Nancy Reagan's Forgotten Legacy

In March we mourned and contemplated the life of one of Americas most fascinating first ladies, but we did not do her legacy justice. Historians and former White House staff members have recounted the power Nancy Reagan wielded behind closed doors, emphasizing her influence in the presidential decision-making process. They have described her role in the resignation of White House Chief of Staff Don Regan, for instance, a person she thought was in the wrong job from day one. They tell stories about how Mrs. Reagan was the only person who could interrupt President Reagan in the middle of a meeting, and recall how she restricted access to him by managing his travel schedule after he was shot in 1981.

What we have not heard about as much, but should be weighed equally, is Nancy Reagans role as chief messenger, one that I find every presidential spouse must fill but that Mrs. Reagan played impeccably despite her strong preference not to play it at all.

According to former Reagan administration staff I interviewed for my new book, On Behalf of the President , Nancy Reagan did not like to speak in public. In fact, she told her husband she was fine with him running for president as long as she didnt have to make any speeches. She traveled hundreds of thousands of miles to make them nonetheless, racking up 110 appearances in 1984 alone, many of which were for her own initiatives as first lady.

Like the generations of presidential spouses that preceded and succeeded her, Mrs. Reagan quickly realized the value of her public participation and she assumed a prominent communications role for which she is not often credited. For example, she was the first presidential spouse to address the U.N. General Assembly, where she discussed international drug trafficking, an outgrowth of her famous domestic Just Say No campaign.

Presidential spouses are powerful surrogates because they can communicate the concerns, beliefs, and character of the president without mentioning politics. The most skilled among them can convey sincerity and authenticity while transcending partisanship in the most partisan of venues, such as a campaign rally. Nancy Reagan did this with the refinement of an accomplished actor and a closeness to the president that made her public statements about him the most credible of any White House spokesperson or staff member.

Yet through the promotion of initiatives that register as solutions to common-sense valence issues, such as Just Say No, Lets Move! (Michelle Obama s childhood obesity initiative), or Laura Bushs Ready to Read, Ready to Learn initiative, presidential spouses can also provide the administration with uncontroversial frames for controversial policy proposals. Nancy Reagans anti-drug campaign was no exception to this practice. Mrs. Reagans highly publicized school visits and collaborations with celebrities such as Mr. T and Clint Eastwood put a compassionate face on the strictest drug-enforcement policies signed into law by a president since Richard Nixon declared the War on Drugs in 1971. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 and its amendment in 1988 established the mandatory minimum prison sentences for drug-related offenses that are deemed responsible for the prison overcrowding epidemic in America.

Mrs. Reagan had a keen understanding of what the American public expected of her, and she put her concerns about the presidents and her own safety aside to meet its demands for a responsive, transparent, and accessible administration. In 1986 she climbed the tiny spiral staircase inside the Statue of Liberty against the guidance of the secret service to get a picture waving out of the monuments crown with French and American schoolchildren. She brought a sense of humor to events she may have rather skipped, such as a White House Christmas party one year, where she wore a sign that read I have laryngitis. Merry Christmas. And of course, she educated us about the kind of person President Reagan was by sharing years of personal stories and through the intimate letters that documented his marriage and family life.

Still, Nancy Reagans public record should be examined through the lens of the highly strategic and policy-motivated Reagan White House, on behalf of which she was likely a very effective messenger, as many political spouses are, including Bill Clinton and Melania Trump . This part of her legacy, one of a shrewd political operator who shaped the public image of the Reagan administration and its policy agenda, has not yet been adequately explored.