Ronald Reagan
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Ronald Wilson Reagan (✦February 6, 1911 – †June 5, 2004) was an American politician who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. A member of the Republican Party from 1962 onward, he also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 to 1975 after having a career as a Hollywood actor and union leader.
Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois. He graduated from Eureka College in 1932 and began to work as a radio sports commentator in Iowa. In 1937, Reagan moved to California, where he found work as an actor and appeared in several major productions. From 1947 to 1952, Reagan served as president of the Screen Actors Guild, during which time he worked to root out alleged communist influence within it. In the 1950s, he moved to a career in television and became a spokesman for General Electric. From 1959 to 1960, he again served as president of the Screen Actors Guild. In 1964, his speech "A Time for Choosing"—a campaign speech on behalf of Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater—earned him national attention as a new conservative figure. Building a network of supporters, Reagan was elected as governor of California in 1966. During his governorship, he raised taxes, turned the state budget deficit into a surplus, challenged protesters at UC Berkeley, and ordered in National Guard troops during a period of protest movements.
After failed presidential bids in 1968 and 1976, challenging and nearly defeating sitting president Gerald Ford in the latter's Republican primaries, Reagan easily won the Republican nomination in the 1980 presidential election and went on to defeat incumbent Democratic president Jimmy Carter. At 69 years, 349 days of age at the time of his first inauguration, Reagan was the oldest person to assume the U.S. presidency.[a] Reagan ran for reelection in the 1984 presidential election, in which he was opposed by the Democratic nominee Walter Mondale, who had previously served as vice president under Carter. Reagan defeated him in an electoral landslide, winning the most electoral votes of any U.S. president: 525 (97.6% of the 538 votes in the Electoral College). It was one of the most lopsided presidential elections in U.S. history.
Early in his presidency, Reagan began implementing new political and economic initiatives. His supply-side economics policies—dubbed "Reaganomics"—advocated tax reduction, economic deregulation, and reduction in government spending. In his first term, he survived an assassination attempt, spurred the War on Drugs, invaded Grenada, and fought public-sector labor unions. Over his two terms, the economy saw a reduction of inflation from 12.5% to 4.4% and an average real GDP annual growth of 3.6%. Reagan enacted cuts in domestic discretionary spending, cut taxes, and increased military spending, which contributed to a near tripling of the federal debt. Foreign affairs dominated his second term, including the bombing of Libya, the Iran–Iraq War, the Iran–Contra affair, and the ongoing Cold War. In a speech in June 1987 at the Brandenburg Gate, four years after he publicly described the Soviet Union as an "evil empire", Reagan challenged Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to open the Berlin Wall. He transitioned Cold War policy from détente to rollback by escalating an arms race with the USSR while engaging in talks with Gorbachev. The talks culminated in the INF Treaty, which shrank both countries' nuclear arsenals.
When Reagan left office in 1989, he held an approval rating of 68%, matching those of Franklin D. Roosevelt and, later, Bill Clinton as the highest ratings for departing presidents in the modern era. His tenure constituted a realignment toward conservative policies in the United States known as the Reagan Era, and he is often considered a conservative icon. Evaluations of his presidency among historians and the general public place him among the upper tier of American presidents. Although he had planned an active post-presidency, Reagan disclosed in November 1994 that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease earlier that year. His public appearances became more infrequent as the disease progressed. Reagan died at his home in Los Angeles on June 5, 2004.
Early life
Ronald Wilson Reagan was born on February 6, 1911, in an apartment on the second floor of a commercial building in Tampico, Illinois. He was the younger son of Nelle Clyde (née Wilson) and Jack Reagan. Jack was a salesman and storyteller whose grandparents were Irish Catholic emigrants from County Tipperary, while Nelle was of English and Scottish descent. Ronald's older brother, Neil Reagan, became an advertising executive.
Reagan's father nicknamed his son "Dutch", due to his "fat little Dutchman" appearance and Dutch-boy haircut; the nickname stuck with him throughout his youth. Reagan's family briefly lived in several towns and cities in Illinois, including Monmouth, Galesburg, and Chicago. In 1919, they returned to Tampico and lived above the H. C. Pitney Variety Store until finally settling in Dixon, Illinois. After his election as president, Reagan lived in the upstairs White House private quarters, and he would quip that he was "living above the store" again.
For that period, which was long before the civil rights movement, Reagan's opposition to racial discrimination was unusual. He recalled the time when his college football team was staying at a local hotel that would not allow two black teammates to stay there, and he invited them to his parents' home 15 miles (24 kilometers) away in Dixon. His mother invited them to stay overnight and have breakfast the next morning. Reagan's father was strongly opposed to the Ku Klux Klan due to his Catholic heritage, but also due to the Klan's anti-semitism and anti-black racism. After becoming a prominent actor, Reagan gave speeches in favor of racial equality following World War II. Later, as a politician, Reagan was often accused of appealing to white racial resentment and backlash against the civil-rights movement; one example was during his first campaign for Governor of California, Reagan's platform included a promise to repeal legislation barring housing discrimination. Certain in his own lack of prejudice, Reagan responded resentfully to claims he was racist while defending his position, arguing: "If an individual wants to discriminate against Negroes or others in selling or renting his house, it is his right to do so." He believed that "the right to dispose of and control one's own property is a basic human right".
Religion
Ronald Reagan wrote that his mother "always expected to find the best in people and often did". She attended the Disciples of Christ church regularly and was active, and very influential, within it; she frequently led Sunday school services and gave the Bible readings to the congregation during the services. A firm believer in the power of prayer, she led prayer meetings at church and was in charge of mid-week prayers when the pastor was out of town. She was also an adherent of the Social Gospel movement. Her strong commitment to the church is what induced her son Ronald to become a Protestant Christian rather than a Roman Catholic like his Irish father. He also stated that she strongly influenced his own beliefs: "I know that she planted that faith very deeply in me." Reagan identified himself as a born-again Christian. In Dixon, Reagan was strongly influenced by his pastor Ben Hill Cleaver, whom he considered "a wonderful man." Cleaver was the father of Reagan's fiancée. Reagan saw him as a second father. Stephen Vaughn says:
At many points, the positions taken by the First Christian Church of Reagan's youth coincided with the words, if not the beliefs of the latter-day Reagan. These positions included faith in Providence, association of America's mission with God's will, belief in progress, trust in the work ethic and admiration for those who achieved wealth, an uncomfortableness with literature and art that questioned the family or challenged notions of proper sexual behavior, the presumption that poverty is an individual problem best left to charity rather than the state, sensitivity to problems involving alcohol and drugs, and reticence to use government to protect civil rights for minorities.
According to Paul Kengor, Reagan had a particularly strong faith in the goodness of people; this faith stemmed from the optimistic faith of his mother and the Disciples of Christ faith, into which he was baptized in 1922.
During his years in Hollywood, Reagan became a member of the Hollywood-Beverly Christian Church and attended its services infrequently. Subsequently, from 1964 onwards, Reagan began to attend church services at Bel Air Presbyterian Church, where he became acquainted with Donn Moomaw. Reagan scaled down his church attendance while serving as president, citing the inconvenience that his large Secret Service entourage would bring to other churchgoers and the potential danger (to others) from his presence due to possible terrorism. After leaving office, Reagan officially joined Bel Air as its member and regularly attended services there.
Formal education
Reagan attended Dixon High School, where he developed interests in acting, sports, and storytelling. His first job involved working as a lifeguard at the Rock River in Lowell Park in 1927. Over six years, Reagan performed 77 rescues. In 1928, he attended Eureka College. He was an indifferent student, majored in economics and sociology and graduated with a C average. He developed a reputation as a "jack of all trades", excelling in campus politics, sports, and theater. He was a member of the football team and of the swim team. He was elected student body president and participated in student protests against the college president.
Entertainment career
Radio and film
After graduating from Eureka in 1932, Reagan took jobs in Iowa as a radio announcer at several stations. He moved to WHO radio in Des Moines as an announcer for Chicago Cubs baseball games. His specialty was creating play-by-play accounts of games using only basic descriptions that the station received by wire as the games were in progress.
While traveling with the Cubs in California in 1937, Reagan took a screen test that led to a seven-year contract with Warner Bros. studios. He spent the first few years of his Hollywood career in the "B film" unit, where, Reagan joked, the producers "didn't want them good; they wanted them Thursday".
He earned his first screen credit with a starring role in the 1937 movie Love Is on the Air, and by the end of 1939, he had appeared in 19 films, including Dark Victory with Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart. Before the film Santa Fe Trail with Errol Flynn in 1940, he played the role of George Gipp in the film Knute Rockne, All American; from it, he acquired the lifelong nickname "the Gipper". In 1941, exhibitors voted him the fifth most popular star from the younger generation in Hollywood.
Reagan played his favorite acting role in 1942's Kings Row, where he plays a double amputee who recites the line "Where's the rest of me?"—later used as the title of his 1965 autobiography. Many film critics considered Kings Row to be his best movie, though the film was condemned by The New York Times critic Bosley Crowther.
Kings Row made Reagan a star—Warner immediately tripled his salary to $3,000 a week. Shortly afterward, he received co-star above-the-title billing with Flynn – who was still a huge star at the time – in Desperate Journey (1942). In April 1942, Reagan was ordered to military active duty in San Francisco and never quite became a big first-rank film star despite playing the lead in numerous movies. After his wartime military service he co-starred in such films as The Voice of the Turtle, John Loves Mary, The Hasty Heart, Bedtime for Bonzo, Cattle Queen of Montana, Tennessee's Partner, Hellcats of the Navy (the only film in which he appears with Nancy (Davis} Reagan), and his one turn at playing a vicious villain, in the 1964 remake The Killers (his final film) with Lee Marvin and Angie Dickinson. Throughout his film career, Reagan's mother answered much of his fan mail.
Military service
After completing 14 home-study Army extension courses, Reagan enlisted in the Army Enlisted Reserve and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Officers' Reserve Corps of the Cavalry on May 25, 1937.
On April 18, 1942, Reagan was ordered to active duty for the first time. Because of severe nearsightedness, he was classified for limited service only, which excluded him from serving overseas. His first assignment was at the San Francisco Port of Embarkation at Fort Mason, California, as a liaison officer of the Port and Transportation Office. Upon the approval of the U.S. Army Air Forces (AAF), he applied for a transfer from the cavalry to the AAF on May 15, 1942, and was assigned to AAF Public Relations and subsequently to the 18th AAF Base Unit (Motion Picture Unit) at Culver City, California. On January 14, 1943, he was promoted to 1st lieutenant and was sent to the Provisional Task Force Show Unit of This Is the Army at Burbank, California. He returned to the 18th AAF Base Unit after completing this duty and was promoted to captain on July 22, 1943.
In January 1944, Reagan was ordered to temporary duty in New York City to participate in the opening of the Sixth War Loan Drive, which campaigned for the purchase of war bonds. He was reassigned to the 18th AAF Base Unit on November 14, 1944, where he remained until the end of World War II. By the end of the war, his units had produced some 400 training films for the Air Force, including cockpit simulations for B-29 crews scheduled to bomb Japan. He was separated from active duty on December 9, 1945, as an Army captain. While he was in the service, Reagan obtained a film reel depicting the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp; he held on to it, believing that doubts would someday arise as to whether the Holocaust had occurred.
Screen Actors Guild presidency
Reagan was first elected to the Board of Directors of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) in 1941, serving as an alternate member. After World War II, he resumed service and became third vice president in 1946. When the SAG president and six board members resigned in March 1947 because of the union's new bylaws on conflict of interest, Reagan was elected president in a special election. He was subsequently reelected six times, in 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951 and 1959. He led the SAG through the implementation of the 1947 Taft–Hartley Act, various labor-management disputes and the Hollywood blacklist era. First instituted in 1947 by studio executives who agreed that they would not employ anyone believed to be or to have been communists or sympathetic with radical politics, the blacklist grew steadily larger during the early 1950s as Congress continued to investigate domestic political subversion.
Reagan was instrumental in securing residuals for television actors when their episodes were rerun, and later for motion picture actors when their studio films aired on television.
FBI informant
In 1946, Reagan served on the national board of directors for the Independent Citizens Committee of the Arts, Sciences and Professions (ICCASP) and had been a member of its Hollywood chapter (HICCASP). His attendance at a July 10, 1946, meeting of HICCASP brought him to the attention of the FBI, which interviewed him on April 10, 1947, in connection with its investigation into HICCASP. Four decades later, it was revealed that during the late 1940s, Reagan (under the code name T-10) and his wife Jane Wyman provided the FBI with the names of actors within the motion picture industry whom they believed to be communist sympathizers. Even so, he was uncomfortable with the way in which the SAG was being used by the government, asking during one FBI interview, "Do they (i.e. the House Un-American Activities Committee) expect us to constitute ourselves as a little FBI of our own and determine just who is a Commie and who isn't?"
HUAC's Hollywood hearings
In October 1947 during HUAC's Hollywood hearings, Reagan testified as president of the Screen Actors Guild:
- There has been a small group within the Screen Actors Guild which has consistently opposed the policy of the guild board and officers of the guild... suspected of more or less following the tactics that we associate with the Communist Party... At times they have attempted to be a disruptive influence... I have heard different discussions, and some of them tagged as Communists... I found myself misled into being a sponsor on another occasion for a function that was held under the auspices of the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee.
Regarding a "jurisdictional strike" going on for seven months at that time, Reagan testified:
- The first time that this word "Communist" was ever injected into any of the meetings concerning the strike was at a meeting in Chicago with Mr. William Hutchinson, president of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, who were on strike at the time. He asked the Screen Actors Guild to submit terms to Mr. Walsh, for Walsh to give in the settling of this strike, and he told us to tell Mr. Walsh that if he would give in on these terms, he, in turn, would run this Sorrell and the other Commies out—I am quoting him—and break it up.
However, Reagan also opposed measures soon to manifest in the Mundt–Nixon Bill in May 1948 by opining:
- As a citizen I would hesitate, or not like, to see any political party outlawed on the basis of its political ideology... I detest, I abhor their philosophy, but I detest more than that their tactics, which are those of the fifth column, and are dishonest, but at the same time I never as a citizen want to see our country become urged, by either fear or resentment of this group, that we ever compromise with any of our democratic principles through that fear or resentment.
Further, when asked whether he was aware of Communist efforts within the Screen Writers Guild, Reagan would not play along, saying, "Sir, like the other gentlemen, I must say that that is hearsay."
Television
Reagan landed fewer film roles in the late 1950s and moved into television. He was hired as the host of General Electric Theater, a series of weekly dramas that became very popular. His contract required him to tour General Electric (GE) plants 16 weeks out of the year, which often demanded that he give 14 talks per day. He earned approximately $125,000 (equivalent to $1.1 million in 2021) in this role. The show ran for ten seasons from 1953 to 1962, which increased Reagan's national profile. On January 1, 1959, Reagan was the host and announcer for ABC's coverage of the Tournament of Roses Parade. In his final work as a professional actor, Reagan was a host and performer from 1964 to 1965 on the television series Death Valley Days. Following their marriage in 1952, Ronald and Nancy Reagan, who continued to use the stage name Nancy Davis, acted together in three TV series episodes, including a 1958 installment of General Electric Theater titled "A Turkey for the President".
Marriages and children
In 1938, Reagan co-starred in the film Brother Rat with actress Jane Wyman (1917–2007). They announced their engagement at the Chicago Theatre and married on January 26, 1940, at the Wee Kirk o' the Heather church in Glendale, California. Together they had two biological daughters, Maureen (1941–2001) and Christine (born prematurely, and died on June 26, 1947), and adopted a son, Michael (b. 1945). After the couple had arguments about Reagan's political ambitions, Wyman filed for divorce in 1948, citing a distraction due to her husband's Screen Actors Guild union duties; the divorce was finalized in 1949. Wyman, who was a registered Republican, also stated that their breakup stemmed from a difference in politics (Reagan was still a Democrat at the time). When Reagan became president 32 years later, he became the first divorced person to assume the nation's highest office. Reagan and Wyman continued to be friends until his death; Wyman voted for Reagan in both his runs, and on his death she said, "America has lost a great president and a great, kind, and gentle man."
Reagan met actress Nancy Davis (1921–2016) in 1949 after she contacted him in his capacity as president of the Screen Actors Guild. He helped her with issues regarding her name appearing on a Communist blacklist in Hollywood; she had been mistaken for another Nancy Davis. She described their meeting by saying, "I don't know if it was exactly love at first sight, but it was pretty close." They were engaged at Chasen's restaurant in Los Angeles and were married on March 4, 1952, at the Little Brown Church in the Valley (North Hollywood, now Studio City) San Fernando Valley. Actor William Holden served as best man at the ceremony. They had two children: Patti (b. 1952) and Ronald "Ron" (b. 1958).
The couple's relationship was close, authentic and intimate. During his presidency, they often displayed affection for each other; one press secretary said, "They never took each other for granted. They never stopped courting." He often called her "Mommy", and she called him "Ronnie". He once wrote to her, "Whatever I treasure and enjoy ... all would be without meaning if I didn't have you." In 1998, while he was stricken by Alzheimer's, Nancy told Vanity Fair, "Our relationship is very special. We were very much in love and still are. When I say my life began with Ronnie, well, it's true. It did. I can't imagine life without him." Nancy Reagan died on March 6, 2016, at the age of 94.
For more/further information about Ronald Reagan, see Wikipdia article:
- Wikipedia article: Ronald Reagan
External links
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Note: Ronald Reagan was a volunteer at the Hollywood Canteen |
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