When Reagan left office in 1989, he held an approval rating of 68%, matching those of Franklin D. The talks culminated in the INF Treaty, which shrank both countries' nuclear arsenals. He transitioned Cold War policy from détente to rollback by escalating an arms race with the USSR while engaging in talks with Gorbachev. 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. Foreign affairs dominated his second term, including the bombing of Libya, the Iran–Iraq War, the Iran–Contra affair, and the ongoing Cold War. Reagan enacted cuts in domestic discretionary spending, cut taxes, and increased military spending, which contributed to a near tripling of the federal debt. 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%. In his first term, he survived an assassination attempt, spurred the War on Drugs, invaded Grenada, and fought public-sector labor unions. His supply-side economics policies-dubbed " Reaganomics"-advocated tax reduction, economic deregulation, and reduction in government spending. Įarly in his presidency, Reagan began implementing new political and economic initiatives. It was one of the most lopsided presidential elections in U.S. president: 525 (97.6% of the 538 votes in the Electoral College). Reagan defeated him in an electoral landslide, winning the most electoral votes of any U.S. 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. At 69 years, 349 days of age at the time of his first inauguration, Reagan was the oldest person to assume the U.S. During his governorship, he raised taxes, turned the state budget deficit into a surplus, challenged protesters at UC Berkeley, and ordered in National Guard troops during a period of protest movements.Īfter failed presidential bids in 19, challenging and nearly defeating sitting president Gerald Ford in the latter's Republican primaries, Reagan easily won the Republican nomination in the 1980 presidential election and went on to defeat incumbent Democratic president Jimmy Carter.
Building a network of supporters, Reagan was elected as governor of California in 1966. 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. From 1959 to 1960, he again served as president of the Screen Actors Guild. In the 1950s, he moved to a career in television and became a spokesman for General Electric. 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 1937, Reagan moved to California, where he found work as an actor and appeared in several major productions. He graduated from Eureka College in 1932 and began to work as a radio sports commentator in Iowa. A member of the Republican Party from 1962 onward, he also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 to 1975 after having a career as a Hollywood actor and union leader. Ronald Wilson Reagan ( / ˈ r eɪ ɡ ən/ RAY-gən February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989.
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