Archives abroad: Ronald Reagan’s rare documents go on display at the National Archives

To mark the 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan's birth, the National Archives has put on display a collection of rare presidential documents. This will be a part of a yearlong rotating exhibit of Reagan documents and objects.

The first small collection illustrates Reagan's foreign affairs philosophy of "peace through strength. Future items will focus on Reagan as a communicator, his Western roots and his personal style.

President Ronald Reagan's handwritten changes to his "Evil Empire" speech, his correspondence with Mikhail Gorbachev and a bronze cast of Moscow's Kremlin from the onetime Soviet leader are going on rare public display at the National Archives.

Reagan Presidential Library Chief Archivist Mike Duggan said the president's handwritten changes to the speech show he was intimately involved in communicating about foreign policy at a time when some said the former Hollywood actor was simply reading from a script.

Other documents include the first-ever public display of Reagan's "talking points" prepared for his meeting with the new Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze in 1985 as well as a letter from Gorbachev in 1986 concerning the lack of progress in negotiations. The bronze cast of the Kremlin was a gift from Gorbachev after Reagan's visit to the Soviet Union in 1988.

The National Archives also is displaying fragments of U.S. and Soviet missiles that were destroyed as a result of the first treaty that eliminated a class of nuclear weapons, Duggan said. That will show visitors the evolution from Reagan's "evil empire" message to another signature phrase from his foreign policy: "Trust, but verify."