Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan, (
February 6,
1911 –
June 5,
2004) was the 40th
President of the
United States (1981–1989) and the 33rd
Governor of
California (1967–1975). At age 69, he was the oldest person elected President. Before entering politics, Reagan was a popular motion picture actor, as well as head of the
Screen Actors Guild, and a motivational speaker. He was a Democrat in the 1940s, becoming a Republican in the 1960s and a leading backer of
Barry Goldwater's ill-fated presidential campaign in 1964. Even some of his bitter critics grudgingly admitted to the success of his two terms as governor of
California. His well-delivered and persuasive speaking style earned Reagan the accolade "The Great Communicator." His economic and foreign policies have formed the base of the
conservative movement since 1980, especially in terms of a proactive foreign policy abroad, and tax cuts at home. He was an anti-communist who negotiated the greatest arms reductions when the Soviets decided to pull back from their empire-building; his policies are credited with accelerating the demise of the
Soviet Union. The most prominent scandal of his administration was the
Iran-Contra Affair, where members of his administration illegally exchanged arms with Iran for hostages and illegally used the proceeds to fund the Contras, a right wing, para-military, anti-government group in Nicaragua.
Reagan defeated incumbent President
Jimmy Carter to win the election of
1980; his landslide carried in the first Republican-controlled U.S. Senate in 26 years, and reduced the Democratic majority in the House. His economic policy of
supply-side economics, popularly known as "
Reaganomics", is noted for a 25% cut in the
income tax, reduction in
inflation, reduction in interest rates, increased military spending, increased economic inequality in the United States, increased deficits and
national debt, a temporary solution to the
Social Security issue, elimination of loopholes in the tax code, continued deregulation of business, and a sharp recession in 1981-1982 followed by an economic expansion starting in 1982. In other domestic issues he did not succeed in significantly changing social policies such as welfare and abortion during his presidency, but he did create a more conservative federal judiciary through appointments to the
United States Supreme Court and other federal courts. He emphasized his skepticism concerning the ability of the federal government to remedy problems, particularly economic ones. His solution was to
withdraw government involvement in planning and control by reducing taxation and regulation in order to allow the putative self-correcting mechanism of the free market to assert itself. He said on his day of inauguration, "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."
His supporters credit him for restoring psychological optimism to an America that seemed in deep malaise in 1980 and for advocacy of economic
laissez-faire over governmental control. In foreign policy his Administration is noted for the vast buildup of the military and change from containment of the
Soviet Union to confrontation. Reagan was committed to the ideologies of
democratic capitalism and
anti-communism.
His ability to survive significant
scandals—which resulted in criminal convictions of several Administration officials and staff—with relatively high approval numbers earned him the nickname "The
Teflon President".
The
Berlin Wall, and with it ultimately the Soviet Bloc, collapsed in November of 1989, shortly after he left office. American conservatives and many European leaders credit Reagan with being instrumental in the 1991 downfall of the
Soviet Union. Historians have not yet formed a consensus, with some considering Reagan to be a leading figure in orchestrating the collapse of Soviet
Communism in 1991
[ Busch 1993; Summy and Salla 1995]; other historians believe the demise of the Soviet Union was inevitable, and that Reagan merely hastened the day.
[War: The New Edition, Gwynne Dyer (1985, 2004); ]In 1988, Reagan's Vice President,
George H.W. Bush was elected President, marking the first election in 60 years where the outgoing and incoming presidents were from the same party. The string of presidencies from
Lyndon B. Johnson,
Richard Nixon,
Gerald Ford and
Jimmy Carter, in contrast, have been often portrayed as "failures". Reagan's presidency influenced the culture of the 1980s and in the United States is often referred to as the "Reagan Era".
He was the only U.S. President to be shot by an assassin (on
March 30,
1981) while in office and survive. He received
a state funeral after his death in
Bel-Air, California, in 2004 at age 93, after suffering from
Alzheimer's disease for a decade.
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Ronald and his older brother Neil, with parents Jack and Nelle Reagan. (ca. 1916-1917) |
Reagan was born on
February 6,
1911, in an apartment above a small bakery in
Tampico,
Illinois. He was the second of two sons born to John Edward Reagan, an
Irish American Catholic, and Nellie Clyde Wilson, who was of Scottish, Canadian and
English descent. His paternal great-grandfather, Michael Reagan, came to the United States from
Ballyporeen,
County Tipperary, Ireland, in the 1860s, and the rest of his paternal family immigrated from
Ireland in the 1800s as well.[
1] Prior to his immigration, the family name was spelled
Regan. His maternal great-grandfather, John Wilson, immigrated to the United States from
Paisley,
Scotland, in the 1840s and married Jane Blue, a Canadian from Queens,
New Brunswick. Reagan's maternal grandmother, Mary Anne Elsey, was born in
Epsom,
Surrey, England.[
2]
Reagan developed a gift for storytelling and acting. These abilities led to his selection as one of the freshman speakers during the late-night meeting prior to the student strike at
Eureka College. In 1932, after graduating from Eureka (
B.A. in
economics and
sociology), Reagan was at radio stations
WOC in
Davenport, Iowa, and then
WHO in
Des Moines as an announcer for
Chicago Cubs baseball games, getting only the bare outlines of the game from a
ticker and relying on his imagination to flesh out the game. Once, during the ninth inning of a game, the wire went dead but Reagan smoothly improvised a fictional play-by-play (in which hitters on both teams fouled off numerous pitches) until the wire was restored.
Hollywood
In 1937, when in
California to cover spring training for the Chicago Cubs as a Headline radio announcer, Reagan took a screen test that led to a seven-year contract with the
Warner Brothers studio. Reagan's clear voice, easy-going manner, and athletic physique made him popular with audiences; the majority of his screen roles were as the leading man in
B movies. His first screen credit was the starring role in the 1937 movie
Love Is On the Air. By the end of 1939, he had appeared in 19 films. Before
Santa Fe Trail in 1940, he played the role of
George "The Gipper" Gipp in the film
Knute Rockne, All American. From this role he acquired the nickname
the Gipper, which he retained the rest of his life. Reagan considered his best acting work to have been in
Kings Row (1942). He played the part of a young man whose legs were amputated. He used a line he spoke in this film, "Where's the rest of me?", as the title for his autobiography. Other notable Reagan films include
Tennessee's Partner,
Hellcats of the Navy,
This Is the Army, and
Bedtime for Bonzo. He has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Reagan was commissioned as a reserve officer in the
United States Army in 1935. In November 1941, Reagan was called up but disqualified for combat duty because of his
astigmatism. After the
attack on Pearl Harbor, Lieutenant Reagan was activated and assigned to the
First Motion Picture Unit in the
United States Army Air Forces, which made training and education films, where his acting experience could be put to work. He remained in Hollywood for the duration of the war.
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Ronald Reagan visiting Nancy Reagan on the set of her movie Donovan's Brain, 1953. |
Reagan's film roles became fewer in the late 1950s; he moved to television as a host and frequent performer for
General Electric Theater. Reagan appeared in over 50 television dramas. One of his most notorious appearances was in 1954 starring alongside
James Dean in "
Out of the Night." Reagan served as the president of the
Screen Actors Guild (SAG) from 1947 until 1952, and again from 1959 to 1960. In 1952, a Hollywood dispute raged over his granting of a SAG blanket waiver to
MCA, which allowed it to both represent and employ talent for its burgeoning
TV franchises. He went from host and program supervisor of
General Electric Theater to producing and claiming an equity stake in the TV show itself. At one point in the late 1950s, Reagan was earning approximately $125,000 per year (around $800,000 in 2006 dollars). His final regular acting job was as host and performer on
Death Valley Days. Reagan's final big-screen appearance came in the 1964 film
The Killers, a remake of an earlier version, based on a short story by
Ernest Hemingway. Reagan portrayed a mob chieftain. This film, the first made-for-TV movie, was originally produced for NBC, but the network's censor found it too violent. Reagan's co-stars were
John Cassavetes,
Lee Marvin, and
Angie Dickinson.
Reagan married actress
Jane Wyman on
January 24,
1940; they had a daughter,
Maureen in 1941; an adopted son,
Michael in 1945, and a second daughter, Christine, born and died
June 26,
1947. They divorced on
June 28,
1948. Reagan was the only United States President to have been divorced. Reagan remarried on
March 4,
1952, to actress
Nancy Davis. Their daughter
Patti was born on
October 21 of the same year. In 1958, they had a second child,
Ron.
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Ronald Reagan advertising borax |
Ronald Reagan was originally a
Democrat, supporting
Franklin D. Roosevelt and his
New Deal. In the late 1940s, he was one of the most visible speakers in the country defending President
Harry S. Truman. By the early 1960s, he had become a staunch social and fiscal
conservative, and in 1976, he said "fascism was really the basis of the New Deal." His admiration for
classical liberalism and economic laissez-faire can be seen in a speech from 1964: "The Founding Fathers knew a government can't control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government set out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing."
[Quoted by Ron Paul Remembering Ronald Reagan in the Congressional Record, June 9, 2004.] His first major political role was president of the Screen Actors Guild, the labor union that included most Hollywood actors, but which, he claimed, was being infiltrated by Communists. In this position, he testified before the
House Un-American Activities Committee on Communist influence in Hollywood. He also kept tabs on actors he considered disloyal and informed on them to the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) under the code name "Agent T-10," but he would not denounce them publicly. In public statements he opposed the practice of
blacklisting in Hollywood, while in practice he and his first wife, Jane Wyman, met with FBI agents in 1947 and named "suspected subversives." Among those he allegedly fingered were actors
Larry Parks (
The Jolson Story),
Howard Da Silva (
The Lost Weekend) and
Alexander Knox (
Wilson). Each of them was later called before the House Un-American Activities Committee and blacklisted in Hollywood. (This information was not revealed until a 2002
Freedom of Information Act request.)
[Reagan, FBI, CIA tried to quash campus unrest - June 8, 2004, AP and USA Today.] FBI files supposedly show that over time he repeatedly gave the FBI names of people he suspected of communist ties.
Believing that the
Republican Party was better able to combat communism, and that he would gain more corporate support if he did so, Reagan gradually abandoned his progressive political views, supporting the presidential candidacies of
Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956 and Richard Nixon in 1960— all while remaining a Democrat.
In 1966, he was elected the 33rd
Governor of California, defeating two-term incumbent
Pat Brown; he was re-elected in 1970, defeating
Jesse Unruh, but chose not to seek a third term. Ronald Reagan was sworn in as governor of California on
January 3,
1967. In his first term, he froze government hiring but also approved tax hikes to balance the budget. Reagan quickly controlled protest movements of the era. During the
People's Park protests in 1969, he sent 2,200
National Guard troops onto the Berkeley campus of the
University of California. In a speech in April 1970, he stated, "If it's to be a bloodbath, let it be now. Appeasement is not the answer."
[Los Angeles Times, April 8, 1970, page 3. Later in April 1970, a young man who was aiding police was accidentally shot by police during a riot in Isla Vista. Reagan then tearfully blamed the death of the young man on the rioters: Los Angeles Times, April 22, 1970, page 1.]He worked with Democratic Assembly Speaker
Bob Moretti to reform
welfare in 1971. Reagan also opposed the construction of a large federal dam, the Dos Rios, which would have flooded a valley of
Indian ranches. Later, Reagan and his family took a summer backpack trip into the high
Sierra to a place where a proposed trans-Sierra highway would be built. Once there, he declared it would not be built. One of Reagan's greatest frustrations in office concerned
capital punishment. He had campaigned as a strong supporter; however, his efforts to enforce the state's laws in this area were thwarted when the
Supreme Court of California issued its
People v. Anderson decision, which invalidated all
death sentences issued in California prior to 1972, although the decision was quickly overturned by a
constitutional amendment. Despite his support for the death penalty, Reagan granted two clemencies and a temporary reprieve during his governorship.
As of 2006, no other clemency has been granted to a condemned person in California. The only execution during Reagan's governorship was on
April 12,
1967, when Aaron Mitchell was executed by the state in
San Quentin's gas chamber. There was not another execution in California until 1992. When the
Symbionese Liberation Army kidnapped
Patty Hearst in Berkeley and demanded the distribution of food to the poor, Reagan suggested that it would be a good time for an outbreak of
botulism.
[Los Angeles Times, Mar. 7, 1974, p. A25.]After the media reported on the comment, he apologized.
Reagan promoted the dismantling of the public
psychiatric hospital system, proposing that community-based housing and treatment replace involuntary hospitalization, which he saw as a violation of
civil liberties issue. The community replacement facilities have never been adequately funded, either by Reagan or his successors. Reagan was strongly influenced by the
classical liberals. When asked in an interview in 1975 which economists were influential on him, he replied: "
Bastiat and
von Mises, and
Hayek and
Hazlittâ€"I'm one for the classical economists." [
3]
Reagan was the first governor to use a corporate business jet for official travel. California received one of the first
Cessna Citation jets manufactured. His pilot, Bill Paynter, changed his Democratic voting registration to Republican within six months of meeting Reagan. Paynter often told listeners the Reagan on TV was the same Reagan in person, a man who walked his talk. Reagan would often ask his flight crew if it would be any inconvenience to change the published flight schedule because he did not want to keep his support staff from being with their families and any family planned events.Fact: Ronald's drink of choice was Vodka straight up. His nickname in college was "FIRE IN THE HOLE!"
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Ronald Reagan on the cover of TIME as "Man of the Year," 1980. |
1976 presidential campaign
Reagan's first attempt to gain the Republican presidential nomination in 1968 was unsuccessful. According to the book "Running on Race: Racial Politics in Presidential Campaigns 1960-2000", much of Reagan's popularity in the 1968 race came from the support of white Southerners. Reagan's surging popularity in the South forced Nixon to use Senator Strom Thurmond to promise the South a go-slow policy on race. Once the South was convinced that Nixon would no longer be as pro-civil rights as he had been in 1960, Reagan's camapign became mostly a convention phenomenon, and not a real threat.
Reagan tried again in 1976 against
incumbent Gerald Ford but met defeat at the Republican National Convention by a few votes.
The 1976 campaign was a critical moment for Ronald Reagan's political development. Gerald Ford was a symbol of the "old guard" of the Republican Party. Reagan's success was remarkable considering Ford's status as an incumbent President. Once again, Reagan's popularity in the South was crucial to his success, and he highlighted his opposition to affirmative action, busing, and "welfare queens." His campaign also exploited the politics of race in the North Carolina primary, when it allied with the machine of Senator Jesse Helms, a longtime opponent of integration. Reagan's campaign passed around a false brochure alleging that Ford was going to pick a black man for vice president (moderate Republican Senator Edward Brooke of Massachusetts). Reagan's stunning success in the North Carolina primary proved the effectiveness of these approaches, and made the battle against Ford the closest primary in either political party since 1952 if not earlier. It was so close that not until the final vote was taken could Ford be certain that a few last minute defections would not give the nomination to Reagan. At the convention in 1976, Reagan gave a stirring speech in which he discussed the dangers of nuclear war and the moral threat of the Soviet Union. After that speech, many at the convention said they felt like "they had voted for the wrong man."
After the
1976 presidential election had ended, and as the
Electoral College votes were being cast, Reagan unexpectedly received one electoral vote for President from a Republican "
faithless elector" (
Mike Padden, a
lawyer from
Spokane, Washington) who had been pledged to vote for Gerald Ford. While some have argued that receiving this one electoral vote did encourage Reagan to run "one more time" for President, this hypothesis remains unconfirmed.
1980 presidential campaign
In
1980, Reagan won the Republican nomination for President, handily winning most of the primaries after an early defeat in the
Iowa caucuses. During the convention, Reagan proposed a complex power-sharing arrangement with Gerald Ford as Vice President, but nothing came of it. Instead, Reagan selected his opponent in the primaries,
George H. W. Bush, who was a former Congressional Representative,
United Nations ambassador, Envoy to
China, RNC Chairman, and
CIA director—although Bush had declared that he would never be Reagan's Vice President.
Bush was many things Reagan was not â€" a lifelong Republican, a combat veteran and an internationalist with UN, CIA and China experience. Bush's economic and political philosophies were supposedly more moderate than Reagan's. Bush had referred to Reagan's supply-side influenced proposal for a 30% across-the-board tax cut as "voodoo economics."
On
August 4,
1980, Reagan declared his support for
states' rights, a phrase seen by many
(including conservatives) as code for support of segregation, in a speech at the
Neshoba County (
Mississippi) Fair. Critics complained that his speech was too close to the site where three civil rights activists were murdered in 1964.
[Los Angeles Times, Aug. 13, 1980, p. D7, Shades of the Klan: Reagan's Talk of State's Rights is Scary, Andrew Young.] Reagan's supporters justified the speech by the fact that it was consistent with his overall philosophy of government and that the fair was an important political event in a traditionally Democratic-voting state that Reagan went on to carry by less than 13,000 votes in the general election. However, in his biography of Reagan, Edmund Morris states that Reagan was still a firm believer in the federal government as being supreme.
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1980 Presidential electoral votes by state. |
The campaign, led by
William J. Casey, was conducted in the shadow of the
Iran hostage crisis; Every day during the campaign the networks reported on Carter's unavailing efforts to free the hostages. Most analysts argue this weakened Carter's political base and gave Reagan the opportunity to attack Carter's ineffectiveness. On the other hand, Carter's inability to deal with double-digit
inflation and
unemployment, lackluster economic growth, instability in the petroleum market leading to long gas lines, and the perceived weakness of the U.S. national defense may have had a greater impact on the electorate. Adding to Carter's woes was his use of the term "misery index" during the 1976 election, which he defined as the sum of the inflation and unemployment rates. This so-called "misery index" had considerably worsened during his term, which Reagan used to his advantage during the campaign. With respect to the economy, Reagan said, "I'm told I can't use the word depression. Well, I'll tell you the definition. A recession is when your neighbor loses his job; depression is when you lose your job. Recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his."
Reagan's showing in the
televised debates boosted his campaign. He seemed more at ease, deflecting President Carter's criticisms with remarks like "There you go again." His most influential remark was a closing question to the audience, during a time of skyrocketing prices and high interest rates, "Are you better off than you were four years ago?"
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1984 Presidential electoral votes by state. |
1984 presidential campaign
In the
1984 presidential election, Reagan was re-elected over former Vice President
Walter Mondale, winning 49 of 50 states (Mondale carried only his home state of
Minnesota and the
District of Columbia). Reagan received nearly 60% of the popular vote. His chances of winning were not harmed when, at the
Democratic National Convention, Mondale accepted the party nomination with a speech that was regarded as a self-inflicted mortal wound to his presidential aspirations. In it, Mondale remarked "Mr. Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He won't tell you. I just did."
[Mondale's Acceptance Speech, 1984 - transcript, CNN]Reagan accepted the Republican nomination in
Dallas, Texas, on a wave of good feeling bolstered by the recovering economy and the dominating performance by the U.S. athletes at the
Los Angeles Olympics that summer. He became the first American President to open a summer Olympic Games held in the U.S.
The campaign of 1984 also featured one of Reagan's most famous gaffes, "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes", spoken as a sound check prior to a radio address. He was unaware that the joke would be heard by the public.
[Reagan's Gaffe - Hedrick Smith, August 16, 1984, The New York Times] Some argued that the quote, spoken during a time of great tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, was a mistake; some critics were left questioning Reagan's understanding of some of the realities of his foreign policy and of international affairs in general. Others, however, saw it merely as a humorous joke, meant only for the reporters in the room, that was accidentally broadcast. Samples of the recording of the quotation were later turned into the dance record "Five Minutes" by
Jerry Harrison and
Bootsy Collins.
Despite a weak performance in the first debate, Reagan recovered in the second and was considerably ahead of Mondale in polls taken throughout much of the race. Reagan's landslide win in the 1984 presidential election is often attributed by political commentators to be a result of his conversion of the "
Reagan Democrats," the traditionally Democratic voters who voted for Reagan in that election.
Domestic policies
Economy
As Reagan entered office the nation was in a severe economic crisis. The economy suffered from double-digit inflation (making planning very unpredictable) and 20% interest rates (making mortgages prohibitive for most people). Nearly eight million were unemployed. Workers had suffered a 5% decline in real hourly wages over the previous five years, while federal personal taxes for the average family had gone up 67%. The national debt was approaching $1 trillion. Reagan was considered to be
economically libertarian, in favor of
tax cuts, smaller government, and
deregulation, but no one knew what concrete steps he meant to take, or whether the House, controlled by Democrats, would support him.
Reagan's first official act was to terminate oil price controls, a policy designed to boost America's domestic production and exploration of oil.
[[http://cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-261.html Supply Tax Cuts and the Truth Aboutthe Reagan Economic Record] - William A. Niskanen and Stephen Moore, October 22, 1996, Policy Analysis, Cato Institute] |
Vice President George H.W. Bush, right, meets with President Reagan, left, in Oval Office, 1984. |
In the summer of 1981 Reagan, backing up a pledge he made when the union threatened to strike, fired a majority of federal
air traffic controllers (members of the
PATCO union) when they went on an illegal
strike. Since this union was one of only two unions to support Reagan in the prior election, this action proved to be a political coup.
A major focus of Reagan's first term was reviving the economy, which was plagued by a new phenomenon known as
stagflation (a stagnant economy combined with high inflation). He fought double-digit inflation by supporting
Federal Reserve Board chairman
Paul Volcker's decision to tighten the money supply by dramatically hiking interest rates. Economist
Milton Friedman says that Reagan "understood that there was no way of ending inflation without monetary restraint and a temporary recession,"
[ Freedom's Friend - Milton Friedman, Hoover Institution, Summer 2004] Reagan pursued a strategy of combining this tight-money policy with across-the-board tax cuts designed to boost business investment (in Reagan's words: "
Chicago school economics,
supply-side economics, call it what you will â€" I noticed that it was even known as Reaganomics at one point until it started working...").
[Remarks at a White House Briefing for Members of the Deficit Reduction Coalition - transcript, July 10, 1987] Ridiculed by George H.W. Bush as "
voodoo," and others as "trickle-down," and "
Reaganomics," he managed to push across-the-board tax cuts in 1981 (although in 1982 and 1983 he signed what
Republicans agree were the
largest tax increases in history).
As a result of the tight-money policy intended to end inflation, the economy went into a sharp downswing starting in July 1981, and bottomed out a year later in November 1982.
[Business Cycle Expansions and Contractions - National Bureau of Economic Research, accessed March 15, 2006] Following this recession of 1981-82, the economy staged a dramatic recovery beginning in 1983. Reagan's tax cuts are argued to have helped revive the economy and create jobs which led to the increase of federal income tax revenues during the 1980s from $517 billion to over $1 trillion per annum (not inflation adjusted dollars).
Everyone benefited from across-the-board income tax reductions of 25%. Those who had paid the most (the rich) received the greatest relief. Reagan bet his 1984 reelection bid on the expectation the rich would invest in new business and jobs.
The increases in the military budget stemming from the new
Cold War strategy led to the federal
deficit reaching levels that had not been seen in years. Critics noted that pumping so much deficit funding into the defense industry was, in reality, classic
Keynesian economics, and that the ensuing economy was not the result of tax cuts, but a predictable response to excessive government spending.
The
House of Representatives, with a Democratic majority, opposed Reagan's policies and attempted protection of social welfare and other domestic spending. One of the Reagan Administration's cost-cutting moves was abolition of the U.S.
Metric Board, established by President Gerald R. Ford, thereby ending the attempt to harmonize U S measurements with the majority of first world nations.
Alarmed by the growth in Social Security outlays, Reagan appointed a Social Security reform commission, headed by
Alan Greenspan. This commission reached a consensus on a two-part plan to slow the growth: Raising the Social Security tax base by staged increases in the age required to begin receiving benefits (reflecting rising life expectancy); and increasing government revenues by accelerating a previously enacted (by Ronald Regan) increase in the rates of social security payroll taxes.
In an effort to mitigate the deficit, the U.S. borrowed heavily both domestically and abroad, and by the end of Reagan's second term the
national debt held by the public rose from 26% of
Gross Domestic Product in 1980 to 41% in 1989, the highest level since 1963. By 1988, the debt totaled $2.6 trillion. The country owed more to foreigners than it was owed, and the United States moved from being the world's largest international creditor to the world's largest debtor nation. [
4]
During the Reagan presidency, the inflation rate dropped from 13.6% in 1980 (President Carter's final year in office) to 4.1% by 1988, the economy added 16,753,000 jobs and the unemployment rate fell from 7.5% to 5.3% (although it increased at one point peaking near 10%). In addition, the poverty rate fell from 14% to 12.8%.
Reagan's economic policies created an increase in the gap between the rich and the poor; however, during the eight years of the Reagan presidency, all income groups saw their income rise in real terms, including the bottom quintile, whose income rose 6% (Bureau of the Census, 1996). The richest 1% of the U.S. population saw in increase in 1 trillion dollars during the same time period (Zinn, 2003). See also:
Economic inequality.
AIDS epidemic
President Reagan was criticized for the perception that his Administration and other authorities did not respond quickly enough to the medical community's realization of the
HIV-
AIDS epidemic. The first official mention of the disease in the White House was in October 1982, when Press Secretary Larry Speakes, questioned by a reporter on the Presidential reaction to the fact that there were now over 600 cases, replied:"What's AIDS?" (Transcript quoted in Shots in the Dark: The Wayward Search for an AIDS Vaccine, John Cohen, 2001.) Following this, the administration remained silent on the issue until after the death of movie star and national icon
Rock Hudson from the disease in 1985, by which time there were approximately 8,000 cases. Affected groups accused the White House of discrimination, many believing that it took Hudson's death to legitimize the need for action. Reagan ultimately discussed the federal government's role in fighting the disease at a public press conference.
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Reagan stands during the recommissioning ceremony for the battleship USS New Jersey, December 1982. |
Despite this apparent slow response, under Reagan $5.7 billion was spent on AIDS and HIV, with large amounts going to the
National Institutes of Health. This was significantly more than the federal government spends on cancer research, which kills far more people than AIDS and HIV, yet special interest groups still maintained it was not enough. In September 1985, Reagan said: "Including what we have in the budget for 1986, it will amount to over a half a billion dollars that we have provided for research on AIDS, in addition to what I'm sure other medical groups are doing. And we have $100 million in the budget this year; it'll be $126 million next year. So this is a top priority with us. Yes, there's no question about the seriousness of this and the need to find an answer." By 1986, Reagan had endorsed a large prevention and research effort and declared in his budget message that AIDS "remains the highest
public health priority of the
Department of Health and Human Services."
Reagan's policies in regard to AIDS and
gay rights were controversial even after his presidency had ended, and they have remained a subject of debate after his death. During his political career, he had gone on record as supporting
sodomy laws, opposing anti-discrimination laws including
sexual preference, and the conservative
United States Supreme Court Justices that he appointed would help produce the majority opinion in the 1986 case of
Bowers v. Hardwick. Early in his Presidency, Reagan reportedly reassured the American public not to worry about the outbreak of AIDS because it was, "only a gay disease." However, he opposed the 1978 California anti-gay
Briggs Initiative. In 1984, he was the first President to invite an openly homosexual couple to spend the night in the White House. In a rare public pronouncement on the topic of AIDS, Reagan stated his belief that morality and science conflate to make
abstinence the best method to prevent the disease.
Reagan had another, more unusual, role to play in the HIV-AIDS issue. Controversy surrounding the discovery of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) was intense after American researcher
Robert Gallo and
French scientist
Luc Montagnier both claimed to have discovered it. They had given the new virus different names. The controversy was eventually settled by an agreement (helped along by the mediation of Dr
Jonas Salk) between Reagan and French President
François Mitterrand, which gave equal credit to both men and their teams. This was an extraordinary event which ignored scientific realities and was the first time a biological controversy had to be resolved at such an elevated political level.
Abortion
Reagan made the abolition of communism and the implementation of
supply-side economics the primary focuses of his presidency, but he also took a strong stand against
abortion. He published the book
Abortion and the Conscience of a Nation, which decried what Reagan saw as disrespect for life, promoted by the practice of abortion. Many conservative activists refer to Reagan as the most
pro-life President in history. However, two of the three
Supreme Court justices he selected,
Sandra Day O'Connor and
Anthony Kennedy, voted to uphold
Roe v. Wade and as governor, Reagan signed into law California's liberal abortion rights legislation.
Other matters
Although Reagan's second term was mostly noteworthy for matters related to foreign affairs, he supported significant pieces of legislation on domestic matters. In 1982, Reagan signed legislation reauthorizing the
Voting Rights Act of 1965 for another 25 years, even though he had opposed such an extension during the 1980 campaign.
["Reagan Weighs In On Social Issues." U.S. News & World Report, May 12, 1982] This extension added protections for blind, disabled, and illiterate voters.
Other significant legislation included the
overhaul of the Internal Revenue Code in 1986, as well as the
Civil Liberties Act of 1988 which compensated victims of the
Japanese-American internment during
World War II. Reagan also signed legislation authorizing the
death penalty for offenses involving murder in the context of large-scale
drug trafficking; wholesale reinstatement of the federal death penalty did not occur until the presidency of
Bill Clinton.
Milton Friedman has pointed to the number of pages added to the
Federal Register each year as evidence of the anti-regulatory nature of Reagan's presidency.
[ The number of pages added to the Register each year declined sharply at the start of the Ronald Reagan presidency, breaking a steady and sharp increase since 1960. The increase in the number of pages added per year resumed an upward, though less steep, trend after Reagan left office.]
The "war on drugs" during his presidency involved Nancy Reagan's high-profile "Just Say No" series of messages.
In 1983 and again in 1984, Reagan claimed falsely that he filmed the Auschwitz death camps in person; he was in a film unit in Hollywood that processed raw footage for newsreels, but he was not in Europe during the war. He told Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir of Israel that he was at Auschwitz during a White House visit in 1983 and made an identical claim to Simon Wiesenthal and Rabbi Martin Hier of Los Angeles in 1984. [Morris, Edumund. Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan (2000) p.465. Cannon, Lou. President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime (2000) p. 428-30.]Foreign policies
Cold War
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Reagan, left, in one-on-one discussions with Mikhail Gorbachev, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR from 1985 to 1991. |
Reagan was the first major world leader to declare that Communism would soon collapse. On March 3, 1983, he was blunt: "I believe that communism is another sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose â€" last pages even now are being written." His most detailed analysis came on June 8, 1982, to the British Parliament, stunning the Soviets and allies alike. The prevailing doctrine in the West was that the Soviet Union would be around for generations to come, and it was essential to recognize that and work with them. But Reagan argued that the Soviet Union was in deep economic crisis, which he intended to make worse by cutting off western technology. He stated the Soviet Union "runs against the tide of history by denying human freedom and human dignity to its citizens."
What some US scholars call the "orthodox view" of the end of the Cold War is that "the Soviet Union's capitulation and the Cold War victory for the forces of freedom and democracy were ultimately due to the relentless application of the West's military superiority and the dynamism of its ideas and economic system. These factors revealed communism's moral illegitimacy and highlighted its economic stagnation." [Salla and Summy, p 3] It is broadly endorsed by both Republicans (who emphasize Reagan's role), and by Democrats (who emphasize the containment policies of Truman, Kennedy, Johnson and Carter). It is widely echoed in Eastern Europe. For example Lech Wałęsa, leader of the Solidarity movement in Poland, said in 2004, "When talking about Ronald Reagan, I have to be personal. We in Poland took him so personally. Why? Because we owe him our liberty. This can't be said often enough by people who lived under oppression for half a century, until communism fell in 1989." [5] Helmut Kohl, chancellor of West Germany, said, "He was a stroke of luck for the world. Two years after Reagan called on Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the wall, he noted, it fell and 11 months later Germany was reunified. We Germans have much to thank Ronald Reagan for." Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said, "President Reagan was a determined opponent of Communism and he played an important role in bringing an end to Communism and to the artificial division of Europe imposed after the Second World War." Václav Havel, who became the Czech president in 1989, said, "He was a man of firm principles who was indisputably instrumental in the fall of Communism." [6]
Reagan forcefully confronted the Soviet Union, marking a sharp departure from the détente observed by his predecessors Nixon, Ford, and Carter. Under the assumption that the Soviet Union could not then outspend the US government in a renewed arms race, he strove to make the Cold War economically and rhetorically hot.
The Administration oversaw a military build-up that represented a policy named "peace through strength". The U.S. set a new policy toward the Soviet Union with the goal of winning the Cold War by using a strategy outlined in NSDD-32 (National Security Decisions Directive). The directive outlined Reagan's plan to confront the USSR on three fronts: decrease Soviet access to high technology and diminish their resources, including depressing the value of Soviet commodities on the world market; increase American defense expenditures to strengthen the U.S. negotiating position; and force the Soviets to devote more of their economic resources to defense.
Around the world U.S. used the Vietnam War example, by financially and diplomatically supporting anticommunist movements trying to overthrow Communist regimes. This included support for the Afghani insurgents and Poland's Solidarity movement.
Reagan argued that the American economy was on the move again; with the rapid computerization of the economy, high technology was the driving force. But the Soviets lagged far behind even South Korea when it came to high technology, and slipped further every year. Reagan made the Soviet predicament far worse by forbidding high tech exports to the Soviets from the U.S. or its allies. For a while the decline was masked by high prices for Soviet oil exports, but that advantage collapsed in the early 1980s. A great deal of the collapse was because of Saudi fear of the Soviet Union following the invasion of Afghanistan. Saudi Arabia struck a proxy deal with the U.S. to drastically increase oil production in exchange for arms. In 1985, Saudi production was at 2 million barrels/day. Production rose to 9 million barrels/day by late 1985. In November 1985, the oil price was $30/barrel for crude, in March 1986 it was $12. The Soviet economy lost billions in revenues.
The economic race with the West required radical reforms, which Gorbachev imposed. He hoped his new policies of glasnost and perestroika would revitalize the Soviet economy, but instead of new solutions he heard new complaints. Reagan's military build-up, coupled with his fierce anti-Soviet rhetoric, contributed to Soviet near-panic reaction to a routine NATO exercise in November 1983, ABLE ARCHER 83. Though the threat of nuclear war ended abruptly with the end of the exercise, this historically obscure incident illustrates the possible negative repercussions of Reagan's "standing tall" to a nuclear power. Some historians, among them Beth B. Fischer in her book The Reagan Reversal, argue that the ABLE ARCHER 83 near-crisis had a profound effect on President Reagan, and it forced him from a policy of confrontation towards the Soviet Union to a policy of rapprochement. |
President Reagan and Margaret Thatcher at Camp David. |
Among European leaders, his main ally and undoubtedly his closest friend was Margaret Thatcher, who as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom supported Reagan's policies of deterrence against the Soviets.
Although the U.S. negotiated arms-reduction treaties such as the INF Treaty and START Treaty with the U.S.S.R., it also aimed to increase strategic defense. A controversial plan, named the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), was proposed to deploy a space-based defense system to make the U.S. invulnerable to nuclear weapon missile attack, by means of a network of armed satellites orbiting the Earth. Critics dubbed the proposal "Star Wars" and argued that SDI was unrealistic, a violation of ABM treaties, and as a weapon that defends the U.S. if it strikes first, would inflame the Arms Race. Supporters responded that even the threat of SDI would force the Soviets into unsustainable spending to maintain parity. In fact, the Soviets both attempted to follow suit with their own program and attempted to reign in, or at least slow down the growing U.S. military advantage with a program of arms reduction treaties. Ultimately they proved more successful with the latter approach, since trying to keep up with the U.S. in military spending and research and development severely damaged an already shaky Soviet economy. This is considered one of the major contributing factors to the fall of the Soviet Union.
In October 1986, Reagan met with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Iceland where Gorbachev ardently opposed this defensive/offensive shield. On March 11, 1990, Lithuania, led by newly elected Vytautas Landsbergis, declared independence from the Soviet Union and was followed by other Soviet Republics and by 1991, the Soviet Union was officially dissolved. In her videotaped eulogy for his funeral, Margaret Thatcher said, "Ronald Reagan won the Cold War without firing a shot."Other U.S. involvement
Support for anti-communist groups including armed insurgencies against communist governments was referred to by his supporters as the Reagan Doctrine. Following this policy, the U.S. funded groups they called "freedom fighters", such as the mujahideen in Afghanistan, the Contras in Nicaragua, and Jonas Savimbi's rebel forces in Angola—all of which were fighting Soviet or Cuban backed Marxist governments. The U.S. increased military funding for anti-communist action in Central America The U.S. also helped fund central European anti-communist groups such as the Polish Solidarity movement and took a hard line against the communist regime in Cambodia. Covert funding of the Contras in Nicaragua led to the Iran-Contra Affair, while overt support led to a World Court ruling against the United States in Nicaragua v. United States. The United States refused to obey the ruling of the International Court of Justice and refused to pay the fine.
President Reagan denied any knowledge of his Administation's illegal arming and funding of the Contras. Much of the funding for the Contras was obtained from the shipment of large quantities of cocaine into the United States using U.S. government aircraft and U.S. military facilities (National Security Archives, Documentation of Official U.S. Knowledge of Drug Trafficking and the Contras [3]; "Whiteout, the CIA, Drugs and the Press" by Cockburn and St. Clair). Funding for the Contras was also obtained through the illegal sale of weaponry to Iran. When this latter practice was discovered and condemned in the media, it was referred to as the Iran-Contra affair.
The U.S. took a strong stance against the Lebanese Hezbollah terrorist organization, which was taking American citizens hostage and attacking civilian targets after Israel entered Lebanon in the 1982 Lebanon War. It similarly took a strong stance against Palestinian terrorists in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. More disputed was Reagan's consideration of the Salvadoran FMLN and Honduran guerrilla fighters as terrorists. Reagan also considered the anti-apartheid ANC armed wing known as Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) as a terrorist organization.
Reagan offered controversial support to the rightist El Salvador government throughout his term; he feared a takeover by the FMLN during the El Salvador Civil War which had begun in the late 1970s. The war left 75,000 people dead, 8,000 missing and one million homeless. He backed attempts at introducing democratic elections with mixed success.
U.S. involvement in Lebanon followed a limited-term United Nations mandate for a multinational force. A force of 800 Marines was sent to Beirut to evacuate PLO forces. The September 16, 1982 massacre of hundreds of Palestinian civilians in Beirut prompted Reagan to form a new multinational force. Intense diplomatic efforts resulted in a peace agreement between Lebanon and Israel. U.S. forces were withdrawn shortly after the October 23, 1983 bombing of a barracks in which 241 Marines were killed. Reagan called this day the saddest day of his presidency and of his life.
In 1983, a communist coup occurred on the small island nation of Grenada. On October 25, 1983, two days after the Beirut bombing, the United States invaded Grenada.Iran-Iraq War
Initially neutral, the U.S. increasingly became involved in the Iran-Iraq War. At various times, the U.S. supported both nations but mainly sided with Iraq, believing that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was less of a threat to the stability of the region than Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini. Henry Kissinger articulated the Administration's policy when he stated "Too bad they both can't lose". The American fear was that an Iranian victory would embolden Islamic fundamentalists in the Arab states, perhaps leading to the overthrow of secular governments—and Western corporate holdings—in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Kuwait. After initial Iraqi military victories were reversed and an Iranian victory appeared possible in 1982, the American government initiated Operation Staunch to attempt to cut off the Iranian regime's access to weapons (notwithstanding their later shipment of weapons to Iran in the Iran-Contra Affair). The U.S. provided intelligence information and financial assistance to the Iraqi military regime. The U.S. also allowed the shipment of "dual use" materials, that could be used for chemical and biological weapons, which Iraq claimed were required for agriculture, medical research, and other civilian purposes, but they were diverted for use in Saddam's weapons of mass destruction programs.
April 19, 1988 President Reagan issued a Letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate on the United States Military Strike in the Persian Gulf. [7]USS Simpson (FFG-56) is mentioned in firing on Iranian F-4 Phantom II Fighters built by the United States. Concurrently with the support of Iraq, the U.S. also engaged in covert arms sales to Iran in order to fund Contra rebels in Nicaragua. The resulting Iran-Contra Affair became a scandal. Reagan professed ignorance of the plot's existence and quickly called for an Independent Counsel to investigate. Ten officials in the Reagan Administration were later convicted, and others were forced to resign as a result of the investigation. His Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger was indicted for perjury and later received a presidential pardon from George H.W. Bush, days before the trial was to begin. Historians in 2006 ranked the Iran-Contra affair as the #9 worst presidential mistake ever made. [U.S. historians pick top 10 presidential errors - Associated Press, February 18, 2006]State visits
On April 11, 1985, it was announced that Reagan would visit the Kolmeshohe Cemetery near Bitburg (see the Ramones re: Bonzo Goes To Bitburg), at the suggestion of Chancellor Helmut Kohl of West Germany, to pay respects to the soldiers interred there. The White House staff was under the impression that those interred included both American and German soldiers. The visit was intended to be symbolic of the goodwill between the two countries, but unbeknownst to Reagan and Deputy Chief of Staff Michael Deaver, who visited the cemetery in advance of the event, 49 of the graves contained the remains of men who had served in the Waffen-SS. The cemetery also contained remains of about 2,000 other German soldiers who had died in both World Wars, but no Americans. Jewish and veterans' groups organized opposition to this visit (on the day of the stopover, public protests were held in eight cities). Reagan's desire to ratify the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was seen as an attempt to save face from this mistake. [ Samantha Power: "A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide, pg. 163 ]
Reagan also visited the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where he cited Anne Frank and ended his speech with the words, "Never again.""The Great Communicator"
[[Image:ReaganBerlinWall.jpg|thumb|250px|left|Speaking in front of the {{Brandenburg Gate}} on {{June 12}}, {{1987}} Ronald Reagan challenged reformist Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, exclaiming: "Mr. Gorbachev, {{tear down this wall}}!"]]
Dubbed "The Great Communicator," Reagan was known for his ability to express ideas and emotions in an almost personal manner, even when making a formal address. He honed these skills as an actor, live television and radio host, and politician. As President, he hired skilled speechwriters who could capture his folksy charm.Reagan's rhetorical style varied. He used strong, even ideological language to condemn the Soviet Union and communism, particularly during his first term.
But he could also evoke lofty ideals and a vision of the United States as a defender of liberty. His October 27, 1964, speech entitled "A Time for Choosing" reintroduced a phrase, "rendezvous with destiny," first made famous by Franklin D. Roosevelt, to popular culture. Other speeches recalled America as the "shining city on a hill", "big-hearted, idealistic, daring, decent, and fair," whose citizens had the "right to dream heroic dreams." [Transcript - Reagan Foundation, Ronald Reagan's second Inaugural address, January 21, 1985] [Transcript - Reagan Foundation, Ronald Reagan's first Inaugural address, January 20, 1981]
On January 28, 1986, after the Challenger accident, he postponed his State of the Union address and addressed the nation on the disaster. In a speech written by Peggy Noonan, he said, "We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved good-bye and 'slipped the surly bonds of earth' to 'touch the face of God.'" [Address to the nation on the Challenger disaster - Reagan Foundation, January 28, 1986] (quotations in this speech are from the famous poem "High Flight" by John Gillespie Magee, Jr..)
It was perhaps Reagan's humor, especially his one-liners, that disarmed his opponents and endeared him to audiences the most. Discussion of his advanced age led him to quip in his second debate against Walter Mondale during the 1984 campaign, "I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience." On his career he joked, "Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book."
Both opponents and supporters noted his "sunny optimism", which was welcomed by many in comparison to his presidential predecessor, the often smiling, but serious, Carter. Reagan once said "The lessons of leadership were the same; hard work, a knowledge of the facts, a willingness to listen and be understanding, a strong sense of duty and direction, and a determination to do your best on behalf of the people you serve."
In response to being dubbed the Great Communicator, he said in his Farewell Address: "I never thought it was my style or the words I used that made a difference: It was the content. I wasn't a great communicator, but I communicated great things..."[Reagan, Ronald. Farewell Address (January 11, 1999).]Assassination attempt
On March 30, 1981, Reagan, his press secretary James Brady, and two others were shot by John Hinckley, Jr.. Missing Reagan's heart by less than one inch, the bullet instead struck his left lung, which likely spared his life. Reagan joked, "I hope you're all Republicans" to his surgeons (though they were not, Dr. Joseph Giordano replied, "We're all Republicans today"). [Ronald Reagan: The 'Great Communicator' - June 8, 2004, CNN] Reagan later famously told his wife, "Honey, I forgot to duck" (borrowing Jack Dempsey's line to his wife the night he was beaten by Gene Tunney for the heavyweight championship). Reagan had been scheduled to visit Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the day of the shooting. He told a nurse, "All in all, I'd rather be in Philadelphia," a reference to the W.C. Fields' tagline (which was itself a reference to an old vaudeville joke among comedians: "I would rather be dead than play Philadelphia"). [8]Major legislation approved
* Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981
* Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982
* Social Security Amendments of 1983
* Tax Reform Act of 1986
* Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986Administration and Cabinet
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President Reagan, with his Cabinet and staff, in the Oval Office (February 4, 1981) |
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Supreme Court appointments
Reagan nominated the following jurists to the Supreme Court of the United States:
*Sandra Day O'Connor – 1981, making Reagan the first President to appoint a woman to the Supreme Court
*William Rehnquist – Chief Justice, 1986 (an associate justice since 1972)
*Antonin Scalia – 1986
*Robert Bork – 1987 (rejected by Senate)
*Douglas Ginsburg – 1987 (withdrawn)
*Anthony M. Kennedy – 1988Criticism
A frequent objection by his critics was that his personal charm also permitted him to say nearly anything and yet prevail, a quality that earned him the nickname "The Teflon President" (nothing sticks to him). His denial of awareness of the Iran-Contra scandal was belied by quotations in now-archived notes by his defense secretary, Caspar Weinberger, that Reagan could survive violating the law or United States Constitution, but not the negative public image that "big, strong Ronald Reagan passed up a chance to get the hostages free." In December 1985, Reagan signed a secret presidential "finding" describing the deal as "arms-for-hostages." The United States was found guilty of having supported terrorism in Nicaragua by the International Court of Justice (Nicaragua v. United States) during Reagan's presidency. Despite a United Nations General Assembly resolution [Resolution A/RES/41/31 - United Nations, November 3, 1986] demanding compliance, the U.S. never paid the required fine.
Reagan's fiscal and tax policies were alleged to have increased social inequality, his efforts to cut welfare and income taxes becoming common flashpoints between critics who charged that this primarily benefited the well off in America. The unprecedented growth of the national debt during his presidency also sparked charges of endangering the economic health of the nation.
Following the deregulation of the banking industry in the 1980s, savings and loan associations (also known as thrifts) were given the flexibility to invest their depositors' funds in commercial real estate (previously, they had been restricted to investing in residential real estate). Many savings and loan associations began making risky investments. As a result, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, the federal agency that regulates the industry, tried to clamp down on the trend. In so doing, however, the Board clashed with the policy of permitting the deregulation of many industries, including the thrift industry. The Administration declined to submit budgets to Congress that would request more funding for the Board's regulatory efforts. The resulting savings and loan scandal bailout ultimately cost the United States $150 billion and nearly caused the total collapse of the industry.
See also Savings and Loan crisis
Reagan's foreign policy also drew intense criticism from liberals who predicted nuclear war was imminent. Critics stated that he was ignoring human rights in Central and South America, and South Africa. Reagan's support of apartheid South Africa was sharply attacked by African American leaders. Although Reagan sought an end to apartheid and liberalization of South Africa, he opposed economic sanctions "on grounds that it would diminish influence on the South African government and create economic hardship for the very people in South Africa that the sanctions were ostensibly designed to help" (Donald T. Regan, "For the Record").
Residents of Western European countries often saw Reagan very differently from many Americans. In the United Kingdom, though Reagan had the strong support of Margaret Thatcher, he was routinely lampooned by much of the media as being dim-witted, if not senile. This was fueled by certain real-life incidents, including a November 9, 1985, speaking engagement in which he forgot the name of Diana, Princess of Wales and after some hesitation referred to her as 'Princess David', to widespread embarrassment. [America welcomes Charles and Diana - BBC, November 5, 1985]Scandals and controversies
The Reagan Administration saw several controversies unfold in their ranks which resulted in several staff convictions. The most well known, the Iran-Contra Affair. Ten members of the Administration were convicted of charges ranging from lying to Congress to lying about income to the IRS. However, Reagan survived the scandal after expressing regret for the incident.
Several other controversies also occurred during Reagan's presidency; one involved staff members of the Department of Housing. Contributors to the Administration's campaign were rewarded with funding for low income housing development without the customary background checks, and lobbyists, such as former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head James G. Watt, were rewarded with lobbying fees for assisting campaign contributors with receiving government loans and guarantees. Six staff members were convicted. Also involving the (EPA), grants from the Superfund to clean up toxic waste sites were being released to enhance the election prospects of local politicians aligned with the Administration. Assistant Administrator Rita Lavelle was convicted of various charges.
Scandals impacted the Administration throughout the entire eight years. Reagan aides Michael Deaver and Lyn Nofziger were convicted of lobbying offenses though Nofziger's conviction was later overturned. Controversy arose prior to and during Reagan's visit to Bitburg.Reagan was a Christian from his childhood and frequently addressed Christian groups. As an adult, he attended services at Bel Air Presbyterian Church.In a March 1978 letter to a liberal Methodist minister who was skeptical about Christ's divinity—and accused Reagan of a "limited Sunday school level theology"—Reagan argued strongly for Christ's divinity, using C.S. Lewis's Trilemma. Despite his personal wishes and beliefs, his State Funeral was an interfaith service. |
(Left to right:) Presidents Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, George H. W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, and Jimmy Carter at the dedication of the Reagan Presidential Library. |
 |
Five presidents and first ladies attended the funeral of Richard Nixon on April 27, 1994, in Nixon's hometown of Yorba Linda, California. From left: Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, George H. W. Bush, Barbara Bush, Ronald Reagan, Nancy Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Rosalynn Carter, Gerald Ford, Betty Ford. |
On January 11, 1989, Reagan addressed the nation for the last time on television from the Oval Office of the White House, nine days before handing over the presidency to George H. W. Bush. After Bush's inauguration, Reagan returned to his estate, Rancho del Cielo, near Santa Barbara, California, to write his autobiography, ride his horses, and chop wood. He eventually moved to a new home in Bel-Air, Los Angeles. In the autumn of 1989, Fujisankei Communications Group of Japan hired him to make two speeches and attend a few corporate functions. Reagan's fee during his nine-day visit was about $2 million, more than he had earned during eight years as President. Reagan made occasional appearances on behalf of the Republican Party, including a well-received speech at the 1992 Republican National Convention. He publicly spoke in favor of a line-item veto, a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget, and repealing the 22nd Amendment, which prohibits a President from serving more than two terms. Reagan's final public speech was on February 3, 1994, during a tribute in Washington, D.C.. His final public appearance was at the funeral of fellow Republican President Richard Nixon on April 27, 1994.Alzheimer's Disease
On November 5, 1994, within the same week of the '94 Republican takeover of Congress which arguably would not have occurred if it weren't for Reagan's accomplishments, Reagan announced that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. He informed the nation of his condition via a hand-written letter. With his trademark optimism, he stated in conclusion: "I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead. Thank you, my friends. May God always bless you." [9]
As the years went on, the disease slowly destroyed his mental capacity, forcing him to live in quiet isolation. By late 2003, Reagan had begun to enter the final, fatal stage of Alzheimer's disease.Death
Reagan died of pneumonia on June 5, 2004 at his home in Bel-Air, California and is buried at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. He lay in state to allow people to pay their last respects. Because of his love for Jelly Belly jelly beans, a small pack was buried with him in his suit pocket.The Gallup Organization recently took a poll on the most popular Presidents in U.S. history. Ronald Reagan was chosen by 87% of Americans polled, followed by John F. Kennedy, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Ronald Reagan continues to be named year after year by Gallup and other polling organizations as one of the United States' greatest Presidents.Job approval rating
According to ABC News by date:| Date | Event | Approval (%) | Disapproval (%) |
|---|
| April 22, 1981 | Shot by Hinckley | 73 | 19 |
| January 22, 1983 | High unemployment | 42 | 54 |
| April 26, 1986 | Libya bombing | 70 | 26 |
| February 26, 1987 | Iran-Contra affair | 44 | 51 |
| January 20, 1989 | style="text-align: center"|– |
| n/a | Career Average | 57 | 39 |
|---|
| July 30, 2001 | (Retrospective) | 64 | 27 |
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Ronald Reagan's final resting place. |
Nicknames
Reagan is often referred to as the Gipper, referring to his performance as George Gipp in the film Knute Rockne, All American, often along with his popular line "Win one for the Gipper." As a youth he was called "Dutch," a nickname given him by his father. As President, supporters dubbed him "The Great Communicator," and more recently "The Great Liberator," referring to policies which they contend led to the defeat of communism in the Cold War. His Secret Service codename was "Rawhide." Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh refers to Reagan as "Ronaldus Magnus", pseudo-latin for "Ronald the Great". Detractors sometimes referred to Reagan as "Ronald Ray-Gun," a term coined in the introduction to the song Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man sung by Joan Baez and Jeffrey Shurtleff at the 1969 Woodstock Festival. He was also "the Teflon President" because criticisms supposedly never stuck to him or lessened his popularity.In a 1995 poll of 2,307 coin collectors by the Littleton Coin Company, Reagan was ranked as the most popular person to appear on a future U.S. coin.
On February 6, 1998, Washington National Airport was renamed Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport by a bill signed into law by President Bill Clinton. Three years later, the USS Ronald Reagan was christened by the United States Navy. It is one of few ships christened in honor of a living person and the first to be named in honor of a living former President. Many other highways, schools and institutions were also named after Reagan in the years after his retirement and death.In 2005, Reagan was given two posthumous honors:
*On May 14, CNN, along with the editors of TIME, named him the "most fascinating person" of the network's first 25 years on a broadcast anchored by Bill Hemmer. [Top 25: Fascinating people - CNN, June 19, 2005] [Top 25 Most Fascinating People - transcript, CNN, May 14, 2005]
*On June 26, participating voters selected Reagan as the "Greatest American" during a live television special sponsored by AOL and broadcast live on the Discovery Channel.
The honors were "a final win for the Gipper," as Hemmer said on May 14 to close his broadcast.
In 2002, Congress authorized the creation of Ronald Reagan Boyhood Home National Historic Site in Dixon, Illinois, pending federal purchase of the property.
In 2004, the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority voted to rename Interstate 88, which was formerly called the East-West Tollway, in his memory.* Lifetime "Gold" membership in the Screen Actors Guild
* In 1989, Reagan received an honorary British knighthood, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath. This entitled him to the use of the post-nominal letters GCB but did not entitle him to be known as "Sir Ronald Reagan." He, Dwight D. Eisenhower and George H.W. Bush are the only American Presidents to have received the honor.
* Grand Cordon of the Order of the Chrysanthemum, Japan 1989
* Honorary Fellow of Keble College, Oxford England
* Presidential Medal of Freedom, 1993
* On May 16, 2002 Nancy Reagan accepted the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor bestowed by Congress, on behalf of the President and herself.Many coin redesign advocates have called for Reagan to be placed on the dime, in lieu of Franklin D. Roosevelt (whose profile was chosen for the dime in honor of his founding of the March of Dimes charity). In 2003, Congressional Republicans proposed this, but it was abandoned after Nancy Reagan rejected the idea. For a short period of time, they called for him to be placed on the penny. The penny is no longer possible because a permanent redesign is planned for 2010, and Abraham Lincoln will remain on the coin. The dime has not been redesigned, and there are no plans to redesign it; however, it has not been ruled out. There have also been calls for Reagan to be placed in addition to/in lieu of the dime, on the ten dollar bill or twenty dollar bill. The twenty was redesigned, and there are no plans to change the former President on it. The new ten was released on March 2, 2006, and Alexander Hamilton is still featured on the bill. Reagan is scheduled to be featured on the $1 coin in 2016 during the Presidential Dollar Coin Program.* "True Grit", Ronald Reagan (CMT), 2005.
* Ronald Reagan - An American President (The Official Reagan Library Tribute), January 25 2005.
* Great Speeches, October 19 2004.
* Stand Up Reagan, September 7 2004.
* NBC News Presents - Ronald Reagan, August 10 2004.
* ABC News Presents Ronald Reagan - An American Legend, July 13 2004.
* Ronald Reagan - His Life and Legacy, June 22 2004.
* Ronald Reagan - His Life and Times, May 11 2004.
* Ronald Reagan - A Legacy Remembered (History Channel), 2002.
* Ronald Reagan - The Great Communicator, 2002.
* Salute to Reagan - A President's Greatest Moments, 2001.
* American Experience - Reagan, 1998.
* Tribute to Ronald Reagan, 1996.
* The Reagan Legacy, (Discovery Channel) 1996.
* In the Face of Evil: Reagan's War in Word and Deed, 2004.* The Ronald W. Reagan Doral High School in Doral, Florida, United States is named after him.
* Reagan accepted a baby elephant named Gertie (bought from Harrods) from King Leka Zog I of Albania, who was a close friend. The elephant was later donated to Sacramento Zoo.
* Reagan was left-handed, although he was usually shown writing with his right hand. When throwing out the ceremonial first ball before baseball games, he threw with his right arm, like he did in the baseball film The Winning Team.
* For a 1964 president related film by Gore Vidal, "The Best Man", Reagan was rejected for a part due to "not having the presidential look".
* Reagan was 6 feet 1 inch (185 cm) tall.
* In Gallup's List of Widely Admired People, Reagan was ranked the 15th most admired person in the 20th century.
* Comic book depictions of Ronald Reagan have met heroes such as Optimus Prime and Captain America.* Death and state funeral of Ronald Reagan
* "Five Minutes" speech
* List of songs about Ronald Reagan
* October Surprise
* Reagan Administration
* Reagan administration scandals
* 
