History of North America

Twin deficits! Reaganomics! 40th President Ronald Reagan Aiming for a Strong America

Ronald Reagan, the 40th generation, was the oldest president in history and the only divorced president.

Ronald Reagan before becoming president

Ronald Reagan was born in 1911 in Illinois.

His father was an Irish Catholic and his mother was a Scottish Protestant, but Ronald became a Protestant at the age of 11.

He entered Eureka College in 1928, and after graduating he worked as a radio announcer before moving to Hollywood as a film actor. He played an active part in propaganda movies during World War II and eventually retired as a captain.

After retiring, he became chairman of the Hollywood trade union, cooperating with McCarthyism with the same Republicans Nixon and McCarthy, and hunting the Communist Party. During this period, the Red Scare was raging in Hollywood, including the expulsion of Chaplin, and a large number of people who were clearly not communists were suspected of being members of the Communist Party. The structure is similar to witch hunting after religious reform.

In 1967, Reagan became the governor of California, where Hollywood is located, and during his time as governor, he said that Vietnam should be burned down to make a parking lot.

In the 1980 presidential election, he won the victory over Jimmy Carta, who failed to recover, and became the 40th president of the United States.

40th President of the United States

Reagan's presidency policy was all about the realization of a strong America called "Reaganomics."

The Soviet relations that were heading for Detente became tense at once, and when a strategic defense concept called SDI was devised, the armament was expanded, and the cost was reduced by reducing social welfare costs.

That attitude is called neo-conservative (new conservative) or neo-liberalism (neoliberalism), and it shows a stronger attitude than the conventional attitude, and anyway, forcibly with the idea of ​​"America is number one! America the first!" It showed a traction force that could be said to be.

Traditionally, the Republican Party has shown that the government does not intervene in the economy as seen at Hoover, but Reagan will intervene in the economy by adjusting the amount of currency etc. and control the market while adhering to modified capitalism. And said.

However, the aftermath of the Nixon shock was large, especially the trade deficit with Japan was not eliminated, and the budget deficit swelled due to the increase in military spending. It will fall from a creditor country that has continued since the war to a debtor country.

In such a situation, the finance ministers of Britain, France, Germany, the United States, and Japan gathered at the Plaza Hotel and reached the Plaza Accord to correct the dollar's appreciation in order to save the United States.

Under these circumstances, General Secretary Gorbachev was born in the Soviet Union, and when perestroika began, Reagan's attitude toward the Soviet Union softened at once, agreed to abolish the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), and began to move toward the end of the Cold War.

On the other hand, for the Caribbean Sea, which can be called the backyard of the United States, a hard-line measure similar to Theodore Roosevelt's diplomacy was implemented, intervened in Nicaragua and El Salvador, and in 1983, the military was sent to Grenada, a nation with a population of about 100,000. Invaded.

In 2004, Reagan died. He was 93 years old.

Personal evaluation of Reagan

Reagan's reputation is basically high in the United States. He isn't rated very low and often falls within the top 10 to 30.

Reagan is, in a sense, the president who created the arrogant America that continues to the present day, and for better or worse, the president who created the modern America.

It is popular in the United States despite the continued mismanagement such as the mismanagement represented by the twin deficits, the strong attitude toward the Caribbean Sea, and the Plaza Accord as a result of the failure of economic policy.

In fact, Reagan made efforts to correct racial discrimination in Japan, compensated for Nikkei who were detained during World War II, wage war with drug organizations, and faced various problems facing the United States in terms of domestic affairs. And has achieved some success.

Reagan is a president full of mismanagement from a non-American perspective, but a very good president from the perspective of the American people.