Ronald Reagan in Private: A Memoir of My Years in the White House [Hardcover]

Jim Kuhn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 22, 2004

From the Oval Office to Camp David to Air Force One, a portrait of the real Ronald Reagan, away from the journalists, cameras, and microphones.

During his White House years, President Reagan earned the love and admiration of millions, and altered the course of history. Jim Kuhn, his executive assistant, was one of the very few people privileged to see the Great Communicator not just during his historic public events, but also behind the scenes, during quiet moments.

Kuhn was responsible for helping the most powerful man in the world manage his time and information. His memoir of an unguarded and unedited Ronald Reagan captures the laughter, resolve, sensitivity, and discomforts of the man who won the Cold War and restored America’s confidence.

President Reagan frequently shared with Kuhn his personal views on matters great and small, including his thoughts about world leaders such as Mikhail Gorbachev and Margaret Thatcher, and controversial issues such as nuclear weapons, taxes, and women’s rights. Kuhn recalls many poignant moments that will surprise readers, no matter how much they already know about President Reagan. For example:

· How the President reacted when staff disappointed him and things didn’t go as planned
· The time he felt distraught over arms negotiations with the Soviets
· President Reagan’s true personal thoughts about abortion
· What aspersion bothered him more than any other
· How President Reagan felt about the Iran-Contra scandal and the figures involved

During his 13 years of service to Ronald Reagan, Kuhn discovered a man who acted the same off camera as he did in front of the world; who showed the same respect to an anonymous caller to the White House as he did to Pope John Paul II; who was more nuanced and perceptive than the press would ever admit; who never let the power and prestige of the Presidency go to his head.

Now that Ronald Reagan has passed away, there is a hunger for a deeper understanding of what made him a great President. Jim Kuhn offers a unique perspective on the private Ronald Reagan that will fascinate his millions of admirers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Kuhn first met Reagan in 1975, when Kuhn was a 23-year-old Ohio farm kid who had voted for McGovern in 1972. Kuhn had been recruited to work for a Republican candidate during the 1974 primaries and made a "surprisingly easy" switch: "I found that I was attracted more to a particular candidate than to a particular ideology." Working the next year for Reagan, then governor of California, as a campaign "advance man" (prepping rally sites), Kuhn traveled with Reagan as he challenged Ford for the 1976 presidential nomination and returned for the successful 1980 campaign ("a spiritual and moral crusade to revive the heart of America"). After four years as a presidential appearance advance man (Kuhn was elsewhere during the assassination attempt), he became Reagan's executive assistant in 1984. Kuhn's admiring anecdotes about Reagan's interpersonal interactions form the heart of the book. Reagan's reactions to Reykjavik, Iran-Contra and myriad other '80s events are also here, and unfailingly admired by Kuhn. Light and light-filled, Kuhn's version of morning in America gives tender and specific recollections of its glossy surfaces, but not much more.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Jim Kuhn served Ronald Reagan as an advance man, personal assistant, and finally, executive assistant, from 1976 until the President left the White House in 1989. Kuhn is now a Washington lobbyist.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Sentinel (July 22, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595230084
• ISBN-13: 978-1595230089
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #724,956 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful, thoughtful insight into the man, July 25, 2004

By 

Michele T. Woodward (Arlington, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ronald Reagan in Private: A Memoir of My Years in the White House (Hardcover)

Jim Kuhn is an honorable, self-effacing man who tells an insightful story in this memoir of his years of service to Ronald Reagan. I had the great opportunity to work with Jim in the White House and am happy to call him a friend. I have admired him for years -- more importantly, I revere Jim's humility, and his ability to see his time with President Reagan and other players on history's stage as not about him, but about being able to serve a larger purpose in a quiet yet meaningful way. If you are interested in what actually happens day to day as history is made in the West Wing, I recommend you read this book.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ronald Reagan as he should be remembered, February 6, 2006

By 

Marvin D. Pipher (Houston, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ronald Reagan in Private: A Memoir of My Years in the White House (Hardcover)

One would think that after reading twenty-nine books about Ronald Reagan, his life, his administration, and his family you would know just about everything there is to know about him. Not so. Reagan, like Abraham Lincoln, has so many facets to his life and character that everyone who knew him seems to view him and the events of his life in a somewhat different light. So, with each succeeding book you learn something new about him or at least get a new slant on something you thought you already knew. And that is particularly true of this book.

James Kuhn worked as an advance man in Ohio during Reagan's failed attempt to gain the Republican nomination for president in 1976. He followed that up by serving as an advance man for Reagan throughout the nation as Reagan first won the nomination and then was elected president in 1980. During Reagan's first term, he worked in advance operations for the White House and later, during Reagan's second term, was the president's executive assistant. This brought him into close personal contact with the president on a daily basis. As Kuhn described it; he was "the one constant in a churning sea of faces, issues and policies."

In his unique position Kuhn was able to observe Ronald Reagan as he performed his duties as president of the United States without necessarily becoming part of the action. He was with Reagan constantly but not in a political capacity. Instead, he dealt with the president more on a personal level while traveling with him and being responsible for the details of his schedule, and his various trips and meetings. Over time, Kuhn was able to draw some interesting and insightful conclusions regarding Ronald Reagan's character, his personality, and his effectiveness as a leader and as the leader of the free world. And during Reagan's eight years in office, he was also able to observe the close and loving relationship between Nancy and Ronald Reagan up close and personal.

Jim Kuhn's memoirs, then, are especially valuable, for through them we can see Ronald Reagan as he really was and gain new insight into the people and events of his time in office.

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gone, but not forgotten, July 27, 2004

By 

Joseph H Pierre "Joe Pierre" (Salem, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ronald Reagan in Private: A Memoir of My Years in the White House (Hardcover)

We who were privileged to be alive during his lifetime, and experienced the man Ronald Reagan, will never forget him. He was an actor--and a successful one--elected by his peers to represent them as their president in the screen actors guild, Governor of the State of California which, if it were a nation would be the sixth largest in the world, and was elected by his countrymen twice to be President of the United States during a period when it faced its most dangerous adversary perhaps in its history, but certainly since the Second World War: the communist dominated Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Since the end of World War II, every president of the United States in turn was faced with the Soviet effort to destroy us and our free enterprise way of life, both from the inside and out. Only Ronald Reagan was successful in freeing us from that threat. Attempts were made by various earlier administrations to befriend them, to appease them, to achieve detent, to contain the threat of the Soviets in their attempt to achieve hegemony over the entire globe, one piece of real estate at a time, by force whenever necessary. There was no secret to it. They proclaimed their goal while pounding their shoe on the desk.

Ronald Reagan called them 'the Evil Empire,' to the dismay of his faint-hearted detractors, who were afraid of antagonizing them. He insisted that the only way to defeat them--which he proclaimed as HIS goal--was through strength.

We have long named George Washington and Abraham Lincoln among the small handful of men we call 'our greatest presidents.' There can be little doubt that Ronald Reagan is now among that honored group.

Not that he didn't have detractors: throughout his presidency he was vilified by his opposition, much as was Lincoln in his time. Many people alive today who are ardent political partisans of the more liberal variety and believe that socialism is preferable to free unfettered enterprise, do not want even to hear Ronald Reagan's name mentioned. It is anathema to them. For, he was one of the men who truly believed that less government, rather than more, is better for free men. That paternalistic rule, while necessary for children, is not appropriate for free men in a free society.

So, this is the Ronald Reagan described here by Jim Kuhn, who worked closely with Reagan for thirteen years, and saw him as a private, but still dedicated, man. Here is what he says: '-he was bigger than life as the president of the United States. He looked, spoke and breathed the part. But when you were alone with him, he was the nicest, most regular guy in the world.' Intelligent, focused, unswerving, dedicated, and true to his wife and family, his country, and his ideals. Look back. How many presidents have we had that have failed utterly to fill that description in the recent past?

Some say that honor and integrity are not important, as long as a man 'does his job.' Ronald Reagan grew up in a world where it was more, not less, important. Where the means was important, as well as the end.

I suggest you buy this book, and read it, and get to know the man a little better. Although he has passed from us, his legacy is that the world has gained immensely from his having been in it.

Joseph (Joe) Pierre, USN (Ret)