The Reagan I Knew [Hardcover]

William F. Buckley Jr. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 14, 2008

In The Regan I Knew, the late William F. Buckley Jr. offers a reminiscence of thirty years of friendship with the man who brought the American conservative movement out of the political wilderness and into the White House. Ronald Reagan and Buckley were political allies and close friends throughout Reagan’s political career. They went on vacations together and shared inside jokes. When Reagan was elected president, Buckley wrote him to say that Reagan should not offer him any position in the new administration; Reagan wrote back saying he had hoped to appoint Buckley U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan (then under Soviet occupation). For the rest of his term, Reagan called Buckley “Mr. Ambassador.” On the day the Soviets withdrew, he wrote Buckley to congratulate him for single-handedly driving out the Red Army “without ever leaving Kabul.”

Yet for all the words that have been written about him, Ronald Reagan remains an enigma. His former speechwriter Peggy Noonan called him “paradox all the way down,” and even his son Ron Reagan despaired of ever truly knowing him. But Reagan was not an enigma to William F. Buckley Jr. They understood and taught each other for decades, and together they changed history.

This book presents an American political giant as seen by another giant, who knew him perhaps better than anyone else. It is the most revealing portrait of Ronald Reagan the world is likely to have.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Buckley worked on this book—commemorating his 30-relationship with Ronald Reagan—up to his final days. He struggles to paint a picture of a more private Reagan, but the book sheds little fresh insight; instead, it is a scattershot compilation of Buckley's reminiscences and reprinted correspondence between the author and Ronald and Nancy Reagan. Malcolm Hillgartner performs a good balancing act, shifting from the essays to the letters with subtle changes that clearly indicate whose letter is being read. His most impressive feat is creating a clear yet subdued voice within the reading to indicate when footnotes or asides for clarification are being made. A Basic Books hardcover. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

From Booklist

Buckley’s final book—he died while writing it—is quite deceptive. It appears to be a slight, even inconsequential chronicle of the author’s long friendship with Ronald Reagan, told through correspondence between the two men and also between the author and Reagan’s wife, Nancy. The correspondence, which spans the period 1965–98 (with one final letter, written in 2005), seems on the surface to be concerned almost entirely with mundane matters: thank-you letters written after a get-together, apologies for missed birthdays, etc. But look beneath the surface, and you’ll find a revealing portrait of two men: Reagan, a driven political contender who never gave up his decency or his sense of family, and Buckley, a tireless Reagan booster who used his many public forums to promote Reagan’s political agenda. It is also deeply fascinating to observe these two friends disagree vehemently over issues of great political import—for example, the future of the Panama Canal treaties—but they do so with civility and respect. That may have been one of Reagan’s greatest gifts: his ability to separate political and personal matters, to disagree with someone while remaining respectful and friendly. It would be easy, if you were skimming this book, to miss most of its subtleties. But it is, in truth, a deeply subtle account, full of insights not only into Ronald Reagan but also into William Buckley, his longtime friend, supporter, and (occasional) critic. --David Pitt

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; First Edition edition (October 14, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465009263
• ISBN-13: 978-0465009268
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #776,702 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reagan Lite, December 25, 2008

By 

Robert C. Olson (Vacaville, California USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Reagan I Knew (Hardcover)

Reagan Lite

The Reagan I Knew is yet another glimpse into the amazing life of Ronald Reagan. The essence of Ronald Reagan is simplistic complexity. He was something different to everyone. He was considered a dunce by pseudo-intellectuals because of his innate ability to crystallize complex issues into simple problems and solutions. This drove the sophistic liberals crazy as they long to wallow in self-induced complex problems that in the end have no real solutions except to create additional problems. Reagan on the other hand saw with laser clarity the heart of an issue and quickly formulate an overall simple solutions that he left for his minions to implement. Mr. Buckley in his glib, erudite way similarly cuts through the mystic surrounding Ronald Reagan to the very essence of the man himself. His short vignettes and inclusion of personal letters portrays a Reagan that his friends knew and admired. I personally enjoyed the correspondence between Mr. Buckley and Mrs. Reagan as it presented a Nancy Reagan that few people knew.

This is a "lite" look at the relationship of two great American conservatives. It is a recommended read if for no other reason than the historical correspondences it contains. William F. Buckley and Ronald Reagan were fast friends and this is illustrated throughout the book. Sometimes less is more and in this case that is true.

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Heartfelt Memoir, November 12, 2008

By 

Thomas Stamper (Orlando, FL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Reagan I Knew (Hardcover)

The story begins with Bill Buckley's first meeting with Ronald Reagan back in the early 1960s and how Reagan's approach to problem solving that night was a precursor to his style as President. The book then moves chronologically as Ron's accomplishments intersect with his relationship with Bill. They discuss governorships, Nixon, the 1976 election, the presidency, and its aftermath among other things. The story's construction is a mix of letters between Bill and Both Reagans and his commentary in between. Like Miles Gone By: A Literary Autobiography, it's a nontraditional memoir but an effective one just the same.

A common joke throughout the letters is how Bill and Nancy plan a rendezvous in Casablanca. Another continued story is Bill's telling President-elect Reagan that he wants no official job offer within his government and Reagan immediately offering him ambassadorship to the Soviet-occupied Afghanistan. Bill accepts playfully and for years they reference Bill's ambassadorship in their letters.

My favorite part of the book is the Buckley/Reagan debate on the Panama Canal Treaty in the late 1970s. I had heard about the televised debate, but I didn't know the issues and the disagreement until I had read Buckley's account here. I suppose we're long past the time when friends could go on television and argue debate style over politics with good humor and intelligence. It was nice to read that it wasn't always that way.

Like Reagan, In His Own Hand: The Writings of Ronald Reagan that Reveal His Revolutionary Vision for America, THE REAGAN I KNEW demonstrates Reagan's sharp mind and clear thinking on issues and decisions. And you also get to enjoy the friendship between the 20th Century's most famous conservative thinker and most famous conservative leader. Thanks Bill for one last gem.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars painfully disappointing for RR/WFB devotee, December 18, 2008

By 

Nicholas Dujmovic (Vienna, Virginia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Reagan I Knew (Hardcover)

I fully expected to enjoy and learn from this book. As a reader of National Review for a quarter century and a latter-day Reaganaut, I had high hopes. But it turns out a more apt title would be "The William F. Buckley Who Knew the Reagans and Gave One Clever Advice While Flirting With the Other." I don't know whether WFB simply descended into narcissism in his last years or he simply had not the opportunity to fix this mess, but what he left us was a maddening book, full of little else than . . . WFB.

The book strikes me as awfully lazy, a pastiche of vignettes, letters, and transcripts. There is here no good argument, no sustained apologia nor polemic on Reagan's virtues, when we all know that WFB thought highly of him.

It's tiresome to read one WFB letter after another, especially when there are references to the Reagan letters WFB is receiving but not revealing to us. It seems Buckley just for this purpose saved copies of the letters he sent out, while deeming most of the Reagan letters he actually received not to be worthy of publication in a book . . that's supposed to be about Reagan. There are a few Reagan letters, but they are too few, and these tend to be edited down.

For the Reagan WFB knew, a reader would more profitably acquire and read 'Ronald Reagan: A Life in Letters,' which includes complete versions of many of RR's letters to WFB that are curtailed for this book.

And then there's an absolutely bizarre chapter describing a purported conversation between Clare Booth Luce and Defense Secretary Weinberger about Reagan and nuclear weapons that takes place in Hawaii. Is this a concocted drama? Was WFB there? It's unclear what to make of it.

I cannot recommend this book for anyone wanting to know Reagan better. Read any of the "in his own hand" materials that have been published in the past few years, and give this a pass.