Page 5 - Presidential Profiles
P. 5

Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas
Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas
The Sentinel-Record, Saturday, Month 00, 2012 ?D
The Sentinel-Record, Sunday, February 16, 2020
    PRESIDENTIALPROFILES | REAGAN
     RONALD REAGAN 40th President, Oldest Man Inaugurated
A former actor and governor of California, Ronald Reagan served two terms as president from 1981-1989.
He was a native of Illinois who moved to California to pursue an act- ing career. Reagan’s first wife was actress Jane Wyman, with whom he had two children, Maureen and Michael. They divorced in 1949. He married actress Nancy Davis in 1952, and they also had two children, Patricia Ann and Ronald Prescott.
ACTING CAREER
Reagan starred in 53 movies, includ- ing playing George “The Gipper” Gipp, in “Knute Rockne: All American,” a nickname that would stick to Reagan for life. Reagan also served seven terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild, leading the organization through the Hollywood blacklist era.
POLITICAL CAREER
After stumping for Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential election, Reagan ran for and won the race for California governor in 1966. He would lead the state until 1975. He clashed with student political movements, sending in the California Highway Patrol to break up protests at the University of California, Berkeley. Reagan also spoke out against the wel- fare state and solidified his anti-abor- tion stance.
PRESIDENCY
Reagan and running mate George H.W. Bush defeated President Jimmy Carter in the 1980 election, promising
PETE SOUZA/PUBLIC DOMAIN
strong national defense, states’ rights and less government interference in private lives.
On March 30, 1981, would-be assas- sin John Hinckley Jr. shot Reagan, press secretary James Brady, police officer Thomas Delahanty, and Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy. Reagan was rushed to the hospital and under- went surgery, but recovered and was released on April 11. He is the first president to survive being shot in an assassination attempt while in office.
One of Reagan’s most famous poli- cies revolved around the domestic economy, where he favored sup- ply-side and trickle-down economics,
in which low tax rates would encour- age investment, which would then lead to higher employment and higher wages.
Reagan escalated the simmering Cold War with the Soviet Union with a strong buildup of the U.S. military and defense programs. He also sent mili- tary forces into Lebanon and invaded Grenada to overturn an established Marxist government. He also fulfilled his campaign promise of nominating the first woman to the Supreme Court in Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
His second term began on Jan. 20, 1985, when, at 73, he became the old- est person to take the presidential oath of office. Reagan’s second term was marked by the War on Drugs, the 1986 bombing of Libya, the Iran-Contra scandal, and the end of the Cold War.
POST-PRESIDENCY
After leaving the White House, the Reagans moved back to California and continued to work for conservative causes, including a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget. In 1994, the Reagans announced that, at 83, the former president had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, an incurable neu- rological disease that causes demen- tia. He died in 2004 at the age of 93. Nancy Reagan went on to become an advocate for stem-cell research as a possible Alzheimer’s cure, until her death in 2016.
    











































































   3   4   5   6   7