policy advisers and, after his inauguration, chairman of the President’s Economic Policy Advisory Board. And in May 1982, just a month before the president telephoned me in London, I had traveled, at his and Secretary of State Haig’s request, to meet each allied head of state in preparation for the Versailles economic summit. The president wanted me to give the allied leaders a reading of his personal views and to find out what was on their minds.

Camp David

When our chopper arrived at Camp David, the president and Nancy Reagan greeted us. The natural, relaxed attitude of the president at Camp David that Saturday contrasted with my encounter in late 1968 with Presidentelect Richard Nixon. Nixon had asked me on the telephone to become his secretary of labor. Istatement about why I, as a university man, would feel comfortable in his cabinet. Was he afraid of rejection from a person in the academic community? I had supported him during the campaign. I thought to myself, this man has just been elected president of the United States and yet he is selling himself to me. The complexity of Nixon and his insecurities, as well as his brilliance and his keen instinct for strategy, were in my mind as I talked with Reagan, who was invariably so comfortable with himself.

President Reagan and I had lunch under a canopy of trees outside Aspen Cottage at Camp David. Bill Clark, Jim Baker, and Ed Meese joined us. The shells were falling in Beirut, the press was howling, and pressure on