A Pennsylvania dealer of historical documents has announced a collection of private correspondence between President Ronald Reagan and Academy Award-winning screenwriter Douglas Morrow is being offered for sale.
The letters show a side of Reagan that was reserved for close friends and his political allies.
The majority of the more than 40 letters have never been published and cover a range of controversial and personal topics, from leakers in the administration to accusations he was not sufficiently supportive of Israel, as well as the aftermath of the Challenger spacecraft disaster.
Some of the highlights from the letters include Reagan’s thoughts on:
The media: “Like Jimmy Durante, ‘I’ve got a million’ of those examples of press dishonesty” (Jan. 10, 1983).
The leaks in his administration: “Now let’s get down to the real frustration—the leaks. Doug, I’ve never seen anything like it and we’re trying everything but a ‘plumber’s squad’ to find and clobber the guilty. I’m convinced they are at a lower level and yes they are grinding their own axes with no regard for us or what we are trying to do. They are responsible for the stories of feuds and in-fighting which I assure you are untrue” (Jan. 10, 1983).
His campaign opponents: “The Democrats show signs of marshaling their forces to resist our efforts. So we’ll take our case to the people” (Jan. 7, 1985).
After the Challenger disaster: “We do have some problems, the financial one of course but a number of others such as the backlog of various machines to be put in space. We’ve only been able to touch on that and whether a spurt in non-manned launches should be used to reduce the backlog. Now of course we’ve had the recent finding by Jim that the existing shuttles have 44 things that need correcting before they fly again” (May 19, 1986).
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