A Friend in the White House

Abstract

Over the course of the Reagan presidency, those who had written for National Review and Commentary shifted from their roles as policy analysts to putting their policy recommendations into practice as members of the foreign, domestic, and speechwriting staff in the Reagan administration. Figures like Jeane Kirkpatrick, Carl Gershman, Aram Bakshian, Anthony Dolan, and many others played a key role in the creation of one of the most ideological administrations in recent memory. While neither William F. Buckley Jr. nor Norman Podhoretz had active roles in the administration, their influence was nonetheless felt as those who had worked for them utilized their ideas and language in helping construct a consistent ideology that played a significant role in how rhetoric was designed and policy was implemented.