Ronald Reagan's 'Morality Gap' Speech (1966)

KRON-TV news footage from May 12th 1966 at the Cow Palace in San Francisco featuring scenes from a speech by Californian Gubernatorial candidate Ronald Reagan, in which he criticizes student radicalism at UC Berkeley. Welcomed to the stage by Chuck Connors, Reagan identifies what he believes is a: "A small minority of beatniks, radicals and filthy speech advocates" who "have brought shame on a great university." He goes on to cite a 21% drop in college applications to UC Berkeley and a Senate subcommittee report which claims: "The campus has become a rallying point for communists and a center for sexual misconduct." He then describes, with notable disgust, an event sponsored by the Vietnam Day Committee in the campus gymnasium, in which rock music, a psychedelic picture show and drugs were all freely available to over 3000 students and under-age juveniles.

Note that Movette Film Transfer of San Francisco remastered this 16mm negative film print in December 2016 in 2K resolution (2048x1556 pixels), using a Lasergraphics film scanner. Opening graphic designed by Carrie Hawks.