Behind Closed Doors

Let’s go into the West Wing as Richard Nixon’s men prepare for his defense against an impending impeachment and the bombardment of legal, media and Watergate tape disclosures. This revealing narrative presents never-before heard accounts of meetings and conversations as the walls closed in. Al Haig’s famous words to me and his inside team as he reveals startling tape.

A running account of my helping research and write Nixon’s memoirs. A never before look into his San Clemente retreat after resignation alongwith the former president’s non-stop analysis of the national political scene as Ronald Reagan challenges incumbent Gerald Ford for the presidency in 1976. From my personal diaries, readers will be next to me listening to Nixon’s shrewd analyses and his captivating and colorful perspectives. A feast for political junkies.

The first and only chronicle of the historic interviews with David Frost as I led Nixon’s preparation for verbal combat. A rare window into Nixon grappling with central public perceptions of Watergate, and the intensity and drama of the rancorous divisions within RN’s staff. My diaries capture the heat of the interplay between Nixon, me and Diane Sawyer…then unknown as the television network superstar. This chapter includes Nixon’s unique summary of the outcome.

As the ’80 campaign approaches, Nixon educates me about Reagan, provides fascinating insider views during the suspenseful primary contests, and assesses the various candidates’ strengths and weaknesses. A refreshing new look at the ’80 campaign from the ultimate political pro. Inside political hardball for the hungry.

Reagan’s 1980 campaign is in trouble, so he restores his prior campaign strategist, Stu Spencer, to good graces to steady the operation. That move provides me the opportunity I had been seeking for a role in the national campaign. Stu Spencer needed a speechwriter on the campaign plane, and I pack my bags for a major position in the traveling squad.

Reagan’s campaign isn’t doing well in early October, and my arrival as the “Word Donkey” turns out to be an important element in reducing Reagan’s lengthy stump speeches into more politically impactful daily inserts. Still, our campaign is on the defense, plagued by Reagan’s contradictory ramblings about the environment and protests by supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment and abortion rights. Carter is doing better with women, and Reagan is at risk of losing. I begin documenting the campaign into a tape recorder -- ending with 35,000 words that provided special color for the ’80 campaign chapters.

One for the history books – the only insider’s play-by-play of the calculations behind Reagan’s decision to appoint the first woman to the U.S. Supreme Court. It was a political move to change the dialogue and stop the bleeding with women voters. I describe my first contact with Nancy Reagan as I help her husband prep for an important interview with television personality, Barbara Walters. An important signal of Nancy’s influence.

Carter’s ahead in the polls, so should we debate the president? This chapter also finds me reaching the conclusion that Mrs. Reagan is the campaign’s “chief of staff” – Ronnie’s “bad cop” if she needs to be. I set out the exquisite details of the decision to debate Jimmy Carter and the introduction of James A. Baker into the campaign. I set the record straight on how the debate decision was made and expose the self-promotion of an individual who exaggerated his role in the process. Buy the book and find out who it was.

Mrs. Reagan educates me on what works best for Reagan when making important speeches. We’re coming into the final weeks of the campaign and many major speeches are in the works, and Nixon arranges a secret meeting for me with his own chief of staff to provide a private debate strategy memo for Reagan. No one has ever heard or read of these details which I provide in with full copies of memos in the appendix. I expose my role as secret intermediary between Nixon and Reagan – an honor to continue through two campaigns and the presidency.

Though I was writing daily speech inserts and helping Reagan make news: “Are you better off today than you were in 1976?” – we still weren’t creating a close relationship. We got ready for the Carter debate and I called Nixon for advice and received a handwritten note and long memo from Nixon to Reagan, both in the appendix. The debate went well, and the “Are you better off…line was a big winner. The last few days we huddled over a possible October surprise of Carter gaining an Iranian hostage release, and my personal diary reports those tense meetings. Nixon again calls with advice, comparing it to LBJ’s October surprise of ’68. Find out what he said.

We cruise to victory, and I finally seal a bond with Reagan – closing the sale with big crowds and Jerry Ford’s support in the Midwest. Reagan especially liked the line: “Jimmy Carter promised a government as good as its people, but only gave a government as good as Jimmy Carter, and that’s not good enough.” I help write an important closer for his half hour election eve address, and in San Diego, to my pleasant surprise, Reagan delivers his victory remarks almost exactly in the original form as I drafted – a vote of confidence in my work. The excitement of closing the landslide victory is a thrilling account for those who love the crusade that changed America.

No one else can tell the story of how Reagan and I collaborated on his First Inaugural Address… including how I received anonymous counsel from secret sources. Reagan had a great anecdote at the end, but we had to tell a fib to make it work – along with the brazen manipulation of the media to dramatize the most inspirational parts of the speech to the television audience. Where did Reagan come up with the phrase: “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.?” I will reveal the source. This is a warm scene-setter to the opening of the Reagan Revolution.

Reagan rode a crusade into office, and he was like a kid in the candy store. He had a wish list to cut taxes and cut government. I kept detailed notes on his instructions to Cabinet officers and staff, plus a record of our discussions on his two big speeches announcing his economic recovery plan – lighting his prairie fires of change. Fascinating insights on how Reagan used illustrations to make his rhetorical points – selling his product and making his case. Behind the scenes with his entire economic team, with Reagan and getting advice from Nixon on how Reagan needs to make his case. My notes of meetings and conversations with Reagan set out the critical history at the core of the president’s determination to reverse the rot of liberal politics and economics.

After lunch in the mess, I went up to meet with Marty Anderson, and his secretary burst into his office: “The President’s been shot!” I was the last person to visit with the President in the Oval Office before he left for the Hilton. Chapter 14 is a rich review of the details from my notes of the day of the assassination attempt, including following Al Haig from the Situation Room to the press briefing. After his recovery, we shamelessly exploited the national goodwill toward Reagan to promote his economic recovery package with a dramatic speech before a joint session of Congress where the Gipper had ‘em all laughing from a letter I slipped him from a 4th grader from New York. Follow the drama and the finale from the Hilton to the Hill.

I left my White House assignment for home, but within weeks Reagan and his team asked me to return to put out fires. Hence, I became the “fireman” on special assignments. It started in June with a special stay at Camp David to round off three key speeches at Aspen Lodge and continued in July with a closer written off a golf course in Sun Valley, Idaho for Reagan to use in a national television speech to rescue votes for his tax package in Congress. My role as crisis management scripter begins in Chapter 15.

The most provocative chapter, and one I never intended to write. I uncovered a gold mine of records from which no previous author has drawn – to help more fully document what I personally experienced of the rivalries, dissension, self-promotion, and power-seeking that permeated Reagan’s West Wing. A team emerged to embrace power and leverage policies that did not always coincide with Reagan’s crusade. Carving dynasties, seeking prestige, controlling messages – these and more add up to a compelling chapter that will make news while setting the record straight. Names will explode on the pages.

Reagan asked me after Christmas,1983 to help with his announcement address for re-election and, further, to take off part of the year to shape his campaign message and travel with him throughout1984 to seek a second term. I receive additional assignments as Director of Issues and Research and to draft two of his biggest speeches – the Labor Day kickoff and the GOP Convention Acceptance Address. In a belligerent outburst, Jim Baker’s aide attempts to get me kicked off the campaign plane and after a profane dispute, Dick Daman loses. Nixon weighs in with caution against Reagan’s overconfidence and worries that the economic recovery isn’t coming quickly. This chapter is a comprehensive overture with previously untold details leading up to the 1984 re-election campaign.

Every campaign needs creative media, and the re-election hired top Madison Avenue folks to create the Tuesday Team. They designated me to work with their top directors and producers to “interview” Reagan for the famed “Morning in America” documentary and commercials. I describe that role and more. This chapter is a truly unique insider’s peek into the creation of presidential campaign media and a study of Reagan’s masterful command of the camera.

Mrs. Reagan is extremely displeased with the way her husband is managed on the campaign trail – when he is portrayed as weak in the face of a combative opponent. She channels Reagan’s frustrations which results in a confrontation in the president’s cabin on Air Force One. This explosive exchange will capture attention every reader’s attention due to Nancy’s fierce insistence on a stronger message. She continues her advocacy after Reagan’s weak first debate with Mondale when she insists that I take up the role of writing more aggressive rhetoric. The campaign turns to Nixon for advice, and he provides strong secret memos to Reagan that are transmitted through me and are included in the appendix.

Following his massive landslide, Reagan can’t rest because his staff botches an advance for ceremonies celebrating the 40th anniversary to the end of World War II in Bitburg, Germany. Gravestones intended for wreath-laying observances turned out to be covered in winter snow and displayed Nazi Waffen SS symbols in spring thaws. A national crisis emerged, calling for Reagan’s visit to be cancelled. Reagan refused, and in expiation agreed to a speech at the Bergen Belsen Concentration camp, and at Mrs. Reagan’s insistence, I was brought in to write those remarks. This is the first personal crisis of Reagan’s presidency…a huge dramatic event ending in what was called the greatest speech Reagan ever delivered. What began as a personal and diplomatic disaster turned out just the opposite. The blow by blow of the emotion, anger and resolution is gripping.

This is the story of the speech that cued up the beginning of the end of the Cold War. I played a small role, but spent a great deal of time with Reagan on a critically important address – but which also included a scolding in the Oval Officde that I never before received from him. The central point is that Reagan’s softening of rhetoric towards the “evil empire” was influenced by three ladies, in addition to his security advisers. To find out which three ladies helped nudge Reagan toward a warmer view of Mikhail Gorbahev, this is the chapter to read.

This is chapter focuses more on the First Lady and her involvement in her “Just Say No” campaign to reduce drug use among young Americans. My role culminated in writing a joint address for both Reagans to be delivered – at my suggestion – from the residence. Concurrently with my contribution to the First Family’s remarks, I was working in California as chief strategist for George Deukmejian’s re-election campaign, working alongside media producer, Roger Ailes – about whom I relate an interesting tale of conflict.

A crisis came arrived to jeopardize the Reagan presidency in the form of sales of arms to release hostages in Iran. Profits of the sales were intended to fund Contra rebels in Nicaragua, and the episode backfired on Reagan because he approved the sale of missiles. I was called in to write the 1987 State of the Union message in the middle of the crisis to try to rescue the president’s muddied image. It was the worst speechwriting experience in my eight years of working with Reagan due to a competing White House staff, the lack of any new policies to promote, and a massively antagonistic press corps feeding on a new group of power players. A disaster described in detail and a classic display of a White House in disarray in crisis.

Reagan’s staff asked me to take off a year and return to the White House. I couldn’t, so they asked me to undertake several speeches in his final term. One was I made the commitment to write his valedictory to the 1988 GOP Convention and another was his Farewell Address. I drafted his convention speech, though the president and Mrs. Reagan disagreed on what the tone should be. However, it was his speech, and I had to take his lead. Reagan made the speech tougher in response to Democrat attacks at their convention. I was caught in the middle, and Reagan’s chief of staff betrayed his trust, repudiated all that he asked of me and did not keep his word regarding my remaining commitment to the president.

Nixon asked me oversee the opening of his California library in July, 1990 and asked me to accompany him in a courtesy call to Reagan two days prior to the event. I sat in as the political legends and presidential giants met for 46 minutes while I took copious notes. This chapter re-produces their historic dialogue as a transcript – enabling readers to eavesdrop on the men who dominated the last quarter of the 20th century. Imagine the rare privilege of sitting in on such a meeting, and here is where I allow the reader to do so.