I was initially optimistic when Reagan became president. Iran freed our hostages the day he was inaugurated. Reagan gave eloquent speeches and talked a good game about reducing government spending. He never actually got around to that part though. Instead, he shoveled more money into the military-industrial complex and got us into a proxy war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Hundreds of our Marines were killed by a suicide truck bomb in Lebanon shortly after Reagan deployed them there. That misadventure didn't stop Reagan from bombing Libya a few years later. I was left with a terrible feeling that the US would one day be involved in another long quagmire in the Middle East similar to one in Vietnam.
Alexandra was not a fan of Reagan either. She didn't think a former actor was qualified to lead a nation, even if he had been the governor of California beforehand. I noted that Reagan was a Democrat as a governor but then switched parties when he ran successfully for president. It was another piece of evidence to support my theory that the ideal political strategy is to be a flip-flopper. In fiction, this idea was presented in 1984 where the totalitarian government of Oceania falsifies its own past newspapers and such to cover up its inconsistencies.
I turned 38 in 1983. It was good year for me. I bought a TRS-80 computer to replace my Underwood typewriter. Pioneer 10 passed Neptune and so set a new record for the greatest distance traveled by a manmade object. Alexandra and I watched the launch of the Challenger space shuttle in Cape Canaveral. She insisted our kids wear earmuffs for the launch, though we were so far away, it was about as loud as a fireworks show. It was a night launch; the first of its kind. It was in incredible to see that orange plume of flame from the engines against the pitch-black sky. It was like a reverse shooting star seen from up close.
The election of Thatcher was encouraging. It was nice to see a new conservative leader in Britain, and a woman to boot. Despite decades of Soviet subversion, Britain had not fallen to communism. If anything, the USSR was failing. They bought 10 million tons of grain from us in 1973. Later, Carter put an embargo on grain exports to the USSR as a punishment for invading Afghanistan. Reagan, despite his tough-on-communism rhetoric, campaigned on lifting the ban, and so easily won the farmer vote in all the midwestern states. Just as no one expected Nixon to open up diplomatic relations with red China, no one expected an ex-Democrat to lift a grain export ban on our arch-nemesis.
On the whole, as I entered statistical midlife, at least according to actuarial tables, I felt at peace. I had a wife and children, no health or money concerns, and the painful memories of my time overseas had greatly dimmed. I continued to be thankful that I left the Army with all the body parts I came in with. So many others weren't nearly as lucky. Reconnecting with my mother was a risky move, but worth it. To keep my spirits up, I taped a quote to Alexandra's picture on my nightstand so they would be the first things I'd see every morning. That quote is:
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The key to happiness is freedom and the key to freedom is courage.
-Thucydides
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THE END
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