/President Ronald Reagan was the fortieth president of the united state of America. He was born on the sixth of June , 1911 in Tampico ,Illinois .He was the second born of john Edward and Nelle Wilson .When he was born ,his father mentioned on a light note that he looked like a Dutch and that nobody could know if he would grow up and become the president of the United State of America. The Dutch name was as a result that, he looked like a Dutch and also his haircut looked similar to those of the Dutch. For that reason, he grew up with the nick-name Dutch Little did his father knew that his words would become fulfilled in his son and that he would become one of the most popular president of the United State of America in the 20th century. The republican president happens to be the oldest ever president in the united state of America to elected in office. He served as the President for two terms, that is, from 1981 to 1989. (Humes, 2007)
When he was nine, his family moved to Dixon, still in Illinois. It's in this town that his father operated a as a shop clerk and also owned a shoe shop. In his high school days, he resort to selling popcorns usually homemade whenever there were school games functions. He also worked as a lifeguard at the Rock River, which was near Dixon. During his time here he managed to save seventy seven lives. He took this job in order to earn some extra money to pay for his tuition at the college. Before he graduated from high school, he had served in the capacity of the president of the student body. He also did involve himself in sports like football, swimming, basketball, track events and even school plays
.Later he got enrolled in Eureka College, where he was pursuing a bachelors degree in economics-sociology. It was at this college that he developed an interest in drama. It was after graduating that he worked as a sports broadcaster with several radio stations. During the Second World War, he joined the Army Air Corps and gained up to the position of the captain, after which he quit the job in 1945 and resumed his acting job. In 1937,he was able to win a screen test and fortunately got a seven year contract with Warner Brothers. This paved his way into the Hollywood movies and in this year he featured in his first famous movie, 'Love is in the Air'. It was then that his career in acting was developing and he was able to feature in more than 50 movies which really gained him a famous publicly recognized figure. It was at this period that he served as the president Screen actors Guild and afterwards he became the spokesman of the General Electric. (D'Souza, 1999)
His political life started while serving at the General Electric. In 1945 he decided to settle down after experiencing sixteen years of acting. His wife Jane Wyman and the daughter Maureen decided to adopt a boy known as Michael. Their marriage didn't work well though as he was over-committed in the acting business that he spent less time with the family. Finally the wife fielded a divorce case claiming that in the recent months ,they had engaged in serious arguments and that they held different political opinions. This was enough for her to say that ,there was nothing in common left between them .After the divorce case was successful ,Jane was given the custody of their son and daughter. Mr. Reagan carried on with his acting business though he complained of loniless, and not that he didn't have friends .He dated many young and beautiful starlets ,but his problem was that ,he was loved but not able to love back. He eventually settled down with one Miss Nancy Davis, whom she had dated for two years .They bore a daughter Patti in 1952 and later a son Ronald Prescott Reagan.
Though he had been a loyal supporter of the Democratic party ,he switched to the Republicans after the war an din 1952 and 1956 supported Dwight Eisenhower. He later rallied support behind Richard Dixonin1960. At one time while delivering among the many motivating speech's in support of Barry Goldwater's presidency candidacy in the year 1964,that he got persuaded to give a trial of the California governorship. While delivering his speech ,he stressed the need for having smaller government and there was the famous motivating speech of 27th October 1964, that revealed his great political ideas,he said, " The Founding Fathers of this nation that a government wouldn't control the economy without having thew control of people. And they they very well knew that a government which sets out to do that, it must use endavour to the use of force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have now come to a time for choosing." Despite the fact that Barry Goldwater's lost the presidential elections,Reagan had won the affection of many hearts and had so gained good grounds in the politics of the time. He won the governorship seat three years later in 1967 and again in 1971. Early in his governorship of California,there arose a national debate on abortion.
The then Democratic California State Senator, Anthony Beilenson brought up the "Therapeutic Abortion Act" in his endavour to reducing the back-room abortions which were being performed in California. A bill was sent to Reagan's desk by the State legislature where he spent several days of indecision ,but later signed it. Following that ,about two million abortions would be performed in California due to a provision in the bill which allowed for the abortion if it was in favour of the well being of the mother. He later blamed his four months short term experience as a governor, and that he regretted having signed it. He later recognized of his mistake and termed it as the "consequences" of the bill and he declared that he was a pro-life and afterwhich he wrote many books on the same issue
However he was defeated in the run for the Republican presidential nominations in 1976.He had lost the nominations to Ford. After Gerald Ford won the elections , he offered Reagan some cabinet posts in his government. Reagan rejected the two offers and was determined to challenge him in the Republican Party presidential nominations, which lost to Ford. During the 1980 elections, he won the Republican presidential nominations and was favoured for the presidency over Jimmy Carter. His important asset in the campaigns was Michael K. Deaver whom he had worked with when he was the governor of California. In addition to leading Reagans; campaign ,Deaver became a co-founder of the public relations company,known as Deaver and Hannaford in 1975. The company major role was to book Reagans appearances, conduct research and sell his radio programs as well as ghost-write his column.
In his campaigns, he emphasized on improving the fundamental areas of the economy; the reduction of taxes, less involvement of the government in people's living and a firm national defence. This was the first time the Republican recaptured the presidential seat since 1952. After winning the nominations , he selected one of his primary opponents ,George H.W. Bush as his running mate. At sixty-nine , Reagan won the presidential elections having 44 States rallying behind him with 489 electoral votes against 49 electoral votes for Jimmy Carter. He received 50.7% of the majority votes against 41% for Jimmy Carter and 6.7% for the Independent John B. Anderson.During the campaigns Reagan learnt that Jimmy Carter was negotiating to have some American hostages released from Iran. This news meant harm on their campaign since, if Carter had managed to get them out , his public perception would have changed and he could probably be re-elected for the second time. Deaver once reported that, among the things they had learnt was the ,president Reagans' victory would have been impossible if Carter had managed to have the hostages released before the elections. He confessed that ,were it not for the delay ,Carter would have emerged victorious.(Mahan, 2006)
It had been established by a researcher and a policy analyst during the Reagan and Bush campaign ,that William J. Casey together with other representatives of the campaign team had held two meetings in July and August with the Iranians .The deal they were settleing was for Iran top delay the release of the hostages until the 1980 november elections were over. Reagan's camp had agreed to a better deal if they waited till Carter was defeated. In 1980 Iraq invaded Iran which made the Iranian government become desperate for spare parts and equipments for its armed forces. Jimmy Carter made a proposal that ,America would be willing to make the supplies in exchange for the hostages. Unfortunately for Carter the Central Investigations Agency leaked the details to the Reagans team which also leaked to the media. This kind of publicity was negative on Americans and so Carter could not continue with the deal. On the other hand Reagan had taken the opportunity to strike a deal with the Iranians of supplying them with the arms they so much needed. After the elections, Reagan won with 44million votes against 35 million by Carter. It was also the first time the Republicans had taken control of the Senate after 26 years .
During his first reign as president, he pursued policies which were based on his personal belief on individual freedom, drastic changes were evident on the improved national economy as well as the expanded military . He also contributed in the ceasing of the cold war. The Reagan Revolution was to re-establish and re-instill the morale of the American people as well as the reduction of people from depending on the government. It was during his first term in office that he used to keep diaries of what was happening on daily occurrences of his presidency together with his views of the daily happening. These dairies were later published in may 2007 and became the bestselling book known as The Reagan Diaries. At the inaugural address through his own written speech, he addressed the by the country economic malaise stating that , "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem." (Reagan, 2009)
His presidency kicked off in a style of its own since ,as he was giving the inaugural address , some 52 U.S hostages who had been held by the Iran for 444 days were set free. Later after only two months in office ,as he was leaving the Washington Hilton hotel,he was shot by the would -be assassin John Hinkley. The bullet missed the Presidents' heart by a single inch and instead went through the left lung. The President was rushed to the George Washinton University Hospital where it was thereafter established that his lung had collapsed. He had to have an emergency surgery to remove the bullet and it was in the operating room that he made a joke to the surgeons that, "I hope you're all Republicans!." And though they were all not republicans, Joseph Giorano (a Democrat) thus replied that, "Today, Mr. President, we're all Republicans."
The bullet was successfully removed and on the 11th of April , he was released from the hospital and thus became the first president to ever survive after being shot in an assassination attempt. This attempt worked to increase his popularity and as the polls indicated that his approval rating had hit 73%. The President belived that it was by Gods' mercy that his life had been reserved in order to accomplish greater hieghts and ambitions.
With just a short time in his administration ,he was faced with a national challenge when the air traffic controllers decided to go strike. This was targeted to prohibit a regulation which was prohibiting any government from going on strike . President Reagan termed the strike as an emergency which and on his style of dealing with the situation,he gave the workers a deadline on returning to their jobs. He issued a 48hrs grace perid for any worker on strike who wanted to retain his or her job. After the two days grace period elapsed, there were 11,359 workers who had purposed to defy the order and so the president fired them. This act had alot of influence on the labour management relations especially in the private sector. The president durng this strike case went against the provision which existed for the private sector employers who had the nominal role of firing any striking employers according to the National Labour Relation Act.
In his first term in office ,the greater mandate was to stablize the stagnating economy. He therefore implemented the suppt-side policicy which was to stimulate the economy with large tax cuts which worked well to improve the economy by increasing the tax base. Although his econoimic policies were faced by fierce criticism by mixed supporters , it was during his term the federal income tax rates were lowered and the gross domestic product(GDP) recovered from the 1982 major recession. There were more than 16 million jobs that were created as well as the reduction of the inflation rates by a big margin. As usual everything was met by a good share of critics where some argued that , his policies were meant for the wealthier to become more wealthier while the lives of the poor were not influenced in any significant way. However ,there were some economist like the nobel prize winner Midlton Friedman and Robert A.Mundell argued that ,it was due to his poicicies that America enjoyed the economic booms of 1990s. President Reagan comented during his 1984 State of the Union address saying that America had been founded by people who feared God as their rock of safety. He continued to warn the peple of America that ,they neede to be cautious in claiming that God was on their side whereas they were not on His side. His achievements and personality earned him to be one of the most loved President in America. All along he knew that if they ever forgot that they were a nation under God they would be a nation gone under Him. In Reagan's presidency which is usually known as the Reagam Revolution since it caused some great re-alignment which spread to other nations abroad . Most people attribute the decline of the Iron Curtain to President Reagan which brought the cold war to an end . This as a result made the US the only super power in the whole world. Ronald Reagans' way of appreoaching the Presidency was somehow of a different direction from his predecessors by delegating a great deal of the work to his staffs whom he let handle most of the governments daily affairs . During his administration ,he appointed three Supreme Court Justices where the firstone was Sandra Day O'Connor who became the first woman to be in the Supreme Court. She was a centrist. The second one was Antonin Scalia in 1986 who was a conservative. In his third appointment of Douglas Ginsberg in1987 , it was marred by lots of controversies ands in the final , Douglas withdrew from his nomination after he admitted of his involvement and use of marijuana during his college days .
His next choice was Robert Bork who later pulled after continued attacks by Senator Ted Kennedy and some liberal activist who accused him with charges of trying to outlaw abortionand trying to cast oout civil rights. President Reagan finnally settled for the moderate Anthony Kennedy, who together with Scalia are still in the Supreme Court to this day.
The renewal of the nations' self-confidence by 1984 influenced the re-election of Reagan and Bush back into the administration for the second time with some unprecedented number of the electoral votes.He proclaimed that it was "morning again in America," drawing evidences from the recovering economy and the dominating performance by United States athletes during the Los Angeles Olympics in summer. He became the first American President to to Preside the opening of the Olympics games held in the U.S . His opponent,who was his former vice President Walter Mondale, in this election tryed to bring to the Presidential debate of Reagans' old age concerns. President Reagan dealt with this statement in a humurous way by saying, he would not make his age an issue during his campaign. Instead he decided not to exploit his opponents youth inexperience for political purposes. This generated a great applause and laughter among the listeners. It was then that President Reagan had the landslide victory by scoping 49 States out of the possible 50 States.The remaining State was Minnesota which was Mondale home State.
Reagan won with a record of 525 electoral votes,the mostb that any Presidential candidate had ever won with. He was sworn in on twentieth of January 1985,in a private ceremony at the White House. This was due to that ,it was on a Sunday, but the public celebrations toke place in the following day It was in the second reign that the Iran-Contra Affair brought a big scandal to the administration when it was established that ,they had traded weapons for hostages. As a way of implementing the foreign policies, he sought to achieve peace through strength. He thus increased the defense spending to thiry five percent. In some dramatic meetings with the Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev where he negotiated some treaties where they both agreed to eliminate their nuclear missiles.
President Reagan deckared war on international terrorism by sending some American Bombers against Libya after some undisputed prove of her involvement in the attack on American soldiers in a night club in west Berlin. Hew also ordered the naval escort in the Persian Gulf and thuis ensured a free-flow of oil during the Iran-Iraq war. Following his doctrines ,he gave alot of support to ani-communist endavours in Central America,Africa and in Asia.
Mid way in his second term ,he declared some more militant policicies on the War on drugs. He claimed that drugs had become a menace to the society and so promised to fight for schools free of drugs as well as work places. This he did by increasing the drug treatment strategies , having stronger law enforcement and drug interdiction campaigns which lead to a great awareness by the public. It was in 1986 that he signed a bill that had budgeted for $1.7 billion which would help in the fight against drugs . The bill also specified the minimum penalty for drug offenses. There were rallied criticism about the bill claiming that it enhanced significant racial disparities in the population of those imprisoned. Some also suggested that the bill didn't provide for awys of reducing the avaolability of drugs in the streets despite the fact that it had a great burden on the Americans. Some defenders of the drrug s bill cited it as a success following the reduction of the nuomber of adolescent using drugs. (Cannon, 2000)
The First Lady Nancy Reagan made the war on drugs her priority by founding the"Just Say No" campaign awareness which core target was to discourage the young from involvement and use of recreational drug use by offering them options of sa ying no to drugs. President Reagan signed the Immigration Reform Act in the year 1986,which made it illegal to hire or recruit any illegal immigrants who had enterd the United States prior to 1982. The act made it illegal for any employer to hire or recruit illegal immigrants by having the employers have the mandate to attest of their workers'immigration status . There were about three million illegal immigrants who were granted amnesty .
After serving for two terms as the President of the United State America, President Reagan retired from politics. He was however diagnosed with Alzheimer's and he decided to go public about it through a letter to the public in November 5th 1994. He was at the age of 83 when the incurable neurological disorder which usually damages the brain cells leading to death ultimately. In his public letter he said that he had been told that he was one of the millions of Americans who had been afflicted with the deadly Alzheimer's disease. He declared that he had been feeling well at the moment of writing of the letter. He had opted to live the reminder of his years which God had given him doing the same things he had always done. He declared that he had started a journey of his life which would take him to the sunset of his life. He was hopeful that America would always have a bright dawn . Following this letter , numerous letters of well-wishers streamed to his California home. The public declaration was also met by speculations concerning how long the President had shown symptoms of mental degeneration. This speculation had gained ground following the several times the President had had some mental lapses. At one time while in a meeting with the prime minister of Japan ,he had repeatedly reffered to his vice president Bush as Prime minister Bush. His doctors however claimed that ,the President had shown over symptoms of the disease as late as in 1992 . As the days went by his health deteroriated and his mental capacity was slowly failing at a high rate.
Though he had lost memories of most people and could only recognise his wife and a few more people, he still remained active by taking walks in the parks which were near his home as wella sin the beaches. He also involved himself in playing golf regularly. He suffered a fall in his home in Bel Air on 13th of January 2001 resulting to a broken hip which was repaired in the following day and he was able to return home later. On the sixth of February 2001, he hit the age of 90 and thus becoming the 3rd former President to hit that age.
He later died at his home in Bel Air ,California on the evening of 5th June 2004 after which his wife Nancy released a statement saying that her family needed the world to know that Reagan had died ten years after the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease at the age of 93. She said also that ,they had appreciated everyone who prayed for the family all along. President George Bush declared the 11th of June as a national day of mourning which received lots of international tributes. His body was later in that day moved to the Kingsley and Gates Funeral Home situated in Santa Monica in California. Well wishers paid their tribute by placing flowers and American flags on the grass. On the 9th of June ,His body was flown to Washington D.C where it was to be laid in the state and thus becoming the tenth American former President to be laid there.
President Ronald Reagan became the second longest-lived President of the United State of America just 45 days short of Gerald Ford. At his burial site , the words which he delivered during the opening of the Ronald Reagan Library saying that ,heknew in his heart that man was good and that whatever was right would eventually emerge victorious emphasizing on the worth of every ones life.
On environmental issues ,he dismissed the effect of acid rain and suggested that any proposals to end it would cause detrimental effects on the industrial sector. He deemed the policy meant to protect the environment against acid rain as been alot of spending by the government which wasn't necessary. He had also questioned the scientific proofs of the existence of acid rain . However it was discovered that he had set aside some funds to clean-up the toxic waste areas in order to enhance the possibilities of have the local officials who were members of the Republican party. In a more general term ,reagan didn't to mind alot about the environment or the effects it would on his popularity.
His legacy is reputed with the numerous economic prosperity as well as the peaceful end of trhe Cold war. Some critcs of the same argued that his policies caused some huge budget deficit ,increasing the national debt and citing the case of the Iran-Contra as having diminished the credebility of the Americans. Despite that he has continued to gain more positive light from majority and is highly ranked among presidents in many Public opinion polls. Reagan helped reshape the Republican party and lead to the modern conservative movement as well as altering the politics of the United States.
There were more men who voted for the Republicans during President Reagans rule. He also tapped votes from the religious voters and the so called the "Reagan Democrats." After leaving Office his became an iconic factor with much influence in the Republican party. Republican Presidential candidates have since 1989 have frequently used his policies and campaign strategies. Without exception was the 2008 Republican candidates and John McCain oftenly stated that he had come into office as a foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution. Being among the oldest president ,his majority supporters were the young voters.
He nevertheless faired well with the minority like the African-Americans but though his continued support of Israel earned him support from the Jews. His speaking style,undisputed patriotism ,his negotiation skills ,his sawy use of the media acted a major role in defining his political life. He is one president who is always remembered for his homerous speeches as well as the use of stories. One of the famous jokes he used during the Cold war was when he said that he was happy to announce to the americans of the major stride the nation had taken by signing of the legislation which outlawed russia forever and that America would start bombing in the next five minutes.
On the 18th of January ,1993 ,former Reaan's vice president and the then sitting President George W.Bush gave him an award of the Presidentail Medal of Freedom which the highest honor that the United State can bestow. In adddition to that ,he was awarded the Republican Senatorial Medal of Freedom which again is the highest honor bestowed by the Republican members of the Senate. During his 87th birthday in 1998, Washington National Airport was renamed as the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport through a bill signed by President Clinton.
When President Reagan came into power with the advocacy of free market from the moment he took office.He believed that American economy was greatly been derailed by so many economic controls together with lots of misguided welfare programswhich had been enacted in the 60s and 80s. Among the first acts to be put in place was to issue an order which ended some oil price control measure which had been put in place. This controls had lead to the oil crisis in 1973 as well as the energy crisis which had occured in 1979. This way he made the prices drop considerably ceasing the crisis which had previously persisted . President Reagan had a domestic policy which his administration pursued between 1981 and 1989. The policy targeted at maintaining some values economically. He purposed to implement his suppty-side economic policies which were termed as Reaganomics by his supporters as well as his detractors.
In summary , President Ronald Reagan helped restore the pride of Americans just after the hostages crisis with Iran by showing the rest of the world that ,it would not turn its back on its allies who were in need. Through the foreign policy, many Latin Americans were freed. His Strategic defense initiative led to the reduction of nuclear arms which helped stop the cold war. The Reaganomics policies helped stop the bby then rampant rates of inflation and unemployment which been experienced during the Carter administration. He was able to modernize the military by the development of the B2 Bomber, M1 Abrams Tanks, B-1 Lancer and the Humvee. His celebrity image in the Hollywood which si termed as a success is believed to have helped his politcal career in a significant way as it helped publicize him.
