Letters From Reagan

Former President Ronald Reagan was known as the great communicator. Few people know that one of his favorite forms of communication was the written word.

Over the course of his life, Mr. Reagan penned over 5,000 letters. Kiron Skinner and Annelise Anderson take a look at many of them in their new book, "Reagan: A life in Letters."

With that in mind, authors Skinner and Anderson collaborated to publish some of President Ronald Reagan's personal letters to political colleagues, stars on the big screen, friends and family and everyday people.

Skinner tells The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith what surprised her the most was how hands-on he was as president.

She says, "I think in looking at thousands of Reagan's letters, I think we came to realize how relevant Ronald Reagan is to the 20th century, both in the United States and in the international system."

Anderson agrees, "I think he was running things. This is what comes through: he's running things. He continues to be the pleasant, communicative person, but he is directive."

The book's chapters are divided by letter topics such as: "The Early Years," "Home and Family," "Hollywood Years and Friendships," "Domestic Policy" and "Back to California" plus many more.
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"Reagan: A Life Of Letters" also highlights individuals the former president wrote to often such as Walter Annenberg, a media magnate; Roy Brewer; a liberal Democrat; and Ruddy Hines, a child who wrote to Mr. Reagan from 1984-1988.

Some of these letters go way back. He had a long correspondence with Richard Nixon. In a letter he wrote to Nixon after the Democratic convention of 1960, talking about John F. Kennedy, he writes: "Under the tussle boyish haircut is still old Karl Marx, lost a century ago."

Skinner says, "They had outstanding correspondence and we were stunned to find that they began corresponding in the late 1950s and went on until 1994 with often candid correspondence."

Since his letters were personal, the former president did not expect them to be made public, Anderson notes.

One of the big stories of his time in office was the Iran-Contra scandal, for which he took responsibility and went on TV saying, 'I'm responsible for this.' At the same time, he insisted through to the end that he never knew about the money from arms sales to Iran going to the Contras, Latin American rebels. In a letter that he wrote to one of his regular correspondents, he said, speaking about Iran:

"Well, we sold them a few spare parts and weapons, but the stake was a contact that could give us a chance at a relationship with Iran and we were succeeding. A plus on the side was the return of three hostages, and could have been five if the media hadn't blown our cover. Here is the thing, I don't know if we with put it back together. If we can't, it's a great loss for the Western World."

Skinner explains, "That's a really interesting story. You have to go back to 1979, before Ronald Reagan announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president. The shah fell from power in Iran and the Soviets massively invaded Afghanistan. As a result, the U.S. lost a strategic ally in Iran. And what he is saying here, despite an embargo on relations with Iran, he wanted to open the relationship up and he was doing that through selling spare parts. He was also hoping, though he was not trading arms for hostages, that that opening would help with the hostage crisis in Lebanon."

Skinner says in 1996 Anderson had begun looking at Mr. Reagan's papers with the help of Nancy Reagan and the Reagan Library. She soon found documents from the cold war and hand-written drafts on a variety of topics and policies, both domestic and foreign. She then found other notes on a number of topics and realized that one serious topic left to deal with was his personal letters, which led to the project's start.

Anderson says readers of the letters can learn that the former president liked to communicate with a wide range of people.

In one of his last letters before announcing he had Alzheimer's, the former president shares with Walter Annenberg his thoughts on life. Anderson notes in the letter that President Reagan compliments Annenberg "for the generous donation and says 'while we are still capable, we have to do what we can.'"

There are also letters to Rudy Lee-Hines. On a visit to Congress Heights Elementary School in Washington, D.C., President Reagan selected Rudy to be his pen pal. Rudy was 6 when the two began their correspondence.

Skinner says, "I think that story is a really important part of the book and, in some ways, Rudy is the star. He's the youngest correspondent of Reagan over time."