Ronald Reagan - Reagan Diaries, Volume 1: January 1981-October 1985

W hen I was first asked to edit President Ronald Reagans diaries, I was, of course, flattered and excited, not to mention terribly curious. What would I find? Would the real Reagan finally emerge from the mans personal journals? How would the diaries alter perceptions of his White House tenure?

To my knowledge only four presidents other than Ronald Reagan maintained written diaries on a consistent basis: George Washington, John Quincy Adams, James K. Polk, and Rutherford B. Hayes. (Others, like Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower, kept them sporadically.) Reagan had never kept a diary before entering the White House, which was something he and Nancy later regretted. The Sacramento years flew by so quickly; we both wish we had kept diaries, she would tell friends. But the kids were younger then, and we just did not seem to have time. Reagan made a serious commitment to maintaining one as president, starting with his inauguration on January 20, 1981. Unlike so many new diarists who trail off after the first few weeks, he took his task seriously, and in eight years never neglected a daily entry, except when he was in the hospital. The two volumes that constitute this boxed set are the full unabridged diaries as Reagan kept them right down to misspelled words and misplaced commas.

When I first saw the White House diaries at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, I was astounded. Lined up on a research table, all five volumes resemble a half set of an encyclopedia. For a moment, I just looked at them. In physical appearance, the diaries were hardcover books, 8 by 11 inches, bound in maroon and brown leather with the presidential seal embossed on the center of the front and the name ronald wilson reagan in gold lettering at the bottom right. No words appeared on the spines. The inside cover boards all had elegant designs, with intertwined brown autumnal leaves or swirling red-blue-beige paisley or some other exquisite pattern.

Within the pages themselves, you see immediately that Reagan had neat, rounded handwriting, done in ink that is variously blue or black. It is a welcoming script, easy to read. Cross-outs are rare. Economical to the core, Reagan filled every page to the very bottom. Occasionally, he inserted auxiliary material into the diary pages: comic photographs, a picture of a young child wearing a reagan straw hat, or newspaper clippings pertaining to U.S. soldiers killed abroad.

Reagan was a master of the art of summary. As an orator, he was known to keep notes in shorthand on cards that he kept in his suit pocket. He wrote in the diary in a similar fashion. The very act of composition helped him organize his thoughts, as it had since his boyhood. Over the decades, he wrote his own speeches, radio broadcasts, and newspaper columns. He once revealed that the creative act gave him great clarity. As president, he made the time to write (or revise) many of his own speeches. He answered his own mail. You specified that you wanted to hear from me personally, Reagan wrote a citizen from the White House in 1981, so here I am. He enjoyed reading books of all sortsif the writing was inspiring. To judge by the liveliness of many diary entries, from the first to the very last, keeping a daily log was, for Reagan, anything but a chore.

Nancy Reagan explains that her husband kept the diaries in his second-floor White House study next to their bedroom. When traveling, hed bring a volume with him, often writing while on Air Force One. We just wanted a way to capture the moment and our feelings before we were whisked on to the next day, Nancy explained, so we could savor it a little more. For several years after their return to California, the Reagans would sit together in their den after dinner, reading aloud from their diaries and reminiscing about their White House years.

As soon as I started reading the daily entries the president had written, I could almost hear his voice. It was Reagan, circa the 1980s. The familiar, plainspoken, direct tones were back. It was as if he were talking just to me. And I found that I was fascinated by what he had to say. Readers of these volumes will learn how hands-on Reagan was in grappling with the pressing issues of his day. These diaries will complete the reevaluation of Reagan by the historical profession, the historian Walter Russell Mead predicted in Foreign Affairs . Whatever one thinks of his policies, Reagan emerges here as a focused, take-charge president in full control of his cabinet and administration. He was extremely selective in regard to which issues he took up and was willing to let many lower-priority matters slide, but on the things that he cared about, he was forceful and persistent.

In these writings Ronald Reagans true nature is revealed. His uncomplicated and humble notations are on display in these pages: genuine, thoughtful, and caring. They are an extension of an honest man who loved freedom but hated communism, inflation, andtaxes. The Reagan appeal, evident in both volumes, helps to explain why he never outlasted his welcome with the American people. They, and millions of others around the world, regarded him as a powerful leader and, at the same time, a trusted neighbor. Those who made Reagan a hero in his own lifetime even saw something of themselves reflected in hima modern American unashamed of the nations majesty and his own pride in time-honored traditions. Its all here in his own hand, in his own words: from the everyday musings of ordinary thoughts to the detailing of diplomatic summits, Reagans entries reveal the hidden rhythm of life as a president, a husband, a father, and a friend.

With the publication of The Reagan Diaries, there is vastly more: an immense presidential legacy is extended. When Reagan took office, double-digit inflation and high unemployment rates were crippling the American economy. As the diaries show, Reagan worked tirelessly on finding innovative ways to restore the free market from intolerable government regulation. Dozens of entries are made by Reagan pertaining to jump-starting private initiative and enterprise. In 1982 he wrote, Met with leaders of Business Round Table. The press had portrayed them as opposed now to our Ec. program. Not true. They do want some mid-course alterations to jar the financial world out of its fear of inflation (renewed) which is keeping int. rates high. They dont want a change in direction. They feel as I do that the Nat. TV news and the media in general is adding to the problem by its constant drum beat of stories (not really news) on how bad things are.

Ronald Reagan wrote about seemingly everything and everyone in the diariesfrom his first inauguration in 1981 to his very last day in the White House in 1989. Arms reduction, economic policy, the military, Grenada, Lebanon, Iran-contra, Camp David, Strategic Defense Initiative, Rancho del Cielo, and much more are recorded in considerable detail. Queen Elizabeth II, Moammar al-Qaddafi, Pope John Paul II, Mikhail Gorbachev, Margaret Thatcher, Tip ONeill, George H. W. Bush, Fidel Castrothey are all here, too.

And rarely can one turn a page without realizing that Ronald Reagans love for Nancy was the cornerstone of his life. Nothing was more important to Ronald Reagan than his marriage. In the George Washington University Hospital after being shot, he wrote, I opened my eyes to find Nancy there. I pray Ill never face a day when she isnt there. Of all the ways God has blessed me giving her to me is the greatest and beyond anything I can ever hope to deserve. He felt a real sense of loss whenever his wife was away. On one occasion in 1981, after she left for a ship christening, he asked himself, Why am I so scared when she leaves like that? Later, when she went on a trip to New York, he contracted one of his typical bouts of White House loneliness. I dont like it here by myself, he wrote.