Nancy Reagan has entrusted Martin Anderson, Reagan’s former economic adviser, and a small team of editors and researchers to go through the letters. Writing left-handed and in a cramped, neat style, Reagan opined to friends and strangers about almost every aspect of his life. He gives advice about public speaking; he describes his relationship with foreign leaders. In a 1986 letter to an old Hollywood friend, Laurence Beilenson, he describes how he came to embrace the missile-defense system known as Star Wars. “When I finally decided to move on what had become SDI, I called a meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I said that until nuclear weapons there had never been an offensive weapon that hadn’t inspired a defense all the way back to the spear and the shield. Then I asked them if in their thinking it was possible to devise a weapon that could destroy missiles as they came out of their silos. They were unanimous in their belief that such a defensive system could be developed. I gave the go-ahead that very day… I did tell Gorbachev that if and when we had such a system they could join us in eliminating nuclear missiles… I don’t think he believes me.”
An early letter to former president Dwight Eisenhower, dated June 10, 1966, reveals for the first time that Ike was advising Reagan on his first campaign for California governor. “Now that the shouting has died (at least for a while) I want to thank you for your invaluable advice and suggestions. I realize, of course, this was offered within the framework of neutrality and was born of your great interest in and devotion to the cause of Republicanism. Nevertheless, my television appearances profited by a reduction in verbiage and the resulting slower pace drew some appreciative comments.” Anderson is amazed at how prolific Reagan was, and argues that Reagan was “a closet workaholic.” He recalls that at the end of a campaign day, Reagan never joined his aides for a drink. “He’d always say, ‘Goodnight, fellas.’ We thought he was going to bed.” Instead, he was up writing these letters. Reagan penned some 9,000 of them during his eight years in office, despite the objections of aides who thought his time could be better spent. He could be willful, and sometimes sealed the letters to bypass the system so his aides couldn’t make copies for historical safekeeping. Researchers have also found numerous envelopes addressed to ordinary citizens–whom they are trying to track down to recover additional Reagan correspondence.
