FLOTUS: First Ladies of the United States

Nancy Reagan Part II

Just Say No

The First Lady launched the "Just Say No" drug awareness campaign in 1982, which was her primary project and major initiative as First Lady. Reagan first became aware of the need to educate young people about drugs during a 1980 campaign stop in Daytop Village, New York. She remarked in 1981 that "Understanding what drugs can do to your children, understanding peer pressure and understanding why they turn to drugs is ... the first step in solving the problem." Her campaign focused on drug education and informing the youth of the danger of drug abuse.

In 1982, Reagan was asked by a schoolgirl what to do when offered drugs; Reagan responded: "Just say no." The phrase proliferated in the popular culture of the 1980s and was eventually adopted as the name of club organizations and school anti-drug programs. Reagan became actively involved by traveling more than 250,000 miles (400,000 km) throughout the United States and several nations, visiting drug abuse prevention programs and drug rehabilitation centers. She also appeared on television talk shows, recorded public service announcements, and wrote guest articles. She appeared in an episode of the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes to underscore support for the "Just Say No" campaign, and in a rock music video, "Stop the Madness" (1985).

In 1985, Reagan expanded the campaign to an international level by inviting the First Ladies of various nations to the White House for a conference on drug abuse. On October 27, 1986, President Reagan signed a drug enforcement bill into law, which granted $1.7 billion in funding to fight the perceived crisis and ensured a mandatory minimum penalty for drug offenses. Although the bill was criticized, Reagan considered it a personal victory. In 1988, she became the first active first lady invited to address the United Nations General Assembly, where she spoke on international drug interdiction and trafficking laws.

Critics of Reagan's efforts questioned their purpose, labeled Reagan's approach to promoting drug awareness as simplistic, and argued that the program did not give adequate attention to various social issues associated with increased rates of drug use, including unemployment, poverty, and family dissolution.

Her husband's protector

Reagan assumed the role of unofficial "protector" for her husband after the attempted assassination of him in 1981. On March 30 of that year, President Reagan and three others were shot by the attempted assassin 25-year-old John Hinckley, Jr as they left the Washington Hilton Hotel. Nancy was alerted and arrived at George Washington University Hospital, where the President was hospitalized. She recalled having seen "emergency rooms before, but I had never seen one like this – with my husband in it." She was escorted into a waiting room, and when granted access to see her husband, he quipped to her, "Honey, I forgot to duck", borrowing the defeated boxer Jack Dempsey's jest to his wife.

An early example of the First Lady's protective nature occurred when Senator Strom Thurmond entered the President's hospital room that day in March, passing the Secret Service detail by claiming he was the President's "close friend", presumably to acquire media attention. Nancy was outraged and demanded that he leave. While the President recuperated in the hospital, the First Lady slept with one of his shirts to be comforted by the scent. When Ronald Reagan was released from the hospital on April 12, she escorted him back to the White House.

Press accounts framed Reagan as her husband's "chief protector", an extension of their general initial framing of her as a helpmate and a Cold War domestic ideal. As it happened, the day after her husband was shot, she fell off a chair while trying to take down a picture to bring to him in the hospital; she suffered several broken ribs but was determined to not reveal it publicly.