Chapter 1 | Part 1 | Reagan | American Experience | PBS

Reagan led a revolution based on a few simple ideals: to free Americans from big government and the world from communist oppression.

On the eve of his election, Ronald Reagan was asked, "What is it, governor, that people see in you?" He responded, "Would you laugh if I told you that they look at me and they see themselves?"

Ronald Reagan was America's most ideological president in his rhetoric, yet pragmatic in his actions. He believed in balanced budgets, but never submitted one; hated nuclear weapons, but built them by the thousands; preached family values, but presided over a dysfunctional family. His vision of America divided the nation, yet no matter what people thought of him politically, Reagan always won them over personally. A seemingly simple man, Ronald Reagan was consistently underestimated by his opponents; one by one, he overcame them all to become a president who always preferred to see America as a "shining city on a hill."

A look at Reagan's life through the testimony of family, friends, historians, biographers, Reagan was produced with unprecedented access to the Reagan family, including Nancy Reagan and three of Reagan's four children, biographer Edmund Morris and members of Reagan's inner political circle -- his "California Cabinet" -- and his counterparts on the world stage, including former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

[candicelockwood]

He was the ultimate leader during a time when we absolutely needed one…LIKE NOW!

[kevinneely]

I love this and all these presidential documentaries. But as I watch this I find it so hard to believe PBS won't go back and re-edit them. The world has become so polarized. Even historians now find it impossible to take a balanced appraisal, as this documentary does. I hope it never changes and they continue to produce these!!

[AustinB]

The 3rd greatest president in American history after Lincoln and Washington🇺🇸

[davidhickey]

GOD BLESS HIM BORN IN 1965 HE WAS AMAZING

[stacey_d]

I never realized how lucky we were to have him.

[michellen]

He was a and mortals could not understand him.... LOVED him....

[NoNameNo.]

Even liberal American Experience can’t rip the man, Dutch Reagan was a Patriot!

[mmlas]

I have mixed feelings about him. He was a great defender of freedom & contributed to the end of the cold war. He was also corrupt (iran contra) & deliberately ignored the AIDS crisis.

[NoNameNo.]

They couldn’t figure him out….because he was a stoic old school man, not a complainer

[benh]

I was born in 1988 and I consider Reagan top 3 best Presidents in American history.

[ricardocantoral]

I would say that this was a perfectly objective documentary. No veneration, no vilification, a fair look at Reagan's Presidency.


Edit: I think I shouldn't have said PERFECTLY objective. There's bias for the left but regardless, I think there is a healthy amount of objectivity.

[kathycaldwell]

It will always haunt me that I never voted for Reagan. Youth and inexperience, alas. Fortunately I’ve learned much since then....

[RW-zhkl]

How come Part 2 isn't available anywhere?? Part 1 just stops right in the middle.. im like 😡

[jrpark]

Best president in my lifetime, and it isn't close. The US established military and economic dominance in the 1980s. The debt is regrettable, but that was the price to pay to rebuild the US military, which had grown inferior to the Soviet Union in the 70s, and maintain Democrat domestic spending (for six of his eight years the House was controlled by the Democrat Party). Under his leadership the West reasserted itself as a beacon of freedom, drove the USSR economy and the state off the rails, communism became a joke internationally, and his domestic policies redefined wealth in America. Inflation and unemployment was cut in half from 1979-1988, and poverty in America was reduced by one third.

The left uses Iran Contra as a stick to beat over Reagan's head, but they refused him the funds to fight against the sandinistas in Nicaragua, all the while their leaders (such as Edward Kennedy) openly praised the Soviet Union. Like Reagan I wouldn't have let the leftist vermin allow communism to take control in central America, and I don't blame him or anyone in his administration for finding alternative funding streams to fight communism in the Western hemisphere. You'll also notice complete silence when these leftist vermin say nothing about the gun running scheme out of Benghazi into the hands of ISIS (cough cough Free Syrian Army cough cough), Fast and Furious, Waco, etc.

In other words, you can judge a president by the screeches of his opposition, and their phony and disingenuous wailing about Iran Contra, the debt, etc. are only because they didn't like his politics, his policies, his ability to call them out ruthlessly (with a smile), and to unabashedly believe, state and reassert that America is the greatest nation on earth, a shining city on a hill. Say that to a leftist and they will repel like a cat being doused with water. He brought America out of the doldrums of the 70s and the Carter years and reasserted it as the superpower and beacon of liberty worldwide.

[timothywilliams]

"He wrote checks to poor people while cutting benefits t millions." That is EXACTLY what he should have done, what we ALL should be doing. Charity is a local and private matter, not a matter of government entitlement. The welfare state has destroyed more families than drugs and crime.

[bumpkinskill]

Greatest president of the 20th century.

[ack]

a lot of dumb comments for such a smart and balanced documentary

[agwrrproductions]

Donald Trump doesn't hold a candle to this man. That's why I'm voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in 2024!

[rationalraven]

Is this a new episode or is it the same as the Reagan documentary that aired in 1998?

[MuneerAlrabadi-lqoq]

I and one of my eye tri he good for his contry