Reagan Records Released: Help Us Dig Through Them

President Barack Obama is releasing nearly 250,000 pages of records from the Reagan White House that have been kept private till this point. The move, directed by White House Counsel Greg Craig, comes after open-government advocates and academics had lobbied heavily for the documents to be made public during George W. Bush's administration.

The move creates a welcome challenge for HuffPost's ace volunteer research team -- our readers. If you'd like to help us search through the Reagan files to locate any newsworthy information, click here to sign up. We'll alert you as soon as the documents are available on the web so you can start digging.

Get HuffPost Politics on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Comments

[flossophy]

OOO... a witchhunt!!! sign me up!!!

Let's dig up some dirt on the guy who's massive economic expansion allowed us to develop this marvelous technology with which to tar and feather this guy posthumous­ly... We never want this to happen again, right?

[gladys46]

A gazillion redacted pages can be quite frustrating !

[dragonlady620]

There was no "massive economic expansion" under Reagan. His "Reagonomics", which included tax cuts for the wealthy and the beginnings of deregulation, caused a stock market boom which benefited only a handful at the top. It did NOT translate into economic growth. The deficit soared, unemployment rose and life got a lot harder for everyone in the country but that handful.( Necessary tax revenue had to come from somewhere, and it wasn't coming from wealthier Americans-including the Reagans-their millions were in a blind trust that was essentially a tax shelter.) There was a proliferation of large companies that failed, wiping out shareholders and leaving thousands out of work, while CEOS walked away with their golden parachutes­.(Sound familiar?) I remember Nancy Reagan giving a speech addressing the difficult economic times: "We all have to make sacrifices" which wasn't well received since it was pretty obvious SHE wasn't making any. Don't try to sell that revisionist crap about the "golden Reagan years".

[flossophy]

what don't you understand about the words: largest twenty-five year worldwide economic expansion boooom (unprecedented in history)?

I'm not sure how much simpler I can say this.

You should be thanking Reagan for his policies..­. if Carter had won in 1980, you wouldn't have that fancy computer you're using to launch angry anti-capitalist missives over the internet..­.

It would be healthy for you to look at the hard economic numbers for that period before posting uninformed comments about Reagan. You swallowed the left's completely false narrative of him. The internet is here especially for you... use it.

[dragonlady620]

I'm finding it hard to believe that W. ever read through all those papers. I'm assuming that his daddy told him to block their release. That said, it seems inconceivable that the consummate snake-oil salesman George Sr. allowed any damning evidence to remain intact.

[EmberOfTruth]

The records I am most interested in seeing is the meeting with David Stockman (Reagan's budget director) where he had to break it the president that the massive tax cuts they had passed the year before weren't panning out, and that they'd have to raise taxes.

[hapkidogal]

I can't wait. All the spin is gonna end and the truth will come out!

[EmberOfTruth]

No, actually the spin will just intensify. Worshipers of St. Ronald are going to be pouring over these documents as well, sifting kernels of corn out of the sh*t. Then using these golden nuggets as examples of his "greatness". Trust me.

[HST]

more likely they will just stick their fingers in their ears and go "la la la la I can't hear you."

[davidmnc76]

Tricky Dick, Ronnie, Big Bush and Lil Bush 4 of the worst President/crooks to ever set foot in the Oval Office.

[kasinca]

I would bet that the truth does not match what the rethuglicans have been telling us the past thirty years.

[Levittown]

The records, if they are not fudged, will contain many of the Weinburger directives
that guided the Reagan years. The relationship with the Arab oil cartels would be interesting reading.

[therly]

Please hurry my friends I want to know when he flooded the black hood with crack.

[ediva75]

This sounds rather interesting since the rethugicians like to suck on his dead **** soo much on how great the times were during his reign. Yet we do know that if you weren't middle to upper middle class you weren't getting any kind of benefit of a tax cut. Oh and God help you if you came from the urban areas because he REALLY didn't care about you!!!

I would be interested in checking out some of his papers as it relates to his policies since I was but a lil kid during his presidency.

[AlanCombes]

Let's try and dig up dirt on the republican.

This site is good for a laugh everyday.

[kasinca]

Digging up dirt on republicans is not hard to do. Why do you think they are hiding reality from us all the time?

[mediachic1021]

Yes, let's. I'm sure there will be PLENTY of it.

[sasidechick]

Presidential papers are released all the time. The fact there is something called the "internet" that folks can now look up the information themselves instead of taking someone, say, like Glenn Beck's word for it, should be very refreshing for patriots. It lets you see your government in action--isn't that what you guys always talk about, transparency??

[emily00011]

the real question is, why did Bush refuse to release them???

[hapkidogal]

Well if there weren't so many dirty little secrets it wouldn't be an issue.

[Kanye East]

SMEAR! SMEAR! SMEAR! SMEAR! SMEAR! SMEAR! SMEAR! SMEAR! SMEAR! SMEAR! SMEAR!

[mediachic1021]

More like TRUTH!

[traveler501]

what in god's name are you yammering about?? they released documents.­..you know, real paper with words on it, probably only the safe stuff anyway. how that constitutes a "smear" is beyond me. have you guys no fear of becoming caricatures of yourselves?

[Dredd]

Don't forget that there are about 800 pages of Bush II documents in them too.

[temashana]

Bush I helped to get Reagan into the White House by illegally intervening with the Iran hostage situation. http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpWESSEX/Documents/coupreaganbush.htm
After Reagan became president, he supported radical Islamist extremism in Pakistan under the rule of Muhammad Zia ul-Huq. "After Reagan came to office, defeating Carter in 1980, all this changed, due to President Reagan's new priorities and the unlikely and remarkably effective effort by Congressman Charles Wilson (D-TX), aided by Joanne Herring, and CIA Afghan Desk Chief Gust Avrakotos to increase the funding for Operation Cyclone. Aid to the Afghan resistance, and to Pakistan, increased substantially, finally reaching $1B. The US, faced with a rival superpower looking as if it were to create another Communist bloc, now engaged Zia to fight a US-aided war by proxy in Afghanistan against the Soviets. This day Pakistan still faces the legacy of Zia's policies of dragging the country into a conflict and even an ordinary Pakistani is a victim of the violence therefrom.­" from http://www.answers.com/topic/muhammad-zia-ul-haq
The "problems" with Iran are summed up here:
http://irandemocracyplan.com/history and this tells about "operation ajax" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat and http://www.911review.com/precedent/century/ajax.html
The wonderful legacy Reagan, with the aid of Bush, left us.

[dragonlady620]

Most of this explosive info has been around for a while, but the MSM has for the most part refused to touch it. If any of this is in the Reagan papers I wonder if it will be any different?

[Gasparilla]

Found something.­..but I forgot what it was.

[Islandtime]

Rayguns mind was oatmeal-- he didn't know if he was coming or going.

[dadw5boys]

We all know Daddy Bush was the real President Regean was only the FRONTMAN for the sideshow.

Daddy Bush was Regan's CHENY !

Daddy Bush was the head of the CIA and had more experience in his toe than Regean had over his whole Political life.

Calling Regean a Bull$hit Artist is being kind to Regean.

[Tracy Hale]

Yep, but also Cheney worked in the cabinet, too, did he not....hmm­mm...makes it look a little conspiritorial, doesn't it?