Thatcher Meets Reagan (1981) w/ Dan Snow
This Day in Esoteric Political History
Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia
4.6 • 982 Ratings
🗓️ 2 March 2023
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It’s March 2nd. In 1981, in late February, UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher travelled to the United States to meet with new US President Ronald Reagan.
Jody and Niki are joined by Dan Snow to discuss why the two felt such a kinship — even though they disagreed on foreign policy in surprising ways.
Be sure to check out Dan’s Snow’s “History Hit” podcast and the many other great shows as part of the History Hit network!
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Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Brittani Brown, Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia. |
| 0:07.0 | My name is Jody Avergan. |
| 0:09.0 | This day, 1981, Margaret Thatcher is in the United States meeting with newly inaugurated |
| 0:16.3 | President Ronald Reagan. |
| 0:17.8 | This was the first time the two of them had gotten together, but not the first time that |
| 0:21.0 | Thatcher had come to the United States. |
| 0:23.0 | She was in the US two years earlier meeting with President Carter, |
| 0:26.0 | and that was, I think we can say, a much chillier affair. |
| 0:30.0 | With Reagan, though, she was really meeting her counterpart, a Cold War warrior, each trying to navigate their country into a new era of conservatism. |
| 0:39.0 | The two would continue to have a very close relationship, though it is interesting interesting and we will get into this that they did |
| 0:43.5 | disagree on a number of key decisions particularly around foreign policy decisions. |
| 0:48.8 | But let's at this moment go to that crisp day in February where the New York Times reported that |
| 0:53.7 | quote Thatcher was greeted at the White House with a 19 gun salute a flurry of |
| 0:58.5 | Union jacks waived by a crowd of several hundred on the South Lawn and a formal review of an elaborate |
| 1:04.9 | color guard and what better guests to have for this episode than Dan Snow |
| 1:08.9 | popular British historian presenter of many history programs on the BBC and the host of the |
| 1:13.6 | podcast Dan Snow's history hit. Dan we've been trying to get this |
| 1:17.6 | podcast cross-pond crossover going for a while so I'm really glad you're |
| 1:21.4 | joining us. Thank you for doing this. |
| 1:22.8 | I'm it's great to be with US Podcasting royalty here. |
| 1:26.4 | It's exciting. I feel like I'm on the lawn here with flags waving and everything. |
| 1:30.8 | This might be my moment. |
... |
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