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Politics in the U.S. during the 1980’s were exciting. Much like everything else during this decade, politics were changing and making a new way for economic development and social construct. Policy in the 1980’s were both huge on foreign policy, and domestic development. The cold war, being the main concern with foreign policy, consisted of Communism versus Democracy, or Socialism versus Capitalism. President Reagan being the face of America and our Commander and Chief, created “Reaganomics,” which fought for small Government, and utilized Government spending in a way that would effectively establish National Security as well as make a name for himself as being known as one of the most popular presidents in United State’s history. Though these issues took place some thirty years ago, it is safe to say that the tribulations we faced as a nation in the eighties have directly affected society in 2015.

The election of 1980 marked a ‘new political era’ that was ushered in by President Reagan and that followed on through the presidencies of George H. W. Bush and William Jefferson Clinton. These presidents were inaugurated at different times and succeeded the successes and the failures of their predecessors. Having came from different political backgrounds and having unique political and social beliefs, Bush, Reagan, and Clinton can only be analyzed through their foreign policies, domestic policies, achievements as well as shortcomings, and legacies.

President Ronald Reagan, the man who is accredited with ended the forty six year cold war was elected on Nov. 4, 1980. Reagan won his election with fifty percent of the popular vote over former President Jimmy Carter who had forty one percent. While Reagan as a president is praised for such successes as strengthening the national defense, stimulating growth in the U.S. economically, and as mentioned before he is considered the President who ended the Cold War. President Reagan had achieved many things by the end of his administration, but just as he had many successes his presidency was plagued with shortcomings and a handful of what could be considered flat out failures. The purpose of this writing is to establish and identify the ‘cons’ or failures of the Reagan administration, and provide a brief description of each different aspect of the administration.

Ronald Wilson Reagan, born February 6, 1911, served the United States as the 40th president from 1981 to 1989. Reagan was the first and only movie actor elected to office. During his two-terms in office, Reagan had many accomplishments; cutting taxes, strengthened and increased national defense spending, and through foreign policy pursued “peace through strength.” (Freidel & Sidey, 2006). The primary strength Reagan possessed in office was his oratory skills, in which he was dubbed “The Great Communicator”. The presidency of Ronald Reagan corresponded with a “long period of dramatic economic growth and the beginning of a momentous change in international relations.” (Brinkley, 2002). Through legislation, Reagan stimulated the

Introduction Reagan, Ronald Wilson (1911- ),the 40th president of the United States (1981-1989), enforced the policies that reversed a general direction of movement toward greater government involvement in economic and social regulation. Reagan as the younger of two sons, was born in Tampico, Illinois and spent most of his childhood in Dixon, Illinois. After studying at Eureka College,a small Disciples of Christ college near Peoria, Illinois, he majored in economics, and became the president of the student body, a member of the football team, and captain of the swimming team. He had special drawings toward acting, but after the graduation in 1932 the only job available related to show business was as a local radio sportscaster. In 1936 he

Nancy Davis Reagan, 40th First Lady of the United States had a monumental impact on the 21st Century by her prodigious influence on President Reagan’s presidency, passion to educate the youth of our country on drugs, and her advocacy for Alzheimer’s and Stem Cell Research. On domestic policy, Nancy Reagan encouraged compromises on budget policies to preserve some programs for the poor in return for cuts in other programs that did not target those most in need. (parenthetical citation article usa today) On foreign policy, Nancy prodded her husband to reach out to the Soviets to negotiate arms control treaties. He refused to engage and Soviet leaders during this first term, saying they kept dying on him. He finally did so in his second term,

This source is also a documentation of the events occurring within US history during the years of 1960-1979. This source is truly helpful because of its primary sources unveiled within. Not only does Cynthia Rose establish true government incidents with Activists, but she also gives a documented court case that backs up my argument of censorship. The American Decades books have been established as an all American Encyclopedia. Their thoroughness provides a chronological documentation of America's struggles and gains with no political or personal belief skewing the documents. It is truly and encyclopedia of America's occurrences and altercations with the world.

Before Ronald Reagan's landside victory in the 1980 presidential election, Jimmy Carter was president. Despite Carter's "untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts," he was criticized for not delivering a strong economy (Darity, 2008, p.450-452). Meanwhile, his 1980 election opponent, Ronald Reagan had an another agenda in mind. During his campaign Reagan simplified voter's decision by emphasizing the question "Are you better off than you were four years ago?"

She dedicated her whole life campaigning and securing the rights of women that we enjoy today.

To begin, Congress, by fair vote, decided in the 1980s that the United States should not assist the contras fighting the socialist Sandinista government of Nicaragua (Corn 2006). Yet, the Reagan White House concocted several imaginative ways to pull an end-run around democracy (Corn 2006). Reagan’s decisions such as selling weapons to Iran were made with the knowledge that he would not suffer a decline in presidential approval. Thus, Reagan took various steps that were violations of law that not only involved himself, but members of the CIA. By 1986, two big revelations happened that caused this scandal to abrupt publically. The first was the shoot-down of a cargo plane over Nicaragua and the admission by the sole survivor that the plane had been delivering arms to the Contras against congressional restrictions (Kornbluh 2011). The second, revelation was the news story of Lebanon that stated

The United States during the mid to late 70’s was in a constant state of alert; millions of citizens waiting for the piercing sounds of the air raid sirens to slice through the night air. America was in need of a leader, someone who could unify a divided country and save it from crushing economic failure. One man saw his need and stood up to the task, his name is President Ronald Reagan. Reagan rose to power as President during one of the most critical periods in not only American history, but also, World history: The arms standoff of the cold war. His actions as a unifier in the homeland and as a diplomat in foreign halls changed the way Americans and citizens of the world lived their lives.

She became the co-founding president of the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971(Horowitz page 5). The Caucus was used to give the women that were going into politics, support. Using the National Women’s Political Caucus, Betty Friedan was able to change the lives of millions of men and women(Horowitz page 5). She was able to do this because she was a good media figure, writer, and speaker(Horowitz page 5). Organizations like these were helpful.

The primary goal of the Ronald Reagan administration’s foreign policy of was winning the Cold War against Communism—which was achieved in Eastern Europe in 1989 and in the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. The Cold War grew out of post-World War II tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union that lasted for much of the second half of the 20th century resulted in mutual suspicions, heightened tensions and a series of international incidents that brought the world’s superpowers to the brink of disaster. The Cold War was won through a strategy of "peace through strength” and a warming of relations with the Soviet Union, 1981-89. These foreign policies became known as the "Reagan Doctrine,” the United States also offered financial and logistics support to the anti-communist opposition in central Europe and took an increasingly hard line against socialist and communist governments in Afghanistan, Angola, and Nicaragua. Reagan also increase the size of the military, spent billions on national defense, to fight Communists throughout the

Although many people have a very positive outlook and perspective on Ronald Reagan’s bold motives, he was a risk-taker and many people disagreed with his plan of actions. Despite lowering the poverty rates, the Reagan Administration set records for budget deficits. After scrutinizing President Carter for acquiring a $50 billion deficit, Reagan’s personal deficits exceeded $200 billion. He quadrupled the national debt in only a matter of eight years. Even though many Republicans blamed Congress for the deficits, all eight of the budgets Congress passed had less spending and smaller deficits than the budgets proposed by Reagan. James Tobin had this to say about Reagan’s leadership: “The awful truth is that Reaganomics was a fraud from the beginning. The moral of it’s failures and of it’s legacies is that a nation pays a heavy price when it entrusts its government and economy to simplistic ideologues—however smooth their performances on television. (James Tobin, 1988, pg. 103) Despite bringing poverty rates down, Reagan managed to increase the nation’s deficit by an all-time. Opposed to his bold decision-making, his standards of taking risks counteracted his main objective of decreasing the nation’s poverty.

In the early 1980s, the American people elected Ronald Reagan as President of the United States of America. Many people claim that Reagan was one of the greatest presidents of all time, while others believe that the country would have been much better off had Reagan never been elected. Regardless of their political preferences, it is undeniable that Ronald Reagan changed the world in the 1980s and his work as president will be forever remembered in the countless books of history. Ronald Reagan ran as a Republican and was the absolute epitome of a conservative. He worked to bring forth the ideal of conservatism in America and successfully captured and isolated that belief in the presidency. As president, Reagan worked to bring the ideal of American exceptionalism back to the country, to set the economy on the right track, and to end the Communist threat that had been present since the end of World War II. For all practical purposes, Ronald Reagan was a president who accomplished more than he set forth to do and did so famously; some would say infamously. Nevertheless, Reagan accomplished more in his eight year presidency than most presidents of the 20th Century. He is widely hailed as the man who ended the Cold War and will forever be remembered as the man who led to the conservative resurgence in America. He was a man of profound ability and charisma and America is better off for having Reagan as the Commander-in-Chief during the latter portion of the 20th