On WSradio.com :http://wsradio.com/022416-book-review-reagans-1968-dress-rehearsal-dr-gene-kopelson/

Segment 1

Book Review. Reagan’s 1968 Dress Rehearsal. Dr. Gene Kopelson

Gene Kopelson is president of the New England Chapter and on the Board of Trustees of Theodore Roosevelt Association, an active Churchillian, a Holocaust educator… and, while not researching and writing history, Dr. Kopelson is a cancer physician… (More at http://www.genekopelson.com)  Dr. Kopelson ‘s book is titled: Reagan’s 1968 Dress Rehearsal: Ike, RFK and Reagan’s Emergence as a World Statesman.   “An Extensive and detailed and carefully documented account of Ronald Reagan’s first foray into presidential candidacy…”

Dr. Kopelson comments on his interest in “heroes,” like Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and our Founding Fathers,…men who have inspired him to write and publish articles in historical journals…His first book is on the figure of Ronald Reagan, who “restored pride in America…” and  whose presidency is described as the “golden age of America…” Dr. Kopelson speaks of Reagan’s Farewell Address to the Nation and his message to the citizenry, to “study history…” (“If we forget what we did, we won’t know who we are. I am warning of an eradication of that – of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit.”)  Dr. Kopelson explains, “as one watches the 2016 Debates, Ronald Reagan’s name is cited frequently because of what he stood for… [promoter of] a strong military, a strong economy and individual freedom…”  Dr. Kopelson reminds us of  Ronald Reagan’s 11^th Commandment, “Thou shall not speak ill of another Republican…” stressing that he criticized his opponents’ policies but never attacked them personally..

 

Segment 2

Book Review. Reagan’s 1968 Dress Rehearsal. Dr. Gene Kopelson

Dr. Kopelson comments “on the similarities today with the turbulent year of 1968…, comparing President Johnson to President Obama:…with an expanding federal government, the mismanagement of a foreign war (Vietnam), President Johnson’s approach to war, … (announcing what he would and would not do)…”  Dr. Kopelson mentions the capture of the USS Pueblo by North Korean forces in 1968, “a week before the start of the Tet Offensive, portrayed by then CBS correspondent Walter Cronkite as a military disaster…;” and Johnson “pouring billions for his Great Society’s progressive programs,” on the domestic front. For Reagan, and his mentor,  President Eisenhower, in war, “power and surprise were better strategies…including the threat of using a nuclear weapon…”

 

Book Review. Reagan’s 1968 Dress Rehearsal. Dr. Gene Kopelson

Dr. Kopelson comments on the influence President Dwight D. Eisenhower  had on President Reagan, the candidate… Dr. Kopelson  points to Reagan’s  work  with General Electric on radio and television (1954-1962) truncated by none other than Robert F. Kennedy… His speech, “…. known as The Speech… A Time for Choosing, delivered in 1964” summarizes his political principles which he shared with “the people” in his  the television series… Dr. Kopelson explains how Eisenhower presented Reagan with a 7 point detailed plan on how to run for office and shared with him his “common sense “ approach to politics and  which  Reagan eventually, made his “actual campaign theme…, going after disaffected Democrats…”  “Ike also tutored Reagan in foreign affairs…, Reagan saw Vietnam, Korea through Ike’s eyes…”  “And just like Ike, Reagan disliked hyphenated names. He detested Americans separated into sub-groups…, believed in a wide tent…for conservatism…. We are all Republicans, we are all Americans.” And Dr. Kopelson mentions another fact,  Eisenhower predicted the fall of communism…

Book Review. Reagan’s 1968 Dress Rehearsal. Dr. Gene Kopelson

Dr. Kopelson speaks of today’s dictatorial atmosphere…  for example, opposition to conservatives (and those who are pro-Israel) in college campuses, and notes that Reagan did not “want professors to indoctrinate students…,” nor would he have been happy with President Obama signing Executive Orders, “skirting around the law…” Dr. Kopelson speaks of Reagan’s message and  appeal to minorities…and  what he called the “federal plantation system” which   failed the Black population…”evidence of it today is the failing inner cities with declining populations and crime, governed for decades by Democrats… Dr. Kopelson points that  the policies of the Democrats failed them…then and now…