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The Reagan Years 1984-88

I met President Reagan on January 17, 1984, just before I was sent to Moscow by the White House on a back channel mission. After this successful mission, I met with him seventeen more times over the next four years of his second term and taught him the Russian Proverb, Doveryai no Proveryai (Trust but Verify), which he loved and used often. In my current book I have written for the first time the full story of these meetings which took place in the crucial years of the ending of the Cold War. Most of these took place in the Oval Office with the President and his current National Security advisor (during these years: Bud MacFarlane, Frank Carlucci, John Poindexter and Colin Powell). Two meetings were followed by a private lunch with the President and Mrs. Reagan. I was also invited to the historic State Dinner for Mikhail Gorbachev and Mrs. Gorbachev in December 1987.

Here are a few glimpses of our meetings:

Oval Office

First meeting with President Reagan in the Oval Office.
Lunch

Lunch with President and Mrs. Reagan in a secluded patio directly adjoining the Oval Office.
One-to-one meeting

One-to-one meeting with Reagan.
Gorbachev

Greeting Mikhail Gorbachev (with the eagle eye of President Reagan looking on) at the White House State Dinner December 8, 1987.
Group

The only woman in a group of masculine Soviet specialists advising President Reagan before his trip to Moscow in 1988. (Diplomatically we were arranged in alphabetical order around a large Oval Table. As my name began with "M" my face almost disappeared as the picture turned the corner!)
With Senators

Aboard Air Force 2 with senators. (Senator Alan Simpson on the right.)
 
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