 Well, I think we get into things. Thank you very much for that very kind letter. Well, I think we all felt that when a president gets confronted like that, he belongs to everybody. I was, as I told you, I was out in my native Iowa there in the morning coffee around the square where there weren't Democrats or Republicans, they were all Americans, so they were all delighted. I must say. Well, listen, I just have a few questions here that you start in again. How do you feel? That's the first time. Really, every day I'm amazed at the improvement. Just only a few days ago that to bend in the middle somebody had to help. Now I can get up all by myself. The sore spot's going away, that sort of thing. Oh, yeah. It's kind of about an 11-inch line there that... I see. You don't plan to show your scar like that than just to keep that quiet, huh? Well, let me, on a serious note, you've got another adversary now, cancer. And I just... How are you going to deal with that these next three and a half years? Well, I'm going to do exactly what they've told me to do. The thing is, you and this one, the doctor himself was a little concerned because he'd used the term that I have cancer. He says the proper thing is I had cancer. And very to a minor effect, that particular polyp called the adenoma type is one that if it is left, it begins to develop cancerous cells. Well, this one had, when they got it out, they found that there were a few of such cells. But it's gone. And along with the surrounding tissue, it had not spread no evidence of anything else. So I am someone who does not have cancer, but like everyone else, I'm apparently vulnerable to it. And therefore, there'll be a schedule of checkups for a period to see if it's going to return or if there was a cell that had escaped into the bloodstream or something. Well, the fear of cancer intrude into your life. No. I've never been that way about things of that kind. I just... Well, I must say, twice you've been brushed by death since you've been in this office and you seem unfazed. What you keep going, you keep your hope up. What is it? Well, I have a very real and deep faith. Probably I'm indebted to my mother for that. And I figure that he'll make a decision. And I can't doubt that whatever he decides will be the right decision. That's not going to phase your work. No. Well, Mr. President, if something, if the thing should reoccur, if cancer should show up and you had to undergo treatments, is there the possibility that you would resign, turn the job over? I can't foresee anything of that kind. And that is not just me talking. Now, that's on the basis of all that I've been told by the doctors who were all concerned with this. I can't see anything of that kind coming. But as I said once, when we were talking about my age before I was elected the first time, if I found myself ever physically incapacitated to the where I, in my own mind, knew I could not fulfill the requirements, I'd be the first one to say so and step down. Did you just, rather, when was the hardest moment in this whole episode for you? The hardest moment? Golly, that's pretty hard to think. The most difficulty I have is in that period in which time disappears and you're no longer a part of the world on an anesthetic that you came out. I think the most difficult time I had was trying to reorient as to where I was and had I been operated on yet or not. And they said, oh yes, it's all over. And seemed to me the time where my memory ended was such that I hadn't been and it was yet to be. And I was quite confused. Did you suspect you might have cancer before they told you? No. This whole thing, and I think you, really, they've tried to make something of the scheduling of these things. The polyp that had been taken out, the knowledge that I had another one yet to come out, those were the kind that, as they said, don't become cancerous. And the schedule was set. And I went in there fully prepared on a Friday afternoon to have that one snipped out. But then because there had been a couple that had been a time since the last examination, they were going to do this examination then of the intestine to make sure. And I went in fully convinced with a little handbag that I would be on my way to Camp David the next morning, Saturday. Stay overnight there to complete this thing. And they came back in after having taken out the one and told me that they had found this other type. And they said, this other type, we have no evidence whether there are cancer cells, but it is the kind that had left alone does become cancerous. And they said, now, you're all prepped. You're here. And that prepping took a lot of imbibing of certain fluids for hours before I went there. And they said, you can schedule this to come back. Or I said, our advice is you're already and you're here. And why not now? And I said, yes, I didn't want to get back on that fluid again. We could do it from now. So I said yes. And then they told me when I was able to understand that, yes, there had been a few cancer cells in it, but it had not penetrated the outer wall, was confined. There was no trace of this going anyplace else. And as the doctor said, so therefore, all you can say is you had cancer. Well, now I've got too many friends and my brother who, good Lord, he had very severe cancer the larynx. He was a very heavy smoker, which I have never been. But that was, I guess, the neighborhood of 20 years ago. And he's doing just fine. So I'll take the checkups that they recommend for them to keep track. Well, there was some comment when you only spent five minutes with the doctors when they told you that the specimen was cancerous that they took out. But that was all you needed to spend with them. Yeah, I was most reassuring. I see. You, I guess, have answered somewhat indirectly. Let me put it again. You're not unhappy with their medical advice? Oh, no, not at all. Why didn't you do it last year, 84? Well, I think this is what has been misplayed somewhat. We didn't know about this potential one. We knew at the time that there were two small polyps, one much smaller than the other. And they had gotten this one, and then subsequently we set a time later when I would go back in, and there was this talk of the concern about blood. Well, that was all dismissed because I took the further tests and examinations on that and very thoroughly, and there was never another trace. And you, I don't know, I'm a little embarrassed at talking as boldly as your colleagues do about all of these plumbing secrets and everything. But I think I had an explanation for the very minute trace of blood that just once turned up in that examination. And my explanation is it was external, that I had irritated myself externally and had evidence of it that I could see myself. And I thought that is where that trace came from and the very fact then that all the things of special diet and everything else and several times a day samples and so forth over a period of time and never another trace, I think I'm right. I see. Have any of your priorities changed because of this illness as far as being president of America or the United States goes? No. If there was any change, it was back in 1981 with the indication of mortality after the shooting that I made up my mind that those things that I believed in doing for whatever time I might have left. So it's full speed ahead. Work is your answer, in a way. Yes. One of the things that's been commented on, Mr. President, is Mrs. Reagan, who was, as you said, in your speech, remarkable in this. Has she become more of the presidency in these last couple of weeks or are we just noticing that? No, but Nancy is a mother hen and let something happen to one of the family and they become the chick. And no, what she is doing is she's very concerned that there be no overdoing and being a doctor's daughter and a surgeon's daughter as a matter of fact. She is very insistent that no one's going to overwork me. And that includes me because she knows that I tend to take such things a little lightly. And I think she reached her high point this morning. She's on her way to Denison in Ohio at the university there for this program in drugs. She'll be back today. But on the table by my side of the bed, there is one of those little cabbage type dolls in a nurse's uniform. And she is named at Nancy and has put it there. But while she's gone, it is to remind me that I have to do all those things like rest and so forth. I see. Well, she's displayed great courage before the world really in that time. And it hasn't been easy because as she herself admits, she is a worrier. And she has been through a lot, including the most traumatic experience, the death of her father. And that was, she was there and with him for a couple of weeks there in the hospital when both knew that he was dying. And then to have what happened to me, I think I recovered far more quickly than she did from the shooting. And then along comes a thing like this. She's she can't her share of it. Can't quite or can't resolve her concern. And there was a little comment, Mr. President, about your staff and whether Mr. Regan assumed too much power and no, he was carrying out things that I said. And this whole mix up you and whether George was shipped away or something. No. And I'm delighted talking to you because I know you're fair. When I found out that to be under an aesthetic that I should designate and I designated, of course, automatically George Bush, but George had just come back from that very successful but also very tiring trip and knowing that this was just for the hours of an operation. And at this time was all going to be over on Friday afternoon when we did this thing. I said, I said, I knew that George had gone as I would have gone to the ranch after that trip had gone up to Maine. And I said, tell George though that to stay where he is, there's no need. He's as much in contact there as he would be here. I said, tell him to stay there and not to break up his weekend simply because I'm going to have this little thing snipped. So this was my order. But then when the subsequent thing came along and it was going to be extended hours, it was George's decision to come back. And he just said he just felt that under the circumstances and he was right that it just would not look right in the eyes of anyone for me to be there and him to be up there in Maine. And so he felt that it would be much more reassuring to the people and everything else. He came back and that was all. I was the one from the very beginning. It said to him, I don't want you to give up your weekend. And you think Don Regan's function as the coordinator in that? Yes. And with all the things here, Don's carrying out the things that I have said. I've witnessed no grabs for power on the part of anyone. I just, here there seems to be concerted effort and has been for the last four and a half years to try and build feuds within the administration. I think they thrive on some do on combat. And there just isn't anything to it. You've got to have a feud or two, Mr. President. We'd be out of work. You'd have more unemployment on your hands. You talked of going home. I was struck by it in the hospital. You mentioned it two or three times, how you wanted to go home and get into your bed. I've never heard a president talk of the White House with such affection and warmth. Now, what's the change? This has become... Well, yes, and Hugh, I think again, we go to... Nancy is a nest builder. You know, if we stop in a hotel for a couple of days, she can't be in a suite for five minutes until she's moving the furniture around to make it more home like in the hospital there for only those several days. And she brought pictures up and some large framed photos that we have, her trying to give the dog a bath and so forth, and hung them on the walls. There wasn't a picture on the walls of that room. And at first, I kept saying, honey, I'm going to be, you know, out of here in a few days, you're going to a lot of trouble. But I have to say, she was right. Suddenly, it was much more pleasant to look around and she had framed photos, family photos that she brought and were around the place. She does that in the same here with the... So it has become home despite the living over the store and the isolation and all the problems. The living quarters there, our own furniture in there. And I just always have had a tendency to settle in and... Maybe you want a third term. I think that's out of line now. But I have to say, no, it is home. And she's done the same with the house at Camp David, the place that's similar to when we had a house in Los Angeles and the ranch. One final question, Mr. President here. What's your favorite joke about your operation? Oh, Lord. Surely you've told one or two. That cartoon you mentioned this morning. Oh, well, yes, there was a cartoon that came out. And somebody brought me a copy of it. I guess it was in the Times. And I called him to thank him for it, but also to give him a little warning. But it's a cartoon that appeared in the paper and it was of the hospital. And then up here in a window was a nurse and a man. And the nurse was very angry and she was pointing down out of sight below the cartoon. And she's saying that crazy clown down there chopping wood, he'll wake the president. And the man looking down says, and fellow chopping wood is the president. And so I showed it to everyone, but he had quite a cartoon figure for the nurse. And these nurses were all very trim and nice people and all. And they were a little disturbed by the image of a Bethesda nurse. So when I left the hospital up there, I told all of them, now that's what I was saying when I turned my back and was talking to them, I was telling them that I was going to do my utmost to see that the image as portrayed was corrected in the cartoon industry and that they were not properly portrayed. So I told him that when I called him. Oh, I see, great. Mr. President, I'm going to take that admonition. This is just wonderful. It gives me a feel for it and you've been frank. And I say right on now, I guess one final thing. Your purposes in the presidency, your priorities basically have not changed. No, they haven't. Budget, tax reform, strength abroad. You'll go to see Mr. Gorbachev as far as you know. That's set. Yes. All of those things, the UI felt for a long time that even if there were no deficit, the federal government, out of a number of things with the best of intentions, embarked on all kinds of programs, some of which are just not the proper function of government. The government shouldn't be doing. And some of which, even if it's doing them, they're not cost effective at all. Job training programs in which the training was given, but the placement rate of people in jobs was extremely low. And for the cost of training that was enough to send them to the finest university in the land, things of that kind, things that we discovered in our own welfare reform. And part of it, the advantage you of seeing it from that state level out there as governor. The federal programs mandated local and state government. And even if you were given some say in the administration of those programs, you were so bound in and restricted by regulations and red tape. The time after time, you found yourself saying, we could do this program twice as well. And at half the price, if we weren't bound by these restrictions. And yet, it was the government saying, you can't change. You've got to do these things this way. Well, I made up my mind when I came here that just what we had done, what we could at the state level, our welfare reform in California was tremendously successful. And it didn't throw people out into the snow drifts or take away from those who had real need at all. But when we found people that under some of those programs, we found people that were say two and a half times their income, outside income, the poverty rate, and were eligible for as many as four federal aid programs. You said, we don't think this is what was intended. And so now, I still, as I say, if there were no deficit, I don't want to see get government to where it should be. And a president said it before me in 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt in campaigning said the federal government, one of his purposes, would be to restore to the states and local communities and to the people authority and autonomy that had been unjustly seized by the federal government. I see. Well, now, Mr. Gorbachev, you up to him? Yes. Looking forward to him. He's a young fellow and quite vigorous. Yeah, but I'll try not to take advantage of him. Thank you, Mr. President. You're looking great. I must say, how reassuring that is to all of us. You always look better than I feel. I don't know how you managed that. And the fact that I heard that your color was a little off because you hadn't been the son, but you looked the same to me. I thought I did too. I wasn't in there long enough to lose what town I had. And they even suggested a limp. Well, Hugh, I've been limping since 1949 after I smashed my thigh in that charity baseball game out in Hollywood. This leg came out a little bit shorter than this one. And I try to hide it and walk straight, but I can't conceal. I have a slight limp. You know, you see that piece I did on George Ward? Oh, yes. I got a letter from Joy Hodges. And she said, you know, I'm sorry you couldn't mention me in there, but she didn't say that. She just said, I want you to know how it all started. I called George and I said, yeah, we all know that and they all, but I had the space limitation, so I couldn't get it all in. So I, but then I wrote her, I wrote her a no bet. I said, I hope you'll forgive a fellow Iowa. And well, I got another letter back. And she is performing. She told me how delighted she was that she was performing in some summer stock up there. Ginger Rogers was the director of the producer and she was just having a big time. Oh, she was a wonderful girl. She really was. And then I went home. I was in Iowa last week and there was a Hodges family in my town and they said, no, that's related there. So I had to write her another letter. But she is the one, you know, I had never met her. When I went to the station, she was gone. And she'd been in some pictures and she was singing with Jimmy Greer's orchestra at the Biltmore Bowl. So when I made the deal with the studio that I wouldn't take a vacation, if they would send me with the Cubs on their spring training trip since I was going to broadcast baseball, the first trip out there, everybody at the station kept saying, you've got to look up joy. You've got to see joy. So I did. And the second, by then I knew, I saw the second time out, spring training, looked her up again. She was singing at that time at the Biltmore. So that's where the Cubs stayed when we came back from Catalina. So I went down and she came out and had dinner with me in the Biltmore Bowl and then had to go back to the band. Well, we had a Hillbilly orchestra that had been picked up for a Western. What's his name? The Ball Club. Oh, my very good friend, the Western star. Gene Autry? Gene Autry. He, at that time, was in the country, he'd hire a local radio outfit like ours. Oh, actually. And then when his pictures would play in that area, they'd feature the presence of this particular orchestra. So this one that he'd taken from us was called the Oklahoma Outlaws. And he had them, so I went to visit them out of the studio and I must say, I never had gotten rid of the acting bug in me. So that night, talking to Joy, I said, you know, how does a person get in this business and so forth? And she didn't dust me off. She said, well, look, I know an agent and he's very honest. And she said, if you want to see him, she said, I'll bet I could range and he'll see you. But he said, he'll be the first one to tell you whether you should forget it or whether to do something about it. And she called George Ward. Said she got him out of bed early in the morning. And I went to see him and he took me out to warn her brothers. And the next thing I knew, I was having a screen test. Well, she said in her letter that she was having a ball up there. She was back on the stage. Well, I'll be darned. She said she'd been down a couple of years ago and had lunch with you or seen you. Yeah, yeah. But that's great. Mr. President? Well, thank you. Don't walk into your in wire. Tell him I'm on wire there. Okay. That's terrific. Can you get a little, you get out the ranch here sometime? Then we'll come along to just about middle of August. Those jokers on the Hill lead again. And then I can get out of that. Am I the time we're all safer? Yeah. Well, I know. Oh, great. I'll kill from now on. Good. Thanks again, Mr. President.