Pure Reagan
An interview with Kiron Skinner, Annelise Anderson, & Martin Anderson, editors of Reagan, In His Own Hand.

By Kathryn Jean Lopez, NR associate editor
February 13, 2001 10:35 a.m.

Kathryn Jean Lopez: What was the catalyst for Reagan, In His Own Hand?

Kiron Skinner, Annelise Anderson, & Martin Anderson: Kiron Skinner, a political scientist now on the faculty at Carnegie-Mellon University, discovered the papers while she was doing research on the Cold War, and showed them to Martin Anderson and Annelise Anderson. All three of us considered them historically important, providing new evidence about Ronald Reagan's thinking and strategy and how it influenced his presidency — and thus the events of that presidency.

Lopez: Is there anything you learned in the process of putting the book together that surprised you about Reagan?

Skinner, Anderson, & Anderson: All three of us were surprised at the sheer volume of what Reagan wrote in his own hand, and the period of time — really all his life, until he withdrew from public activity in 1994 — over which he wrote.

We were also surprised by the evidence in these documents about how hard and consistently he worked — how very disciplined he was. People we interviewed — Nancy Reagan and various aides who traveled with him and worked with him — confirmed this.

Lopez: Is the man in the radio addresses the man you worked with and knew as president?

Skinner, Anderson, & Anderson: Yes — in thinking, in character, in his purposefulness in pursuing his objectives and meeting his priorities.

But in person — whether on the campaign trail, during the transition, or during his presidency — his analytical capabilities and the breadth of his knowledge on policy issues were less obvious. He didn't make any effort to make anyone aware of these intellectual gifts. He rarely argued or debated with staff or Cabinet members or others with whom he met; he listened and made his own decisions, or perhaps told a story to illustrate a point of view he wanted to put forth. He didn't elaborate on his own strategy in, for example, foreign policy. It was thus possible for people who worked with him to get the impression reflected in the words of Robert McFarlane, one of his national-security advisers: "He knows so little and accomplishes so much."

Thus, the range of his knowledge and his analytical abilities are more apparent in his writings than they were in personal interaction.

Lopez: If there were one thing you hope people take away from Reagan, In His Own Hand, what would it be?

Skinner, Anderson, & Anderson: That the idea that Reagan was an amiable man who read lines written for him by others is dead wrong.