Ronald Reagan: The Life and Legacy

Examine the life of the 40th President of the United States, Ronald Wilson Reagan. From a small-town, Midwestern childhood spent moving from town to town, part one will chronicle the future President’s adolescent years, growing up under the shadow of an alcoholic father, barely able to support his family.

A look at Reagan’s early career as a radio announcer, before eventually moving on to have a successful acting career in Hollywood. Part two will also take a look at Reagan’s role as President of The Screen Actors Guild, including testifying before Joseph McCarthy’s infamous House Un-American Activities Committee about Communist activity within the film industry during the 1950s.

Part three in the series will track Reagan’s early political life, including his years spent as a staunch supporter of Franklin Roosevelt, before eventually switching parties and serving as the two-term Republican Governor of California during the unrest of the late 1960s.

During Reagan’s first term he appointment Sandra Day O’Conner to the Supreme Court, the first woman to hold the position. He also instated his supply-side economic theories sometimes called “The Trickle Down Theory”.

Reagan won reelection to his second term as President by the largest electoral margin in the history of the country. Part five of this series covers the Just Say No Campaign, bombing in Libya, the Challenger disaster along with other key moments of Reagan’s final years in the White House.

There is little argument that Ronald Reagan’s greatest accomplishment as President of the United States was putting an end to the 40-plus year Cold War. Part six covers the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Ronald Reagan’s impact and lasting legacy are the focus of this final episode along with his personal life, including his battle with Alzheimer’s disease.