Reagan, In His Own Hand: The Writings of Ronald Reagan that Reveal His Revolutionary Vision for America [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

A top advisor to Ronald Reagan once remarked of his boss: "He knows so little and accomplishes so much." Reagan, In His Own Hand will show that the 40th president knew far more than some people have given him credit for. It collects Reagan's recently discovered writings from the late 1970s, when he delivered more than a thousand radio addresses. He wrote about two-thirds of these himself, in longhand on yellow legal paper. "In writing these daily essays on almost every national policy issue during the 1970s, Reagan was acting as a one-man think-tank," the editors suggest. This edition reproduces everything faithfully, right down to the spelling mistakes and crossed-out words. And it offers a compelling look at the ideas and principles that animated one of the most important Americans of the 20th century. In one address, Reagan describes his contribution to a time capsule:

I wrote of the problems we face here in 1976--The choice we face between continuing the policies of the last 40 yrs. that have led to bigger & bigger govt, less & less liberty, redistribution of earnings through confiscatory taxation or trying to get back on the original course set for us by the Founding Fathers... On the international scene two great superpowers face each other with nuclear missiles at the ready--poised to bring Armageddon to the world.

Often his rhetoric is admirably forthright, and there are frequent glimpses of his later achievements, such as the foreshadowing of his desire to build the Strategic Defense Initiative.

The bulk of the book comprises these radio addresses, but a concluding section includes everything from a short story Reagan wrote as a school assignment when he was 14 (it earned him a B+) to his memorable letter in 1994 revealing his Alzheimer's disease. This book will enthral Reagan's devotees, and even his toughest critics will concede he had a way with words. No wonder they called him "The Great Communicator." --John J Miller

Ronald Reagan is a puzzle: How, many wonder (and as Shultz puts it in his foreword), could he know so little and accomplish so much? The editors of this volume (two former Reagan advisers [Anderson and Anderson] and a historian [Skinner]) believe the question can be answered through Reagan's own writings. Associates describe Reagan as constantly writing, whether at home or in a hotel room, in a car or on a plane, recording his thoughts on the issues of the day. The product was almost always some form of public address, written and edited by hand. A collection of these manuscripts is presented here, just as Reagan wrote them, including his corrections and notes. With a few exceptions, they are very short radio commentaries delivered during the pre-presidential period (1975-1979), focusing mostly on foreign policy and the economy, and framed in terms of the general issue of government and freedom. There are no surprises; whether one sees Reagan as the great communicator, articulating deeply held convictions through the expression of simple but profound truths, or as the not-too-bright actor, painting a complex world in the reductionistic tones of black and white, one's expectations will be confirmed. In foreign policy Reagan is the essential Cold Warrior, understanding the world in terms of an "ideological struggle" between Communism and the proponents of freedom. In domestic policy he is the committed capitalist, always suspicious of government regulation and critical of taxation, and not above propagating theories of Communist conspiracy. Indeed, the uniformity of his outlook is quite remarkable, and whether one considers this a strength or a weakness this volume drives home the single-mindedness of the former president. (Feb. 6)Forecast: Given Reagan's enduring popularity, this could find a broad market, and a five-city author tour may pique readers' interest. Primarily, however, the book will appeal to serious students of history trying to put Reagan's ideas and ideology in historical context. First serial to the New York Times Magazine.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

This is a fascinating and valuable collection of Ronald Reagan's writings, from his youth up to his eloquent and moving final letter to the public announcing that he had Alzheimer's disease. Included are poems, short stories, speeches, columns, radio addresses, and other glimpses into the personality, character, and mind of one of the more important of the modern presidents. Taken together, these pieces suggest a breadth of mind not often attributed to Reagan. He remains a controversial figure whose legacy is still contested intellectual terrain. Reagan's supporters, intent on establishing a positive image for the former president, often title their works about him with words like great and outstanding. This effort follows in that fawning tradition by attributing a "revolutionary" vision to Reagan. But what is revealed here instead is rather mundane. By trying desperately to convince us that he was something that he clearly was not, the editors do both Reagan and his readers a disservice. However, this collection is an excellent glimpse into Reagan the man and the thinker. It will be useful for anyone who wishes to understand this important figure. [Reagan's 90th birthday is February 6.DEd].DMichael A. Genovese, Loyola Marymount Univ., Los Angele.
-.DMichael A. Genovese, Loyola Marymount Univ., Los Angeles
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Steve H. Hanke Forbes Awe-inspiring in their breadth...these essays laid out the philosophical framework for Reagan's presidency.

William Safire The New York Times Magazine These handwritten documents prove that the original revolutionary was Ronald Reagan. We are struck by the workings of one man's mind expressed through a pen in his hand.

Lou Cannon The Washington Post Reagan, In His Own Hand makes mincemeat of the idea that Reagan was a dunce. Many of these speeches are those of a visionary who saw around the bend in the road of history.

Michael Beschloss The New York Times Ronald Reagan's private papers may show us that the Great Communicator was a better writer and thinker than even his fans understood. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

A collection of the personal writings of former President Ronald Reagan, for his weekly radio addresses to the nation. Includes samples of Reagan's own writing on the inside covers of the text and on the companion Web site, which also features voice recordings of Reagan reading from his writings. DLC: Reagan, Ronald--Political and social views.

Kiron K. Skinner is an assistant professor of history and political science at Carnegie Mellon University and a fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Council on Foreign Relations. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Introduction

He wasn't a complicated man. He was a private man, but he was not a complicated one. But he was a very sentimental one. And he was a very, very good writer. All of his ideas and thoughts were formulated well before he became governor or certainly president.

Nancy Reagan, in an interview with the editors

Ronald Reagan wrote, in his own hand, from his high school years right through his presidency and on into retirement -- until Alzheimer's disease wreaked its gradual destruction. He wrote not only letters, short fiction, poetry, and sports stories, but speeches, newspaper articles, instructions to his cabinet and staff, and radio commentary on public policy issues, both foreign and domestic.

Nevertheless, many of the writings under his name -- including the two books, Where's the Rest of Me? and An American Life -- were partially written by ghostwriters. A few of his presidential speeches were drafted personally, but most were written in interaction with White House speechwriters. Most of his original writings -- those we are absolutely sure are his -- were pre-presidential. As Nancy Reagan recalls, "He continued to write in the White House. He wrote speeches in the Oval Office, and he had his own desk in the living quarters of the White House. He was always sitting at his desk in the White House, writing. He was so used to writing his own speeches that it took him a while to realize that, as president, he just wasn't going to have the time to write, though he could go over a speech draft and edit and correct. But to take the time to write a whole speech? He soon realized he wasn't going to have that time."

From his high school and college years, seventeen handwritten manuscripts (and a French quiz) written between 1925 and 1931 have been preserved, mostly short stories. The high school yearbook (on which he worked) has a story and a poem he wrote. In college, he wrote for the weekly newspaper. Reagan wrote a weekly sports column for the Des Moines Dispatch while he worked as a radio announcer at WHO. When he went to Hollywood, he wrote, with the cooperation of Warner Bros. but not, according to Reagan himself, with their help, a series of seventeen articles about his experiences for the Des Moines Sunday Register.

Nothing has thus far been found in his own hand of the speeches he gave to employees at General Electric's 135 plants between September 1954 and 1962 (although he often used a question-and-answer format on these occasions) or the many other speeches he gave during this time. It is quite possible that they were his own creations, but we cannot be sure. A number of these speeches appeared in print in various publications with titles such as A Time for Choosing, Encroaching Control, and Losing Freedom by Installments. We have excluded them from this book in order to focus on the substantive writings from the immediate pre-presidential years that exist in his own handwritten drafts.

We know that Reagan wrote extensively during 1975-79, between his years as governor of California and his inauguration as president. He spent these years giving speeches, writing a newspaper column, and giving over a thousand radio addresses. The idea of the radio broadcasts and newspaper columns was developed in 1974 during Reagan's final months as governor of California. Peter Hannaford, assistant to the governor and director of public affairs during Reagan's final year, conferred with Ed Meese, then Reagan's chief of staff, and Michael Deaver, and suggested that the governor consider the offer of Harry O'Connor, the head of O'Connor Creative Services in Hollywood, to produce "a five-day-a-week, five-minute RR [radio] commentary program, to be syndicated nationally."

One weekend in October 1974, Hannaford and Deaver presented a comprehensive plan to Reagan -- including newspaper columns, radio commentary, and several speeches a month. Reagan agreed to do it under the management of a new firm, Deaver & Hannaford, Inc.

On December 30, 1974, Governor Reagan announced his plans at the Los Angeles Press Club. The radio broadcasts were produced by Harry O'Connor and titled "Viewpoint." Though Reagan relied on Hannaford to draft most of the newspaper columns, he enjoyed writing the radio broadcasts himself, and eventually wrote most of those essays.

In a letter dated September 19, 1978, Reagan explained to a private citizen how his radio broadcasts were written: "I write many of my commentaries while I'm traveling and this [the one requested by the citizen] was done on a cross country plane trip." Reagan taped the broadcasts in batches of fifteen at a recording studio. O'Connor Services would distribute them with suggested airing dates, but radio stations would broadcast them according to their schedules. The dates used here are taping dates, except as noted.

In a memo to Reagan on May 23, 1975, five months after the commentaries and columns began, Peter Hannaford reported that the broadcasts were being heard on 286 radio stations, and the columns were being printed in 226 newspapers. Similar numbers were reported by Hannaford two years later. In correspondence on October 30, 1978, Reagan estimated that through his daily radio broadcasts and biweekly newspaper columns he was in touch with "20 million Americans each week."

The radio broadcasts began in January 1975. Reagan suspended the broadcasts when he ran for the presidency in the late fall of 1975. The broadcasts were resumed by Reagan after he lost the Republican Party's nomination to President Gerald Ford in the summer of 1976. He ended his broadcasts in October 1979 as he was preparing to announce his 1980 presidential aspirations.

Only a few people who worked with or were close to Reagan, like Nancy Reagan, knew that the governor wrote most of the radio broadcasts. "He worked a lot at home," Nancy recalled in an interview. "I can see him sitting at his desk writing, which he seemed to do all the time. Often he'd take a long shower because he said that was where he got a lot of his thoughts. He'd stand in the shower and think about what he wanted to write. And then, when he got out, he'd sit down and write....Nobody thought that he ever read anything either -- but he was a voracious reader. I don't ever remember Ronnie sitting and watching television. I really don't. I just don't. When I picture those days, it's him sitting behind that desk in the bedroom, working."

Martin Anderson recalls traveling with Reagan in 1976. On airplanes, Reagan always sat by the window, and whoever was traveling with him took the aisle seat next to him as a "blocker." As soon as the airplane lifted off the runway, he would reach for his briefcase. The briefcase contained articles to read, stacks of 4- by 6-inch cards that contained speech drafts written in his shorthand, pens and pencils, and a supply of writing paper, which was almost always lined, yellow, legal-size paper.

When Reagan wrote, he didn't scribble or scrawl, he wrote in a clear script. He rarely stopped to cross things out or edit. When he reached the bottom of the legal pad, he carefully flipped the page over, tucked it in on the back side of the pad, and proceeded on to the second page. The desired length of one of his radio essays was two full legal pages, and his words almost always just filled that second page -- rarely shorter or longer.

Dennis LeBlanc, a young member of the California State Police, was assigned to the security detail of Governor Reagan in 1971. After Reagan left office, LeBlanc stayed on with Reagan to do all his scheduling and advance work, and became the only man to travel continually with Reagan for the next three years, often traveling alone with him.

"He was constantly writing," declared LeBlanc; "a lot of the time it was on a legal pad, where he'd write things out longhand. Other times it would be taking speeches that he wrote out longhand, and then putting it on 4 by 6 cards in an abbreviated way, using the special shorthand he had developed.

"But all the time he was writing. He would always fly first class. He'd sit by the window, and I'd sit in the aisle seat next to him. It didn't matter whether or not there was a movie being shown and all the lights were out -- he'd turn on his reading lamp and would constantly be writing."

Beginning in early 1975, Reagan, with the help of LeBlanc and Barney Barnett, a retired California highway patrolman who had been Reagan's driver when he was governor, spent a lot of time rebuilding the ranch property he had recently bought.

"We drove up to the ranch from Los Angeles and back down the same day many, many times for the next two years," recalls LeBlanc. "Either Barney or I would drive, and Reagan would sit in the backseat with his legal pad, writing.

"The car we used was a red 1969 Ford station wagon, because Mrs. Reagan's favorite color was red. Barney and I and Reagan would leave Los Angeles at seven o'clock in the morning, and it would take us about two and a half hours to get to the ranch. All the way up Reagan would be writing.

"When we got to the ranch, we'd put in eight or nine hours of work. We ripped out walls and really gutted the place, so you couldn't stay overnight there. Then we'd drive back. He would be writing in the backseat when we drove back. There was some idle chitchat and stuff, but he never fell asleep and he never read -- he was just always writing.

"What was amazing to me," said LeBlanc, "was the fact that Ronald Reagan never slept on planes when he was traveling. It was the same way when I was with him in the station wagon. It was like -- you're wasting time if you are sleeping. You know, everyone's got things to do. And his thing to do when I was with him was his writing."

David Fischer, Reagan's executive assistant in 1978 and 1979, had similar memories. "The minute the meal service was done, he'd whip out the legal pad and start writing. He wrote to fit the exact time he needed to record. I was always amazed at how hard he worked. I'... --This text refers to the Paperback edition.