Memorable Quotations from Ronald Reagan

Born in Tampico, Illinois, Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911-2004) was the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. A movie actor who was president of the Screen Actors Guild, he was a champion of the New Deal many years before he joined the Republican Party in 1962 and began to advocate right-wing causes. As governor of California for two terms, 1967-1975, he slashed state welfare and medical services and education funds. After leaving office, he campaigned for the 1976 Republican presidential nomination but lost narrowly to President Gerald Ford. Four years later he won the nomination and, with his running mate, George Bush, roundly defeated President Jimmy Carter. Reagan’s presidency had scarcely begun when he was shot by a would-be assassin, John Hinckley, Jr., on March 30, 1981; he recuperated swiftly. Promoting a balanced budget to fight inflation, he upturned long-standing political trends by winning Congressional passage of huge income-tax cuts, reduced social-program spending, and increased defense spending. He was reelected in 1984, defeating Democratic candidate Walter Mondale. Reagan adopted a strong stance in relations with the USSR and against likely Communist expansion, particularly in Central America. Nevertheless, he made significant steps in U.S./Soviet nuclear disarmament negotiations, signing the INF treaty with the USSR. His tax and spending policies, though, led to massive peacetime budget deficits, greatly increasing the national debt. In 1994 he revealed that he had Alzheimer's disease in hope of expanding public awareness of the disease.