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Ronald Reagan: Presidents
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After his high school graduation in 1928, Reagan enrolled at Eureka College, a small college in Eureka, Illinois. He majored in economics; joined the college football, track, and swimming teams; and acted in school plays. He washed dishes at his fraternity house and saved money from summer jobs to help pay his expenses. His grades were not exceptional. But he earned acceptable marks through "quick studies" before tests. He ... served for one year as president of the student body.
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By 1948, Reagan's marriage to Wyman was having major problems. Some believe it was because Reagan was becoming very active in politics. Others thought perhaps he was too busy with his work as president of the Screen Actors Guild which he was elected to in 1947. Or it could have been the trauma in June 1947 when Wyman gave birth four months prematurely to a baby girl who did not live. Though no one knows the exact reason the marriage went sour, Reagan and Wyman divorced in June 1948.
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In 1966 Reagan defeated Pat Brown to become the Republican Governor of California seeking to impose tax cuts of 10 per cent across the board. He found that budgets could be cut only slowly and went on to preside over the largest budgets and some of California's largest ever tax increases. Personally opposed to abortions, he had to accept an extension of abortion rights and, though enraged by student lifestyles and anti-Vietnam activities, he increased spending on higher education. He presided over a return to the use of the death penalty and sacked homosexuals on his staff, always denying that he did so. Re-elected in 1969, his second term was marked by a greater willingness to compromise with Democrats and, generally, to present the "soft face" of conservatism. In part he did so in order to position himself to challenge President Ford for the Republican nomination for President in 1976. He failed, but during a tough campaign he articulated growing official and public fears that the Russians were rearming during the period of détente while the USA was facing economic obsolescence because of business taxes and regulation and social dissolution because of welfare dependence.
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As president of SAG, Reagan had become embroiled in disputes over the issue of communism in the film industry. He was called upon to testify (with Walt Disney) before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC). His political views shifted from liberal to conservative during that period. He toured the country as a television host, and became a spokesman for conservatism and anti-communism. Over the years, Reagan and the FBI engaged each other through a series of contacts that catalyzed his political metamorphosis.
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Reagan announces his candidacy for president. After winning the party's nomination, he chooses George Bush as his running mate. The platform calls for "a new consensus with all those across the land who share a community of values embodied in these words: family, work, neighborhood, peace, and freedom."
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As president, Reagan implemented new political initiatives as well as economic policies, advocating a laissez-faire philosophy, but the extent to which these ideas were implemented is debatable. The supply side economic policies, dubbed "Reaganomics", included substantial tax cuts implemented in 1981. After surviving an assassination attempt and ordering controversial military actions in Grenada, he was re-elected in a landslide victory in 1984.
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