President Reagan

The publicly low-key Finkelstein is credited with pioneering the use of aggressive ad campaigns, political action committees and turning the word "liberal" into a political pejorative.

Whatever actual impact previous foreign entanglements may have had, the stories persist — if only because they feed such powerful thoughts of "what might have been."

American presidents began surreptitious recordings in the White House in 1940 under Roosevelt, unbeknownst to Congress or the public. After Nixon, they were believed to stop, but did they?

The White House Office of Management and Budget also calls on federal agencies and the public to come up with ideas to overhaul government services.

John Hinckley Jr. tried to kill President Reagan on March 30, 1981. Reporter Judy Woodruff, then with NBC News, was there.

The president knows he was once regarded as having limitless promise, and realizes as well how disappointed many of his acolytes have been.