Video: 'NBC Ronald Reagan Death Special Report June, 5 2004'

(Saturday, June 5, 2004, 1:09 p.m. PDT) — Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, (1981-1989), died this afternoon died of pneumonia following nine years of Alzheimer’s disease at his home in the Bel-Air district of Los Angeles, at the age of 93.

Video: 'The Death of Ronald Reagan - June, 2004 - CBS News - part 1'

In his first term, Reagan implemented “Reaganomics”, which involved economic deregulation and cuts in both taxes and government spending during a period of stagflation.

He escalated an arms race and transitioned Cold War policy away from détente with the Soviet Union.

Video: 'The Death of Ronald Reagan - June, 2004 - CBS News - part 2'

Reagan also ordered the invasion of Grenada in 1983. Additionally, he survived an assassination attempt, fought public-sector labor unions, expanded the war on drugs, and was slow to respond to the AIDS epidemic in the United States, which began early in his presidency.

Video: 'The Death of Ronald Reagan - June, 2004 - CBS News - part 3'

Foreign affairs dominated Reagan’s second term, including the 1986 bombing of Libya, the Iran–Iraq War, the secret and illegal sale of arms to Iran to fund the Contras, and a more conciliatory approach in talks with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that culminated in the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

Reagan left the presidency in 1989 with the American economy having seen a significant reduction of inflation, the unemployment rate having fallen, and the United States having entered its then-longest peacetime expansion.

Video: 'The Death of Ronald Reagan - June, 2004 - CBS News - part 4'

At the same time, the national debt had nearly tripled since 1981 as a result of his cuts in taxes and increased military spending, despite cuts to domestic discretionary spending.

Reagan’s policies also helped contribute to the end of the Cold War and the end of Soviet communism.