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The vice president often attended Reagan’s morning national security briefings, but not on this day. Early that morning, CIA officials had delivered the briefing at Bush’s official residence at the Naval Observatory, a half mile north of the White House. By 8:30, Bush and two aides were in a limousine heading toward the observatory’s helipad; from there, they would fly to Andrews Air Force Base.

One of the aides in the limo was Chase Untermeyer, the vice president’s soft-spoken and loyal thirty-five-year-old executive assistant. Untermeyer, who had worked as a volunteer on Bush’s first campaign for Congress in 1966, admired the way his boss was handling his new job, one that had famously been described as “not worth a bucket of warm piss.” A year ago, there had been a real possibility that Bush would become the fortieth president, yet now he had taken to this less powerful job with obvious relish, and thus far he had been working well with both the president and his aides.

As the marine helicopter lifted off from the observatory, passed over the British embassy, and skimmed below gray clouds, Bush regaled Untermeyer and others on his staff with stories about dancing with Ginger Rogers at a charity benefit the previous evening. As they boarded Air Force Two, they chatted with a couple of congressmen from Texas who were joining them for the trip. After takeoff, Untermeyer and two other aides joined Bush in his small stateroom, where they ate a continental breakfast, discussed how to fend off questions from reporters about Reagan’s proposed spending cuts, and reviewed their itinerary.

The vice president’s first stop in Texas was purely ceremonial: he would unveil a plaque at the old Hotel Texas in Fort Worth, where President Kennedy had spent his last night alive. Then, after a quick motorcade ride to the city’s convention center, he would deliver a speech to a convention of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. Following the speech, Bush would fly to Austin, where he was due to address the Texas state legislature. More of a partisan pep talk than a substantive speech about the new administration’s policies, Bush’s prepared remarks called for him to describe the president as “a leader with the courage of his and our convictions—a leader who thinks not of the next election but of the next generation.” Aiming for a personal touch, Bush would tell the lawmakers: “I’ve watched him at work these first months in office. Time and again, I’ve seen him bring issues back to those fundamental principles which we Texans, and Americans everywhere, hold dear.” After the twenty-five-minute speech, the vice president’s motorcade would return to the Austin airport, from where Bush and his staff would fly back to Washington. The vice president would be home at 8:55 p.m.

Now, only a few hours into the long day, Air Force Two circled to land at Carswell Air Force Base. Untermeyer looked out his window and saw a fleet of parked B-52 bombers glinting in the bright Texas sunshine. Beyond the bombers, a patchwork of green plains seemed to stretch forever. Untermeyer marveled at the sight: in Washington, the weather had been damp and gray, but here the morning was warm and clear. Everything seemed so peaceful.

* * *

SHORTLY BEFORE ELEVEN a.m., Nancy Reagan arrived at the elegant mansion in Washington that housed the Phillips Collection, the nation’s first museum of modern art. The first lady, wearing a bright red raincoat over a form-fitting gray suit with a pencil skirt, had come to the Phillips to tour its new wing and then attend a reception and social tea, where she would meet a group of volunteers in the Washington arts community. Joining her were Barbara Bush—the vice president’s wife—and about two hundred other women, most of them wearing linen suits or silk dresses.

This morning’s gathering resembled others Mrs. Reagan had attended since coming to the White House two months earlier. But she still felt