Ronald Reagan was once a movie star who eventually became the President of the United States. He was President during the end of the Cold War with the Soviet Union.
His childhood and early days
Ronald was born in February of 1911 in Illinois. His father worked as a salesman, which was why his family moved a lot from town to town. When Ronald was a young boy, his father thought he looked like a dutchman, so the family nicknamed him “Dutch.”
After graduating from high school, Ronald went to the University of Eureka. He loved acting and was very good at sports as well. He was on multiple teams in college, like the football and swimming team.
He wanted to become an actor, so he decided to start his career in the media by working as an announcer for a radio station in Iowa. His acting career took off in 1937 when he took a part in a Warner Brothers film. For the next few years, Ronald Reagan acted in many films like Dark Victory, Knute Rockne: All American, and Kings Row. In 1942, his acting career was cut short when he was called to duty in the army. During this time, he worked for the government on promotional movies about World War II.
After his experience during World War II, Reagan became more interested in politics. At first, he decided to join the Democratic Party, but as his views started to take another direction, he chose to join the Republican Party.
He won the election for the position of the Governor of California in 1966 and he continued in office for a second term. In 1980, he decided to run for the presidency against President Jimmy Carter. Reagan won!
Ronald Reagan, the President with all the solutions
The few years prior to Reagan’s presidency was a tough time for America. With increasing unemployment rates, inflation rates, and gas prices, as well as American citizens being held hostage in Iran for more than a year, the American people’s morale was decreasing quickly. When Reagan took office, his goal was to be remembered for making the people of America believe in themselves again. His plan to achieve that was to help people understand that they do not need to rely on the government for every little thing. He wanted to help American citizens gain the confidence to handle problems and trust their own abilities.
Economic changes (Reaganomics)
Reagan had to make some serious changes in the economy to face the two biggest problems the American people were suffering from: unemployment and inflation. To reduce expenses, Reagan decided to cut taxes and government programs. Since the Cold War was still going on, the President had no choice but to put more money into the military to make it stronger. By the time Reagan finished his two terms, the inflation rates had gone down from 13% to only 4% and the unemployment rates continued to go down over his time in office.
The Cold War and Berlin Wall
After almost 45 years of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, Ronald Reagan was the President to bring peace along with the Soviet leader, Gorbachev.
At the beginning of his term as the President of the United States, Reagan’s goal was to make the United States stronger than ever. Therefore, he designated a lot of money to the military and nuclear weapons. His approach changed, however, when Mikhail Gorbachev came to control the Soviet Union and changed the communist superpower policies. Reagan saw Gorbachev’s rule as an opportunity to make peace.
The two men decided to cut back on the nuclear stock. In 1987, President Reagan traveled to Berlin where he gave a powerful speech at the Berlin Wall and asked Gorbachev to “tear down this wall!” Two years after that famous speech, the Berlin Wall came down and Berlin was once again a whole city. In turn, the Cold War was officially over. Reagan dealt with Alzheimer’s disease in his older years. President Reagan reached the age of 93 when he died at his home in California.
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