Stars and Strifes

...He is, after all, the man who keeps talking about Lincoln's ghost haunting the White House...

...Since Mrs...

...Finally, we learn something about the Chinaman himself from this book...

...Later, it was revealed that his source was a disgruntled Chinese delegate who wanted to scuttle the meeting...

...Eventually, Regan's arrogance and insensitivity led to his downfall and produced a burning desire for revenge...

...A healthy appreciation of ambiguity might be a good trait in a professor...

...It was in character with this portrait that Mrs...

...As he said to the President the day he was fired: "I have to tell you, sir, that I'm very bitter...

...So what does the Chinaman tell us...

...That is only one of the many things I learned from Regan's memoir of his years in the Reagan Administration, For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington...

...It was early in 1987, and since the President was recovering from surgery, there seemed to be a plausible reason for his disappearing act...

...As a Wall Street tycoon, Donald Regan was reasonably well-suited to the post of Treasury Secretary...

...Reagan has no politics of her own, and cares only about the public relations impact of a policy, she turns out to be a remarkably pragmatic adviser and an effective counterpoint to some of the Right-wing ideologues who surround her husband...

...But he isagood actor, and this is his greatest role...

...That bitterness may color the tone of his book, but hardly diminishes its essential validity...

...What she does have is one overriding concern: the physical and political protection of her husband...

...Find the Chinaman" became a watchword for young journalists bent on discerning the real story behind the official facade...

...The President's performance was able to generate the goodwill and optimism that enabled others, like Regan, to implement their policies...

...He can't do his job...

...He saw the President daily, often many times a day, for the next two years...

...And our rudeness is at least in part a reflection of our frustration...

...Those of you who are now nodding your heads in wonder and agreement, though, need to remember that Reagan's simple beliefs are an enormous source of political strength...

...But those same instincts served him badly in the White House, as chief of staff...

...Every camera angle was carefully studied, every word and action was carefully scripted...

...I was struck, too, by Regan's description of the President's daily regimen...

...As Regan writes: "The President was always being prepared for a performance, and this tended to preserve him from confrontation and the genuine interplay of opinion, question and argument that form the basis of decision...

...Not the happy folks inside the White House who want us to believe that everything is fine and dandy...

...After serving four years as Secretary of the Treasury, he switched jobs with James A. Baker III and became chief of staff...

...Reganmadeasimilar mistake in reading the title " chief of staff...

...Everybody knows, they say, how the President is passive and incurious, and how Nancy really runs things...

...That is why my colleagues and I shout questions—sometimes in a rude manner—whenever we see the President in person...

...Thus far, no one has disputed the facts in this book...

...Themotives behind it are not very attractive, but the insights it provides are invaluable...

...Like Michael K. Deaver's book, Behind the Scenes, the Regan volume describes a woman who has no discernible ideology...

...He declined to respond, explaining that he did not know enough about the subject to make a judgment...

...In his view the key word was "chief," and he attempted to control virtually every bit of information, and every decision, that flowed through the Oval Office...

...Even Regan, despite his anger, recognizes the value of the ceremonial Presidency...

...A side comment here: Because the White House is so careful about preparing Reagan for his appearances, because almost nothing is left to chance, White House reporters are starved for any indication of the President's true thinking that is not contained in a prepackaged script...

...His training and instincts as a chief executive officer at Merrill Lynch served him well in a job where he ran the show...

...The author recounts with considerable dismay, for example, that the President never once discussed basic economic principles with him...

...The most important word in his job title was " staff, " however...

...Regan also has a motive: He was dumped by the President, with the clear connivance of Mrs...

...Many of my colleagues in the press corps have complained that the Regan book told them little that was new...

...We are trying to break through that shield his handlers work very hard to build up around him...

...Many years ago, James Reston won a Pulitzer Prize for the New York Times by scooping the world on the Dumbarton Oaks Conference...

...he's an embarrassment to Ronnie...

...No possibility was ever left for a spontaneous gesture or comment...

...The most important word in the phrase "Jewish mother" is not "Jewish," it's "mother...

...When the President was asked at a recent press conference whether he believed in astrology, he did not answer, "Of course not...

...Put another way, Ronald Reagan is still an actor, playing a President...

...Don Regan has credibility...

...He's got to go," the First Lady shouted...

...it can be crippling in a politician...

...21.95, Reviewed by Steven V. Roberts White House correspondent, New York "Times" During my first 10 weeks covering Ronald Reagan for the New York Times, I saw him in person for 30 seconds...

...He was an adviser, not an executive...

...It was Nancy, we now know, who helped push the President toward better relations with the Soviet Union, while limiting his commitment to such conservative causes as the anti-abortion movement...

...Then there is the Nancy issue, what Regan calls the "random factor" in the White House, the "shadowy distaff presidency" managed out of the East Wing, where the First Lady has her office...

...The focus on astrology is certainly interesting for its gossip value, but there is a deeper point here as well...

...But we know this mainly from second and third hand sources, unidentified friends and aides whose credibility, and motives, are not always visible...

...Reagan, and his Irish temper is in full fury...

...As a White House reporter, one is so isolated from this President, so manipulated every day by the vast public relations apparatus of the White House, that one craves the smallest glimpse behind the scenes, the briefest insight into the real workings of the Presidency...

...Reagan demanded the dismissal of William J. Casey, the head of the Central Intelligence Agency, who had been immobilized by a brain tumor...

...his role was to channel theadviceof others to the President, not to block it out...

...This book is his revenge...

...The exchange, I think, reinforces the impression of the President—described in other memoirs besides Reagan's—as an intellectually shallow figure whose mind is ruled by a few simply held beliefs and a clutter of superstition...

...Don Regan is the Chinaman of the Reagan Administration...

...Who is going to produce a work of this kind in the first place...

...So I was rather surprised, to say the least, when I read the real explanation in Donald T. Regan's book: Nancy Reagan's astrologer kept telling her that the heavenly portents were not favorable for public appearances...

...But he adds of Reagan: "He was content to exercise the symbolic powers of his office—and his astonishing skill in doing so was, of course, the very thing that made success possible...