Ronald Reagan lived his entire adult life in the public eye. This media scrutiny could be burdensome to him at times, but it worked very well for our purposes, greatly assisting our research process. One particular advantage is the enormous supply of video documenting his acting and political careers. The reader is encouraged to look at the many press conferences, inaugurations, speeches, presidential debates, and myriad other public appearances, and even Saturday Night Live sketches, available online.
And while this book is about Ronald Reagan, the powerful historical moments that defined the careers of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Alexander Haig, Margaret Thatcher, and so many other towering figures are also available for all to see. Video does not go as deep as letters and diaries, but it does allow the researcher to see the anguish or joy on an individual’s face (Margaret Thatcher’s eulogy of Reagan is heartbreaking in this regard), to hear the rhythm of spoken words, and to know the context in which those words were delivered. Reagan’s “Tear Down This Wall” speech is all the more powerful when watching him deliver those words.
As with the other books in the Killing series, we consulted a wide variety of sources to tell Ronald Reagan’s story in vivid detail. In addition to video, sources included books, magazine articles, archives, newspapers, FBI and CIA files, online databases, presidential libraries, and transcripts of interviews with people who worked with him in a personal and professional capacity. The Zillow website, for instance, allowed us a tour of the Reagan home in Pacific Palisades, which was recently on the market. It was also very helpful that the Margaret Thatcher Foundation (margaretthatcher.org) and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library (reaganlibrary.gov and reaganfoundation.org) have catalogued not only the letters of these great leaders but also the transcripts and even audiotapes of their discussions, allowing us to listen in.
The Miller Center at the University of Virginia (millercenter.org) is a treasure trove of information about all things presidential. Reagan’s diary entries and daily White House schedule can be found online at reaganfoundation.org. On a different note, the White House Museum (whitehousemuseum.org) takes readers throughout the entire building, with behind-the-scenes photos of the West Wing and the residence through the years.
Travel, as always, was vital to adding great descriptive detail, sending us to locations in the United States and around the world that were pivotal to Reagan’s personal and political life. Most pivotal was the day spent at Rancho del Cielo, just north of Santa Barbara. Thanks to Andrew Coffin of the Young America’s Foundation for the lengthy and engaging private tour.
What follows is a brief list of the many books, magazines, and newspapers that we used in the writing of this book. Much thanks to the world of Google Books, which allows writers to research a library’s worth of great reference works without leaving the home office. These meanderings drew in a number of other historical figures and unchronicled events. Hundreds of books, magazine articles, and newspaper stories were bookmarked and cross-referenced as we wrote. We have chosen to list the ones most crucial to this research. The books include: All the works of Kiron K. Skinner, Annelise Andersen, and Martin Anderson, particularly Reagan: A Life in Letters and Reagan, In His Own Hand: The Writings of Ronald Reagan that Reveal His Revolutionary Vision for America; Edmund Morris, Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan; Kitty Kelley, Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography; Jane Mayer and Doyle McManus, Landslide: The Unmaking of the President, 1984–1988; Nancy Reagan, My Turn: The Memoirs of Nancy Reagan; John R. Barletta, Riding with Reagan: From the White House to the Ranch; Del Quentin Wilber, Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan; James W. Clarke, Defining Danger: American Assassins and the New Domestic Terrorists; Peter Schweizer, Reagan’s War: The Epic Story of His Forty-Year Struggle and Final Triumph over Communism; Stephen Vaughn, Ronald Reagan in Hollywood: Movies and Politics; Jimmy Carter, White House Diary; Lou Cannon, President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime; Michelangelo Capua, William Holden: A Biography; Marc Eliot, Reagan: The Hollywood Years; David Gergen, Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership; Jonathan Aitken, Margaret Thatcher: Power and Personality; Patti Davis, The Long Goodbye: Memories of My Father; and the very emotional Breaking Points, by Jack and Jo Ann Hinckley.
We also consulted a broad number of magazines and newspapers marking the passage of Reagan’s life and career through the many stories published in their pages. Listing each of the hundreds of articles would have been unwieldy; instead we’ve given the publications upon which we relied most: the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Vanity Fair, Time, the National Review, the Washington Post, the Daily Mail (London), the Daily Telegraph (London), the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Boston Globe, the Atlantic, Billboard, Variety, Forbes, and the Pittsburgh Press.
The authors would also like to thank Roger Ailes, Pat Caddell, Lou Cannon, and Lesley Stahl for their personal insights. In addition, Dr. Jimmy Byron at the Richard Nixon Foundation was particularly helpful.