By Jeffery Kahn, NewsCenter | 8 June 2004

An interesting tidbit of Reagan history:

By Jeffery Kahn, NewsCenter | 8 June 2004 BERKELEY – Ronald Reagan launched his political career in 1966 by targeting UC Berkeley's student peace activists, professors, and, to a great extent, the University of California itself. In his successful campaign for governor of California, his first elective office, he attacked the Berkeley campus, cementing what would remain a turbulent relationship between Reagan and California's leading institution for public higher education. "This was not a happy relationship between the governor and the university — you have to acknowledge it," recalled Neil Smelser, who was a Berkeley professor of sociology during the Reagan years. "As a matter of Reagan's honest convictions but also as a matter of politics, Reagan launched an assault on the university," As the Vietnam War expanded and the death toll climbed, students at Berkeley launched a determined and, at times, confrontational attempt to stop the war with demonstrations and protests that eventually spread to college campuses across the country. Years later, much of the public came to agree with the students but in 1966, those opposed to the war were a distinct minority in America. Candidate Reagan capitalized on this. Smelser, assistant chancellor for educational development at the time Reagan ran for office, recalled that "Reagan took aim at the university for being irresponsible for failing to punish these dissident students. He said, ‘Get them out of there. Throw them out. They are spoiled and don't deserve the education they are getting. They don't have a right to take advantage of our system of education.'" Reagan had two themes in his first run for office. The man who later became known as "The Great Communicator" vowed to send "the welfare bums back to work," and "to clean up the mess at Berkeley." The latter became a Reagan mantra. Earl Cheit, dean emeritus of the Haas School of Business, was executive vice chancellor at Berkeley from 1965 to 1969. Like many at Berkeley, he remembers being at the wrong end of Reagan's political broom. "Incidents of campus disruption and reports about what was going on here -- often exaggerated reports -- became a standard part of his campaign rhetoric," said Cheit. "Reagan also argued that the faculty was too permissive, or supportive, of the students. One of his great skills was to understand popular feeling. He really tapped into the discontent people felt about what was happening on the campus. I have no doubt that this was a big factor in his election as governor." ....

Damn radical hippie college kids....