Ronald Wilson Reagan was an American politician, union leader, and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. Before ascending to the presidency, he previously served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 to 1975 and was the president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1947 to 1952 and from 1959 until 1960.
Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois. He graduated from Eureka College in 1932 and began to work as a sports announcer in Iowa. In 1937, Reagan moved to California, where he found work as a film actor. From 1947 to 1952, Reagan served as the president of the Screen Actors Guild. In the 1950s, he worked in television and became a spokesman for General Electric. From 1959 to 1960, he again served as the Screen Actors Guild's president. In 1964, Reagan's speech "A Time for Choosing" earned him attention as a new conservative figure. He was elected governor of California in 1966. During his governorship, he raised taxes, turned the state budget deficit into a surplus, and cracked down on student protests at the University of California, Berkeley. In the 1976 Republican presidential primaries, Reagan challenged and nearly defeated sitting president Gerald Ford.
Reagan won the Republican nomination in the 1980 presidential election and went on to defeat incumbent Democratic president Jimmy Carter. Early in his presidency, Reagan implemented "Reaganomics", which promoted economic deregulation and cuts in both taxes and government spending during a period of stagflation. He escalated an arms race with the Soviet Union and transitioned Cold War policy from détenteto rollback. He also survived an assassination attempt, fought public sector labor unions, spurred the war on drugs, and ordered an invasion of Grenada. In the 1984 presidential election, Reagan defeated former vice president Walter Mondale in a landslide victory. Foreign affairs dominated Reagan's second term, including the bombing of Libya, the Iran–Iraq War, the Iran–Contra affair, and a more conciliatory approach in talks with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The talks culminated in the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
Throughout Reagan's presidency, the American economy saw a significant reduction of inflation, the unemployment rate fell, and the United States entered its then-longest peacetime expansion. His cuts in domestic discretionary spending and taxes, as well as increased military spending, contributed to a near tripling of the federal debt. After leaving the presidency in 1989, Alzheimer's disease hindered Reagan's physical and mental capacities. He died at his home in Los Angeles in 2004. His tenure constituted the Reagan era, and he is often considered a prominent conservative figure in the United States. Evaluations of his presidency among historians and scholars tend to place him among the upper tier of American presidents.
History[]
Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois, and attended high school in Dixon, Illinois, where he acted in school plays and served as president of the student body. He played sports and continued acting while attending Eureka College. He earned degrees in economics and sociology before graduating and becoming a sports announcer for a radio station in Iowa. In 1937, Reagan began his acting career after signing a contract with Warner Bros. studios. He acted in a number of films throughout his 10-year contract and married his first wife, Jane Wyman. The couple divorced in 1948. Reagan served in the U.S. Army for three years, starting in 1942, but due to his poor eyesight, he used his time in service to act in training videos.
He was president of the Screen Actors Guild in 1947, where he met his second wife, Nancy Reagan, who was being targeted as a communist sympathiser by Hollywood. He hosted the weekly television series The General Electric Theater, for which he traveled the United States and led discussions about business and regulations. He used the hosting job to launch his political career, speaking for Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign at an event in 1964. He then won the 1966 election to become the governor of California and was re-elected in 1970. He campaigned for the presidency in 1968 and 1976, but Reagan didn't receive the Republican Party nomination until 1980.
Reagan defeated George H. W. Bush and several others for the Republican nomination. He then chose Bush as his running mate. He and Bush defeated Democratic incumbent Jimmy Carter in the Electoral College by capturing 489 votes to Carter's 49. The victory was in part due to 52 Americans being held hostage in Iran for over a year without resolution from the Carter administration.
Shortly after his inauguration, an attempt was made on the president's life. On March 30, 1981, Reagan was shot in the chest by John Hinckley Jr. while in Washington, D.C. The bullet passed through his lung and was only an inch from his heart. He was operated on at George Washington University Hospital and was only hospitalized for two weeks. His Press Secretary James Brady, however, suffered permanent brain injuries from one of the bullets.
Reagan's domestic policy plans, known as Reaganomics or trickle-down economics, involved cutting taxes, deregulating businesses, increasing military spending, and implementing cutbacks on social programs. His foreign policy, known as the Reagan doctrine, aimed to fight communism by giving foreign aid to anti-communist regimes around the world. He also appointed Sandra Day O'Connor as the first female justice to serve on the United States Supreme Court.
He and Bush were re-elected in 1984 by the largest margin in history, taking 525 of 538 electoral votes. His second term focused less on battling the Cold War and was impacted by the Iran-Contra scandal, in which American guns were traded to the Iranians involved in the Iran-Iraq War for money that was funneled to anti-communist rebels in Nicaragua. In 1987, the Reagan administration also passed the first trillion dollar budget request through Congress.
Reagan left the White House in 1989, when his vice president, George H. W. Bush, was elected to the presidency. In 1994, Reagan announced that he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, which he struggled with until his death in 2004.
Trivia[]
- Reagan was a close friend of Margaret Thatcher. In real life, Thatcher gave a pre-recorded speech during Reagan's funeral, which she also attended.
- Reagan is mentioned by Frank Underwood multiple times during the show.
- His official portrait is shown in the White House across form John F. Kennedy's.
- Hector Mendoza is mentioned to have worked on his 1984 re-election campaign.
- Further, he is shown to have a portrait of him in his office.
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