Kenneth L. Khachigian
Inaugural Speechwriter
Age at the Time: 36

Originally published Jan. 13, 2001

I was on the presidential platform with my wife, so we were elevated and could see Reagan and the people beyond. What struck me then was that just as he began speaking, the sun popped out. That, coupled with the fact that the inauguration was taking place on the restored West Front of the Capitol, meant we were looking toward the West, where we came from, and I thought, "Wow, it's an omen. There really is going to be a fresh start."

Facing westward also meant we were facing the monuments, which really gave a thematic opening to the speech. I had our television guy tip off the networks that Reagan would mention them, and so as he mentioned the Lincoln Memorial and Jefferson Memorial and Washington Monument and Arlington Cemetery, they cut away to pictures of them.

Of course, there was that thing about Arlington Cemetery and Private Treptow. I had written a draft of the speech, and Reagan had rewritten it on a flight back to California. When I got out to Pacific Palisades, he said that for the ending, he wanted to talk about this World War I soldier. I worked in the previous White House, where we fact-checked everything, and I asked him where he got that ... and I said, "Governor, we're going to have to check that out. They will nitpick every line of this speech."

Well, the story of the diary turned out to be true, but Treptow isn't buried in Arlington Cemetery. He's buried in his hometown in Wisconsin. I went back to Reagan and told him that, but he looked at me like I just didn't understand. Arlington was necessary to the narrative flow of his story. He was a lot more concerned with the dramatic effect his words would have than with precise geographic accuracy. Reagan thought there was a bigger point here, and that people would get it. He was right, of course, as he almost always was.

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