In this Book
- When Things Went Right: The Dawn of the Reagan-Bush Administration
- Book
- 2013
- Published by: Texas A&M University Press
When Things Went Right is a colorful and insightful portrait of Washington at the beginning of the Reagan-Bush era (November 1980–March 1983) as lived and recorded by an insider in his personal journal.
Chase Untermeyer was a Texas state legislator and former journalist when called to national service by his friend and mentor George H. W. Bush after the 1980 election. In his journal entries and subsequent annotations he describes how the Reagan Administration began to grapple with the major national and international challenges it inherited.
He also reveals specifically how then–Vice President Bush, Reagan’s former rival, became a valued participant in this effort, in the process solidifying the vice presidency as a significant position in modern American government.
As executive assistant to the Vice President, Untermeyer saw how Bush, Reagan, and their top associates began asserting conservative principles on domestic, political, and foreign affairs. He captured in his journal not just the events of each day but also the atmosphere, the key personalities, and the witty, trenchant, and revealing things they said.
The book’s long-lasting value will be in providing historians of the period with telling anecdotes and quotations that were caught and preserved with a reporter’s eye and ear. In addition to perceptive portraits of Reagan and Bush, When Things Went Right also features numerous cameo appearances by such diverse characters as Margaret Thatcher, Pope John Paul II, Emperor Hirohito of Japan, Clare Boothe Luce, and jazz great Lionel Hampton.
For those who look back on the presidencies of Reagan and Bush with nostalgia and respect, and also for those interested in the inner workings of the administration during its earliest days, this is the story of the time “when things went right.”
Table of Contents
- Chapter 1 Dream Job Come True
- pp. 1-15
- Chapter 2 Transition
- pp. 16-20
- Chapter 4 The Rumor
- pp. 34-38
- Chapter 6 Springtime in Washington
- pp. 49-61
- Chapter 7Lindbergh’s Bed
- pp. 62-65
- Chapter 9 A Rigadón in Manila
- pp. 70-77
- Chapter 10 Travels with the Vishnu
- pp. 78-90
- Chapter 12 The Air Force 2 Coup
- pp. 97-107
- Chapter 13 Shutdown!
- pp. 108-122
- Chapter 14 A Czar Is Born
- pp. 123-130
- Chapter 15 In Recession America
- pp. 131-155
- Chapter 16 Luncheon with the Emperor
- pp. 156-161
- Chapter 17 Rimming the Pacific
- pp. 162-171
- Chapter 18 Everything but the Quack
- pp. 172-180
- Chapter 19 Just Your Typical Palace
- pp. 181-210
- Chapter 20 Nonstop to Idaho Falls
- pp. 211-236
- Chapter 21 A Funeral in Moscow, via Africa
- pp. 237-249
- Chapter 22 Job Hunting in the (Semi- )Gloom
- pp. 250-265
- Chapter 23 Mission Most Important
- pp. 266-275
- Chapter 24 Moving On
- pp. 276-282
- Afterword Why Things Went Right
- pp. 283-286
- Notes on Sources
- pp. 287-308
- About the Author
- p. 309
- Back Cover
- p. 338