New York, Aug. 27—Just to begin with, if Ronald Reagan or any member of his staff ever again says, “We cannot turn the clock back,” I and all my friends and admirers will vote for Carter, and that would mean a Democratic landslide. Professor Friedrich Hayek once said that of all clichés in circulation, that one is the most stomach-turning. If you intend it literally, it is meaningless—because it is self-evident. To say factually that you cannot turn back the clock is the equivalent of saying that nothing can simultaneously exist and not exist. If you mean it metaphorically—as Richard Allen obviously used the expression when asked whether President Reagan would institute a Two Chinas policy—then you are saying something no thoughtful man has any business saying. “To say you cannot turn the clock back,” writes Hayek, “is to say that you cannot learn from experience.”
1. Reagan, seeing Bush off at the airport, answered questions that touched on Reagan’s well-known friendship for Taiwan. What Reagan said was that he did not propose to reopen our Embassy in Taiwan, but that the liaison office we currently maintain there “could be official.” That’s all he said that was controversial, believe it or not.
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