Editing Nancy Reagan (section)

=== Influence in the White House ===
Nancy Reagan wielded a powerful influence over President Reagan.<ref name="BBC Nancy's image" />
In her memoirs, Reagan stated, "I felt panicky every time [Ronald Reagan] left the White House".<ref>Reagan, Nancy (1989), p. 21.</ref> Following the assassination attempt, she strictly controlled access to the president;<ref name="First Lady Nancy Reagan" /><ref name="BBC Nancy's image" /> occasionally, she even attempted to influence her husband's decision making.<ref>Reagan, Nancy (1989), p. 62.</ref>

Beginning in 1985, she strongly encouraged her husband to hold "summit" conferences with Soviet general secretary [[Mikhail Gorbachev]], and suggested they form a personal relationship beforehand.<ref name="First Lady Nancy Reagan" /> Both Ronald Reagan and Gorbachev had developed a productive relationship through their summit negotiations. The relationship between Nancy Reagan and [[Raisa Gorbacheva]] was anything but the friendly, diplomatic one between their husbands; Reagan found Gorbacheva hard to converse with and their relationship was described as "frosty".<ref>{{cite news|work=The New York Times|access-date=October 14, 2008|date=December 8, 1988|first=Celestine|last= Bohlen|title= The Gorbachev Visit; Another Obstacle Falls: Nancy Reagan and Raisa Gorbachev Get Chummy|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE6DD1039F93BA35751C1A96E948260}}</ref> The two women usually had tea and discussed differences between the USSR and the United States. Visiting the United States for the first time in 1987, Gorbacheva irked Reagan with lectures on subjects ranging from architecture to socialism, reportedly prompting the American president's wife to quip, "Who does that dame think she is?"<ref>{{cite news | url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,967592-1,00.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071017045800/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,967592-1,00.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = October 17, 2007 | magazine = [[Time (magazine)|Time]] | author = Chua-Eoan, Howard G. | title = My Wife Is a Very Independent Lady | date = June 6, 1988 | access-date = October 5, 2007 }}</ref>

Press framing of Reagan changed from that of just helpmate and protector to someone with hidden power.<ref name="burns-power">Burns, Lisa (2008), pp. 139–140.</ref> As the image of her as a political interloper grew, she sought to explicitly deny that she was the [[power behind the throne]].<ref name="burns-power" /> At the end of her time as First Lady, however, she said that her husband had not been well-served by his staff.<ref name="burns-power" /><ref name="reut111388" /> She acknowledged her role in reaction in influencing him on personnel decisions, saying "In no way do I apologize for it."<ref name="reut111388">{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/13/us/nancy-reagan-criticizes-aides-to-president.html | title=Nancy Reagan Criticizes Aides to President | agency=Reuters | newspaper=The New York Times | date=November 13, 1988 | access-date=May 16, 2009 | archive-date=March 4, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304111049/http://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/13/us/nancy-reagan-criticizes-aides-to-president.html | url-status=live }}</ref> She wrote in her memoirs, "I don't think I was as bad, or as extreme in my power or my weakness, as I was depicted,"<ref>Reagan, Nancy (1989), p. vii.</ref> but went on, "However the first lady fits in, she has a unique and important role to play in looking after her husband. And it's only natural that she'll let him know what she thinks. I always did that for Ronnie, and I always will."<ref>Reagan, Nancy (1989), p. 65.</ref> Her chief of staff [[James Rosebush]]'s 1988 book ''First Lady, Public Wife'' explored the role of the First Lady as a demanding and rigorous job.