Reagan/Iran-Contra Scandal

Reagan’s Political Rise

• Ronald Reagan was born in 1911 in rural Illinois.
• His father, John Edward Reagan, was a store clerk

Reagan’s Political Rise

• The Reagans were a poor, close, hard-working family.
• For many summers he worked as a lifeguard at Lowell Park on the Rock River in Dixon, pulling seventy-seven people out of the water by his own count and socking away most of his salary to make up college tuition.

Reagan’s Political Rise

• The candidate attended Eureka College in Eureka, Illinois.
• He had a photographic memory, and it was this trait that helped him through college

Reagan’s Political Rise

• He played football and was a member of the college swim team, performed with the drama club, joined the debate club, worked as a reporter on the school newspaper, edited the college yearbook, and served as president of the student council.

Reagan’s Political Rise

• After graduation, Reagan landed a job as a radio sportscaster at WOC in Davenport, Iowa, for $10 per game and transportation expenses.

Reagan’s Political Rise

• By 1936, he was earning a substantial salary with his recreations of Chicago Cubs baseball games and his sportscasts of Big Ten football.
• He went to California to follow the Cubs and a Warner Brothers agent offered him a job for $200 a week
• He acted for 20 years and was in 52 films

Reagan’s Domestic Policies

• "Reaganomics"
• His policies included the largest tax cut in American history as well as increased defense spending as part of his Soviet strategy

Reagan’s Domestic Policies

• The four pillars of Reagan's economic policy were to reduce the growth of government spending, reduce the federal income tax and capital gains tax, reduce government regulation, and tighten the money supply in order to reduce inflation.

Iran-Contra Scandal

• The scandal began as an operation to free seven American hostages being held in Lebanon
• It was planned that Israel would ship weapons to Iran, and then the United States would resupply Israel and receive the Israeli payment.

Iran-Contra Scandal

• This was not legal was Reagan was doing
• Most the money earned from selling these weapons was but back in to the Contras
• When the American people began to find out about this the White House hid,destroyed, and erased many documents

Iran-Contra Scandal

• Reagan appeared on national television and stated that the weapons transfers had indeed occurred, but that the United States did not trade arms for hostages.

Iran-Contra Scandal

• On March 4, 1987, Reagan returned to the airwaves in a nationally televised address, taking full responsibility, and saying that "what began as a strategic opening to Iran deteriorated, in its implementation, into trading arms for hostages

Policy on Nuclear Weapons

• Abolishing nuclear weapons was one of Reagan's fundamental goals for his presidency.
• He did not approve of the use of nuclear weapons, due to the power of the weapon , and he did not want mass amount people dying due to nuclear weapons

Relationship with USSR

• The period 1981–1991 witnessed a dramatic transformation in the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union. During these years the specter of a nuclear war between the superpowers receded as the Cold War ended swiftly, nearly entirely peacefully, and on U.S. terms.

Sources

• https://www.thenation.com/article/rise-ronald-reagan/
• https://millercenter.org/president/reagan/life-before-the-presidency

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaganomics
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Contra_affair

Sources

• http://www.heritage.org/defense/report/president-reagans-legacy-and-us-nucl...
• https://history.state.gov/milestones/1981-1988/u.s.-soviet-relations

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