Ronald Reagan: From Hollywood To The Oval Office
His Life As An Informant
Photo Credit: USC Libraries/Corbis via Getty Images
When the “Red Scare” hit Hollywood, the FBI turned to Ronald Reagan to give them names of industry communists. Reagan, hesitant, remarked, “Do they expect us to constitute ourselves as a little FBI of our own and determine just who is a Commie and who isn’t?”
Reagan might have been cautious, but he cooperated with the FBI. The relationship he built with J. Edgar Hoover might have saved his political career. Don’t worry, you’ll learn about that soon enough. The names of people Reagan gave to the FBI have been redacted from his file.