Noonan’s book “What I Saw at the Revolution” (Reagan years) was really good. She said one of the things about being a good speech writer is being around Reagan, learning what he believes, his personality, etc. so one can write stuff like it is coming from him. Plus he would spend lots of time reading and editing each speech.
Each speech needed to be reviewed by all of the various cabinet people too to make sure it lined up with U.S. policies.
On his Berlin Wall speech Reagan added in the line “Mr. Gorbachev - TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!” to the original speech. Well, it was taken out by the State Department. The speech went through numerous reviews and each time Reagan would add the line, and State would take it out.
On the way to the speech in the Limo, Reagan penciled it back in again!
President Reagan was perfectly aware that the State Department (especially its INR intel unit) was led by and composed of squishes. Just a few months prior to Reagan’s speech, on 1 September 1983, the Soviets shot down a Korean civilian airliner (which had an American congressman aboard). The State Department jumped through hoops trying to cover for the Russians, attempting at first to say that somehow it was the USA’s fault, and then blaming the Koreans. The actions taken by some DOS senior leaders was disgraceful. Thus, one can thank Ronald Reagan for one of the great lines of history, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”