--- description: 'If I were there, Margaret, I'd throw my hat in the door before I came in.' title: Ronald Reagan image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Ronald Reagan by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 13, 2014 11:03 AM CUT by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 13, 2014 11:03 AM CUT The former U.S. President, making amends to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher for the American invasion of Grenada, a Commonwealth state, in a 1983 recording recently made public for the first time along with a trove of other White House tapes. Reagan refers to an old practice of throwing one’s hat through a door before entering a room; if the guest was unwelcome, it would be thrown back out. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3583134/ronald-reagan/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3583134/ronald-reagan/"},"headline":"Ronald Reagan","datePublished":"2014-11-13T11:03:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T11:24:37.125Z","description":"'If I were there, Margaret, I'd throw my hat in the door before I came in.'","url":"https://time.com/3583134/ronald-reagan/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3583134/ronald-reagan/","name":"Ronald Reagan"}}]}] ```