On a sunny morning in May 1984, I reported for a job as first lady Nancy Reagan’s speechwriter. I drove my Toyota Corolla up to the Ellipse, careful to display the special tag permitting me to park quite close to the East Wing, and ventured inside, past the line of visitors awaiting their guided tours and past the uniformed Secret Service (to whom I flashed another pass) into the offices of the first lady’s chief of staff.

Americans who haven’t visited the White House for a guided tour probably can’t picture the East Wing. There’s no TV show about it. It has no famous office to rival the Oval. There are relatively few photos of it in its current form.

As someone who worked there for six months (I moved to the West Wing after the 1984 election), allow me to sing its praises: The East Wing

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