European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 4, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Peggy Noonan Here outside the White House in 1985 is used to taking some heat for her rhetoric. She often had to fight to keep intact some of her speeches for Reagan. A pie a insider looks Bac White by Alice Steinbach Baltimore Sun she answers the door to her Small upper East Side apartment in new York and immediately one wonders How she Ever fit into the Reagan White House crowd of High powered millionaire businessmen serious Quot Harvard Heads and glamorous movie stars who clustered like earthly constellations around the president and his designer dressed precisely coiffed first lady. Wearing jeans a Blue Turtleneck Brown loafers and White socks her Long blonde hair untamed by hair Spray her voice husky from too Many Marlboro 39-year-old Peggy Noonan a the celebrated former speech writer who put words some say their Best words into the Mouths of presidents Reagan and Bush a is not exactly a limousine conservative. She comes from a Large working class new Jersey family of Irish Catholic democrats who a were in love with the  Why. Even before she was a teen Ager Little Peggy Noonan had cleaned out her aunt Etta a Chicken Coop and turned it into the John f. Kennedy fan club. And later a in 1971 when she was working As a clerk at the Aetna insurance co. In Newark n.j., and attending night classes at nearby Fairleigh Dickinson University a she came to Washington to demonstrate against the Vietnam War. But Hare is the twist the same Young woman described above was also a big fan of a Magazine called National review. And the America described in the highly conservative publication put out by William f. Buckley or. Was exactly the America Peggy Noonan saw and believed in a an essentially Good country where god was real and there were dangers in letting government get too big and perils in believing the answer to every social ill was a social  and talk about your paradoxes and contradictions Peggy Noonan who went on to various radio news jobs after College was hired by the White House in 1984 straight from lbs news where she wrote scripts for Dan rather s five minute radio commentaries. She still counts rather among her friends. Ditto for George Bush of whom she says a i Felt when i left Bush i knew him and knew he was a Good  wheel there must be at least a thousand Points of differences Between Dan rather and George Bush Between the a a Gunge Dan thing and the a Kinder gentler her words thing. In fact Peggy Noonan remembers watching the Bush rather flare up on television during the 1988 Campaign and thinking that it was like being a child at the top of the stairs hearing her parents in a terrible fight. But if that was a Low Point a High Point certainly would be her satisfaction at having written for two presidents she truly believes in. And she May be the Only speech writer male or female who can claim the distinction of having written a Farewell address for one president a Ronald Reagan a and then the inaugural speech for the next one a George Bush. A it was hard a says Noonan now of that experience. A in fact it was the worst month of my life. Because they were important speeches to these two men and i was trying very hard to do right by  she has put Washington behind her Quot to Tell you the truth i did no to like Washington society that much. At the dinner table the conversation is always about who a going to get the next seat on the fed Quot she Deadpan and is Quot glad to be Back in new York near All of my family and my closest  right now Noonan a gearing herself up to promote her just published Book which is a funny gossipy candid highly literate Memoir of her years 1984 to 1986 in the White House and later on the 1988 Bush Campaign Trail. But before you entertain the notion that her Book what i saw at the revolution a political life in the Reagan Era might fall into the Quot kiss and Tell Quot genre you should know that Noonan who is a self described conservative ideologue who declares that Quot no one in the White House was to the right of me Quot still thinks Reagan was Quot the greatest Leader in terms of changing this country since Franklin Delano  and the it quite comfortable with her decision to write an Quot insider Quot Book. Not that she Ever intended to write a Book. Quot id been out of the White House for a few months when Iran Contra broke and i just had a Flash one Day in the car. I thought now its going to be somewhat downhill for Reagan a and  it be a great thing if i could capture what it was like when i was there. During the great  Quot and the Only Rule i had was that the Book would come out after Reagan a presidency was Over and had become history. Because i do think when the facts go from headline to history you have a certain amount of License to Call it As you saw  Noonan says she Quot Hasni to yet heard from the Bushes or the reagans Quot and admits to a bit of anxiety about How Reagan might react to the Book. A i imagine Reagan will feel the portrait in be painted of him is fair. I think hell like it. But i am somewhat critical of mrs. Reagan in the Book and he will not like that at All a she says. And she May be right Given passages such As the following concerning the White House staff a attitude toward the first lady Quot they called her Evita they called her Mommy they called her the missus and the Hairdo with  not everyone however agrees with her assessment that Reagan will like the Way he is portrayed. Quot i done to think Peggy Noonan fully appreciates How bad she made Reagan look Quot says a former speech writer for Jimmy Carter. Example Quot there were times Quot writes Noonan when Quot. I would think to myself that the Battle for the mind of Ronald Reagan was like the Trench warfare of world War i never have so Many fought so hard for such Barren  but Noonan is used to taking some heat for her rhetoric. She often had to fight to keep intact some of her poetic moving speeches a speeches thought by Many to be among president Reagan s Best his address at Pointe do hoc in Normandy on the 40th anniversary of a Day the speech at the dedication of the John f. Kennedy memorial Library and the inspirational speech delivered when the challenger blew up in january 1986. For that speech she borrowed from a poem the Beautiful evocative image of aviators who Quot slipped the surly Bonds of Earth Quot to Quot touch the face of  a different version almost got into the speech. Quot i was told by some Young Csc National Security Council Guy to change it from touch the face of god to reach out and touch someone a touch the face of  he d heard it in a commercial Quot she says bursting into laughter. She admits it did no to seem funny to her then. Her reaction was explosive enough to assure that no change was made. Page 16 a a a the stars and stripes sunday March 4,1990