| 1980: | President-elect Reagan is briefed by President Carter, who later reveals that Reagan asked few questions and took no notes. |
| 1980: | Nancy Reagan tells a reporter that she and the president are going to set an example of "a higher sense of morality... It kind of filters down from the top somehow." |
| 1983: | After the TV movie "The Day After" shows a fictional nuclear war, the Reagan administration puts Secretary of State George Shultz on the tube to say that nothing bad is going to happen. |
| 1987: | The administration announces that 2500 Cuban prisoners will be sent back to Cuba. The prisoners in question riot and take hostages, to the complete surprise of Attorney General Ed Meese. |