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| Sunday, 13 June 2004 |
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America bids emotional farewell to Reagan WASHINGTON, June 11 (Reuters) America bade farewell to Ronald Reagan on Friday in a majestic state funeral at Washington's National Cathedral where past and present world leaders lauded the former president as a prophet of freedom and moral victor of the Cold War. "Ronald Reagan believed ... in the courage and triumph of free men and we believe it all the more because we saw that courage in him," said President George W. Bush, delivering a eulogy to his predecessor. "As Ronald Wilson Reagan goes his way, we are left with the joyful hope he shared," he said. After the service, Reagan's body was flown to California and laid to rest in the rolling California hills that he loved in a sunset ceremony that ended a week of national mourning for the 40th president - the last chapter of what Bush called "a great American story." At the burial ceremony at the Reagan Presidential library in Simi Valley, an honor guard presented widow Nancy Reagan with the flag that had been draping his coffin for the last journey home. She dabbed her eyes, hugged the flag to her chest and then walked to the coffin, placed her cheek on it and began to weep as her children Ron and Patti comforted her. The frail 82-year-old widow placed a single kiss on the coffin and reluctantly allowed herself to be led away so that the burial service could conclude. In contrast to the formal, state funeral service held in Washington, Reagan's burial was a family affair attended by some 700 close friends, many of them people the late president had known since his days as a Hollywood actor. The ceremony capped six days of mourning and nostalgic remembrance for the 40th president of the United States, who died last Saturday at age 93 after a long struggle with Alzheimer's disease. "He won the Cold War, not only without firing a shot but also by inviting enemies out of their fortress and turning them into friends," former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said of her close ally and friend. Celebrated by supporters as a champion of freedom and free enterprise, Reagan also provoked furious opposition during his 1981-1989 presidency. Critics accused him of building up massive budget deficits, cutting programs for the poor and supporting right-wing hard-liners in Central America. The one-time Hollywood movie star, known to millions as "the Gipper" after his favorite film role, had himself said goodbye to the American people in a moving letter revealing his illness in 1994 and had since lived in seclusion, cared for by his wife, Nancy. "It has been 10 years since he said his own farewell, yet it is still very sad and hard to let him go," Bush said. Veterans of the Cold War struggle against communism that Reagan helped end were prominent at the funeral, attended by 25 current heads of state or government, 14 foreign ministers and 11 former heads of state. Thatcher was present in the congregation but her message was delivered on videotape since her health has become too fragile for public speaking. ELEGANCE AND EASE Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney recalled Reagan's elegance and ease. "No one could more eloquently summon his nation to high purpose," he said. All four living former U.S. presidents - Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George Bush and Bill Clinton - attended the service in the massive faux Gothic cathedral on a hill over Washington. Mikhail Gorbachev, the last president of the Soviet Union who crossed swords with Reagan at memorable summits in the 1980s and then allowed the Cold War to end peacefully months after Reagan left office in 1989, represented Russia. Former President Bush, his voice breaking with emotion, said Reagan and Gorbachev had combined to end the Cold War. Referring to the best-known line in Reagan's best-known film, he said, "The Gipper and Mikhail Gorbachev won one for the world." A bell tolled and rain fell as the hearse bearing Reagan's body arrived at the cathedral from Capitol Hill, where it had lain in state for two days while tens of thousands of people filed past. Onlookers lined the four-mile (six km) route from the Capitol to the Cathedral standing several rows deep. Police had to prevent the crowd spilling into the streets. Government departments, the New York Stock Exchange and many businesses closed as Americans paused to pay tribute. |
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