We learn more about Nancy Reagan

The wife of the late President had a greater role in public affairs than most people realize.  From an article at PBS Newshour:

[I]nterviews with dozens of people who worked with both Reagans, as well as historians and journalists who have studied them, confirm she was far more influential in personnel decisions and even some policy, than the public knew. And she herself now acknowledges she worked behind the scenes, making personnel decisions that later helped moderate U.S. policy toward the then-Soviet Union, at a time when conservative Republicans were in fierce opposition...

Indeed, the extent of her influence in the campaigns, and especially as first lady, virtually unknown until recently, places her among the top three most powerful first ladies of modern times, according to historian Allida Black, who ranks her after Eleanor Roosevelt and Hillary Clinton.

It was Nancy Reagan who persuaded her husband to make political moderate Baker the chief of staff, rather than the more conservative Ed Meese. It was Mrs. Reagan who five years later helped push out the next chief of staff, Don Regan, when she felt he was more interested in his own career than her husband's. And it was Nancy Reagan who helped orchestrate the removal of National Security Adviser William Clark over differences in dealing with the leaders of the Soviet Union. In fact, she worked quietly to make sure then-Secretary of State George Shultz, who shared her pro-détente views, got more face time with the president...

What we discovered is that this woman who took pains to appear most focused on throwing elegant state dinners and later, the "Just Say No" to drugs campaign, was in fact playing a crucial daily role in ensuring the success of her husband's career, which just happened to be the most important job in the country...

More at PBS, which will be airing a documentary about her this weekend.  I bet that will be quite interesting.