FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Courtney E. Greenhalgh

Tel: 212-782-8971

cgreenhalgh@randomhouse.com

REAGAN’S SECRET WAR

The Untold Story of His Fight to Save the World

from Nuclear Disaster

By Martin Anderson and Annelise Anderson

New York Times Bestselling Authors of Reagan, In His Own Hand

“A husband-and-wife writing team presents persuasive evidence of Ronald Reagan’s decisive role in ending the Cold War. Important research impressively assembled. —Kirkus Reviews

“Ronald Reagan’s steadfast commitment to abolish all nuclear weapons is brought to life in Martin and Annelise Anderson’s captivating narrative. . . . If the world makes it to the nuclear-free mountaintop, we will have President Reagan to thank for inspiring our climb.”

—former senator Sam Nunn, cochairman, Nuclear Threat Initiative

“An immense contribution . . . the authors have defied assumptions about what Reagan thought and said and conducted painstaking research to get at the truth of what he really planned and executed. All of us who are gripped by the transcendent importance of the nuclear threat will learn, and be inspired, by this account.” —from the Foreword by former secretary of state George P. Shultz

There have been countless books on Reagan and his legacy, yet the picture painted of this extraordinary period in American history has been incomplete—until now.

Drawing upon a huge trove of never-before-seen top secret documents, premier Reagan scholars Martin and Annelise Anderson—the husband-and-wife team who brought us such classics as the New York Times bestsellers Reagan, In His Own Hand, Reagan: A Life in Letters, and Reagan’s Path to Victory—shine new light on the accomplishments of the Reagan administration and the decisive events that ended the Cold War.

In penning this book, Martin and Annelise drew upon unprecedented access to the more than eight million highly classified documents housed within the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library—unseen by the public until now. Using his top secret clearances, Martin was able to access Ronald Reagan’s most secret exchanges with subordinates and world leaders, as well as the tactical record of how Reagan fought to stop the Soviet Union in its tracks and abolish nuclear weapons.

Just some of these top secret, never-before-seen documents include:

• the minutes of 154 Reagan-chaired National Security Council meetings
• dozens of secret letters sent by Reagan to world leaders
• the eyewitness notes from the four pivotal Reagan-Gorbachev summits

Along with these findings, the authors use their mastery of Reagan’s entire body of work—his speeches, radio addresses, personal diaries, and other correspondence—to develop a striking picture of a president whose incisive intelligence, uncanny instincts, and quiet self-confidence quite literally changed the course of history.

Among the many revelations that emerge from this treasure trove of materials, the Andersons provide irrefutable evidence that:

• Reagan’s strategy for dealing with the Soviet Union was well established when he took office.
• Reagan considered eliminating nuclear weapons his paramount objective as president.
• Reagan himself—not his subordinates—was the principal architect of the polices and strategies that ultimately brought the Soviets to the nuclear-arms negotiation table.
• Reagan’s ideas, including his controversial “Star Wars” missile-defense initiative, proved essential to bringing the Soviets to the negotiating table.
• Reagan himself, far from being propped up by his advisers, in fact often pushed forward his strategies and goals in the face of stiff resistance from the Republican Party and his own inner circle.

Most of all, Reagan’s Secret War provides proof that one man can, by the force of his deep convictions, bring about sweeping global change.

About the Authors

MARTIN ANDERSON and ANNELISE ANDERSON, husband and wife, are coauthors of the New York Times bestsellers Reagan, In His Own Hand, Reagan: A Life in Letters, and Reagan’s Path to Victory. Both are fellows at the Hoover Institution. Martin, an M.I.T. Ph.D, worked in the Reagan White House as economic policy adviser and, more recently, sat on the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board. Annelise, a Columbia Ph.D., was a senior policy adviser to the Reagan presidential campaign and was an associate director within Reagan’s Office of Management and Budget, where she was responsible for the budgets of five Cabinet departments and more than forty other agencies.

REAGAN’S SECRET WAR

The Untold Story of His Fight to Save the World from Nuclear Disaster

Crown; On sale: June 2, 2009

ISBN: 978-0-307-23861-0; Price: $32.50

For more information, or to arrange an interview with the author, please contact

Courtney E Greenhalgh at 212-782-8971 or cgreenhalgh@randomhouse.com.