Ronald Reagan (born February 6, 1911 died June 5, 2004 aged 93) was an American politician
who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989 and became a highly
influential voice of modern conservatism.
Prior to his presidency, he was a Hollywood actor and union leader before serving as the
33rd governor of California from 1967 to 1975.
Reagan was raised in a low-income family in small towns of northern Illinois.
He graduated from Eureka College in 1932 and worked as a radio sports commentator.
After moving to California in 1937, he found work as an actor and starred in a few major productions
As president of the Screen Actors Guild, Reagan worked to root out communist influence.
In the 1950s, he moved into television and was a motivational speaker at General Electric factories
In 1964, his speech "A Time for Choosing" earned him national attention as a new conservative spokesman
Building a network of supporters, Reagan was elected governor of California in 1966.
As governor, he raised taxes, turned a state budget deficit to a surplus, challenged the
protesters at UC Berkeley, and ordered in National Guard troops during a period of protest movements
In 1980, Reagan won the Republican presidential nomination and defeated the incumbent president,
Jimmy 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. presidency, a distinction he held until 2017, when Donald Trump was
inaugurated at age 70 years, 220 days.
Reagan faced former vice president Walter Mondale when he ran for re-election in 1984
and defeated him, winning the most electoral votes of any U.S. president, 525, or 97.6%
of the 538 votes in the Electoral College.
It was the second-most lopsided presidential election in modern U.S. history after Franklin
D. Roosevelt's 1936 victory over Alfred M. Landon, in which he won 98.5%, or 523, of
the (then-total) 531 electoral votes.
Soon after taking office as president, Reagan began implementing sweeping new political
and economic initiatives.
His supply-side economic policies, dubbed "Reaganomics", advocated tax rate reduction
to spur economic growth, economic deregulation, and reduction in government spending.
In his first term, he survived an assassination attempt, spurred the War on Drugs, invaded
Grenada, and fought public sector labor unions.
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 3.4%.
Reagan enacted cuts in domestic discretionary spending, cut taxes, and increased military
spending, which contributed to increased federal debt overall.
Foreign affairs dominated his second term, including the bombing of Libya, the Iran–Iraq
War, the Iran–Contra affair, and the ongoing Cold War.
In June 1987, four years after he publicly described the Soviet Union as an "evil empire",
Reagan challenged Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall!",
during a speech at the Brandenburg Gate.
He transitioned Cold War policy from détente to rollback by escalating an arms race with
the USSR while engaging in talks with Gorbachev.
The talks culminated in the INF Treaty, which shrank both countries' nuclear arsenals.
Reagan began his presidency during the decline of the Soviet Union, which ultimately collapsed
nearly three years after he left office.
When Reagan left office in 1989, he held an approval rating of 68%, matching those of
Franklin D. Roosevelt, and later Bill Clinton, as the highest ratings for departing presidents
in the modern era.
He was the first president since Dwight D. Eisenhower to serve two full terms, after
the five prior presidents did not.
Although he had planned an active post-presidency, Reagan disclosed in November 1994 that he
had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease earlier that year.
Afterward, his informal public appearances became more infrequent as the disease progressed.
He died at home on June 5, 2004.
His tenure constituted a realignment toward conservative policies in the United States,
and he is an icon among conservatives.
Evaluations of his presidency among historians and the general public place him among the
upper tier of American presidents.
VidyPedia.com is the Youtube of Wikipedia, every topic is simply explained in a short video
If you like our video please like, share and subscribe to our channel for more videos like
this, please also leave us a comment below and tell us what topics you want us to cover next