Historical Figure
Ronald Reagan
1911–2004
President of the United States from 1981 to 1989
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"Brandenburg Gate Address" — June 12, 1987
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Biography
Ronald Wilson Reagan was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. A member of the Republican Party, he became an important figure in the American conservative movement. The period encompassing his presidency is known as the Reagan era.
Timeline
The story of Ronald Reagan, told in moments.
Moves to California. Becomes an actor. Not a great one, but a working one. 53 films. He plays cowboys, soldiers, college football players. Serves as president of the Screen Actors Guild twice. Learns how to lead by running a union. Shifts from Democrat to Republican in the 1950s.
Gives "A Time for Choosing," a nationally televised speech supporting Barry Goldwater. Goldwater loses in a landslide. Reagan's political career begins. Two years later he's governor of California. The actor who couldn't get a leading role finds one in politics.
Shot outside the Washington Hilton by John Hinckley Jr. The bullet lodges an inch from his heart. He walks into the ER under his own power. "Honey, I forgot to duck," he tells Nancy. To the surgeons: "I hope you're all Republicans." He is 70 years old. He survives.
Stands at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin. "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." His own State Department tries to cut the line. He keeps it in. Two years later the wall falls. He negotiates the INF Treaty, eliminating an entire class of nuclear weapons. The Cold War thaws.
Writes a handwritten letter to the American people disclosing his Alzheimer's diagnosis. "I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life." He disappears from public view. Nancy cares for him for a decade.
Dies at 93 in Bel Air, Los Angeles. Pneumonia, complicated by Alzheimer's. His body lies in state at the Capitol. The national debt tripled during his presidency. The Soviet Union collapsed two years after he left office. The arguments about which fact matters more have never stopped.
In Their Own Words (20)
I have wondered at times about what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress.
Quoted as an attribution in Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations (2013), p. 268, 2013
Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.
As cited in The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World (2007), Alan Greenspan, Penguin Press, Chapter 4 (Private Citizen), p. 87 :, 2007
We can't help everyone but everyone can help someone
Sometimes attributed to Reagan, but the earliest citation attributes the saying to Dr Loretta Scott, 1,600 Quotes & Pieces of Wisdom That Just Might Help You Out When You're Stuck in a Moment (2003), p. 41, 2003
Thomas Jefferson made a comment about the Presidency and age. He said that one should not worry about one's exact chronological age in reference to his ability to perform one's task. And ever since he told me that, I stopped worrying.
Remarks at the Annual Salute to Congress Dinner (4 February 1981), 1981
Those [mujahideen] are freedom fighters. Those are people fighting for their own country and not wanting to become a satellite state of the Soviet Union, which came in and established a government of its choosing there, without regard to the feelings of the Afghans.
As quoted in REAGAN HINTING AT ARMS FOR AFGHAN REBELS (10 March 1981), 1981
Artifacts (15)
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