Reason reprinted this 1975 interview with Reagan.
REASON: Are there any particular books or authors or economists that have been influential in terms of your intellectual development?
REAGAN: Oh, it would be hard for me to pinpoint anything in that category. I’m an inveterate reader. Bastiat and von Mises, and Hayek and Hazlitt–I’m one for the classical economists....
Unfortunately, his policies did not entirely reflect these sympathies, but I think this shows his heart was in the right place.