WHITE HOUSE OVAL OFFICE
WASHINGTON, DC
JANUARY 20, 1989
10:00 A.M.
Two years after Ronald Reagan demanded the Berlin Wall be dismantled, it is still standing, and time has run out for Ronald Reagan. It is the last day of his presidency. He and Nancy have just said their final good-byes to the household staff at an emotional gathering in the State Room. Now Ronald Reagan takes a final walk along the Colonnade to the West Wing and his cherished office. Workers have already cleaned out his files, removing every vestige of the Reagan presidency from the Oval Office, right down to the jar of jellybeans he always keeps within arm’s reach. At noon, new president George H. W. Bush will be sworn in at the Capitol.
President Reagan rose early, eating a final White House breakfast in the residence with Nancy before getting dressed. At age seventy-eight, he is leaving political office for good. But Reagan is not retiring. Concerned about income, he is already planning to supplement his annual presidential pension of $99,500 by making paid speeches around the world.1
Reagan’s last correspondence as president was a parting letter to Margaret Thatcher, reaffirming their deep friendship. She and her husband, Denis, visited Washington last month, fittingly making Thatcher the last foreign dignitary to meet with Reagan in the White House. “Our partnership has strengthened the ability and the resolve of the Western alliance to defend itself and the cause of freedom everywhere,” Reagan would later write. “You have been an invaluable ally, but more than that, you are a great friend. It has been an honor to work with you.”
Thanks to the efforts of Reagan and Thatcher, global communism has been severely weakened. Before Reagan’s election, it was almost unthinkable that the Soviet Union and its satellite countries in Eastern Europe would embrace democracy, but that process has already begun. Poland is just five months away from its first partially free elections since 1928. Emboldened, the people of East Germany will soon rise up and do as Ronald Reagan demanded of Mikhail Gorbachev: ten months from now, on November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall will collapse.
None of this would have happened without Ronald Reagan’s unswerving lifelong belief in freedom and America’s exceptionalism. England’s Iron Lady understands that: “Your beliefs, your convictions, your faith shone through everything you did,” Thatcher responded to Reagan’s letter. “You have been an example and inspiration to us all.”
* * *
Ronald Reagan opens the top drawer of the empty Resolute desk and checks to make sure the workers did not remove a note he placed there yesterday. It is tradition for the outgoing president to leave a simple message for his successor in the Oval Office. Reagan’s handwritten letter wishes Bush good luck and reminds the new president that he will be in his prayers.
Despite the warm tone, there is tension between Reagan and Bush, stemming from the campaign. Ronald Reagan endorsed the candidacy of his former vice president but did very little campaigning on his behalf. Some believe Reagan was snubbing Bush, but the truth is the Bush campaign wanted the candidate to be his own man. A barnstorming Ronald Reagan could easily have overshadowed the less charismatic Bush.
The residence has become a beloved home to Ronald and Nancy. Reagan is a sentimental man and very much moved by the sense of history filling that space. The president is convinced that the ghost of Abraham Lincoln haunts the residence. He has stated that he can sometimes hear the creak of Franklin Roosevelt’s wheelchair gliding from one room to another, and he once told a friend he could easily imagine the ghost of Teddy Roosevelt mumbling his trademark cheer of “Bully.”
“We were familiar with every room and hallway,” Reagan will later write, “and had the warmest memories of our life in that beautiful historic mansion.”
But now it is time to go.
National Security Adviser Colin Powell steps into the Oval Office to give Reagan his last-ever daily briefing. “The world is quiet today, Mr. President,” the former army general says succinctly.
Reagan reaches into the jacket pocket of his crisp blue suit. He pulls out the plastic card he has carried with him every day since taking office. It authenticates that he is president of the United States. In the event of a nuclear war he will present this to the military attaché who remains near him at all times, whereupon the special briefcase known as the “football” will be opened and the nuclear launch codes revealed.
“What do I do with this?” he asks Powell.
“Hang on to it,” Powell replies. “You’re still president.”
* * *
Ronald Reagan’s last official act as president of the United States takes place just before 11:00 a.m., as he hands the plastic authentication card to his air force military aide. Now, at 12:40 on a bitter cold Washington day, with George Bush already sworn in as the forty-first president of the United States, Ron and Nancy Reagan step aboard a government helicopter to begin the journey back to California. As he is no longer president, the call name Marine One no longer applies to the official aircraft. It is Nighthawk One that lifts off from the Capitol, taking the couple to Andrews Air Force Base.
The moment, in Nancy’s words, is “wrenching.” They have participated in a long list of “final” scenes in the past few weeks: final visit to Camp David, final dinner in the White House, and final moment with the press. This morning, at their good-bye reception, is when it hit Nancy the hardest that it was over. “We were supposed to have coffee, but I don’t remember drinking any. Then it was time to leave for the inauguration,” she will later write.
As she and Barbara Bush share a limousine to the swearing-in, Nancy gazes out the window at the White House Lawn, wondering if the magnolia trees she planted will survive long enough for her grandchildren to see them. “My heart ached as I looked at those beautiful grounds I was unlikely to see again.”
Time and events have changed Nancy Reagan. Shortly after her return from Berlin in 1987, the First Lady was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy to remove one breast. The procedure was a success, and Nancy’s very public ordeal softened her in the eyes of many. With the end of her husband’s presidency, whatever animosity may have existed between the Reagans and the media has now been replaced by nostalgic warmth. Walter Cronkite brought the Reagans onstage for a round of applause at the recent Kennedy Center Honors, leading the orchestra in a chorus of “Auld Lang Syne.” And even Sam Donaldson, the ABC newsman who has been baiting the Reagans for eight years, approached Nancy recently to say that he would miss them.
As the helicopter lifts off, the Reagans take one last look at the White House. They push their faces against the windows, straining to see the glory of their former home. Below them sprawl the vast lawns, fountains, and famous columns they have come to know so well. Even as they look down, movers are hauling their furniture into trucks for transport back to their new home in Beverly Hills. The Bush family furniture, meanwhile, is being installed in its place.
“Look honey,” says Reagan, not taking his eyes off the White House. “There’s our little shack.”
The pilot finally banks away, steering the VH-60N helicopter to Andrews—the Reagans vanishing into the clouds.