by H. W. Brands
7. “The harp seal”: Ibid., 335.
8. “That cost figure”: Radio script, Dec. 22, 1976, in Reagan, in His Own Hand, 307–8.
CHAPTER 29
1. “For too many years”: Carter address, May 22, 1977.
2. “Although there is no instance”: Jeane Kirkpatrick, “Dictatorships and Double Standards,” Commentary, Nov. 1979.
3. “The tear gas had created”: Carter, Keeping Faith (1982), 434.
CHAPTER 30
1. “A troubled and afflicted mankind”: New York Times, Nov. 14, 1979.
2. “Giscard d’Estaing”: Cannon, Governor Reagan, 453.
3. “My opinion of the Russians”: H. W. Brands, The Devil We Knew: Americans and the Cold War (1993), 160.
4. “the most serious threat”: Carter State of the Union address, Jan. 23, 1980.
5. “It was a big surprise”: Baker interview with author.
6. “I’m paying”: Washington Post, Feb. 24, 1980.
7. “The bad news”: Baker, Work Hard, 91.
CHAPTER 31
1. “Bush is very competitive”: Baker interview with author.
2. “Every time I weighed my options”: George Bush interview with author.
3. “All the old Ford guys”: Baker interview with author.
4. “figurehead”: Cannon, Governor Reagan, 475.
5. “As I had done so many times”: Michael Deaver, Behind the Scenes (1987), 96.
6. “Can you support my policy positions?”: Baker interview with author.
7. “He and I have come”: New York Times, July 17, 1980.
8. “The major issue”: Reagan acceptance address, July 17, 1980, American Presidency Project.
9. “noble cause”: New York Times, Aug. 19, 1980.
10. “The only good news”: Cannon, Governor Reagan, 481.
11. “I was the only Republican”: Baker interview with author.
12. “All you have to do”: Nofziger interview, Miller Center.
13. “There you go again”: Reagan-Carter debate, Oct. 28, 1980, American Presidency Project.
CHAPTER 32
1. “October surprise watch” and “Our business”: Senate Foreign Relations Committee, The “October Surprise” Allegations and the Circumstances Surrounding the Release of the American Hostages Held in Iran (1992), 33, 35.
2. “The Iranians know”: Stef Halper to Ed Meese, Oct. 19, 1980, in “October Surprise” Allegations, 239–44.
3. “I believe”: Casey to Reagan and Meese, Nov. 2, 1980, in “October Surprise” Allegations, 234.
4. “Precautions must be taken”: Casey memo, Oct. 27, 1980, Reagan Library.
5. In a 1991 book: Gary Sick, October Surprise: America’s Hostages in Iran and the Election of Ronald Reagan (1991).
6. others that appeared to be critical: “October Surprise” Allegations, 13–15.
7. “The great weight”: Ibid., 114–17.
8. “If true”: Lee F. Hamilton, “Case Closed,” New York Times, Jan. 24, 1993.
9. “Mr. President”: Douglas Brinkley, “The Rising Stock of Jimmy Carter: The ‘Hands On’ Legacy of Our Thirty-Ninth President,” Bernath Memorial Lecture to the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, March 30, 1996, published in Diplomatic History (Fall 1996).
10. Brinkley said Carter: Douglas Brinkley interview with author. Kai Bird, in The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames (2014), 242–47, provided evidence of a Casey effort to influence Arafat, though Bird noted that the alleged agent in the effort, Jack Shaw, denied anything untoward.
11. “I can categorically assure you”: Bush to Moorhead Kennedy, May 9, 1991, George Bush Library, College Station, Tex. Kevin Phillips, declining to take Bush at his word, in American Dynasty (2004) laid out the case for a Bush connection to efforts to prevent the preelection release of the hostages. Characterizing the available testimony and documents as “fascinating in evidentiary potential yet appalling in implication,” Phillips nonetheless drew no firm conclusion (290).
12. “In this regard”: Memorandum for the record by Paul Beach, Nov. 4, 1991, Bush Library.
13. “If the White House knew”: Robert Parry, “Second Thoughts on October Surprise,” June 8, 2013, Consortiumnews.com.
14. In 2013, Ben Barnes: Ben Barnes interview with author.
15. “personal business for private interests”: Undated memo, Connally Papers, Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, Austin, Tex.
16. “I am sure that you will find”: Nixon to Paul-Louis Weiller, June 30, 1980, Connally Papers.
17. “Governor Reagan”: Memo, July 21, 1980, Connally Papers.
18. “not be helpful”: Barnes interview.
19. “absolute fiction”: Sick, October Surprise, 225.
20. “You know … Abe Lincoln”: Reagan victory speech, Nov. 4, 1980, American Presidency Project.
CHAPTER 33
1. “He’s got a briefcase”: Nofziger interview, Miller Center.
2. “There was absolutely nothing wrong”: Stuart Spencer interview, Miller Center.
3. “If you were sitting”: Ibid.
4. “I’ve always assumed Ed Meese”: Deaver, Behind the Scenes, 124.
5. “Everyone assumed”: Spencer interview.
6. “She was the reason”: Baker interview with author.
7. “The President is elected”: Nofziger interview.
8. “President Reagan understood”: Baker, Work Hard, 125.
9. “Of all the advisers”: Nancy Reagan, My Turn, 238.
10. “At times, Ronald Reagan”: Deaver, Behind the Scenes, 39–40.
11. “Ed reacted”: Spencer interview.
12. “I want you to make it right”: Baker interview with author.
13. “Counselor to the President for Policy”: Memo by Baker, initialed by Meese, Nov. 13, 1980, James A. Baker Papers, Mudd Library, Princeton University.
14. “You’ve got the policy”: Baker interview with author.
15. “It was a good, lawyerly way”: Baker, Work Hard, 128.
16. “Who’s boss?”: Interview excerpt in Richard Darman memo, Jan. 10, 1981 [misdated as 1980], Reagan Library.
17. “The president liked the issues”: Edwin Meese interview with author.
18. “At the outset”: Edwin Meese III, With Reagan (1992), 80.
19. “It was primarily”: Nofziger interview.
20. “It really worked well”: Baker interview with author.
21. “He was one of the smartest people”: Phil Gramm interview with author.
22. “He was extraordinarily talented”: Baker interview with author.
CHAPTER 34
1. “It would cap off”: Martin Anderson, Revolution (1988), 331–32.
2. “He was tall”: Robert M. Gates, From the Shadows (1996), 215.
3. “You know, I’ve never been able”: Baker interview with author.
4. “God, he must have been bitter”: Anderson, Revolution, 332.
5. “Bill Casey came to CIA”: Gates, From the Shadows, 199, 201; Robert Gates interview with author.
6. “The DCI”: Memorandum for the record, Nov. 14, 1980, CIA Historical Collection on Ronald Reagan, Intelligence, and the End of the Cold War, accessed Sept. 8, 2012, www.foia.cia.gov/Reagan.asp.
7. “The briefings in general”: Memorandum for the record, Nov. 21, 1980, CIA Historical Collection on Ronald Reagan.
8. “Economic prospects”: “USSR: Economic Issues Facing the Leadership,” Jan. 1981, CIA Historical Collection on Ronald Reagan.
9. “My theory of the Cold War”: Richard Allen interview, Miller Center.
CHAPTER 35
1. “We sat”: Nancy Reagan, My Turn, 231.
2. “The atmosphere in the limousine”: American Life, 225–26.
3. passengers reported a shaking: Washington Post, Jan. 21, 1981.
4. “It distorts”: Reagan inaugural address, Jan. 20, 1981.
CHAPTER 36
1. “Ronald Reagan?!”: David A. Stockman, Th
e Triumph of Politics: The Inside Story of the Reagan Revolution (1987), 53–55.
2. “I’d worked out”: Ibid., 80.
3. “It’s Raygan”: Donald T. Regan, For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington (1988), 154–57.
4. “To this day”: Regan memo, March 11, 1981, in ibid., 159.
5. “a report on the state”: Reagan address, Feb. 5, 1981.
CHAPTER 37
1. “about the size”: Stockman, Triumph of Politics, 110, 112–13.
2. “Stockman was possessed”: Regan, For the Record, 172–73.
3. “By now it was clear”: Stockman, Triumph of Politics, 119.
4. “I would not forget”: Caspar Weinberger, Fighting for Peace (1990), 20–21.
5. “I had become”: Stockman, Triumph of Politics, 117–18.
6. “I became a little troubled”: Weinberger, Fighting for Peace, 49.
CHAPTER 38
1. “I’m bringing home more dollars”: Reagan address, Feb. 18, 1981.
CHAPTER 39
1. “I had met Governor Reagan”: Margaret Thatcher, The Path to Power (1995), 372.
2. “Mrs. T told me”: Nicholas Henderson, Mandarin (1994), 384–90.
CHAPTER 40
1. “I’m certainly not thinking”: Reagan news conference, Jan. 29, 1981.
2. “Your hard line”: Reagan interview with Cronkite, March 3, 1981.
CHAPTER 41
1. “People often ask me”: Nancy Reagan, My Turn, 244.
2. “Everybody who served us”: Ibid., 245.
3. “Thank God for Camp David!”: Ibid., 253, 259.
4. “Doing for people”: Reagan address to Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO, March 30, 1981.
5. “There’s been a shooting”: Nancy Reagan, My Turn, 3–4.
6. “Rawhide is okay”: Transcript of Secret Service radio traffic, March 30, 1981, United States Secret Service press release, March 11, 2011, secretservice.gov.
7. “I felt a blow”: Diary entry for March 30, 1981, in The Reagan Diaries, edited by Douglas Brinkley (2009). Diary entries below are taken from this collection and are identified by date alone. Some of Reagan’s abbreviations have been spelled out to aid in the reading. The most important exceptions are “d—m!” and “h—l!” The spirit of Nelle Reagan apparently hovered over the president as he wrote his diary entries, and her spirit is honored here.
8. “I’m having a hard time breathing”: Del Quentin Wilber, Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan (2011), 109–10.
9. “I hope they are all Republicans”: Ibid., 120.
10. “I walked in”: Nancy Reagan, My Turn, 6.
11. “Who’s minding the store?”: Baker, Work Hard, 144.
12. “I love you”: Wilber, Rawhide Down, 144–47.
CHAPTER 42
1. “They might view the transfer”: Baker, Work Hard, 146.
2. “This is very bad”: Alexander M. Haig Jr., Caveat (1984), 159.
3. “Constitutionally, gentlemen”: Ibid., 160.
4. “Perhaps the camera”: Ibid., 163–64.
5. “I can’t breathe”: Nancy Reagan, My Turn, 9.
6. “It’s okay, Dad”: Ron Reagan, My Father at 100 (2011), 202.
7. “Get Well Soon”: Nancy Reagan, My Turn, 10–11.
8. “God bless you, Mr. President”: Chris Matthews, Tip and the Gipper (2013), 73.
9. “It heightened his sense of mission”: Ron Reagan interview.
10. “Whatever happens now”: Diary entry for March 30, 1981 (written April 11).
11. “I don’t know what you’re worried about”: Nancy Reagan, My Turn, 20–21.
12. “Everyone said it was just a coincidence”: Ibid., 44–48.
CHAPTER 43
1. “You wouldn’t want to talk me”: Reagan address to Congress, April 28, 1981.
2. “Stockman and I wrote the Reagan budget”: Gramm interview.
3. “We embrace”: Reagan address to Congress, April 28, 1981.
CHAPTER 44
1. “Am I lobbying people?”: New York Times, May 5, 1981.
2. “We never anticipated”: Diary entry for May 7, 1981.
3. “Then we shot ourselves”: Baker, Work Hard, 179.
4. “Schweiker and I”: Stockman, Triumph of Politics, 200–201.
5. “They gave us”: Ibid., 204.
6. “I was apoplectic”: Baker interview with author.
7. “Our success”: Baker, Work Hard, 180.
8. “Look”: Stockman, Triumph of Politics, 205–7.
9. “And that was that”: Baker, Work Hard, 181.
CHAPTER 45
1. “A university like this”: Reagan commencement address at Notre Dame, May 17, 1981.
2. “Tip O’Neill is getting rough”: Diary entry for June 23, 1981.
3. “Tip was bluster”: Diary entry for June 18, 1981.
4. “I’ll reluctantly give in”: Diary entry for May 28, 1981.
5. “Jim Wright is playing games”: Diary entry for July 18, 1981.
6. “I’d intended to make”: Reagan address to the nation, July 27, 1981.
7. “All of them told”: Diary entry for July 28, 1981.
8. “The bill is done” and “the most sweeping”: New York Times, July 29, 1981.
9. “I cannot imagine anything”: Weinberger to Regan, July 30, 1981, Caspar Weinberger Papers, Library of Congress.
10. “the greatest political win”: Diary entry for July 29, 1981.
11. “They represent a turnaround”: Reagan remarks and news conference, Aug. 13, 1981.
CHAPTER 46
1. “Mr. President”: Question-and-answer session with reporters, Aug. 13, 1981.
2. “We’re still miles apart”: New York Times, Aug. 3, 1981.
3. “Negotiations are still going on”: Diary entry for June 21, 1981.
4. “This morning at 7 a.m.”: Reagan remarks to reporters, Aug. 3, 1981.
5. “I don’t care”: New York Times, Aug. 4, 1981.
6. “I’m sorry”: Washington Post, Aug. 6, 1981.
7. “United Airlines is still flying”: Washington Post, Aug. 8, 1981.
8. “crisis made in heaven”: Washington Post, Aug. 7, 1981.
9. “I can understand”: Reagan to Mrs. Browning, ca. Sept. 1981, in Life in Letters, 328.
10. “I am more grateful”: Reagan to Jerry McMillan, Sept. 29, 1981, in Life in Letters, 329.
CHAPTER 47
1. “The scent of victory”: Stockman, Triumph of Politics, 291–97.
2. “My job was to establish”: Regan, For the Record, 180–81.
3. “I was wondering”: Anderson, Revolution, 250–51.
4. “He knew what he knew”: Gramm interview.
5. “I was sitting”: Anderson, Revolution, 250–51.
6. “Volcker, possessed”: Regan, For the Record, 191–93.
CHAPTER 48
1. “Another bomb”: Diary entry for Oct. 16, 1981.
2. “A very dark picture”: Diary entry for Nov. 2, 1981.
3. “Kemp-Roth was always a Trojan horse”: Atlantic Monthly, Dec. 1981.
4. “We even autographed”: Baker, Work Hard, 166.
5. “one of the most cynical pieces”: Associated Press, Nov. 11, 1981.
6. “The networks hammered us”: Baker, Work Hard, 168.
7. “I don’t know who the hell else”: Baker interview with author.
8. “Today was different”: Stockman, Triumph of Politics, 4–5.
9. “He was disloyal”: Baker interview with author.
10. “I’m reading an article”: Diary entry for Nov. 11, 1981.
11. “I had lunch”: Diary entry for Nov. 12, 1981.
12. “The president’s eyes were moist”: Stockman, Triumph of Politics, 1–4.
CHAPTER 49
1. “He was frustrated”: Gates, From the Shadows, 209; Gates interview.
2. “I would like to tell you”: Casey to Reagan, May 6, 1981, CIA Historical
Collection on Ronald Reagan.
3. “It was the appointment from hell”: Gates, From the Shadows, 211.
4. “He customarily lied”: Bobby Ray Inman interview with author.
5. “We believe that Soviet military leaders”: “Soviet Goals and Expectations in the Global Power Arena,” NIE 11-4-78, July 7, 1981, Reagan Library.
CHAPTER 50
1. Bobby Ray Inman recalled: Inman interview.
2. “There are 33 states”: Minutes of NSC meeting, Feb. 6, 1981, Reagan Library.
3. “They are not men of great stature”: Minutes of NSC meeting, Feb. 11, 1981, Reagan Library.
CHAPTER 51
1. “antisocialist elements”: Pravda, Sept. 1, 1980.
2. “The United States is watching”: Carter statement, Dec. 3, 1980.
3. “The Polish people must be allowed”: Reagan remarks at welcoming ceremony for Margaret Thatcher, Feb. 26, 1981.
4. “We waited eagerly”: Gates, From the Shadows, 227–28.
5. “Polish Patriots Day”: Ibid., 231.
6. “desperate dilemma”: Ibid., 232.
7. “Now we must take on”: Diary entry for July 14, 1981.
8. “Your Holiness”: Excerpt of telephone conversation transcript, Dec. 14, 1981.
9. “Lunched with Cardinal Casaroli”: Diary entry for Dec. 15, 1981.
10. “All the information”: Reagan news conference, Dec. 17, 1981.
11. “There is widespread resentment”: Minutes of NSC meeting, Dec. 21, 1981, Reagan Library. Remarks at this meeting and many others are quoted in Martin Anderson and Annelise Anderson, Reagan’s Secret War (2009).
12. “Mr. President … would you light”: Deaver, Behind the Scenes, 142–43.
