Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician who served as the 40th

president of the United States

from 1981 to 1989. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 to 1975 after a career as a

Hollywood

actor and union leader.

Reagan was born in to a low-income family in Tampico,

Illinois

. He graduated from Eureka College in 1932 and began to work as a radio sports commentator in

Iowa

. In 1937, Reagan moved to

California

, where he found work as an actor and appeared in several major productions. From 1947 to 1952, Reagan served as president of the Screen Actors Guild, during which time he worked to root out alleged communist influence within it. In the 1950s, he moved to a career in television and became a spokesman for General Electric. From 1959 to 1960, he again served as president of the Screen Actors Guild. In 1964, his speech "A Time for Choosing"—a campaign speech on behalf of Republican presidential nominee

Barry Goldwater

—earned him national attention as a new conservative figure. Building a network of supporters, Reagan was elected as governor of California in 1966. During his governorship, he raised taxes, turned the state budget deficit into a surplus, challenged the protesters at

UC Berkeley

, and ordered in

National Guard troops

during a period of protest movements.

In November 1979, Reagan announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination in the 1980 presidential election. He won the nomination and the election, defeating incumbent Democratic president

Jimmy Carter

. At of age at the time of his first inauguration, Reagan was the oldest person to assume the U.S. presidency. Reagan ran for reelection in the 1984 presidential election, in which he was opposed by the Democratic nominee Walter Mondale, who had previously served as vice president under Carter. Reagan defeated him in an electoral landslide, winning the most electoral votes of any U.S. president: 525 (97.6% of the 538 votes in the

Electoral College

). It was the one of the most lopsided presidential elections in U.S. history.

Early in his presidency, Reagan began implementing new political and economic initiatives. His supply-side economics policies—dubbed "Reaganomics"—advocated tax reduction, economic deregulation, and reduction in government spending. In his first term, he survived an assassination attempt, spurred the

War on Drugs

, invaded Grenada, and fought public sector labor unions. Over his two terms, the economy saw a reduction of inflation from 12.5% to 4.4% and an average real GDP annual growth of 3.6%. Reagan enacted cuts in domestic discretionary spending, cut taxes, and increased military spending, which contributed to a tripling of the federal debt. Foreign affairs dominated his second term, including the bombing of Libya, the Iran–Iraq War, the Iran–Contra affair, and the ongoing Cold War. In a speech in June 1987 at the

Brandenburg Gate

, four years after he publicly described the Soviet Union as an "evil empire", Reagan challenged Soviet General Secretary

Mikhail Gorbachev

to open the

Berlin Wall

. He transitioned Cold War policy from détente to

rollback

by escalating an arms race with the USSR while engaging in talks with Gorbachev. The talks culminated in the INF Treaty, which shrank both countries' nuclear arsenals.

When Reagan left office in 1989, he held an approval rating of 68%, matching those of

Franklin Roosevelt

and later

Bill Clinton

as the highest ratings for departing presidents in the modern era. Although he had planned an active post-presidency, Reagan disclosed in November 1994 that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease earlier that year. His public appearances became more infrequent as his disease progressed. Reagan died at his home in

Los Angeles

on June 5, 2004. His tenure constituted a realignment toward conservative policies in the United States, and he is often considered a conservative icon. Evaluations of his presidency among historians and the general public place him among the upper tier of American presidents.

Early life

Ronald Wilson Reagan was born on February 6, 1911, in an apartment on the second floor of a commercial building in Tampico, Illinois. He was the younger son of Nelle Clyde () and

Jack Reagan

. Jack was a salesman and storyteller whose grandparents were Irish Catholic emigrants from

County Tipperary

, while Nelle was of English and Scottish descent.Kengor, p. 4. Ronald's older brother,

Neil Reagan

, became an advertising executive.

Reagan's father nicknamed his son "Dutch", due to his "fat little Dutchman" appearance and Dutch-boy haircut; the nickname stuck with him throughout his youth. Reagan's family briefly lived in several towns and cities in Illinois, including Monmouth, Galesburg, and Chicago. In 1919, they returned to Tampico and lived above the H. C. Pitney Variety Store until finally settling in Dixon, Illinois. After his election as president, Reagan lived in the upstairs White House private quarters, and he would quip that he was "living above the store" again.

For that period, which was long before the civil rights movement, Reagan's opposition to racial discrimination was unusual. He recalled the time when his college football team was staying at a local hotel which would not allow two black teammates to stay there, and he invited them to his parents' home away in Dixon. His mother invited them to stay overnight and have breakfast the next morning.''Deconstructing Reagan: Conservative Mythology and America's Fortieth President'', Kyle Longley, Jeremy D. Mayer, Michael Schaller, John W. Sloan
Ch. 3 "Reagan and Race: Prophet of Color Blindness, Baiter of the Backlash," Jeremy Mayer, page 73
2007. His father was strongly opposed to the Ku Klux Klan due to his Catholic heritage, but also due to the Klan's anti-semitism and anti-black racism. After becoming a prominent actor, Reagan gave speeches in favor of racial equality following World War II. As a politician, Reagan was often accused of appealing to white racial resentment and backlash against the civil-rights movement; a notable example being during his first campaign for Governor of California, Reagan's platform included a promise to repeal legislation barring housing discrimination. Certain in his own lack of prejudice, Reagan responded resentfully to claims he was bigot while defending his position, arguing: "If an individual wants to discriminate against Negroes or others in selling or renting his house, it is his right to do so.". He believed that "the right to dispose of and control one's own property is a basic human right".

Religion

Ronald Reagan wrote that his mother "always expected to find the best in people and often did".Reagan, Ronald (1990), p. 22. She attended the Disciples of Christ church regularly and was active, and very influential, within it; she frequently led Sunday school services and gave the Bible readings to the congregation during the services. A firm believer in the power of

prayer

, she led prayer meetings at church and was in charge of mid-week prayers when the pastor was out of town. She was also an adherent of the Social Gospel movement. Her strong commitment to the church is what induced her son Ronald to become a Protestant Christian rather than a Roman Catholic like his Irish father. He also stated that she strongly influenced his own beliefs: "I know that she planted that faith very deeply in me." Reagan identified himself as a born-again Christian. In Dixon, Reagan was strongly influenced by his pastor Beh Hill Cleaver, an erudite scholar. Cleaver was the father of Reagan's fiancée. Reagan saw him as a second father. Stephen Vaughn says:

At many points the positions taken by the First Christian Church of Reagan's youth coincided with the words, if not the beliefs of the latter-day Reagan. These positions included faith in Providence, association of America's mission with God's will, belief in progress, trust in the work ethic and admiration for those who achieved wealth, an uncomfortableness with literature and art that questioned the family or challenged notions of proper sexual behavior, presumption that poverty is an individual problem best left to charity rather than the state, sensitivity to problems involving alcohol and drugs, and reticence to use government to protect civil rights for minorities.

According to Paul Kengor, Reagan had a particularly strong faith in the goodness of people; this faith stemmed from the optimistic faith of his motherKengor, p. 16. and the Disciples of Christ faith, into which he was baptized in 1922.

During his years at Hollywood, Reagan became a member of the Hollywood-Beverly Christian Church and attended its services infrequently. Subsequently, from 1964 onwards, Reagan began to attend church services at Bel Air Presbyterian Church, where he became acquainted with

Donn Moomaw

. Reagan scaled down his church attendance while serving as president, citing the inconvenience that his large Secret Service entourage would bring to other churchgoers and the potential danger (to others) from his presence due to possible terrorism. After leaving office, Reagan officially joined Bel Air as its member and regularly attended services there.

Formal education

Reagan attended Dixon High School, where he developed interests in acting, sports, and storytelling. His first job involved working as a lifeguard at the Rock River in Lowell Park in 1927. Over six years, Reagan performed 77 rescues. He attended Eureka College. He was an indifferent student, majored in economics and sociology and graduated with a C average. He developed a reputation as a "jack of all trades", excelling in campus politics, sports, and theater. He was a member of the

football

_team_and_of_the__team_and_of_the_Swimming_(sport)">swim_team._He_was_elected_student_body_president_and_participated_in_student_protests_against_the_college_president.

_Entertainment_career

_Radio_and_film

After_graduating_from_Eureka_in_1932,_Reagan_took_jobs_in_Iowa_as_a_radio_announcer_at_several_stations._He_moved_to_WHO_(AM).html" "title="Swimming_(sport).html" ;"title="roup (disambiguation), group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal.

As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson (academic), Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg Sch ...