Jason Saltoun-Ebin has been researching Ronald Reagan since 2001, when Richard Reeves hired him as a research assistant to help with the research for his presidential biography of Ronald Reagan. Mr. Reeves’ book, "President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination," was published in 2005.


During the course of their research, Mr. Reeves and Mr. Saltoun-Ebin filed numerous Mandatory Review (MR) requests for classified documents and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for unprocessed documents held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Though Mr. Reeves was able to make use of some newly released documents in "President Reagan," most of the FOIA requests and MR requests were never answered.


After graduating the University of Wisconsin Law School in 2007, Mr. Saltoun-Ebin returned to the Reagan Library to follow-up with his research from 2001-2005. In 2008 he discovered that many of President Reagan’s NSC/NSPG meeting minutes had recently been declassified. Mr. Saltoun-Ebin, believing that history is too important to be kept a secret inside the Reagan Library, created The Reagan Files to encourage the further study of the Reagan presidency.


On April 13th, 2009, President Obama ordered the release of nearly 150,000 pages of documents that President George W. Bush had kept secret though declassified by the classifying agency. Some of those documents are already published on The Reagan Files, others will hopefully be added to The Reagan Files collection in the near future. Many correspond to the MR and FOIA requests that Mr. Reeves and Mr. Saltoun-Ebin filed between 2001 and 2005.


Mr. Saltoun-Ebin is a proud graduate of U.C.L.A. (2001, B.A., European Studies).

Blog Entries by Jason Saltoun-Ebin

Top-Secret Reagan Letters to Soviet Leaders Now Online

Posted November 10, 2009 | 10:58 AM (EST)


On the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Reagan Files is proud to announce the digital publication of top-secret letters between Pres. Reagan and the four Soviet leaders during the Reagan presidency. The top-secret letters are online at the Reagan Files website.

Reagan first...

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Two Great Speeches, Two Very Different Messages

1 Comments | Posted September 9, 2009 | 10:30 PM (EST)


Though it is too early to start calling President Obama the next "Great Communicator," with Obama's speech on education this week, the time has come to compare it with President Reagan's speech twenty-one-years-ago, on Nov. 14th, 1988.

Speaking from the White House that day, President Reagan spoke to a...

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Qadhafi: Once A Clown, Always A Clown?

1 Comments | Posted July 21, 2009 | 10:27 AM (EST)


After President Obama shook hands with Libyan leader Qadhafi earlier this month at the G8 summit, I tried to imagine what President Reagan would have done had he been in Obama's shoes. My initial reaction was probably the same as most -- there is no way Reagan would have shook...

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Marijuana: Still a "Threat to Our People"?

16 Comments | Posted June 2, 2009 | 03:54 PM (EST)


Reading the recent report by Ryan Grim, "Kristof Asks Readers: Should US Legalize Drugs?" I instantly thought of what President Reagan told his advisers in his first NSC meeting as President of the United States. According to the recently declassified NSC meeting minutes, published on www.thereaganfiles.com, Reagan said:

...
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Newly Online Memos Reveal that President Reagan Ordered Strikes Against Iran If Hostages Were Killed

172 Comments | Posted May 29, 2009 | 05:01 PM (EST)


President Reagan ordered strikes against Iran if any of the American hostages held by the terrorist group Hezbollah were killed. The order, made during a January 18th, 1985 meeting of the National Security Planning Group, came on the heels of a threat by the terrorists to "try the American hostages...

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