Free Killing Reagan by Bill O'Reilly

dangerous,” Sinatra calls Reagan, “and so simpleminded.” The singer takes his vitriol a step further by also attacking Nancy Reagan, calling her “a dope with fat ankles who could never make it as an actress.”
    Despite his career resurgence on television, and the wealth that has allowed him to build this spectacular four-bedroom, 4,700-square-foot home at the end of a long private road in the Pacific Palisades, Ronald Reagan and his wife have become social pariahs. They are rarely invited to the best parties, and even when a dinner offer comes their way, Reagan has a bad habit of lecturing all within earshot about politics. Nancy, for her part, does not help matters by appearing condescending. “We got stuck with them at a dinner party, and it was awful,” the wife of screenwriter Philip Dunne once remembered. “Nancy is so assessing—she always looks you up and down before she deigns to speak.”
    Turning away from the window, Reagan walks past the large stone fireplace and into his small corner office. He sits down and takes pen and paper from a drawer. General Electric has taken great pride in turning his home into “The House of the Future” and has capitalized on that concept by having Reagan film commercials for the General Electric Theater from his own kitchen, surrounded by a GE toaster, dishwasher, and electric garbage disposal. But no modern gadget will help Reagan perform the simple task of writing a letter.
    Ronald Reagan is not afraid to mail his thoughts to anyone who will read them—as well as many who don’t want to. Letter writing from his home office has become the nexus for Reagan’s personal conservative movement, and with each letter he sends, his political ambition advances.
    With Kennedy’s words still echoing in his mind, Reagan picks up his pen and begins writing a letter to Richard Nixon.
    â€œDear Mr. Vice President,” the letter begins. “I know this is presumptuous of me, but I’m passing on some thoughts after viewing the convention here in L.A.… I heard a frightening call to arms. Unfortunately, he is a powerful speaker with an appeal to the emotions. He leaves little doubt that his idea of the ‘challenging new world’ is one in which the Federal Government will grow bigger and do more, and of course spend more.”
    Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon first became acquainted back in 1947, when Reagan appeared before Congress. They rekindled that relationship in 1950, when Reagan campaigned for Nixon’s opponent in the race for a U.S. Senate seat from California. They’ve since become friends, and Nixon is actually the reason Reagan still maintains his Democratic Party membership. When Reagan told Nixon he was planning to switch parties in time for the 1960 election, the canny Nixon said he could do more for the Republican Party by remaining a Democrat and using his fame to convince other Democrats to cross party lines with him.
    So Reagan remains a Democrat—at least for now. He has no idea that Nixon actually considers him “shallow” and of “limited mental capacity.” But even if he did know that, it might not matter. Ronald Reagan simply wants to see John F. Kennedy and his liberal dogma defeated.
    Reagan continues his letter: “I know there must be some short-sighted people within the Republican Party who will advise that the Republicans should try to ‘out-liberal’ him. In my opinion this would be fatal … I don’t pose as an infallible pundit, but I have a strong feeling that the 20 million nonvoters in this country just might be conservatives.”
    But Nixon is not planning to take Reagan’s advice. In one week’s time, he will fly to New York and meet with Republican governor Nelson Rockefeller. After a dinner of lamb chops in Rocky’s Fifth Avenue apartment, the two men will stay up all night drafting a more liberal Republican