Reagan, << RAY guhn, >> Ronald Wilson (1911-2004), was elected president of the United States in 1980 and won a second term in 1984. Reagan, a Republican, had served two terms as governor of California before he became president. In 1980, Reagan defeated President Jimmy Carter, the Democratic candidate. In 1984, Reagan defeated former Vice President Walter F. Mondale, the Democratic nominee, in a landslide. The president won 525 electoral votes, more than any other presidential candidate in the nation’s history. Before Reagan entered politics, he had been an actor nearly 30 years. He appeared in more than 50 movies.
When Reagan became president, the nation faced serious foreign and domestic problems. Relations between the United States and the Soviet Union had reached their lowest point in years following a Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in late 1979 and early 1980. Reagan strengthened the military systems of the United States and its allies in Western Europe. This angered the Soviet Union. The Reagan administration also increased U.S. involvement in Central America. It gave military equipment to troops fighting Communist-supported forces in El Salvador and Nicaragua. In 1987, Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed a treaty that led to a reduction of certain U.S. and Soviet nuclear arms.
At home, Reagan had to deal with high inflation, a recession, and high unemployment. He won congressional approval of large federal income tax cuts to help stimulate the economy. By the end of Reagan’s first term, rapid inflation had ended, unemployment had fallen, and the economy had made a strong recovery. But federal expenses so greatly exceeded income that budget deficits (shortages) reached record levels.
Reagan was a skillful campaigner and a gifted speaker. He stressed such traditional values as work, the family, patriotism, and self-reliance. At the age of 69, he was the oldest man to that time ever elected president. (Donald J. Trump was 70 upon his election in 2016, and Joe Biden was 77 on election day in 2020.) But Reagan looked far younger than his age and was vigorous and athletic. He listed his chief interests as drama, politics, and sports. He especially enjoyed horseback riding at his weekend ranch, Rancho del Cielo, near Santa Barbara, California.
Early life
Boyhood.
Reagan was born on Feb. 6, 1911, in Tampico, Illinois. His parents were John Edward Reagan, a shoe salesman, and Nelle Wilson Reagan, a homemaker and occasional shop clerk. When Ronald was a baby, his father nicknamed him Dutch. The boy had one brother, John Neil (1909-1996), nicknamed Moon, who was an advertising executive.
Nelle Reagan loved the theater and took part in many amateur productions. As a result, Dutch became interested in acting at an early age. The Reagans lived in several small towns in western Illinois. Dutch’s father moved the family from town to town as he searched for work. Reagan later wrote about his boyhood, “I realize now that we were poor, but I didn’t know it at the time.”
Education.
When Dutch was 9 years old, he and his family settled in Dixon, Illinois, where the boy finished elementary school and went to high school. In high school, he played football and basketball and took part in track and swimming meets. He appeared in several school plays and was elected president of the student council. During the summers, he worked as a lifeguard.
In 1928, following graduation from high school, Reagan entered Eureka College in Eureka, Illinois. He paid his college expenses with a partial scholarship, savings from the lifeguard job, and money he earned washing dishes at a fraternity house. In college, Dutch majored in economics and sociology. He played football, joined the track team, and served as captain of the swimming team. He had leading roles in many college plays and became president of the student body.
Acting career
Motion-picture star.
After graduating from Eureka College in 1932, Reagan became a sports announcer for radio station WOC in Davenport, Iowa. That year, he moved to station WHO in Des Moines, Iowa. He broadcast play-by-play accounts of major league baseball games, Big Ten football games, and other sports events.
In 1937, Reagan traveled to southern California to report on the spring training season of the Chicago Cubs baseball team. There, he made a screen test for Warner Brothers, one of the largest motion-picture studios. The studio signed him to an acting contract.
Reagan made his film debut in Love Is On the Air (1937), in which he played a radio announcer. He soon became a star and was known for his roles as a wholesome, likable young man. He portrayed Western heroes in such films as Santa Fe Trail (1940), Law and Order (1953), and Tennessee’s Partner (1955). He also played American servicemen in many movies, including International Squadron (1941), The Voice of the Turtle (1947), and The Hasty Heart (1949). In Knute Rockne—All American (1940), Reagan played one of his best-known roles, that of college football star George (the Gipper) Gipp. Reagan won praise from critics for his performance as a young man whose legs were amputated in Kings Row (1942). In 1965, Reagan used a line he spoke in that film—”Where’s the rest of me?”—as the title of his first autobiography. Altogether, Reagan appeared in more than 50 feature films between 1937 and 1964, most of them for Warner Brothers. 
Reagan entered the U.S. Army Air Forces in 1942, during World War II. He was disqualified from combat duty because of poor eyesight. Instead, he spent most of the war in Hollywood, where he helped make training films. He was discharged in 1945 as a captain.
Union leader.
In 1947, Reagan became president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG)—now called SAG-AFTRA. SAG was a union that represented film performers. He was elected to five consecutive terms, serving until 1952. During that time, which was a period of strong anti-Communist feeling in the United States, Reagan worked to remove suspected Communists from the movie industry. In 1949 and 1950, he served as chair of the Motion Picture Industry Council, a public relations organization devoted to improving the public image of the film business.
Reagan served a sixth term as president of SAG in 1959 and 1960. During that period, he led a long and finally successful strike against the movie studios. The strike won payments to the actors for sales of their old films to television. Part of the money was used for a pension fund.
Family life.
Reagan met actress Jane Wyman (1914-2007) while they both were appearing in Warner Brothers films. They were married on Jan. 25, 1940. The couple had a daughter, Maureen Elizabeth (1941-2001), and adopted a son, Michael Edward (1945-…). The marriage ended in divorce in 1948.
In 1951, while Reagan was president of SAG, he met actress Nancy Davis (1921-2016). Davis had complained to SAG that she was receiving unwanted Communist literature in the mail. She and Reagan were married on March 4, 1952. The couple had two children, Patricia Ann (1952-…) and Ronald Prescott (1958-…).
Television star.
From 1954 to 1962, Reagan hosted “The General Electric Theater,” a weekly dramatic series on television. He also starred in several episodes in the series, which was sponsored by the General Electric Company, a leading manufacturer of electrical products. Between TV appearances, Reagan toured the country as a public relations representative for General Electric. He visited the company’s plants and made speeches before chambers of commerce and other civic groups. In his talks, Reagan stressed such conservative ideas as the importance of free enterprise and the dangers of too much government.
From 1962 to 1965, Reagan hosted and performed in a Western series called “Death Valley Days.” He also made commercials for the sponsor, United States Borax & Chemical Corporation, a maker of cleaning products.
Political career
Entry into politics.
Reagan had long taken an active interest in politics. At first, he held liberal views and belonged to the Democratic Party. In the 1948 presidential election, he campaigned for President Harry S. Truman, the Democratic candidate. During the 1950’s, Reagan’s views became more conservative. He campaigned as a Democratic supporter of several Republican candidates, including presidential nominees Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956 and Richard M. Nixon in 1960. In 1962, Reagan became a Republican.
Reagan first gained nationwide political attention during the 1964 presidential campaign, when he made a stirring TV speech on behalf of the Republican candidate, Barry M. Goldwater. In the speech, Reagan attacked high taxes, wasteful government spending, the growth of government agencies, the rising crime rate, and soaring welfare costs. The speech drew record numbers of contributions for the Goldwater campaign.
Governor of California.
Reagan first won public office in 1966, when he was elected governor of California. He defeated the state’s Democratic governor, Edmund G. (Pat) Brown, by a landslide.
Reagan began his term as governor in January 1967. Once in office, he worked to slow the growth of government spending. He put a freeze on the hiring of state employees. He also persuaded state lawmakers to pass a welfare reform program. During his campaign, Reagan had criticized high taxes. Upon taking office, however, he found that there was a deficit in the state treasury. Reagan then sponsored three tax increases, one of them the largest in the state’s history. But after the tax hikes had produced a surplus in the treasury, Reagan distributed much of the excess money to taxpayers.
Reagan was reelected governor of California in 1970 and served until 1975. As governor, he made major policy decisions himself but relied on others to handle the details.
Presidential candidate.
In 1968, Reagan had campaigned briefly for the Republican presidential nomination but did not win. In 1976, he tried again. He attracted much support among conservatives and won many delegates in the South and West. In an attempt to appeal to more liberal and Eastern delegates, he announced that his choice for vice president would be Senator Richard S. Schweiker of Pennsylvania. Schweiker was known for his liberal Senate record. But Reagan lost the nomination to President Gerald R. Ford by a narrow margin.
Reagan soon began to plan his campaign for the 1980 nomination. By November 1979, when he announced his candidacy, he had a huge lead in the polls over his Republican rivals. Six other Republicans sought the nomination. Reagan’s chief opponents were Representative John B. Anderson of Illinois; George H. W. Bush, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (UN); and John B. Connally, former governor of Texas.
In February 1980, Reagan won the year’s first presidential primary election in New Hampshire. His popularity continued to grow during the spring. In March, he won important primary victories over Connally in South Carolina and over Anderson and Bush in Illinois. By the end of May, Reagan had won 20 of the 24 primaries so far held, and the other Republican candidates had withdrawn from the race. Anderson, however, decided to run as an independent.
In July 1980, Reagan easily won the nomination for president on the first ballot at the Republican National Convention in Detroit. At his request, Bush was nominated for vice president. The Democrats renominated President Jimmy Carter and Vice President Walter F. Mondale. Anderson chose former Governor Patrick J. Lucey of Wisconsin as his running mate.
The 1980 election.
In the presidential campaign, Reagan charged that Carter had failed to deal effectively with inflation and unemployment. During the first half of 1980, the inflation rate was about 15 percent, and about 71/2 percent of the nation’s workers had no jobs. Reagan called for a lowering of the minimum wage law in the case of teenagers to reduce unemployment among young people. To stimulate the economy, he proposed to slash federal income taxes by up to 30 percent. He pledged to boost military spending and to reduce government regulation of business. He also promised to balance the federal budget, claiming that a tax cut would increase economic activity so much that tax revenues would rise, not fall. This emphasis on tax reductions to stimulate business activity was known as the supply-side theory of economics.
Carter argued that Reagan’s plans would lead to still more inflation. He also questioned whether Reagan could balance the budget, reduce taxes, and increase defense spending all at the same time. In the election, Reagan defeated Carter and Anderson by a wide margin. He received about 44 million popular votes to about 35 million popular votes for Carter and about 51/2 million for Anderson. Reagan carried 44 states for a total of 489 electoral votes, while Carter carried only 6 states and the District of Columbia for 49 electoral votes.
Reagan’s first administration (1981-1985)
Events at home.
Reagan’s first major domestic programs dealt with the economy. The president quickly took steps to fulfill his campaign pledges to stop rapid inflation and stimulate business.
Loading the player...Ronald Reagan's first inaugural address
Early economic programs.
In February 1981, Reagan proposed an economic plan that combined tax cuts with wide reductions in welfare and unemployment programs and in many other areas of the budget. The plan included a large increase in defense spending. Reagan also worked to curb federal agencies that he felt went too far in regulating business. Newspapers and magazines called his economic policies Reaganomics.
By August, Congress had approved nearly all of Reagan’s proposed tax and spending cuts. The main law, called the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, reduced individual and corporation income taxes by about $33 billion for the 1982 fiscal year, with more cuts scheduled later. It was the largest income tax cut in U.S. history.
Recession and recovery.
A recession struck in mid-1981 and ended Reagan’s hope for rapid improvement in the economy. The rate of inflation slowed, but thousands of companies went bankrupt and unemployment soared. The rising joblessness contributed to a sharp loss of tax revenue. This decline and increased defense spending helped produce a growing federal budget deficit.
To reduce the deficit, Congress adopted tax increases totaling about $91 billion in 1982. This was the largest tax increase in U.S. history. The deficit for the 1982 fiscal year, however, reached a record $110.7 billion. By late 1982, about 11 percent of the labor force had no jobs—the highest unemployment rate since 1941.
The economy began to recover rapidly in 1983. But the federal budget deficit reached another record level in the 1983 fiscal year—about $195 billion. The economy thrived in 1984, and the rate of inflation remained low. But the deficit rose rapidly.
Public criticism
of many of Reagan’s appointments and domestic policies grew steadily. The president’s major critics included Black people, women, and environmentalists. Millions of Americans, especially Black Americans, suffered from unemployment and reductions in social programs. Numerous Black people charged that the president’s policies discriminated against them. Many people contended that Reagan’s chief goal was to aid the rich. But a number of wealthy Americans criticized the president for supporting the tax increases. In addition, many business executives objected to the record deficits.
A number of women’s groups claimed that Reagan did not name enough women to important government posts. But Reagan became the first president to appoint a woman to the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1981, he chose Sandra Day O’Connor to fill a vacancy on the court. Reagan was the first president to have three women serving in Cabinet-level posts at the same time. These women were Margaret M. Heckler, secretary of health and human services; Elizabeth H. Dole, secretary of transportation; and Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, U.S. representative to the United Nations. 
Reagan and Secretary of the Interior James G. Watt came under heavy criticism from conservation and wildlife preservation groups. These groups opposed the administration’s efforts to weaken a number of laws designed to protect air and water quality, endangered species, and wildlife refuges. Reagan argued that the laws blocked industrial and mineral development needed to create jobs and help the economy. Continued criticism of Watt led to his resignation in 1983.
Important legislation
approved during Reagan’s first administration included bills dealing with banking, job training, and social security. The Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982 helped banks and savings and loan associations compete with money market funds for savings (see Bank (A boom in money market funds)). The Job Training Partnership Act of 1982 provided job training for unskilled, disadvantaged youths and for needy adults. The Social Security Amendments of 1983 were designed to solve short- and long-term financing problems. One of the amendments raised the system’s traditional retirement age (see Social security (Financing Social Security)).
An attempted assassination
of Reagan occurred in March 1981 in Washington, D.C. Reagan was shot in the chest, but surgeons removed the bullet and he made a full recovery. Three other people, including Reagan’s press secretary, James S. Brady, also were shot. John W. Hinckley, Jr., of Evergreen, Colorado, was charged with the shooting. In 1982, a jury declared that Hinckley was insane at the time of the attempted assassination and, therefore, found him not guilty of the attempted murder charge. A federal judge later ordered that Hinckley be placed in a mental institution. Hinckley was released from the mental institution in 2016, though he remained under court oversight. A court granted Hinckley an unconditional release in 2022.
Foreign affairs.
Reagan showed much political skill when he won a struggle with Congress over his defense program. The plan called for a large build-up of missiles, bombers, and other weapons. Critics charged that the build-up was unneeded and too expensive. Reagan insisted that the Soviet Union held a military advantage over the United States. The United States and the Soviet Union held talks to reduce nuclear arms, but they failed to reach an agreement. Reagan then supplied nuclear missiles to U.S. allies in Western Europe. This action further worsened U.S.-Soviet relations.
The Reagan administration attempted to reduce the level of fighting in Lebanon in the early 1980’s. In June 1982, Israel had invaded Lebanon to attack military bases of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The PLO is the political representative of Palestinians, many of whom fled from Israeli-controlled territory during the Arab-Israeli War of 1948 and became refugees in Lebanon. PLO forces in Lebanon had been attacking settlements in Israel. In August 1982, the United States helped arrange for the withdrawal of PLO units from Lebanon. It later sent several U.S. Marine Corps units to join a peacekeeping force in Lebanon.
In October 1983, explosives set off by a terrorist collapsed a four-story Marine headquarters building at the airport of Beirut, Lebanon’s capital. A total of 241 U.S. troops died as a result of the explosion. In early 1984, the level of fighting between Lebanese groups in Beirut increased. In February, the United States began moving its troops stationed in Beirut to offshore ships.
Rebellions in Nicaragua and El Salvador also became a major concern in the early 1980’s. Cuba and the Soviet Union were giving war materials to the government of Nicaragua and the rebels in El Salvador. The United States, in turn, sent advisers and arms to the rebels in Nicaragua and the government of El Salvador.
In October 1983, Reagan ordered the invasion of the Caribbean island of Grenada after Grenadian rebels overthrew the island’s government. Soldiers from six other Caribbean nations helped defeat the rebels. Reagan said the invasion was needed to protect Americans in Grenada, including almost 600 students at St. George’s University School of Medicine. Reagan also said Cuba planned to use Grenada as a military base.
Life in the White House.
The Reagans took great pleasure in hosting official receptions and other formal functions in the White House. They created a warm and elegant atmosphere and restored much of the traditional pageantry that President Jimmy Carter had ended. The Reagans brought back the trumpeters who announced the president and the first lady and welcomed foreign visitors. A color guard once again preceded the entrance of the presidential family and its guests of honor. At state dinners, military social aides accompanied members of the official party. The Reagans often sat at separate tables with their own special guests.
The Reagans’ children lived in California and New York and occasionally visited the White House. When the Reagans were not entertaining, they sometimes had their meals on trays as they watched television. They both liked to watch movies in the White House theater. Mrs. Reagan took a special interest in supporting activities that called attention to the problems of drug and alcohol abuse among young people. In October 1987, she underwent surgery for breast cancer.
The 1984 election.
Reagan and Bush easily won renomination at the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas. The Democrats nominated former Vice President Walter F. Mondale for president and Representative Geraldine A. Ferraro of New York for vice president. In the campaign, Reagan stressed the nation’s economic growth, the decline in unemployment, and the low rate of inflation. Mondale charged that Reagan’s economic policies had greatly favored the wealthy and that the president’s foreign policies had increased tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. In the election, Reagan and Bush won in a landslide. 
Reagan’s second administration (1985-1989)
The president’s health became a national concern early in his second term. A cancerous tumor was found in Reagan’s colon, and a surgical team removed the tumor on July 13, 1985. Reagan made a rapid recovery.
Domestic affairs.
The president hoped to reduce the huge federal budget deficit, but slow economic growth contributed to another record deficit exceeding $200 billion in the 1986 fiscal year. In 1986, Congress followed up on Reagan’s request to create a new, simplified tax system that included lower tax rates on individual and corporate income taxes. The tax reform and a thriving economy helped reduce the deficit to $148 billion for the 1987 fiscal year. But after a U.S. stock market crash on Oct. 19, 1987, Reagan and Congress agreed on tax increases for 1988. Most of the increases affected corporations and wealthy individuals. In the mid-1980’s, Reagan expanded the Strategic Defense Initiative, a controversial research program designed to develop a space-based missile defense system (see Strategic Defense Initiative). The press called the program “Star Wars.”
Foreign events.
Reagan met with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev several times during his second administration. In Geneva, Switzerland, in 1985, the first meeting between the two men led to agreements for educational, scientific, and cultural exchanges. The two leaders met again at Reykjavík, Iceland, in 1986. In 1987, Gorbachev visited the United States. During the visit, he and Reagan signed a treaty to eliminate all U.S. and Soviet ground-launched nuclear missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers (310 to 3,420 miles). The treaty took effect in 1988. That year, Reagan met with Gorbachev in the Soviet Union. 
Ronald Reagan speaking in Berlin
Terrorism
increased in the mid-1980’s, and Reagan acted boldly to combat it. In October 1985, he ordered U.S. Navy jets to intercept an Egyptian airliner carrying a small group of Palestinian terrorists. The terrorists had hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro and killed an American passenger before surrendering to Egyptian authorities. The United States jets forced the airliner to land in Sicily, where the hijackers were arrested. Egypt had planned to give the terrorists to the PLO. In April 1986, a U.S. serviceman was killed and others injured when terrorists bombed a disco in West Berlin. United States officials claimed Libyan agents were involved. Reagan ordered U.S. air strikes against military and suspected terrorist centers in the Libyan cities of Tripoli and Benghazi.
The Iran-contra affair.
Reagan and his administration lost prestige because of sales of United States weapons to Iran and use of the profits to help Nicaraguan rebels, known as contras. Both activities were secret operations but became widely known to the public in November 1986.
The arms sales were chiefly designed to win the freedom of Americans who were held hostage by Lebanese terrorists friendly to Iran. Reagan supported the arms sales. At the time, however, the United States had a policy that prohibited the sale of weapons to Iran and other nations considered to be supporters of terrorism. The arms sales led to the release of three hostages.
The transfer of funds to the contras took place in the mid-1980’s. Congress had banned military aid to the contras during that period. Reagan said he knew nothing about the fund diversion. Both that action and the arms sales had been carried out by the National Security Council (NSC), a White House advisory agency.
In 1987, televised congressional hearings into what became known as the Iran-contra affair revealed deep conflict among members of the Reagan administration. The hearings also exposed attempts by the NSC to deceive Congress about the arms sales and contra aid. Later in 1987, Reagan was strongly criticized in a joint report of the congressional committees investigating the affair. Most committee members blamed Reagan for failing to meet the constitutional obligation to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed” and said he was chiefly responsible for wrongdoing by his aides.
Marine Lieutenant Colonel Oliver L. North, an NSC aide, was the person most closely involved with the day-to-day management of the undercover operation. In 1989, a federal court convicted North on three charges related to the Iran-contra affair, including altering and destroying documents related to Congress’s investigation. In 1990, however, an appeals court overturned North’s conviction.
During the Iran-contra operations, North worked under national security advisers Robert C. McFarlane and John M. Poindexter. In 1989, McFarlane pleaded guilty of withholding information from Congress during its investigation. In 1990, Poindexter was convicted of conspiracy and of lying to and obstructing Congress in its investigation. An appeals court overturned Poindexter’s conviction in 1991. In 1992, Caspar W. Weinberger, Reagan’s secretary of defense, was charged with lying to Congress and government investigators in connection with the Iran-contra affair. Later that year, President George H. W. Bush pardoned Weinberger, McFarlane, and several other former federal officials for any crimes they may have committed in relation to the Iran-contra affair.
Persian Gulf conflicts.
In 1987, Iran laid mines to disrupt shipping in the Persian Gulf and fired on United States vessels and helicopters there. Reagan ordered military responses to these actions and ended U.S.-Iranian trade. In May 1987, two missiles from an Iraqi warplane hit the U.S.S. Stark, a warship that was patrolling the gulf. Thirty-seven American crew members were killed. Iraqi officials said the attack was a mistake. In July 1988, the U.S.S. Vincennes shot down an Iranian civilian airliner that it mistook for a warplane, killing all 290 people on board.
Later years
In 1990, Reagan gave videotaped testimony in the Iran-contra trial of former national security adviser John Poindexter. But it had little effect on the trial’s outcome. Later in 1990, Reagan finished another autobiography, An American Life. In 1991, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library opened in Simi Valley, California. It contains documents and other items related to Reagan and his presidency.
In 1994, Reagan revealed that he was suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. The disease causes an increasing loss of memory and other mental processes. Reagan died on June 5, 2004, at his home in the Bel Air district of Los Angeles. He died of pneumonia complicated by Alzheimer’s disease. He is buried on the grounds of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. In 2009, a statue of Reagan was installed in the United States Capitol as part of the National Statuary Hall Collection.
