Ronald Wilson Reagan was born on February 6, 1911 in Tampico, Illinois. He graduated from Eureka College in 1932 in economics and sociology and entered the media as a sports announcer, Five years later, he moved to California where he landed a 7-year contract as an actor with Warner Brothers Studios, launching a successful acting career. By 1947 had become president of the Screen Actors Guild.
Reagan served as Governor of California from 1967 through 1974 and during this period, he transformed California’s budget deficit into a surplus. In 1980, he was elected the 40th President of the United States and in the 8 years spanning his two terms as President, inflation fell from 9.9% to 4.6%, and the average real GDP grew by 3,6% per year. Attempting to end the Cold War with the USSR, Reagan significantly increased military spending on missile defence systems, while urging the Soviet General Secretary, Mikhail Borbachev to “tear down” the Berlin Wall that symbolized Soviet control of Eastern Europe. In December 1980, the Wall came down and the USSR gradually fell into near economic collapse.
Ronald Reagan had an approval rating of 68% when he left office, However, within 5 years after leaving office, he announced that he had Alzheimer’s disease. After a decade of decline, he died in his Los Angeles home on June 5, 2004.
Described as the “great communicator,” Reagan was deft at using humour to disarm his adversaries. In his 1984 campaign against Walter Mondale, Reagan knew that his advanced age of 73 years would be used against him. Anticipating this charge, he said, “I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience,”
Reflecting on world peace, he observed, “Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.”
