One of the more intriguing unsolved murder mysteries during my journalism career surrounded affluent French businessman (oil and real estate) Glenn Souham being gunned down in the streets of Paris in 1986—rumor had it by Soviet agents.
The arcane killing took a more captivating turn when I traveled to interview a close friend and business colleague of the 34-year-old Frenchman, who said he’d learned firsthand in 1985 “from Glenn that he was doing something for the NSC.”
As in the White House National Security Council. At the same time, the covert Iran-Contra affair hatched in 1985.
While the White House denied Souham was ever a U.S. agent, it did confirm that prior to his death the Frenchman had performed some volunteer tasks for the U.S. Presidential Board of Advisors on Private Sector Initiatives, established by President Ronald Reagan also in 1985.
You can understand the intrigue.
As it was, Souham’s death unfortunately would remain shrouded in mystery. However, on a brighter note, I would become friends with Fred Ryan, then-director of the White House Private Sector Initiatives program, who did all in his power to answer my queries.
Much like Tom Clancy’s character Jack Ryan, Fred Ryan in the space of Reagan’s two terms wore several White House hats, rising eventually to assistant to the president, one of the youngest people ever appointed to the position. And when the 40th presidency drew to a close in 1989, he would remain by the Gipper’s side for several years as his chief of staff and personal representative.
For nearly two decades thereafter, Ryan was the president of a group of ABC-affiliated broadcast and cable television stations, before becoming co-founder and CEO of the prominent digital newspaper Politico. Finally, in 2014, he was appointed publisher and CEO of The Washington Post.
Most impressively, through it all, he saw to the evolution of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, Calif., the burial place of President and Mrs. Reagan, and serves today as chairman of the board of trustees of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute.
In fact, upon stepping down from the Post in 2023, Ryan announced that he would be spearheading the institute’s new nonpartisan Ronald Reagan Center on Civility and Democracy, its mission is to “play an important role in support of our democracy.”
With the deepening partisan divide in this country—and Montana—it couldn’t come at a better time.
“The character of everyday Americans determines whether [our] inheritance is passed on or squandered,” Ryan points out. “As with the success of the Declaration and Constitution, the success of the American experiment today depends on our willingness to disagree and treat others with respect.”
Calling attention to the increasing number of Americans who define themselves primarily by opposition to their fellow citizens—polarization that plays out daily across social media, news coverage, and political discourse—Ryan this month announced the release of the Reagan Center’s CivilityHandbook: A Guide For All Americans.
“Our Democratic republic is under strain,” the introduction begins. “The values that once allowed peaceful resolution of disagreement are eroding. In our politics, workplaces, schools, online spaces, and even our homes, conversations increasingly devolve into anger or withdrawal …
“Our American experiment has survived wars, economic depressions, and fierce disagreements because generations of Americans chose to sustain it. Throughout history Americans have argued passionately but within shared boundaries of respect. In short, they practiced civility.”
Fortunately, the Reagan Center believes the solution is within our reach, with habits we can all learn, one interaction at a time, beginning with civility.
On behalf of Fred, I encourage readers of the Flathead Beacon to click into the handbook’s 13 chapters (free printed copies are also available), and hopefully together we can better understand how to engage our Montana neighbors with greater civility.
John McCaslin is a longtime journalist and author who lives in Bigfork.