Plot Synopsis

Featuring interviews with those closest to President Ronald Reagan's decision-making on many key issues, THE REAGAN PRESIDENCY explores Reagan's work in the White House as he dealt with high unemployment, skyrocketing interest rates, a nation plunging into a recession, and the Cold War with the Soviet Union. With a scope limited to 1979-1989, this three-part series presents a non-political play-by-play of the presidency. Hour one features domestic issues ranging from candidate Reagan's controversial post-convention speech in Philadelphia, Mississippi, to tax decreases, tax increases, social security reform, immigration reform, tax reform, farm policy, and the president's appointment of the first female Supreme Court Justice. Interview subjects in hour one include Sandra Day O'Connor, Ed Meese, Walter Mondale, Andrew Young, Henry Cisneros, Bill Bradley, Gary Hart, Paul Volcker, Robert Reich, Martin Feldstein, and Douglas Brinkley. Hours two and three focus on the Reagan administration's foreign policy with detailed analysis of the role both Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev played in bringing an end to the Cold War. In addition to George Shultz and historians Douglas Brinkley, Kiron Skinner, and Richard Reeves, insights are gained through an international perspective that includes scholars and leaders from abroad, such as Oscar Arias Sanchez, Andrei Grachev, and Constanze Stelzenmuller. This series also provides significant new insights into President Reagan's Middle East policy and the birth of the so-called War on Terror. Robert "Bud" McFarlane, Sam Lewis, Condoleezza Rice, and Middle East experts Reza Aslan and Trita Parsi offer perspectives on the administration's role in the Lebanese civil war, the Iran-Iraq war, the birth of Hezbollah, and the Iran-Contra Affair. American Public Television distributed this series to local PBS stations, which could start airing it on New Year's Day 2013, and the actual premiere date varied from region to region because THE REAGAN PRESIDENCY had a local rollout rather than a national broadcast.