Life and Background

Childhood

• Born to John Edward Reagan (Jack) and Nelle Wilson Reagan on February 6, 1911 in a flat above a local bank in Tampico, Illinois

• A family legend that his father ran up, looked at his newborn son and said, "He looks like a fat little Dutchman, but who knows, he might grow up to be president someday..."

• Moved a lot due to his father's search for a better life, so he was always the new kid in school and it was not until they had moved 4 times that he found his hometown in Dixon

• In Dixon, Reagan's life was changed, 2 life changing events:

-Mom involved in acting, she and his brother convinced Ronald to join and his first performance turned from nervousness to a life changing event as he continued to pursue his acting career

-About 13 or 14 years old, Ronald tried on his mom's glasses and exclaimed with surprise...he could see!! He had sever nearsightedness but after getting glasses, he could play sports, see the blackboard and be able to learn, and most important he gained his confidence.


Teenage Years

• Dixon high school involved in drama, football, swim team/lifeguard, and elected President

• Reagan graduated from Eureka College. He majored in Economics but was determined to pursue a career as an actor.

Step of Success

• Reagan was accepted into Hollywoods and signed his contract with the Warner Brothers.

• While filming the movie Brother Rat, Reagan fell in love with his co-star, Jane Wyman. They got married and had 2 kids, but soon were divorced.

• 3 months after the Pearl Harbor, Reagan was called to serve. After discharged as Captain, he returned to Hollywood. The war changed him greatly. He became serious and passionate about political activities and people listened to what he had to say.

• Reagan became involved in exposing communist in the Screen Actors Guild. Through this, he got to meet his wife Nancy Davis.

• Reagan also worked and represented the General Electric Theathre. It was during his work there that her realized that We the people should be the ones telling the government what to do not the other way around.

Into Politics

• Reagan’s involvement in politics soon led him into becoming the governor of California. Most of the legislature was Democratic, so they didn’t like it that a Republican was telling them how to spend the taxpayers’ money. Reagan surrounded himself with skilled people and got accomplished his goals despite the Democrats. He wanted what was best for the people not for his political establishments.

• As governor of California, Reagan passed the Welfare Reform Act that provided help for the poor who worked for it, since he noticed how a lot of poor kids were seeing their parents get aid without working. He served his intended 2 terms as governor and took a rest knowing that this wasn't going to be his last time serving his nation.

Election

Reagan’s fame as an actor made him well known throughout the country. As he took position and was successful as the governor of California, people across the nation started to consider him to become the next president of the United States. Reagan reluctantly agreed to seek the nomination and ran in the election of 1976. Even though he lost this election, Reagan knew know that he wanted to be president and was prepared to run for the election of 1980.



Election of 1980

Reagan chose George H.W. Bush to run as his vice-president representing the Republican Party. Their main opponent was Jimmy Carter, the former president, and his vice president Walter Mondale who represented the Democratic Party. John Anderson also ran for election along with Patrick Lucoy.

Reagan wanted change! "Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem." His campaign issues included: lower taxes, decreased in the federal spending to help rebuild the economy. He promised to produce more domestic energy sources, and increase pay and benefits to the military to encourage military service. His solution to defeating communism was to strengthen America’s relationship with its allies. He also promised to stop the discrimination against women.

Reagan’s chance of becoming president was very high, since his main opponent Jimmy Carter was known as one of the most ineffective president. Reagan’s chance came during the national televised debate when he stated: If America was better 4 years ago, then they should choose Carter, but if America wanted change, then they should choose him. This became his campaign, “Are you better off than you were 4 years ago?” The people of America wanted change and it became obvious who was going to win this election.

Reagan beat his opponents with 489 electoral votes and 43.9 million popular votes versus Carter's 49 electoral votes and 35.4 million popular votes.

Election of 1984

Reagan ran again with the campaign slogan “It’s Morning Again in America”. This time he faced no opposition aside from Walter Mondale. He easily won this election in a landslide with a popular vote of 54.4 million votes and 525 electoral votes versus Mondale's 13 electoral votes and a popular vote of 37.5 million.

Domestic Policy and Affairs

The moment Reagan stepped into presidency, he knew what he had to do. As a conservative president, he believed that there should be less government involvement. One of the first thing he does is to shift the Supreme Court to the conservative side by appointing the most conservative justice like Justice William Rehnquist and Antonin Scalia on court. He also appointed the first women, Sandra Day O’Conner, on court. Reagan presented his policy of Reaganomics which includes budget cuts, tax cuts, and increased defense spending. Alongside Reaganomics was the Supply-side economics or “trickle down” economics which cut down the taxes. This would allow people to invest more and banks will be able to loan more money to businesses leading to more productivity thus lower prices for consumers. He passed the Economic Recovery Tax Act with a 25% tax cut resulting in an inflation drop from 13.5% to 5.1%.

Reagan worked to reduce the size of the federal government. He not only cut down on the taxes but also on the national budget. This meant scaling down in the budget for social programs. Reagan kept improving programs like Social Security and Medicare, as for Medicaid and welfare programs, he believed was a waste. He was not popular with the African Americans either, since he did not support the Civil Rights Act and also cut down on programs like job training for them. 30% of the African American incomes were lower than the official poverty level. Even though economy improved, social welfare cuts hurt the poor. Reagan’s programs benefited the rich, but he said that he was helping the poor the indirect way. By supporting the rich, the economy will improve, and the poor will soon benefit. He also believed in the “American Values” in which success is gained through hard, honest work not through welfare programs.

Although Reagan cut many programs, he increased the national defense spending by 35%. He supported the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) or the Star Wars which was a system created to protect America from long-range Soviet missile attacks. Reagan also started the deregulation of the economy. He removed prices controls on oil and eliminated federal health and safety inspections for nursing homes. Businesses like the airline industry were allowed more freedom to operate and be more productive. One of the most significant was cutting the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which allowed more freedom for people to harvest timber, mine for coal, and drill for oil. Environmental groups strongly opposed this, and it is still an issue debated over today.

Through all of Reagan’s programs, the stock market surged, unemployment decreased with over 118 million new jobs, trade with other nations increased, and the economy grew. Even though Reagan almost doubled the national debt when the federal spending went over limit, his time in granted America its longest period of peacetime economic growth in its history.

Reagan’s main focus was on improving the economy, but he also brought his attention on other issues like AIDS, abortion, drug abuse, and education. Supreme Court judged on a court case Webster v. Reproductive Health Care Services to restrict abortion. Education was also a big issue at the time. America was “A nation at risk” where students lagged behind other nations and research says that 23 million American were unable to follow instruction manual or fill out a job application form. Reagan promoted education for all. He also launched the war on drugs and supported moves to prosecute users and dealers of drugs. His wife, Nancy Reagan toured the country with an antidrug campaign “Just say no!” to drug.

Foreign Policy and Affairs

The heart of Reagan’s foreign policy and affairs was the prevention of communist expansion. His main focus was on the Soviet Union. He believed that only through military preparedness can the world achieve a stabled peace.

The Reagan Doctrine was passed in which US offered financial and logistics support to anti-communism opposition in Central Europe. Aid was not only given to Europe. Since the 1979, Carter had sent Nicaragua aid for defeating dictatorship, but in 1981, Reagan charged Nicaragua as a Soviet outpost that was exporting revolution to other Central American countries. He cut the aids and turned to support the Contras, which were guerrilla forces against communism. He also sent CIA men to help but with no congressional approval. In result, Congress passed the Boland Amendment to ban US aid to the Contras for 2 years, but Reagan still found ways to aid them. Regan also sent troops to Grenada which was suspected as developing ties to communist Cuba. Although Reagan’s goal to stop communism in Central America faltered, his support to the rebels fighting the Soviet troops in Afghanistan caused the Soviets to withdraw their troops ending the 8 year long war.

Reagan was also dedicated in stopping terrorist. In 1983, a terrorist group loyal to Iran took 52 Americans hostage in Lebanon. Reagan urged the US to not sell arms to Iran for war against Iraq saying, “America will never make concessions to terrorists.” Because of this, the US was shocked to learn that in 1986, Reagan had approved the selling of arms to Iran in exchange for 7 American hostages. Some of the profit was sent to the Contras directly violating the Boland Amendment. This became known as the Iran-Contra Scandal. Even though the scandal did bring a bad reputation for Reagan, he was able to rebuilt his reputation due to his brilliant strategy dealing with the Soviets.

Mikhail Gorbachev was the Soviet leader during this time. He passed the glasnost and perestroika to create more freedom and reconstruct the Soviet society. He also believed that a better relationship with the US would allow the Soviet to reduce military spending and reform its economy. Reagan took this opportunity to negotiate peace with Gorbachev. On Dec. 1987 in Washington Summit, they both agreed to and signed the Intermediate Nuclear Force (INF) Treaty which eliminated entire class of intermediate-range nuclear missiles and also the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) which reduced strategic nuclear arsenals by 50%. Earlier on in the year, Reagan also made in a speech at the Berlin Wall to Gorbachev that if he seeks peace, liberalization, and prosperity for his nation, he must knock down the Berlin Wall. It was not until 1989 when Gorbachev took Reagan’s advice and knocked down the Berlin Wall creating free passage and better relationships between the West and East of Berlin. Reagan “Star Wars” defense system also served its purpose. Gorbachev wanted to stop nuclear arms race but he was fearful of the US SDI. Reagan knew that his program would cause the Soviets to build up their arms and they did, but because the US had a good economy and the Soviets did not, the Soviet failed to keep the race and it hurt the economy a great deal, also leading to the fall of the Soviets in 1991.

Legacy

The eight years of Reagan’s presidency was one of the most dynamic periods in recent US history; a major period of change towards the conservative side and a major improvement in the US economy. Few presidents have enjoyed the affection of so many of the American people. He built up his fame in acting and displayed his knowledge and determination as the governor of California. His willpower easily won him presidency. Reagan had a clear vision of what the nation should be like, to have less government intervention. He had a clear social, economic, and foreign policy agenda, and through his cleverness, he was able to accomplish his goals. Support for Reagan grew when he was nearly killed in an assassination attempt. Reagan was known as the “Great Communicator” as he was able to negotiate peace with the Soviet and end the nuclear weapon race resulting in the fall of the Soviet in 1991. Ronald W. Reagan passed away with Alzheimers disease in his California home on June 5, 2004 at the age of 93, but his hard work and determination had brought upon America its longest period of peacetime economic growth in history.