Vanity Fair has some interesting excerpts from Ronald Reagan's diary that he kept throughout his eight years as president. There is some fascinating material, such as Reagan's early (December 1981) recognition that the Solidarity uprising against communism was a crucial opportunity for the West: "We can't let this revolution against Communism fail without our offering a hand. We may never have an opportunity like this one in our lifetime." Even earlier, he noted that Solidarity was "the first break in the Red Dike." So it indeed proved to be.

But the funniest part is Reagan's 1984 description of liberal Republican Senator Lowell Weicker as "a pompous, no good, fathead."

UPDATE: It is worth noting that Reagan did indeed follow through on his desire to "offer a hand" to Solidarity by providing Polish dissidents with extensive covert assistance, some of it coordinated with efforts by Pope John Paul II.