Ronald Reagan, the son of John Reagan and Nellie Wilson, was born above the general store in Tampico, Illinois, on 6th February, 1911. Later the family moved to Dixon, a small town a hundred miles west of Chicago. His father became a partner in a shoe store. He held left of centre political views and bravely spoke out against the activities of the Ku Klux Klan.

During the Great Depression his father was forced to close down his shoe store. He found a new job as a result of the New Deal. This resulted in both father and son becoming passionate supporters of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Democratic Party.

At high school Reagan developed a strong interest in sport and in 1928 won an athletic scholarship which enabled him to gain a place at Eureka College. Reagan studied economics and sociology but it was as a football player and swimmer that he excelled.

After leaving college Reagan was able to find work as a sports announcer for the Davenport radio station, WOC. In 1933 Reagan moved to the WHO radio station in Des Moines and over the next four years became one of the most popular sports commentators in the region. In 1937 Reagan moved to California and after a screen test with Warner Brothers was given a seven-year contract.

Reagan appeared in a series of undistinguished films including Hollywood Hotel (1937), Love is on the Air (1937), Accidents Will Happen (1938), Boy Meets Girl (1938), Brother Rat (1938), Cowboy From Brooklyn (1938), Sergeant Murphy (1938), Angels Wash Their Faces (1939), An Angel from Texas (1940) and The Santa Fe Trial (1940).

When the United States entered the Second World War Reagan joined the Army Air Corps and made training films for pilots. Discharged in December, 1945, as a captain, he resumed his film career. This included Stallion Road (1947), The Hagan Girl (1947) and The Voice of the Turtle (1947).

Reagan was a member of the Screen Actors Guild and in 1947 he was elected president of the organization. He had a reputation as a liberal but this soon changed when the House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), chaired by J. Parnell Thomas, began an investigation into the Hollywood Motion Picture Industry. The HUAC interviewed 41 people who were working in Hollywood. These people attended voluntarily and became known as "friendly witnesses". During their interviews they named nineteen people who they accused of holding left-wing views.

One of those named, Bertolt Brecht, an emigrant playwright, gave evidence and then left for East Germany. Ten others: Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole, Albert Maltz, Adrian Scott, Samuel Ornitz,, Dalton Trumbo, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner Jr., John Howard Lawson and Alvah Bessie refused to answer any questions.

Known as the Hollywood Ten, they claimed that the 5th Amendment of the United States Constitution gave them the right to do this. The House of Un-American Activities Committee and the courts during appeals disagreed and all were found guilty of contempt of congress and each was sentenced to between six and twelve months in prison.

Over the next few years FBI agents working with the House of Un-American Activities Committee and the Hollywood Motion Picture Producers, got 320 people blacklisted from the entertainment industry. As president of the Screen Actors Guild Reagan refused to support those actors such as Larry Parks, Joseph Bromberg, Charlie Chaplin, John Garfield, Howard Da Silva, Gale Sondergaard, Jeff Corey, John Randolph, Canada Lee and Paul Robeson who were on this list.

Reagan's support of McCarthyism enabled him to continue working in Hollywood but his films continued to appear in mediocre films such as Bedtime for Bonzo (1951), The Last Outpost (1951), The Winning Team (1952), Law and Order (1953), Cattle Queen of Montana (1954), Tennessee's Partner (1955) and Hellcats in the Navy (1957). Between 1954 and 1962 Reagan also worked for General Electric as host of the company's weekly half-hour dramas for television.

In the 1930s and 40s Reagan had been a loyal supporter of the Democratic Party. However, he switched to the Republican Party after the war and supported Dwight Eisenhower (1952 and 1956) and Richard Nixon (1960). In 1964 Reagan became a national political figure as a result of a televised speech in support of Barry Goldwater. It did not help Goldwater win the election (he was seen by most people in America as a dangerous, right-wing extremist) but it convinced members of the Californian business community that here was a man with the charm to sell right-wing extremism. Reagan was approached about becoming the Republican Party candidate as Governor of California. With the help of a smear campaign against Pat Brown and promises of tax cuts he won an easy victory.

As governor Reagan quickly established himself as one of the country's leading conservative political figures. This included dramatic budget cuts and a hiring freeze for state agencies. He also put up student fees and when they complained he sent state troopers to deal with their protest meetings.

Re-elected with 52 per cent of the vote in 1970, Reagan introduced a series of welfare reforms during his second term in office. This included tightening eligibility requirements for welfare aid and requiring the able to seek work rather than receiving benefits. However, the tax cuts never came, in fact, he presided over the largest tax increase any state had ever demanded in American history.

Reagan rejected two officers of cabinet posts from President Gerald Ford and in 1975 announced he intended to challenge him as the Republican Party presidential candidate. However, he was defeated by Ford in the contest for the nomination.

Michael K. Deaver worked for Ronald Reagan when he had been governor of California. He now took charge of Reagan's campaign to become president. Deaver co-founded the public relations company, Deaver and Hannaford in 1975. The company "booked Reagan's public appearances, with an eye to Reagan's presidential aspirations.

In 1977 Deaver and Hannaford registered with the Justice Department as foreign agents receiving $5,000 a month from the government of Taiwan. It also received $11,000 a month from a group called Amigos del Pais (Friends of the Country) in Guatemala. The head of Amigos del Pais was Roberto Alejos Arzu. He was the principal organizer of Guatemala's "Reagan for President" organization. Arzu was a CIA asset who in 1960 allowed his plantation to be used to train Cuban exiles for the Bay of Pigs invasion.

Peter Dale Scott has argued that Michael K. Deaver began raising money for Ronald Reagan and his presidential campaign from some of his Guatemalan clients. This included Amigos del Pais. One BBC report estimated that this money amounted to around ten million dollars. Francisco Villgarán Kramer claimed that several members of this organization were "directly linked with organized terror".

Deaver and Hannaford also began to get work from military dictatorships that wanted to improve its image in Washington. According to Jonathan Marshall, Deaver was also connected to Mario Sandoval Alarcon and John K. Singlaub of the World Anti-Communist League (WACL). In the book, The Iran-Contra Connection (1987) he wrote: "The activities of Singlaub and Sandoval chiefly involved three WACL countries, Guatemala, Argentina, and Taiwan, that would later emerge as prominent backers of the contras.... these three countries shared one lobbying firm, that of Deaver and Hannaford."

In 1979 Jeane Kirkpatrick wrote an article for Commentary, entitled Entitled Dictatorships and Double Standards. The article argued that right-wing “authoritarian” governments, such as those in Argentina, Chile and South Africa, suited American interests better than left-wing regimes. She criticized the emphasis placed on human rights by Jimmy Carter and blamed it for undermining right-wing governments in Nicaragua and Iran. She went onto argue that right-wing dictatorships were reliably pro-American. She therefore proposed that the US government should treat authoritarian regimes much more favourably than other governments. Kirkpatrick added: "liberal idealism need not be identical with masochism and need not be incompatible with the defence of freedom and the national interest".

As Bill Van Auken has pointed out (Social Democrat to Champion of Death Squads): "The policy implications of Kirkpatrick’s thesis were unmistakable. Washington should seek to keep in power right-wing dictatorships, so long as they suppressed the threat of revolution and supported “American interests and policies.” Moreover, the limits placed by the Carter administration on relations with regimes that had carried out wholesale political killings and torture, as in Chile and Argentina, for example, should be cast aside."

In December, 1979, John K. Singlaub had a meeting with Guatemalan President Fernando Romeo Lucas García. According to someone who was at this meeting Singlaub told Garcia: "Mr. Reagan recognizes that a good deal of dirty work has to be done". On his return, Singlaub called for "sympathetic understanding of the death squads".

Another one of Deaver's clients was Argentina's military junta. A regime that had murdered up to 15,000 of its political opponents. Deaver arranged for José Alfredo Martinez de Hoz, the economy minister, to visit the United States. In one of Reagan's radio broadcasts, he claimed "that in the process of bringing stability to a terrorized nation of 25 million, a small number, were caught in the cross-fire, amongst them a few innocents".

Peter Dale Scott argues that funds from military dictatorships "helped pay for the Deaver and Hannaford offices, which became Reagan's initial campaign headquarters in Beverly Hills and his Washington office." This resulted in Ronald Reagan developing the catch-phrase: "No more Taiwans, no more Vietnams, no more betrayals." He also argued that if he was elected as president he "would re-establish official relations between the United States Government and Taiwan".

What Deaver's clients, Guatemala, Taiwan and Argentina wanted most of all were American armaments. Under President Jimmy Carter, arms sales to Taiwan had been reduced for diplomatic reasons, and had been completely cut off to Guatemala and Argentina because of human rights violations.

During the campaign to be elected president in 1980, Ronald Reagan was informed that Jimmy Carter was attempting to negotiate a deal with Iran to get the American hostages released. This was disastrous news for the Reagan campaign. If Carter got the hostages out before the election, the public perception of the man might change and he might be elected for a second-term. As Deaver later told the New York Times: "One of the things we had concluded early on was that a Reagan victory would be nearly impossible if the hostages were released before the election... There is no doubt in my mind that the euphoria of a hostage release would have rolled over the land like a tidal wave. Carter would have been a hero, and many of the complaints against him forgotten. He would have won."

According to Barbara Honegger, a researcher and policy analyst with the 1980 Reagan/Bush campaign, William J. Casey and other representatives of the Reagan presidential campaign made a deal at two sets of meetings in July and August at the Ritz Hotel in Madrid with Iranians to delay the release of Americans held hostage in Iran until after the November 1980 presidential elections. Reagan's aides promised that they would get a better deal if they waited until Carter was defeated.

On 22nd September, 1980, Iraq invaded Iran. The Iranian government was now in desperate need of spare parts and equipment for its armed forces. Jimmy Carter proposed that the US would be willing to hand over supplies in return for the hostages.

Once again, the Central Intelligence Agency leaked this information to Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. This attempted deal was also passed to the media. On 11th October, the Washington Post reported rumors of a “secret deal that would see the hostages released in exchange for the American made military spare parts Iran needs to continue its fight against Iraq”.

A couple of days before the election Barry Goldwater was reported as saying that he had information that “two air force C-5 transports were being loaded with spare parts for Iran”. This was not true. However, this publicity had made it impossible for Carter to do a deal. Ronald Reagan on the other hand, had promised the Iranian government that he would arrange for them to get all the arms they needed in exchange for the hostages.

In the election Reagan easily defeated Jimmy Carter by 44 million votes to 35 million. The Republican Party also won control of the Senate for the first time in 26 years. According to Mansur Rafizadeh, the former U.S. station chief of SAVAK, the Iranian secret police, CIA agents had persuaded Khomeini not to release the American hostages until Reagan was sworn in. In fact, they were released twenty minutes after his inaugural address.

Reagan appointed William J. Casey as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. In this position he was able to arrange the delivery of arms to Iran. These were delivered via Israel. By the end of 1982 all Regan’s promises to Iran had been made. With the deal completed, Iran was free to resort to acts of terrorism against the United States. In 1983, Iranian-backed terrorists blew up 241 marines in the CIA Middle-East headquarters.

After his election as president, Ronald Reagan, appointed Michael Deaver as Deputy White House Chief of Staff under James Baker III. He took up his post in January 1981. Soon afterwards, Deaver's clients, Guatemala, Taiwan and Argentina, began to receive their payback. On 19th March, 1981, Reagan asked Congress to lift the embargo on arms sales to Argentina. General Roberto Viola, one of the junta members responsible for the death squads, was invited to Washington. In return, the Argentine government agreed to expand its support and training for the Contras. According to John Ranelagh (The Agency: The Rise and Decline of the CIA): "Aid and training were provided to the Contras through the Argentinean defence forces in exchange for other forms of aid from the U.S. to Argentina."

Reagan had more difficulty persuading Congress to provide arms to Guatemala. During a 4th May, 1981, session of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, it was announced that the Guatemalan death squads had murdered 76 leaders of the moderate Christian Democratic Party including its leader, Alberto Fuentes Mohr. As Peter Dale Scott pointed out in the Iran-Contra Connection: "When Congress balked at certifying that Guatemala was not violating human rights, the administration acted unilaterally, by simply taking the items Guatemala wanted off the restricted list."

Reagan and Deaver also helped Guatemala in other ways. Alejandro Dabat and Luis Lorenzano (Argentina: The Malvinas and the End of Military Rule) pointed out that the Ronald Reagan administration arranged for "the training of more than 200 Guatemalan officers in interrogation techniques (torture) and repressive methods".

Reagan's first Secretary of State, Alexander Haig, resigned on 25th June, 1982, as a result of the administration's foreign policy. He also complained that his attempts to help Britain in its conflict with Argentina over the Falkland Islands, was being undermined by Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick and some above her in the White House. In his book, Gambling With History: Ronald Reagan in the White House, Laurence I. Barrett argued that this person from the White House was Michael Deaver: "At an NSC session... Haig had observed Kirkpatrick passing Deaver a note. Concluding that Kirkpatrick was using Deaver to prime Reagan... Haig told Clark that a 'conspiracy' was afoot to outflank him."

Another of Deaver's clients, Taiwan, benefited from Reagan's support. Although George H. W. Bush promised China in August, 1982, that the United States would reduce its weapons sales to Taiwan, the reverse happened. Arms sales to Taiwan in fact increased to $530m in 1983 and $1,085 million in 1984.

Reagan took a firm stance against communism and described the Soviet Union as the "evil empire". Although he avoided direct conflict with major communist countries such as China, he did send paratroopers against Bernard Coard, when he overthrew the elected government of Maurice Bishop in Grenada in October, 1983. However, it was not made clear at the time that Bishop was himself a Marxist.

Michael Deaver officially worked primarily on media management. One of his great successes was the presentation of the Grenada invasion. As Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber pointed out in their book Toxic Sludge is Good For You (1995): "Following their (Michael Deaver and Craig Fuller) advice, Reagan ordered a complete press blackout surrounding the Grenada invasion. By the time reporters were allowed on the scene, soldiers were engaged in "mop-up" actions, and the American public was treated to an antiseptic military victory minus any scenes of killing, destruction or incompetence." Later, it was discovered that of the 18 American servicemen killed during the operation, 14 died in friendly fire or in accidents."

Although there was a federal deficit of over $100 billion, Reagan managed to persuade Congress in 1981 to pass a plan for a three-year reduction in income tax rates. This was followed by cuts in domestic spending. During the 1980s Reagan's policy of reducing income taxes and federal domestic budgets became known as Reaganomics. These tax changes and the cuts in the welfare system widened the gap between rich and poor. It also caused a deep recession.

Reagan also funded anti-communist groups in Nicaragua who were fighting the elected government of Daniel Ortega. His government's power also suffered from economic sanctions imposed by Reagan. It was later discovered that the United States had attempted to damage the economy by the mining of Nicaragua's harbours. Reagan also funded death squads in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala in the 1980s. He also backed the Guatemalan government that killed an estimated 100,000 Mayan Indians during this period.

In 1981 Reagan sent Donald Rumsfeld, his Middle East envoy, to Iraq. This resulted in Reagan selling Saddam Hussein "dual-use" items, including helicopters and chemicals. He also armed the Mojahedin in Afghanistan that eventually evolved into the Taliban.

In early 1981, Leopoldo Galtieri visited the United States and was warmly received by members of the Ronald Reagan administration. Richard V. Allen, who Reagan had appointed as his National Security Advisor, described Galtiera as a "majestic general." With the help of the CIA, Galtieri replaced President Roberto Viola in December 1981. Galtieri attempted to improve the economy by cutting public spending and selling off government-owned industries. He also imposed a pay freeze. These policies were unpopular and demonstrations took place demanding a return to democracy.

Despite the support of the Reagan administration, Galtieri, faced the possibility of being ousted from power. He therefore decided to gain public support by appealing to nationalist sentiment. In April, 1982, Galtieri's forces invaded the weakly-defended British Falkland Islands and he declared the "Malvinas" a province of Argentina. The anti-junta demonstrations were replaced by patriotic demonstrations in support of Galtieri.

Margaret Thatcher appealed to Ronald Reagan for help in removing Galtieri from the Falklands. This caused problems for Reagan as Galtieri was seen as a key aspect of the foreign policy advocated by Jeane Kirkpatrick and Richard V. Allen. Kirkpatrick argued that America should not jeopardize relations with Latin America by backing Britain. She later explained that "I thought a policy of neutrality in that war made sense from the point of view of US interests".

However, in reality, Jeane Kirkpatrick was not arguing for neutrality. According to The Times newspaper: "Only hours after the 1982 invasion of the Falklands she notoriously attended as guest of honour a reception at the Argentine Embassy in Washington. She then went on television to assert that if the islands rightly belonged to Argentina its action could not be considered as “armed aggression”.

Reagan's Secretary of State, Alexander Haig, took the side of the British government. He argued that Kirkpatrick was “mentally and emotionally incapable of thinking clearly on this issue because of her close links with the Latins”. Reagan forced Haig to resign on 25th June, 1982. He later complaining that his attempts to help Britain in its conflict with Argentina over the Falkland Islands, was being undermined by Kirkpatrick and some above her in the White House. In his book, Gambling With History: Ronald Reagan in the White House, Laurence I. Barrett argued that this person from the White House was Michael K. Deaver: "At an NSC session... Haig had observed Kirkpatrick passing Deaver a note. Concluding that Kirkpatrick was using Deaver to prime Reagan... Haig told Clark that a 'conspiracy' was afoot to outflank him."

Reagan eventually rejected Kirkpatrick's advice and as The Times pointed out: "Had Kirkpatrick prevailed, Britain would have been deprived of American fuel, Sidewinder missiles and other arms, and the vital US satellite intelligence that enabled it to win the war. And Galtieri and his junta would not have been replaced by a freely elected government."

In the 1984 presidential election the Democratic Party selected Walter Mondale as its candidate. Despite upsetting people on the left in American politics, Reagan remained popular with the electorate and easily defeated Mondale by winning 525 of the 538 electoral votes.

Reagan was unwilling to criticize anti-Communist governments and refused to support economic sanctions against the undemocratic government in South Africa. He vetoed a series of UN resolutions that attempted to punish the South African government. Reagan also tried to veto the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act that Congress passed in 1986.

As well as Guatemala, Taiwan and Argentina, Deaver also worked closely with South Korea. He arranged for President Chun Doo Hwan to meet Reagan in the White House. It was Deaver's involvement with the Ambassador in Seoul, Richard L. Walker, a member of the World Anti-Communist League (WACL) that eventually led to his demise. Deaver resigned from the White House staff in May 1985 under investigation for corruption. It seems that Deaver had charged the Taiwan government $150,000 for arranging the meeting with Reagan. Deaver was eventually charged with perjury rather than violations of the 1978 Ethics in Government Act and was fined $100,000.

Reagan had considerable problems trying to balance the budget during his second term in office. This was because he had increased defence spending by 35%. This included expensive military programs such as the MX missile and the Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars). In 1985 he supported the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act that enabled large annual budget cuts to be made but it had little impact before being declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1986.

In late 1986 Reagan became embroiled in in what became known as the Irangate Scandal. It was discovered that the Reagan administration had been selling arms to the Islamic fundamentalist government in Iran in order to gain the release of American hostages in the Lebanon. The profits of the deal were then used to supply the anti-Marxist Contra guerrillas fighting in Nicaragua.

The scandal was damaging to Reagan because he had told the American public he would never "yield to terrorist blackmail". As a result of the scandal, the White House chief of staff, Donald Regan and his National Security Adviser, John Poindexter, were forced to resign. Reagan survived but the case damaged his image and reinforced the fact that he was not in full-control of his administration. So who was really in charge?

In May of 1987, President Reagan met with former President Richard M. Nixon and discussed Mr. Nixon's criticism of the Administration's arms-control stance. Mr. Reagan's spokesman, Marlin Fitzwater, said the two men met for a little over an hour in the White House on April 28. He said that Mr. Reagan had requested the meeting and that Mr. Nixon had been flown to Washington in a Government airplane. "The discussion focused principally on arms control,'' Mr. Fitzwater said. ''The President brought President Nixon up to date on the status of the negotiations."

In reality, Ronald reagan did not have to brief Richard Nixon. Like his relationship with former President, Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon evidently coached Reagan as well.

According to historian, Sam Anson, Richard Nixon controlled the Reagan Administration because: "Nixon gets into his office every morning about 7:30. By noon, he will have made and taken 40 calls, most of them to Washington. First, he calls the White House and speaks to Ed Meese, Bud McFarlane and President Reagan. Then he starts working the State Department. Everyone from George Schultz on down. He not only gives advice on foreign policy, but on politics in general. What he says is taken very seriously".

When Reagan was elected, Nixon had a loyal friend in the White House and given Reagan's hands-off policy, Richard Nixon and Bill Casey were granted the opportunity to direct American foreign policy.

Ronald Reagan was a "hands off" and as soon as he offered Casey the opportunity to be his campaign manager, Nixon and Casey were in charge.

Reagan was in awe of Bill Casey, the intelligence spook who organized intelligence missions behind enemy lines for Eisenhower during World War II and as soon as Casey joined the campaign, Reagan said: "You're the expert Bill. Just point me in the right direction and I'll go". In 1970, when Richard Nixon was disturbed by anti-war demonstrators, Bill Casey let it be known that anyone who opposed the war was misinformed and irresponsible. It was Bill Casey who knew what was right for the national security and his unswerving support for Nixon's policies made Richard Nixon the architect of the Reagan agenda. Forever loyal, Casey even fed Nixon's ego through the Watergate crisis when he wrote:

"All of your friends, all of us who view you as a national asset with a historic mission, and the general public, want to pull all the political shenanigans behind us and get on with the vital things to be done.

The book October Surprise, documents how they destroyed what they called "political shenanigans" like president Jimmy Carter by delaying the release of American hostages held in Tehran until after the election, to sabotage Jimmy Carter's prospect of winning a second term. The plot worked.

Vigorously denied, the allegation appears to be true, as suggested by an obscure New York Times story which exposed the fact that Reagan's campaign manager, who was supposed to be planning political strategy in America, was actually abroad. According to a brief item in the New York Times dated July, 30 1980, "William Casey plans to open negotiations with the Right to Life group when he returns from a trip abroad."

Nixon did not have to physically occupy the actual White House to exercise power. When, For example, Richard Reeves interviewed Richard Nixon in his "exile sanctum" in New York in 1980, his apartment was arranged like the Oval Office. "The flags, the couch, the chairs were just like it..." Indeed, Richard Nixon was so obsesses with his role-play, that when the interview was concluded, he escorted Reeves to the supplies closet "because the closet door in the faux Oval Office was in the same place as an exit in the real Oval Office."

Richard Nixon and Bill Casey were evidently full of surprises.On the very day that the press headlined the announcement that a "local screwball" murdered peace activist, John Lennon, the political backdrop was the innocuous headline, Reagan set to announce cabinet.

When Lennon was murdered, Mark Chapman boasted: "I murdered a man. I took a lot more with me than just myself. A whole era ended. It was the last nail in the coffin of the '60's."

In his paranoia-filled book, The Real War, Nixon wrote: "I am confident that President Reagan and the members of his administration will have the vision to see what needs to be done and the courage to do it." After Mark Chapman had hammered the so-called final nail in "the coffin of the '60's", Richard Nixon had the audacity to wrote a book called The Real Peace, and any psychiatrist worth his mettle ought to determine that it is a symbolic appreciation about the comfort of living in a world that is not influenced by somebody like John Lennon.

Richard Nixon was so proud of his book, The Real Peace that he privately printed and distributed it to more than 100 government officials, journalists and friends. Ronald Reagan was officially the President of the United States but Richard Nixon pulled all the strings.

When Richard Nixon died, "residue zealots' like Watergate Brglar, Gordon Liddy, continued to pursue his agenda. Appearing on Nightilne, on August 25, 1994, Gordon Liddy said that Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and Fidel Castro were the only communists left in the world. In that respect, the purpose of the so-called Whitewater scandal was to put Clinton off his agenda -notably, health care, which threatened so many powerful interests -and no better way than to flatten Hillary Rodham Clinton in the bargain.

The effort to reform the nation's health care system produced the most ambitious social legislation to face Congress since the civil rights legislation of the 1960's, and it also produced a violently ambitious opposition that was planted because Ronald Reagan was a hands-off President who lost control of the government.

When Reagan was President, Richard Nixon was his silent partner, Oliver North operated a powerful, parallel, unaccountable government, and Bill Casey had instituted a domestic propaganda apparatus that targeted perceived, political enemies, and when this powerful, public relations apparatus was used to target political enemies like Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton called it the work of "the vast right wing conspiracy."

For example, during President Clinton's first major foreign policy encounter, the President received favourable press coverage in Brussels, Prague, Kiev and Moscow over his handling of affairs, but reporters at home ignored the nature of his trip and questioned him about Whitewater.

In 1987 Reagan met Mikhail Gorbachev and signed the Immediate Nuclear Forces (INF) abolition treaty. Gorbachev also made it clear he would no longer interfere in the domestic policies of other countries in Eastern Europe and in 1989 announced the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan. Aware that Gorbachev would not send in Soviet tanks there were demonstrations against communist governments throughout Eastern Europe. Over the next few months the communists were ousted from power in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and East Germany. All these events took place while Reagan was president and he therefore got the credit for the fall of communism in Eastern Europe.

Reagan retired from office at the end of his second-term in 1989. He spent his time establishing the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, but in 1994 he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

Ronald Reagan, aged 93, died of pneumonia died at his home in the Bel Air district of Los Angeles on 5th June, 2004.