Reagan's Secret War; The Untold Story of His Fight to Save the World from Nuclear Disaster
Arnold Newman (jacket photograph) New York, NY: Crown Publishers, 2009. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. xii, [2], 450 pages. DJ has slight wear and soiling along the top edge. Illustrated endpapers. Includes Foreword, Introduction, Glossary of Acronyms, Notes, Acknowledgments, and Index. Martin Anderson (August 5, 1936 – January 3, 2015) was an economist, policy analyst, author and one of President Ronald Reagan's leading advisors. After serving as director of policy research for the 1968 Presidential campaign of Richard Nixon, Anderson was Special Assistant to the President from 1969 to 1970, and then, from 1970 to 1971, "Special Consultant to the President of the United States for Systems Analysis". It was through his recommendation that Alan Greenspan began his career in government. Along with Walter Oi and Milton Friedman he is credited with helping to end military conscription in the United States. He was a senior policy adviser to the Reagan presidential campaigns of 1976 and 1980, and under President Ronald Reagan he served as the chief domestic policy advisor from 1981 to 1982, and then as a member of the President's Economic Policy Advisory Board from 1982 to 1989. Anderson served as a member of the President's General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament from 1987 to 1993. Annelise Anderson is an economist has been a Senior Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution since 1983. From 1981 to 1983, Anderson was Associate Director for Economics and Government with the Office of Management and Budget. She was a senior policy adviser to the campaign of Ronald Reagan, and was Associate Director, Office of Presidential Personnel. The authors drew on their unprecedented access to more than eight million highly classified documents housed in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. Using his top secret clearances, Martin Anderson was able to access Ronald Reagan's most privileged exchanges with subordinates and world leaders as well as the tactical record of how Reagan fought to win the Cold War and to control nuclear weapons. The authors present President Reagan as a deeply involved and adroit leader. Derived from a Kirkus review: A husband-and-wife writing team present persuasive evidence of Ronald Reagan’s decisive role in ending the Cold War. Using memorandums of conversations, transcripts of summit meetings, letters, drafts and final versions of speeches, Reagan’s personal diary, press-conference transcripts and newly declassified National Security Council minutes, the authors demonstrate Reagan’s obsession, which predated his presidency, with the nuclear threat and his determination to do something about it. More tellingly, these documents prove that Reagan’s voice was the guiding intelligence behind his administration’s strategy for besting the Soviets. Oftentimes ignoring or overruling his advisors, even dismissing high-profile appointees—including Secretary of State Al Haig—who failed to implement his policy, Reagan strove to right the economy, bolster the military and, most controversially, push the idea of a Strategic Defense Initiative to persuade the Soviet Union that it could not possibly win an arms race with America. Although the Andersons allude to events that distracted Reagan—assassination attempt, re-election campaign, the Iran-Contra scandal—the focus remains on the president’s single-minded determination to fashion a world without nuclear weapons. Although their commentary occasionally lapses into cheerleading—Nancy Reagan’s repartee with Andrei Gromyko can hardly be described as “sophisticated”—the authors allow these remarkable documents to speak for themselves. Important research impressively assembled. Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: Ronald Reagan, U.S. Presidents, Nuclear Weapons, Cold War, Strategic Defense, Human Rights, Geneva Summit, Iran-Contra, Gorbachev, Reykjavik, Pope John Paul II
ISBN: 9780307238610
[Book #79146]
Price: $45.00