The Judge William P. Clark, Ronald Reagan's Top Hand

The most important biographical record of the Reagan years-from the Reagan governorship to the 40th president's period in the White House-has not been written, until now: it is the story of Ronald Reagan's indispensable man, confidant, and single most important adviser: William P. Clark, known to many as simply The Judge. With his record, resume, and the respect he earned from so many quarters, why did Bill Clark never pen an autobiography? Why did he never write memoirs, even while much less influential advisers told their stories, cashing in with major publishing houses in the 1980s, spilling the beans on the latest alleged "insider's account" of the Reagan presidency? And why did Clark not write that story as everyone-from top Reagan officials like Cap Weinberger to authoritative Reagan biographers like Lou Cannon-urged him to do so? Bill Clark's humility stopped him from picking up pen and paper. Instead, at long last, he acquiesced to the writing of this biography, and even then proceeded to almost daily try to convince the authors to stop the project. Paul Kengor did that convincing, and Pat Clark Doerner worked sentence-by-sentence with Clark to painstakingly review the manuscript-and Kengor and Doerner together wrote this fascinating account of one man's life, from a ranch house to the White House and then, again, back to the ranch-to what Ronald Reagan would have called the "sunset of his life." Reagan biographers like Edmund Morris and major publications like the New York Times Magazine, Time, and the National Catholic Reporter all agree: Bill Clark was Ronald Reagan's single most trusted aide, quite possibly the most powerful national security adviser in American history, given his unprecedented influence with the president he served. With Reagan, Clark did many things, beginning in the 1960s, but none were more profound than the track they laid to undermine Soviet communism, to win the Cold War. Together, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clark, two ranchers, a president and his top hand, truly changed history. At long last, over two decades after that significant accomplishment, Bill Clark shares the details of that extraordinary effort, many of which-as readers of this book will learn-have never been reported.

Paul Kengor is a professor of Political Science at Grove City College.