REAGAN’S INTERVIEW 1

Reagan’s Interview

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Reagan’s Interview

The study of past events in the contemporary world is fervently significant as it

enables a person to comprehend the way different systems work today. History aids a person

to get a better understanding of the globe as a framework can not be established to base an

individual’s life without comprehending the way systems work. As a result, history offers a

detailed image of how the government, technology, and society worked way back to help

figure out the way it operates currently. In light of this, I decided to conduct an interview

structured around a male participant, to better comprehend American history. Some of the

key questions used in writing this paper are provided in the appendix section.

John Reagan, the interviewee, was a 60-year-old man who had witnessed a significant

amount of American history as a result of his age. He was born on 5th May 1960 in the

suburbs of Philadelphia. Reagan was the eldest son of Mary Jean Haji, a college professor,

and politician, and businessman Joseph, Reagan. John was a jovial child who loved his

father’s work as a political leader and Joseph constantly gave him an account of American

history which he found very interesting. Born in a family of elites, Reagan attended

Springfield Township High School where his growth of history fastened. However, his father

coerced him into studying law to follow in his footsteps at Harvard College. Post completion

of his studies, John decided to be a historian rather than a lawyer as his love for history had

intensified throughout the years to his maturity.

Being a historian as much, I delved right into questions where John gave an insight on

both Martin Luther King assassinations and John F. Kennedy. Reagan recalled that Martin

Luther was assassinated on 4th April 1968 in Memphis Tennessee. “King was the founder of

the Southern Christian Leadership Conference which fostered human rights movements since

the 1950s for African Americans who were fighting oppression back then.” Before his
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assassination, John says that King had faced mounting criticism from young black American

activists as he championed non-confrontational advocacy which bore minimum results at the

time. In 1968 spring, however, King headed to Tennessee to offer his support on a sanitation

workers’ strike where he gave his final speech that tended to foreshadow his death.

John F. Kennedy was assassinated on 22nd November 1963. According to Reagan’s

father's account of the day of the assassination, the President had visited Dallas with his

motorcade for a campaign-oriented purpose. As the motorcade cruised through the Texas

School Depository, shots rang out which led to the untimely death of Kennedy due to shots

directly poised to the head and neck. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the assassination of

the president where he would be later shot on live television by a local nightclub owner.

Among the key questions was the Vietnam war and Reagan recalls Martin Luther

King speaking about the unfortunate incident. The war was between South and North

Vietnam where the two sides were supported by different allies. North Vietnam was

supported by communist allies while South Vietnam was supported by the U.S.A and other

anti-communist allies. Post-death of nearly five million American natives in the fight which

lasted 19 years, President Nixon signed a Peace Accord and withdrew from the war to

prevent more fatalities.

Post the birth of the civil rights movements in the United States by Martin Luther,

counter-culture movements were intensified according to John Reagan. Different people in

the U.S.A had differing views on why America joined Vietnam which led to intensified social

tensions within the country. According to Reagan, the social tensions gave birth to

controversial debates regarding sexuality, traditional authority models, and women’s rights

which have traversed through generational lines to date. The tensions led to dynamic

subcultures and the establishment of new cultural forms that led to the rise of the infamous
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hippie lifestyle. Media emergence was championed by these tensions which according to

Reagan was less famous back in the day as compared to the contemporary world.

“Landing of the Apollo 11 changed the space industry operations and it opened the

way for more research to be done in space”, Reagan accorded. Neil Armstrong was the first

man to step on the lunar surface where his colleague followed and they both obtained almost

twenty kilograms of lunar material to mark their escapade. The mission’s success was a

fulfillment of John F. Kennedy's national goal of landing a man on the moon and ensuring

their safe return to earth. The mission was broadcasted on live television and it took

Armstrong and his team more than eight days to return to earth.

The Watergate scandal according to John, was a perfect historical occurrence that

ought to act as a reminder of the ramifications of abuse of power by American Presidents.

The scandal sparked off on 17th June 1972 and post the arrest of a series of burglars, President

Nixon had to resign. The scandal happened when American was significantly divided as

many natives believed the country troops should not have been deployed in the Vietnam war.

In the re-election of Nixon, his re-lection committee broke onto Watergate headquarters of

the Democratic National Committee, bugged their phones, and stole top-secret documents.

Nixon pleaded innocent but would later be caught trying to pay the burglars.

When I inquired about the fall of the Berlin Wall, John Reagan sparked off the topic

declaring that this was the beginning of a new era where communism was abolished in

Central and Eastern Europe. The occurrence led to the ned of the cold war which was made

effective through the Malta Summit. The fall of the Berlin Wall occurred on 9 th November

1989 and Germany was reunited the following year.

John defined the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States of America as the saddest

part of history where innocent lives were lost as a result of terrorist attacks. A series of four
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attacks that were coordinated by Al-Qaeda on 11th September 2001 led to almost three

thousand fatalities and over 25000 people were injured in the attacks. The terrorist hijacked

four passenger airlines which then crashed them into prominent buildings. Bin Laden and his

terrorist group were deemed responsible for the attacks and evaded the US police for ten

years until he was located in Pakistan in 2011 and killed by a military raid.

Reagan ranked James Buchanan as the worst United States President as he seemed to

be unable to grasp the enormity that led to a divided America as a result of slavery. Besides,

he was ignorant as he neglected the strife and the issue grew which led to the emergence of a

civil war. Abraham Lincoln was John’s best president as he was able to lead the country

successfully through the Civil war and freed all the slaves by signing the Emancipation

Proclamation.

Reagans’ account of history was insightful, accurate, and interesting to listen to. The

recorded information was also educative as it provided the ramifications for the president’s

abuse of power, for example with President Nixon’s case. Key political occurrences were

discussed which ought to help a young person understand the way the political system in the

USA work.

Appendix A
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The following questions were asked during the interview where Reagan responded to each

question as analyzed in the paper.

1. Mr. Reagan, can you give brief bibliography information about yourself?

2. Can you account for the following historical events?

i. John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King assassination

ii. Vietnam War

iii. Counter culture movement

iv. Apollo 11 moon landing

v. Watergate Scandal

vi. Challenger disaster fall of the Berlin Wall

vii. 9/11 terrorist attacks

3. Who are your best and least favorite American presidents? Why?