Nancy Reagan Was a First Lady for the Ages

Not since John and Abigail Adams in the early years of the Republic was there a first couple like Ronald and Nancy Reagan, so perfectly joined in heart and mind and soul. He said more than once that he could not imagine life without her.

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She was his closest and most influential adviser in matters of personnel. When she felt that someone was not serving her husband well or was putting his own interests ahead of the president’s, she pushed—sometimes hard—for his removal. She was, in biographer Lou Cannon’s words, “the bad cop” who protected Reagan from his too trusting nature. It was Nancy who led the campaign for the removal of White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan, who badly mishandled the Iran-contra affair. More...

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