RONALD REAGAN

THE 40TH PRESIDENT OF
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(1981-1989)

REAGAN, Ronald Wilson (1911–2004), 40th president of the U.S. (1981–89), who was elected on a conservative Republican platform. Reagan was born Feb. 6, 1911, in Tampico, Ill., above the store where his father sold shoes. In 1932 he graduated from nearby Eureka College, a conservative Protestant institution, where he had been active in sports and drama. Hoping for a Hollywood career, he worked in radio as a sports announcer until a screen test won him a contract at Warner Brothers in 1937. During the next 15 years he appeared in some 50 films.   Early Political Activity. As his acting career lost momentum in the post–World War II years, he became more and more interested in politics. He served as president of his union, the Screen Actors Guild, for several years. Originally a Democrat and an admirer of Franklin Roosevelt, his move toward an ardent conservatism during the 1950s and his registration as a Republican in 1962 were apparently brought on by his disillusionment with government bureaucracy and concern over Communist influence in his union. His conservatism was reinforced by his marriage (1952) to Nancy Davis (1923– ), an actor who shared his values, and by his employment for eight years as a public relations speaker for the General Electric Co.   Governor of California. In 1966 Reagan entered the California gubernatorial race and won. A conservative ideologue and political amateur at first, he had difficulty working with the Democratic legislature. As governor he was able to order a hiring freeze on state jobs, but was not able to gain legislative support for lower taxes or for reducing the cost of government. After two years he came to terms with the legislature, learning to listen and to compromise. He also learned how to use television to win support.   Reagan as President. After he made halfhearted attempts in 1972 and 1976 to attain the Republican nomination for president, a conservative tide in 1980 swept Reagan into the race and on to an electoral victory that also gave him a Republican Senate and a House that could provide a bipartisan conservative majority. He campaigned against aspects of President Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy particularly disliked by conservatives: the treaties returning the Canal Zone to Panama, the Strategic Arms Limitation treaties with the Soviet Union, and the application of human rights considerations in diplomacy. He emphasized a strong national defense and a hard line against the Soviet Union. On the domestic side Reagan promised to reduce the size and cost of government, except for defense, and to check inflation. Surviving an assassination attempt in March 1981, in which he was seriously wounded, Reagan was able to get Congress to support his economic plans, which cut back on spending for most domestic programs and provided for a tax reduction over a 3-year period. The administration had assumed that the tax cut, by stimulating the economy, would produce increased federal revenues and a balanced budget, but this did not happen, and the national debt rose steeply during his first four years in office. Inflation and interest rates declined, however, and largely on the strength of the economic recovery, Reagan won a landslide reelection victory in 1984. After undergoing surgery for colon cancer in July 1985, Reagan held his first summit meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev at Geneva in November. The president won passage of major tax-reform legislation in 1986, but charges that his administration had secretly sold arms to Iran and used profits from the sale to aid an insurgency in Nicaragua engulfed Reagan in the worst U.S. political scandal since Watergate (1972–74). Reagan and Gorbachev met again in December 1987 in Washington, D.C., where they signed an agreement eliminating their two nations’ medium-range missiles, and in late May 1988 in Moscow, where they signed ratification documents of a treaty on intermediate- and shorter-range missiles.   Assassination attempt. On March 30, 1981, only 69 days into the new administration, as he returned to his limousine after a speech at the Hilton Washington Hotel in the capital, Reagan and three other men were shot and wounded by John Hinckley, Jr.. Reagan was struck by a single bullet which broke a rib, punctured a lung, and caused serious internal bleeding. He was rushed to nearby George Washington University Hospital. Although "close to death" upon arrival at the hospital, Reagan was stabilized in the emergency room, then underwent emergency exploratory surgery. He was then hospitalized for about two weeks. Upon release, on April 11, he resumed a light workload for several months as he recovered. He was the first sitting president to survive being shot in an attempted assassination. Hinckley was immediately subdued and arrested at the scene. Later, he claimed to have wanted to kill the president to impress the teen actress Jodie Foster. He was deemed mentally ill and was confined to an institution. Besides Reagan, White House Press Secretary James Brady, Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy, and D.C. police officer Thomas Delahanty were also wounded in the attack. All three survived, but Brady suffered brain damage and was permanently disabled. The attempt had great influence on Reagan's popularity; polls indicated his approval rating to be around 73%. Reagan believed that God had spared his life so that he might go on to fulfill a greater purpose.   Later Years. In retirement in California, Reagan published a memoir, An American Life (1990). The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library at Simi Valley, Calif., was dedicated in 1991. Reagan revealed in 1994 that he was suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.   Death. Reagan died of pneumonia, complicated by Alzheimer's disease at his home in Bel-Air, Los Angeles, California, on the afternoon of June 5, 2004. A short time after his death, Nancy Reagan released a statement saying, "My family and I would like the world to know that President Ronald Reagan has died after 10 years of Alzheimer's disease at 93 years of age. We appreciate everyone's prayers." President George W. Bush declared June 11 a National Day of Mourning, and international tributes came in from around the world. Reagan's body was taken to the Kingsley and Gates Funeral Home in Santa Monica, California later in the day, where well-wishers paid tribute by laying flowers and American flags in the grass. On June 7, his body was removed and taken to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, where a brief family funeral was held conducted by Pastor Michael Wenning. His body lay in repose in the Library lobby until June 9; over 100,000 people viewed the coffin. On June 9, Reagan's body was flown to Washington, D.C. where he became the tenth United States president to lie in state; in thirty-four hours, 104,684 people filed past the coffin. On June 11, a state funeral was conducted in the Washington National Cathedral, and presided over by President George W. Bush. Eulogies were given by former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, and both Presidents Bush. Also in attendance were Mikhail Gorbachev, and many world leaders, including British Prime Minister Tony Blair, German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and interim presidents Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, and Ghazi al-Yawer of Iraq. After the funeral, the Reagan entourage was flown back to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, where another service was held, and President Reagan was interred. At the time of his death, Reagan was the longest-lived president in U.S. history, having lived 93 years and 120 days (2 years, 8 months, and 23 days longer than John Adams, whose record he surpassed). He is now the second longest-lived president, just 45 days fewer than Gerald Ford. He was the first United States president to die in the 21st century, and his was the first state funeral in the United States since that of President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1973. His burial site is inscribed with the words he delivered at the opening of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library: "I know in my heart that man is good, that what is right will always eventually triumph and that there is purpose and worth to each and every life."