Republican1981-1989

VicePrez:George

H.W. Bush

Born/died: 1911 –2004

From: California

Ronald Reagan

I. Political Background

a. 1967-75 Serves as California governorb. 1976 Falls 80 ballots shy of

becoming the Republican nominee for president

c. 1981-1989 Serves as fortieth U.S. president

(1) Election of 1980

a. Ronald Reagan/George H.W. Bush (Republican)

b. Jimmy Carter/Walter Mondale (Democratic)

c. John Anderson/VP not chosen (National Unity)

d. HUGE Win for Reagan due to Carter’s unpopularity resulting from the Iranian Hostage Crisis and the problems with the U.S. economy

e. Election Results1. Popular Vote: 43904,153 (R), 35,483,883 (D),

5,720,060 (I)2. Electoral Vote: 483 to 49 0 (I)

−Republicans gained a majority in the Senate – first time since 1954

Green=Reagan Blue=Carter

(2) Iran Hostage Crisis Endsa. The embarrassment to

Carter’s administration was bad but… Carter eventually secured the release of the hostages

b. 52 men were held hostage for 444 days – release time was scheduled for January 20, 1980, when Ronald Reagan became the next president

• A Civil War broke out in Nicaragua- we got involved, shocking- I

know!!! Sandinistas vs Contras• When the Sandinistas overthrew the Somoza regime (the

guy the US liked) in 1979, and they became the government of Nicaragua.

• The “rebels” (the Contras) then were the ex-Guardsmen (men from Somoza’s military), who were now running the contra-rebellion. “US Aid (help/money) to the Contra’s had been prohibited by the U.S. Congress” (we did it anyway…secretly)

(3)Problems with Nicaragua

Contra-rebel helicopter

• The Iran-Contra Affair was a political scandal occurring in 1987 as a result of earlier events during the Reagan administration in which members of the executive branch sold weapons to Iran, an avowed enemy, and illegally used the proceeds to continue funding anti-Sandinista rebels, the Contras, in Nicaragua. Large volumes of documents relating to the scandal were destroyed or withheld from investigators by Reagan administration officials. The affair is still shrouded in secrecy. After the weapon sales were revealed in November 1986, President Ronald Reagan appeared on national television and denied that they had occurred. A week later, however, on November 13, 1986 Reagan returned to the airwaves to affirm that weapons were indeed transferred to Iran, but were not exchanged for hostages. On March 4, 1987 in a nationally televised address to the nation he took full responsibility and admitted that "what began as a strategic opening to Iran deteriorated, in its implementation, into trading arms for hostages."

(5) Strategic Arms Reduction Talks(START) - 1982

a. arms control negotiations between the US and the USSR that were aimed at reducing those two countries' arsenals of nuclear warheads and of the missiles and bombers capable of delivering such weapons.

b. The talks spanned a period of 20 years that saw the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War

(6) US invades Grenadaa. Gov’t of Grenada overthrown, prime

minister killed. b. Asked for U.S. help against rebelsc. We overthrew rebels, set up pro-US

gov’t

(9) Election of 1984a. Ronald Reagan/George H.W. Bush

(Republican)b. Walter Mondale/Geraldine Ferraro

(Democratic)- vp was a woman- 1st woman ever on major prez. ticket

c. Election Results- Reagan won huge

1. Popular Vote: 54,455,075 to 37,577,185

2. Electoral Vote: 525 to 13

Green=Reagan Blue=Mondale

d. The election was most notable for former VP Mondale’s selection of Ferraro as his running mate – the first female from a major party to run on a national ballot

IV. Assassination Attempta. Two months into office (March 31, 1981),

Reagan was shot by John Hinckley, Jrb. Hinckley shot six rounds: one bullet

ricocheted off the limousine and went into Reagan’s left side, bounced off a rib and stopped an inch from his heart, another bullet hit press secretary James Brady in the head and left him paralyzed, two others were severely wounded

John Hinckley Jr. Assassination Attempt on President Ronald Reagan

10) Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act (1985)• Intended to balance the US budget-

it won’t work• law provided for automatic spending cuts to take

effect if the president and Congress failed to reach established targets; Because the automatic cuts were declared unconstitutional, a revised version of the act was passed in 1987; it failed to result in reduced deficits.

V. Domestic Policy(4) Reaganomics

1. Economic Recovery Tax of 1981 – lowered taxes and cut federal spending for a variety of programs from job training, student loans to Medicare2. Pro-business policies were based on supply-side

economic theories

3. Reaganomics gave tax cuts to the consumers, then ideally the consumers had more money to spend, spurring the economy

4. Some problems with Reaganomics, did not help the poor (didn’t have extra money to invest), stockbrokers took advantage on the relaxed government polices and bought/sold stock on overvalued prices

(15) Stock Market Crash – October 19, 1987 – stocks plummeted! Lost 36% in value during October

6. Economic downturn balanced out by 1988

b. ERA (Equal Rights Amendment)Failure to Ratify

1. Women’s movement remained strong in the 70s and 80s

2. After initial support of the ERA, the ratification process bogged down

3. ERA failed in 1982, three states short of the required ¾

(8) Appointment of Conservative Supreme Court Justices1. Sandra Day O’Conner – first woman

justice

2. Antonin Scalia

3. William Rehnquist – chief justice in 1986

4. appointed by Reagan All 3 were conservative justices

Rehnquist (top) Scalia (bottom)

IV. Foreign Affairsa. Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)

1. Largest amount of defense budget was spent on SDI

2. (7) Proposed a technological system called “Star Wars” – in theory it could detect and intercept missiles fired at the U.S.

3. Entire proposal was never approved by

Congress

• Reagan’s SDI Speech to Congress

b. “Peace Through Strength”1. Reagan’s foreign policy approach2. Belief that superior military power

would make America’s enemies reluctant to try to expand their power over their own people or other nations

3. Moved away from the Nixon policy of détente

4. (12) at the Summit Meeting: Reagan and the Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev began to work together after signing a treaty in 1987 to limit the number of nuclear weapons each country could have

• 5. (17) Reagan will be instrumental in the downfall of the Soviet collapse- due to his friendship with Gorbachev , the Soviet leaders drinking problem Reagan Specifically targeted the Soviet Union – when he called the SU an “evil empire”

c. (14) Bombing of Libya1. African nation of Libya was accused of

encouraging terrorist activities that included a takeover of an Italian oceanliner in 1985, hijacking an airplane and redirecting to Beirut, holding hostages for 39 days

2. Reagan responded by ordering retaliatory bombings of several sites within Libya

• U.S. didn’t hear much out of the Libyan leader, Mummar Qadhafi after the bombings…

d. (11) Iran-Contra Scandal1. Reagan agreed to sell arms (WEAPONS…

hellooooo we must have been stupid) to the Iranians in exchange for the release of American hostages – even though he pressured other nations to have nothing to do with Iran

2. A few were set free, but more were taken

3. Arms negotiations were published in a Lebanese newspaper – White House denied the deal

4. Soon revealed that profits from the arms sales were given to the Contras, the anti-Sandinista rebels in Nicaragua

5. Televised congressional hearing, National Security Adviser (John Poindexter) admitted that he had approved the scheme BUT he didn’t tell the president

6. Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, a White House ambassador, took the blame and admitted to lying and falsifying documents

7. Both North and Poindexter were charged with conspiracy – North’s charges were later dropped when the Reagan administration refused to release classified documents

(18)Crisis in Lebanon• In the spring of 1983, Reagan sent US

Marines into Lebanon. Following several smaller bombings, a truck bombing of their barracks killed 241 Marines. 3 months later, Reagan withdrew the Marines from Lebanon

(16) Free Trade Agreement (1987)

a. NAFTA-Trade agreement signed by US and Canada (and eventually Mexico)

b. removed several trade restrictions in stages over a ten year period

c. Great increase in across the border trade in North America

Called- NAFTA… North American Free Trade Agreement

d. (13)Space shuttle Challenger explodes after take-off with the nation’s schools watching live- the first teacher go up in space

VII. Random Information about Reagan

a. Hollywood actor prior to become involved in politics

b. Was officially associated with the Democratic party in the 1950s but his political views were much more in line with conservative Republicans

c. Known as “The Great Communicator” because of his upbeat speeches

d. Oldest elected president – 70 years of age

e. Suffered from Alzheimer’s in his later years

f. Died on June 5, 2004 at his home in Los Angeles, California