Nuclear Disaster.” An extremely important
work produced by delving deep into the archives at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, unearthing
classified documents and memcons detailing man-to-man negotiations with Soviet leaders, this book is
essential to understanding the events which took place to end the Cold War.
Finally, as we mourn the passing of Martin Anderson, we cannot overlook the extraordinary
contribution he made to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and the Ronald Reagan Presidential
Library. As an academic, a politician, a writer and friend, we understand how important he was to Ronald
Reagan and thus, to our work. And we understand what a giant he was in the Reagan Revolution. When
Isaac Newton wrote, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants,” we suspect
President Reagan would be thinking of the shoulders of his longtime friend and adviser, Martin Anderson
and appreciating the view.
© 2014 The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. All Rights Reserved.