PHOTO: Nancy Reagan (left) and other former First Ladies, 1994
Unsurprisingly, the death of former First Lady Nancy Reagan has brought glowing tributes. Barack and Michelle Obama wrote, “We were fortunate to benefit from her proud example, and her warm and generous advice. [She] redefined the role in her time here.”
The accolades will bolster the Reagan myth, in which the President and his wife led an exceptional US to victory in the Cold War. However, as with all myths, there are more complicated realities, as I explained to BBC outlets on Wednesday:
BBC Radio 2: Listen from 1:40.02
BBC Radio Wales: Listen from 58:13
Nancy Reagan was not as significant in social initiatives as a predecessor like Eleanor Roosevelt, who worked with the poor and pursued minority rights. She was not as involved in policy as a successor like Hillary Clinton. Her headline project — “Just Say No to Drugs” — was a PR project which did little to address the problem, especially since her husband’s administration exacerbated root causes such as economic deprivation, inner-city tension, and possibly even the supply of cocaine.
Instead, her distinction was the fierce devotion to Ronald Reagan, from hiring a White House astrologer to protect him after he was injured in a 1981 assassination attempt to the dismissal of advisors — included the Chief of Staff — when she did not think that they were serving her husband.
In that way, her reputation in death will be linked to that of the President whom she always defended, whatever the realities of their eight years in the White House.
