“These calls became the source of some amusement… always to protect the president”: Sheila Tate, Lady in Red: An Intimate Portrait of Nancy Reagan (New York: Crown Forum, 2018), 219.
“If the renovations made people angry… china drove them crazy”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 21.
an especially close and important relationship: Ronnie and Britain’s “Iron Lady” had been transatlantic political “soul mates”—that was Ronnie’s description—from their first one-on-one meeting in London in 1975, shortly after Thatcher became the first woman to head the Conservative Party. He wrote later: “Of course, it never occurred to me that before many years would pass, Margaret and I would be sitting across from each other as the heads of our respective governments.” Ronald Reagan, An American Life, loc. 2878 of 12608, Kindle.
Nancy introduced what were then considered novel and exciting foods: C. K. Hickey, “All the Presidents’ Meals,” Foreign Policy online, last modified February 16, 2019, https://foreignpolicy.com/all-the-presidents-meals-state-dinners-white-house-infographic.
“She always fixed me up with a hot Hollywood star… Ginger Rogers!”: Shultz, author interview, October 20, 2016.
“enough to paper his entire office”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 205.
“There were roller-coaster times with Nancy Reagan… protecting her”: Allen, interview, May 28, 2002, Miller Center.
“If Ronnie had thrown Stockman out… he expected their loyalty”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 51.
negative sentiment toward her running double what it had against her predecessors: Donnie Radcliffe and Barry Sussman, “Nancy’s Image Change,” Washington Post online, October 24, 1981, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1981/10/24/nancys-image-change/62fe7149-c4c1-49d1-8a28-8a7ef2456f55.
“You know, some days… it must be my fault”: Chris Wallace, First Lady, 56.
“In many ways… just seemed to rub them the wrong way”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, ix.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“Don’t listen to the stories”… “take good care of her”: Del Quentin Wilber, Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan (New York: Henry Holt, 2011), 103.
traffic that came over the radio… “Rawhide is okay”: Mark Ambinder, “Full Secret Service Transcript: The Moment Reagan Was Shot,” Atlantic online, last modified March 11, 2011, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/03/full-secret-service-transcript-the-moment-reagan-was-shot/72343.
He sprinted… up three flights of stairs to the top floor of the residence: Wilber research notes provided to the author.
command center alerted agents… at the Twenty-Second Street entrance: Ambinder, “Moment Reagan Was Shot.”
“But they told me”… “He has to know I’m here!”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 1–2.
“Doctors believe bleeding to death… Touch and go”: Larry Speakes with Robert Pack, Speaking Out: The Reagan Presidency from Inside the White House (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1988), 6.
His blood pressure plummeted… not get a systolic reading: Jerry Parr with Carolyn Parr, In the Secret Service: The True Story of the Man Who Saved President Reagan’s Life (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 2013), 215–30.
“open and bleeding… it was monstrous”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 4.
“God, you tremble… such a clear shot at the president”: “Attempted Assassination of Ronald Reagan,” YouTube, 9:38, Tulsaphotog, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeHYFgU13TM.
Soviet submarines: Ambinder, “Moment Reagan Was Shot.”
Allen could see… wobbling and his arms shaking: ibid.
worry etched on her own: John Pekkanen, “The Saving of the President,” Washingtonian, August 1, 1981, available at https://www.washingtonian.com/1981/08/01/from-the-archives-the-saving-of-the-president.
fly in from Houston with his own specialists: ibid.
he never saw the note again: Charlotte Wiessner, daughter of Dr. Daniel Ruge, telephone interview by author, August 8, 2017.
“Dan was a marvelous surgeon… She didn’t like him at all”: Richard Davis, author interview, March 5, 2017.
“My father wasn’t crazy about her”: Wiessner, author interview, August 8, 2017.
“What kind of family is this?… Even a bullet can’t bring us together”: Patti Davis, The Way I See It, 270–71.
The family would not all be together again until Thanksgiving: Michael Reagan with Hyams, Outside Looking In, 195–96; confirmed by Dennis Revell, interview by author, Sacramento, CA, July 25, 2019.
“Ronnie’s been shot. Can you come?”: Barbara Sinatra with Wendy Holden, Lady Blue Eyes: My Life with Frank (New York: Crown Archetype, 2011), 267.]
“asked for a television set in his room so he could view this program tonight”: “The Opening of the Academy Awards in 1981,” YouTube, 8:04, Oscars, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq4jfI-ItAU&list=PLJ8RjvesnvDO2x9ClhRsdL2DbgFYHMM3Z.
“I didn’t know I was supposed to be holding the nation together… Neither did I feel that the president was dying”: Nofziger, Nofziger, 292–98.
“The president was not in serious danger of dying”: Elmer W. Lammi, United Press International online, “Dr. Dennis O’Leary, Chief Spokesman for George Washington University…” August 18, 1981, https://www.upi.com/Archives/1981/08/18/Dr-Dennis-OLeary-chief-spokesman-for-George-Washington-University/7996366955200.
“While it is common… as sharp as any yet recorded”: Barry Sussman, “Shooting Gives Reagan Boost in Popularity,” Washington Post online, April 2, 1981, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1981/04/02/shooting-gives-reagan-boost-in-popularity/9515e340-f295-42e7-89c4-c96ed0ab7a44/?utm_term=.8912c3ea6df4.
“The weather was beautiful… how much we missed our life in California”: Ronald Reagan, An American Life, loc. 3904 of 12608, Kindle.
“This woman whose presence… almost lost between my arms”: Patti Davis, The Way I See It, 274.
“The thing that really got to her… Sadat really hit her hard”: Jim Kuhn, interview by author, Washington, DC, February 28, 2019.
“Dear Mrs. R.… Lucky me”: Nancy Reagan, I Love You, Ronnie, 156–60.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
eight-star hotel: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 200–201.
in bed by ten: ibid., 212–17.
“I never expected… welcome part of our routine”: ibid., 214.
“Three and a half minutes, that’s fine… fifteen seconds at the end”: Mark Weinberg, Movie Nights with the Reagans: A Memoir (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018), 80.
“was on a mission from Nancy… buried in this stuff on weekends”: Allen, interview, May 28, 2002, Miller Center.
“I felt like I was a kid… I couldn’t resist”: John Hutton, interview, April 15–16, 2004, Presidential Oral Histories, Ronald Reagan Presidency, Miller Center, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-oral-histories/john-hutton-md-oral-history.
“This is my fourteenth trip… the most ineptly organized”: Lou Cannon, “On the Continent, Nodding Off and Fending Off the Press,” Washington Post online, June 14, 1982, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1982/06/14/on-the-continent-nodding-off-and-fending-off-the-press/cc4c1533-ab29-4518-8bf2-67c11248c14a.
“Reagan managed to raise doubts… some of his administration’s policies”: Lou Cannon, “President Gained His Major Goal,” Washington Post, June 13, 1982, 1.
“a relaxed and effective performer… as events in his reelection campaign”: Cannon, President Reagan, 416.
“I don’t get involved… who are trying to end-run him”: Chris Wallace, First Lady, 41.
“Does his no always end it?… come back at him again”: ibid., 40.
“Her husband’s close associates… pull the trigger”: Richard E. Neustadt, Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents: The Politics of Leadership from Roosevelt to Reagan (New York: Free Press, 1990), 312–14.
“Never let your Nancy be immobilized”: ibid., 316.
“She could not bear the thought of the criticism… Ronald Reagan—a president with a particularly idealistic streak—was especially in need of this kind of counsel”: Peter J. Wallison, Ronald Reagan: The Power of Conviction and the Success of his Presidency (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2003), 106–7.
“It really reaches a point… rather than let it build up a head of steam”: Chris Wallace, First Lady, 41.
“Nancy Reagan had a better understanding… he did not like to be pushed by anyone, not even Nancy Reagan”: Cannon, President Reagan, 447.
when he proposed this idea, shook her head vigorously in opposition: Ken Khachigian, interview by author, San Clemente, CA, August 29, 2019.
“I don’t give a damn about the right-to-lifers”: Donald Regan, For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988), 86.
“On the other hand, I believe in a woman’s choice”: Chris Kaltenbach, “Former First Lady Nancy Reagan Speaks Out for Abortion Rights,” Baltimore Sun online, September 21, 1994, https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1994-09-21-1994264147-story.html.
“On background… a wonderful job”: Cannon, President Reagan, 131n.
“Ed and I were never close… I always felt that Meese was one of them”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 203.
“Ronald Reagan, with his soft heart… Nancy would prevail upon him to act in his own interest”: George P. Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph: My Years as Secretary of State (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1993), 317.
Senator Paul Laxalt… soon on the phone with Nancy: Cannon, President Reagan, 375.
“When a political appointee… he should step aside”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 51–52.
“I trusted George completely… out the window”: ibid., 205.
“a schemer married to someone who was unable to conceive of a Machiavellian thought”: Von Damm, At Reagan’s Side. 228.
“I could only conclude that for some reason… slapped me in the face”: ibid., 271–73.
“a homecoming queen”: Helene von Damm, interview by Ann Miller Morin, February 15, 1988, transcript, Foreign Affairs Oral History Project, Women Ambassadors Series, Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, Arlington, VA, https://adst.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/von-Damm-Helene.pdf.
“Her position was hardening toward me… with each new success I achieved”: Von Damm, At Reagan’s Side, 288.
“anything less would have seemed underdressed”: ibid., 308.
“Die Playgirl Bows Out!”: Georgie Anne Geyer, “Von Damme Tale Is a Common Plight,” Burlington (VT) Free Press, December 16, 1985, 8.
“Lucky, there’s one thing you have to understand about Nancy”… hear from her: Selwa “Lucky” Roosevelt, Keeper of the Gate (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990), 203–4.
“on guard, suspicious of anyone she thought was trying to use or manipulate her”: ibid., 202.
“This was a big honor”… Joe DiMaggio: Will, author interview, March 31, 2017.
“It turned out he was carrying water for Nancy on this… Nancy and Barbara just did not have a pleasant relationship”: Jon Meacham, Destiny and Power, 266.
“Nancy does not like Barbara.… Nancy Reagan is jealous of her”: ibid., 334.
“I know”: Lou Cannon to author, email, August 27, 2019, confirming details.
“a prince of a feller… Didn’t seem to want us upstairs in the White House”: Morris, Dutch, 638.
she found in Reagan Library files drafts of the invitation list… “Just watch me”: Susan Page, The Matriarch: Barbara Bush and the Making of an American Dynasty (New York: Twelve, 2019), 138–40.
“This was the plan—that I was the Prince Charming of the evening”: Ethan Alter, “John Travolta Recalls Dancing the Night Away with Princess Diana: ‘I Was the Prince Charming of the Evening,’ ” Yahoo! Entertainment, last modified December 6, 2019, https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/john-travolta-recalls-dancing-night-away-with-princess-diana-nancy-reagan-140058674.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAD1LWrigviKw0ejH1grQevhaYC10o63nrtt2Od02jciVyPBOCITPJrvAmuSU01AtOCqwiRSmqyJpJuJKcevZppJ8Bls1D9Sy0drU4kAQ17j5TjgynhJETOXPVJo2E-bCC3l5CQWn9kFQAnc5Llv7TnafFDkQR3uRHgiOjpy0NxN8.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“I remember having to say to Mike [Deaver]… ‘We’ve got to give them back or something’ ”: Baker, author interview, January 4, 2017.
“As soon as I read this… Nancy needed to make fun of herself, not blame the press”: Tate, Lady in Red, 45.
“I bet she’s pissed”: ibid., 47.
“This one song… my image began to change in Washington”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 34–35.
“Maybe this will end the sniping”: Douglas Brinkley, ed., The Reagan Diaries (New York: HarperCollins, 2007), 76. At the Gridiron Club Dinner the following year, Ronnie would give a surprise performance himself, dressed in a serape and sombrero and singing a parody of the song “Manana.” In his diary, on page 140, he noted that he had never sung on a stage before and was nervous.
According to what Deaver told Morris… no evidence that Ronnie did anything about it: Edmund Morris research materials made available to the author include the following: “NR took ‘uppers and downers’ to get to sleep, used to wake up at middle of the night to take another. Dr. Ruge confided this to rr. Doctor was nervous and concerned. NR leave the White House with a huge sealed box full of pills. Knew she couldn’t get them again.—Deaver 6/7/89.” Morris also noted that Deaver doubted Ruge would want to talk about this for the record.
“Whether this accounts for some of the fluctuations in her mood over the years… perhaps that was the reason she didn’t care for him at all”: Richard Davis, author interview, August 10, 2017.
former White House aide who says Hutton told him about the matter… no choice but to put her back on the drug: Confidential source.
“I always felt that it was a subconscious cry for help… a road map of denial”: Patti Davis, The Way I See It, 298.
decriminalizing small amounts: Emily Dufton, “Why the 1970s Effort to Decriminalize Marijuana Failed,” Smithsonian online, last modified April 25, 2019, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-1970s-effort-decriminalize-marijuana-failed-180972038.
“I used to say… ‘their influence and their budgets’ ”: Carlton Turner, telephone interview by author, August 11, 2018.
“finally being noticed… claiming the headlines”: Donnie Radcliffe, “Polishing the Image,” Washington Post online, February 19, 1982, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1982/02/19/polishing-the-image/7ccb27d0-39ba-4bf9-99b2-7560e3f18198.
“The drug bureaucracy… stuck to her guns”: Shultz, author interview, October 20, 2016.
“I said that… pass the information along”: Smith College files: Box: Class of 1943, Individuals A-L Collection Number 80.02. 1943, box 2140.
By the end of Nancy’s tenure as first lady… average age was nine years old: Estimates cited by the Reagan Library.
“I never thought… treatment centers are the answer”: Liz Smith, “Nancy Reagan’s Turn on Phoenix House Flap,” Los Angeles Times, January 31, 1990, 9.
In 1979 more than 54 percent of high school… number had fallen by nearly half: Richard A. Miech et al., Monitoring the Future: National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975–2015, vol. 1, Secondary School Students (Ann Arbor, MI: Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, 2016), tables 5.1 to 5.4, http://www.monitoringthefuture.org//pubs/monographs/mtf-vol1_2015.pdf.
Where only about a third… doubled by the early 1990s: ibid.
“It was a great message… ‘what you should be telling your kids’ ”: Joseph A. Califano, telephone interview by author, August 14, 2019.
“She twinkles when he arrives”: Elisabeth Bumiller and Donnie Radcliffe, “Nancy Reagan,” Washington Post online, January 23, 1983, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/19
83/01/23/nancy-reagan/fe6e737f-7fde-4330-a6e8-30465ee89700.
“Nancy Reagan was never a close… therapist more than her friend”: Barbara Sinatra with Holden, Lady Blue Eyes, 269.
“were speaking every night… pouring his heart out”: Tina Sinatra with Jeff Coplon, My Father’s Daughter: A Memoir (New York: Berkley Books, 2000), 226–27.
(Tina Sinatra insisted that the former first lady be invited): ibid., 364.
“Lately, Nancy Reagan has been calling the White House, not California, ‘home’ ”: Bumiller and Radcliffe, “Nancy Reagan.”
“As he approached the end of his life… more gentle and philosophical”: Patti Davis, The Way I See It, 289–93.
unable to let go: Deaver, Behind the Scenes, 120.
“I’m sure he is”: Patti Davis, The Way I See It, 292.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“I found this odd… punctual and efficient in everything else he did”: Regan, For the Record, 73.
“Leave it be”: ibid.
“If Aquarians have a fault… slow to get married!”: Nancy Reagan with Novak, My Turn, 41, 87–88.
“Fish were swimming around in his pool… for my Leo party”: Joyce Wadler and Angela Blessing, “The President’s Astrologers,” People online, May 23, 1988, https://people.com/archive/cover-story-the-presidents-astrologers-vol-29-no-20.
“Don’t ever do that!… because one cancels out the other”: Kuhn, author interview, Washington, DC, October 7, 2018.
“lucky cuff links”… purple stone: Weinberg, Movie Nights with the Reagans, 24.
invaded by space aliens: Cannon, President Reagan, 40–41.
haunted by a ghost: Maureen Reagan, First Father, First Daughter, 324–25.
“Carroll told Nancy… why it wasn’t a good time”: Wadler and Blessing, “President’s Astrologers.”
Many were tourists… streets of the nation’s capital: Parr with Parr, In the Secret Service,” 235.
It was impossible to work a crowd… behind a sheet of bulletproof glass, the handlers complained: William Henkel, telephone interview by author, October 17, 2017.
The Triumph of Nancy Reagan Page 69
