Presidency of Ronald Reagan

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Presidency of Ronald Reagan
40th President of the United States
In office January 20, 1981 – January 20, 1989
Vice President	George H. W. Bush
Preceded by	Jimmy Carter
Succeeded by	George H. W. Bush
Born	February 6, 1911 Tampico, Illinois, United States
Died	June 5, 2004 (aged 93) Bel Air, California, United States
Nationality	American
Political party	Republican
Spouse	(1) Jane Wyman (married 1940, divorced 1948) (2) Nancy Davis Reagan (married 1952)
Alma mater	Eureka College
Occupation	Actor
Religion	Presbyterian
Signature

The United States Presidency of Ronald Reagan, also known as the Reagan Administration, was a Republican administration headed by Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1989.

Domestically, the administration favored tax cuts and smaller government, introducing the largest tax cuts in American history. The economic policies enacted in 1981, known as "Reaganomics," were similar to those of supply-side economics and advocated free markets. The policies aimed to reduce the growth of government spending through tax cuts, as well as reduce regulation and inflation. It is arguable, however, to what extent they were achieved. As well as the economy, Reagan ordered a massive buildup of the military amidst the Cold War.

In dealing with foreign affairs, the administration was steadfastly anti-communist, employed a foreign policy of “peace through strength,” and played a major role in the end events of the Cold War. Reagan met with Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev four times, aiming to shrink both the US and USSR's nuclear arsenals. The events contributed greatly to the end of the Cold War, occurring in 1991, after Reagan left office.

Reagan's presidency was known to many as the "Reagan Revolution," as proponents stated that America's morale had been restored and the Cold War largely ended. Critics noted, however, that the national debt had quadrupled at the end of Reagan's terms, and claimed that the Iran-Contra affair, a political scandal regarding administration officials, lowered American credibility. Reagan himself left office with a 64% approval rating, one of the higher approval ratings of departing presidents.

Contents 1 Overview 2 Major issues of Presidency 2.1 Ronald Reagan 2.2 Major acts as President 2.3 Major treaties 2.4 Major legislation signed 2.5 Major legislation vetoed 3 Administration and Cabinet 3.1 Supreme Court nominees 4 First Term (1981-1985) 4.1 Assassination attempt 4.2 Air traffic controllers' strike 4.3 "Reaganomics" and the economy 4.4 "War on Drugs" 4.5 Lebanon and Grenada, 1983 4.5.1 Reaction 4.6 The Judiciary 4.7 1984 presidential campaign 5 Second Term (1985-1989) 5.1 Response to AIDS 5.2 Iran-Contra Affair 5.3 Cold War 5.4 End of the Cold War 5.5 Close of the Reagan Era 6 Political philosophy 7 Controversy 8 The Arts 9 Other matters 10 The oldest president 11 See also 12 Footnotes 13 References 14 Further reading

[edit] Overview

Reagan was an advocate of free markets and, upon taking office, believed that the American economy was hampered by excessive economic controls and misguided welfare programs enacted during the 1960s and 1970s. Taking office during a period of stagflation, Reagan said in his first inauguration speech, which he himself authored,^[1] "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." His first act as president was to issue an executive order ending certain price controls. His economic policies, similar to supply-side economics and dubbed "Reaganomics," achieved a 25% cut in the federal personal income tax, moderate deregulation and tax reform, which he believed would remove barriers to efficient economic activity. After a sharp recession, a long period of high economic growth without significant inflation ensued.

Despite Reagan's stated desire to cut spending, federal spending grew during his administration. However, economist Milton Friedman points out that non-defense spending as a percentage of national income stabilized throughout Reagan's term, breaking a long upward trend; the number of new regulations added each year dramatically decreased as well.^[2]

One of Reagan's most controversial early moves was to fire most of the nation's air traffic controllers who took part in an illegal strike. Reagan strengthened Social Security to make it solvent longer by cutting disability benefits, and survivor benefits, and by increasing the FICA payroll withholding tax. He also took tough positions against crime, declared a renewed war on drugs, but was criticized for being slow to respond to the AIDS epidemic.

In foreign affairs, Reagan initially rejected détente and directly confronted the Soviet Union through a policy of "peace through strength," including increased military spending, firm foreign policies against the USSR and support for anti-communist groups around the world. Reagan later embraced and negotiated with Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, a reformer, and together they contributed greatly to a peaceful end of the Cold War.

Reagan authorized military action in Lebanon, Grenada, and Libya throughout his terms in office. It was later discovered that the Administration also engaged in covert arms sales to Iran in order to fund anti-communist Contra rebels in Nicaragua. The resulting Iran-Contra Affair became a scandal to which Reagan professed ignorance. A significant number of officials in the Reagan Administration were either convicted or forced to resign as a result of the scandal.

By the end of the Reagan presidency, a high level of public approval (64% of the nation) indicated that the administration had recovered its image among the American public due to the perceived restoration of America's power, prosperity and national pride.

[edit] Major issues of Presidency

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[edit] Ronald Reagan First Inaugural Address, (20 January, 1981) Second Inaugural Address, (20 January, 1985) First State of the Union Address, (26 January, 1982) Second State of the Union Address, (25 January, 1983) Third State of the Union Address, (25 January, 1984) Fourth State of the Union Address, (6 February, 1985) Fifth State of the Union Address, (4 February, 1986) Sixth State of the Union Address, (27 January, 1987) Seventh State of the Union Address, (25 January, 1988) [edit] Major acts as President [edit] Major treaties Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 Intermediate-Ranged Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987 between the U.S. and Soviet Union

[edit] Major legislation signed Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 - lowered income tax rates Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 - revoked some provisions of the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 Social Security Amendments of 1983 - amended Social Security to adjust for new retirees Tax Reform Act of 1986 - simplified the income tax code, broaden the tax base and eliminate many tax shelters and other preferences Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986 - sweeping change to the Department of Defense command structure Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 - granted amnesty to illegal immigrants who entered the United States before January 1, 1982 and had resided there continuously [edit] Major legislation vetoed

[edit] Administration and Cabinet

The Reagan Cabinet OFFICE NAME TERM President Ronald Reagan 1981 – 1989 Vice President George H.W. Bush 1981 – 1989 Secretary of State Alexander Haig 1981 – 1982 George P. Shultz 1982 – 1989 Secretary of Treasury Donald Regan 1981 – 1985 James A. Baker III 1985 – 1988 Nicholas F. Brady 1988 – 1989 Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger 1981 – 1987 Frank C. Carlucci 1987 – 1989 Attorney General William F. Smith 1981 – 1985 Edwin A. Meese III 1985 – 1988 Richard Thornburgh 1988 – 1989 Secretary of the Interior James G. Watt 1981 – 1983 William P. Clark, Jr. 1983 – 1985 Donald P. Hodel 1985 – 1989 Secretary of Agriculture John Rusling Block 1981 – 1986 Richard E. Lyng 1986 – 1989 Secretary of Commerce Howard M. Baldrige, Jr. 1981 – 1987 C. William Verity, Jr. 1987 – 1989 Secretary of Labor Raymond J. Donovan 1981 – 1985 William E. Brock 1985 – 1987 Ann Dore McLaughlin 1987 – 1989 Secretary of Health and Human Services Richard S. Schweiker 1981 – 1983 Margaret Heckler 1983 – 1985 Otis R. Bowen 1985 – 1989 Secretary of Education Terrel Bell 1981 – 1984 William J. Bennett 1985 – 1988 Lauro Cavazos 1988 – 1989 Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Samuel R. Pierce, Jr. 1981 – 1989 Secretary of Transportation Drew Lewis 1981 – 1983 Elizabeth Hanford Dole 1983 – 1987 James H. Burnley IV 1987 – 1989 Secretary of Energy James B. Edwards 1981 – 1982 Donald Paul Hodel 1982 – 1985 John S. Herrington 1985 – 1989 Chief of Staff James Baker 1981 – 1985 Donald Regan 1985 – 1987 Howard Baker 1987 – 1988 Kenneth Duberstein 1988 – 1989 Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Anne M. Burford 1981 – 1983 William D. Ruckelshaus 1983 – 1985 Lee M. Thomas 1985 – 1989 Director of the Office of Management and Budget David A. Stockman 1981 – 1985 James C. Miller III 1985 – 1988 Joseph R. Wright, Jr. 1988 – 1989 United States Trade Representative William E. Brock III 1981 – 1985 Clayton K. Yeutter 1985 – 1989

[edit] Supreme Court nominees 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 – 1988 The Cabinet of President Reagan

[edit] First Term (1981-1985)

The Reagan presidency began on January 20, 1981 with the ceremonial swearing in of President Reagan. He had defeated incumbent President Jimmy Carter the previous November with 50.7% of the popular vote and 489 electoral votes.^[3] In his inaugural address, Reagan spoke of the economic malaise he inherited, famously arguing: "Government is not the solution to our problems; Government is the problem." As he was giving his inaugural speech, 52 Americans held hostage by Iran for 444 days were released.^[4]

In the address, Reagan stated his goals for the new administration: a build up of the military during the height of the Cold War;^[5] a multi-faceted program to restore the staggering American economy;^[5] and improve relations with the Soviet Union.

[edit] Assassination attempt

Main article: Reagan assassination attempt

On March 30, 1981, only 69 days into the new administration, Reagan, his press secretary James Brady, Washington police officer Thomas Delahanty, and Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy were struck by gunfire from a deranged would-be assassin, John Hinckley, Jr.. Reagan was exiting the Washington Hilton Hotel following a speech to the building trades conference of the AFL/CIO when six shots were fired from a roped off area for bystanders.^[6] Reagan was pushed into the waiting limousine by Secret Service agent Jerry Parr. Parr described doing what he had learned in his training: "I heard these six shots, actually fired in less than two seconds, and that starts the action for an agent and you simply cover, first, and evacuate."^[6] Parr directed the chauffeur to drive to George Washington University Hospital where the president was brought into the emergency room and subsequently operated on.^[6] Missing his heart by less than an inch, the bullet instead pierced his left lung, which likely saved his life. Reagan's condition in the hospital room was critical, as his heartbeat was faint and he had a very low blood pressure.^[6] Doctor Joseph Giordano, head of the Reagan trauma team, described the president as being "close to death."^[6] In the operating room, the bullet which had entered under his left armpit was removed, but Reagan was left with a collapsed lung. After the surgery, the president joked to the surgeons, "I hope you're all Republicans!"^[7] Though they were not, Dr. Giordano replied, "Today, Mr. President, we're all Republicans." First Lady Nancy Reagan arrived at the hospital before her husband went into surgery; Reagan famously told her, "Honey, I forgot to duck" (using defeated boxer Jack Dempsey's quip). Reagan was released from the hospital on April 12, and was escorted back to the White House by Mrs. Reagan and their daughter Patti.

[edit] Air traffic controllers' strike

Main article: Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (1968)

Only a short time into his administration, Federal air traffic controllers went on strike, violating a regulation prohibiting Government unions from striking.^[8] Reagan announced that the situation had become an emergency as described in the 1947 Taft Hartley Act, and held a press conference on August 3, 1981 in the White House Rose Garden regarding the strike. Reagan stated that if the air traffic controllers "do not report for work within 48 hours, they have forfeited their jobs and will be terminated."^[9]

Two days later, on August 5, Reagan fired 11,359 striking air traffic controllers who had ignored his order to return to work, notwithstanding the fact that the strike was illegal under federal law. The breaking of the strike had a significant impact on labor-management relations in the private sector. Although private employers nominally had the right to permanently replace striking workers under the National Labor Relations Act, that option was rarely used prior to 1981, but much more frequently thereafter. Reagan's actions essentially broke the striking union.^[10]

[edit] "Reaganomics" and the economy

Main article: Reaganomics

When Ronald Reagan entered office, the American economy faced the highest rate of inflation since 1947 (11.83% in January of 1981), as well as double-digit unemployment. Those, along with high interest rates, were considered the nation's principal economic problems, referred to as "stagflation." Reagan introduced new economic policies, partially based on supply-side economics, focused on reviving the economy. The policies sought to stimulate the economy with large, across-the-board tax cuts^[11][12] and aimed to reduce the growth of domestic government spending, regulation, and inflation.^[13] Reagan's approach was a departure from his predecessors,^[13] The expansionary fiscal policies soon became known as "Reaganomics",^[11] and were considered by some to be the most serious attempt to change the course of U.S. economic policy of any administration since the New Deal.^[13]

Under Reagan, income tax rates were lowered significantly, with the top personal tax bracket dropping from 70% to 28% in 7 years.^[14] Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth recovered strongly after the 1982 recession, growing at an annual rate of 3.4% per year.^[15][16] Unemployment peaked at over 11 percent in 1982, then dropped steadily,^[12] and inflation significantly decreased, falling from 13.6% in 1980 (President Carter's final year in office) to 4.1% by 1988.^[16] The net effect of all Reagan-era tax bills resulted in a 1% decrease of government revenues, with the revenue-shrinking effects of the 1981 tax cut (-3% of GDP) and the revenue-gaining effects of the 1982 tax hike (~+1% of GDP), while subsequent bills were more revenue-neutral.^[17]

The policies were criticized as "Trickle-down economics,"^[18] due to the large budget deficits,^[19] the U.S. trade deficit expansion,^[19] and their contributions to the Savings and Loan crisis.^[20] In order to cover new federal budget deficits, the United States borrowed heavily both domestically and abroad, raising the national debt from $700 billion to $3 trillion.^[21] Reagan described the new debt as the "greatest disappointment" of his presidency.^[21]

Some economists argue that Reagan's tax policies invigorated America's economy, such as Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman, who wrote that the Reagan tax cuts were "one of the most important factors in the boom of the 1990s." Similarly, fellow Nobel Prize winning economist Robert A. Mundell wrote that the tax cuts "made the U.S. economy the motor for the world economy in the 1990s, on which the great revolution in information technology was able to feed."^[22] Other economists argue that the deficits slowed economic growth during the following administration^[23] and was the reason that Reagan's successor, George H.W. Bush, reneged on a campaign promise and raised taxes. Nobel prize winning economist Robert Solow stated, "As for Reagan being responsible [for the 1990s boom], that's far-fetched. What we got in the Reagan years was a deep recession and then half a dozen years of fine growth as we climbed out of the recession, but nothing beyond that."^[22]

[edit] "War on Drugs"

Not long after being sworn into office, Reagan declared more militant policies in the "War on Drugs".^[24][25] He promised a "planned, concerted campaign" against all drugs,^[26] eventually leading to decreases in adolescent drug use in America.^[27][28]

President Reagan signed a large drug enforcement bill into law in 1987; it granted $1.7 billion to fight drugs, and ensured a mandatory minimum penalty for drug offenses.^[29] The bill was criticized for promoting significant racial disparities in the prison population, however, because of the differences in sentencing for crack versus powder cocaine.^[29]

Critics also charged that the administration's policies did little to actually reduce the availability of drugs or crime on the street, while resulting in a great financial and human cost for American society.^[30] Supporters argued that the numbers for adolsecent drug users declined during Reagan's years in office.^[28]

As a part of the administration's effort, Reagan's First Lady, Nancy, made the War on Drugs her main cause as First Lady, by founding the "Just Say No" drug awareness campaign. Today, there are still hundreds of "Just Say No" clinics and school clubs in operation around the country aimed at helping and rehabilitating children and teenagers with drug problems.^[29] The program demonstrated to children various ways of refusing drugs and alcohol.

[edit] Lebanon and Grenada, 1983

Main article: Invasion of Grenada

American peacekeeping forces in Beirut, a part of a multinational force during the Lebanese Civil War, were attacked on October 22, 1983. The Beirut barracks bombing, in which 241 American servicemen were killed by suicide bombers, was the deadliest single-day death toll for the United States Marine Corps since the Battle of Iwo Jima, and the deadliest single-day death toll for the United States military since the first day of the Tet offensive. Reagan called the attack "despicable," pledged to keep a military force in Lebanon, and planned to target the Sheik Abdullah barracks in Baalbek, Lebanon, which housed Iranian Revolutionary Guards believed to be training Hezbollah fighters.^[31][32] Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger aborted the mission, however, reportedly because of his concerns that it would harm U.S. relations with other Arab nations. Besides a few shellings, there was no serious American retaliation, and the Marines were moved offshore where they could not be targeted. On February 7, 1984, President Reagan ordered the Marines to begin withdrawal from Lebanon. This was completed on February 26: the rest of the MNF was withdrawn by April.

Three days later, U.S. forces invaded Grenada, where a 1979 coup d’état had established a Marxist-Leninist government aligned with the Soviet Union and Cuba. The Grenadan government began military expansion and construction of an international airport with Cuban assistance. On October 13, 1983, a faction led by Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard seized power. A formal appeal from the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) led to the intervention of U.S. forces; President Reagan also cited the regional threat posed by a Soviet-Cuban military build-up in the Caribbean and concern for the safety of several hundred American medical students at St. George's University as adequate reasons to invade. On October 25, 1983, in the first major operation conducted by the U.S. military since the Vietnam War, several days of fighting commenced, and led to U.S. victory,^[33] with 19 American fatalities and 116 wounded American soldiers.^[34] In mid-December, after a new government was appointed by the Governor-General, U.S. forces withdrew.^[33]

[edit] Reaction

Among the American people, Time magazine described the Grenadine operation as having "broad popular support."^[35] A congressional study group agreed, and concluded that the invasion of Grenada had been justified.^[35] However, not all Congressional members agreed with the justification. Congressman Louis Stokes claimed that "Not a single American child nor single American national was in any way placed in danger or placed in a hostage situation prior to the invasion."^[35] Following the operation, Congressman Ted Weiss led seven Democratic congressmen in an attempt to impeach President Reagan.^[35]

[edit] The Judiciary

Reagan nominated Sandra Day O'Connor to fill the Supreme Court Justice vacancy left by the retirement of Justice Potter Stewart, as he had promised during his 1980 presidential campaign. In 1986, during his second term, the president elevated Justice William Rehnquist to succeed outgoing Chief Justice Warren Burger and named Antonin Scalia to occupy the seat left by Rehnquist.

In 1987, when Associate Justice Louis Powell retired, Reagan nominated conservative jurist Robert Bork to the high court. Within 45 minutes of Bork's nomination to the Court, Ted Kennedy (D-MA) took to the Senate floor with a strong condemnation of Bork in a nationally televised speech, declaring,

“

Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of the Government, and the doors of the Federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens.[36]

”

The rapid response of Kennedy's "Robert Bork's America" speech stunned the Reagan White House; though conservatives considered Kennedy's accusations slanderous ideological smears on a well qualified candidate for the bench^[37], the attacks went unanswered for two and a half months.^[38] Bork refused to withdraw himself and his nomination was rejected 58-42^[39]. Anthony Kennedy was eventually confirmed in his place.^[40]

Reagan also nominated a large number of judges to the United States district court and United States court of appeals benches; most of these nominations were not controversial, although a handful of candidates were singled out for criticism by civil rights advocates and other liberal critics, resulting in occasional confirmation fights. Both his Supreme Court nominations and his lower court appointments were in line with Reagan's express philosophy that judges should interpret law as enacted and not "legislate from the bench." By the end of the 1980s, a conservative majority on the Supreme Court had put an end to the perceived "activist" trend begun under the leadership of Chief Justice Earl Warren. Some argued that the conservatives justices were equally activist, but that their sympathies with corporate America. However, general adherence to the principle of stare decisis along with minority support, left most of the major landmark case decisions (such as Brown, Miranda, and Roe v. Wade) of the previous three decades still standing as binding precedent.

Reagan appointed many leading conservative academics to the intermediate United States Courts of Appeals, including Bork, Ralph K. Winter, Jr., Richard Posner, and Frank Easterbrook.

[edit] 1984 presidential campaign

Main article: United States presidential election, 1984

Reagan accepted the Republican nomination in Dallas, Texas, on a wave of positive feeling bolstered by the recovering economy and the dominating performance by the U.S. athletes at the Los Angeles Olympics that summer.^[41]

Former Vice President Walter Mondale challenged Reagan for the presidency in 1984. With questions about Reagan's age, and a weak performance in the first presidential debate, it was questioned whether the president was up to the task of being president for another term.^[42] Reagan confronted questions about his age during the second debate, famously quipping, "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," which generated applause and laughter from members of the audience.^[43]

That November, Reagan was re-elected over Mondale in a landslide, winning 49 of 50 states. The president's victory saw Mondale carry only his home state of Minnesota (by 3800 votes) and the District of Columbia. Reagan received nearly 60 percent of the popular vote as well.^[44]

[edit] Second Term (1985-1989)

Reagan was sworn in as President for the second time on January 20, 1985, in a private swearing in at the White House. He was sworn in publicly in the Capitol Rotunda the next day, because January 20 fell on a Sunday, and thus no public celebration was held. January 21 was one of the coldest days on record in Washington, D.C., thus due to the low temperatures, inaugural celebrations were held inside the Capitol.

On July 13, 1985, Reagan underwent surgery to remove polyps from his colon, causing the first-ever invocation of the Acting President clause of the 25th Amendment,^[45] and on January 5, 1987, Reagan underwent surgery for prostate cancer which caused further worries about his health. At this time, the President was 76 years old.

In 1985, Reagan visited a German military cemetery in Bitburg, Germany to lay a wreath with West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, but it was found that the cemetery held the graves of 49 members of the Waffen-SS. In advance of the visit, many prominent U.S. government officials, veterans, Jewish leaders, Holocaust survivors, 95 Republican and 215 Democratic members of Congress, even First Lady Nancy Reagan protested and called on Reagan to cancel the visit;^[46] Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel pleaded with Reagan not to go, stating, "May I, Mr. President, if it is possible at all, implore you to do something else, to find a way, to find another way, another site."^[47] The president argued that it would be wrong to back down on a promise he had made to Chancellor Kohl. Reagan issued a statement that called the Nazi soldiers buried in that cemetery "victims" and some say equated them with victims of the Holocaust, but Pat Buchanan, Director of Communications under Reagan, argues: "President Reagan never equated SS troops and camp victims. He equated the teenage boys Hitler put in uniform and sent to certain death at war's end with concentration camp victims."^[48] In the end, Reagan attended the ceremony where two military generals laid the wreath, as was customary.^[49] In 1983, he told prominent Jews — notably Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir of Israel, Simon Wiesenthal, and Rabbi Marvin Hier of Los Angeles — of his personal experience vis-à-vis the Holocaust, saying "I was there," and that he had assisted at the liberation of Nazi death camps. In reality, he was in a film unit in Hollywood that processed raw footage it received from Europe for newsreels, but was not in Europe during the war.^[50]

[edit] Response to AIDS

This section is missing citations or needs footnotes. Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (June 2008)

Perhaps the greatest criticism surrounds Regan's silence about the AIDS epidemic spreading in the 1980s. Although AIDS was first identified in 1981, Reagan did not mention it publicly for several more years, notably during a press conference in 1985 and several speeches in 1987. During the press conference in 1985 Reagan expressed skepticism in allowing children with AIDS to continue in school stating:

It is true that some medical sources had said that [HIV] cannot be communicated in any way other than the ones we already know and which would not involve a child being in the school. And yet medicine has not come forth unequivocally and said, 'This we know for a fact, that it is safe.' And until they do, I think we just have to do the best we can with this problem.

The CDC had previously issued a report stating that "casual person-to-person contact as would occur among schoolchildren appears to pose no risk."^[51] During his 1987 speeches Reagan supported modest educational funding on AIDS^[52], increased AIDS testing for marriage licenses and mandatory testing for high risk groups.^[53][54]

Even with the death from AIDS of his friend Rock Hudson, Reagan was widely criticized for not supporting more active measures to contain the spread of AIDS. Until celebrity Elizabeth Taylor spoke out publicly about the monumental amount of people quickly dying from this new disease, most public officials and celebrities were too afraid of dealing with this subject.

Possibly in deference to the views of the powerful religious right, which saw AIDS as a disease limited to the gay male community and spread by "immoral" behavior, Reagan prevented his Surgeon General, C. Everett Koop, from speaking out about the epidemic. When in 1986 Reagan was highly encouraged by many other public officials to authorize Koop to issue a report on the epidemic, he expected it to be in line with conservative policies; instead, Koop's Surgeon General's Report on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome greatly emphasized the importance of a comprehensive AIDS education strategy, including widespread distribution of condoms, and rejected mandatory testing. This approach brought Koop into conflict with other administration officials such as Education Secretary William Bennett.

Social action groups such as ACT UP worked to raise awareness of the AIDS problem. Because of ACT UP, in 1987, Reagan responded by appointing the Watkins Commission on AIDS, which was succeeded by a permanent advisory council, and subsequently (under the administration of President Clinton) by the "AIDS czar".

Many socially conservative commentators saw Reagan's handling of the AIDS crisis as a common sense approach to a problem they believed was caused by social immorality. Members of the gay and lesbian and African American communities saw his policies as anything from politically motivated willful blindness to allow a national holocaust to occur in silence with outright contempt for groups affected by the disease.

[edit] Iran-Contra Affair

Main articles: Iran-Contra Affair and Reagan administration scandals

In 1986, the Reagan Administration was found to have illegally sold arms to Iran to fund the Contras in Nicaragua.^[55] The Iran-Contra affair became the largest political scandal in the United States during the 1980s.^[56] President Reagan professed ignorance of the plot's existence and quickly called for an Independent Counsel to investigate. It is rumored that while the arms sales and hostage releases were occurring, Reagan allegedly signed a finding authorizing the actions after they had already begun,^[57] but this has not been proven.^[58] The International Court of Justice, whose jurisdiction to decide the case was disputed,^[59] ruled that the U.S. had violated international law in Nicaragua due to its treaty obligations and the customary obligations of international law not to intervene in the affairs of other states.^[60]

Reagan appointed two Republicans and one Democrat (John Tower, Brent Scowcroft and Edmund Muskie, known as the "Tower Commission") to investigate the scandal. The commission could not find direct evidence that Reagan had prior knowledge of the program, but criticized him heavily for his disengagement from managing his staff, thus making the diversion of funds to the Contras possible.^[61] A separate report by Congress concluded that "If the president did not know what his national security advisers were doing, he should have."^[61] Reagan's popularity declined from 67 percent to 46 percent in less than a week, the greatest and quickest decline ever for a president.^[62]

Fourteen individuals who were directly involved in the illegal activity were indicted, resulting in eleven convictions (both plea agreements and trial convictions).^[63] Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger was indicted for perjury, but received a pardon from then-President George H.W. Bush during the last month of his presidency. At the same time, President Bush pardoned five others, four of whom had already pleaded guilty or had been convicted.^[64] In 2006, a survey of 37 presidential historians ranked "Ronald Reagan’s involvement in the Iran-Contra affair" as the ninth worst mistake by a U.S. president.^[65][66] Critics further objected to his comparison of the Contras to the Founding Fathers and the French Resistance.^{[citation needed]}

Many Central Americans criticize Reagan for his support of the Contras, saying he was an anti-communist zealot, blinded to human rights abuses, while many others say he "saved Central America".^[67] Daniel Ortega, Sandinistan president of Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, said that he hoped God would forgive Reagan for his "dirty war against Nicaragua".^[67]

[edit] Cold War

Reagan escalated the Cold War, accelerating a reversal from the policy of détente which began in 1979 following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.^[68]The Reagan Administration implemented new policies towards the Soviet Union: reviving the B-1 bomber program that had been canceled by the Carter administration, and producing the MX "Peacekeeper" missile.^[69] In response to Soviet deployment of the SS-20, Reagan oversaw NATO's deployment of the Pershing II missile in West Germany.^[70]

One of Reagan's more controversial proposals was the Strategic Defense Initiative, or SDI, a defense project.^[71] The program would use ground- and space-based systems to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles.^[72] Reagan believed that this defense shield could make nuclear war impossible,^[71][73] but the unlikelihood that the technology could ever work led opponents to dub SDI "Star Wars," and argue that the technological objective was unattainable.^[71]The Soviets became concerned about the possible effects SDI would have,^[74] and leader Yuri Andropov considered the possibility that Reagan was pushing to win the Cold War,^[75] saying it put "the entire world in jeopardy."^[75]

In a famous address on June 8, 1982 to the British Parliament, Reagan called the Soviet Union an "Evil Empire." Reagan further declared that Marxism-Leninism would ultimately be consigned to the "ash heap of history." On March 3, 1983, Reagan predicted that Communism would collapse, stating, "communism is another sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages even now are being written."^[76] After Soviet fighters downed Korean Airlines Flight 007 on September 1, 1983, Reagan labeled the act a "massacre" and declared that the Soviets had turned "against the world and the moral precepts which guide human relations among people everywhere."^[77] The Reagan administration responded to the incident by suspending all Soviet passenger air service to the United States, and dropped several agreements being negotiated with the Soviets, hurting them financially.^[77]

Reagan's foreign policies were criticized variously as aggressive, imperialistic, and were derided as "warmongering".^[74] All this was before a reformer, Mikhail Gorbachev, rose to power in the Soviet Union in 1985. To confront the Soviet Union's serious economic problems, Gorbachev implemented bold new policies for openness and reform called glasnost and perestroika.

[edit] End of the Cold War

By the late years of the Cold War, Moscow had built up a military which surpassed that of the United States.^[78]In the past, the United States had relied on the qualitative superiority of its weapons to essentially frighten the Soviets, but with Soviet technological advances in the 1980s, the gap between the two nations was narrowed.^[78] With the military buildup came large budget deficits, and as a result, Gorbachev offered major concessions to the United States on the levels of conventional forces, nuclear weapons, and policy in Eastern Europe.^[79]

Ronald Reagan recognized the change in the direction of the Soviet leadership with Gorbachev, and shifted to diplomacy, with a view to encourage the Soviet Leader to go further with his reforms. Gorbachev agreed to meet Reagan in four summit conferences around the world: the first in Geneva, Switzerland, the second in Reykjavík, Iceland, the third held in Washington, D.C., along with the fourth summit in Moscow, Russia.^[80] Reagan believed that if he could persuade the Soviets to look at the prosperous American economy, they would embrace free markets and a free society. Gorbachev, facing severe economic problems at home, was swayed.^[79]

Speaking at the Berlin Wall, on June 12, 1987, Reagan challenged Gorbachev to go further:

“

General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

”

When Gorbachev visited Washington, D.C. for the third summit in 1987, he and Reagan signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty at the White House (they finalized it a year later), which eliminated an entire class of nuclear weapons.^[81]

When Reagan visited Moscow for the fourth summit in 1988, he was viewed as a celebrity by Russians. A journalist asked the president if he still considered the Soviet Union the evil empire. "No," he replied, "I was talking about another time, another era."^[82] At Gorbachev’s request, Reagan gave a speech on free markets at Moscow University.^[83]

In his autobiography An American Life, Reagan expressed his optimism about the new direction that they charted, his warm feelings for Gorbachev, and his concern for Gorbachev's safety because Gorbachev pushed reforms so hard: "I was concerned for his safety," Reagan wrote. "I've still worried about him. How hard and fast can he push reforms without risking his life?"^[84] Events would unravel far beyond what Gorbachev originally intended. In 1989, the Berlin Wall was torn down. A year later, the Soviet Union officially collapsed.

[edit] Close of the Reagan Era

In 1988, Reagan's Vice President, George H. W. Bush, was elected to succeed Reagan as President of the United States. On January 11, 1989, Reagan addressed the nation for the last time on television from the Oval Office, nine days before handing over the presidency to Bush. On the morning of January 20, 1989, Ronald and Nancy Reagan met with the Bushes for coffee at the White House before escorting them to the Capitol Building, where Bush took the Oath of Office. The Reagans then boarded a Presidential helicopter, and flew to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. There, they boarded the Presidential Jet (in this instance, it was not called Air Force One), and flew home to California—to their new home in the wealthy suburb of Bel Air in Los Angeles. Reagan was the oldest president to serve (at 77), surpassing Dwight Eisenhower, who was 70 when he left office in 1961.

[edit] Political philosophy

Further information: Reagan Doctrine

During his Presidency, Ronald Reagan pursued policies that reflected his optimism in individual freedom, expanded the American economy, and contributed to the end of the Cold War.^[85] The "Reagan Revolution", as it came to be known, aimed to reinvigorate American morale, and reduce the people's reliance upon government.^[85] As President, Reagan kept a series of leather bound diaries, in which he talked about daily occurrences of his presidency, commented on current issues around the world (expressing his point of view on most of them), and frequently mentioned his wife, Nancy. The diaries were recently published into the bestselling book, The Reagan Diaries.^[86]

As a politician and as President, Ronald Reagan portrayed himself as being a conservative, anti-communist, in favor of tax cuts, in favor of smaller government (with the exclusion of the military), and in favor of removing regulations on corporations. Ronald Reagan is credited with increasing spending on national defense and diplomacy which contributed to the end of the Cold War, deploying U.S. Pershing II missiles in West Germany in response to the Soviet stationing of SS-20 missiles near Europe, negotiating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) to substantially reduce nuclear arms and initiating negotiations with the Soviet Union for the treaty that would later be known as START I, proposing the Strategic Defense Initiative, a controversial plan to develop a missile defense system, re-appointing monetarists Paul Volcker and (later) Alan Greenspan to be chairmen of the Federal Reserve, ending the high inflation that damaged the economy under his predecessors Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford, lowering tax rates significantly (under Reagan, the top personal tax bracket dropped from 70% to 28% in 7 years [3]) and leading a major reform of the tax system, providing arms and other support to anti-communist groups such as the Contras and the mujahideen, selling arms to foreign allies such as Taiwan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq (see Iran-Iraq War), greatly escalating the "war on drugs" with his policies and Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" campaign, ordering the April 14, 1986 bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi in retaliation for an April 5 bombing of a West Berlin nightclub frequented by U.S. servicemen, in which the Libyan government was deemed complicit, and signing the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 which compensated victims of the Japanese American Internment during World War II.

[edit] Controversy

Further information: Reagan administration scandals

[edit] The Arts

As Ronald and Nancy Reagan were both former actors and he had served as president of the Screen Actor's Guild, via a 1982 Executive Order, President Reagan established the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. In each year of his presidency, Reagan increased funding for the National Endowment for the Arts. In a 1983 speech he declared, "We support the National Endowment for the Arts to stimulate excellence and make art more available to more of our people." [4]

[edit] 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.^[87] 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. As well as those, Reagan 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.^{[citation needed]}

Reagan's position on gay rights has been a subject of controversy. In the late 1970s he wrote a private response to the organization backing the California Briggs Initiative, stating that he opposed the proposed ban on gay public school teachers or anyone who supported gay rights.^{[citation needed]} He opposed efforts to repeal the criminal laws against homosexuality and generally opposed gay rights legislation as eroding traditional moral values. Yet his daughter, Patti Davis, wrote in article in the New York Times where she recalled her father talking about Rock Hudson's homosexuality in an accepting and tolerate manner.^[88]

[edit] The oldest president

As Reagan was the oldest person to be inaugurated as president (age 69), and also the oldest person to hold the office (age 77), his health, although generally good, became a concern at times during his presidency. His age even became a topic of concern during his re-election campaign. In a debate on October 21, 1984 between Reagan and his opponent Walter Mondale, panelist Henry Trewhitt brought up how President Kennedy had to go for days on end without sleep during the Cuban Missile crisis. He then asked the President if he had any doubts about if or how he could function in a time of crisis, given his age. Reagan remarked, "I am not going to make age an issue of this campaign I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience," generating applause and laughter from the audience. Mondale (who was 56 at the time) said years later in an interview that he knew at that moment he had lost the election.

On July 13, 1985, Reagan underwent surgery to remove polyps from his colon, causing the first-ever invocation of the Acting President clause of the 25th Amendment. On January 5, 1987, Reagan underwent surgery for prostate cancer which caused further worries about his health, but which significantly raised the public awareness of this "silent killer."

[edit] See also

• U.S. presidential election, 1976
• U.S. presidential election, 1980
• U.S. presidential election, 1984
• History of the United States (1980-1988)
• Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California
• List of honors named for Ronald Reagan
• 600-ship Navy
• Ronald Reagan on Wikiquote

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] References

• Appleby, Joyce; Alan Brinkley, James M. McPherson (2003). The American Journey. Woodland Hills, California: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill. 0078241294. 
• Beschloss, Michael (2007). Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How they Changed America 1789-1989. Simon & Schuster. 
• Cannon, Lou (2000). President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime. New York: Public Affairs. ISBN 1891620916. 
• Cannon, Lou; Michael Beschloss (2001). Ronald Reagan: The Presidential Portfolio: A History Illustrated from the Collection of the Ronald Reagan Library and Museum. PublicAffairs. ISBN 1891620843. 
• Diggins, John Patrick (2007). Ronald Reagan: Fate, Freedom, and the Making of History. New York: W. W. Norton. 
• Freidel, Frank; Hugh Sidey (1995). The Presidents of the United States of America. Washington, D.C.: White House Historical Association. ISBN 0912308575. 
• Gaddis, John Lewis (2005). The Cold War: A New History. The Penguin Press. 
• Hertsgaard, Mark. (1988) On Bended Knee: The Press and the Reagan Presidency. New York, New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux.
• LaFeber, Walter (2002). America, Russia, and the Cold War, 1945-1971. New York: Wiley. 
• Matlock, Jack (2004). Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended. New York: Random House. ISBN 0679463232. 
• Morris, Edmund (1999). Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan. Random House.  includes fictional material
• Reagan, Nancy (1989). My Turn: The Memoirs of Nancy Reagan. New York: Harper Collins. 
• Reagan, Ronald (1990). An American Life. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0743400259. 
• Reeves, Richard (2005). President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0743230221. 
• Regan, Donald (1988). For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington. New York: Harcourt. ISBN 0151639663. 
• Walsh, Kenneth (1997). Ronald Reagan. New York: Random House Value Publishing, Inc.. ISBN 0517200783. 

[edit] Further reading

Further information: Ronald Reagan Bibliography

v • d • e Ronald Reagan Early life Birthplace · Pitney Store · Boyhood home · Films Family Nancy Davis Reagan (wife) · Jane Wyman (first wife) · Maureen Reagan Revell (daughter) · Michael Edward Reagan (son) · Patricia Reagan Davis (daughter) · Ronald Prescott Reagan (son) · Nelle Wilson Reagan (mother) Speeches "A Time for Choosing" · First inaugural address · Berlin Wall address Presidency Domestic policy · Economic policy · Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 · Tax Reform Act of 1986 · Assassination attempt · Strategic Defense Initiative · Foreign policy · Reagan Doctrine · Cold War: first term, second term · Iran-Contra · Postions Later life Presidential Library · Alzheimer's letter · Death and state funeral · Honors · Cultural and political image Books An American Life (autobiography) · The Reagan Diaries · Biographical works Elections Governor: 1966 · 1970 · President: 1976 · 1980 · 1984 · Electoral history

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