what was the reagan administration known for?
The conservative revolution in America
entailment
 The Reagan administration was shaken by a scandal in 1986 , when it was revealed that administration officials had secretly arranged weapon sales to Iran , and had used the proceeds to fund the anticommunist Contras in Nicaragua , a direct violation of the law . When the Iran @-@ Contra Affair , as it became known , broke to the media , Bush , like Reagan , stated that he had been " out of the loop " and unaware of the diversion of funds , although this was later questioned . His diaries from that time stated " I 'm one of the few people that know fully the details . " Ailes and others were concerned that Bush was seen as a " wimp " , an image put to rest by his evident fury in an interview with Dan Rather . 

entailment
 American policymakers , including Kennan and John Foster Dulles , acknowledged that the Cold War was in its essence a war of ideas . The United States , acting through the CIA , funded a long list of projects to counter the communist appeal among intellectuals in Europe and the developing world . The CIA also covertly sponsored a domestic propaganda campaign called Crusade for Freedom . 

entailment
 He also sought to exert political influence , advising Scientologists to vote against Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential election and establishing a Department of Government Affairs " to bring government and hostile philosophies or societies into a state of complete compliance with the goals of Scientology " . This , he said , " is done by high @-@ level ability to control and in its absence by a low @-@ level ability to overwhelm . Introvert such agencies . Control such agencies . " 

entailment
 Domestically , the scandal precipitated a drop in President Reagan 's popularity as his approval ratings saw " the largest single drop for any U.S. president in history " , from 67 % to 46 % in November 1986 , according to a New York Times / CBS News poll . The " Teflon President " , as Reagan was nicknamed by critics , survived the scandal , however , and by January 1989 a Gallup poll was " recording a 64 % approval rating " , the highest ever recorded for a departing President at that time . 

neutral
 Additionally , the administration made few attempts to explain the distinction between Soviet influence and international Communism to the U.S. public . " In part , this failure reflected the belief of many in Washington " , writes historian John Lewis Gaddis , " that only the prospect of an undifferentiated global threat could shake Americans out of their isolationist tendencies that remained latent among them " . 
