THE REAGAN FILES 2025

A veteran researcher of the Reagan administration offers an in-depth look at the conservative president’s foreign policy.

“This is not your typical Ronald Reagan book,” author Saltoun-Ebin declares in his opening lines. While the author shares some of the flattering interpretations of the president’s administration found in the myriad of Reagan biographies, such as the role of his personal charm in wooing voters out of the 1970s malaise, Saltoun-Ebin focuses on bringing readers into the Oval Office, the Situation Room, and his Cabinet Room by offering transcripts of declassified conversations between Reagan and his closest confidants during his first term. Topics on well-known aspects of his foreign policy are certainly present, such as Reagan’s staunch opposition to the Soviet Union or his policies toward the Middle East, but the conversations also provide readers glimpses into lesser-known areas, including his approach to allies, if occasional economic rivals, in the Caribbean, Japan, and South Korea. Based largely on declassified materials from the National Security Council and National Security Planning Group, the transcripts provide an intimate look inside Reagan’s administration. In one conversation, for instance, the president describes Lebanon as “the strangest place in the world” because he couldn’t reconcile the nation’s rising terrorist threats with its cosmopolitan hotels, television shows, and sophisticated restaurants. With a law degree from the University of Wisconsin and a former researcher for Reagan biographer Richard Reeves, Saltoun-Ebin is intimately familiar with the archival material hosted at the Reagan Presidential Library. Not only has he written multiple volumes on the former president himself, he also led the way in digitizing his archival materials at TheReaganFiles.com. This is a carefully curated and abridged version of select documents, accompanied by the learned commentary and historical analysis of a leading Reagan researcher. This edition could have used some tighter editorial trimming; many of the conversations consume multiple pages. Nevertheless, the book’s emphasis on engaging both scholars and lay readers is effectively supported by a glossary and ample historical contextualization.

An insightful, if occasionally overwhelming, glimpse into the Reagan administration.