DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: First, in our special year-long observation of CNN's 20th anniversary, it was 13 years ago today that President Reagan's health had him in the headlines.</s>ANNOUNCER: Bringing you the world for CNN, this is</s>CNN. FRANK SESNO, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: Throughout Reagan's presidency the subject of his age was always on the front burner, whether it was physical or emotional or mental health.</s>CHARLES BIERBAUER, SR. WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: The president, before his prostate surgery, said it wall be a breeze. The prostrate surgery took an hour. The instrument inserted into the urinary tract, a rececticscope (ph), clears the blockage where the prostate has enlarged. The removed tissue is examined by a pathologist.</s>BIERBAUER: We would go to Bethesda, and we'd be standing out on the lawn that's sort of a rolling, green campus-like setting for the hospital on the outskirts of Washington, and there'd be an area typically set aside for the press, and there we would stand and wait. The president would sort of look back, and he'd either give you a thumbs up or he'd give you a wave. When he was hospitalized and retained there, we -- you've undoubtedly seen those shots of him waving from the window and Nancy waving from the window.</s>SESNO: Yes, I would have preferred not to know as much as I found out about the president's prostate or his other medical condition, for that matter. It feel a little bit like an invasion of privacy, you feel like, you know, a person should have their own physical in privacy and in peace. But with the president of the United States, commander in chief, it's never, never that simple. The whole world was watching.
CNN 20: Regan's Prostate Surgery, January 5, 1987