From the Reagan Diaries:
Sunday, June 21 [1981]
Negotiations are still going on to try and head off tomorrow’s illegal strike by the air controllers. I told Drew L. to tell their Union Chief I was the best friend his people ever had in the W.H., but I would not countenance an illegal strike nor would I permit negotiations while such a strike was in progress.
–Ronald Reagan
I’ve been posting quotes from the Reagan Diaries in chronological order. We’re only on page 27 of almost 800 pages. It’s astonishing to me how so many of the issues Reagan’s remembered for were major concerns during his first year in office. I was all of twelve years old in 1981 and had just started watching the news regularly, so a lot of this was over my head at the time.