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Peggy Noonan Discusses Writing Presidential Speeches.

Speechwriter Peggy Noonan. In 1984 she was hired away from CBS news to write speeches for Ronald Reagan. She wrote the elegy to the heroes of D-Day that Reagan delivered in Normandy 1984, his description of the contras as the "moral equal of our Founding Fathers," and his eulogy to the Challenger astronauts in 1986: "We will never forget them nor the last time we saw them this morning as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God." She writes occasionally for George Bush, having coined such phrases as, "a thousand points of light." Her new book, "What I Saw at The Revolution," is an account of her time at the Reagan White House. (published by Random House, New York.)

22:29

Other segments from the episode on February 14, 1990

Fresh Air with Terry Gross, February 14, 1990: Interview with Peggy Noonan; Commentary on kissing; Interview with Valerie Martin; Review of John Kenneth Galbraith's novel "A Tenured Professor."

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