In 1983 Barrett published "Gambling With History: Reagan in the White House", based on "unusual access to internal deliberations" for a period of two years. Revelations included Richard Darman's successful attempt to stall the invocation of Section 4 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution when President Reagan was receiving treatment following the 1981 assassination attempt on him. The book also revealed what became known as "Debategate" - the theft of papers by the Reagan campaign from the Carter campaign during the 1980 presidential election.