HBO special is hitting Reagan pretty hard over Iran-Contra.

[Atman]

I'm surprised. Doesn't seem to be much whitewashing or hero-worship. Didn't see any of the show before this segment, though.

[yourout]

1. As well they should.

[Fuzz]

2. Refused to watch. If it's good, I will Tivo a replay.

[RKP5637]

3. I have a hard time watching anything about Reagen having lived through it and now seeing

the current mess. Thanks Ronald! What an act to follow.

[Atman]

5. From what I've seen of it, it is NOT a complimentary portrait.

Pointing him out to be a scripted phony, without self incite or compassion for anyone but his personal friends. Again, not the love-fest I expected.

[gratuitous]

4. Iran-contra?

Isn't that where all-American hero Lt. Col. Oliver North launched himself into a low space trajectory and landed in Tehran, pulling the Ayatollah's beard before swimming back across the Atlantic to bring freedom and democracy to Central America? Under the personal direction of President Reagan, of course.

At least, that's the way I heard it on Fox this weekend.

[Atman]

6. They're even discussing the myth of the end of the cold war.

Amazing.

[EFerrari]

7. Greg Mitchell's interview with the directer:

'Reagan' Comes to HBO: An Interview With Director Eugene Jarecki
Greg Mitchell
February 6, 2011

An orgy of Ronald Reagan worship, including at the Super Bowl, will roll out today to mark the hundredth anniversary of his birth. For those who can stand to wait another day for a more evenhanded, though often critical, assessment, HBO will be airing Eugene Jarecki’s documentary, fresh from Sundance, titled Reagan, Monday night at nine.

Jarecki (left) is best known as the director of the acclaimed docs Why We Fight and The Trials of Henry Kissinger (and, more recently Freakonomics). Reagan is an extremely well-made film, featuring some expected and some surprising talking heads, plus occasional spurts of fun provided by a Daily Show clip, Phil Hartman’s famous SNL skit portraying two faces of Reagan (public bumbler, private strongman) and even a Simpsons moment.

Reagan’s two sons take center stage. That would be the right-wing radio talk show ranter Michael Reagan (who was adopted) and the much more liberal Ron Reagan. Others interviewed include familiar Reaganites such as George Schultz, James Baker and Grover Norquist, and what Jarecki calls “honest brokers,” including Tom Frank, Andrew Bacevich, Will Bunch, Frances Fitzgerald, James Mann and Simon Johnson.

At Sundance, Jarecki admitted he had “an axe to grind,” but not so much to expose Reagan as a bad guy but to dispel various “myths” that absurdly enlarge—or diminish—him. He also revealed that he had received a fair amount of criticism from some who feel the film is too kind to Reagan. Indeed, its first half paints a favorable picture of the man’s early life and rise to the governor’s mansion in California, but the second half, on his presidency and fallout from it, proves largely critical. What that means is that viewers who like the first half are more likely to stick around and learn something in the latter

http://www.thenation.com/blog/158332/reagan-comes-hbo-interview-director-eugene-jarecki

[Name removed]

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[karynnj]

13. Iran/Contra did not become public PROVEN knowledge

until the very end of Reagan's second term - and into Bush's term. You might ask why Bush 1 had to pardon Oliver North, Caspar Weinberg, Elliot Abrams and others. Answer: they all LIED to Congress. Why: They illegally supplied arms to the Contras against the Boland amendment which was the law. (The really galling thing is that all these people who broke the law have since had positions of power in or out of the government. Worse, North, who was convicted of lying to Senator Kerry - ended up on Fox News, as the RW war hero standing in judgment on the law abiding John Kerry's patriotism - and given Reagan's then recent death and canonization, the Democrats could not make this an issue.

After all, how would saying that Saint Ronnie allowed drug running to fund arms for the Contras have gone over then. Even if the CIA admitted to it in the 1990s - agreeing to everything in teh Kerry report.

[H2O Man]

8. It was a good documentary.

I was thinking of writing a review; just checking to see if others had watched/posted about it.

[sufrommich]

9. Sounds interesting, I wish I had HBO. nt

[patrice]

10. Do you think all of those passionate Constitution "lovers" out there will get what Iran-Contra means

[burnsei sensei]

11. Aiding the Contras was one of the biggest

policy blunders Reagan ever made and kept in motion.
Where we should have been focusing on Cuban-American relations, we fought a war with our near-neighbors.
Nicaragua has seen our filibustering side before.