Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) was a film actor and president of the Screen Actors Guild who moved from the Democratic to the Republican Party and became a leading conservative voice with his 1964 televised speech for Barry Goldwater. He served two terms as governor of California and won the presidency in 1980 and again in 1984 by large margins. His agenda centered on lower taxes, reduced domestic spending, deregulation, a military buildup and firm opposition to Soviet communism, followed in his second term by arms-control agreements with Mikhail Gorbachev.

Admirers credit Reagan with restoring economic growth after the inflation of the 1970s, reviving national confidence and contributing to the peaceful end of the Cold War, and he remains a central reference point for American conservatives. Critics argue that his tax cuts and defense spending produced large federal deficits, that his policies widened income inequality and that his administration responded slowly to the AIDS epidemic. The Iran-Contra affair, in which arms were sold to Iran and proceeds diverted to Nicaraguan rebels, drew bipartisan criticism. Scholars still debate how much his policies, as opposed to internal Soviet changes, shaped the Cold War's end.