Behind Closed Doors – In the Room with Reagan and Nixon

Whether you are thinking about a sunny vacation retreat to escape the cold or just cozying into the sofa next to the fireplace, the indispensable partner for biding your time is Ken Khachigian’s memoir: “Behind Closed Doors – In the Room with Reagan and Nixon.” For lovers of politics, history, biography and the study of the presidency nothing in your library will match the brilliance of Khachigian’s finely-honed visit with the cold war legends and giants of the 20^th century.

Khachigian began his career as a communications aide in Richard Nixon’s White House, and moved up as a protégé of Pat Buchanan to become a critical partner in the political preparations for the landslide of 1972 and subsequently as a scribe in the speechwriting murderers row that included Buchanan, Bill Safire, Ray Price, Aram Bakshian, Noel Koch and Ben Stein. But with his law degree from Columbia University, Ken was put into service as Deputy Special Assistant in Nixon’s Watergate defense when the combined wolfpack of media, Congressional leftists and former RFK prosecutors sought to bring the president down.

As Khachigian writes in his book, he stood tall when all the rats left the sinking ship, and for that he was rewarded a post with Nixon in San Clemente and the former president’s amazing return into public life. Chapter by chapter in this amazing book, Khachigian pulls you into the private days of Nixon’s exile – as he led preparation for the historic interviews with David Frost, working side by side with future media star Diane Sawyer as well as letting readers in on fascinating behind the scenes conversations with Nixon describing the 1970s political landscape as Reagan challenged Gerald Ford for the presidency.

These and dozens more indescribably delicious insights into the brilliant mind of Nixon and his extraordinary political genius are laid out in the early chapters that finally transition into Nixon’s introducing Ken into Reagan’s 1980 campaign fold. From there the book takes off into realms never before reported. While accompanying Reagan as chief campaign speechwriter in the landslide victory that would turn America around, Khachigian began recording into a mini-cassette 35,000 words of diary entries.

In six intriguing chapters lifted from those diaries, Khachigian weaves hitherto undisclosed campaign stories, including the birth of the most famous line in politics Ken wrote for Reagan’s rally in Langhorne, Pennsylvania on October 6, 1980: “Look around you – at the price of food, the price of gasoline, the interest rates you have to pay to buy a house, the amount of taxes taken out of your paycheck. Look around, then ask yourself: are you better off than you were in 1976?”

Among the most captivating revelations in the book is the story of Khachigian’s role as Richard Nixon’s 1980 secret campaign intermediary, passing along private memoranda and advice to Reagan – all of it recorded in detail in the book’s appendices and through the author’s page-turning prose. Ken also records a code-devised meeting on the side streets of a Kansas City campaign stopover with Nixon’s chief of staff –right out of a John le Carre spy novel -- for the transmission of an especially confidential Nixon memo.

As one of the few who gained Ronald Reagan’s trust and confidence, Khachigian then moved smoothly into the White House after collaborating with the new president on his First Inaugural Address. From there the book proceeds into Khachigian’s critical role in Reagan setting his historic record for economic recovery and seeking dominance over a hostile and entrenched federal bureaucracy.

The reader will be shaken by Khachigian’s revelation that President Reagan’s domestic agenda was undercut by his own staff. Ken searched new records in the archives, reviewed oral histories and biographies and discovered how those in the president’s inner circle leaked stories to generate opposition to the Reagan Revolution as well as to work alongside Reagan’s adversaries in Congress who opposed the tax and budget cuts that the Gipper had embraced in his years-long crusade for the White House.

I worked more closely with Ken in the 1984 re-election campaign when he headed up the Issues and Research department and served again as chief campaign speechwriter. Along with Stu Spencer, he was only one of two campaign staff people Reagan trusted to travel with him on Air Force One, and chapter by chapter, Ken tells inside stories of the 1984 campaign as well as his key role in helping produce the historic “Morning in America” ads. Amazing insights and colorful anecdotes I never heard on my days with Reagan’s campaign.

Finally, nowhere will you find what it’s like to write speeches for the 20^th century’s greatest communicator and to learn how Khachigian help produce Reagan’s greatest lifetime address – along with speeches to joint sessions of Congress, the Republican National Conventions and dozens more. You want to find the secret to working side by side with Reagan like no else has; you will only find it here

If you ever yearned to open the door, slip inside the room, and “eavesdrop” with Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, you have to go right now to Amazon and purchase this book and surf the waves of remarkable history. You won’t be able to put it down. And if you want to browse to see the photos and watch presentations, go to Ken’s web site: www.reaganandnixon.com. I’m not doing this only out of my long friendship with Ken – but as a friend to my readers. You won’t be disappointed.