Ronald Wilson Reagan (6 February 1911 – 5 June 2004) was President of the United States from 20 January 1981 to 20 January 1989, succeeding Jimmy Carter and preceding George H.W. Bush. Reagan was a popular member of the Republican Party, having twice served as President of the Screen Actors Guild and twice as Governor of California from 1967 to 1975 (succeeding Pat Brown and preceding Jerry Brown). In 1980, he won the presidential election and took office at the start of the 1980s, winning the Cold War through proxy wars and through diplomacy with the Soviet Union that ended the arms race. One of the most popular presidents, Reagan, died in 2004.
Biography[]
Reagan testifying before HUAC
Ronald Reagan was born on 6 February 1911 in Tampico, Illinois to a poor, small-town family; his father was a Catholic Irish-American, while his mother was a Congregationalist "Old Stock" American. He graduated from Eureka College in 1932 and worked as a radio sports announcer before moving to Hollywood five years later and becoming an actor. Reagan was twice elected President of the Screen Actors Guild, and he sought to root out perceived communist influence in American cinema during the period known as the "Second Red Scare", caused by Senator Joseph McCarthy's radical, right-wing statements. During the 1950s, he became a member of the US Democratic Party and a television actor, but he became a conservative by 1962 and joined the US Republican Party. His 1964 "A Time for Choosing" speech, supporting Barry Goldwater for president, won him immense support from the American public, and he was elected Governor of California in 1967, being re-elected twice. Reagan raised taxes, created a budget surplus, challenged UC Berkeley protesters, ordered the US National Guard to crush protests at People's Park in 1969, and won re-election in 1970. In 1980, he easily won the nomination of the Republican Party for president, defeating the incumbent Jimmy Carter and taking office on 20 January 1981.
President of the United States[]
Gorbachev and Reagan signing the INF Treaty in the White House, 1987
Reagan was the oldest President of the United States, as he was seventy years old when he was sworn into office. He supported supply-side economics, and his "Reaganomics" plan advocated tax reduction to allow for the average person to make more money, allowing them to spend more money and increase economic growth. Reagan survived an assassination attempt by a stalker, John Hinckley, and Reagan fought the public sector labor union, reducing inflation to 4.4% from 12.5%. Each year, the GDP grew 3.4%, but Reagan took money away from teachers and spent more money on the military. Domestic issues were ignored as Reagan focused on supplying weapons to Iran and Ba'athist Iraq to kill each other off during the Iran-Iraq War, and violent crime rose sharply; from 1979 to 1984, 3,000 people were killed in Miami alone as drug wars began. In 1984, he won re-election due to his "Morning in America" speech, and he ordered the bombing of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, the escalation of the arms race, and the supplying of the Mujahideen Islamist fanatics.
In 1987, he agreed to end the arms race with Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev, and he called on Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. Five months after Reagan left office, the Iron Curtain was broken as the countries of Eastern Europe moved to democratic socialism from communism, and Reagan left office with a high approval rating of 68%. In 1994, he left the public eye after attending Richard Nixon's funeral, as he suffered from Alzheimer's disease. He died in 2004 at the age of 93 of pneumonia complications relating to his Alzheimer's.