Posted on 05/19/2007 9:55:53 PM PDT by Reagan Man
Hell is “h—l.” Damn is “d—n.” Nancy Reagan is “Mommie,” and “my guardian angel.” The vice president is “George B.,” and occasionally “Geo. B.”
“The Reagan Diaries,” a 767-page flashback to be published Tuesday, shows the 40th president as few people knew him, jotting with blunt candor and clarity during quiet times on Air Force One and in the privacy of the second-floor study off his White House bedroom.
The meticulous handwritten entries in five leather-bound volumes, now condensed to one for publication, provide thought bubbles for the iconic photographs of the Reagan presidency, showing what he was really thinking day by day through two terms of self-styled sunny optimism and peace through strength, with his trademark jelly beans on the side.
Essentially, a long letter the president wrote to himself, the diaries ran 450,000 words. Edited into one hardback volume by historian Douglas Brinkley, they also capture a Ronald Wilson Reagan who was more engaged in the details of summits and budget talks than has usually been portrayed, and who was remarkably emotional about the youngsters and grieving families who so regularly cross a president’s path.
“Met with High School Honor students from all over the country who are winners in a competition sponsored by Hearst people,” he wrote. “Did Q&A. I hated to leave.”
About an encounter with families of those who died in the 1983 terrorist bombing of a Marine barracks in Beirut, he noted he could only “grip their hands – I was too choked up to speak.”
And during a trip to Moscow in 1988, he wrote: “Our people had an idea about us going out on the street to be seen by the people – our goal a kind of set up where children could be photo’d with Disney type animals. It was amazing how quickly the street was jammed curb to curb with people – warm, friendly people who couldn’t have been more affectionate. In addition to our S.S. [Secret Service] the KGB was on hand & I’ve never seen such brutal manhandling as they did on their own people who were in no way getting out of hand.”
Reagan was 93 when he died on June 5, 2004. Brinkley writes in an introduction that Reagan “had neat, rounded handwriting, done in ink that is variously blue or black.” Brinkley calls Reagan “a master of the art of summary,” and recalls that that when he began reading the entries, the late president’s “familiar, plain-spoken, direct tones were back.”
To ready the books for Brinkley’s editing, Michael J. Duggan, the supervisory archivist of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, typed one of the volumes into a Dell computer in the library’s vault. Kathy Osborne, who had been Reagan’s private assistant, did the other four. Proofreading took three months. And the National Security Council at the White House took about two months to determine how much had to remain classified – only about six or seven pages of text, sprinkled a sentence here and there over more than 800 pages.
Duggan said the first two volumes were covered in slightly different material than the last three, which clearly had been ordered together once Reagan’s staff realized he was going to be so faithful about his writing.
“He didn’t waste any paper,” Duggan said in a telephone interview. “He usually wrote down to the bottom of the page, and as he started getting to the end of a volume, he started writing smaller and smaller to get more in.”
Readers of “The Reagan Diaries” (HarperCollins, $35) will learn that the president and Nancy Reagan often watched CBS’s “60 Minutes.” Diplomatic mumbo jumbo is stripped away: “Kadafi must be insane.” There are occasional misspellings (“familys” for “families”), but they are rare.
And Reagan could be thorough. When he’s in Bethesda Naval Hospital having polyps removed in 1985, he notes a 5:15 a.m. “bathroom call.”
Once in awhile, the reader sees the flicker of conflict. One Sunday in 1983, he wrote, “Went to church. We kept it a secret until the very last minute. It felt good. … Nancy phoned – very upset. Ron casually told the S.S. he was going to Paris in a few days. I don’t know what it is with him. He refuses to cooperate with them. … I’m not talking to him until he apologizes for hanging up on me.”
Reagan could also be tough on the job. After meeting with the Republican congressional leadership in the Cabinet room after the Republican Senate refused to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, he wrote: “I sounded off & told them I’d veto very d—n thing they sent down unless they gave us a clean debt ceiling bill. That ended the meeting.”
In one meeting with several Catholic archbishops and bishops, some of them Reagan wrote were “part of the peace movement,” he noted: “I think I got a few things off my chest – but politely.”
The Reagans and the Bushes did not appear close to outsiders but he wrote at one point: “Tonite Geo. B & Barbara for dinner. A nice evening.” One Sunday, referring to his King Charles Cavalier Spaniel at the time of the 1986 royal wedding in England, “Well Mommie is on her way to Eng. & Rex & I are alone. The Bushes took pity on one of us (me) & invited me over for lunch.”
This is a Hollywood veteran and global celebrity who kept a surprising sense of wonder. “No Golf – got up late watched some of Rose Parade – as usual it topped itself,” he wrote on New Year’s Day, 1987. “The floats were sensational.”
At times, Reagan shows that the smooth image was not effortless.
On Oct. 20, 1984, on the eve of his reelection, he had a short entry: “The radio program & then I can sum the day up in one sentence. I’ve been working my tail off to master the 4 min. closing statement I want to make in the debate tomorrow night.”
Before a 1984 trip to China, Reagan reports on a National Security Council “working lunch with a movie prepared for our China trip showing all the places where we’ll be. It was well done & most informative.”
Sometimes, the president sounded bemused by the intensity of his aides. In 1983, he wrote that Stu Spencer, his campaign manager from 1980, “came by with a monster book (like an L.A. phone book)—it is the campaign book for if & when I declare. I’m supposed to read it.”
Reagan wrote an unusually detailed entry on the day he was finally told the enormity of the coming Iran-contra revelations: “Big thing of the day was 2 hour meeting in the Situation Room on the Iran affair. George S. [Shultz] is still stubborn that we shouldn’t have sold the arms to Iran – I gave him an argument. All in all we got everything out on the table. After meeting Ed M. [Meese] & Don R. [Reagan] told me of a smoking gun. On one of the arms shipments the Iranians paid a higher purchase price than we were getting. The Israelis put the difference in a secret bank account. Then our Col. [Oliver] North (NSC) gave the money to the ‘Contras.’ This was a violation of the law again giving the Contras money without an authorization by Congress. North didn’t tell me about this. Worst of all John Poindexter found out about it & didn’t tell me. This may call for resignations.”
Poindexter, the national security adviser, resigned the next day. And Reagan wrote, “I told him I wouldn’t refuse his resignation but regretted it.”
One of the dominant themes is his frustration with the press.
April 22, 1982: “Last night CBS did a special 1 hour documentary (Bill Moyers) on 4 cases of poverty and illness they laid to our ec. program. It was a thoroughly dishonest, demagogic, cheap shot.”
March 11, 1983: “Lou Cannon’s story in the Washington Post. It was a vicious series of falsehoods and I was mad as h—l.” (The lead of the front-page story, written with David Hoffman, was: “The resignation of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Anne M. Burford was carefully orchestrated by White House and other administration officials who had to persuade a ‘stubborn and defiant’ President Reagan, as well as Burford, that her departure was politically essential, administration sources said yesterday.”)
Oct. 30, 1983: “Watched the Sunday talk shows – subject Lebanon & Grenada. The press is trying to give this the Vietnam treatment but I don’t think the people will buy it. They’re still whining because we didn’t take them on a guided tour the 1st day we were on Grenada. No mention of the fact that we’ve flown 180 of them onto the Island today.”
Nov. 7, 1984: “Well 49 states, 59% of the vote & 525 electoral votes. A short press conf. The press is now trying to prove it wasn’t a landslide or should I say a mandate? Then to the ranch on a beautiful day.”
I love this man. Even his diary entries are quintessential Ronald W. Reagan. Honest and down to earth. America was blessed to have him as our President.
I guess it's comforting to know some things never change.
A sweet, genuine and modest man...and yet a great leader. Take a lesson from him, all you presidential “hopefuls”.
Thanks for the reminder that this was coming out. I place my pre-order on Amazon just now. I remember that night so distinctly.
I drove from Columbus Ohio to Byesville Ohio (about 90 miles) to vote for Walter Mondale.
I was so stupid when I was in college. And I'm so glad we had President Reagan.
Thanks for the post, very enjoyable to read.
I am thankful that I was alive when giants like him roamed the earth. Reagan is my hero. The 80’s were a great time thanks to him.
Thank you so much for this post.
I was fortunate enough to be able to vote for him three times.
“Nov. 7, 1984: “Well 49 states, 59% of the vote & 525 electoral votes. A short press conf. The press is now trying to prove it wasn’t a landslide or should I say a mandate? Then to the ranch on a beautiful day.”
Classic Reagan...
Ronald Reagan was one in a million. Great man, Great President, Great human. A man much loved the Citizens of the USA.
Reagan was a leader, the leader of the Conservative Party, the Conservative Movement.
Help us Ronnie, show us one that fit into your shoes and actually wear them.
Wish there were more than a few out there that are similar.
I was so stupid when I was in college. And I’m so glad we had President Reagan.
We all did some stupid things in college.
I am writing now because I believe his book comes out soon. I figure that perhaps we could talk about President Reagan rather than President Bush for awhile. lol.
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