Former President Richard Nixon had a widely influential role on former President Ronald Reagan and his key staff, and even dreamed up one of the Gipper’s most famous practices — the weekly radio address — according to a treasure trove of post-presidential papers in the Nixon library.

Author Kasey S. Pipes, the first given access to the documents by the Nixon family, found that he also helped to shape Reagan’s foreign policy and outreach to then Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, and even had a role in the Star Wars missile defense project.