Reagan chronicled US presidency in diaries
Former US President Ronald Reagan was a committed commentator on his own presidency, keeping meticulously-maintained diaries that recorded the stress of his work alongside his frustration with trying to keep peace in his own family, according to a newly published compilation of his writings.
Mr Reagan scoffed at the assertions of one-time chief of staff Don Regan that the president and his wife, Nancy, had relied on astrological advice in connection with Reagan’s stewardship of national affairs.
And he ranted in his end-of-day private writings about difficulties he was having with son Ron and daughter Patti.
“Tomorrow, I stop being president,” Reagan wrote on January 19, 1989, according to diaries in the custody of Nancy Reagan and edited by historian Douglas Brinkley for a book.
Excerpts of the diaries, which Mr Reagan kept during his two terms in office from 1981-1989, were published in the June issue of Vanity Fair magazine, which went on sale in New York and Los Angeles today.
