Ronald Reagan

February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004

40th President who challenged the Soviet Union and was in office when the Cold War ended.

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Ronald Reagan was born in 1911 in a small town in Illinois and led an unusually varied life before entering politics. He worked as a radio sports announcer, then became a popular Hollywood movie actor, and later served as president of the Screen Actors Guild. Once a Democrat, his views shifted rightward over time, and he emerged as a leading voice of American conservatism. After serving two terms as governor of California, he was elected the 40th President of the United States in 1980, taking office in 1981 at age 69. Reagan's presidency (1981 to 1989) reshaped American politics and economics. At home he championed lower taxes, reduced regulation, and cuts to many domestic programs, an approach often called 'Reaganomics.' Supporters credit his policies with taming high inflation and sparking economic growth; critics point to soaring federal deficits and widening inequality. A skilled communicator nicknamed 'the Great Communicator,' Reagan projected optimism and survived an assassination attempt in 1981, which only deepened his popularity. He was reelected in a landslide in 1984. Reagan's greatest impact came in the Cold War with the Soviet Union. He pursued a strategy he called 'peace through strength,' sharply increasing military spending to pressure the Soviet economy, while denouncing the USSR in harsh terms. Yet he also proved willing to negotiate. When the reformer Mikhail Gorbachev came to power, Reagan built a working relationship with him, and the two leaders signed a landmark treaty eliminating an entire class of nuclear missiles. Standing before the Berlin Wall in 1987, Reagan issued his most famous challenge: 'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!' Two years later, in a wave of change he had helped encourage, the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, less than a year after Reagan left office, signaled the crumbling of the divide between East and West. The Soviet Union itself dissolved in 1991. Reagan remains one of the most admired and most debated presidents of the modern era, and honest study means holding both together. To admirers he is the leader whose confidence and firmness helped end the Cold War and revived American spirit. To critics his economic policies and his slow, troubling response to the AIDS crisis and to problems like the Iran-Contra scandal left a more mixed record. Like many major leaders, including earlier presidents such as FDR, Reagan's legacy is powerful, complicated, and still argued over today.

Ronald Reagan

Further reading