President Ronald Reagan, Essay Example

The Impact of President Ronald Reagan on American History

As the 40th President of the United States (1981 to 1989), Ronald Reagan left an indelible mark upon American history by creating what some have called the Reagan Revolution which overall during the 1980’s helped to “reinvigorate the American people and reduce their reliance upon the government.” As Reagan himself noted during the final years of his administration, his campaign pledge of 1980 as the Republican candidate for the Presidency was fulfilled via the restoration of the “great, confident roar of American progress, growth, and optimism” (Ronald Reagan, 2014).

Perhaps the most notable event that occurred during the Presidency of Ronald Reagan was the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. This monumental event came about as a direct result of Reagan’s close ties to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev who unlike his predecessors wished to bring the Soviet Union into the present as a fledgling member of the ever-expanding global community. Although Gorbachev had strived for a peaceful conclusion to the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, political turmoil made this impossible which eventually led to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989. Some of Reagan’s staunchest supporters asserted that he had single-handedly won the Cold War; however, Reagan realized that the “entire world was the winner” and that American democratic principles and ideals had prevailed over communism (Ronald Reagan: Impact and Legacy, 2013).

As Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once remarked, Reagan had “achieved the most difficult of all political tasks,” being the alteration of long-held political and social attitudes during a time when “freedom was in retreat” (Ronald Reagan: Impact and Legacy, 2013). For the United States, the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union brought our nation to the forefront of world power and set the stage for an economic boom that reverberated across the world and which today can be seen in the form of globalization and the struggle of people from many countries to achieve freedom and economic prosperity.

Another notable event that came about during the Presidency of Ronald Reagan were the drastic changes made to the American economy. According to Mark Weisbot, the economic policies initiated during the Reagan Administration were for the most part a failure, due to the fact that he had attempted to “increase military spending, cut taxes, and balance the budget” all at the same time. However, his pledge to strengthen America’s military arsenal did occur which created one of the “largest peacetime military build-ups in American history;” he also managed to cut taxes considerably, especially for upper-income American households (2004). These tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans was based on Reagan’s “trickle down” economic approach which since its inception in the early 1980’s continues to affect the growth and function of the American economy.

One other area related to the so-called Reagan Revolution were the changes made concerning the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank which during the Reagan Administration were loaning billions of dollars to European nations struggling to overcome the devastation related to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Weisbot refers to this as the “era of structural adjustment” which in effect worsened the economic conditions of some borrowing nations.

Therefore, Reagan’s greatest impact on American history is indelibly linked to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the decline of communism in Europe. But Reagan’s impact is also related to his determination to restore traditional American values and concepts and his “vision of a nuclear-free world” (Ronald Reagan: Impact and Legacy, 2013) which came close to reality when the Cold War ended, thus making the United States the only true superpower in the world.

References

Ronald Reagan. (2014). The White House. Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/ronaldreagan

Ronald Reagan: Impact and legacy. (2013). University of Virginia. Retrieved from http://millercenter.org/president/reagan/essays/biography/8

Weisbrot, M. (2004). Ronald Reagan’s legacy. Retrieved from http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0607-09.htm