Lot 604
Reagan, Ronald. Typed letter signed as President, 1 page, on White House letterhead, 8½ x 6¼ in., Washington, May 16, 1988. The letter has one faint diagonal crease. To John O. Koehler, a long-time journalist and Reagan advisor who was appointed Assistant to the President and Director of Communications in 1987, and who went to Europe that summer to assess the perception there of a proposed US-Soviet treaty eliminating intermediate range nuclear weapons.
President Reagan's letter is responding to the publication of Donald Regan's tell-all book, For the Record, in which Reagan's former Treasury Secretary and Chief of Staff blames Mrs. Regan for firing him, as well as for the ousters of C.I.A. Director William Casey, Secretary of Labor Raymond J. Donovan, Secretary of Health and Human Services Margaret Heckler, and Communications Director Pat Buchanan (Buchanan is not mentioned in this letter). He also accused the First Lady of ferociously protecting the President, depending on astrological guidance to plan his schedule and important events in his life, including surgery.
In part: "…You know, John, one of the hardest things to bear in all of this are the outright falsehoods. Nancy never opened her mouth about Casey, Donovan, or Heckler, and she certainly didn't fire Don. Truth is, he'd told me several months earlier he wanted to get back to private life, and I left it to him to name the day. And, of course, we haven't been charting our course by the stars…"
The Reagans had already been targeted by Reagan daughter Patti Davis in Home Front (1986), by former press secretary Larry Speakes's Speaking Out (January 1988), by former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Michael Deaver's Behind the Scenes (Feb. 1988), and by adopted son Michael Reagan's On the Outside Looking In (April 1988). Then, to get his revenge for real or perceived insults, Donald Regan published For the Record. And all of these while the Reagans were still in the White House!
Estimated Value $3,000 - 4,000.
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| Realized $9,600 |
