American Idol - Reagan

0:00:02 > 0:00:08This programme contains some strong language

0:00:08 > 0:00:10Hello.

0:00:10 > 0:00:13In the traditional motion picture story,

0:00:13 > 0:00:17the villains are usually defeated. The ending is a happy one.

0:00:17 > 0:00:19I can make no such promise for the picture you're about to watch.

0:00:19 > 0:00:25# Mine eyes have seen the glory

0:00:25 > 0:00:30# Of the coming of the Lord

0:00:30 > 0:00:36# He is trampling out the vintage

0:00:36 > 0:00:40# Where the grapes of wrath are stored. #

0:00:40 > 0:00:44Ronald Reagan was more than a historic figure.

0:00:44 > 0:00:49He was a providential man who came along just when our nation and the world most needed him.

0:00:51 > 0:00:53Ronald Reagan was a president

0:00:53 > 0:00:58who inspired his nation and transformed the world.

0:00:58 > 0:01:04We have lost a great president, a great American and a great man.

0:01:04 > 0:01:08As his vice-president for eight years, I learned more from Ronald Reagan

0:01:08 > 0:01:12than from anyone I encountered in all my years of public life.

0:01:12 > 0:01:16We know, as he always said, that America's best days are ahead of us.

0:01:16 > 0:01:22But with Ronald Reagan's passing, some very fine days are behind us and that is worth our tears.

0:01:22 > 0:01:27May God bless Ronald Reagan and the country he loved.

0:02:08 > 0:02:14# Smile, though your heart is aching

0:02:14 > 0:02:18# Smile, even though it's breaking

0:02:18 > 0:02:25# When there are clouds in the sky

0:02:25 > 0:02:27# You'll get by. #

0:02:27 > 0:02:30Ronald Reagan changed the conservative movement.

0:02:30 > 0:02:31He changed the Republican Party.

0:02:31 > 0:02:34Through that, he changed the country and through that, the world.

0:02:34 > 0:02:37Happy birthday, Ronald Reagan!

0:02:37 > 0:02:41We live in a nation President Reagan restored and a world he helped to save.

0:02:41 > 0:02:43Ronald Reagan's principles would apply now.

0:02:43 > 0:02:46We're still living in the Reagan era today.

0:02:46 > 0:02:47Let's talk about Ronald Reagan.

0:02:47 > 0:02:49He would have adored being with him.

0:02:49 > 0:02:52He was an extraordinarily beautiful human being.

0:02:52 > 0:02:56- Just always a gentleman.- A very attractive man. You liked him.

0:02:56 > 0:02:57I did not say anything about Ronald Reagan.

0:02:57 > 0:02:59So you wanted to see him succeed.

0:02:59 > 0:03:01Who is your favourite Republican president?

0:03:01 > 0:03:03You talked about admiring Ronald Reagan.

0:03:03 > 0:03:06Ronald Reagan came with an unshakeable set of principles.

0:03:06 > 0:03:09Ronald Reagan would say, as I do, that Washington is broken.

0:03:09 > 0:03:12- Ronald Reagan would endorse any of us...- Ronald Reagan, 1976...

0:03:12 > 0:03:15- Ronald Reagan. - Ronald Reagan.- Ronald Reagan.

0:03:15 > 0:03:18- Ronald Reagan.- Ronald Reagan.

0:03:18 > 0:03:20Argh!

0:03:23 > 0:03:27Some day it might be worthwhile to find out how images are created

0:03:27 > 0:03:32and even more worthwhile to learn how false images come into being.

0:03:32 > 0:03:35All of us have grown up accepting with little question certain images

0:03:35 > 0:03:38as accurate portraits of public figures.

0:03:38 > 0:03:39Some living, some dead.

0:03:39 > 0:03:43Seldom, if ever, do we ask if the images are true to the original.

0:03:43 > 0:03:47Even less do we question how the images were created.

0:03:47 > 0:03:49This is more true of presidents in our country

0:03:49 > 0:03:53because of the intense spotlight which centres on their every move.

0:03:57 > 0:04:02Ronald Reagan is still seen through the prism of people's prejudices.

0:04:02 > 0:04:05Either for or against.

0:04:05 > 0:04:08There's nothing wrong with America that together we can't fix.

0:04:08 > 0:04:10We don't know who the real Ronald Reagan is.

0:04:10 > 0:04:13We have plenty of testimony from people who served him

0:04:13 > 0:04:17who say, "I never understood what made him tick."

0:04:17 > 0:04:20Why don't you ask questions that can be answered yes or no?

0:04:20 > 0:04:25There was a kind of a wall or a veil between Reagan and everybody else.

0:04:25 > 0:04:30The old reactions and memories of Ronald Reagan are not gone, but faded.

0:04:30 > 0:04:35- And history's judgment is yet to be made.- Going live, and action!

0:04:38 > 0:04:40Welcome, fellow Republicans. Brother Hibbert

0:04:40 > 0:04:44will read a report on our efforts to rename everything after Ronald Reagan.

0:04:44 > 0:04:47All Millard Fillmore schools are now Ronald Reagans.

0:04:47 > 0:04:49The Mississippi River is now the Mississippi Reagan.

0:04:49 > 0:04:54- And my good friend Frankenstein is now Franken-Reagan.- Excellent!

0:05:01 > 0:05:05My name is Grover Norquist. I created the Reagan Legacy Project

0:05:05 > 0:05:07with the goal of naming things after President Reagan.

0:05:07 > 0:05:09Something big in all 50 states,

0:05:09 > 0:05:13something significant in all 3,000-plus counties in the United States.

0:05:13 > 0:05:19It was our project to rename Washington National Airport, Reagan Airport.

0:05:19 > 0:05:24I remember Reagan saying, "Stand up and fight for what's right or sit back and let evil prevail."

0:05:24 > 0:05:28To this day, I love him for his honesty and integrity. I wish he was here right now.

0:05:31 > 0:05:33I am Michael Reagan.

0:05:33 > 0:05:36The son of Ronald Reagan in his first marriage to Jane Wyman.

0:05:36 > 0:05:41In 2001, my sister, Maureen, was dying from melanoma.

0:05:41 > 0:05:47She says, "I'm not going to be here for much longer and, Michael, the legacy needs to continue."

0:05:47 > 0:05:53I promised my sister I would carry on the legacy of my father.

0:05:55 > 0:05:58Days and nights like this make me feel so happy

0:05:58 > 0:06:03that when I was available for adoption, the Carter family wasn't also looking.

0:06:03 > 0:06:04LAUGHTER

0:06:05 > 0:06:09Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Abraham Lincoln.

0:06:09 > 0:06:13Ronald Reagan fits right in that line of American iconic leaders.

0:06:13 > 0:06:17And I'm lucky to be the executive director of the Reagan Legacy Foundation promoting,

0:06:17 > 0:06:23celebrating the life, leadership and legacy of Ronald Reagan around the world.

0:06:23 > 0:06:27If you don't remind people who he was, a lot of people want to rewrite history.

0:06:27 > 0:06:32To recreate Ronald Reagan in their own image or likeness,

0:06:32 > 0:06:35instead of what Ronald Reagan truly, truly was.

0:06:35 > 0:06:36Welcome home!

0:06:40 > 0:06:42My name is William Kleinknecht.

0:06:42 > 0:06:45I've been a newspaper reporter for 25 years.

0:06:45 > 0:06:48I came to Dixon, Illinois, Ronald Reagan's hometown,

0:06:48 > 0:06:50to try and answer a very interesting question.

0:06:50 > 0:06:54Why it is that people in communities like this across the country

0:06:54 > 0:06:57continue to be so devoted to him, why they love him so much.

0:06:57 > 0:07:00Ronald Reagan helped to bring America back to its roots.

0:07:00 > 0:07:03Family, home, the community.

0:07:03 > 0:07:08He was a true American with great ideas, as you well know,

0:07:08 > 0:07:11like when he said, "Mr Gorbachev, tear down that wall."

0:07:27 > 0:07:31If you look at Ronald Reagan's life, what you see is a man who,

0:07:31 > 0:07:34from the most ordinary beginnings,

0:07:34 > 0:07:36grew and grew and grew

0:07:36 > 0:07:40to become one of the most powerful men of the century.

0:07:40 > 0:07:44My father saw himself as a real child of America.

0:07:44 > 0:07:46He clearly had a love affair with America.

0:07:46 > 0:07:51That "shining city on a hill" business that he talked about, he meant it. He felt that.

0:07:51 > 0:07:56I think he was a man who saw himself as a quintessentially American kind of guy.

0:07:56 > 0:08:02Here is a kid who grew up in not fabulously wealthy circumstances, by any stretch of imagination.

0:08:02 > 0:08:06His father was a shoe salesman at the time when he wasn't drinking.

0:08:06 > 0:08:08The thing that is most interesting

0:08:08 > 0:08:11is that the successful child of an alcoholic

0:08:11 > 0:08:16is able to repress all of the tough stuff and concentrate on what's positive.

0:08:17 > 0:08:21I think those were formative years for him in a lot of ways.

0:08:21 > 0:08:26We are sitting here by a swimming pool. There is a lifeguard stand in the background.

0:08:26 > 0:08:32As a young man, my father was a lifeguard at Lowell Park on the Rock River in Dixon, Illinois.

0:08:32 > 0:08:34You can see he's kind of squinting into the camera.

0:08:34 > 0:08:39Maybe it's because the sun is shining on his face, but maybe it's because he can't see anything.

0:08:39 > 0:08:42He's terribly near-sighted.

0:08:42 > 0:08:46I've thought about this a lot, just in relation to his life, not necessarily in relation

0:08:46 > 0:08:51to his governance or anything, but just what he was like as a human being, what informed his character.

0:08:51 > 0:08:56Over the course of 7 years, my father pulled 77 people out of that river.

0:08:56 > 0:08:59He grew up seeing himself as somebody who saved people's lives.

0:08:59 > 0:09:05I think that carried through into his later years as well, the sort of roles he liked to play in movies.

0:09:05 > 0:09:07He wanted to be the hero.

0:09:07 > 0:09:09- What's your name?- Gip. George Gip.

0:09:09 > 0:09:13You can take this all the way to the presidency. He wanted to save America.

0:09:13 > 0:09:15He saw America in trouble. He saw America drowning.

0:09:15 > 0:09:19Tax rates too high. Lost confidence. Our standing in the world diminished.

0:09:19 > 0:09:23America needed rescuing and he was the guy to do something about it.

0:09:23 > 0:09:24His dad's awesome!

0:09:24 > 0:09:26Thank you, guys.

0:09:26 > 0:09:29Well, this is a red, white and blue cupcake, it looks like.

0:09:29 > 0:09:33That's very nice of you. Thank you, guys.

0:09:33 > 0:09:37- So what exactly was that? - That was people coming over

0:09:37 > 0:09:42and obviously thinking very warm thoughts about my father, as many people still do.

0:09:43 > 0:09:44How do you do, everybody?

0:09:44 > 0:09:46I'd like to introduce myself.

0:09:46 > 0:09:47My name is Ronald Reagan.

0:09:47 > 0:09:51A few months ago, I was a sports announcer on a radio station in Des Moines, Iowa.

0:09:51 > 0:09:54One day I ran into one of these movie talent scouts.

0:09:54 > 0:09:57I think I caught him off guard because the next thing I knew

0:09:57 > 0:09:59I was taking a screen test for Warner Brothers.

0:09:59 > 0:10:02I guess it was OK. At least I liked Hollywood, so here I am.

0:10:02 > 0:10:05I'll see you in the movies.

0:10:06 > 0:10:11Reagan is a man who seems to have gotten lucky at several points in his life.

0:10:11 > 0:10:13But if you look at each instance,

0:10:13 > 0:10:16you'll discover he worked hard to make that luck happen.

0:10:18 > 0:10:20APPLAUSE

0:10:20 > 0:10:25- Judging from the applause, I take it that you are a performer? - Duh, duh, duh...

0:10:25 > 0:10:30It's important to understand him as a person, but it's important to understand him as a performer.

0:10:30 > 0:10:32This young man is intensely competitive.

0:10:32 > 0:10:35And you see that from the moment he leaves college.

0:10:35 > 0:10:40In the midst of the Depression, he talks himself into a good job as a radio announcer

0:10:40 > 0:10:44and becomes a regional celebrity while he's still in his 20s.

0:10:44 > 0:10:48I'll be back with more hot news and just between you and the microphone...

0:10:48 > 0:10:50From that moment on, Reagan is on the move.

0:10:56 > 0:11:02He went to Hollywood with the Chicago Cubs baseball team as a sportscaster for spring training.

0:11:02 > 0:11:07But at some point, Reagan decided to look up an old girlfriend, Joy Hodges.

0:11:08 > 0:11:13# I can't give you anything but a song and a smile... #

0:11:13 > 0:11:18She got him a screen test at Warner Brothers simply on the strength of his good looks.

0:11:18 > 0:11:22Hey, why don't you leave those off for a while?

0:11:24 > 0:11:26I think he always wanted to be an actor.

0:11:26 > 0:11:29I've been waiting a long time to get even with you.

0:11:29 > 0:11:32He identified heavily as a performer, as a craftsman.

0:11:32 > 0:11:36Randy! Where's the rest of me?

0:11:36 > 0:11:39- Frank.- Randy!

0:11:39 > 0:11:42Yes, Drake?

0:11:42 > 0:11:45Hollywood, when he first arrived, was the golden age.

0:11:45 > 0:11:49Celebrities on every hand. Flashlights flashing. The crowd cheering.

0:11:49 > 0:11:54A lot of the movies that were being made reflected America in a way that I think he would have approved of.

0:11:54 > 0:11:57- As soon as I can afford to build us a home, I aim to marry the girl. - Marry her?

0:11:57 > 0:11:59My intentions are honourable.

0:11:59 > 0:12:03He wasn't a great actor, but he was a good actor. He was a very good-looking guy.

0:12:03 > 0:12:05You've got to admit. This is one good-looking guy.

0:12:05 > 0:12:11- I'm the one they're all talking about.- Do you see him? Delicious!

0:12:11 > 0:12:13I started as sort of an Errol Flynn of the Bs.

0:12:13 > 0:12:15You don't seriously figure on getting away with this.

0:12:15 > 0:12:17I made 8 of those in 11 months.

0:12:17 > 0:12:20All you have to do is send a telegram to Washington.

0:12:20 > 0:12:23I was brave, but in a kind of a low-budget fashion.

0:12:23 > 0:12:26- Think I'll lose, huh? - Good luck, son.

0:12:26 > 0:12:30Most of those pictures were the kind where there was always a line where I put my hat on the back of my head,

0:12:30 > 0:12:32picked up the phone and said, "Get me the City desk.

0:12:32 > 0:12:34"I got a story that'll crack this town wide open."

0:12:34 > 0:12:36JB? Boy, have I got a story!

0:12:38 > 0:12:41We interrupt this programme to bring you a news bulletin.

0:12:41 > 0:12:44The Japanese have attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, by air.

0:12:44 > 0:12:49Hollywood's most famous movie stars leave the film capital to help the national war effort.

0:12:52 > 0:12:55Reagan was a reserve officer at the beginning of World War II.

0:12:55 > 0:13:00He regretted extremely the fact that he did not see military action.

0:13:00 > 0:13:03But it really wasn't his fault. He was as blind as a bat.

0:13:03 > 0:13:07He was so blind that they figured that he wouldn't be able to distinguish

0:13:07 > 0:13:12a Japanese soldier from an American soldier at a distance of more than 12 feet.

0:13:12 > 0:13:13What's up? See something?

0:13:13 > 0:13:15It's a plane all right.

0:13:15 > 0:13:20What sort of a plane? Friend or enemy?

0:13:20 > 0:13:24He spent the rest of the war working in Hollywood at the First Motion Picture Unit.

0:13:24 > 0:13:27This is the Army Air Force's First Motion Picture Unit.

0:13:27 > 0:13:31Here are produced training, operational and inspirational films.

0:13:31 > 0:13:34- Glad to you have you with us, Lieutenant.- Glad to be here, Major.

0:13:34 > 0:13:36We can certainly use you.

0:13:38 > 0:13:43We were waging a war against a demonic force in Nazi Germany.

0:13:43 > 0:13:48But we were making propaganda films and Reagan was making propaganda films.

0:13:48 > 0:13:50How was the flight over?

0:13:50 > 0:13:53- Well, I made it, sir, with the help of a P40.- You like our P40s?

0:13:53 > 0:13:55Oh, yes, sir. It's a nice airplane.

0:13:55 > 0:13:59Reagan came to see the power of the movies.

0:13:59 > 0:14:01I guess we'll hold Christmas service in this hole.

0:14:01 > 0:14:04And the power of acting to move people.

0:14:04 > 0:14:06Take over the guns, Tony!

0:14:07 > 0:14:11For most of his early career, of course, the enemy was fascism.

0:14:11 > 0:14:14It's Hitler and Mussolini and Imperial Japan.

0:14:16 > 0:14:20But then, as the war winds down and the late '40s and '50s are upon us,

0:14:20 > 0:14:22the new enemy is communism.

0:14:22 > 0:14:24Mary!

0:14:24 > 0:14:28Before the war, Reagan had been an up-and-coming young actor,

0:14:28 > 0:14:32but now that it was over, his career began to languish.

0:14:32 > 0:14:34Attaboy, Bonzo!

0:14:34 > 0:14:37He did see his film career starting to wane.

0:14:37 > 0:14:40You can hit the state highway seven miles through there.

0:14:40 > 0:14:42The big parts were not coming his way.

0:14:42 > 0:14:44It was the post-war era, where suddenly heroes

0:14:44 > 0:14:49become anti-heroes and it's more James Dean, as opposed to John Wayne.

0:14:49 > 0:14:53But at the same time, he was rediscovering himself as a politician.

0:14:53 > 0:14:56Goodwill ambassador of the motion picture industry...

0:14:56 > 0:15:00He became President of the Screen Actors Guild in 1947.

0:15:00 > 0:15:04He took another role, which prefigured his later political roles.

0:15:04 > 0:15:07I can't be the performer in this way, I'll be the performer in another way.

0:15:07 > 0:15:10Ronald Reagan, the Screen Actors Guild President,

0:15:10 > 0:15:12follows with a statement of action against communism.

0:15:12 > 0:15:17Reagan changed, politically, very rapidly after World War II.

0:15:17 > 0:15:19This is Ronald Reagan speaking to you from Hollywood.

0:15:19 > 0:15:21You know me as a motion picture actor.

0:15:21 > 0:15:26But tonight, I'm just a citizen, pretty concerned about the national election next month

0:15:26 > 0:15:29and impatient with those promises the Republicans made

0:15:29 > 0:15:30before they got control of Congress.

0:15:30 > 0:15:33A lot of people might not realise that Ronald Reagan

0:15:33 > 0:15:36started his political career as a Liberal Democrat.

0:15:36 > 0:15:41He worshipped FDR in the 1940s, he thought the New Deal was a great thing for the country.

0:15:41 > 0:15:44The New Deal had bailed his family out during the Great Depression.

0:15:44 > 0:15:47When he went to Hollywood, he was known around all the Hollywood lots

0:15:47 > 0:15:50as a "haemophiliac liberal", his own words.

0:15:50 > 0:15:53Well, I suppose I really kind of converted myself.

0:15:53 > 0:15:58I saw a transition. I saw myself making speeches about problems

0:15:58 > 0:16:02besetting the picture business tax wise and economically.

0:16:02 > 0:16:05Hollywood, today the scene of violence on the labour front.

0:16:05 > 0:16:08As President of the Screen Actors Guild, Reagan got involved

0:16:08 > 0:16:12in a strike which was largely brought about by communist agitation.

0:16:12 > 0:16:15It was one specific meeting that he used to talk about

0:16:15 > 0:16:18that began to changes his attitudes.

0:16:18 > 0:16:19Changed them practically overnight.

0:16:19 > 0:16:24One screenwriter stood up and said that he personally, if he had to choose,

0:16:24 > 0:16:30would choose the constitution of the Soviet Union in preference to the constitution of the United States.

0:16:30 > 0:16:35And by the time that long strike came to an end, Reagan was a militant anti-communist.

0:16:35 > 0:16:40A startling story from Lenin in 1914, with 13 followers,

0:16:40 > 0:16:43to the present, with one billion people

0:16:43 > 0:16:46under the control of a comparative handful of communists.

0:16:46 > 0:16:49In the 1950s, the FBI was pouring a lot of resources

0:16:49 > 0:16:53into its investigation of communist infiltration of the United States,

0:16:53 > 0:16:55and one of the focal points of their inquiries was Hollywood.

0:16:58 > 0:17:01George Murphy, Ronald Reagan and Robert Montgomery are among

0:17:01 > 0:17:04the top-flight movie actors testifying

0:17:04 > 0:17:07before the House Un-American Activities Committee in Washington.

0:17:07 > 0:17:13During the days of the Red Scare, when McCarthy was identifying a communist in the State Department,

0:17:13 > 0:17:19even in the intelligence community, Ronald Reagan, in his function as President of the Screen Actors Guild,

0:17:19 > 0:17:22was in a position to know who was discussing subversive ideas.

0:17:22 > 0:17:27Is a screenwriter or an actor involved in socialist causes

0:17:27 > 0:17:30a burgeoning communist, a budding communist?

0:17:30 > 0:17:33Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?

0:17:33 > 0:17:37Reagan performed magnificently before the House Un-American Activities Committee.

0:17:37 > 0:17:41There has been a small group within the Screen Actors Guild

0:17:41 > 0:17:44that has been referred to, has been discussed,

0:17:44 > 0:17:49as more or less following the tactics that we associate with the Communist Party.

0:17:49 > 0:17:52He never named any names in front of the House Committee,

0:17:52 > 0:17:58and he made a very strong argument that American institutions are quite capable of defending themselves.

0:17:58 > 0:18:02That it was not necessary to go after these people with draconian means.

0:18:02 > 0:18:05However, in private, he did co-operate with the FBI,

0:18:05 > 0:18:09giving information about his Hollywood colleagues.

0:18:09 > 0:18:12He was registered under the name informant T-10.

0:18:12 > 0:18:14It's very important to understand this.

0:18:14 > 0:18:17The President, Ronald Reagan, was an informant for the FBI.

0:18:17 > 0:18:23He was an informant for the people who were serving McCarthy and feeding the Red Scare.

0:18:23 > 0:18:25I'm quite sure that the FBI was talking

0:18:25 > 0:18:30to all sorts of people in Hollywood back then, and they probably gave a lot of people code names.

0:18:30 > 0:18:33He was the president of the union, somebody they wanted to talk to.

0:18:33 > 0:18:38Some of the people from our own FBI made contact

0:18:38 > 0:18:41because of what they saw I was doing,

0:18:41 > 0:18:44that I'd become President of the Screen Actors Guild.

0:18:44 > 0:18:49And they came wanting some advice,

0:18:49 > 0:18:53some findings from me on people that I had dealt with and so forth.

0:18:53 > 0:18:57And I got an insight into what was happening to the motion picture business.

0:18:59 > 0:19:03Do you swear the testimony you are about to give here is the truth?

0:19:03 > 0:19:06Mrs Miller, we were hoping that you might work for us

0:19:06 > 0:19:09within the committee to uncover a communist connection.

0:19:09 > 0:19:13- You mean spy?- You'd be doing your country a real service.

0:19:13 > 0:19:15Look, why can't I do it?

0:19:15 > 0:19:17What does this tell us about Ronald Reagan?

0:19:17 > 0:19:21In the space of about 18 months, he went from left-wing liberal

0:19:21 > 0:19:25to becoming an FBI informant informing on his fellow liberals.

0:19:25 > 0:19:31When I see the clip of him refusing to name names before the committee, that makes me feel pretty good,

0:19:31 > 0:19:35cos there were other people who went the other way, who knuckled under.

0:19:35 > 0:19:41Now, when I hear that maybe he named names outside of the committee, and again, I don't know this for a fact,

0:19:41 > 0:19:43well, that makes me a little worried, yeah.

0:19:43 > 0:19:46You know, I don't know the circumstances of that

0:19:46 > 0:19:48and I don't the reality of it,

0:19:48 > 0:19:50but even the thought of it is troubling.

0:19:58 > 0:20:01- REAGAN:- Communism is neither an economic or a political system.

0:20:01 > 0:20:03It's a form of insanity, a temporary aberration

0:20:03 > 0:20:08which will one day disappear from the Earth because it is contrary to human nature.

0:20:08 > 0:20:12My father took a very hard line with the Soviet Union.

0:20:12 > 0:20:16This is no civil rights, this is no human rights, this is no personal liberty.

0:20:19 > 0:20:23At the end of World War II, after the Soviets got the atomic bomb, America changed.

0:20:23 > 0:20:27We began changing as a people, as a society, as a country.

0:20:27 > 0:20:33We must learn to live in a world where we have the hydrogen bomb

0:20:33 > 0:20:37and the enemy of freedom has the hydrogen bomb.

0:20:37 > 0:20:42The threat of Soviet communism was both real and imagined.

0:20:42 > 0:20:45And the country was vulnerable in some ways

0:20:45 > 0:20:49to those who wanted to use that threat for their own political benefits.

0:20:49 > 0:20:50But it was real.

0:20:50 > 0:20:53What can we do in the face of this communist threat?

0:20:53 > 0:20:58Ronald Reagan realised that, he understood that, and the rest, as they say, is history.

0:21:04 > 0:21:10During his career, Ronald Reagan passed through 1,000 crowded places,

0:21:10 > 0:21:16but there was only one person he said who could make him lonely by just leaving the room.

0:21:17 > 0:21:21CHEERING

0:21:21 > 0:21:23They're yelling for you!

0:21:23 > 0:21:26- CROWD:- Nancy! Nancy! Nancy! Nancy! Nancy!

0:21:27 > 0:21:32It was a love affair. Chances are, Ronald Reagan never would have been President without Nancy.

0:21:32 > 0:21:34She was his best friend.

0:21:36 > 0:21:38My mother was crucial to my father.

0:21:38 > 0:21:41He needed somebody who was there for him at the end of the day

0:21:41 > 0:21:46who had as her primary concern him and his personal well-being.

0:21:49 > 0:21:51"And then along came Nancy,"

0:21:51 > 0:21:54as he used to say.

0:21:54 > 0:21:57"Nancy Davis saved my soul."

0:21:57 > 0:22:01She saved him in the sense that he met her some time in 1949,

0:22:01 > 0:22:04at the time when he was a pretty broken man.

0:22:04 > 0:22:10In the summer of 1948, he and his first wife, Jane Wyman, had lost a child.

0:22:10 > 0:22:14It was a catastrophic shock for both of them and the marriage never recovered from that.

0:22:17 > 0:22:19And then along came Nancy Davis.

0:22:19 > 0:22:24She was a very important factor in his success.

0:22:24 > 0:22:28Nancy Reagan is described as a shrewd politician who wants to be First Lady...

0:22:28 > 0:22:31I believe...

0:22:31 > 0:22:35..as much as Ronald Reagan wants to be President.

0:22:36 > 0:22:39For all the sunny amiability that we think about

0:22:39 > 0:22:42when we think about Reagan, he didn't really have any friends.

0:22:42 > 0:22:45About the only one he had was Nancy Reagan.

0:22:45 > 0:22:50She mothered him, nursed him and adored him, which was very important. He liked to be adored.

0:22:50 > 0:22:55She would have done anything for him, but she ended up having to make an awful lot

0:22:55 > 0:22:59of the unpleasant decisions that he really wouldn't face up to.

0:22:59 > 0:23:01Firing people, for example.

0:23:01 > 0:23:02Ronald Reagan

0:23:02 > 0:23:04couldn't fire people.

0:23:04 > 0:23:07I could ask Nancy to verify it for me.

0:23:07 > 0:23:09She watched his back at all times.

0:23:09 > 0:23:11She was his personnel director.

0:23:11 > 0:23:16She made the basic decisions as to who was around him - who was hired, who was fired,

0:23:16 > 0:23:22and the criteria she used was, "Will this person be working with my husband's agenda

0:23:22 > 0:23:23"or their own agenda?"

0:23:27 > 0:23:30For General Electric, here is Ronald Reagan.

0:23:30 > 0:23:32- Ow! That's hot.- Oh, it's not.

0:23:32 > 0:23:36- Oh, but delicious. Everything's just right, isn't it, Patty?- Yes.

0:23:36 > 0:23:38Well, it's the easiest meal to make.

0:23:38 > 0:23:40My electric servants do everything.

0:23:40 > 0:23:42That's part of living better electrically.

0:23:45 > 0:23:49In the 1950s, when his movie career had begun to slide, Ronald Reagan

0:23:49 > 0:23:52was far more successful as a salesman than he was as an actor.

0:23:52 > 0:23:55When we're on a Death Valley set and water's not handy,

0:23:55 > 0:23:58Boraxo waterless hand cleaner cleans up for us.

0:23:58 > 0:24:02In Hollywood, he had formed an alliance with the Music Corporation of America,

0:24:02 > 0:24:03which was a talent agency.

0:24:03 > 0:24:07He had done them a lot of favours while he was the head of the Screen Actors Guild

0:24:07 > 0:24:11and they did him a favour by landing him a role with General Electric Theater.

0:24:11 > 0:24:14For General Electric, here is Ronald Reagan.

0:24:14 > 0:24:18Good evening. Tonight, George Sanders stars on the General Electric Theater.

0:24:18 > 0:24:23He began performing in their productions and eventually went to work for GE as a salesman.

0:24:23 > 0:24:26# You can make your family's life much brighter... #

0:24:26 > 0:24:29It's light too.

0:24:29 > 0:24:34- I see one. You know what this is? - # ..To live better electrically. #

0:24:34 > 0:24:39What is fascinating about the GE years is how he mutated

0:24:39 > 0:24:44from actor into corporate spokesman into politician.

0:24:47 > 0:24:50Ronald Reagan was a master salesman.

0:24:50 > 0:24:53He gradually became the ambassador of the company.

0:24:53 > 0:24:57He would go around the country giving speeches to GE employees.

0:24:57 > 0:25:02He had a certain speech that he gave. A free enterprise-private sector type speech.

0:25:02 > 0:25:07He'd crystallise some of his thinking because he had to write the speech and talk about it.

0:25:07 > 0:25:09I'm Ronald Reagan.

0:25:09 > 0:25:12I'm speaking to you not as an actor endeavouring to entertain you,

0:25:12 > 0:25:15and certainly not as an announcer speaking for a sponsor.

0:25:15 > 0:25:17I talk as Ronald Reagan, American citizen.

0:25:17 > 0:25:27GE had 250,000 workers in 40 states, and the idea of sending GE's most famous face out into the plants

0:25:27 > 0:25:29to talk with the workers was really to give them

0:25:29 > 0:25:33a sense of belonging to a company.

0:25:33 > 0:25:36I've been privileged to meet people all over this whole country

0:25:36 > 0:25:41while I'm out on the road travelling on what I call the mashed potato circuit.

0:25:41 > 0:25:45They are not the masses or the common man. They're very uncommon.

0:25:45 > 0:25:49Individuals, each with his or her own hopes and dreams,

0:25:49 > 0:25:51the kind of quiet courage that makes this country

0:25:51 > 0:25:54run better than just about any other place on Earth.

0:25:54 > 0:25:56I think people don't realise just how critical

0:25:56 > 0:25:58the General Electric years were

0:25:58 > 0:26:00to making Ronald Reagan into Ronald Reagan.

0:26:00 > 0:26:03He spent six years in that job.

0:26:03 > 0:26:05A man's talents may be used for good or evil.

0:26:05 > 0:26:08Exceptional talents only widen the possibilities for both.

0:26:08 > 0:26:11Those six years give him the self-confidence and the skills

0:26:11 > 0:26:15that he later deploys when he becomes an overtly political figure.

0:26:15 > 0:26:19Well, he's learning to sell himself in a way other than being on the movie screen.

0:26:19 > 0:26:23He's learning to sell himself face-to-face, in a room,

0:26:23 > 0:26:27and to judge, "how is what I'm saying of going over here?

0:26:27 > 0:26:29"Are they are reacting to this or not reacting to that?"

0:26:29 > 0:26:31And he begins to hone his message.

0:26:31 > 0:26:36General Electric is one of the most successful corporations in the history of the world

0:26:36 > 0:26:40and GE gave him an ideology, a very conservative

0:26:40 > 0:26:45pro-corporate view that the business of America is business, and this made sense to Reagan.

0:26:45 > 0:26:48Most of this ideology came from watching his

0:26:48 > 0:26:50mentor at GE, Lemuel Boulware,

0:26:50 > 0:26:53who may have been the greatest labour negotiator of all time.

0:26:53 > 0:26:57People now are realising what a critical figure this little-known GE executive was,

0:26:57 > 0:27:01because he really came up with the idea of trying to change

0:27:01 > 0:27:03the politics of the blue-collar American.

0:27:03 > 0:27:06What he wanted to do was wean blue-collar workers away from

0:27:06 > 0:27:10the New Deal politics of Franklin Roosevelt and trade unionism,

0:27:10 > 0:27:15and towards a new politics of anti-communism, patriotism.

0:27:15 > 0:27:17Progress in the defence of our nation.

0:27:17 > 0:27:22And the need for a strong defence because, of course, GE was in the defence business.

0:27:22 > 0:27:26Ronald Reagan became the genial celebrity front man of that effort,

0:27:26 > 0:27:30pitching ideas that were probably against the workers' self-interests.

0:27:30 > 0:27:35This, in a way, set the stage for the conservatisation of blue collar America.

0:27:35 > 0:27:39Ronald Reagan moved from Liberal to Conservative while he was at GE,

0:27:39 > 0:27:41there's no question about it.

0:27:41 > 0:27:43The question is, was he supposed to talk to

0:27:43 > 0:27:48the workers about political issues, conservative issues, and the sort?

0:27:48 > 0:27:51And the immediate answer is no.

0:27:51 > 0:27:56Reagan's contract with GE was just to talk about Hollywood gossip,

0:27:56 > 0:27:59various other things, but this went further than that.

0:27:59 > 0:28:02He and GE had different idea about what he was supposed to be doing.

0:28:02 > 0:28:05They figured he was selling washing machines.

0:28:05 > 0:28:08He thought he was out there talking to the American people

0:28:08 > 0:28:11about things he thought were really important in American life.

0:28:11 > 0:28:14The American people, if you put it to them about socialised medicine

0:28:14 > 0:28:18and gave them a chance to choose, would unhesitatingly vote against it.

0:28:18 > 0:28:21The speech begins to touch on politics.

0:28:21 > 0:28:24It goes from the greatness of the nation.

0:28:24 > 0:28:28He begins testing out themes about where the nation should go next.

0:28:28 > 0:28:31The importance of free people standing up to the Soviet Union.

0:28:31 > 0:28:35You see him thinking through his position and working out his presentation

0:28:35 > 0:28:40before audiences of ordinary Americans, these are ordinary working people.

0:28:40 > 0:28:44As Reagan became more and more conservative in his philosophy as spokesman for GE,

0:28:44 > 0:28:46it began to be a problem for his employer.

0:28:46 > 0:28:51- Ask not what your country can do for you... - Things were changing in Washington.

0:28:51 > 0:28:55John F Kennedy was elected and suddenly government was much more liberal.

0:28:55 > 0:29:00And Reagan began to sound more and more hawkish and conservative.

0:29:00 > 0:29:02Reagan was fired from GE.

0:29:02 > 0:29:05He was told he could continue, provided he did not talk about

0:29:05 > 0:29:08any political ideas, like whether or not

0:29:08 > 0:29:14we should have social security, or taxes, but if he only talked about GE products. And he said no.

0:29:14 > 0:29:16He refused to do that.

0:29:19 > 0:29:23I have spent most of my life as a Democrat.

0:29:23 > 0:29:25I recently have seen fit to follow another course.

0:29:25 > 0:29:30Reagan's transition from a Democrat to a Republican, that is the story of our lives.

0:29:30 > 0:29:33There's many members of my family that made that same transition.

0:29:33 > 0:29:35After World War Two, they were all Democrats.

0:29:35 > 0:29:38They came of age in the Great Depression.

0:29:38 > 0:29:40They believed in the New Deal,

0:29:40 > 0:29:46but I think the 1960s really soured that whole generation on liberalism.

0:29:46 > 0:29:48They're watching this crazy stuff go on

0:29:48 > 0:29:52and are saying, what the hell has happened to my country? And turning against liberalism.

0:29:52 > 0:29:57I know probably hundreds of people, all of them older than me, who'd say the same thing.

0:29:57 > 0:30:00I started out as a Democrat and I became a Republican.

0:30:00 > 0:30:05I didn't leave my party, my party left me. They all say that. That's why Reagan resonates.

0:30:07 > 0:30:14In 1964, John Kennedy has been assassinated, bringing Lyndon Johnson in as President.

0:30:14 > 0:30:16Barry Goldwater's running for President representing

0:30:16 > 0:30:21a Republican party that wants to roll back the New Deal.

0:30:21 > 0:30:23I can say to you quite frankly

0:30:23 > 0:30:29that conservatism is the way of the future. Conservatism today is not the conservatism we have known.

0:30:29 > 0:30:34Today's conservatives make no apologies for its principles.

0:30:35 > 0:30:39In the 1960s in California, there were a number of wealthy

0:30:39 > 0:30:42conservative Republicans who had become very involved in politics.

0:30:42 > 0:30:45They had supported Barry Goldwater's campaign.

0:30:45 > 0:30:49They were businessmen and their prime interest was to get government

0:30:49 > 0:30:53off the backs of their business, lower taxes, less regulation so they could make more money.

0:30:53 > 0:30:58These men began to collect around Ronald Reagan during the Goldwater campaign.

0:30:58 > 0:31:00The Goldwater campaign was a shambles.

0:31:00 > 0:31:05There was never anything effectively done in the campaign until Reagan gave that speech.

0:31:05 > 0:31:07Thank you and good evening.

0:31:07 > 0:31:10Ronald Reagan agrees to speak on behalf of Goldwater

0:31:10 > 0:31:13and these wealthy men buy television time so he can do so nationally.

0:31:13 > 0:31:17I've been permitted to choose my own words and discuss

0:31:17 > 0:31:21my own ideas regarding the choice that we face in the next few weeks.

0:31:21 > 0:31:25And Reagan gives the speech, what we Reaganites, if you talk about "the speech"

0:31:25 > 0:31:29everybody knows what you're talking about. It's that 1964 speech.

0:31:29 > 0:31:32We're at war with the most dangerous enemy that has ever faced mankind

0:31:32 > 0:31:34in his long climb from the swamp to the stars.

0:31:34 > 0:31:37Reagan had been holding the speech for years and years.

0:31:37 > 0:31:39And this was Reagan's moment.

0:31:39 > 0:31:44It's been said if we lose that war, in so doing lose this way of freedom of ours, history will record

0:31:44 > 0:31:50with the greatest astonishment that those who had the most to lose did the least to prevent its happening.

0:31:50 > 0:31:55Reagan performed so brilliantly when he made that speech that it had the ironic effect

0:31:55 > 0:32:00of making him seem presidential rather more than Barry Goldwater.

0:32:00 > 0:32:02You and I have a rendezvous with destiny.

0:32:02 > 0:32:06The so-called "Time for Choosing" speech in 1964 had two basic elements to it.

0:32:06 > 0:32:08One was this ferocious anti-communism.

0:32:08 > 0:32:11The other part was a strong attack on the welfare state.

0:32:11 > 0:32:13This was the beginning of the culture wars.

0:32:13 > 0:32:17You had a conservative working-class element that didn't like what it was seeing

0:32:17 > 0:32:21and, from the ashes of the failed Goldwater campaign, Reagan became their voice.

0:32:21 > 0:32:24I saw him make a speech in 1964 for Goldwater.

0:32:24 > 0:32:29I said, there's the man that should be running for President.

0:32:29 > 0:32:33I like the way he takes a firm stand on things and the way he goes about it.

0:32:33 > 0:32:38He's the same type of feeling with the people that John Kennedy had, I think.

0:32:38 > 0:32:39He's the hope of America.

0:32:39 > 0:32:42A lot of the things he said

0:32:42 > 0:32:45were the same things that Barry Goldwater was saying.

0:32:45 > 0:32:48When Reagan said it, it was much more palatable.

0:32:48 > 0:32:52You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, there is a price

0:32:52 > 0:32:58we will not pay, there is a point beyond which they must not advance.

0:32:58 > 0:33:01At that point, I think a lot of people in California,

0:33:01 > 0:33:05monied interests, the kind of people that back politicians,

0:33:05 > 0:33:07took a look at him and said, you know...

0:33:07 > 0:33:09this guy's got something here.

0:33:09 > 0:33:11We can do something with him.

0:33:11 > 0:33:14Thank you very much.

0:33:14 > 0:33:16APPLAUSE

0:33:18 > 0:33:23As of now, I am a candidate seeking the Republican nomination for Governor.

0:33:23 > 0:33:27No candidate is more instantly and better-known, and that is his greatest asset.

0:33:27 > 0:33:31But he is known as an actor and that is his greatest liability.

0:33:31 > 0:33:36How do you react when people describe you as a politician of the TV era?

0:33:36 > 0:33:40Well, I think there are some things you can learn in show business that work pretty good.

0:33:40 > 0:33:45And one thing we've always known is that when you look in that camera in close-up,

0:33:45 > 0:33:47you better be telling the truth.

0:33:47 > 0:33:49Or that camera will reveal it.

0:33:49 > 0:33:55So what's this empty nonsense about Ronald Reagan being just an actor?

0:33:55 > 0:33:59I've watched Ronald work his entire adult life preparing for public service.

0:33:59 > 0:34:03Ronald Reagan, speaking to the issues with his common sense answers.

0:34:03 > 0:34:06When he entered politics, the country was in turmoil.

0:34:06 > 0:34:09# When I look out of my window.

0:34:11 > 0:34:13# Many sights to see... #

0:34:13 > 0:34:17At that time, there was this growing feeling the '60s

0:34:17 > 0:34:20are going to be different from any decade we've ever had.

0:34:20 > 0:34:23The '60s, in many important ways, exploded.

0:34:27 > 0:34:31The country was deeply divided over race, the Vietnam War.

0:34:31 > 0:34:35It was hippies and drugs and free love and the Pill.

0:34:35 > 0:34:40And my father was right on the front lines of that giant culture shift

0:34:40 > 0:34:43that was the '60s, where suddenly you're questioning authority.

0:34:43 > 0:34:47His generation, not that big on questioning authority.

0:34:47 > 0:34:52I don't think that taking to the streets and rioting and disorder has ever solved anything, or ever will.

0:34:53 > 0:34:58His advance really caused a white working-class backlash among many voters.

0:34:58 > 0:35:02And Ronald Reagan caught this wave, and he rode it all the way to Sacramento.

0:35:02 > 0:35:04# Must be the season of the wind... #

0:35:04 > 0:35:10I now declare you to be duly installed as Governor of the state of California.

0:35:10 > 0:35:13As Governor, he wants to get tougher in Vietnam.

0:35:13 > 0:35:17The way that he got elected was by looking out on the country at the anti-war protest,

0:35:17 > 0:35:21the counter-culture, and basically making that into a political issue.

0:35:21 > 0:35:24I was picketed a few days ago in California by some youngsters that

0:35:24 > 0:35:26had signs that said "Make love not war".

0:35:26 > 0:35:30Trouble is they didn't look like they were capable of doing either.

0:35:30 > 0:35:31LAUGHTER

0:35:31 > 0:35:36This fella had a haircut like Tarzan, he walked like Jane, and smelt like Cheetah.

0:35:36 > 0:35:42When he becomes governor, not only are the kids of California,

0:35:42 > 0:35:46the students on the UC campuses fomenting rebellion and questioning authority,

0:35:46 > 0:35:51within his own family that was starting to happen.

0:35:51 > 0:35:54And like a lot of parents, you know, they don't know what to make of this.

0:35:54 > 0:35:59Three rock'n'roll bands were in the gymnasium playing simultaneously during the dance.

0:35:59 > 0:36:05And all doing the dance, movies were shown on two screens at the opposite ends of the gymnasium.

0:36:05 > 0:36:08These movies were the only lights in the gym proper.

0:36:08 > 0:36:13They consisted of colour sequences that gave the appearance of different coloured liquid.

0:36:13 > 0:36:20He's the authority and young people who he thinks of as just kids are basically saying "fuck you".

0:36:22 > 0:36:26Reagan responded to protest really in basically one way,

0:36:26 > 0:36:28you know, obey the rules or get out.

0:36:28 > 0:36:30I'm sick and tired of the argument about whether

0:36:30 > 0:36:34some effort to enforce law and order is going to escalate anything at all.

0:36:34 > 0:36:38Plain truth of the matter is this has to stop and it has to stop the day before yesterday.

0:36:38 > 0:36:42And it's going to be stopped whatever it takes.

0:36:42 > 0:36:44He was ultimately willing to send the National Guard

0:36:44 > 0:36:47down to the campuses to crack down on demonstrators.

0:36:47 > 0:36:53I would like to propose that the issue is that on the campuses you who are adults,

0:36:53 > 0:36:57you who are entrusted with those young people and their guidance have a responsibility

0:36:57 > 0:37:01to make it plain to them from the very beginning that you yourselves

0:37:01 > 0:37:04do not tolerate the kind of conduct that has led to the burning

0:37:04 > 0:37:09of Wheeler Hall, that has led to two murders on the campus of UCLA.

0:37:09 > 0:37:12You've created an atmosphere where no-one wants to listen.

0:37:12 > 0:37:13You are a liar.

0:37:13 > 0:37:18Now don't you talk about political speeches, don't you make a political speech of that kind.

0:37:18 > 0:37:23You know, it's funny, because we think of Reagan as being the sunny optimist,

0:37:23 > 0:37:26but the Ronald Reagan of the mid-1960s was often an angry man.

0:37:26 > 0:37:28And voters responded well to that.

0:37:28 > 0:37:32With other politicians in these cultural war issues, you always get the feeling

0:37:32 > 0:37:35this was just politics, a way to get elected.

0:37:35 > 0:37:38Reagan believed, Reagan was the real deal.

0:37:38 > 0:37:41He did seem to think politics was this kind of populist contest

0:37:41 > 0:37:44between average hard-working everyday Americans

0:37:44 > 0:37:49and this obnoxious, eastern liberal elite. And it worked.

0:37:49 > 0:37:52He wasn't in the governorship two years and some national people

0:37:52 > 0:37:55started talking to him about running for President.

0:37:56 > 0:38:01I've called this press conference to announce that I am a candidate for the presidency.

0:38:01 > 0:38:04I'm here tonight to announce my intention to seek

0:38:04 > 0:38:07the Republican nomination for President of the US.

0:38:07 > 0:38:10People have forgotten that Reagan ran for President three times.

0:38:10 > 0:38:13It took my father some time to get to the presidency.

0:38:13 > 0:38:17He loses the nomination in '68, he doesn't even really make a dent.

0:38:17 > 0:38:20And then he's the gallant loser in '76, but still a loser.

0:38:20 > 0:38:25He didn't just sort of wander into the presidency because he got a casting call.

0:38:25 > 0:38:27He'd been preparing for for quite some time.

0:38:27 > 0:38:33Interestingly, a lot of people at the time saw Ronald Reagan as this unthinkable extremist.

0:38:33 > 0:38:36Every one of these losses is followed by confident predictions

0:38:36 > 0:38:38from people that Reagan is finished.

0:38:38 > 0:38:41But Reagan himself doesn't buy into any of this.

0:38:41 > 0:38:49A troubled and afflicted mankind looks to us, pleading for us to keep our rendezvous with destiny.

0:38:49 > 0:38:54That we will become that shining city on a hill.

0:39:01 > 0:39:06My name's Andrew Bejsowitz. I served in the US Army for 23 years.

0:39:06 > 0:39:10I served in Vietnam, served in Germany, served briefly in the Persian Gulf.

0:39:10 > 0:39:14I was a soldier when Reagan was the Commander-in-Chief.

0:39:14 > 0:39:16He was my Commander-in-Chief.

0:39:22 > 0:39:26# What the world needs now... #

0:39:26 > 0:39:30In the 1970s, the mood of the country under Jimmy Carter was one of despair.

0:39:30 > 0:39:33- American morale was at a real low point.- Good evening.

0:39:33 > 0:39:37I've spoken to you on many occasions about national concerns.

0:39:37 > 0:39:41The energy crisis, reorganising the government,

0:39:41 > 0:39:44our nation's economy and issues of war.

0:39:44 > 0:39:48The economy's in the tank. We're in the middle of an energy crisis.

0:39:48 > 0:39:50The oil crisis had produced skyrocketing gas prices.

0:39:50 > 0:39:54We were all standing on lines at gas stations.

0:39:54 > 0:39:56The Soviets had invaded Afghanistan.

0:39:56 > 0:39:59The Iranians had taken the American hostages.

0:39:59 > 0:40:02The hostage crisis just went on and on and on. Interminable.

0:40:02 > 0:40:06It looked like America had lost its clout on the world stage.

0:40:06 > 0:40:09It is a moral and a spiritual crisis.

0:40:09 > 0:40:15As a soldier, to my mind, he was a failed President trying to pass off the country's problems on us.

0:40:15 > 0:40:18I need your help.

0:40:18 > 0:40:20It's very detrimental to our country.

0:40:20 > 0:40:23I think the other nations and stuff like that now they look down on us.

0:40:23 > 0:40:26And then comes Ronald Reagan.

0:40:26 > 0:40:33The major issue of this campaign is the direct political, personal and moral responsibility

0:40:33 > 0:40:38of Democratic Party leadership for this unprecedented calamity which has befallen us.

0:40:38 > 0:40:44The Carter years really prepared people for someone like Ronald Reagan to come on the stage.

0:40:44 > 0:40:47Are you better off

0:40:47 > 0:40:49than you were four years ago?

0:40:49 > 0:40:54Is it easier for you to go and buy things in the stores than it was four years ago?

0:40:54 > 0:40:59Ronald Reagan set the standard for being able to summon up

0:40:59 > 0:41:02feelings that resonated with the American people.

0:41:02 > 0:41:06Back in 1976, Mr Carter said, trust me.

0:41:06 > 0:41:08And a lot of people did.

0:41:08 > 0:41:11Carter, in retrospect, I always think of grey.

0:41:11 > 0:41:14I don't know if his suits were always grey... He just seems grey.

0:41:14 > 0:41:16And here's Ronald Reagan, the exact opposite of that.

0:41:16 > 0:41:22A recession is when your neighbour loses his job.

0:41:22 > 0:41:24A depression is when you lose yours.

0:41:26 > 0:41:31And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.

0:41:31 > 0:41:35It's about personality, a lot of it, and just how you're coming across.

0:41:35 > 0:41:38My father just blew them out of the water that way.

0:41:38 > 0:41:44The 1980 presidential election was certainly one of the major turning points in American history

0:41:44 > 0:41:53because you had in Ronald Reagan a man that many in Washington saw as so extreme...

0:41:53 > 0:41:57On behalf of more than 30 million evangelical Christians...

0:41:57 > 0:42:01Ronald Reagan believes the fundamentalist Christian vote is crucial.

0:42:01 > 0:42:02Thank you very much.

0:42:02 > 0:42:05I happen to believe that when you interrupt a pregnancy,

0:42:05 > 0:42:07you are taking a human life.

0:42:07 > 0:42:11THEY CHANT

0:42:11 > 0:42:15One of the big concerns about him was that he would be seen as unfair in economic policies...

0:42:15 > 0:42:17What are you going to do?

0:42:19 > 0:42:21What are you going to do for us?

0:42:21 > 0:42:25- I'm trying to tell you. - ..And as a reckless cowboy in his foreign policies.

0:42:25 > 0:42:31We don't really care whether they like us or not, we want to be respected.

0:42:31 > 0:42:33We campaigned on a platform

0:42:33 > 0:42:34of peace through strength.

0:42:34 > 0:42:37We were going to rebuild America's military,

0:42:37 > 0:42:42which we thought had deteriorated significantly under the administration of Jimmy Carter.

0:42:42 > 0:42:47When Reagan appeared on the national political scene,

0:42:47 > 0:42:53the army in which I had served in Vietnam was in enormous disarray, demoralised.

0:42:53 > 0:42:57To those of us within the officer corps, he was the saviour.

0:42:57 > 0:42:59Do you really think Iranian terrorists

0:42:59 > 0:43:03would have taken Americans hostage if Ronald Reagan were President?

0:43:03 > 0:43:06Do you really think the Russians would have invaded Afghanistan

0:43:06 > 0:43:08if Ronald Reagan was president?

0:43:08 > 0:43:11Do you really think third-rate military dictators

0:43:11 > 0:43:16would laugh at America and burn our flag in contempt if Ronald Reagan were President?

0:43:16 > 0:43:19One of his favourite quotes from Tom Paine was,

0:43:19 > 0:43:24"We have it in our power to start the world all over again."

0:43:24 > 0:43:27MUSIC: "Once In A Lifetime" by Talking Heads

0:43:27 > 0:43:29It's time to move forward again.

0:43:29 > 0:43:33- It's time for America to take freedom's next step.- That was Reagan.

0:43:33 > 0:43:37We have it in our power to begin the world over again.

0:43:39 > 0:43:44# And you may find yourself Living in a shotgun shack... #

0:43:44 > 0:43:49Ronald Reagan's a stylish campaign and he offered a new hope to the Republican Party.

0:43:49 > 0:43:53The extent of the network coverage is unparalleled on television history.

0:43:53 > 0:43:57Reagan's campaign meetings are expensively stage-managed spectaculars.

0:43:57 > 0:43:59Yes, I would very much like to go to Washington...

0:43:59 > 0:44:01This is a man whose time has come.

0:44:01 > 0:44:03..How did I get here?

0:44:03 > 0:44:06# Letting the days go by

0:44:06 > 0:44:07# Letting the water hold me down... #

0:44:07 > 0:44:11I want people to come out of the churches and change America.

0:44:11 > 0:44:16- The next President, Ronald Reagan. - NBC News now makes its projection...

0:44:16 > 0:44:21- a Reagan Republican landslide. - # Same as it ever was... #

0:44:23 > 0:44:26The time is now, my fellow Americans, to recapture our destiny.

0:44:26 > 0:44:30Together, let us make this a new beginning.

0:44:30 > 0:44:33CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

0:44:45 > 0:44:52This portion of inauguration day is sponsored by Comtrex, the multi-symptom cold reliever.

0:44:52 > 0:44:58And by the General Foods family of fine products, pleasing you and your family for over 50 years.

0:44:58 > 0:45:03Just an hour and 56 minutes from now, Ronald Reagan, former sports announcer,

0:45:03 > 0:45:07announcer, former movie actor, former union president,

0:45:07 > 0:45:11the only divorced man ever to take the oath of office as President of the United States

0:45:11 > 0:45:16and the oldest, he'll hear those stirring refrains of Hail To The Chief for the first time.

0:45:16 > 0:45:19I, Ronald Reagan, do solemnly swear...

0:45:19 > 0:45:23That I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States...

0:45:23 > 0:45:28- That I will faithfully execute the office of President... - Good evening.

0:45:28 > 0:45:3141 minutes after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as the 40th President,

0:45:31 > 0:45:34the American hostages in Iran began their flight to freedom.

0:45:34 > 0:45:39We should remind our viewers that first of all, this is coming live and direct from Algiers, Algeria.

0:45:39 > 0:45:42When Reagan was giving his inaugural speech,

0:45:42 > 0:45:45there was a kind of split screen moment in American history.

0:45:45 > 0:45:49As Ronald Reagan took the Oath of Office, the hostages were to fly out of Tehran.

0:45:49 > 0:45:52..So help me God.

0:45:52 > 0:45:59Reagan's inauguration really set the tone for his presidency, of this president who had good fortune.

0:45:59 > 0:46:04Some 30 minutes ago, the planes bearing our prisoners

0:46:04 > 0:46:08left Iranian airspace and are now...

0:46:10 > 0:46:13I guess now I can go back to California, can't I?

0:46:13 > 0:46:14LAUGHTER

0:46:14 > 0:46:17He had done nothing to bring about the release of these hostages.

0:46:17 > 0:46:21That was negotiated in the waning days of the Jimmy Carter administration

0:46:21 > 0:46:23and yet, these events established a mood.

0:46:23 > 0:46:26Reagan's presidency really created this idea

0:46:26 > 0:46:30that if you improve the nation's mood, you're improving the nation.

0:46:30 > 0:46:32We can all drink to this one.

0:46:32 > 0:46:38To all of us, together, doing what we all know we can do

0:46:38 > 0:46:44to make this country what it should be, what it can be, what it always has been.

0:46:44 > 0:46:48You know, when he came into office, everybody thought,

0:46:48 > 0:46:52we've got this guy, this shoot-from-the-hip cowboy actor

0:46:52 > 0:46:54and they sure found out differently, didn't they?

0:46:57 > 0:47:04It is time us to realise that we are too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams.

0:47:04 > 0:47:05When Reagan came into office,

0:47:05 > 0:47:09he said we've got to revive the economy, we've got to raise

0:47:09 > 0:47:10the spirits of the American people

0:47:10 > 0:47:13and we have to rebuild the American military

0:47:13 > 0:47:18to stand up to the Soviet Union and negotiate from a position of strength.

0:47:19 > 0:47:24MUSIC: "Eye Of The Tiger" by Survivor

0:47:33 > 0:47:36Ronald Reagan became President at a time when the Soviet Union

0:47:36 > 0:47:38was on the march on every continent.

0:47:38 > 0:47:42Remember that Reagan was an anti-communist first

0:47:42 > 0:47:43and a politician second.

0:47:43 > 0:47:47Reagan pushes forward this view that the Soviet Union

0:47:47 > 0:47:50is this evil empire that must be confronted very aggressively.

0:47:50 > 0:47:54Remember, we had a Democratic House of Representatives we had to deal with

0:47:54 > 0:47:57so some of the things that he wanted to do we couldn't get done.

0:47:57 > 0:48:01He was on the razor's edge of danger in terms of public opinion.

0:48:01 > 0:48:04Reagan decided he was going to put dealing with the Soviets on the back-burner,

0:48:04 > 0:48:08that his presidency wouldn't succeed if he didn't do something about the economy

0:48:08 > 0:48:10in his first year in office.

0:48:10 > 0:48:12GUNSHOTS

0:48:16 > 0:48:21There was an attempt on President Reagan's life in March, shortly after we took power.

0:48:21 > 0:48:23I've just reported that the President was not hit.

0:48:23 > 0:48:26This was a defining event of his early presidency.

0:48:26 > 0:48:29He WAS wounded. My God! The President was hit!

0:48:29 > 0:48:32For a few hours, people didn't know if Reagan would live or die.

0:48:32 > 0:48:36The surgeon said that his last remark before he underwent anaesthesia

0:48:36 > 0:48:39was he wanted to make sure that all of them were Republicans.

0:48:39 > 0:48:42They said that today, everyone is a Republican.

0:48:42 > 0:48:44The assassination attempt on President Reagan

0:48:44 > 0:48:47was a major factor in his becoming a popular president.

0:48:47 > 0:48:50Not just because he survived, but how he handled it.

0:48:50 > 0:48:52He took shots that could have killed him

0:48:52 > 0:48:54and survived it with grace and elan.

0:48:54 > 0:48:58The way the public followed that closely, to see if the President was going to survive,

0:48:58 > 0:49:04created the bond between Reagan and the American people that was never really broken.

0:49:04 > 0:49:07MUSIC: "Eye Of The Tiger" by Survivor

0:49:07 > 0:49:09The President of the United States!

0:49:10 > 0:49:11I'd like to say a few words

0:49:11 > 0:49:14to express to all of you, on behalf of Nancy and myself,

0:49:14 > 0:49:18our appreciation for your messages and flowers

0:49:18 > 0:49:21and most of all, your prayers.

0:49:21 > 0:49:25Not only for me, but for those others who fell beside me.

0:49:25 > 0:49:27APPLAUSE

0:49:27 > 0:49:31As you can imagine, after an event like that, his popularity surged.

0:49:31 > 0:49:34Democrats and Republicans fell over themselves last night.

0:49:34 > 0:49:37He was not politically weakened, he was strengthened.

0:49:37 > 0:49:41RAUCOUS APPLAUSE

0:49:52 > 0:49:54Thank you.

0:49:54 > 0:49:58I have come to speak to you tonight about our economic recovery programme

0:49:58 > 0:50:02and why I believe it's essential that the Congress approve this package.

0:50:02 > 0:50:05- The sympathy for Reagan... - That's the key.

0:50:05 > 0:50:07- ..was so great.- And he used that.

0:50:07 > 0:50:10He was very clever. He used it and they went right to work

0:50:10 > 0:50:13and the next thing, they had given him all the stuff he wanted.

0:50:13 > 0:50:17Thanks to some very fine people, my health is much-improved.

0:50:17 > 0:50:20I'd like to say that with regard to the health of the economy.

0:50:20 > 0:50:22There was a strategy.

0:50:22 > 0:50:26Less regulation, lower tax rates, get inflation under control.

0:50:26 > 0:50:30You do those things, you may have a short-term problem,

0:50:30 > 0:50:34but in the longer term, you'll have a strategy that works.

0:50:34 > 0:50:36People forget the fact that when we came into power,

0:50:36 > 0:50:39the top marginal tax rate was 70%.

0:50:39 > 0:50:42It's time to create new jobs, to build and rebuild industry,

0:50:42 > 0:50:45to give the American people room to do what they do best.

0:50:45 > 0:50:48Reagan-nomics was the essence of the first term.

0:50:48 > 0:50:51The easy part of it is, let the market be free,

0:50:51 > 0:50:55let the people who own the businesses do whatever they want,

0:50:55 > 0:50:57cut their taxes, give incentives to produce more.

0:50:57 > 0:51:00The problem is that, generally speaking,

0:51:00 > 0:51:02when you cut taxes dramatically, obviously,

0:51:02 > 0:51:06the amount of money going into federal coffers is reduced.

0:51:06 > 0:51:10The federal government has to cut spending or they'll run a huge deficit.

0:51:10 > 0:51:15The Reagan people came up with a theory that you could cut taxes

0:51:15 > 0:51:19and this would boost the economy so much that you could actually

0:51:19 > 0:51:23increase proceeds at the same time and it would all work out.

0:51:23 > 0:51:25George Bush called it "voodoo economics".

0:51:25 > 0:51:27Voodoo economics.

0:51:27 > 0:51:30That's how candidate George Bush described candidate Ronald Reagan's policy

0:51:30 > 0:51:33during the 1980 presidential primaries.

0:51:33 > 0:51:39What I'm saying is that this type of what I call voodoo economic policy,

0:51:39 > 0:51:40it just isn't going to work.

0:51:40 > 0:51:45Last night, Vice President Bush was asked about that and corrected the record.

0:51:45 > 0:51:48Well, what I said back then, it's very hard to find...

0:51:48 > 0:51:50Actually, let me start over.

0:51:50 > 0:51:52One, I didn't say it.

0:51:52 > 0:51:56Nobody, every network has looked for it and none can find it.

0:51:56 > 0:51:57It was never said.

0:51:58 > 0:52:01There was a fundamental falsehood at the core of Reagan-nomics.

0:52:01 > 0:52:05This was the famous Laffer curve proposed by a economist Arthur Laffer.

0:52:05 > 0:52:08Reagan-nomics, literally, as far as I'm concerned,

0:52:08 > 0:52:12it is the provision of incentives to the marketplace

0:52:12 > 0:52:17to allow the economy to perform its functions properly.

0:52:17 > 0:52:21- Dr Laffer, would you draw your curve for me and explain how it works?- Sure.

0:52:21 > 0:52:24In a very simple sense, if you tax people who work,

0:52:24 > 0:52:27and you pay people who don't work,

0:52:27 > 0:52:31don't be surprised if you find a lot of people not working.

0:52:31 > 0:52:33Hello, is that so complicated?

0:52:33 > 0:52:36The Laffer Curve was presented as an intellectual support

0:52:36 > 0:52:40for the idea that reducing taxes would produce more revenue.

0:52:40 > 0:52:44If you tax rich people and give the money to poor people,

0:52:44 > 0:52:47you're going to have lots and lots of poor people and no rich people.

0:52:47 > 0:52:51That was, I think, considered by most people

0:52:51 > 0:52:55a pretty extreme interpretation of what would happen.

0:52:55 > 0:52:58Ronald Reagan gave us a prototype.

0:52:58 > 0:53:03Low-taxes, less regulation, limited spending, that's the model.

0:53:03 > 0:53:05He created an economic miracle.

0:53:05 > 0:53:10It's clear that recovery is strengthening and spreading throughout the economy

0:53:10 > 0:53:14And as Al Jolson would have said, you ain't seen nothing yet.

0:53:14 > 0:53:18You can't be fair in your historical evaluation of Ronald Reagan

0:53:18 > 0:53:23if you don't look at the terrible damage his economic policies did to this country.

0:53:23 > 0:53:26Many people say that Ronald Reagan made America strong,

0:53:26 > 0:53:27that America had been greatly weakened

0:53:27 > 0:53:30in the 1960s and 1970s and Reagan

0:53:30 > 0:53:34helped to rebuild American prestige, its economic power

0:53:34 > 0:53:38and put it back on the path to growth.

0:53:38 > 0:53:42But the real benefits, and also the tremendous costs,

0:53:42 > 0:53:45really only became clear more recently.

0:53:45 > 0:53:50The essence of Reagan-nomics was a massive transfer of wealth

0:53:50 > 0:53:52towards the rich and away from the poor.

0:53:52 > 0:53:53The Reagan administration,

0:53:53 > 0:53:58by cutting taxes overwhelmingly for the wealthiest and the corporations,

0:53:58 > 0:54:02set in motion, arguably, the greatest government-led transfer of wealth

0:54:02 > 0:54:08in history and in the direction of the top 2% of the country.

0:54:08 > 0:54:10Ronald Reagan did cut taxes and the US began

0:54:10 > 0:54:15to have a series of dangerous and increasing budget deficits.

0:54:15 > 0:54:19This week, America became a debtor nation for the first time since the First World War.

0:54:19 > 0:54:25Unemployment, at 9%. America is struggling through the worst recession...

0:54:25 > 0:54:28Reagan-nomics is based on this notion of trickle-down economics

0:54:28 > 0:54:32that cutting taxes for the wealthiest Americans benefits everybody.

0:54:32 > 0:54:35Trickle-down economics is, if you feed the horse enough oats,

0:54:35 > 0:54:38the sparrow will survive on the highway.

0:54:38 > 0:54:42If you make rich people rich enough, they'll put crumbs to their servants.

0:54:42 > 0:54:44The truth is that's not what happens.

0:54:44 > 0:54:47Although they do get jobs and they do expand,

0:54:47 > 0:54:50by lowering tax rates, you're bringing people into the labour force

0:54:50 > 0:54:54and you create a lot of new wealth.

0:54:54 > 0:54:58And you make the poor rich, isn't that the dream?

0:54:58 > 0:55:01Reagan's policies were very good for relatively wealthy people.

0:55:01 > 0:55:04The people at the top do well and benefits trickle down.

0:55:04 > 0:55:08There's a hint in that term "trickle," it isn't flood-down economics,

0:55:08 > 0:55:12it's trickle-down. You don't get a lot coming down to the middle class

0:55:12 > 0:55:16and to people below that and that is the key theme of the past 30 years,

0:55:16 > 0:55:20which should be laid at Ronald Reagan's door - middle class got squeezed.

0:55:20 > 0:55:22The Republican Party under Ronald Reagan

0:55:22 > 0:55:27became identified with family values, small-town values,

0:55:27 > 0:55:31when, in fact, there policies did more to enrich the financial class

0:55:31 > 0:55:34on either coast than mainstream America.

0:55:34 > 0:55:36We're going down the main street of Dixon.

0:55:36 > 0:55:39This was once a very prosperous farming community,

0:55:39 > 0:55:42it also had a vibrant manufacturing sector in town.

0:55:42 > 0:55:44You get the sense, when you drive here,

0:55:44 > 0:55:48that the time when places like this matter than this country has passed.

0:55:48 > 0:55:52What I found about the people of Dixon is that they really are

0:55:52 > 0:55:54emblematic of the heartland of this country.

0:55:54 > 0:55:57They believe that Ronald Reagan was on their side,

0:55:57 > 0:56:00but if you look at the real impact of his policies,

0:56:00 > 0:56:04it's hard to conclude that Ronald Reagan was on their side.

0:56:04 > 0:56:06- ALL CHANT:- Out the door in '84.

0:56:06 > 0:56:10Out the door in '84. Out the door in '84.

0:56:10 > 0:56:13People need work. He's not addressing our needs.

0:56:13 > 0:56:16I've got 200 members who have lost their jobs in my local union.

0:56:16 > 0:56:19I don't think Ronald Reagan is interested in the working people.

0:56:19 > 0:56:24- Is he interested in Dixon? - He's not interested in any working people anywhere.

0:56:24 > 0:56:26The business community got whatever they wanted

0:56:26 > 0:56:29from the Reagan administration and meanwhile,

0:56:29 > 0:56:32the business community's great enemy, organised labour, got its ass kicked.

0:56:32 > 0:56:37The union representing those who man America's air traffic control facilities called a strike.

0:56:37 > 0:56:40Let me make one thing plain.

0:56:40 > 0:56:43If they do not report for work within 48 hours,

0:56:43 > 0:56:47they have forfeited their jobs and will be terminated.

0:56:47 > 0:56:50It's ironic, of course, since Reagan was himself at one time a union leader,

0:56:50 > 0:56:53but the effect that his administration had

0:56:53 > 0:56:55on organised labour was devastating.

0:56:55 > 0:56:59They said it and they meant it. The administration warned that

0:56:59 > 0:57:03if the air controllers didn't go back to work by today, they would be fired.

0:57:03 > 0:57:07This was the signal to corporate management that it was open season on labour.

0:57:07 > 0:57:10Look at what he did with the air traffic controllers, he fired them.

0:57:10 > 0:57:15If you look at union activity as a share of the labour force, it dropped like a stone.

0:57:15 > 0:57:18The main idea that Ronald Reagan had was that the government was bad.

0:57:18 > 0:57:21Too much government got in the way of private business

0:57:21 > 0:57:23and he wanted to step back from that.

0:57:23 > 0:57:27Ronald Reagan changed America, above all, through deregulation.

0:57:27 > 0:57:29I put a freeze on pending regulations

0:57:29 > 0:57:32and set up a task force under Vice President Bush

0:57:32 > 0:57:37to review regulations with an eye towards getting rid of as many as possible.

0:57:37 > 0:57:41Reagan made deregulation a good thing, a political virtue,

0:57:41 > 0:57:44he made regulation seem like a bad thing that only socialists do.

0:57:44 > 0:57:48So Reagan really stood for, "let the private sector take over,

0:57:48 > 0:57:51"let the market decide" and that's a message

0:57:51 > 0:57:55that has really resonated with many people over the past 20, 25 years.

0:57:55 > 0:57:59Reagan-nomics was sold as less government.

0:57:59 > 0:58:03In other words, less spending and less taxes,

0:58:03 > 0:58:06but there is a fundamental deception about that

0:58:06 > 0:58:09because there was only less spending in certain areas.

0:58:09 > 0:58:11I'm sure there's one department

0:58:11 > 0:58:15you've been waiting for me to mention, the Department of Defence.

0:58:15 > 0:58:18It's the only department in our entire programme that will

0:58:18 > 0:58:23actually be increased over the present budgeted figure.

0:58:23 > 0:58:25The cuts were only in relation to social spending,

0:58:25 > 0:58:29education, welfare, food stamps, that sort of thing,

0:58:29 > 0:58:32enormous increases in military spending.

0:58:32 > 0:58:33He told the Secretary of Defence

0:58:33 > 0:58:37to order what was needed and not to worry about the Budget.

0:58:38 > 0:58:42Pentagon spending would reach 34 million per hour.

0:58:44 > 0:58:47I think one of the single accomplishments of Reagan

0:58:47 > 0:58:51was that he restored America's pride and confidence in itself

0:58:51 > 0:58:57and in its ability to project power responsibly across continents and across oceans.

0:59:01 > 0:59:04There's a bear in the woods.

0:59:04 > 0:59:07For some people, the bear is easy to see.

0:59:07 > 0:59:10Others don't see it at all.

0:59:10 > 0:59:12Some people say that the bear is tame.

0:59:12 > 0:59:16Others say it's vicious and dangerous.

0:59:16 > 0:59:18Since no-one can really be sure who's right,

0:59:18 > 0:59:21isn't it smart to be as strong as the bear?

0:59:22 > 0:59:23If there is a bear?

0:59:25 > 0:59:31Our foreign policy must be rooted in realism, not naivete or self-delusion.

0:59:31 > 0:59:34A recognition of what the Soviet empire is about

0:59:34 > 0:59:35is the starting-point.

0:59:35 > 0:59:39Ronald Reagan changed, first, the Republican Party,

0:59:39 > 0:59:41then the country and then the world.

0:59:41 > 0:59:44Reagan believed that the Cold War

0:59:44 > 0:59:49was a contest between freedom and un-freedom.

0:59:49 > 0:59:53The embodiment of Reagan's strong anti-communism is in two speeches -

0:59:53 > 0:59:55one the famous evil empire speech...

0:59:55 > 0:59:59To ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire...

0:59:59 > 1:00:02And another one he makes at Westminster in England.

1:00:02 > 1:00:04The march of freedom and democracy

1:00:04 > 1:00:08which will leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash heap of history...

1:00:08 > 1:00:13It was very clear that Reagan didn't want to settle with the Soviet Union.

1:00:13 > 1:00:14He wanted to defeat it.

1:00:14 > 1:00:18Remember that American strategy during the Cold War,

1:00:18 > 1:00:22dating back to the Eisenhower administration in the 1950s,

1:00:22 > 1:00:25was basically a long stalemate.

1:00:25 > 1:00:27No-one's going to engage in nuclear war.

1:00:27 > 1:00:30It seems that the Cold War is permanent.

1:00:30 > 1:00:34Reagan's view is that the Cold War isn't permanent, that it can end.

1:00:34 > 1:00:36How does the Cold War end? We win, they lose.

1:00:36 > 1:00:40For two years after Reagan came into office,

1:00:40 > 1:00:44the US had virtually no relations at all with the Soviet Union.

1:00:44 > 1:00:46People began to get very scared.

1:00:46 > 1:00:50A nuclear freeze movement took off like wildfire.

1:00:50 > 1:00:52The big question about that whole era

1:00:52 > 1:00:56was who was right about the true nature of the Soviet Union.

1:00:56 > 1:00:58There were some people in the CIA back in the '70s

1:00:58 > 1:01:00who were seeing signs of the Soviets in decline.

1:01:00 > 1:01:04They were having economic problems, falling way behind in terms

1:01:04 > 1:01:07of technology, in terms of where the West was going.

1:01:07 > 1:01:11But the Reagan side, embodied by him, is a different one.

1:01:11 > 1:01:15Since 1970, the Soviet Union has invested 300 billion more

1:01:15 > 1:01:18in its military forces than we have.

1:01:18 > 1:01:20Notwithstanding our economic straits,

1:01:20 > 1:01:24to allow this imbalance to continue is a threat to our national security.

1:01:24 > 1:01:27The best form of defence spending is always wasted.

1:01:27 > 1:01:31Whenever you find yourself in a situation where you have to use

1:01:31 > 1:01:35your military hardware prowess, that's a clear sign you didn't spend enough.

1:01:35 > 1:01:37Reagan, Star Wars and all that,

1:01:37 > 1:01:40the whole purpose of that was so that we wouldn't have to use it.

1:01:40 > 1:01:45This strategy of deterrence has not changed. It still works.

1:01:45 > 1:01:48But what it takes to maintain deterrence has changed.

1:01:48 > 1:01:53I have approved a research programme to find, if we can, a security shield

1:01:53 > 1:01:56that will destroy nuclear missiles before they reach their target.

1:01:56 > 1:02:01They called it Star Wars. He thought there could be the construction of a missile shield,

1:02:01 > 1:02:05that laser beams that could shoot incoming nuclear missiles out of the sky.

1:02:05 > 1:02:07His idea might have come from a movie

1:02:07 > 1:02:10he was involved in the 1940s called Murder In The Air.

1:02:10 > 1:02:13It seems the spy ring has designs on the greatest war weapon

1:02:13 > 1:02:16ever invented, which is the exclusive property of Uncle Sam.

1:02:16 > 1:02:19- What is it?- The inertia projector.

1:02:19 > 1:02:23It wouldn't kill people, it would destroy weapons.

1:02:23 > 1:02:29It wouldn't militarise space, it would help demilitarise the arsenals of Earth.

1:02:29 > 1:02:32It not only makes the United States invincible in war,

1:02:32 > 1:02:36but in so doing promises to be the greatest force for world peace ever discovered.

1:02:36 > 1:02:39Reagan was certainly a believer in American military power.

1:02:39 > 1:02:43At the same time, he's very reluctant to send troops into harm's way.

1:02:43 > 1:02:47He only used military force three times, people forget.

1:02:47 > 1:02:49The first was putting the marines in Lebanon

1:02:49 > 1:02:52into the middle of the Lebanese civil war.

1:02:52 > 1:02:55Early this morning at the Marine headquarters in Beirut,

1:02:55 > 1:02:56more than 2,000lbs of explosives...

1:02:56 > 1:03:01And we lost 241 marines in a terrorist explosion.

1:03:01 > 1:03:02Next was Grenada.

1:03:02 > 1:03:06Grenada, we were told, was a friendly island paradise for tourism.

1:03:06 > 1:03:08Well, it wasn't. It was a Soviet-Cuban colony

1:03:08 > 1:03:14being readied as a military bastion to export terror and undermine democracy.

1:03:15 > 1:03:19And the third time, he attacked Gadaffi's Libya,

1:03:19 > 1:03:21when they blew up a discotheque in Berlin.

1:03:21 > 1:03:24He was not a manic interventionist.

1:03:24 > 1:03:26But he saw the United States challenged by what was indeed

1:03:26 > 1:03:31a worldwide, communist conspiracy, which had as its great objective

1:03:31 > 1:03:35defeating Western civilisation in the United States

1:03:35 > 1:03:37and changing the world in its own image.

1:03:37 > 1:03:41At that time, many Americans were concerned about the United States

1:03:41 > 1:03:45getting involved in a war with the Soviet Union.

1:03:45 > 1:03:48But Reagan felt that pretty much anything was justified

1:03:48 > 1:03:50in order to win the Cold War.

1:03:50 > 1:03:52The world has changed.

1:03:52 > 1:03:56Today our national security can be threatened in faraway places.

1:03:56 > 1:04:00What the Reagan administration did, in a new sub rosa way,

1:04:00 > 1:04:03was to secretly support a lot of very violent movements

1:04:03 > 1:04:05who were resisting the Soviet menace.

1:04:05 > 1:04:08To run these operations independently

1:04:08 > 1:04:11and then to lie to Congress and to lie to the American people.

1:04:11 > 1:04:16In the hills of Afghanistan, in Angola, in Kampuchea,

1:04:16 > 1:04:20in Central America, freedom movements arise and assert themselves.

1:04:20 > 1:04:24They're doing so on almost every continent populated by man.

1:04:35 > 1:04:38People are always more complicated than the images that grow up

1:04:38 > 1:04:42around them, the mythology that grows up around them.

1:04:42 > 1:04:48My father was both smarter and better than many people on the left think he was,

1:04:48 > 1:04:53and less the giant that many people on the right think he was.

1:04:55 > 1:04:57My fellow Americans, I have thought long and often

1:04:57 > 1:05:00about how to explain to you what I intended to accomplish,

1:05:00 > 1:05:04but I respect you too much to make excuses.

1:05:04 > 1:05:06The fact of the matter is,

1:05:06 > 1:05:09there is nothing I can say that will make the situation right.

1:05:09 > 1:05:13I was stubborn in my pursuit of a policy that went astray.

1:05:35 > 1:05:39On October 5th, 1986, an antiquated US cargo plane was shot down

1:05:39 > 1:05:42over southern Nicaragua by a surface-to-air missile.

1:05:42 > 1:05:45That date, when that plane got shot down, broke open not

1:05:45 > 1:05:47just the fuselage of the plane,

1:05:47 > 1:05:52but all the interconnections of the whole covert enterprise.

1:05:52 > 1:05:56We're at the National Security Archive with a huge collection of documents,

1:05:56 > 1:06:00some of them drafted by the CIA, some drafted in the White House.

1:06:00 > 1:06:03It's important to focus on the Iran-Contra scandal

1:06:03 > 1:06:07because it is the biggest window we have into the way Ronald Reagan thought.

1:06:07 > 1:06:11Within hours of that plane being shot down,

1:06:11 > 1:06:15George Bush's office received a telephone call

1:06:15 > 1:06:18from a resupply operative stating that the plane was missing,

1:06:18 > 1:06:21and the CIA station chief in neighbouring Costa Rica

1:06:21 > 1:06:24sent a coded message to Washington warning that

1:06:24 > 1:06:28"the situation requires we do necessary damage control."

1:06:28 > 1:06:34The sole surviving crew member, Eugene Hasenfus, was beyond US control.

1:06:34 > 1:06:37When Eugene Hasenfus was shot down by the Sandinistas,

1:06:37 > 1:06:40it was the beginning of the end of the Iran-Contra affair

1:06:40 > 1:06:42and the beginning of public awareness

1:06:42 > 1:06:44of what the scandal was.

1:06:44 > 1:06:49Before long, his Nicaraguan captors had placed him in front of television cameras

1:06:49 > 1:06:51to tell the world the story of the US government

1:06:51 > 1:06:54covert arms resupply operation for the Contras.

1:06:54 > 1:06:58My name is Gene Hasenfus. I come from Marinette Wisconsin.

1:06:58 > 1:07:04The government of Nicaragua has shot down an American-manned aircraft...

1:07:04 > 1:07:07The wreckage of an American cargo plane...

1:07:07 > 1:07:09- How they treating you? - My treatment here is fine.

1:07:09 > 1:07:12Interrogations? Long ones?

1:07:12 > 1:07:16No, not long, just every day a little bit here and there.

1:07:16 > 1:07:18What is it they're after?

1:07:18 > 1:07:22They want to know who I work for and why.

1:07:22 > 1:07:25- OK, so do we.- Good luck.

1:07:25 > 1:07:27My name is Robert Parry.

1:07:27 > 1:07:30I was the first reporter to write about the mysterious activities

1:07:30 > 1:07:34of the marine officer in the Reagan White House named Oliver North

1:07:34 > 1:07:37who was operating in an unusual way in Central America.

1:07:37 > 1:07:40After the Hasenfus plane was shot down,

1:07:40 > 1:07:42there is an immediate effort to cover it up.

1:07:42 > 1:07:46Is there US involvement in this flight over Nicaragua?

1:07:46 > 1:07:50I'm glad you asked. Absolutely none.

1:07:50 > 1:07:53This man is not working for the United States government.

1:07:53 > 1:07:55Clearly there were connections to the flight.

1:07:55 > 1:07:59Hasenfus provides a great deal of information

1:07:59 > 1:08:02about how this operation was being supported by,

1:08:02 > 1:08:06not only the CIA, but Vice-President George HW Bush's office.

1:08:06 > 1:08:11On that day in October, in the debris in the jungle,

1:08:11 > 1:08:14peeked up some inconvenient truths about what was going on.

1:08:14 > 1:08:19In the debris are little pieces of paper, business cards, flight logs.

1:08:19 > 1:08:23The Sandinistas, newspaper reporters looked at that stuff

1:08:23 > 1:08:27and found the business cards of retired CIA agents,

1:08:27 > 1:08:31retired generals, contractors for the US government,

1:08:31 > 1:08:34the people who had the aid contracts from the State Department

1:08:34 > 1:08:36to deliver aid to refugees.

1:08:36 > 1:08:39Looks like the very same planes were also moving arms to the Contras.

1:08:39 > 1:08:42The connections were like a spider web.

1:08:42 > 1:08:44From the beginning of the Reagan years,

1:08:44 > 1:08:46they had this huge concern about Central America.

1:08:46 > 1:08:50Because they saw the Soviet Union as trying to create a beach-head

1:08:50 > 1:08:53inside places like Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala.

1:08:53 > 1:08:57So the Reagan administration organised a group called the Contras.

1:08:57 > 1:09:00The CIA under Reagan helps fund it, going into Nicaragua,

1:09:00 > 1:09:04carrying out a number of atrocities against the Nicaraguan people.

1:09:04 > 1:09:08The United States put itself in a position of supporting a ruthless group.

1:09:08 > 1:09:12The Reagan presentation of the Contras was as heroes, freedom fighters.

1:09:12 > 1:09:14They are the moral equal of our founding fathers.

1:09:14 > 1:09:16We cannot turn away from them.

1:09:17 > 1:09:20Viva Reagan! Viva Reagan!

1:09:20 > 1:09:22That was obviously not true.

1:09:22 > 1:09:26The Contras were assassinating people, obviously corrupt.

1:09:26 > 1:09:28They were violating human rights.

1:09:28 > 1:09:30So Congress cut off the aid.

1:09:30 > 1:09:35Congress voted two laws that put the lid on aid to the Contras.

1:09:35 > 1:09:39It said no more aid to the Contras.

1:09:39 > 1:09:44The top officials of the Reagan administration get together with the President of the White House.

1:09:44 > 1:09:46"Congress is cutting off aid!"

1:09:46 > 1:09:49We have the transcript of what they said to each other.

1:09:49 > 1:09:51The list of who's there is everybody at the top.

1:09:51 > 1:09:56The President, Vice-President, head of the CIA, Secretary of Defence, Secretary of State, Chief of Staff.

1:09:56 > 1:09:59Ronald Reagan says, "We're going to go raise money for the Contras,"

1:09:59 > 1:10:02but the top advisers tell him this is illegal.

1:10:02 > 1:10:04It is an impeachable offence.

1:10:04 > 1:10:06But Reagan says, "I don't care."

1:10:06 > 1:10:09He ends the meeting with a wonderful quote.

1:10:09 > 1:10:13Reagan says, "If such a story gets out, we will all be hanging

1:10:13 > 1:10:16"by our thumbs in front of the White House until we find out who did it."

1:10:16 > 1:10:19What the Reagan administration came up with was a way

1:10:19 > 1:10:23to get around the power of the purse-strings held by Congress.

1:10:23 > 1:10:29It said to itself, let's use other sources of funding for our covert operations.

1:10:29 > 1:10:30One source, private donors.

1:10:30 > 1:10:34Second source, go to foreign countries.

1:10:34 > 1:10:38And finally, and trickiest of all, let's use the proceeds

1:10:38 > 1:10:43of one covert operation to support another covert operation.

1:10:43 > 1:10:47At that point, while we had inclinations about Oliver North's

1:10:47 > 1:10:51role in Nicaragua, I wasn't aware that he was sending weapons to Iran.

1:10:51 > 1:10:57That comes out in November of '86 when a Lebanese newspaper first writes that story.

1:10:57 > 1:11:02This is when the Contra side intersects with the Iran side.

1:11:02 > 1:11:08A number of American hostages had been taken by Islamic extremists in Lebanon.

1:11:08 > 1:11:13Ronald Reagan had been most adamant against negotiations with terrorists.

1:11:13 > 1:11:17Let me make it plain to the assassins in Beirut and their accomplices

1:11:17 > 1:11:20that America will never make concessions to terrorists.

1:11:20 > 1:11:24But when he met those families of the people being held in Lebanon,

1:11:24 > 1:11:28he reacted to them and said, "I'll do whatever it takes to get these people out."

1:11:28 > 1:11:30Everybody, sit down.

1:11:30 > 1:11:33These hostages in Lebanon gnawed at him.

1:11:33 > 1:11:35And people came to him in

1:11:35 > 1:11:37his National Security Council

1:11:37 > 1:11:41and said, "We have information that leads us to believe

1:11:41 > 1:11:45"that we can have a change in our relationship with Iran if we sell them some arms.

1:11:45 > 1:11:50"And by the way, Mr President, we'll also get our hostages back."

1:11:50 > 1:11:54We think the most effective work is behind the scenes...

1:11:54 > 1:11:58"But it's against our policy to sell them arms.

1:11:58 > 1:12:01"It's against our policy to trade for hostages."

1:12:01 > 1:12:04This is a page out of the diary of the Secretary of Defence

1:12:04 > 1:12:07under Ronald Reagan, Caspar Weinberger.

1:12:07 > 1:12:10He took notes every day and then hid them from the investigators

1:12:10 > 1:12:12when the Iran-Contra scandal broke.

1:12:12 > 1:12:16Only years later, did we find out what he had written down.

1:12:16 > 1:12:20What he had written down was the direct words of the President, Ronald Reagan.

1:12:20 > 1:12:23When the top people in the US government looked the President in the eye

1:12:23 > 1:12:25over a table at the White House and said,

1:12:25 > 1:12:27"Mr President, we ship these arms to Iran,

1:12:27 > 1:12:30"trading for the hostages, that breaks the law.

1:12:30 > 1:12:32"It's illegal. It's a felony,"

1:12:32 > 1:12:38The President says, "I can deal with charges of criminality, but I can't deal with the American people.

1:12:38 > 1:12:41"Big, strong President Reagan - I'm going to do everything I could to get those hostages out."

1:12:41 > 1:12:43Whether it was the right thing or the wrong thing to do,

1:12:43 > 1:12:48it was motivated in his mind, I am quite sure, by that sense of, "I am a lifeguard.

1:12:48 > 1:12:51"It is my job to get these people back. They are Americans, they are my people."

1:12:51 > 1:12:57We are a nation of laws. If the President can break the law, then we are not a nation of laws any more.

1:12:59 > 1:13:01The charge has been made that the United States

1:13:01 > 1:13:07has shipped weapons to Iran as ransom payment for the release of American hostages in Lebanon, that

1:13:07 > 1:13:14the United States undercut its allies and secretly violated American policy against trafficking with terrorists.

1:13:14 > 1:13:16Those charges are utterly false.

1:13:16 > 1:13:23We did not - repeat, did not - trade weapons or anything else for hostages.

1:13:23 > 1:13:28As it happened, when the first arms deliveries were made, the middleman

1:13:28 > 1:13:32had overcharged the Iranians for what the missiles were worth.

1:13:32 > 1:13:34So there was a huge surplus.

1:13:34 > 1:13:37Oliver North looked at that surplus and said,

1:13:37 > 1:13:41"Nobody can account for that money.

1:13:41 > 1:13:45"What if we use that surplus to help resupply the Contras?"

1:13:45 > 1:13:49- Hold it.- Did you make a mistake in sending arms to Tehran, sir?

1:13:49 > 1:13:51No, and I'm not taking any more questions.

1:13:51 > 1:13:56In the fall of 1986, Iran and Contra came together

1:13:56 > 1:14:00when the President comes down to the White House briefing room and says, "Oops, there has been a little

1:14:00 > 1:14:08"mixing of funds between these arms arrangements, which were not really to trade for hostages!

1:14:08 > 1:14:10"And to take care of the Contras, which wasn't really illegal,

1:14:10 > 1:14:11"but I'll let Ed Meese tell you about it."

1:14:11 > 1:14:16Certain monies, which were received in the transaction

1:14:16 > 1:14:21between representatives of Israel and representatives of Iran

1:14:21 > 1:14:24were taken

1:14:24 > 1:14:30and made available to the forces in Central America,

1:14:30 > 1:14:34which are opposing the Sandinista government there.

1:14:34 > 1:14:38There are incredible documents where in meetings with Schultz and Weinberger and others, as part

1:14:38 > 1:14:41of the cover-up, the President says, "We never traded arms for hostages,"

1:14:41 > 1:14:44and Schultz says, "Excuse me, Mr President,

1:14:44 > 1:14:45"we did."

1:14:46 > 1:14:49It was a devastating charge.

1:14:49 > 1:14:57That was the one time in Reagan's presidency when I thought that he seemed not to have his footing.

1:14:57 > 1:15:02A few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages.

1:15:02 > 1:15:06My heart and my best intentions still tell me that's true.

1:15:06 > 1:15:09The facts and the evidence tell me it is not.

1:15:09 > 1:15:14That was the most difficult period of his presidency and my guess is, of his entire political career.

1:15:14 > 1:15:17The charge went to his integrity.

1:15:17 > 1:15:18How could all of this be taking place?

1:15:18 > 1:15:23Millions and millions of dollars, without you having known about it.

1:15:23 > 1:15:25Andrea, I don't believe...

1:15:25 > 1:15:28I was aware that there are private groups and private individuals in this country.

1:15:28 > 1:15:30I don't believe it was counter to our law.

1:15:30 > 1:15:35Iran Contra was the first real crack in Reagan's image.

1:15:35 > 1:15:39Up until that point, the coverage he was getting was really adulatory.

1:15:39 > 1:15:45In your heart, do you feel you were right or wrong in selling arms to Iran?

1:15:45 > 1:15:50We had quite a debate. It was true that two of our Cabinet members were very much on the other side.

1:15:50 > 1:15:54It turned out they were right because, as I say, it did deteriorate.

1:15:54 > 1:15:56How could this man, who was such a great leader,

1:15:56 > 1:16:01trade arms for hostages to fund off the books foreign policy?

1:16:01 > 1:16:03This is clearly illegal.

1:16:03 > 1:16:0890% of the American people believed that was wrong.

1:16:08 > 1:16:1190% of American people don't agree on anything.

1:16:11 > 1:16:16It was clear that the White House, under Ronald Reagan, had systematically gone about

1:16:16 > 1:16:21thwarting the will of Congress in raising funds that Congress said shouldn't be raised.

1:16:24 > 1:16:26Going into the conventional hearings, when it became clear the President of the

1:16:26 > 1:16:31United States could be impeached. The President's advisers try to figure out how we can spin

1:16:31 > 1:16:35this so they refocused all of our intention on to the one part

1:16:35 > 1:16:38of the Iran Contra operations that they can prove President Reagan

1:16:38 > 1:16:45wasn't specifically briefed on - Oliver North and the diversion of funds from Iran to the Contras.

1:16:45 > 1:16:47I don't think it was wrong.

1:16:47 > 1:16:50I think it was a neat idea.

1:16:50 > 1:16:56Oliver North, later in his trial said, and this sums it up, the diversion was a diversion.

1:16:56 > 1:17:00Congress met three months and fizzled out.

1:17:02 > 1:17:06It's his responsibility. Whether he knew or didn't know, whether he was

1:17:06 > 1:17:10gullible or naive or maligned, it's still his responsibility.

1:17:10 > 1:17:13Now what should happen when you make a mistake is this.

1:17:13 > 1:17:18You take your knocks, you learn your lessons and then you move on.

1:17:18 > 1:17:20That's the healthiest way to deal with the problem.

1:17:20 > 1:17:24What Ronald Reagan did was to pervert the US constitution.

1:17:24 > 1:17:27It happened on his watch. It's his responsibility.

1:17:27 > 1:17:30He's my father and I love him.

1:17:30 > 1:17:32We all defend him.

1:17:32 > 1:17:36I'm not going to sell him out or down the river or anything like that.

1:17:36 > 1:17:39At the same time, he was the President of the United States.

1:17:39 > 1:17:41As the President of the United States you are accountable -

1:17:41 > 1:17:45you have to be held accountable - even by your own family, by your own son.

1:17:49 > 1:17:53I'm Edmund Morris and I spent 14 years researching and writing

1:17:53 > 1:17:55a life of Reagan with his co-operation.

1:17:55 > 1:17:59How did you your thing with Mr Morris work?

1:18:01 > 1:18:04Did he just ask if he could do that or what?

1:18:04 > 1:18:07I think somebody does this.

1:18:07 > 1:18:09This is the official biography, so...

1:18:09 > 1:18:13- Is there some committee that decides on it?- It must be.

1:18:13 > 1:18:17The difficulty about figuring Reagan out was he was not introspective.

1:18:17 > 1:18:22Therefore, to try to interview this guy, who was so incurious about himself, was very unrewarding.

1:18:22 > 1:18:26He would tend to take refuge behind anecdotes and jokes.

1:18:26 > 1:18:29You heard I'm sure that I like to tell an anecdote or two.

1:18:29 > 1:18:34When I tried to probe him about fundamental things, his religious beliefs, his feelings about

1:18:34 > 1:18:42women and children, I just got this echoing sound that I was talking into a large, rather cool cave.

1:18:42 > 1:18:45There was a kind of wall between Reagan and everybody else.

1:18:45 > 1:18:50Nancy Reagan herself said Reagan never got very close to anybody.

1:18:50 > 1:18:55- That he didn't let others get close to him.- He had great capacity for exuding affection.

1:18:55 > 1:19:00The American people, when they were addressed by him, would feel this benign warmth

1:19:00 > 1:19:04but when you were alone with him, he became surprisingly ordinary.

1:19:04 > 1:19:07You don't hear this much any more but Reagan's critics,

1:19:07 > 1:19:09certainly back in the '80s and even in the 1990s,

1:19:09 > 1:19:11would describe him as an amiable dunce.

1:19:11 > 1:19:17Somebody who floated through eight years in the presidency and was mostly clueless.

1:19:17 > 1:19:18That's clearly wrong.

1:19:18 > 1:19:20I think it was a role he played.

1:19:20 > 1:19:25I think he was a canny guy who knew how to change when the situation changed.

1:19:28 > 1:19:33Well, I hope I've answered your questions as best I could, given the very little I know.

1:19:33 > 1:19:38There was a Saturday night skit that really captured him, where he's this jovial, amiable fellow.

1:19:38 > 1:19:41Ho, ho, ho!

1:19:41 > 1:19:47Well, you're that good a sales lady, maybe I could use you up on Capitol Hill.

1:19:47 > 1:19:48Then you get serious with a bom, bom, bom, bom. Bye-bye.

1:19:48 > 1:19:52Deadly serious in substance. Back to work!

1:19:52 > 1:19:53LAUGHTER

1:19:53 > 1:19:58That's the fundamental paradox of Ronald Reagan because it's both Saturday Night Live portraits.

1:19:58 > 1:20:04That ambling, fumbling kind of guy, who's basically reading a script that his staff give him,

1:20:04 > 1:20:07and the guy, when the door closes, picks up the phone and orders missile parts.

1:20:07 > 1:20:11- Banks will be opening in Zurich right about now.- He's both.

1:20:13 > 1:20:19If he knew him personally, he was a really gentle sort of soul.

1:20:19 > 1:20:25Spent a lot of time thinking, spent a lot of time in his own head but there are some odd disconnects.

1:20:25 > 1:20:27# When you were young... #

1:20:27 > 1:20:29AIDS, for instance.

1:20:29 > 1:20:31His administration did respond too slowly.

1:20:31 > 1:20:33DEMONSTRATORS: Stop AIDS now!

1:20:33 > 1:20:36Tens of thousands of people were dying and millions were becoming infected.

1:20:36 > 1:20:42Mr Reagan would not say the word AIDS for the first seven years of his entire administration.

1:20:42 > 1:20:45It wasn't until my mother and I

1:20:45 > 1:20:49began to talk to him about this and kind of clue him in

1:20:49 > 1:20:50that there's something really big

1:20:50 > 1:20:53happening out there and it's going to start affecting your friends.

1:20:53 > 1:20:58# But only love can break... #

1:20:58 > 1:20:59Just what is wrong with Rock Hudson?

1:20:59 > 1:21:03Tonight, the 59-year-old actor remains in a Paris hospital...

1:21:03 > 1:21:11Now, Rock Hudson, somebody he knows, somebody he admired, a fellow actor, is dead. If you can personalise

1:21:11 > 1:21:16something from my father. If you can put a face to it, that really captivates him.

1:21:16 > 1:21:21As soon as the individual becomes the group and becomes abstract, then not quite so much.

1:21:21 > 1:21:25Particularly when you are seeing people as a class - the poor.

1:21:25 > 1:21:29There are 33 million Americans who live below the poverty line -

1:21:29 > 1:21:32that is 7 million more than when Mr Reagan was first elected.

1:21:32 > 1:21:39I think he was vulnerable to the idea that poor people are somehow poor because it's their fault.

1:21:39 > 1:21:42The homeless who are homeless, you might say, by choice.

1:21:42 > 1:21:43Hard to figure, really.

1:21:43 > 1:21:45I've never quite figured that one out.

1:21:45 > 1:21:51Remember that his father and brother were put to work by the Roosevelt administration during the Depression

1:21:51 > 1:21:54in a way that saved their family financially.

1:21:54 > 1:21:57So you want to say gee, these programmes

1:21:57 > 1:22:01you see as socialistic now kept your family's head above water

1:22:01 > 1:22:05so was it good then but not good now?

1:22:07 > 1:22:13There are multiple truths about Reagan but on the subjects that Reagan really cared about -

1:22:13 > 1:22:17individual hostages, maybe those freedom fighters in Nicaragua,

1:22:17 > 1:22:22taxes, nuclear weapons, those big things, he pushed.

1:22:22 > 1:22:23He cared about.

1:22:26 > 1:22:29# Hast du etwas Zeit fur mich

1:22:29 > 1:22:32# Dann singe ich ein Lied fur dich

1:22:32 > 1:22:36# Von 99 Luftballons

1:22:36 > 1:22:38# Auf ihrem weg zum Horizont

1:22:38 > 1:22:41# Denkst du vielleicht g'rad an mich

1:22:42 > 1:22:45# Dann singe ich ein Lied fur dich

1:22:45 > 1:22:48# Von 99 Luftballons

1:22:48 > 1:22:52# Und das sowas von sowas kommt... #

1:22:58 > 1:23:01Because of Reagan's bellicose foreign-policy and in particular

1:23:01 > 1:23:04the nuclear sabre rattling with the Soviet Union,

1:23:04 > 1:23:10we came very, very close to a nuclear war in the 1980s.

1:23:10 > 1:23:16Reagan's rhetoric on nuclear weapons begins to change in early 1984.

1:23:16 > 1:23:18He is preparing to run for re-election, there are

1:23:18 > 1:23:23political reasons to do it, but it begins to take on a life of its own.

1:23:23 > 1:23:29We must and will engage the Soviets in a dialogue as seriously constructive as possible.

1:23:29 > 1:23:32I see him there turning the corner rhetorically.

1:23:32 > 1:23:38All the evil empire talk went away and Reagan starts talking about peace.

1:23:38 > 1:23:41As I've said before, my dream is to see the day

1:23:41 > 1:23:45when nuclear weapons will be banished from the face of the Earth.

1:23:45 > 1:23:49During Reagan's first term, there was a series of three old presidents in the Soviet Union,

1:23:49 > 1:23:51Brezhnev, Chernenko and Andropov,

1:23:51 > 1:23:53all of whom died in short order.

1:23:53 > 1:23:55Then along came Gorbachev.

1:23:55 > 1:23:58Mikhail Gorbachev was a reformer.

1:23:58 > 1:24:03Ronald Reagan believed that Gorbachev was someone he could do business with.

1:24:03 > 1:24:07Reagan proceeds into diplomacy with Gorbachev,

1:24:07 > 1:24:10into summits with Gorbachev and arms control agreements with Gorbachev.

1:24:10 > 1:24:14"This is the beginning of our work," says Mr Gorbachev.

1:24:14 > 1:24:17Gorbachev ultimately says that he is willing to consider

1:24:17 > 1:24:20dramatically reducing, or even giving up nuclear weapons.

1:24:20 > 1:24:26All of this is conditional on the US agreeing to limit,

1:24:26 > 1:24:29or give up Star Wars, the Strategic Defence Initiative.

1:24:29 > 1:24:31And Reagan is not willing to do this.

1:24:31 > 1:24:33Though we've put on the table the most far-reaching

1:24:33 > 1:24:40arms control proposal in history, the General Secretary rejected it.

1:24:40 > 1:24:45They've come this close to agreeing to abolish nuclear weapons in 20 years, this close.

1:24:45 > 1:24:51Even though the agreements were never consummated that was a major achievement, a strong step.

1:24:51 > 1:24:55The Cold War was going to end but it ended the way it did

1:24:55 > 1:24:59with a whimper, not with a bang, in part because Reagan had the wit

1:24:59 > 1:25:05to respond to gestures that Gorbachev was making.

1:25:05 > 1:25:07GORBACHEV SPEAKS RUSSIAN

1:25:07 > 1:25:09- TRANSLATOR:- Do you recognise President Reagan?

1:25:12 > 1:25:15GORBACHEV SPEAKS RUSSIAN

1:25:15 > 1:25:18CAMERAS WHIR

1:25:18 > 1:25:21APPLAUSE

1:25:21 > 1:25:28In the spring of 1987, as a speechwriter for President Reagan, I was assigned a big speech.

1:25:28 > 1:25:30At one point I put...

1:25:30 > 1:25:34"Herr Gorbachev, machen Sie dieses Tor auf."

1:25:34 > 1:25:35My boss said,

1:25:35 > 1:25:38"Peter, when you're working for

1:25:38 > 1:25:40"the President of the US, give him those big lines in English."

1:25:40 > 1:25:44Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

1:25:44 > 1:25:46CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

1:25:46 > 1:25:49I come to Berlin,

1:25:49 > 1:25:51as so many of my countrymen have come before.

1:25:51 > 1:25:56This city, of all cities, knows the dream of freedom.

1:25:56 > 1:25:58It's amazing when he started this journey,

1:25:58 > 1:26:03that I and my father, that we would be in Berlin, in this place, the Checkpoint Charlie Museum,

1:26:03 > 1:26:09where in 1982 my father jumped over the white line and then jumped back

1:26:09 > 1:26:10because he didn't believe there should be borders.

1:26:10 > 1:26:15When Ronald Reagan gave that speech, hard as it is to believe today, he was getting a lot of criticism

1:26:15 > 1:26:20from American conservatives saying that by talking to Gorbachev and by having these summit meetings,

1:26:20 > 1:26:23like the Reykjavik summit, that he was an appeaser on the scale of Neville Chamberlain.

1:26:23 > 1:26:26And yet that speech has become the centrepiece of

1:26:26 > 1:26:30the conservative legend of how Ronald Reagan won the Cold War.

1:26:30 > 1:26:34He was the one to make sure they were able to finally become free.

1:26:34 > 1:26:38Basically, he said, "Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall." Two years later the wall came down,

1:26:38 > 1:26:43when, of course, the reality of how the Cold War ended is much more complicated than that.

1:26:43 > 1:26:48To me it's the core of how much of what people know about Ronald Reagan today is mythological.

1:26:48 > 1:26:51If people would listen to where I stand on the issues

1:26:51 > 1:26:55I think they will find out this is a false image

1:26:55 > 1:26:58that is being created, or they are attempting to create,

1:26:58 > 1:27:00with regards to me.

1:27:00 > 1:27:04That seems to be the modern dialogue in politics, not to dispute you on

1:27:04 > 1:27:08what you honestly believe but to create a false image,

1:27:08 > 1:27:10to invest you with beliefs that aren't yours.

1:27:13 > 1:27:17Ronald Reagan said we're going to have such a strong military we'll out compete the Soviets, and he did.

1:27:17 > 1:27:22He said we are going to have such strong families that the values of Americans

1:27:22 > 1:27:25will shine as an example for the entire world to see, and he did that.

1:27:25 > 1:27:28Yes, a giant mythology has developed.

1:27:28 > 1:27:32What we believe in is what Ronald Reagan believes in.

1:27:32 > 1:27:36Developed by people who want to control the direction of national affairs.

1:27:36 > 1:27:39Who is your favourite Republican President?

1:27:39 > 1:27:40Ronald Reagan. Easy one.

1:27:40 > 1:27:42Grover Norquist and his allies are myth-makers.

1:27:42 > 1:27:44They are trying to finish a revolution

1:27:44 > 1:27:46they feel Reagan started.

1:27:46 > 1:27:50- Reagan of course.- Of course. He's a name that's worth invoking.

1:27:50 > 1:27:52I remember when Ronald Reagan...

1:27:52 > 1:27:56They want to impute to him qualities he didn't possess.

1:27:56 > 1:28:04Profound wisdom, deep religiosity, love of all human beings. Reagan was much more muted than that.

1:28:04 > 1:28:09The GOP's Purity Test, the draft resolution written as a tribute to President Reagan

1:28:09 > 1:28:11but frankly even he wouldn't meet all these qualifications -

1:28:11 > 1:28:13he raised taxes, he grew the deficit...

1:28:13 > 1:28:15There's a long list of things people say Ronald Reagan did

1:28:15 > 1:28:18that in some cases are just the exact opposite.

1:28:18 > 1:28:22His name is invoked, for example, to back up the current anti-immigration policies of Republicans

1:28:22 > 1:28:26and in fact, Reagan created amnesty for 2.6 million illegal immigrants.

1:28:26 > 1:28:28I believe in the idea of amnesty.

1:28:28 > 1:28:32I can't tell you the number of candidates I have seen he said their reasons for getting into government

1:28:32 > 1:28:35was they wanted to reduce the size of government like Ronald Reagan did. People don't realise that

1:28:35 > 1:28:39the size of the government grew under Ronald Reagan, the number of federal employees grew.

1:28:39 > 1:28:41Ronald Reagan's legacy is complicated.

1:28:41 > 1:28:43By trying to understand the complexities

1:28:43 > 1:28:44of Reagan and his presidency

1:28:44 > 1:28:47instead of the mythological version of Ronald Reagan

1:28:47 > 1:28:48it gives us some better ideas

1:28:48 > 1:28:50about how to move forward as a country.

1:28:50 > 1:28:52Ronald Reagan as an idea,

1:28:52 > 1:28:55as an ideology,

1:28:55 > 1:28:58as an intellectual tradition

1:28:58 > 1:29:00is very powerful.

1:29:00 > 1:29:04And sadly, particularly in regard to the financial sector, very dangerous.

1:29:04 > 1:29:06Uncle Sam is feeling the pinch of a failing economy.

1:29:06 > 1:29:09The federal budget deficit will be more than a trillion dollars next year.

1:29:09 > 1:29:14The reason, for example, why we continue to struggle with our

1:29:14 > 1:29:18budget deficits is because Ronald Reagan legitimised them.

1:29:18 > 1:29:23If you think having uncontrolled deficits is OK, or even a good idea,

1:29:23 > 1:29:27or even something we put over on the rest of the world, then perhaps you feel good about Reagan.

1:29:27 > 1:29:31But the evidence consistently around the world is if you run a big budget deficit,

1:29:31 > 1:29:36it catches up with you, it does not matter how good you make people feel about your country,

1:29:36 > 1:29:39whether you talk grandly on the international stage.

1:29:39 > 1:29:42At the end of the day, can you pay your bills?

1:29:42 > 1:29:45I've been asked if I have any regrets. Well, I do.

1:29:45 > 1:29:47The deficit is one.

1:29:47 > 1:29:50Reagan was flesh, he was not marble.

1:29:50 > 1:29:55He was an impressive, successful President for the most part, but he was not a god.

1:29:55 > 1:29:59To turn him into a marble idol, to have his name inscribed on airports,

1:29:59 > 1:30:05monuments and all of the 50 states and on 50-bills is turning him

1:30:05 > 1:30:09into an icon for the convenience of the modern conservative movement.

1:30:22 > 1:30:26In 1980, I voted for Ronald Reagan because I was a serving soldier

1:30:26 > 1:30:31and Ronald Reagan was the guy who was going to redress the ills of the United States military.

1:30:31 > 1:30:35I voted for him again in 1984 because he seemed to be making good on that promise.

1:30:35 > 1:30:40I think he was the most skilful politician of our time.

1:30:40 > 1:30:44What I would say retrospect is that I cast my vote

1:30:44 > 1:30:49without having a proper appreciation of the issues of the moment.

1:30:51 > 1:30:55We've given the American people back their spirit

1:30:55 > 1:31:00and I think we're in a position once again to heed the words of Thomas Paine...

1:31:00 > 1:31:02"We have it in our power

1:31:02 > 1:31:05"to begin the world over again."

1:31:05 > 1:31:11That was Reagan, that's what Reagan had on offer in the 1970s and 1980s.

1:31:12 > 1:31:15Which basically says that...

1:31:19 > 1:31:22Well, circumstance doesn't matter.

1:31:22 > 1:31:29The accumulation of history over the previous century or two centuries doesn't matter.

1:31:29 > 1:31:35We can choose anything we want and it will be ours.

1:31:39 > 1:31:41It's nonsense.

1:31:41 > 1:31:42We can't start the world all over again.

1:31:42 > 1:31:49Next Tuesday is election day. Next Tuesday all of you will go to the polls and make a decision.

1:31:49 > 1:31:54My bottom line judgment of Jimmy Carter really doesn't depart from the conventional wisdom,

1:31:54 > 1:31:57that I think he was a failure as a president.

1:31:57 > 1:32:01That said, there was a moment when he, however briefly,

1:32:01 > 1:32:06grasped a central truth about the American predicament.

1:32:06 > 1:32:08It's clear

1:32:08 > 1:32:10that the true problems of our nation

1:32:10 > 1:32:15are much deeper than gasoline lines, or energy shortages, deeper even

1:32:15 > 1:32:17than inflation, or recession.

1:32:17 > 1:32:21The problems we face are not out there.

1:32:23 > 1:32:26The problems we face are in here.

1:32:26 > 1:32:30We have committed ourselves to the pursuit of freedom

1:32:30 > 1:32:34where our definition of freedom is simply false.

1:32:34 > 1:32:40We have convinced ourselves that through the piling up of material goods, indulging the appetites of

1:32:40 > 1:32:42a consumer society,

1:32:42 > 1:32:47that by going down that road, we will best be able to find life, liberty and happiness.

1:32:47 > 1:32:52Carter argued our dependence on oil was central to this and it would

1:32:52 > 1:32:58lead us down the path toward interventionism and conflict.

1:32:58 > 1:33:04Ronald Reagan said, "You don't have to sacrifice, you don't have to make do.

1:33:04 > 1:33:07"You don't have to get by with less.

1:33:07 > 1:33:09"There's plenty of oil.

1:33:09 > 1:33:12"There's an infinite supply, trust me."

1:33:26 > 1:33:30In his final letter to the American people, Dad wrote...

1:33:30 > 1:33:35"I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life."

1:33:39 > 1:33:42Dementia came on him very suddenly.

1:33:42 > 1:33:48At a birthday party of Reagan's he stood up and gave us a speech, "In the dark days of 1983, when

1:33:48 > 1:33:55"I was president of the US, there was only one leader of the Western world who stood with me as

1:33:55 > 1:33:58"a bulwark against the threat of international communism.

1:33:58 > 1:34:02"That was my good friend Maggie Thatcher."

1:34:02 > 1:34:04So we all stood up and applauded.

1:34:04 > 1:34:08And then Reagan says, "In the dark days of 1983..."

1:34:08 > 1:34:12And he went through exactly the same speech again.

1:34:12 > 1:34:17We learned, as too many other families have learned, of the terrible pain

1:34:17 > 1:34:24and loneliness that must be endured as each day brings another reminder of this very long goodbye.

1:34:24 > 1:34:30Less than a year later he wrote that extremely poignant letter to the American people

1:34:30 > 1:34:36telling them that he was suffering from Alzheimer's, that he was, in effect, retiring from public life.

1:34:36 > 1:34:42And then the stories and the poignant little episodes began to proliferate.

1:34:42 > 1:34:50And one of the saddest was when he came home one lunchtime with something clutched in his hand.

1:34:50 > 1:34:53Nancy noticed that his hand was wet.

1:34:53 > 1:34:55She said Ronnie, "What are you holding?"

1:34:55 > 1:34:59She pried his fingers open and inside

1:34:59 > 1:35:04was a little model, a little ceramic model of the White House

1:35:04 > 1:35:08that had been sitting in the fish tank in his office

1:35:08 > 1:35:14and he'd stuck his hand in there and plucked this little White House out and brought it home.

1:35:15 > 1:35:18She said what are you doing with that in your hand and he said,

1:35:18 > 1:35:22"I don't know but it's something to do with me."

1:35:22 > 1:35:25History will record his worth as a leader.

1:35:25 > 1:35:31We here have long since measured his worth as a man.

1:35:31 > 1:35:37Those of us who knew him well will have no trouble imagining his paradise.

1:35:37 > 1:35:42Golden fields will spread beneath the blue dome of a western sky.

1:35:42 > 1:35:46Live oaks will shadow the rolling hillsides

1:35:46 > 1:35:51and some place, flowing from years long past,

1:35:51 > 1:35:54a river will wind towards the sea.

1:35:54 > 1:35:59He will let the river carry him over the shining stones,

1:35:59 > 1:36:03he will rest in the shade of the trees.

1:36:03 > 1:36:06Our cares are no longer his.

1:36:06 > 1:36:10We meet him now only in memory.

1:36:10 > 1:36:14Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

1:36:14 > 1:36:18E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk