3. Bibliography

3.6. Speaking Out, The Reagan Presidency From Inside the White House

Author:  Larry Speakes with Robert Pack

Publisher: Avon Books

Copyright Dates: 1987, 1988

ISBN:  0-380-70726-8                            Library of Congress:  88-3247

Number of Pages:  406 plus: Index, 16 photographs

The Book

This book is a balanced and generally favorable account of the Reagan years 1981 to 1987,  written by Reagan's then press secretary Larry Speakes.  It includes many inside stories and insights into the personalities and actions of Reagan and his staff members. It also includes interesting details on many of the important news stories of those eventful years, including

The Downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007
The 1985 Summit in Geneva
The Arrest of journalist Nicholas Daniloff in the Soviet Union
The 1986 Iceland Summit
The Grenada Invasion
The Bombing of the Marine Headquarters in Beirut
The Hijacking of the Achille Lauro and the Capture of the Hijackers
Reagan's Cancer Surgery
The Fall of Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines and Jean-Claude Duvalier in Haiti
The Challanger Explosion
The Iran-Contra Affair

Anecdotes

In 1975, while working as an assistant Press Secretary to President Ford, Speakes made an announcement to the press concerning the Mayaguez crisis.  Tom Brokaw, then NBC's White House correspondent, introduced the story on national TV by saying, "White House speaksman Larry Spokes said today ... " [SO 68]

Soviet Premier Gorbachev's three predecessors Brezhnev, Andropov and Chernenko had all died during Reagan's first four years in office.  Whenever Reagan was asked why he had waited so long for a summit with the Soviets, he would reply, "They kept dying on me." [SO 154]

While at the 1985 Geneva summit, the Reagans stayed at a chateau on loan from Prince Karim Aga Khan.  The prince's young son left the president a note, asking him to take care of his goldfish while he was there.  Unfortunately, one of the goldfish died.  The president was horrified.  They finally decided to freeze the dead fish, buy an identical replacement as soon as possible and leave a note for the prince's son explaining what happened. A Reagan aide joked, "and we'd come to Geneva thinking our toughest job would be to handle the Russians." [SO 163]

Also at the Geneva summit, Reagan told the following joke which made Gorbachev laugh heartily:  An old Russian woman goes into Kremlin, gets an audience with Gorbachev and says, "In America anyone can go to the White House, walk up to Reagan's desk and say, 'I don't like the way you are running the country.'"  Gorbachev replied, "You can do the same thing in the Soviet Union.  You can go into the Kremlin, walk up to my desk and say 'I don't like the way Reagan is running his country.'" [SO 167-168]

The day before his colon cancer surgery in July 1985, Reagan had undergone a proctoscopic exam, which was duly announced to the press.  During the press briefing after surgery, one of the reporters asked, "Can we see the scar?"  This was a reference to Lyndon Johnson famous scar display after his gall bladder surgery.  Speakes reply was, "No, he wants to show you the point of entry of yesterday's examination." [SO 239]

Speakes often brought Hollywood figures to press briefings. On April fools day, Speakes introduced  "Monsieur LePieu" as a French diplomat and a "guest expert" who had met with the president to discuss the international economic situation.  M. LePieu was to discuss his conversation with the president.  He began, "Laaadiees and gentlemon, I have had zee deestint privileege to meet with Monsieur le Presi-doont, Rrrronald Rrrreagan, this day.  And here ees what he told me (pause): 'Errr. What's up doc? Heh! Heh! Heh!.'"   Everyone in the room roared with laughter. The mysterious guest was Mel Blanc, the voice of the cartoon Bugs Bunny and many other characters. [SO 314]

Mark Weinberg, a member of the Reagan press team, was fielding questions concerning a rumor that the president had had a heart attack.  "How did you determine that the president was all right?" the press asked. Weinberg replied, "I picked up the phone, rang the President, and said, 'Mr. President, did you have a heart attack?'  He said, 'No.,' and I said, 'Okay, go back to bed and phone me if you do.' " [SO 318]
 

The Question of Iran-Contra

Based on White House records, Oliver North was never alone with Reagan in the Oval Office [SO 141-142].

Soon after William Buckley, the CIA chief in Beirut was tortured to death by his kidnappers, and shortly after his cancer surgery, Reagan authorized NSC director McFarlane to ship weapons to Iran via Israel, in hopes of securing the release of Americans held hostage in Lebanon.  This was the first of several times he authorized McFarlane and his successor John Poindexter to send arms to Iran. [SO 342-343] The record shows Reagan signed three secret intelligence findings (December 5, 1985, January 6 and 17, 1986) to allow selling arms to Iran. [SO 361-362]

Reagan signed an official memorandum to Congress notifying them that arms shipments to Iran had taken place. Poindexter put the memo in his safe and destroyed it when the scandal broke. [SO 357]

There is no evidence that Reagan knew about the diversion of funds from the sale of arms to Iran to the Contras. [SO 364]