Thomas Mallon
Finale: A Novel of the Reagan Years
In memory of Scott Carpenter
— and for Rene, Tom, and Kris
Blow the dust off the clock. Your watches are behind the times. Throw open the heavy curtains which are so dear to you — you do not even suspect that the day has already dawned outside.
— Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
(Those with names in quotation marks are entirely fictional.)
Antony Acland: British ambassador to the United States
Leonore (“Lee”) Annenberg: first chief of protocol of the United States under President Reagan; wife of Walter Annenberg
Walter Annenberg: publisher and philanthropist; former U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom
Marion S. Barry, Jr.: mayor of the District of Columbia
Shirley Temple Black: child film star and diplomat; chief of protocol of the United States under President Ford
Betsy Bloomingdale: widow of businessman Alfred Bloomingdale and friend of Nancy Reagan
Lindy Boggs: U.S. congresswoman (D-LA)
J. Carter Brown III: director of the National Gallery of Art
Patrick J. Buchanan: White House communications director
Pat Buckley: New York socialite and wife of William F. Buckley, Jr.
William F. Buckley, Jr.: conservative columnist and editor of National Review
George H. W. Bush: vice president of the United States
“Nicholas Carrollton”: staff assistant, Republican National Committee
Jimmy Carter: thirty-ninth president of the United States
Rosalynn Carter: former first lady of the United States
Carl “Spitz” Channell: president, National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty
Winston Churchill: Conservative member of Parliament; son of Pamela Harriman
“Peter Cox”: former Republican state senator from Michigan; political consultant and contributor
Elaine Crispen: press secretary to Nancy Reagan
Nicholas Daniloff: correspondent for U.S. News & World Report
Bette Davis: film actress; performed with Ronald Reagan in Dark Victory
Michael Deaver: lobbyist; former White House deputy chief of staff
Terry Dolan: cofounder and chairman, National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC)
Bob Dole: U.S. senator (R-KS) and Senate majority leader
“James Dugan”: contributor to the National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty
Vigdís Finnbogadóttir: fourth president of Iceland
Betty Ford: former first lady of the United States
Gerald R. Ford: thirty-eighth president of the United States
Eva Gabor: actress and television personality; businesswoman
Ellen Garwood: contributor to the National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty
Lillian Gish: film actress
Mikhail Gorbachev: general secretary of the Communist Party of the U.S.S.R.
Raisa Gorbachev: first lady of the U.S.S.R.
Al Gore: U.S. senator (D-TN)
Tipper Gore: wife of Al Gore; cofounder, Parents Music Resource Center
Bob Graham: governor of Florida; Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate
Cary Grant: film star
Merv Griffin: television host and show-business entrepreneur
“Neal Grover”: management analyst, National Security Council
Fawn Hall: secretary to Lieutenant Colonel Oliver L. North
Marvin Hamlisch: American composer and orchestra conductor
W. Averell Harriman: former governor of New York and ambassador to the U.S.S.R.
Pamela Harriman: founder and chairman of Democrats for the 80s (“PamPAC”); wife and widow of Averell Harriman
Kitty Carlisle Hart: actress; television personality; chair of the New York State Council on the Arts
Paula Hawkins: U.S. senator (R-FL)
“Jane Hazard”: Michigan delegate to the 1976 and 1996 Republican national conventions
John W. Hinckley, Jr.: failed assassin and mental patient
Christopher Hitchens: journalist
Ernest F. “Fritz” Hollings: U.S. senator (D-SC)
Rita “Peatsy” Hollings: wife of Ernest Hollings
Bob Hope: entertainer
Janet Howard: assistant to Pamela Harriman; executive director, Democrats for the 80s
John Hutton: White House physician
Thomas Victor Jones: chief executive officer of Northrop Corporation
Jeane J. Kirkpatrick: former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations
Henry A. Kissinger: U.S. secretary of state under Presidents Nixon and Ford
“Sofya Kornilov”: Soviet human-rights activist and political prisoner
Jim Kuhn: executive assistant to President Reagan
“Anders Little”: deputy director, Defense Programs and Arms Control Division, National Security Council
“Anne Macmurray”: activist against nuclear weapons; ex-wife of Peter Cox
Edwin Meese: attorney general of the United States
Walter F. Mondale: former vice president of the United States
Edmund Morris: authorized biographer of Ronald Reagan
Daniel Patrick Moynihan: U.S. senator (D-NY)
Paul Nitze: special advisor to the president and secretary of state on arms control matters
Pat Nixon: former first lady of the United States
Richard M. Nixon: thirty-seventh president of the United States
Oliver L. North: lieutenant colonel, U.S. Marines; deputy director for political-military affairs, National Security Council
Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill, Jr.: speaker of the House of Representatives
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: former first lady of the United States
John M. Poindexter: vice admiral, U.S. Navy; national security advisor
“Kelly Proctor”: staff assistant to Pamela Harriman at Democrats for the 80s
Joan Quigley: astrologer to Nancy Reagan
Irina Ratushinskaya: Soviet poet and dissident
Doria Reagan: daughter-in-law of the president
Maureen Reagan: daughter of the president
Nancy Reagan: first lady of the United States
Ron Reagan: son of the president
Ronald Reagan: fortieth president of the United States
Donald T. Regan: chief of staff to the president of the United States
Dennis Revell: son-in-law of the president
Rozanne Ridgway: special assistant to the secretary of state for negotiations
Nelson A. Rockefeller: forty-first vice president of the United States
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.: historian; former special assistant to President Kennedy
Frank Sesno: CNN correspondent
Eduard Shevardnadze: minister of foreign affairs of the Soviet Union
George P. Shultz: U.S. secretary of state
Ann Sothern: film and television actress
Larry Speakes: deputy press secretary to the president
Robert Strauss: attorney; former chairman of the Democratic National Committee
Maurice Tempelsman: businessman; companion of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Margaret Thatcher: prime minister of the United Kingdom
Sarah Vaughan: jazz singer
John Warner: U.S. senator (R-VA)
Charles Wick: director, United States Information Agency
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