President Ronald Reagan Writes His Daughter On His Rare, Oval Office Letterhead He Used for Motivational Purposes

Signed “Dad” – on his personal, inspirational letterhead he used only on rare occasion, the same letterhead he left to inspire his successor, George Bush

Patti Davis is the daughter of former President Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan. Politically liberal, she disapproved of many of her father’s policies, and was active in anti-nuclear and other movements that ran against his ideas. Reagan once wrote that Patti had “made it plain to me that she thinks I am wrong and that she is against everything I stand for.”

In 1982, President Reagan announced plans to increase the number of nuclear weapons, and this resulted in a wave of opposition, with opponents included Reagan’s daughter Patti. Dr. Helen Caldicott was president of Physicians For Social Responsibility, and head of a new organization called the Nuclear Policy Research Institute, which was part of the Nuclear Freeze Movement, and its cause was prevention of the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Patti heard Caldicott speak and was impressed. With the intention of swaying her father’s opinion on nuclear weapons, and with his consent, Davis arranged a meeting between the President and Caldicott that took place in mid-December. Dr. Caldicott exchanged views with the President, and the two also agreed not to discuss the meeting with the press.

However, to others Dr. Caldicott described the meeting in terms unflattering to Reagan, though admitting agreeing not to discuss the meeting with the press: “I introduced myself by saying you probably don’t know who I am. He said, yes, I do, you are an Australian. You were on the beach when you were a young girl and you are scared of nuclear war. I said yes, that’s right. He said, well, I, too, am scared of nuclear war, but I want to prevent it by building more nuclear bombs…I just finished my book, ‘Missile Envy,’ so I was stock full of facts and figures. He would make a statement…everything he said was incorrect and inaccurate, so I would stop…and correct him…And during the interview he leaned over to me and said look, I’m not going to talk to anyone about this. I said, fortuitously, I wouldn’t, either. Then eventually, a journalist said to me, look, I just want some background and I naively gave the background and the piece was printed. I wrote and apologized to him [Reagan] and he wrote me a nice letter back saying that I’m used to it. He said the press are not gentlemen and they don’t follow the rules and obligations of journalists…I thought he was a sweet old man. He was not appropriate at all to be the president of the United States.”

Dr. Caldicott quickly spoke to a reporter who wrote an article on the meeting. The media picked up the story and it caused a sensation, with Reagan being roundly criticized on the left for refusing to change his position and on the right for having the meeting at all. This incident embarrassed both the President and Patti, who had relied on Caldicott’s promise to keep the meeting off the record. So just nine days after the meeting Caldicott felt the need to apologize for breaching her agreement with Reagan to keep the meeting confidential.  This letter was not, however, mailed to the White House, but to Patti, for her to forward to her father.

President Reagan responded to this letter also directly to Patti.

Autograph Letter Signed as President, on his personal memo paper decorated with a cartoon character and the words “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” Washington, late December 1982, to Patti Davis relating to Dr. Caldicott. “I’ve just gotten an answer off to Dr. C telling her not to worry, it’s par for the course. Haven’t time to write more, I’m in between meetings. Love, Dad.”

This was acquired directly from Reagan’s family.  When Reagan left the Oval Office, he left a pad of this Sandra Boynton cartoon stationery with a note, “You’ll have moment when you want to use this particular stationery.”