Reagan Gets Idea From ‘Rambo’ for Next Time

WASHINGTON —  President Reagan, in a comment just before he addressed the nation from the Oval Office on Sunday, joked that the movie “Rambo: First Blood Part II” gave him an idea about how to handle a hostage crisis if he is faced with another one.

“Boy, after seeing ‘Rambo’ last night, I know what to do the next time this happens,” he said, in a remark picked up by microphones placed in his office for the television and radio speech but not carried in the broadcast.

In the film, a Vietnam veteran, played by actor Sylvester Stallone, launches a bloody rescue mission in Southeast Asia for U.S. servicemen missing in action from the Vietnam War. He battles cold-blooded bureaucrats at home and Communists abroad to save the GIs still being held.