Reagan Books: It’s Meese’s Turn

Former Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III could write a book about his long association with Ronald Reagan. In fact, he has signed a contract with Henry Holt & Co. Inc. to do just that, the publishing company announced. The amount of Meese’s advance was not disclosed. Lottchen Shivers, publicity director for Henry Holt, said only that the figure was less than the $5 million that former President Reagan reportedly will receive from Simon & Schuster for his own memoirs and a book of speeches. The publishing firm said the Meese book, as yet untitled, would be published in November. The Henry Holt announcement in New York said the book would draw upon Meese’s 22-year relationship with Reagan, which began at the start of Reagan’s political career in California in the 1960s, but would focus on his presidency. In a statement released through Henry Holt, Meese said that much had been written about the Reagan Administration. “ . . . I feel a responsibility to tell everything I know about the operations of the eight-year Administration,” he said. Meese, who was named attorney general after serving as one of Reagan’s top White House aides, resigned last summer in the wake of a criminal probe by an independent counsel, which ended in a decision not to prosecute. Meese said he had been vindicated, but a recent report by the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility said Meese violated ethical standards in his actions on behalf of attorney E. Robert Wallach.

--It was a close race, but the late Leonid I. Brezhnev, whose 18-year rule is now officially dubbed “the period of stagnation,” beat out Josef Stalin as the most unpopular post-war Soviet leader, according to an opinion poll released by the Tass news agency. The December poll conducted by the Soviet Academy of Sciences and the U.S.-based firm Market Opinion Research involved 1,000 Moscow residents, Tass said. Ten percent said they had a favorable attitude toward Stalin, who was responsible for purges that killed millions. Brezhnev received a favorable rating from only 7% of those polled. Stalin polled a negative rating from 65% and Brezhnev 64%. The remainder had no opinion. The survey also showed that Nikita S. Khrushchev was enjoying a revival. Only 12% of those polled said they had a negative attitude toward Khrushchev’s tenure, which ended in 1964. A total of 51% said they had a positive feeling toward him. The current Soviet leader, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, was not included in the poll.