Reagan's Diaries by Douglas Brinkley

Released 12:00Am 5-22-07

Five hardback books bound in maroon leather and embossed with the presidential seal contain the neat handwriting and profound personal and public experiences of the most loved President in all of American History. It is a very easy read. He also inserted pictures such as comic strips, a picture of a girl wearing a "Reagan" straw hat, or newspaper clippings pertaining to U.S. soldiers killed abroad.He sometimes used abbreviations, often referring to Democrats as "Dems" or "Demos," for example, and he never wrote out curse words, substituting h--l for hell.

"It is such an extraordinary window on the presidency," said Duke Blackwood, executive director of the Reagan Library. "John Adams and a few others kept diaries, but nobody kept one to the extent and detail that President Reagan did. It is truly an historical diary."

After being shot March 30, 1981 Reagan described how he didn't even realize it for quite a while....

"I walked into the emergency room and was hoisted onto a cart where I was stripped of my clothes. It was then we learned I'd been shot and had a bullet in my lung. Getting shot hurts."
"Insanity is hereditary," he wrote. "You catch it from your kids."

He also reflected on a meeting over tea with Prince Charles in 1981.
"The ushers brought him the tea -- horror of horrors they served it our way with a tea bag in the cup. It finally dawned on me that he was just holding the cup & finally put it down on a table. I didn't know what to do."

"All the qualities that made Ronald Reagan one of the most popular presidents in modern American history are reflected in the diaries, to be published this month, that he kept throughout his eight years in office. Here he is, losing his temper with the Soviets (and his son Ron), cracking jokes about Castro, protecting Nancy, holding the weeping mothers of Marines killed in Beirut. An exclusive excerpt, edited and introduced by Douglas Brinkley, recalls the turbulent sweep of the era Reagan dominated, including his takes on being shot, Israel’s bombing of Iraq, the Challenger explosion, Iran-contra, and his chemistry with Gorbachev."