Fifty years ago today, Ronald Reagan gave one of the most important speeches of his life. While speaking to the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City, Missouri, Reagan asked a powerful question: What would people of the future think if they opened a time capsule in 100 years? Would they believe Americans had met the challenges of the moment?
Reagan's speech came at the culmination of a close-fought campaign against incumbent president Gerald Ford for the GOP nomination. Ford, a long-serving Michigan congressman, had stepped in to become vice president in 1973 after Spiro Agnew had to resign because of a bribery scandal dating back to his time as governor of Maryland. Ford then ascended to the presidency when Richard Nixon himself resigned the next year due to the Watergate scandal.
This meant that while Ford was the incumbent, Reagan—who had been governor of California and had unsuccessfully run for the GOP presidential nomination against Nixon in 1968—felt that he, not Ford, was the next in line.
Ford defeated Reagan in the New Hampshire primary and then ran off a string of victories to build a big early lead. But Reagan fought back with a victory in North Carolina and picked up the momentum.
Going into the August convention, the candidates were neck and neck; Ford had a slight lead in delegates but not the necessary majority. The 1976 convention would be the last Republican convention with the contest undecided going in.
Given the power of incumbency, the Reagan people knew they had to shake up the race in order to stave off defeat in Kansas City. Unfortunately for Reagan, the strategy they came up with, pre-selecting Pennsylvania senator Richard Schweiker as his running mate, failed. The liberal Republican alienated Reagan's conservative base and helped Ford over the top. Ford won the nomination on the first ballot by a margin of just 117 votes—1,187 to 1,070.
Reagan had run a very bitter campaign against Ford and did not expect to give any sort of speech at the convention. The two candidates had met after the ballot and agreed that Reagan would not appear when Ford accepted the nomination. According to senior Reagan aide Charlie Black, "Ford asked Reagan to speak to the convention, and Reagan said, 'No. You're going to win. It's your night. It's your show.'"
The Reagan team thought they were off the hook on the convention's big night. Black, his wife, and Reagan's daughter Maureen were all having a drink at a bar across the street and not even in the convention hall. They were watching on TV as Ford ended his acceptance speech—which the political reporter Fred Barnes characterized as "the best speech he ever gave"—with an unexpected invite to Reagan, saying, "Hey, Ronnie, bring your lovely wife Nancy down and maybe say a few words to the convention." At this, Black looked at his drinking companions and said, "You have got to be kidding."
Ford had sent his aide Bryce Harlow to ask Reagan to speak, saying, "It would be a terrible thing for the Republican Party if Ronald Reagan left the convention hall without speaking to the delegates." Reagan tried to decline the invitation. Footage of the event shows Reagan, in his skybox, shaking his head "no" to Ford's invitation. Nancy Reagan clearly says, "Ronnie, don't go." But Ford was insistent, believing it was important to unite the GOP going into the general election contest. Then the crowd got involved, chanting "We want Ron!" Reagan, reluctantly, came down to the stage.
The unexpected events meant that Reagan would give one of his most important and memorable speeches with almost no preparation. As Black recalled, "He went totally off the cuff."
After some initial niceties about Ford and the distinguished guests, Reagan highlighted one of his victories at the convention. The Republican platform had his stamp on it. Reagan said that "the Republican Party has a platform that is a banner of bold, unmistakable colors with no pale pastel shades." Then Reagan moved to his main subject. He said that he'd been invited to write a letter for a time capsule that would be opened in Los Angeles in 2076, at America's tercentenary.
He explained that he thought the assignment would be easy but soon realized the challenge. As Reagan saw it, the domestic problems of the day, as important as they were, would be subsumed by other issues. The existential issue that the people of 2076 would be looking back to was whether America would have survived its struggle against Soviet communism in the Cold War. As Reagan put it, "And suddenly it dawned on me; those who would read this letter a hundred years from now will know whether those missiles were fired. They will know whether we met our challenge." He wondered: "Will they look back with appreciation and say, 'Thank God for those people in 1976 who headed off that loss of freedom? Who kept us now a hundred years later free? Who kept our world from nuclear destruction?' "
After posing these important questions, Reagan finished with a resounding conclusion. He told those assembled in the hall that "This is our challenge" and that "We must go forth from here united, determined. And what a great general said a few years ago is true: There is no substitute for victory."
The speech was only 771 words, and lasted less than six minutes, but it caused a sensation. The Washington Post's David Broder joked that it was the only convention in history with two acceptance speeches. Fred Barnes recalled that "The crowd went wild. They just—they were moved." Convention attendee Ernie Angelo recalled that "the applause was thunderous." Bob Dole, who had just been selected as the nominee for vice president, noted that Reagan "just had them in the palm of his hand."
Unfortunately for Ford, the crowd might have loved Reagan a little too much. There was a sentiment among the delegates that they had "nominated the wrong man." Zorine Shirley, a volunteer with Ford's youth group "The Presidentials," recalls that "I don't really remember questioning if Ford was the right man exactly beforehand, but Reagan's speech was just one of those that caught your breath." Ford had erred in insisting that Reagan speak, as his remarks clearly upstaged the nominee's. Roger Stone, then a Youth for Reagan activist, said the speech was "the defining moment of the convention." Ford may have given the best speech of his life, but Reagan gave the best speech of the convention.
We can never know if Reagan would have beaten Jimmy Carter that fall, but his upstaging of Ford at the Republican convention set the stage for his next act. Ford's political career was over after his 1976 loss, but Reagan's was not. The Gipperreturned in 1980, defeated Carter, and took up the challenge he articulated, winning the Cold War.
Today, we are halfway into Reagan's 50-year challenge. We made it through this first half, in large part due to Reagan's courage and resolve. As he told his National Security Adviser Richard Allen, his strategy for taking on the Soviet Union was simple: "We win. They lose." Reagan put his trust in freedom, unleashed the American economy, and defeated Soviet tyranny.
America won the battle against Soviet totalitarianism, but the fight to safeguard liberty and civilization continues. With 50 years left before America's tercentenary, the questions Reagan asked will challenge every generation. Will we continue to carry the message of freedom to the world? Will we unite to prevent terrorists and rogue states from getting nuclear weapons and destroying the civilized world? Will democratic nations under the American umbrella outlast the coalition of autocracies that reject individual liberty? Ronald Reagan may no longer be with us, but his message endures: There is no substitute for victory.