The year 1911 marked the birth of the former U.S President; Ronald Reagan to his parents John and Nelle in Illinois. Reagan studied at Dixon high school and later joined Eureka College, where he studied sociology and economics. He became involved in sports such as football which formed part of his career. Reagan’s life can be broken into several sections such as his early life in school, youth, and family life. He married two second wives after divorcing the first one. Other sections are his life as a governor, as president, and after presidency with each being marked by powerful events and influential speeches. These left Americans with no choice but to elect him as their president for two terms regardless of his age.
Introduction
According to (Ritter, 1992), the former United States president Ronald Reagan, was born in February 1911 and died on fifth June 2004. He was the California governor from 1967 to 1975 and later the president from 1981 to 1989. Reagan was born in Illinois but later moved to California’s Los Angeles, where he practiced a career in acting, as SAG’s president and General Electric’s spokesman in the 1930s. This is when he developed an interest in politics and joined the Party of Democrats. Political interests made Reagan shift from Democratic to the party of Republican in 1962. Reagan got a persuasion to run for California governorship after he supported Barry Goldwater for the presidency in 1964. After two years, Reagan won the Governors seat which he also won in 1970 and 1976; he ran for presidential nominations but was defeated at both instances. However, Reagan did not give up, and in 1980; he vied for nominations again winning together with presidential elections thus becoming United States 40th president.
Reagan’s Early Life
Reagan was born in Illinois to John and Nelle Reagan on 6th February 1911, where the ancestors of John had Irish Catholic origin on one hand, and the ancestors of Nelle had Scots English origin on the other hand. Reagan looked like a Dutchman and had his hair cut in a Dutchboy’s style; making his father nickname him; Dutch. His family shifted to some towns, among them Chicago, Monmouth, and Galesburg in Illinois before settling in Tampico where they lived above a Pitney’s store. Reagan was considered to like good people; a character which he got from his mother’s optimistic faith and that of his baptism; known as Christ’s Disciple’s faith. Reagan held on to his belief throughout his life and applied them during his reign as president, especially when he was fighting racial discrimination. After the Pitney store was closed in 1920, Reagan’s family shifted to Dixon where he joined high school and got interested in sports, storytelling, and acting. He first worked as Rock River’s lifeguard in 1926, saving seventy-seven lives of which he marked on a log for remembrance. He joined Eureka College and studied sociology and economics as he got actively involved in sports, especially football. (Stuckey, 1990)
Entertainment Career
(Morris, 1999), argued that, after completing his bachelor level studies, Reagan went for radio station’s auditioning in Iowa and secured a job where he broadcasted football games, getting a pay of ten dollars for every game he broadcasted. He became very competent in sports broadcasting and moved from one station to another, as demand for him increased. He got a contract with studios of Warner Brothers, where he first starred in several movies earning him credit in some and had already featured in nineteen by late 1939. Reagan got a nickname, Gipper, after he acted as The Gipper in Knute Rockne’s film, which became a lifelong nickname. Most of Reagan’s career as an actor was spent in the division of B film with his films receiving some good reviews.
Military Service
To the ambitious Reagan, sports and acting careers were not enough and he attended extension courses in the army, after which he got enlisted in army’s reserve in April 1937. Here, he was assigned to 322nd Calvary of troop B, but later became a Reserve Corps second Lieutenant in May 1937. In April 1942, Reagan took part in active duty but his shortsightedness made him get a limited service classification because he could not make it in the overseas service. He first served as a port’s office liaison officer at Fort Mason after which he got a transfer to work with Air Force of the Army (AAF). In 1944, Reagan was given a duty to take part in a loan’s drive opening but got reassigned to AAF in November the same year, where he was actively involved throughout the Second World War. Reagan’s work in active duty ended in December 1945 and by this time, four hundred films for training had already been produced by Reagan and his units. (Rogin, 1987)
Television and SAG president
According to (Sick, 1987), in 1941, Reagan joined the Guild of Screen Actors administration where he was an alternate, but was elected as its Vice President in 1946. Later, the resignation of SAG’s president together with some of its board members led to Reagan’s nomination which was followed by an election as its president. He remained as the president for the seven subsequent years until 1959. His reign was marked by major events among them being; disputes of labor management and hearings of the house committee’s on activities that were regarded as non-American. During the hearing, he testified in a case regarding communists influence on the motion of picture industry and opposed communism which he argued had been committed to principles of democracy. Though Reagan had earlier criticized television, he took part in some roles in films after which he joined the medium and became the Electric Theater’s host. There was a popular series of drama that was aired on weekly basis where his speeches and tours earned him so much money amounting to a million dollars per annum in terms of the current value of dollar.
Family Life
Reagan got engaged to Jane Wyman; his former co actress in 1938 and later got married in 1940. The couple had two daughters, Maurine and Christine, though Christine died when she was one day old. They adopted another child called Michael, making them a happy family before Reagan’s wife started to have problems with her husband’s political ambitions. Wyman could not stand those ambitions and she opted for a divorce, which was finalized a year after she had filed for it. This made Reagan the only president of US to have had a divorce. In the same year Reagan met Nancy, another actress, whom he got deeply in love with and married her after three years of courtship. Nancy and Reagan together had two sons; Patty and Ron but continued with a relationship that resembled courtship in marriage. This became evident when Reagan was declared down with the disease of Alzheimer’s, and Nancy sought comfort from sleeping in one of Reagan’s shirts. Reagan was worried of how Nancy would handle the painful experience of his sickness but Nancy said that their affection still existed. (Stuckey, 1990)
Political Career
During his political career, Reagan was registered as a democrat who admired Roosevelt and gave politically motivated speeches when he was still SAG’s president. However, Reagan’s speeches began to portray a lot of controversy that was not appealing to General Electric’s, making him get fired in 1962. Reagan’s political interests shifted from democratic to republican where he said that, Democratic Party had left him. Later, Reagan took part in Goldwater’s presidential campaigns, where he stressed on the need for smaller governments, during the speech delivered on October 1964. His political charisma as well as views impressed California republicans leading to his nomination for California’s Governor in 1966. As California Governor, Reagan stopped a practice where the government hired people and hiked taxes in order to balance the country’s budget. He became involved in conflicts of high profile with that era’s movements which included issues regarding abortion. Reagan was able to shape policies that he supported during his terms and later pursued them in presidency. He was against ideas of welfare state and advocated for limited regulation of the economy by the government, especially taxation. Reagan decided to challenge Gerald Ford in the Republican presidential nominations, where he portrayed conservatism and was supported by some organizations like the Americas Union of Conservatism. On the contrary, Ford portrayed moderation and was on the ground together with Reagan, trying to get votes from citizens. Reagan moved from city to city delivering speeches that won him a number of primaries, among them being in North California. However, he lost the presidential nominations to Ford with a very narrow margin of 117 votes. In that election year, Ford lost the presidency to Jimmy Carter, a democrat. In 1980, Reagan was on the run again and this time with Jimmy carter. Reagan used principles of limited interference of the government with lives of citizens, states rights, a powerful national defense and lower taxes. Reagan managed to win presidential nominations and chose George Bush as running mate. His powerful and influential speeches did it for him where he won that year’s elections as Carter lost. (Hertsgaard, 1989)
Reagan’s Presidency
According to (Ritter, 1992), during presidency, he impacted policies that were a reflection of his belief in freedom for individuals, brought domestic changes, and end of Cold War. His aim was to reinvigorate the morale of Americans and have people’s dependence on the government reduced. Reagan’s first presidential term was from1981 to 1985 which set off with the release of Americans who were held hostage by Iran. In March 1981, Reagan together with three others was shot by Hinckley Jr., when the bullet almost got his heart. This was considered an attempt of assassination which influenced his popularity positively and he believed that he had been spared for a reason. His first term ended in 1984, which saw him to another campaign for a second term and won in all the states excluding Washington and Minnesota. This time his main opponent was Walter Mondale but was elected for the second term in 1985 which went all through to 1989. The issues that featured in this second term were, war that was against illegal drug usage, disaster of the Challenger, Libya bombing, immigration, contradictory affair of Iran, Cold War’s end among others. Reagan retired from presidency in 1989, after reigning for two consecutive terms, leaving behind a legacy.
Conclusion
Reagan’s life after presidency was hit hard by his diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, an incurable disorder, in 1994. This disease affected Reagan’s capacity of the mind that he cloud hardly notice people other than his lovely wife. At this time Reagan had already written a letter to American citizens wishing them a happy life. Reagan died in June 2004 while he was at Bel Air, his home, in California, leaving Nancy in a campaign searching how Alzheimer’s disease could be cured. Reagan’s life before, during and after presidency was full of great events that earned him several honors and respect from American Citizens, who together with the whole world will live to remember him. (Sick, 1987)
References
Hertsgaard M. (1989): The press and the Reagan Presidency: Schocken pp 10-18
Morris E. (1999): A memoir of Ronald Reagan: Random House Inc pp33-36
Ritter K. (1992): Ronald Reagan: Greenwood Pub Group pp12-19
Rogin M. (1987): Ronald Reagan in political demonology: University of California Press pp 27-33
Sick G. (1987): America’s hostages in Iran and the election of Ronald Reagan: Three Rivers Press pp 44-47
Stuckey M. (1990): The presidential rhetoric of Ronald Reagan: Praeger Publishers pp 19-23