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Reagan: I Won't Pay Ransom for My Son Phil Brennan, NewsMax.com
The Reagan Diaries, edited by Douglas Brinkley, Harper Collins, $35, 752 pages
What was Ronald Reagan really like behind the scenes? What does a president really feel about life, his family, his political colleagues, his country?
We know now because the diaries of Ronald Reagan have just been released to the world. These surprising diaries show that Reagan spent a lot of time dealing with family matters, as most fathers would. But there are presidential twists: Reagan warned his son of a possible kidnapping and told him bluntly he would not pay a ransom! [Editor's Note: Ronald Reagan makes new revelations in his diaries. Get NewsMax's FREE offer..]
From pet peeves and family matters, Reagan even worried about Armageddon. On May 15, 1981, Reagan wrote: "Sometimes I wonder if we are destined to witness Armageddon." Then on June 7 he wrote in his diary: "Got word of Israel bombing of Iraq – nuclear reactor. I swear I believe Armageddon is near." The Reagan diaries are the most intimate revelations made by a sitting president.
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Interestingly, Reagan never kept a diary until he became president of the United States in 1981. From then on, until he left the White House eight years later, he seldom missed a day. He filled five hardcover notebooks, described by editor Douglas Brinkley as being "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." Brinkley compressed the contents into a single volume because the complete diaries would fill two or three fat volumes. Even then, the book is almost as thick as the New York City telephone directory. Don't let that deter you from reading this book - it will give you an insider's view of the Reagan presidency, from beginning to end. What you get in this massive work is Ronald Reagan, pure and unvarnished. Like the man himself, the entries are filled with honesty, humanity and perfect sincerity.
Writes Brinkley of the diaries: "Ronald Reagan's 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, and … taxes." As Brinkley notes, the cornerstones of Reagan's life were his marriage to Nancy, his strong relationship with God, and an enormous empathy for people with physical disabilities. Of Nancy on his 29th wedding anniversary he wrote: "29 years of more happiness than any man could rightly deserve." The first entry deals with his inauguration on Jan. 20 1981, and the last with his final day in the White House, on Jan. 20, 1989. In between, Reagan faithfully records the daily activities that filled his presidency. One gets the sense that the ghost of his pious mother Nelle, who hated profanity – however mild – sat perched on his shoulder as he wrote, causing him to observe that he is "mad as h..l" or "d..n angry." Throughout the diaries there are entries of a personal nature. He regularly complains that he is unhappy whenever Nancy is not at his side. And when she comes back from wherever her duties as first lady had taken her, he does everything but set off fireworks to mark her return. Family matters frequently occupy his attention. Youngest son Ron and rebellious daughter Patti - whom he describes as having "a kind of yo-yo family relationship" - keep complaining that their Secret Service protection intrudes on their privacy. In one instance, Ron deeply offended his father when he hung up on him in the midst of a telephone conversation about the matter. Reagan vowed he would not talk to his son until he apologized. In one 1984 entry, he wrote that "Patti screamed & complained so much we took the S.S. detail away at her request. "Now, S.S. went to her & asked if she would accept it for no more than a week until they could get this information out of Lebanon & check the story (about some threat). She said yes. But today's the 4th day & she's screaming again about invasion of her privacy & last night she abused the agents terribly. I said take them away from her so she's again without protection. Insanity is hereditary. You catch it from your kids." Reagan's feelings about Ron's career as a ballet dancer are mixed. In several entries he writes with paternal pride about Ron's talent after viewing him in performances. He celebrates, however, when Ron tells him he is planning to give up dancing to pursue a writing career. In one revealing entry he mentions pleading with Ron to keep his Secret Service protection, and informing him that he is probably a kidnapping target of Puerto Rican extremists. Reagan tells him that as president he could never negotiate with terrorists and pay a ransom should Ron be abducted. Daughter Maureen, who lived in the White House, frequently appears, often along with her husband Dennis. Reagan's disputes with his troubled oldest son Michael mark the earlier entries. But after Michael managed to cast off the demons of having been sexually abused by a camp counselor when he was eight years old and wrote a book detailing his struggles, Reagan rejoiced: "He's a new Mike." Reagan also writes joyfully about taking Mike's two children, Ashley and Cameron - his only grandchildren - outside the White House to build a snowman. He writes glowingly of many of his associates, but doesn't hesitate to express his contempt for some of his critics. Writing about Connecticut's dissident Republican Sen. Lowell Weicker, for example, he simply describes him as "a pompous, no good fathead." He is less direct in writing about conservative direct-mail genius Richard Viguerie, who had written him a letter complaining that he had been hurt by Reagan's alleged deviation from conservative principles. Writes Reagan: "He uses crocodile tears for ink." Like George Bush, Reagan faced the problem of illegal immigration. On Feb. 28, 1981, commenting on the pending arrest of a boatload of Haitians, he wrote: "I'm all for opening the door to refugees from totalitarianism but this is more complicated. These are just people who believe they can have a better life here. They are in fact illegal aliens. We'll have to deport them." In a later entry he all but throws up his hands and laments, "We have lost control of our borders." Reagan was often the target of a hostile press. During a 1984 visit to China, he writes about Nancy buying some decorative items for the White House Christmas tree. "There was an incident - her bill came to 5 Yuan ($2.50). The poor gal selling didn't have any change. I'm aware that there is no tipping in China but she was so embarrassed & looking to others for help. I said ‘Keep it,' and we moved on. She caught up with us & gave me the change she'd gotten from someone for the 10 Yuan note I had given her. Our TV press made a big thing of it - that I had committed a blunder & tried to tip her." While almost always courteous with members of the media in public and in private meetings, in his diary Reagan makes no bones about his conviction that the press is almost solidly pro-Democrat. Reagan also is clear in his disgust with the Democratic Party's habit of telling what he calls flat-out lies. During the 1984 presidential campaign he singles out Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro as telling whoppers, and even indicts his pal, Democratic House Speaker Tip O'Neill, for departing from the truth. Most of the entries deal with the various foreign problems he faced, notably the Cold War, communist penetration below our southern borders, and the Iran-Contra affair. The book is about as complete a record of a presidency as can be found anywhere, and it is told by the man in the middle of some of history's greatest events. Poignantly, on Jan. 19, 1989, Reagan wrote: "Tomorrow, I stop being President." If you want to know Ronald Reagan as he truly was, read this book – and mutter a word of thanks to editor Brinkley for his yeoman service in compiling it so brilliantly.
[Editor's Note: Ronald Reagan makes new revelations in his diaries. Go Here for a FREE offer!.]
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