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We will never recognize
the true value of our own lives until we affirm the value in the life of
others. – Ronald Reagan
[PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.azquotes.com/quote/1075132]
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We will never recognize the true value of our own lives until we affirm the value in the life of others.
Ronald Wilson Reagan (/ˈrɒnəld ˈwɪlsən ˈreɪɡən/;
February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who
was the 40th President of
the United States, from 1981 to 1989. Before his presidency, he was
the 33rd Governor of California,
from 1967 to 1975, after a career as a Hollywood
actor and union leader.
Raised in a poor family in small towns of northern
Illinois, Reagan graduated from Eureka College in 1932 and worked as a sports
announcer on several regional radio stations. After moving to Hollywood in
1937, he became an actor and starred in a few major productions. Reagan was
twice elected President of the Screen Actors Guild,
the labor union for actors, where he worked to root out Communist
influence. In the 1950s, he moved into television and was a
motivational speaker at General Electric
factories. Having been a lifelong Democrat,
his views changed. He became a conservative and in 1962 switched to the Republican
Party. In 1964,
Reagan's speech, "A Time for Choosing",
in support of Barry Goldwater's
foundering presidential campaign, earned him national attention as a new
conservative spokesman. Building a network of supporters, he was elected
Governor of California in 1966. As governor, Reagan raised taxes,
turned a state budget deficit to a surplus, challenged the protesters at the University of
California, ordered National
Guard troops in during a period of protest movements
in 1969, and was re-elected
in 1970. He twice ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination
for the U.S. presidency in 1968
and 1976;
four years later, he easily won the nomination outright, becoming the oldest
elected U.S. president up to that time, defeating incumbent Jimmy Carter in 1980.
Entering the presidency in 1981,
Reagan implemented sweeping new political and economic initiatives. His supply-side economic
policies, dubbed "Reaganomics",
advocated tax rate reduction to spur economic growth, control of the money
supply to curb inflation, economic deregulation, and reduction in government
spending. In his first term he survived an assassination
attempt, spurred the War on Drugs, and fought public sector labor.
Over his two terms, the economy saw a reduction of inflation from 12.5% to
4.4%, and an average annual growth of real GDP of
3.4; while Reagan did enact cuts in domestic discretionary spending, increased
military spending contributed to increased federal outlays overall, even after
adjustment for inflation. During his re-election bid, Reagan campaigned on the
notion that it was "Morning in America",
winning a landslide
in 1984 with the largest electoral college victory in history.
Foreign affairs dominated his second term, including ending of the Cold War, the bombing of
Libya, and the Iran–Contra affair.
Publicly describing the Soviet Union as an "evil empire", and during his famous speech
at the Brandenburg Gate,
President Reagan challenged Gorbachev to "tear down this wall!".
He transitioned Cold War policy from détente to rollback, by escalating an arms race with the USSR while engaging in talks
with Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, which culminated in the INF
Treaty, shrinking both countries' nuclear arsenals. Reagan's
presidency came during the decline of the Soviet Union and just ten months
after the end of his term, the Berlin Wall fell, and on December 26, 1991,
nearly three years after he left office, the Soviet Union
collapsed.
Leaving office in 1989, Reagan held an approval
rating of sixty-eight percent, matching those of Franklin D. Roosevelt,
and later Bill Clinton, as the
highest ratings for departing presidents in the modern era. He was the first
president since Dwight D. Eisenhower
to serve two full terms, after a succession of five prior presidents failed to
do so. While having planned an active post-presidency, in 1994 Reagan disclosed
his diagnosis with Alzheimer's disease
earlier that year, appearing publicly for the last time at the funeral of
Richard Nixon; he died
ten years later in 2004 at the age of 93. An icon among Republicans,
he is viewed favorably in historian rankings of U.S. presidents, and his
tenure constituted a realignment
toward conservative
policies in the U.S.
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