Donald Regan

摘要

When Donald Regan became President Ronald Reagan's chief of staff in 1985 he remarked, "I'll be doing the whole thing now." The "whole thing" that Mr Regan had in mind was to be in charge of the president's public life. It had been usual before he was appointed for the president to have a circle of close advisers, each in an important-sounding job and each competing for his ear. But Mr Regan, a former businessman, believed that the White House urgently needed one strong manager who would give the president dependable support. He said that Mr Reagan, a former film actor, "regarded his daily schedule as being something like a shooting script in which characters came and went, scenes were rehearsed and acted out, and the plot was advanced one day at a time." The chief of staff, Mr Regan said, had to make sure that "the star had what he needed to do his best", guided by a "crew, invisible behind the lights, watching the performance their behind-the-scenes efforts made possible". There is a story that Mr Regan would arrive in the Oval Office each morning with a fresh joke to get the president in the mood to face the toils of stardom. Whether true or not, the story was believed.