Richard V. Allen

Now, what's in this memo, Helene?

Nixon has a foreign affairs advisor on his team called Richard V. Allen.

Never heard of him.

No one has, except he just finished a tour of Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong, where he met with all their foreign ministers.

[applause] To the stunned disbelief of all the authorized attendees in the room, they shook hands and called it a day.

[gavel banging] [crowd chatter] And we all went to the bar, all the secretaries, support staff, observers, which included one face I recognized from the photo Helene had attached to her memo.

It was Nixon's foreign affairs deputy, Richard V. Allen.

As I edged closer, I was surprised to hear...

Yeah.

So, um, the we, we win, they lose is, is, um, what Reagan told, uh, Richard Allen, his first National Security Advisor, between the elect- before the election when he was being interviewed by Allen.

Um, you know, "What, what's your strategy, uh, for dealing with the Soviets?" And Reagan sort of, kind of hems and haws a little bit in, in his answer a- and then he, he just turns to, you know, um, Allen and says, "You know what my strategy is? We win, they lose.

That, you know, that's gonna be my, my strategy." Now, some of it, uh, you know, I think was on...

And the Russians interpreted it, the Soviets interpreted it as aggressive actions being taken in response to the Reagan shooting.

Yeah, I got that from Dick Allen.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'll, I'll tell you, uh, what I always come back to is, um, you know, the longtime co-chairman of our board of governors were Ed Meese and Bill Clark.

Um, you know, Dick Allen referred to the Reaganauts, um, the, the true Reaganites, um, who, uh, were most fully in sync with his agenda, and certainly, um, Meese and Clark are near the top of that list.

Uh, we were incredibly fortunate to have leadership like theirs.

Uh, Mike Reagan, uh, and his family, uh, became great friends.