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Ronald Reagan's Inaugural Address

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In 1980 America was faced with an economic crisis for the ages and they chose Ronald Reagan to deal with it. By the end of Jimmy Carter’s presidency the interest rate was 15.26 percent, inflation was at 12.5 percent and unemployment at 7.1 percent and these rates were still on the rise.[1] Coupled with an economy that was not growing, these rates pushed the United States into a recession. Due to the current situation President Jimmy Carter had put us in, Ronald Reagan was elected in a landslide victory and at 69 he was the oldest elected president. Reagan was faced with a task comparable to Franklin Roosevelt and his inaugural address needed to reestablish confidence in the American economy. As well as the economic crisis, Reagan was …show more content…

Even more detrimental to Carter’s campaign was the blacks that helped him win the election 1976 were beginning to turn on him in 1980 when the rise in unemployment directly effected them. [7] Along with the loss of voters due to economic policy, many Americans blamed Carter for the Iran hostage crisis that begun in November of 1979. The newly formed government of Iran believed that America was not in support of this change and would plan for a government of their choosing to be put in place. It was believed that this was being planned in the American embassy. To prevent this situation from happening, an invasion planned by Iranian politician Ebrahim Asghazadeh was carried out early in the morning of November 4th 1979. Around 400 Muslim Students were gathered and overran the security and took the embassy hostage. The situation escalated during Carter’s continuing presidency as he approved a rescue mission known as Operation Eagle Claw. This mission would soon fail due to numerous problems with the helicopters and eight American servicemen would loose their lives and many would be injured. The failed mission would soon become public and as Carter would tell the American people about the attempt his political popularity would take a large hit and re-election did not seem possible for Carter. The crisis would go on to be resolved after Carter had already lost the presidency. During the final days of

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