In 1988, after two terms in office, Ronald Wilson Reagan left the White House, one of the most popular presidents of the twentieth century -- and one of the most controversial. A failed actor, Reagan became a passionate ideologue who preached a simple gospel of lower taxes, less government and anti-Communism. One by one, his opponents underestimated him; one-by-one, Reagan surprised them, rising to become a president who always preferred to see America as a shining city on a hill.

An economic transformation in 1983 secured Reagan's second term. The episode chronicles his last four years in office-from the loss of his closest advisors and the Iran-Contra scandal to the dawning of the fall of Communism in Europe.