The Eighties in America - Salem Press (2009)

She denies that she directly influenced his decisions,
but the two certainly discussed many crucial issues.
The First Lady opposed the Equal Rights Amend-
ment, which the president initially supported. He
eventually came around to her point of view.
Although the First Lady wanted her husband’s
lasting legacy to be one of working arduously for
peace in the world, she crossed swords with Raisa
Gorbachev, wife of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev,
causing a minor breach in U.S.-Soviet relations.
Nevertheless, the First Lady worked tirelessly to
promote her husband’s most important initiatives
and was ever the unfailingly loyal wife, who lived
through the trauma of the attempted assassination
of the president in 1981 and later through her hus-
band’s bout with colon cancer in 1985, with prostate
surgery in 1987, and with her own breast cancer in

1987. She was a strong-willed, intelligent woman
      who unflaggingly supported but did not control her
      husband.

Further Reading
Beasley, Maurine H.First Ladies and the Press: The Un-
finished Partnership of the Media Age.Evanston, Ill.:
Northwestern University Press, 2005. An overall
consideration of how First Ladies have dealt with
the press.
Boller, Paul F., Jr.Presidential Wives: An Anecdotal His-
tor y.2d ed. New York: Oxford University Press,

1998. Provides some intimate, anecdotal glimpses
      into the life of Nancy Reagan as First Lady.
      Kelley, Kitty.Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biogra-
      phy. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991. A contro-
      versial, essentially negative portrayal of Nancy
      Reagan.
      Reagan, Nancy, with William Novak.My Turn: The
      Memoirs of Nancy Reagan.New York: Random
      House, 1989. Nancy Reagan’s attempt to cast her-
      self in a positive light during her life as First Lady.
      Wallace, Chris.First Lady: A Portrait of Nancy Reagan.
      New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1986. Based on the
      NBC White Paper; strong overall coverage with
      excellent illustrations.
      Watson, Robert P., and Anthony J. Eksterowicz, eds.
      The Presidential Companion: Readings on the First La-
      dies. 2d ed. Columbia: University of South Caro-
      lina Press, 2006. Some excellent in-depth insights
      into Nancy Reagan’s role as First Lady.
      R. Baird Shuman

See also Elections in the United States, 1980; Elec-

tions in the United States, 1984; Haig, Alexander;

Iran-Contra affair; Just Say No campaign; National

Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984; Reagan, Ron-

ald; Reagan assassination attempt; Reagan Revolu-

tion; Reaganomics; Regan, Donald.

Reagan, Ronald

Identification U.S. president, 1981-1989

Born February 6, 1911; Tampico, Illinois

Died June 5, 2004; Bel Air, California

Reagan’s two-term presidency dominated American poli-

tics, domestic federal policies and U.S. foreign affairs dur-

ing the 1980’s. Reagan conservatism reshaped the Ameri-

can political landscape, and his administration’s successes

ensured the 1988 presidential victor y of his vice president,

George H. W. Bush. Reagan’s “Revolution” in foreign pol-

icy led to the disintegration of the Soviet Union and Eastern

European communism at the end of the decade.

Ronald Reagan was the second son of Nelle and

John Reagan of Tampico, Illinois. He graduated as

an economics major from Eureka College in 1932

and began work as a radio announcer in Davenport

and then Des Moines, Iowa. In 1937, Reagan moved

to California and entered a film career that lasted

through the 1940’s and resulted in his election as

president of the Screen Actors Guild in 1947. He

married his second wife, actress Nancy Davis, with

whom he had two children, in 1952. From 1954 to

1962, Reagan performed on television’sGeneral Elec-

tric Theaterand served as a spokesperson for General

Electric. Though a Democrat, he supported the presi-

dential campaigns of Republicans Dwight D. Eisen-

hower (1952, 1956) and Richard M. Nixon (1960)

and changed parties in 1962, claiming famously that

the Democratic Party had left him. His speech in

support of Barry Goldwater late in the 1964 presi-

dential campaign brought him to the political lime-

light, and he successfully ran for governor of Califor-

nia two years later. Though he failed in a halfhearted

attempt to secure the Republican presidential nom-

ination in 1968, he easily won reelection in Califor-

nia in 1970. Reagan mounted a stronger bid against

sitting president Gerald R. Ford for the Republi-

can nomination in 1976, losing out in a tightly run

contest.

The Eighties in America Reagan, Ronald
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