WASHINGTON -- A great man has died, moving a piece of the present into history. It is a history that many of us have been part of and that shapes our future.

U.S. President Ronald Reagan's years in office were not easy. When a world power began living up to its billing, the domestic and international press labeled the Reagan administration as possessing only style over substance. Caricaturists loved to draw the president as a cowboy -- with little knowledge or understanding of issues. Internationally, America was derided for having elected an "actor" as president. Domestically, the tax cuts were decried, as were the rising deficits, both of the budget and of trade.

Based on personal experience, I know that the president's alleged ignorance and detachment were not factual. While teaching international marketing at Georgetown University, I wrote frequent editorials for newspapers. One of them dealt with the demands by the U.S. auto industry to impose sharp limits on Japanese car imports. I wrote at the time that U.S. consumers chose those foreign cars primarily due to quality and price, and urged the president not to give in to protectionism but rather to exhort the Detroit producers to make better cars. Reagan read this editorial in his daily morning brief, and remarked that perhaps I could make a contribution to the administration. This man was not removed from the import of daily life -- he did something about it!