Ronald Reagan he was the 40th president in the history of the United States, ruling the country for two terms in the 1980s. His government was marked by the application of neoliberal measures, which resulted in the devaluation of workers and an increase in social inequality. Fighting communism was another important focus of his administration.
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Early Years
Ronald Wilson Reagan born in Tampico , small town in Illinois, on February 6, 1911 . He was the son of John Edward Reagan, a shoe salesman, and Nelle Wilson Reagan. He had only one brother, named John Neil Reagan.
During his childhood, Reagan moved to several cities of the state of Illinois on account of his father's work. In 1920, his family settled in Dixon and there Reagan resided for some years of his life. He even attended a local school called Dixon High School , finishing his studies in the late 1920s.
In 1929, he entered the university, studying Sociology and Economics at Eureka College . Graduated in 1932 and soon looked for a job to start his career in the job market.
Professional Career
The first job formal of Reagan's life was that of sporting event narrator . In 1932 he was hired by WOC-AM to narrate the University of Iowa games. . Later he started working for WHO-AM, a radio station located in Des Moines, Iowa.
In that radio station he started to work as a narrator of the Chicago Cubs games , professional baseball team. He remained for five years as a radio narrator and his work with the Cubs gave him national recognition. Reagan's life took a leap when he took a trip to California in 1937.
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Art Career
On this trip, Reagan performed a test on Warner Brothers and from that audition he got a seven-year contract to act in films for that studio. The first productions in which Reagan acted were low budget, but soon he was conquering space and became one of the best known actors in Hollywood in the early 1940s.
The main productions in which Reagan acted took place in the early 1940s. His first film was Love is on the Air , in 1937. King's Row , in 1942, was one of the most famous films he was in. In all, he acted in 53 movies , being The Killers , 1964, the last film of his acting career.
Reagan's artistic career had to be cut short by the United States' entry into World War II. Reagan was drafted into the army , reaching the rank of captain. He was deemed unfit for the battlefield for being short-sighted, so he was directed to do inner work.
During his enlistment, Reagan served as narrator for military-recorded audiovisual productions, in addition to acting in some productions as well. At the end of World War II, Reagan was relieved of service and allowed to return to his civilian life.
Post-war career
After the war, Ronald Reagan served as president of the Screen Actors Guild , the union of all American actors and actresses. He held this role from 1947 to 1952, holding the position again from 1959 to 1960. At the head of this union, he has already demonstrated one of the greatest of its characteristics:the anti-communism .
In 1947, Reagan testified in the US House of Representatives, one of the chambers that make up the US Congress. In this testimony, Reagan denounced the growth of communism in the country's art scene. This denunciation was part of the period of the “Hollywood Black List”, when Hollywood workers who were communists or considered to be communists were boycotted.
One of Reagan's last jobs before entering politics was at General Electric Theater . He was hired by this company in 1954, spending eight years there. During this period he acted as a motivational speaker , in addition to commanding a television program, which was recorded until 1962.
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Policy
It was in politics that Reagan prospered most throughout his life. In the 1950s he campaigned for some Republican presidential candidates, and in the 1960s he became one of the most prominent conservatives in the United States. In 1962, joined as a member of Party Republican .
A few years later he was convinced to run as a candidate, thus becoming involved in the race for the Governor of California office, in the 1966 election. On that occasion, he ran against Democratic candidate Pat Brown and emerged victorious.
Reagan was governor of California from 1967 to 1975 (in 1970 he ran for reelection and defeated Democratic candidate Jesse Unruh). After eight years in government in California, Reagan became one of the most influential Republicans in the United States . Still, he had two failed attempts to run for president.
In 1968 and 1976, Reagan tried to run for president in the Republican Party, but was defeated in the primaries. In 1968, Richard Nixon won the primaries, and in 1976, he was defeated by Gerald Ford. Only in primary 1980s Ronald Reagan was chosen as the Republican candidate for the presidency of the United States.
Reagan Government
In 1980, Reagan ran for president against Jimmy Carter, the Democratic candidate who was the current president of the United States. In the campaign, Reagan invited George Bush (father) to be his deputy and addressed important issues at the time, such as high inflation and rising unemployment in the country. Reagan's campaign was successful and he won by a wide margin.
Two months after assuming the presidency, Reagan was the victim of a attempt from murder and ended up wounded by a bullet, which ricocheted and hit him near the left armpit. He underwent surgery and recovered after two weeks in the hospital. The perpetrator was John Hinckley Jr., who was acquitted of insanity.
During his rule, Reagan reduced taxes and managed to lower inflation and the unemployment rate . On the other hand, the jobs created during his government were more precarious, as the condition of the worker worsened with the increase in working hours and salary reductions. The inequality social increased in the United States and Reagan was marked as one of the great defenders of neoliberalism.
Reagan adopted a very strict anti-drug program and imposed a staunchly anti-communist policy. This anti-communist policy, known as the “Doctrine Reagan ”, resulted in a political scandal, as it was discovered that the United States was secretly selling weapons to Iran so that anti-revolutionary guerrillas could be financed in Nicaragua.
In 1984, Reagan ran for re-election and won a comfortable victory against Democrat Walter Mondale. He was succeeded by Republican politician George H. W. Bush, the winner of the 1988 presidential election.
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Last years
In 1994, when he was 93 years old, Reagan discovered that he had Alzheimer's and spent the last years of his life fighting the effects of this disease. The illness progressed over the years, causing Reagan to be able to recognize few people. On June 5, 2004, he passed away from pneumonia.
Image credits
[1] mark reinstein and Shutterstock