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United States Presidents

40th president Ronald Reagan


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Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was the fortieth President of the United States (1981–1989) and the thirty-third Governor of California (1967–1975). Born in Illinois, Reagan moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s, where he was an actor, president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), and a spokesman for General Electric (GE). His start in politics occurred during his work for GE. Originally a member of the Democratic Party, he switched to the Republican Party in 1962, at the age of 51. After delivering a rousing speech in support of Barry Goldwater’s presidential candidacy in 1964, he was persuaded to seek the California governorship, winning two years later and again in 1970. He was defeated in his run for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968 as well as 1976, but won both the nomination and election in 1980.

As president, Reagan implemented bold new political and economic initiatives. His supply-side economic policies, dubbed “Reaganomics,” included deregulation and substantial tax cuts implemented in 1981. In his first term he survived an assassination attempt, took a hard line against organized labor, and ordered military actions in Grenada. He was reelected in a landslide in 1984. His second term was primarily marked by foreign matters, namely the ending of the Cold War, the bombing of Libya, and the revelation of the Iran-Contra affair. The president had previously ordered a massive military buildup in an arms race with the Soviet Union, forgoing the strategy of détente. He publicly described the USSR as an “evil empire” and supported anti-Communist movements worldwide. He negotiated with Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, resulting in the INF Treaty and the decrease of both countries’ nuclear arsenals.

Reagan left office in 1989; in 1994 the former president disclosed that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease earlier in the year and died ten years later at the age of ninety-three. He ranks highly among former U.S. presidents in terms of approval rating.

Ronald Reagan was born in an apartment above the local bank building in Tampico, Illinois on February 6, 1911 to John “Jack” Reagan and Nelle Wilson Reagan.[1] As a boy, Reagan’s father nicknamed him “Dutch,” due to his “fat little Dutchman”-like appearance, and his “Dutchboy” haircut;[2] the nickname stuck with Ronald throughout his youth.[2] Reagan’s family briefly lived in several towns and cities in Illinois, including Monmouth, Galesburg and Chicago, until 1919, when they returned to Tampico and lived above the H.C. Pitney Variety Store.[3][1] After his election as president, residing in the upstairs White House private quarters, Reagan would quip that he was “living above the store again.”[4]

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