The book, produced with the cooperation of Nancy Reagan and excerpted in Time magazine, suggests Reagan was more involved in the day-to-day responsibilities of the presidency than some of his critics and former aides have suggested.
The Reagan in the letters seems a modest, plain-spoken man driven by idealism.
"My Dear Mr. President," he said in the Brezhnev letter, "I regret and yet can understand the somewhat intemperate tone of your recent letter. After all we approach the problems confronting us from opposite philosophical points of view. Is it possible that we have let ideology, political and economical philosophy and government policies keep us from considering the very real, everyday problems of the people we represent?"
"Reagan: A Life in Letters," went on sale in the United States last week. The book includes more than 1,000 letters discovered by author Kiron K. Skinner, now a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, who found them while researching a book on the Cold War.
She sought help from Martin Anderson, who had been Reagan's first domestic policy adviser, and his wife, Annelise, a Reagan aide. They found more than 5,000 letters in all.
Time said Reagan's aides objected to his Brezhnev letter, saying it was inappropriate for the president to send such a personal message so early in their relationship. At one point the State Department drafted an alternative letter, but Reagan insisted that both be sent.
In a letter to an old friend, Reagan dismissed news reports that said he was only pursuing the Strategic Defense Initiative as a bargaining chip while he negotiated for weapons reduction. He described his attempts to sell Mikhail Gorbachev on the anti-missile program at their 1986 summit in Reykjavik, Iceland.
"The scientists working on SDI have achieved several breakthroughs and are quite optimistic, although they say we have several years to go," he wrote to Laurence Beilenson, a former attorney for the Screen Actors' Guild.
"I have never entertained a thought that SDI could be a bargaining chip. I did tell Gorbachev that if and when we had such a system they would join us in eliminating nuclear missiles; we'd share such a defense with them. I don't think he believes me ..."
The book also includes Reagan's letters offering advice to his children.
Daughter Patti Davis said in an essay accompanying the Time article that her father "wrote letters that said more than he could say in person. It's odd to think that the man who has been called the "Great Communicator" was often shy with others, yet it's true," she said.
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