All language subtitles for remux-The.Eighties.S01E02.WEBRip.x264-ION10_track3_[eng]

President Reagan:
In this present crisis,

government is not the solution
to our problem.

Government is the problem.

Mudd: If ever a policy reflected
a president's own character,

it is Reaganomics.

President Reagan:
We have faith in our program,
and we're sticking with it.

To the paid political
complainers, put up or shut up.

[ Gunshots ]

The president was hit.
Oh, my God!

The story from Middle East
sources is that Iran has helped

the United States free a hostage
from Lebanon.

President Reagan: They called it
the Reagan Revolution.

But for me, it always seemed

more like a rediscovery
of our values.

Once you begin a great movement,

there's no telling
where it'll end.

[ Crowd shouting
"We want Reagan!" ]

President Reagan:
Thank you.

[ Chanting continues ]

We're faced with
an unprecedented situation

in this country today --

Jimmy Carter's demonstrated
inability to govern our nation.

But I have faith
in the greatness

of the people of this country.

This country has everything
that it always had before,

except the leadership
in Washington

that this country requires.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Reagan put a lot of energy
and effort into 1980.

The economy had been through
a recession,

and in addition to that,

the United States
had been embarrassed

by the Iran hostage crisis.

The country wanted
to turn the corner,

and Ronald Reagan held
the promise of all of that.

Cronkite: America is turning
to a new political direction

for at least
the next four years --

to the right, Republican.

Ronald Reagan rode
an electoral vote landslide

to the White House,

and Republicans also
swept to control of the Senate

for the first time
in a quarter-century.

Baker: Reagan conveyed a sense
of optimism and hope.

The secret to his success was
that he made people feel good.

Hayward:
Even though Reagan had been
a fairly successful governor

of the largest state
in the union,

he was still doubted for his odd
background for a politician

as having been
a Hollywood actor.

And he was very controversial.

He took a lot
of outrageous positions.

President Reagan:
In this present crisis,

government is not
the solution to our problem.

Government is the problem.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Brands: For 50 years,
Americans had been looking

to government
to solve their problems.

When Reagan gave his speech,

that marked
a 180-degree turnaround

in the American
political conversation

in the trend
of American politics.

Can we solve the problems
confronting us?

Well, the answer is
an unequivocally emphatic "Yes."

And, after all,
why shouldn't we believe that?

We are Americans.

God bless you, and thank you.

[ Cheers and applause ]

We have a report.

I'm just told that
the Associated Press reports

that the hostages
are leaving Tehran.

They say that the hostages
are leaving the airport.

Halperin: For 444 days,

52 Americans were held
halfway around the world.

A sign of Carter's weakness,

and Reagan comes in,
and, poof, they're released.

They're free. They're free,
Mr. President.

They're free,
Mr. President.

We've had press reports
that they're free.

We've had
press reports.

What do you have to say
about that?

What do you
have to say, sir?

You could not have had

a more stunning beginning
to a presidency.

The whole last year
of the Carter administration

is defined by the hostages.

Now, in the first hour
of Reagan's administration,

they're free.

That's a case where the image
absolutely defines the reality.

[ Cheers, whistling ]

President Reagan:
I just won't call them hostages.
They were prisoners of war.

[ Crowd cheering ]

If the hostages
had not been released,

Reagan would have been forced
to focus on the hostage crisis.

With the hostages back, he was
free to focus on the economy.

Inflation and unemployment
are threatening

the American way of life
as never before,

and without a change of policy,

these intolerable conditions
will get even worse.

Inflation flared again
last month,

almost doubling the rate
of the month before.

In 1967, inflation was 2.9%.

Last year, it was 12.4%.

People were afraid.

People had begun to think

that America was in
a kind of relative decline.

Hayward:
We had high unemployment
and high inflation,

which at the time
was thought to be impossible

under the existing
economic orthodoxy.

So it required something new
to change that problem.

President Reagan:
If we can lower the rate of
increase in government spending,

up there ahead is daylight.

To date, we have found
72% of the savings

that we would have to achieve
in order to meet

that $53 billion
reduction target.

Reaganomics was basically
if you give what they call

the investing class the money,

then it would "trickle down"
to the bottom of the pile,

and cutting taxes
would increase revenues.

Reynolds:
The president spent the day
dealing with brush fires

on both the right and left
of his new plan for the economy.

The cuts he wants to make in
the budget and in income taxes

brought out into the open

some disagreements
among his supporters,

as well as his opponents.

Man on megaphone:
Reagan says "Cut back"!

Crowd:
We say "Fight back"!

Reagan says "Cut back"!

We say "Fight back"!

The administration has gambled
our future on a dubious plan

that does not deal directly
with the relentless spiral

of rising prices, wages,
and interest rates.

I've read an awful lot

about how we're going to
really hurt the poor

and things of that nature
in this administration

with our cuts.

That is absolutely not
what we're going to do.

Halperin: Reagan came in
with a very savvy staff

that understood
the challenges they faced

to try to change things
in a radical way.

But they did come up against
an entrenched Washington culture

and a Democratic establishment
that wasn't just gonna roll over

for Ronald Reagan
and let him get his way.

If we do nothing else
in this administration,

we're going to convince
this city

that the power, the money,

and the responsibility
in this country

begins and ends with the people

and not with some cinder-block
building in Washington, D.C.

Thank you very much.

[ Applause ]

Woman:
Mr. President!

Mr. Reagan!

Woman #2: Mr. Reagan!

[ Gunshots ]

[ Indistinct shouting ]

We interrupt.

There's been
a late development --

shots reported fired
outside the hotel

where President Reagan spoke
a short while ago.

Here's Bernard Shaw.

Details are very sketchy
at this moment.

We don't know precisely
what happened,

we don't know the sequence.

First of all,
the president is safe.

Wait a minute.
This is Frank Reynolds.

I'm on the air, and I'm trying
to get some more information.

Here -- We have a report
that Lyn Nofziger,

who was the president's advisor
for political...

uh, for political...
affairs,

Lyn Nofziger has told reporters
at the hospital

that the president
was not wounded.

Man: He was.

He was wounded.
Oh, my God!

He was --

The president was hit?

And he's stable.

He is in stable condition.
All this information.

We have one more
bit of information.

The bullet that struck
the president

has not yet been removed.

And he is not undergoing surgery
at this time.

He was, however,
struck in the left chest.

The last word we had
from Nofziger

is that he was conscious

and that his condition was
described as stable.

My God.

Plante:
We were told that the decision
is now being made

on whether to operate
on the president

to remove the bullet
from his left side.

Gergen: When the word came,
it sounded as if

the president might not make it
through the night.

I mean, he might die
on the surgeon's table.

I would emphasize once again

that the president's condition
is stable.

And that we were informed
by Jim Baker

that he did
walk into the hospital.

Woodruff:
I was at the White House.

The information coming in
was incomplete.

They weren't fully up to date
on what was happening

with the president's condition.

And then when they found out
how serious it was,

they wanted to reassure
everybody.

Coming in directly
from one of the surgeons

is that the bullet,
as we have reported once before,

did miss
the president's heart --

missed by an inch.

He told Mrs. Reagan,
"Honey, I forgot to duck."

Reporter: What?
Reporter #2: What?

"I forgot to duck."

Then when he got into
the operating room,

he looked at the doctors
and he said,

"Please tell me
you're Republicans."

Reagan relied on this troika
of advisors.

Jim Baker is his chief of staff,

a really skilled, shrewd
political insider,

Ed Meese, who's a counselor
to the president,

and then Michael Deaver --

he is in charge
of the media operations.

This troika ran the White House.

Mudd: The assassination attempt
and the aftermath

elevated Ronald Reagan's
popularity to a new high.

The latest
NBC News Associated Press Poll

shows that his job rating
jumped 10 points.

Reagan understood
that he was getting

this sort of sympathy reaction.

Everybody was rooting for him
all of a sudden

'cause they didn't
want him to die.

They didn't want to lose
a president.

And so, without missing a step,

he goes right into
what the message is --

"We've got to get this
tax-and-spending bill passed,

and we've got to do it now."

Mr. Speaker, the president
of the United States.

[ Cheers and applause ]

It was just like the movies.
Reagan was a true American hero.

The president looking
very jovial, very healthy.

Baker: I was seated
in the well of the House there

when he was addressing
the Congress.

It was magic.

Everybody was so grateful
that his life had been spared.

It was a stirring moment.

Shaw:
If he wants them to stop,

they're not going to stop
for a while.

They handed President Reagan and
the Republicans a major victory.

For the second time in his drive
to cut the federal budget,

President Reagan
got what he wanted

from a House controlled
by the opposition party.

Zelizer: Reagan comes off
of the victory in Congress

and the recovery
from the assassination attempt

looking very strong, very bold,
like a very determined leader.

[ Crowd chanting ]

Good evening.

The strike began as scheduled
at 7:00 local time this morning.

Its impact was immediate --

Most flights delayed,
many more canceled.

Greenfield:
The air-traffic controllers
had worked terrible hours.

They were underpaid.
They wanted a big raise.

They didn't get
what they wanted.

They said, "We're gonna
go out on strike."

They were the only union
in the country

that endorsed Ronald Reagan.

But by law,
they were forbidden to strike.

They are in violation
of the law,

and if they do not report
for work within 48 hours,

they have forfeited their jobs
and will be terminated.

End of statement.

"W-Wha-- What?
He actually did that?"

And it's kind of like
hitting the mule on the head

with a 2x4.

That got people's attention.

This afternoon, President Reagan
started firing the strikers,

and the government claimed
it was ready to rebuild

the whole system without them.

This sent
a really powerful message

to different parts
of the electorate.

Many unions were terrified
when they saw this.

It also just sent
a bigger message

about the kind of leader
he would be.

He was not scared
to do what was controversial.

If ever a presidential policy

reflected a president's own
character, it is Reaganomics.

In fact, it's so personal

that it barely qualifies
as an economic theory.

But the trouble is,
Reaganomics is not working.

It's been the single
overwhelming failure

of the Reagan administration --

more than 12 million Americans
out of work,

the highest rate of unemployment

since the Great Depression
of the 1930s.

The tax cut did not give
the economy the supply-side kick

that had been promised.

Business got steadily worse.

Factories closed,
layoffs, bankruptcies.

The federal deficit skyrocketed.

Inflation had been brought
under control, and quickly --

a remarkable accomplishment,
but at a terrible cost.

Hayward:
Reagan was really trying hard

to kill inflation
as fast as he could.

And that was working,
but the problem was,

interest rates were going up
to 18%.

It's like chemotherapy
for the economy.

It kills a lot of other things
along the way.

The government can live
with high unemployment

to curb inflation.

That seems to be a very high
price for us to have to pay.

This is supposed to be
the land of opportunity.

It's not anymore.
It's the land for the rich.

And the poor can go to hell.

I think that we're going to have
some hard times

for the next few months.

While we had predicted, as you
well know, a stagnant economy,

none of us had predicted the
stepping over into recession.

Brands: When David Stockman
came in and said,

"The deficit's not going down,

the deficit's
simply getting larger,"

Reagan apparently was shocked.

Perhaps he had been too beguiled
by his own supply-side rhetoric.

Reeves:
Reaganomics, as it was called,

was not generating
enough revenue.

The theory
that if you de-tax the rich,

everybody will be better off

because they'll invest
that money

turned out not to be true.

These are not
especially happy days

for budget director
David Stockman.

The December issue
of The Atlantic Monthly

has a long article
about Stockman

in which he is quoted
as saying some things

he no doubt wishes
he had not said.

I got the magazine,
and it was an early copy.

I couldn't believe it.

The president gave
a news conference that day,

and I kept waving my hand.

He didn't call on me.

So I chased him out.

He had no idea what I was
talking about, clearly.

So I broke the story that night,

that the budget director
blew the whistle on this plan.

In what he still contends were
off-the-record conversations,

Stockman expressed disillusion

with the Reagan
supply-side economic theory.

Stockman refers to
"naive supply-siders" --

the whole thing meaning
the Reagan plan

is "premised on faith,"
said Stockman.

"None of us understands

what's going on
with all these numbers."

Baker:
It was very, very damaging.

A lot of people
wanted him fired.

But I thought we had to keep him

because he knew more
about the budget than anybody.

So I prevailed upon
the president to not fire him.

We have faith in our program,
and we're sticking with it.

To the paid
political complainers,

let me say
as politely as I can --

put up or shut up.

President Reagan's standing
in the NBC AP Poll

has gone from a high of
65% approval after he was shot

to a low of 43% last fall.

That's a bit lower
than any previous president

at that stage of his stay
in the White House.

Baker: We lost big
in the 1982 midterms,

and everybody was blaming
the bad economy

on our tax cuts
and spending reduction.

Stahl: I remember thinking,
"Okay, the bubble's burst."

And when a president
sinks like that --

and I had just seen it
with Jimmy Carter --

you just don't come back.

And I did believe that --
"He's not gonna come back."

[ Sirens wailing ]

Kuralt: At least 76
United States Marines

were killed this morning
in Lebanon,

and at least 115 were wounded.

Those numbers may rise
considerably higher.

I was sound asleep,
and this bomb went off.

You could feel it shake
across Beirut.

It was so massive.

It was devastating.

Kuralt:
A truck filled with explosives
was driven into a compound

in the midst of a Marine
battalion headquarters,

and the explosives
were detonated.

The four-story building
collapsed

on about 150 or 200
sleeping Marines.

Israel had gone into Lebanon
to try to create a buffer zone

against the Palestinians --
the PLO.

A battalion of American Marines
came out

to separate the Israelis
from the Palestinians

and oversee the withdrawal
of the PLO from Lebanon.

But it got sucked in
to the Lebanese Civil War.

Baer: The Civil War is
between Christians and Muslims.

And to the Muslims,

it looked like we were
supporting the Christians.

Powell: A big debate
broke out afterwards --

should we have ever
put our Marines

in that kind
of a vulnerable position

when they didn't have
a clear mission?

They were just
sort of sitting there.

Wright: The United States
in the Middle East

was suddenly faced
with an array of small forces,

little cells underground,

not knowing who they were,
where they were,

and even what they wanted.

There are no words
to properly express our outrage

and I think the outrage
of all Americans.

Reporter: Who did it,
Mr. President?

Reporter #2: Do you have
any idea who did it?

Are we gonna
take reprisals, Sir?

Cannon: Reagan called
the killing of the Marines

"the saddest day
of my presidency,

the saddest day of my life."

I think it was the low point
in the Reagan presidency.

Walters: A question
that must be asked is

why 241 men were killed
by terrorists,

yet this country
wasn't outraged.

There were no demonstrations,
no marches, little outcry.

The reason?

Within 48 hours of the bombing,

the United States
invaded Grenada.

About 1,900
U.S. Army Rangers and Marines

this morning
assaulted the small island,

which measures
only 12 miles by 21 miles.

Grenada's population
is about 110,000 --

roughly the size
of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

There's a coup --
allegedly a communist coup --

and Reagan seizes on this
to stage an invasion.

The United States received
an urgent formal request

to assist in a joint effort
to restore order and democracy

on the island of Grenada.

An American troop carrier
was passing by

on its way to Lebanon.

So all they did was turn that
combat-ready ship into Grenada.

Marines took control
of Grenada's airports

and began broadcasting
a soothing message.

At least, at a psychological,
maybe even at a moral level,

Reagan was doing something
in Grenada

that he wanted to do in Lebanon
but couldn't.

He could do it in Grenada.

He could show the world
that the United States

would take action
to defend its interests.

Thomas: Reagan was lucky.

He had the good fortune
to have an easy military victory

just eliminating our memory
of what had happened in Beirut,

and replacing it
with this scene of the military

rushing ashore in the Caribbean.

President Reagan:
The world has changed.

Today our national security can
be threatened in faraway places.

It's up to all of us to be aware

of the strategic importance
of such places

and to be able to identify them.

The events
in Lebanon and Grenada,

though oceans apart,
are closely related.

Not only has Moscow
assisted and encouraged

the violence
in both countries,

but it provides direct support

through a network
of surrogates and terrorists.

What he really cared about
was this cancer on the world.

So if there was
a Marxist regime anywhere

and somebody was
trying to take it down,

he'd be for them.

Perhaps by coincidence,

the U.S. greatly expanded
its military presence

in Central America.

A big battleship joined
two aircraft carriers

in the waters off Nicaragua,

while denying all the while
anything special was happening.

In Nicaragua, where there was
a leftist regime in place,

the United States was supporting
the Nicaraguan contras

in their effort to overturn
the Sandinista Government.

Buchanan:
That was an evil bunch,
the Sandinistas.

And he was gonna overthrow them.

And the heroes were the contras
who were gonna do the job,

just like our founding fathers
did it at Lexington and Concord.

We are complying with the law --

the Boland Amendment,
which is the law.

We're complying with that fully.

The Boland Amendment,
passed unanimously

in the House last December,
says specifically

the United States
cannot provide funds

for the purpose of overthrowing
the government of Nicaragua.

Brands:
When Congress tried

to cut American funding off
for the contras,

Reagan believed
that it was his obligation,

a moral obligation,

as well as an obligation
to American security,

to make sure that the contras
continued to get funding.

Jarriel:
The last of the U.S. Marines
left Beirut today

for the relative safety of the
Sixth Fleet warships offshore,

ending a 17-month
peacekeeping mission

which brought Lebanon

no closer to resolving
its internal strife.

After a series of bombings
against U.S. targets,

Lebanese factions realized

that their impact
was very short-lived.

And so these groups in Lebanon
began nabbing Americans.

In Beirut today,
the United States was again

the target of Lebanon's
shadowy men with guns.

They kidnapped American diplomat
William Buckley.

Buckley is
the embassy's contact man

for the rival
Christian and Muslim factions.

He is the third American
to be kidnapped in Beirut

in six weeks.

Wright: And it kept happening.
It was not all at one go.

They were taken
many months apart,

but it kept adding up
and adding up and adding up.

It consumed
the Reagan presidency.

Every day -- almost every day --
he would ask

his national-security teams,
intelligence briefers,

"Is there any news
on the hostages?

Is anything happening?
Is there something we can do?"

Buchanan: There's a chink
in Reagan's armor,

and he was softhearted,

and he did feel
a sense of obligation

that he had to do something
to get them out.

Government economists
have taken another look

at how fast the economy grew

during the first quarter
of this year,

and today they said
it was surging ahead

even faster
than they first thought.

The jobless rate was down
to 7.8%.

That means 700,000 people
found jobs during the month.

Baker: When we took office,

the American economy
was in the tank.

So did it take a while
to get out of that?

You bet it did.

We were correcting
what had gone wrong before.

The economy starts
to bounce back in 1983.

Gas prices are falling.
The stock market is rising.

You start seeing inflation
go down, employment go up.

So by 1984, they have
an economic revival to pitch.

Announcer:
It's morning again in America.

And under the leadership
of President Reagan,

our country is prouder
and stronger and better.

Thomas: It was a brilliant ad,
and it worked.

There was no chance
a Democrat was gonna beat that.

Dean:
A U.S. political summit meeting
takes place

in Louisville, Kentucky --

not to resolve differences,
but to exploit them.

Ronald Reagan meets
Walter Mondale.

Just about everybody
is calling it

a major opportunity for Mondale.

Morton: Yeah, he doesn't need
just to win by a nose.

He needs to win,
to stay with the track metaphor,

by five or six or seven lengths.

He needs to do very well,

because he starts
from so far back.

Brands: The question
of Ronald Reagan's age

had always been in the back
of minds of a lot of people.

He was, by this time,
the oldest American president,

and he was well into his 70s.

Um...

I...

As I say, I feel that we have
a problem here to resolve.

Troy:
When Reagan, in the first debate
against Walter Mondale,

looks confused,
speaks too long, gets lost.

it's not just
that Walter Mondale
"won" that debate.

It's that people fear,
"Is Ronald Reagan lost?"

And for the first time,
they start talking
about the age issue.

It showed, without cue cards
and teleprompters,

a great communicator

doesn't always communicate
all that well.

Laxalt: We had
six dress rehearsals last time,

plus loading him
with computer statistics.

The man was absolutely smothered
by extraneous material.

And this time, we're gonna let
Ronald Reagan be Ronald Reagan.

The mantra
"Let Reagan be Reagan"

was "Let's take advantage
of what we got.

The strongest thing we have,
our best political asset,

is Ronald Reagan being himself,

communicating
with the American people."

When he was showing
his personality, his ideas,

and his rhetoric,
he generally succeeded.

Donaldson:
Going into tonight's debate,

a new ABC News poll indicates
the race continues to narrow.

I think that the audience
out there tonight

will be looking at Ronald Reagan
in a new way.

I think, in Louisville,

the myth or the mystique
of the Great Communicator

was dented, perhaps irreparably.

President Kennedy
had to go for days on end

with very little sleep
during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Is there any doubt
in your mind

that you would be able to
function in such circumstances?

Not at all,
Mr. Trewhitt.

And I want you to know
that also,

I will not make age an issue
of this campaign.

I am not going to exploit,
for political purposes,

my opponent's youth
and inexperience.

[ Laughter ]

[ Cheers and applause ]

He brought down the house,
and it was his house by then.

Stahl:
There were several times during
his first term when I thought,

"This man is not
gonna be re-elected president."

I guess what I underestimated

was how much the public
really loved and liked this man.

It now appears
President Reagan has won,

and has won big.

His aides say they're seeing a
victory of historic proportions.

There's the national totals.

[ Crowd cheering ]

President Reagan:
So many people act

as if this election
means the end of something.

To each one of you, I say,
tonight is the end of nothing.

It's the beginning
of everything.

[ Cheers and applause ]

It came as a surprise
this morning

when President Reagan announced

that two of the leading figures
of his administration

are going to change jobs.

By the time
the four years was over,

I was pretty worn out.

Regan said, "Well, why don't
you and I change jobs?"

So we took it to the president,
he thought it was a great idea,

and we switched jobs.

The troika staff system,

which kept the president
on an even keel,

folded into one man.

It turned out to be
an unsuccessful experiment.

Don Regan was not
cut out for that job.

Don liked the sound of "chief"
but not "of staff."

[ Applause ]

Oh.

I am not the president. I am not
taking charge of anything.

Ronald Reagan is in charge
of this country.

And I, like a good caddy,

tee up the ball
for him to take a smack at.

Reagan needed good advisors,
and in the second term,

he doesn't have the same quality
of people surrounding him.

It has huge political effects
for the president.

Announcer: From NBC News,
this is "Today."

Palmer: Good morning.

Former hostage David Jacobsen

is a step closer to U.S. soil
at this hour.

Jacobsen was freed Sunday

after 17 months of captivity
in Lebanon.

Because we are still negotiating
for the other hostages,

we're not
gonna say anything more

about what process we went
through to get Mr. Jacobsen out.

American policy is that we don't
negotiate with hostage-takers,

we don't make deals,
we don't pay ransom.

But Reagan hammered on his staff

to find a way
to get those hostages out.

Today, the story
from Middle East sources

is that Iran
has helped the United States

free a hostage from Lebanon.

In a bizarre tale
worthy of a thriller,

Iran's news agency reports
that Robert McFarlane,

President Reagan's former
national security advisor,

recently made a secret visit
to Tehran.

Iran says McFarlane came
seeking help in freeing hostages

held by pro-Iranian groups
in Lebanon.

Wright: I couldn't believe
the administration

could be that clumsy.

It seemed so unlike
all it stood for,

all it claimed, all it promised.

Reporter:
Why not dispel the speculation

by telling us
exactly what happened, sir?

[ Cameras shutters clicking ]

In the name of God,
will you please

just be responsible
and back off?

Reporter: Mr. Jacobsen,
how are we to know

what is responsible
and what is not?

In spite of the wildly
speculative and false stories

of our arms for hostages
and alleged ransom payments,

we did not -- repeat --
did not trade weapons

or anything else for hostages.

Mr. President,
the record shows

that every time an
American hostage was released,

there had been a major shipment
of arms just before that.

Are we all to believe
that was just a coincidence?

Chris,
the only thing I know

about major shipments of arms,
as I've said --

everything that we sold them
could be put in one cargo plane

and there would be
plenty of room left over.

There was no deception
intended by us.

For the first time,
Reagan seemed to be at sea,

not know exactly how to deal
with this particular problem.

And it was
a debilitating experience,

and the president showed it.

It became clear,
even in the government,

that things were going on
at the NSC

that not everybody knew about.

And so the president asked
his attorney general, Ed Meese,

to investigate.

And now I'm going to ask
Attorney General Meese

to brief you --

Reporter:
Do you still maintain you didn't
made a mistake, Mr. President?

Hold it.

Did you make a mistake
in sending arms to Tehran, sir?

No, and I'm not taking
any more questions.

Reporter #2: What about
Secretary Shultz, sir?

In the course
of the arms transfers --

which involved the United States
providing the arms to Israel,

and Israel, in effect,
selling the arms

to representatives of Iran --
certain monies,

which were received
in the transaction between

representatives of Israel
and representatives of Iran

were taken and made available to
the forces in Central America,

which are opposing
the Sandinista government there.

[ Reporters gasp ]

There was an audible gasp
in the room.

Cynical, jaded reporters
who'd seen everything

and heard of everything
gasped out loud.

Zelizer: There it was --
smoking-gun proof

of the connection
between these two programs,

and the fact that
part of this administration

was using the money
from the sales of arms to Iran

to fund the Contras.

The shadowy figure
we've been hearing about

at the center of today's
extraordinary revelations

is Oliver North.

His facts, his public testimony

is what the country
is now waiting for.

Oliver North, who's worked
in the West Wing, had this idea.

"Well, since we're selling
weapons to Iran

and there are certain profits

that are coming
from these weapons

and since we're not supposed to
be selling these weapons,

so we can't exactly
announce the profits --

these are basically
off the books --

let's take those profits

and let's use them
to support the Contras.

We can kill two birds
with one stone."

The problem was,
both of those schemes

violated American policy
and violated the law.

So when they were exposed,
it all came crashing down,

and Ronald Reagan was left
trying to explain

why his administration
had actually violated

his own policies.

Vice Admiral John Poindexter

has asked to be relieved
of his assignment

as assistant to the president
for national security affairs.

Lt. Col. Oliver North
has been relieved of his duties

on the National Security Council
staff.

At the time, I thought,
"This is another Watergate."

It felt that way.

Brands: When
the Iran-Contra story broke,

it seemed to play into
various strains

of the narrative about Reagan.

"Here's this Hollywood actor

who really doesn't know
what's being done in his name."

Or that he was clearly lying to
the American people about this.

Pettit:
One of the more poignant things

is the president's letter
of February 20th of this year.

He says, "I have
no personal notes or records

to help my recollection
on this matter.

Try as I might, I cannot recall
anything whatsoever

about whether I approved,

and the simple truth is,
I don't remember.

Period."

Greenfield: Very early
in the Iran-Contra story,

a riff off a famous
Watergate line showed up,

but I don't know
who authored it --

"What did the president know,
and when did he forget it?"

Powell: It was very serious.

His political opponents
and the American people

saw something
that they didn't approve of,

and we could see
his numbers were dropping,

and the whole presidency
was at risk.

Tomorrow morning,

the Iran-Contra
Congressional hearings

move into
their most dramatic stage.

Lt. Col. Oliver North
will testify in public

for the first time.

[ Indistinct talking ]

Inouye:
Colonel North, please rise.

[ Camera shutters clicking ]

Oliver North's appearance
before that joint committee

is one of the historic moments
in '80s television

because there was a guy --
almost more than Reagan --

who understood
what the images were.

Nields: One question
the American people

would like
to know the answer to

is, "What did
the president know?"

Throughout the conduct
of my entire tenure,

I assumed that the president
was aware of what I was doing,

and had, through my superiors,
approved it.

Ollie North said everything
he did was in the service

of what he understood
Ronald Reagan wanted

and everything he did
was really just done

out of love of country.

And it was very tough
for those politicians in suits

to knock that testimony down.

North: I did do it.

I was given a mission,
and I tried to carry it out.

Liman:
But part of that mission

was to shield the others
who had given you the orders.

That is the part
of any subordinate.

President Reagan
still wasn't talking

about Lt. Col. Oliver North's
testimony,

but he did suggest that he could
hardly wait to do so.

I'm not going to comment
till the hearings are over.

Reporter: But don't you think
it's a --

And then you won't be able
to shut me up.

The White House states flatly

the president did not know
about the diversion.

But officials here
are still bracing

for the testimony next week
of John Poindexter --

a man who, unlike North, met
with the president every day,

sometimes with no one else
in the room.

Liman: Did you, at any time,
tell the president

that proceeds
from the Iranian arms sale

were being used
to support the Contras?

I don't --

I did not.

You know, an important point
here is that,

on this whole issue, you know,
the buck stops here, with me.

McManus:
If there had been evidence

that Reagan knew
about the diversion of money

from Iran
to the Contras in Nicaragua,

there would have been serious
calls for his resignation.

But Ronald Reagan
actually managed to walk away --

not quite unscathed,

because his reputation
took a hit,

but he did get another chance
to rescue his presidency

from that low point.

My fellow Americans,
tonight I want to talk about

some of the lessons
we've learned.

I was stubborn in my pursuit
of a policy that went astray.

Yet, the buck does not stop
with Admiral Poindexter,

as he stated in his testimony.

It stops with me.

I am the one

who is ultimately accountable
to the American people.

One thing
that's very different is,

even if what Reagan did
was a horrible blunder,

at least
it wasn't for political gain.

This wasn't a dirty trick
against the opposition party.

So it wasn't the same
as Watergate.

A lot of Americans didn't want
to go through that again.

They wanted
to give the president

the benefit of the doubt.

Ronald Reagan was thought of
as "the Teflon President"

because reporters
couldn't touch him.

He could make mistakes,
but the voters didn't care.

They cared about Reagan' grand
vision of a better country.

The president appeared
relaxed and happy

as he visited
friendly Nebraska country today.

His spokesmen reported

that right after his speech
last night,

the White House received
1,145 positive phone calls.

It's time to get down
to the real business at hand,

to move forward with America.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Reagan didn't recover quickly,
but he did recover,

and so he could go on
and govern.

He brought in a new team --

Howard Baker
as his chief of staff,

he brought in Colin Powell.

And that third team
was the third chapter.

Announcer:
Ladies and gentlemen,

the president
of the United States.

[ Cheers and applause ]

George Bush played a major role
in everything

that we have accomplished
in these eight years.

[ Cheers and applause ]

America needs George Bush --
and Barbara Bush as first lady.

[ Cheers and applause ]

George Bush will be the 41st
president of the United States.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Halperin: The election of Bush
for the American people was,

"We want more Reagan.
We want more of what we've had."

Bush was the closest thing

to a third term
for Ronald Reagan.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Ronald Wilson Reagan,

the 40th President
of the United States.

In two days, he leaves office
as our oldest president

and as
one of the most popular ever.

Gergen:
Ronald Reagan was the chief
architect of the 1980s.

You don't always identify
a president with the years,

but in this case,
the '80s should be identified

as "the Reagan Years."

They called it
"the Reagan Revolution,"

and I'll accept that.

But for me,

it always seemed more like
the great rediscovery --

a rediscovery of our values
and our common sense.

As long as we remember
our first principles

and believe in ourselves,
the future will always be ours.

Once you begin a great movement,

there's no telling
where it'll end.

Greenfield: The very firmness
of his rhetoric

enabled him to be a pragmatist.

So with that faith
in Ronald Reagan as

"He's our conservative warrior,"

the fact that he raised taxes,
the fact that he appointed

two pro-choice
Supreme Court Justices,

the fact that he signed
and advocated a bill for amnesty

for 3 million
illegal immigrants,

they forgave all that

because Ronald Reagan had been,
for so long, their champion.

[ Cheers and applause ]

President Reagan understood
that we judge our presidents

on the basis
of what they get accomplished,

and he understood politics --
the art of the possible.

That, together with the fact

that he was
a beautiful human being,

those were the secrets
to his success.

Powell: The last day,
he just sort of lingered.

And then finally, they said,
"Mr. President, it's time."

And...

...the photographer came in.

The stage was set.

He turned away from the desk,
went to the door, went through.

It was an act
of leaving the stage.

It's that Reagan magic
that he had.

And it was real.

It was magic, but it was real.

Brokaw:
On the big issues, the revival
of the American spirit,

the re-ignition
of the American economy,

Ronald Reagan succeeded
beyond anyone's expectations.

As for his critics,

many still frustrated --
even angry.

But they do concede

that Ronald Reagan
leaves Washington

an enormously popular figure.

And in this day and age,

that alone
is a historic achievement.