RONALD WILSON REAGAN
40th President of the United States
1911 - 2004
click pictures to enlarge
“Whatever else history may say about me when I’m gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears; to your confidence rather than your doubts. My dream is that you will travel the road ahead with liberty’s lamp guiding your steps and opportunity’s arm steadying your way.”
A chronology of Ronald Reagan's life
Feb. 6, 1911: Born in Tampico, Ill., younger of two sons of Nelle and John Reagan.
1932: Graduates from Eureka College, Eureka, Ill.
1932-1937: Works as radio announcer at WOC, Davenport, Iowa, and then WHO, Des Moines.
1937: Makes film debut with "Love Is on the Air."
Jan. 26, 1940: Marries Jane Wyman, actress. Children: Maureen, born 1941, Michael, born 1945, and Christine, born four months premature in 1947 and died the next day. Marriage ends in divorce in 1949.
1940: Plays "the Gipper" in "Knute Rockne: All-American," one of his best-known roles.
1942-45: Serves war effort by making air force training films.
1947: Becomes president of the Screen Actors Guild.
March 4, 1952. Marries Nancy Davis, actress. Children: Patti, born 1952, and Ronald, born 1958.
1952, 1956, 1960: Though a Democrat, campaigns for Republicans Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon. Formally switches to Republican Party in 1962.
1954-62: Works as host and performer on General Electric Theater, tours as speaker for GE.
Oct. 27, 1964: Gives influential speech in favor of GOP presidential candidate Barry Goldwater.
Nov. 8, 1966: Elected California governor over incumbent Democrat Edmund G. "Pat" Brown.
1968: Makes last-minute bid for Republican presidential nomination.
Nov. 3, 1970: Elected to second term as governor.
1976: Challenges President Ford unsuccessfully in the Republican primaries.
Nov. 4, 1980: Elected president over incumbent Jimmy Carter, garnering 51.6 percent of the popular vote to 41.7 percent for Carter and 6.7 percent for independent John Anderson.
Jan. 20, 1981: Sworn in as 40th president of the United States. Iranian hostages released.
March 30, 1981: Wounded by one of six shots fired as he left a Washington hotel after giving a speech.
June 5, 1981: The AIDS crisis begins when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports five gay men in Los Angeles are suffering from a rare pneumonia.
July 7, 1981: Announces he is nominating Arizona judge Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
August 1981: Fires more than 11,000 air traffic controllers after they go out on strike against the Federal Aviation Administration.
Oct. 23, 1983: 241 U.S. Marines and sailors are killed in a suicide truck-bombing in Lebanon.
Oct. 25, 1983: U.S. troops invade island of Grenada after a leftist coup there.
Nov. 6, 1984: Re-elected, besting former Vice President Walter Mondale with nearly 60 percent of the popular vote. He took 49 out of 50 states for an Electoral College vote of 525-13, the most lopsided since Franklin Roosevelt defeated Alf Landon in 1936.
May 5, 1985: Visits German military cemetery at Bitburg as a gesture of reconciliation, inciting worldwide protests because 49 of Adolf Hitler's dreaded Waffen SS troops are buried there.
July 13, 1985: Undergoes successful surgery for colon cancer.
Nov. 19-21, 1985: Summit in Geneva with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Reagan calls it a "fresh start" in U.S.-Soviet relations.
April 15, 1986: United States launches an air raid against Libya in response to the bombing of a discotheque in Berlin 10 days earlier. Libya says 37 people, mostly civilians, were killed.
Oct. 11-12, 1986: Summit in Reykjavik, Iceland, on arms reduction, U.S. strategic defense initiative or "Star Wars."
November 1986: The Iran-Contra affair becomes public. White House admits selling arms to Iran but denies it sold arms for hostages. Later in the month, Reagan announces aide Oliver North has been fired and national security adviser John Poindexter has resigned. It is disclosed that up to $30 million in arms-sale profits were diverted to Nicaraguan rebels, known as the Contras.
March 4, 1987: Reagan acknowledges in a televised speech that his Iranian initiative deteriorated into an arms-for-hostages deal, saying, "It was a mistake."
Oct. 23, 1987: Senate rejects Reagan's nomination of Robert H. Bork for the Supreme Court.
Dec. 8-10, 1987: Summit in Washington. Reagan, Gorbachev sign treaty to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear forces, but disagreement over Star Wars blocks progress on a strategic arms reduction treaty.
May 29-June 2, 1988: Summit in Moscow. Reagan, Gorbachev exchange ratified texts of the INF treaty, discuss strategic and conventional arms and stroll in Red Square.
Nov. 8, 1988: Reagan's vice president, George H.W. Bush, defeats Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis for the presidency.
Dec. 7, 1988: Summit in New York City. Gorbachev's plan to reduce Soviet armed forces is discussed. President-elect Bush takes part.
January 1989: Returns to California after second term ends.
November 1990: Publishes his memoir, "An American Life."
Nov. 4, 1991: Reagan presidential library in Simi Valley, Calif., dedicated; with President Bush and former Presidents Reagan, Carter, Ford and Nixon in attendance.
Nov. 5, 1994: Discloses he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
Jan. 12, 2001: Breaks his hip in a fall at his home.
March 4, 2001: Christening of the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan.
Aug. 8, 2001: Daughter Maureen dies of cancer.
Oct. 11, 2001: Becomes the longest-lived president ever, having lived 33,120 days. The nation's second chief executive, John Adams, lived 33,119 days, from 1735 to 1826.
July 12, 2003: U.S. Navy commissions its newest aircraft carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan, the first carrier to be named for a living president.
June 5, 2004: Reagan dies at 93.
Some quotations from Ronald Reagan:
"This is the issue of this election: whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan for ourselves." - Oct. 27, 1964, televised speech for GOP presidential candidate Barry Goldwater.
---
"I am paying for this microphone, Mr. Breen." - When someone tried to turn off his microphone at a Reagan-sponsored debate during 1980 New Hampshire primaries.
---
"We have to move ahead, but we are not going to leave anyone behind." - Republican National Convention, July 1980
---
"There you go again." - Responding to criticism during debate with President Carter, October 1980.
|
|
|
|
---
"Government is not the solution, it's the problem." - Inaugural address, Jan. 20, 1981
---
"All of us need to be reminded that the federal government did not create the states, the states created the federal government. ... Steps will be taken aimed a restoring the balance between the various levels of government." - Inaugural address, Jan. 20, 1981.
---
"Honey, I forgot to duck." - To Nancy Reagan in the emergency room after he was shot by a would-be assassin, March 30, 1981.
---
"It's just plain common sense that there be a waiting period to allow local law enforcement officials to conduct background checks on those who wish to buy a handgun." - Endorsing the Brady handgun control bill, at a March 1991 event commemorating 10th anniversary of assassination attempt.
---
"Some argue that we should encourage democratic change in right-wing dictatorships, but not in Communist regimes. Well, to accept this preposterous notion - as some well-meaning people have - is to invite the argument that once countries achieve a nuclear capability, they should be allowed an undisturbed reign of terror over their own citizens. We reject this course." - June 1982 speech to British Parliament.
---
"I was pleased last year to proclaim 1983 the year of the Bible. But, you know, a group called the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) severely criticized me for doing that. Well, I wear their indictment like a badge of honor." - January 1984.
---
"I've always stated that the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth is a government program." - April 1986
---
"A (nuclear weapons) freeze now would be a very dangerous fraud, for that is merely the illusion of peace. The reality is that we must find peace through strength. ...
"I urge you to beware the temptation of pride, the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil. ...
"I believe that communism is another sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages even now are being written." - Speech to the National Association of Evangelicals, March 1983. (He wrote six years later that "I could not in good conscience today call the Soviet Union an evil empire.")
---
"If you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate ... open this gate ... tear down this wall." - June 1987 speech at Brandenberg Gate in Berlin. Remarks addressed to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
---
"By 1980, we knew it was time to renew our faith; to strive with all our strength toward the ultimate of individual freedom, consistent with an orderly society.
"We believed then and now: There are no limits to growth and human progress, when men and women are free to follow their dreams. And we were right to believe that. Tax rates have been reduced, inflation cut dramatically and more people are employed than ever before in our history.
"We are creating a nation once again vibrant, robust, and alive. There are many mountains yet to climb. We will not rest until every American enjoys the fullness of freedom, dignity, and opportunity as our birthright. It is our birthright as citizens of this great republic." - Second inaugural address, Jan. 21, 1985
---
"The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next. It was the deep knowledge - and pray God we have not lost it - that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest." - On 40th anniversary of Normandy invasion, June 6, 1984.
---
"Sending the Marines to Beirut was the source of my greatest regret and greatest sorrow." - About the Lebanon bombing that killed 241 servicemen in 1983, from his 1990 book, "An American Life"
---
"The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for the journey and waved goodbye and `slipped the surly bonds of earth' to `touch the face of God.'" - After shuttle disaster, Jan. 28, 1986.
---
"A few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that is true, but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not." - March 4, 1987, speech acknowledging dealings with Iran had deteriorated into an arms for hostages deal
---
"You know, by the time you reach my age, you've made plenty of mistakes if you've lived your life properly. So you learn. You put things in perspective. You pull your energies together. You change. You go forward. My fellow Americans, I have a great deal that I want to accomplish with you and for you over the next two years. And, the Lord willing, that's exactly what I intend to do." - March 4, 1987, speech acknowledging dealings with Iran had deteriorated into an arms for hostages deal
---
"I did not see it as trading arms for hostages because we were dealing with Iranian intermediaries, not the kidnappers themselves. I know it may be a fine line to most people, but it's what I believed then and what I still believe." - About the Iran-Contra affair, from his 1989 book, "Speaking My Mind"
---
"My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes." - Joke while testing microphone, Aug. 11, 1984
---
"So, you can see why, to me, the story of these last eight years and this presidency goes far beyond any personal concerns. It is a continuation, really, of a far larger story, a story of a people and a cause. A cause that, from our earliest beginnings, has defined us as a nation and given purpose to our national existence. The hope of human freedom, the quest for it, the achievement of it, is the American saga." - Last weekly radio address as president, Jan. 14, 1989.
---
"If I ache, it's because we are apart and yet that can't be because you are inside and a part of me, so we really aren't apart at all. Yet I ache but wouldn't be without the ache, because that would mean being without you and that I can't be because I love you." - 1963 letter to his wife, Nancy, quoted in 2000 book "I Love You, Ronnie."
---
"In closing let me thank you, the American people, for giving me the great honor of allowing me to serve as your president. When the Lord calls me home, whenever that may be, I will leave with the greatest love for this country of ours and eternal optimism for its future. I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead." - Nov. 5, 1994, announcing he had Alzheimer's disease.
Text of letter written by Reagan in November 1994 announcing he had Alzheimer's disease:
My Fellow Americans,
I have recently been told that I am one of the millions of Americans who will be afflicted with Alzheimer's disease.
Upon learning this news, Nancy and I had to decide whether as private citizens we would keep this a private matter or whether we would make this news known in a public way.
In the past Nancy suffered from breast cancer and I had my cancer surgeries. We found through our open disclosures we were able to raise public awareness. We were happy that as a result many more people underwent testing.
They were treated in early stages and able to return to normal, healthy lives.
So now, we feel it is important to share it with you. In opening our hearts, we hope this might promote greater awareness of this condition. Perhaps it will encourage a clearer understanding of the individuals and families who are affected by it.
At the moment I feel just fine. I intend to live the remainder of the years God gives me on this earth doing the things I have always done. I will continue to share life's journey with my beloved Nancy and my family. I plan to enjoy the great outdoors and stay in touch with my friends and supporters.
Unfortunately, as Alzheimer's Disease progresses, the family often bears a heavy burden. I only wish there was some way I could spare Nancy from this painful experience. When the time comes I am confident that with your help she will face it with faith and courage.
In closing let me thank you, the American people for giving me the great honor of allowing me to serve as your President. When the Lord calls me home, whenever that may be, I will leave with the greatest love for this country of ours and eternal optimism for its future.
I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead.
Thank you, my friends. May God always bless you.
Sincerely,
Ronald Reagan.
Films of Ronald Reagan:
Love Is On the Air, 1937
Submarine D-l (bit deleted from final print) 1937
Sergeant Murphy, 1938
Swing Your Lady, 1938
Hollywood Hotel, 1938
Accidents Will Happen, 1938
Cowboy From Brooklyn, 1938
Boy Meets Girl, 1938
Girls on Probation, 1938
Brother Rat, 1938
Going Places 1938
Secret Service of the Air, 1939
Dark Victory, 1939
Code of the Secret Service, 1939
Naughty but Nice, 1939
Hell's Kitchen, 1939
Angel Wash Their Faces, 1939
Smashing the Money Ring 1939
Brother Rat and a Baby, 1940
An Angel From Texas, 1940
Murder in the Air, 1940
Knute Rockne-All American, 1940
Tugboat Annie Sails Again, 1940
Santa Fe Trail 1940
The Bad Man, 1941
Million Dollar Baby, 1941
Nine Lives Are Not Enough, 1941
International Squadron 1941
Kings Row, 1942
Juke Girl, 1942
Desperate Journey 1942
This Is the Army 1943
Stallion Road, 1947
That Hagen Girl, 1947
The Voice of the Turtle 1947
John Loves Mary, 1949
Night Unto Night, 1949
The Girl From Jones Beach, 1949
It's a Great Feeling (cameo) 1949
The Hasty Heart, 1950
Louisa, 1950
Storm Warning, 1951
Bedtime for Bonzo, 1951
The Last Outpost 1951
Hong Kong, 1952
The Winning Team, 1952
She's Working Her Way Through College, 1952
Tropic Zone, 1953
Law and Order, 1953
Prisoner of War, 1954
Cattle Queen of Montana, 1954
Tennessee's Partner, 1955
Hellcats of the Navy, 1957
The Killers, 1964
Remarks by President Bush in Eulogy for Ronald Wilson Reagan
The National Cathedral
Washington, D.C.
THE PRESIDENT: Mrs. Reagan, Patti, Michael, and Ron; members of the Reagan family; distinguished guests, including our Presidents and First Ladies; Reverend Danforth; fellow citizens:
We lost Ronald Reagan only days ago, but we have missed him for a long time. We have missed his kindly presence, that reassuring voice, and the happy ending we had wished for him. It has been ten years since he said his own farewell; yet it is still very sad and hard to let him go. Ronald Reagan belongs to the ages now, but we preferred it when he belonged to us.
In a life of good fortune, he valued above all the gracious gift of his wife, Nancy. During his career, Ronald Reagan passed through a thousand crowded places; but there was only one person, he said, who could make him lonely by just leaving the room.
America honors you, Nancy, for the loyalty and love you gave this man on a wonderful journey, and to that journey's end. Today, our whole nation grieves with you and your family.
When the sun sets tonight off the coast of California, and we lay to rest our 40th President, a great American story will close. The second son of Nell and Jack Reagan first knew the world as a place of open plains, quiet streets, gas-lit rooms, and carriages drawn by horse. If you could go back to the Dixon, Illinois of 1922, you'd find a boy of 11 reading adventure stories at the public library, or running with his brother, Neil, along Rock River, and coming home to a little house on Hennepin Avenue. That town was the kind of place you remember where you prayed side by side with your neighbors, and if things were going wrong for them, you prayed for them, and knew they'd pray for you if things went wrong for you.
The Reagan family would see its share of hardship, struggle and uncertainty. And out of that circumstance came a young man of steadiness, calm, and a cheerful confidence that life would bring good things. The qualities all of us have seen in Ronald Reagan were first spotted 70 and 80 years ago. As a lifeguard in Lowell Park, he was the protector keeping an eye out for trouble. As a sports announcer on the radio, he was the friendly voice that made you see the game as he did. As an actor, he was the handsome, all-American, good guy, which, in his case, required knowing his lines -- and being himself.
Along the way, certain convictions were formed and fixed in the man. Ronald Reagan believed that everything happened for a reason, and that we should strive to know and do the will of God. He believed that the gentleman always does the kindest thing. He believed that people were basically good, and had the right to be free. He believed that bigotry and prejudice were the worst things a person could be guilty of. He believed in the Golden Rule and in the power of prayer. He believed that America was not just a place in the world, but the hope of the world.
And he believed in taking a break now and then, because, as he said, there's nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse.
Ronald Reagan spent decades in the film industry and in politics, fields known, on occasion, to change a man. But not this man. From Dixon to Des Moines, to Hollywood to Sacramento, to Washington, D.C., all who met him remembered the same sincere, honest, upright fellow. Ronald Reagan's deepest beliefs never had much to do with fashion or convenience. His convictions were always politely stated, affably argued, and as firm and straight as the columns of this cathedral.
There came a point in Ronald Reagan's film career when people started seeing a future beyond the movies. The actor, Robert Cummings, recalled one occasion. "I was sitting around the set with all these people and we were listening to Ronnie, quite absorbed. I said, 'Ron, have you ever considered someday becoming President?' He said, 'President of what?' 'President of the United States,' I said. And he said, 'What's the matter, don't you like my acting either?'" (Laughter.)
The clarity and intensity of Ronald Reagan's convictions led to speaking engagements around the country, and a new following he did not seek or expect. He often began his speeches by saying, "I'm going to talk about controversial things." And then he spoke of communist rulers as slave masters, of a government in Washington that had far overstepped its proper limits, of a time for choosing that was drawing near. In the space of a few years, he took ideas and principles that were mainly found in journals and books, and turned them into a broad, hopeful movement ready to govern.
As soon as Ronald Reagan became California's governor, observers saw a star in the West -- tanned, well-tailored, in command, and on his way. In the 1960s, his friend, Bill Buckley, wrote, "Reagan is indisputably a part of America, and he may become a part of American history."
Ronald Reagan's moment arrived in 1980. He came out ahead of some very good men, including one from Plains, and one from Houston. What followed was one of the decisive decades of the century, as the convictions that shaped the President began to shape the times.
He came to office with great hopes for America, and more than hopes -- like the President he had revered and once saw in person, Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan matched an optimistic temperament with bold, persistent action. President Reagan was optimistic about the great promise of economic reform, and he acted to restore the reward and spirit of enterprise. He was optimistic that a strong America could advance the peace, and he acted to build the strength that mission required. He was optimistic that liberty would thrive wherever it was planted, and he acted to defend liberty wherever it was threatened.
And Ronald Reagan believed in the power of truth in the conduct of world affairs. When he saw evil camped across the horizon, he called that evil by its name. There were no doubters in the prisons and gulags, where dissidents spread the news, tapping to each other in code what the American President had dared to say. There were no doubters in the shipyards and churches and secret labor meetings, where brave men and women began to hear the creaking and rumbling of a collapsing empire. And there were no doubters among those who swung hammers at the hated wall as the first and hardest blow had been struck by President Ronald Reagan.
The ideology he opposed throughout his political life insisted that history was moved by impersonal ties and unalterable fates. Ronald Reagan believed instead in the courage and triumph of free men. And we believe it, all the more, because we saw that courage in him.
As he showed what a President should be, he also showed us what a man should be. Ronald Reagan carried himself, even in the most powerful office, with a decency and attention to small kindnesses that also defined a good life. He was a courtly, gentle and considerate man, never known to slight or embarrass others. Many people across the country cherish letters he wrote in his own hand -- to family members on important occasions; to old friends dealing with sickness and loss; to strangers with questions about his days in Hollywood. A boy once wrote to him requesting federal assistance to help clean up his bedroom. (Laughter.)
The President replied that, "unfortunately, funds are dangerously low." (Laughter.) He continued, "I'm sure your mother was fully justified in proclaiming your room a disaster. Therefore, you are in an excellent position to launch another volunteer program in our nation. Congratulations." (Laughter.)
Sure, our 40th President wore his title lightly, and it fit like a white Stetson. In the end, through his belief in our country and his love for our country, he became an enduring symbol of our country. We think of his steady stride, that tilt of a head and snap of a salute, the big-screen smile, and the glint in his Irish eyes when a story came to mind.
We think of a man advancing in years with the sweetness and sincerity of a Scout saying the Pledge. We think of that grave expression that sometimes came over his face, the seriousness of a man angered by injustice -- and frightened by nothing. We know, as he always said, that America's best days are ahead of us, but with Ronald Reagan's passing, some very fine days are behind us, and that is worth our tears.
Americans saw death approach Ronald Reagan twice, in a moment of violence, and then in the years of departing light. He met both with courage and grace. In these trials, he showed how a man so enchanted by life can be at peace with life's end.
And where does that strength come from? Where is that courage learned? It is the faith of a boy who read the Bible with his mom. It is the faith of a man lying in an operating room, who prayed for the one who shot him before he prayed for himself. It is the faith of a man with a fearful illness, who waited on the Lord to call him home.
Now, death has done all that death can do. And as Ronald Wilson Reagan goes his way, we are left with the joyful hope he shared. In his last years, he saw through a glass darkly. Now he sees his Savior face to face.
And we look to that fine day when we will see him again, all weariness gone, clear of mind, strong and sure, and smiling again, and the sorrow of his parting gone forever.
May God bless Ronald Reagan, and the country he loved.