Reagan brought to the presidency his well-known sense of humor and the charm that people called "the Reagan magic." Following an era when Americans had felt threatened and uncertain, Ronald Reagan instilled in them a greater sense of confidence. Following the release of the American hostages at the very start of his presidency, Reagan turned to his campaign promise to revolutionize American government. He established a strong bond with Congress and obtained impressive legislative victories, including cuts in domestic spending and, at the same time, large-scale tax cuts. He also called for an increase in military spending, engineering the largest peacetime buildup in the history of the nation.

Less than three months into his term, in a scene so dramatic it seemed as if out of one of his own movies, Reagan was shot and critically wounded by a crazed gunman. The President's bravery and good humor in the wake of the attempted assassination impressed the nation, and his popularity soared. A sympathetic Congress, acting with bipartisanship, swiftly passed the remainder of his economic policies. But his lengthy recuperation isolated him from the hard work of the presidency. At the White House, staff members began to notice a lack of concentration. Reagan's workday ran from to nine-to-five, and included an extended midday personal break. National Security Council briefing sessions were kept as short as possible and the President began regularly neglecting his official reading. Reagan saved his energy for what he called "the big picture" and for important public performances, which he pulled off to perfection. Again and again in televised speeches, he promoted his vision of the American way-free markets, freedom from government, personal freedoms in general. The antithesis of all this, in Reagan's mind, was Communism, and in particular, the Soviet Union. "Let us be aware," he said in a 1983 speech, "that they are the focus of evil in the modern world."

When he pushed for an elaborate, antimissile space shield to protect America from Soviet missiles, critics likened the scheme to a Hollywood fantasy. "The Strategic Defense Initiative has been labeled Star Wars," he said, "but it isn't about war, it's about peace. It isn't about retaliation, it's about prevention. It isn't about fear, it's about hope. And in that struggle, if you'll pardon my stealing a film line, the force is with us."

Reagan won reelection in 1984 by a landslide. But his second term was plagued with problems. At seventy-three, he was now the oldest president in American history. His hearing was poor, he was battling cancer, and his memory was not what it had been. Then, just three months after his second inaugural, Islamic terrorists hijacked TWA Flight 847 and took thirty-nine Americans hostage. It was Jimmy Carter's nightmare all over again. Working successfully to obtain their speedy release, Reagan ended up approving a secret deal: the sale of U.S. missiles to Iran in exchange for seven previously captured hostages. It was a direct contradiction of his publicly stated policy not to bargain with terrorists, and when news of it leaked out, Reagan flatly denied it. "The charge has been made that the United States has shipped weapons to Iran as ransom payment for the release of American hostages in Lebanon; that the United States undercut its allies and secretly violated American policy. . . . Those charges are utterly false. . . . We did not, repeat, did not trade weapons or anything else for hostages, nor will we."

But as his own diary proved, Reagan had authorized the sale. To make matters worse, some of the money raised by selling arms was then illegally funneled to the anticommunist Contras in Nicaragua-a cause Reagan believed in but had been unable to win congressional support for. When the scandal known as "Iran-Contra" led to a congressional investigation, the American public thought Reagan less than truthful in owning up to the deal. It was Nancy who finally persuaded her husband to go back on television and admit the truth.

"A few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages," he said on March 4, 1987. "My heart and my best intentions still tell me that's true, but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not. What began as a strategical outreach to Iran deteriorated in its implementation into trading arms for hostages. This runs counter to my own beliefs, to administration policy, and to the original strategy we had in mind. There are reasons why it happened, but no excuses. It was a mistake."

Ronald Reagan was able to put the scandal behind him. And while the national debt had tripled and the gap between rich and poor had greatly widened by the time he left office, a soaring stock market and economic good times for many helped him regain much of his lost popularity. Critics charged that he betrayed Jimmy Carter's finest legacy-a foreign policy committed to human rights. But others pointed out that the threat of his "Star Wars" program actually helped force a diplomatic breakthrough in U.S.-Soviet relations. President Reagan and Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev held a total of five summits which culminated in the signing of a historic agreement, the first actual reduction in each side's nuclear arsenals. It marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War, and it stands as Reagan's most enduring achievement.

On January 11, 1989, just shy of his seventy-eighth birthday, President Reagan gave his farewell address to the nation. In a way, it was a variation of what he called "The Speech," the same message he had been giving since his days working for GE. He spoke once again of America as "a shining city," and described himself a "citizen politician" who had tried to put government back into the hands of the people. "It's been the honor of my life to be your president," he said. "They called it the Reagan Revolution. Well, I'll accept that, but for me it always seemed more like the great rediscovery, a rediscovery of our values and our common sense. The way I see it, there were two great triumphs, two things that I'm proudest of. One is the economic recovery . . . the other is the recovery of our morale. America is respected again in the world and looked to for leadership."