Nancy Reagan was a huge influence on her husband's presidency

In the first years of Ronald Reagan's presidency, his wife, Nancy, was widely considered a liability.

After all, she spent lavishly on redecorating the White House and hosting glittering parties at a time when the country was struggling through a recession marked by both high inflation and unemployment.

At the time, I was a reporter covering the Reagan administration for the Associated Press and later Knight-Ridder Newspapers. And, I admit, I was among the journalists who wrote many critical stories about the first lady: Her devoted gaze when she looked at the president. Her fierce protection of his image and zero tolerance for aides who exhibited the slightest disloyalty. Her love of high fashion and glamour at a time of economic distress. Her hiring of an astrologer in the wake of her husband's near-fatal shooting to make sure future public events were safe for him.

Yet, in the later years that I covered the White House, I came to appreciate the enormous influence Nancy Reagan had on her husband's domestic and foreign policies to ensure a successful presidency. She was his only close confidant and friend, and his No. 1 adviser. In retrospect, I must say she served him — and the country— very well.

While Reagan gave sharply worded speeches that embellished his conservative views on small government and his antipathy toward the Soviet Union, Nancy Reagan softened her husband's sharp edges to produce a pragmatic president who could cut deals with the political opposition in Congress and Soviet leaders he had assailed. Such bipartisan agreements that advance the public's agenda are all but non-existent in Washington today.

On domestic policy, Nancy Reagan encouraged compromises on budget policies to preserve some programs for the poor in return for cuts in other programs that did not target those most in need.

Although the president gave rhetorical support to the anti-abortion movement, Nancy restrained him from taking actions that would further restrict a woman's right to an abortion, keeping him in line with the majority sentiment in the nation.

At a time when society was largely homophobic and discrimination against g ays was the rule, Nancy preached tolerance toward people of all s exual orientations. She often invited g ay friends from Hollywood to the White House and even encouraged the appointment of g ays — who remained in the closet — to administration jobs.

On foreign policy, Nancy prodded her husband to reach out to the Soviets to negotiate arms control treaties. He refused to engage any Soviet leaders during his first term, saying they kept dying on him. He finally did so in his second term, establishing a strong relationship with then-Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

They met four times — in Geneva; Reykjavik, Iceland; Washington and Moscow. (I covered all four summits.) Their meetings led to several arms limitation deals, a remarkable friendship between a lifetime anti-communist and lifelong communist, and the eventual end of the Cold War and breakup of the Soviet Union.

Nancy never upstaged her husband or took credit for these accomplishments. She always stood in his shadow, encouraging him, whispering responses to reporters' questions when he couldn't think of one, even rescheduling the ceremony for signing one nuclear treaty on the advice of her astrologer.

I was watching a new episode of House of Cards the other night and thought of the Reagans when first lady Claire Underwood told her husband, Frank, during a vicious fight that they were a team and only succeeded when they worked together, not when they kept undercutting one another.

That was true of the Reagans: They made a great team, without the scheming and fighting. They adored one another and had a close-knit relationship unlike any I've witnessed in Washington.

Nancy Reagan was vital to Ronald Reagan's success. And the country is better off for it.