After suggesting in March that President Ronald Reagan had taken action to help the gay community during the AIDS crisis, a campaigning Hillary Clinton found herself pilloried by gay activists and others certain that he had done nothing of the sort. They were mistaken. In dealing with AIDS, Reagan did what he so often did well—he appointed people who shared his political convictions but could be relied on to make sound decisions based on apolitical facts and solid science. These appointees framed and announced such decisions in ways that would not result in politically polarizing efforts—in this case, efforts to fight a disease that disproportionately afflicted the gay community.
To begin with, Reagan appointed Dr. C. Everett Koop as surgeon general. When Koop addressed the public about AIDS, he declared: “This is a battle against the disease, not our fellow Americans.” And as the Washington Post noted shortly after his death in 2013, Koop was an “unsung hero” and “a pivotal figure” who saved many lives by persuading key members of Congress to set aside their hostility to the gay community and focus on the broader threat that the contagious disease presented.
