Reagan Adviser Meets With 4C’s Students

by Amber Rivard

David Gergen might have dodged a bullet on March 30, 1981.

That’s the day John Hinckley Jr. opened fire at Ronald Reagan outside a hotel in Washington, D.C., wounding the president and three others.

Gregen, Reagan’s presidential adviser, wasn’t there. He was at a meeting in the West Wing of the White House when the shooting occurred.

Gergen visited 4C’s on Dec 1. for a Q&A with students and a campus tour. Gergen served as the presidential adviser for Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Reagan and Bill Clinton. For over a decade, he has taught public service and is the founding director of the Center of Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School.

He considers himself lucky he wasn’t at the shooting.

“I would have been shot,” he told the students. “It was a trying day; no one knew whether it was a part of a larger plot.”

Gergen spoke about the attack and several other subjects – including the Israel-Hamas conflict, U.S. international relations, and the need for students to stay informed on what’s going on in the world.

Gergen discussed the responsibility of students to sort through the vast amount of disinformation in society to get to the truth, emphasizing that they will not “get reality from one source.”

“You’re the most important educator you will have in your life,” he said.

With society entering a “new period” in which the younger generation will take the lead, he said, the best way for students to do so is to take “formal courses and prepare yourself.”

The central topic of the meeting was the money sent to countries while there are still Americans suffering here and the Israel-Hamas war.

While China and Russia began drifting apart during the Cold War, he said, the two countries are “drifting back together.” Meanwhile, other countries still think of the United States as “their great protector.”

“We’re not spending as much as people think we’re spending” on other countries, he added.

Terrorist groups like Hamas are on the rise, he said, and the solution to the problem isn’t simple, and there are more than one possible answers.

Germen said he hopes to return to 4C’s to continue the conversation.

David Gergen speaking to students during the Q&A. (Jonathan Fonseca)

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