Domestic policy
When Reagan came to power, he must first solve the serious domestic economic problems. At that time, the American economy faced double-digit inflation (which would make economic planning quite unpredictable) and 20% bank interest rate (which made it difficult for most people to mortgage loans), and nearly 8 million people were unemployed. The average hourly wage of workers is 5% lower than before 1976, while the personal tax rate levied by the federal government is as high as 67% on average. The national debt is nearly 1 trillion. Reagan was regarded as an economic liberal. He advocates reducing taxes, reducing the size of the government and reducing control over business. But at that time, no one knew how he would proceed, and he was not sure whether the House of Representatives, which was dominated by the Democratic Party, would support him.
In the summer of 198 1, a large number of air traffic controllers at the federal airport went on an illegal strike led by the Air Traffic Control Employees Union (PATCO) because of the dispute over their salary and working environment. Reagan fired all the air traffic controllers who took part in the strike according to the warning in advance. Because this trade union was one of the few trade unions that supported Reagan in the 1980 general election, Reagan's actions caused a political uproar.
The main goal of Reagan's first term was to revive the American economy, which was in so-called stagflation (stagnant economic development and high inflation). Reagan's first order was to stop the government's control of oil prices in order to restore the market power of domestic oil production and exploration. [5] In order to solve the double-digit inflation, Reagan supported the plan of Paul Volcker, chairman of the Federal Reserve System, that is, to reduce the money supply by substantially raising bank interest rates. Economist Milton Friedman described Reagan's understanding that "financial control and short-term recession are inevitable if inflation is to be successfully curbed". Reagan used the methods of tightening the money supply and reducing taxes across the board to stimulate business investment (according to Reagan, "Chicago School of Economics, supply school, whatever you want to call it. I noticed that some people even called it Reagan Economics until it came into effect ... "). Reagan's opponents ridiculed it as" voodoo economy ","trickle-down effect "and" Reagan Economics ",but Reagan successfully introduced a comprehensive tax cut.
Tightening the money supply in order to end inflation led to a sharp decline of the American economy in July of 198 1, and it fell to the bottom in June of 1982+0 1 [8]. After experiencing the recession of 198 1- 1982, the American economy began a dramatic economic recovery at 1983. The Reagan administration advocated that tax cuts would help economic recovery, create more employment opportunities, and finally make the federal government get more tax revenue, increasing from 565,438 to 565,438 per year in the early 1980s. The Reagan administration's new military strategy has increased a large number of military budgets, resulting in an unprecedented federal budget deficit. Some critics believe that this policy of investing heavily in the military industry actually belongs to classical Keynesian economics, and the subsequent economic growth is not caused by tax cuts, but the result of a large amount of government spending.
The House of Representatives, which was controlled by the Democratic Party at that time, opposed Reagan's cuts in social welfare and other domestic expenditures.
Aware of the increase in social welfare expenditure, Reagan appointed alan greenspan to lead the social welfare reform and drew up a plan to slow down social welfare expenditure. With the increase of age, the allowance from social welfare will gradually increase (also in line with the increasing life expectancy of the people), so that this system will not exceed the government's affordability in the next 50-70 years. The plan also increases government taxes by raising the payroll tax rate for social welfare.
In order to solve the budget deficit, the Reagan administration borrowed a lot of national debt from home and abroad. By Reagan's second term, the national debt held by the people had greatly increased from 26% of GDP in 1980 to 4 1% in 1989, the highest since 1963. 1988 The total national debt was 2.6 trillion US dollars, and the total foreign loans exceeded domestic loans. The United States has also changed from the world's largest creditor country to the world's largest borrower.
Reagan's economic policy widened the gap between the rich and the poor; However, during Reagan's tenure, the income of all economic classes increased, including the bottom poor, and also increased by 6% (US Census Bureau, 1996). At the same time, the richest 65,438+0% Americans increased their income by 65,438+0 trillion yuan (ZINN, 2003).
The Reagan administration was criticized by the gay rights movement and others because it did not deal with the rising HIV/AIDS quickly. The White House first discussed this disease in 1982+00. Reagan first publicly discussed the government's measures to deal with diseases at the press conference of 1985.
Despite criticism, Reagan spent $57 billion on fighting HIV and AIDS during his tenure, most of which was invested in the National Institutes of Health. The resources for HIV and AIDS research increased by 450% in 1983, by 134% in 1984, by 99% in 85 and by 148% in 86. 1September 1985, Reagan said: "Including our 1986 budget, we have invested more than 500 million yuan in AIDS research, and I am sure other medical institutions are also conducting these studies at the same time. Our budget this year is 1 billion yuan, and next year is126 million yuan, so this is our top priority. There is no doubt about the seriousness of this disease, and we must find out the cause. " By 1986, Reagan had invested a lot of money in AIDS prevention and research, and declared that AIDS was "the first priority disease in public health of the Ministry of Health and Human Services."
Reagan also played an important role in another rare debate about AIDS. Robert gallo, an American researcher, and Luc Montagnier Neil, a French scientist, both claimed to have discovered the virus of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and named it respectively. In the end, Reagan and French President francois mitterrand reached a consensus through negotiations, which made them and their team mutually assured destruction. This incident is quite rare, ignoring the scientific basis of naming, and it is also the first time that the biological debate has risen to the political level. Obviously, Montagni and Reagan understood that the two great powers should not have an argument on this issue.
Reagan strongly opposed abortion. He published the book "Abortion and National Harmony", in which he accused abortion of disrespect for life. Many conservative activists think Reagan is the most anti-abortion president in history. However, two Supreme Court justices appointed by him, sandra day o'connor and Anthony Kennedy, voted that the anti-abortion law was unconstitutional in Roy v. Wade. When Reagan was governor, he also wrote the right to free abortion into the California statute.
Although Reagan's second term was marked by his foreign policy, he also dominated many important domestic bills. 1982, Reagan signed a bill to extend the voting rights bill of 1965 for 25 years-although he opposed the extension in the election campaign of 1980. The bill protects the voting rights of the blind, the disabled and the illiterate.
Other important bills include the tax reform bill of 1986 and the civil liberties bill of 1988, including compensation for Japanese-Americans detained in World War II. Reagan also legislated to authorize the death penalty for murder involving drug trafficking.
Milton Milton Friedman put forward the number of federal documents during Reagan's tenure (which recorded the laws and regulations promulgated by the federal government every year) to illustrate Reagan's policy trend of opposing government regulation. Since 1960, the number of federal documents issued by each president has been increasing every year, but the number of federal documents issued after Reagan took office has decreased sharply, which proves Reagan's opposition to government regulation. The number of federal official documents only increased slightly during Reagan's tenure, and it did not start to increase significantly until Reagan left office.
Foreign policy and intervention
Reagan held one-on-one talks with Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev. Reagan was the first person who argued that communism would collapse. 1on March 3, 983, he said, "I believe that communism is a sad and strange page in human history-the last page that is still moving forward." At that time, the mainstream view of the west on the Soviet Union was that the new generation of the Soviet Union was coming, and the western world was bound to cooperate with them. But Reagan argued that the Soviet Union was in a serious economic crisis, and he intended to aggravate this crisis by cutting off the scientific and technological exchanges between the Soviet Union and the West. It is believed that the worst thing in the Soviet Union is to "run counter to the historical trend of mankind and obliterate the freedom and dignity of its own people."
The orthodox view of American scholars on the end of the Cold War is this: "Because the liberal and democratic western countries continue to maintain their advantages in military status, ideological strength and economic system, the Soviet Union finally surrendered and the Cold War ended. These factors reveal the moral illegality of communism and highlight its economic stagnation. " (Salla and Summy, page 3) This view is acceptable to both Republicans (emphasizing Reagan's role) and Democrats (emphasizing Truman, Kennedy, Johnson and Carter's long-term containment policy). This view is also widely accepted by eastern European countries. For example, lech walesa of the Polish Solidarity Union said in 2004: "When talking about Ronald Reagan, I must talk about him from my personal perspective, and all of us Poles will talk about him from our perspective. Why? Because he gave us the freedom. " German Chancellor Angela helmut kohl said: "His appearance is the luck of the world. Two years after Reagan called on Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall, the Berlin Wall really fell, and 1 1 month later Germany was unified. " Irish Prime Minister Bertie bertie ahern said: "President Reagan was a staunch resister of communism, and he played an important role in ending communism and the division of Europe after World War II." Vaclav havel1989, who later became the president of Czechoslovakia, said: "He was a man of firm principles, and there is no doubt that he contributed to the collapse of communism."
Reagan chose a tough line of direct confrontation with the Soviet Union, unlike previous presidents such as Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter who adopted a detente policy. Assuming that the Soviet Union's investment in the military budget could no longer exceed that of the United States, he launched a new wave of arms race, trying to make the Cold War fierce economically and superficially.
The Reagan administration carried out a large-scale military expansion under the policy of "only strength can achieve peace", in order to compare theodore roosevelt's tough foreign policy with his famous saying "Speak softly and hold a big stick". The Reagan administration's new Soviet policy was aimed at winning the Cold War. This strategy is named NSDD-32 (National Security Decision Direction). This strategy outlines Reagan's plan to confront the Soviet Union on three fronts: economically, reducing the opportunities for the Soviet Union to acquire high-tech technology and its resources, including reducing the value of Soviet goods in the world market; Militarily-increase US military spending to consolidate the position of the United States in the negotiations and force the Soviet Union to transfer more economic resources to military purposes; Handling, from the anti-Soviet guerrillas in Afghanistan to the solidarity trade union movement in Poland (also supported by Soros and the Holy See). Reagan also put forward an active strategic defense plan called "Star Wars", a missile defense network based on outer space. This is usually regarded as a threat by countries outside the United States, because it will probably offset the Soviet Union's ability to "guarantee mutual destruction" to the United States-in theory, this will enable the United States to launch the first strike of nuclear war and avoid the subsequent counterattack of the Soviet Union; I feel that the balanced position in the arms race and the strategic foundation of the world may be lost, and the people of the Soviet Union are increasingly frustrated with the situation. June 65438+0986+1October 65438, Reagan met Gorbachev of the Soviet Union in Iceland. During the meeting, Gorbachev earnestly hoped that the United States would cancel this defensive and offensive missile defense network. On March 1990, 1 1, Lithuania declared its independence from the Soviet Union under the leadership of newly elected President vytautas landsbergis, and other Soviet countries also declared their independence in succession on 199 1, and the Soviet Union officially disintegrated. Margaret Thatcher described it this way: "Reagan won the Cold War without firing a shot."
Reagan advocated that the American economy began to recover; The rapid computerized economy and high-tech technology are the main forces, but the Soviet Union is far behind in this respect, and even South Korea's high technology has surpassed it, and it is lagging behind year by year. Reagan further prohibited the United States and its allies from exporting high-tech technology to the Soviet Union, which made the situation of the Soviet Union even worse. For a time, when the oil price was extremely high, this backwardness was covered up, because the Soviet Union exported a large amount of oil, but this advantage was also lost in the early 1980 s. In order to compete with western countries economically, it is obvious that a thorough reform is needed. Gorbachev began this reform. He hoped that the openness and new thinking in the new policy could revive the Soviet economy, but these reforms failed to find a solution, and instead produced more dissatisfaction with the Soviet system. Reagan's large-scale military expansion and his tough anti-Soviet remarks made the Soviet Union react almost panic in 1983 NATO routine exercise (Able Archer 83). Although the crisis of this nuclear war quickly subsided with the end of the exercise, the exercise also showed the possible negative consequences of Reagan's tough attitude. Some historians, such as Beth B. Fischer, believe that the crisis had a far-reaching impact on Reagan's policies, which changed his attitude towards the Soviet Union from direct confrontation to a harmonious and friendly policy.
Among European countries, his main ally and good friend is British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who also supports Reagan's deterrent attitude towards the Soviet Union. Although Reagan and the Soviet Union signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Weapons Treaty (INF) and the Strategic Arms Reduction Negotiation (START I) and other arms limitation treaties, Reagan still implemented the Star Wars plan, deployed a missile defense network based on outer space, and intercepted missiles with military satellites orbiting the earth, so that the United States would not be damaged in a nuclear war. Critics believe that this plan is unrealistic and violates the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, while supporters believe that this plan will force the Soviet Union to invest more unaffordable military expenditure. In fact, the Soviet Union also tried to establish a similar system on its own, or at least at the same time to narrow the military gap with the United States through arms limitation treaties. In the end, the Soviet Union was more successful in the latter, because it tried to catch up with the US military and R&D funds (not just the Star Wars system), which seriously damaged the already unstable Soviet economy, which was also considered as one of the main reasons for the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
The Reagan administration resolutely opposed the Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon, which began to kidnap American citizens and attack civilian targets after Israel invaded Lebanon. The Reagan administration also resolutely opposed Palestinian terrorists in the West Bank and the Gaza Corridor. More controversially, Reagan regarded FMLN in El Salvador and guerrillas in Honduras as terrorists. He also regarded Umkhonto we Sizwe, an armed faction of South Africa's anti-apartheid system, as a terrorist organization.
Reagan's support for the right-wing government in El Salvador was controversial because he was worried that FMLN might win the civil war in El Salvador. The war killed 75,000 people, left 8,000 missing and left/kloc-0,000 people homeless. However, the democratic election process promised by Reagan was also partially successful.
After the United Nations ordered a limited period of multinational force trusteeship in Lebanon, 800 US Marines were sent to Beirut to evacuate the PLO. 1982 In September, after the Sabra and Chatila massacres in Beirut killed hundreds of Palestinian civilians, Reagan organized a new multinational force. After active diplomatic efforts, Lebanon and Israel finally reached a peace agreement. Soon after, the US military began to evacuate, but on1October 23rd, 1983+ 165438, a car bomb attacked the US military camp, killing as many as 24 1 marines. Reagan called that day the saddest day of his presidency.
1983 a communist coup took place in Grenada, a small island country. Reagan quickly ordered the American army invasion of grenada to overthrow the newly established communist regime.
1980 Iran-Iraq war broke out, the United States remained neutral at first, and then gradually intervened. Sometimes the United States supports both sides at the same time, but mainly Iraq, because the United States believes that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein poses less threat to regional security than Iran's Khomeini. Henry Kissinger pointed out that the policy of the United States at that time was "no one can lose". The United States is worried that if Iran wins, it will inspire Islamic fundamentalists in Arab countries, which may lead to the overthrow of secular governments and endanger local companies in western countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kuwait. After the initial military victory in Iraq, the situation began to reverse, 1982 Iran may win. At this time, the U.S. government tried to cut off the Iranian regime's access to weapons (but later began to transport weapons to Iran, leading to the Iran-contra incident). The United States has also provided a large amount of intelligence information and financial support to the Iraqi military regime. The US government has also allowed some "dual-use goods" that can be used as biological and chemical weapons to be transported to Iraq. Iraq imported these goods in the name of agricultural supplies, medical research and civilian use, but they were used as weapons of mass destruction by Hussein.
While supporting Iraq, the Reagan administration secretly sold military weapons to finance anti-government guerrillas in Nicaragua, which triggered the Iran-contra scandal. Reagan publicly admitted that he didn't know the secret plan and quickly called the office of the independent prosecutor to investigate. Finally, 10 Reagan administration aides were convicted and forced to resign. Kasper Weinberg, Reagan's defense secretary, was accused of perjury and was finally pardoned by George ·H·W· Bush the day before the trial. A report put forward by historians in 2006 listed the Iran-contra incident as the ninth biggest mistake made by the president of the United States.
"great communicator"
On June 1987, when Ronald Reagan visited West Berlin, he gave a speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate of the Berlin Wall: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Reagan is known as a "great communicator" because of his eloquence and unique emotion in expressing concepts. These eloquence skills come from his experience as an actor, TV and radio host and politician. At the same time, as the president, he also hired a skilled speech writer to further develop his charm. Reagan's rhetorical skills are quite changeable. He accused the Soviet Union and communism in strong and even ideological terms-especially during his first term.
But he can also arouse people's impressions and thoughts that America is a defender of freedom. In his speech on1964165438+1October 27th, he named his speech "a moment of choice" and reintroduced the well-known word "rendezvous with destiny" in franklin delano roosevelt. In other speeches, he called the United States a "glorious city on the top of the mountain" and called Americans "generous, idealistic, brave, decent and honest citizens" and had "the right to dream heroic goals".
19861October 28th, after learning that Challenger crashed unexpectedly, he postponed his New Year's State of the Union address and delivered a speech on the accident to the whole country. In his speech, he described the astronauts who died: "We will never forget them, and this will not be the last time we see them. Because just this morning, they were ready to leave, waved goodbye to us, and then "broke free from the bondage of the gloomy earth" and "touched the face of God" (Reagan quoted the famous poem of American poet John gillespie Magee in this speech)
Perhaps Reagan's humor, especially his one-liners, eliminated his opponent's strength and made him widely loved by the public. When discussing his age in the TV debate of Walter Mondale 1984 presidential campaign speech, he said humorously, "I won't take my age as the topic of the campaign. I will not use this as a political purpose to show my opponent's youth and inexperience. " When talking about his career, he joked: "Politics is not a bad career. If you succeed, you will get many rewards. If you fail shamefully, you can still publish a book. "
Both Reagan's supporters and opponents noticed his "cheerful optimism", which made him more popular than previous presidents. For example, Jimmy Carter always smiles, but it is a serious smile. Reagan once said: "The lessons of leaders are all the same; Work hard, know the truth, be willing to listen and understand others, have a strong sense of responsibility and command ability, and make good decisions for the people you represent. "
attempted assassination
198 1 On March 30th, 2008, Reagan, who had just been in office for 69 days, went to the Hilton Hotel in Washington to have lunch with representatives of the American Federation of Labor (AFL-CIO) and delivered a speech. When Reagan and his staff walked out of the hotel gate, hinkley, a psychopath, ambushed the media crowd outside the hotel gate and fired six shots with a.22 caliber revolver. Three people were shot, among them, the secretary was shot, and McKay blocked one shot as a bodyguard. The last bullet grazed the car door and entered Reagan's lungs, only 1 inch from his heart. Reagan was rushed to the nearby Washington University Hospital for emergency surgery.
During the operation, Reagan joked to the doctor, "I hope you are all Republicans." (Although the doctor is not, he still replied, "Today we will all support the Republican Party." When first lady nancy reagan arrived at the hospital, Reagan joked with her when heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey was knocked down: "Honey, I forgot to bow my head."
A criticized policy
Reagan's personal charm made almost everything he said acceptable to the public, which earned him the nickname "Teflon President" (meaning that nothing sticks to him without touching the pot). During the Iran-contra incident, he denied knowing about the deal, but the quotation of Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberg in the file shows that Reagan knew that it might violate the US Constitution, but he brought the public an image of "great and powerful Reagan taking risks and trying to exchange weapons for the freedom of hostages". 1985+02, Reagan wrote a secret presidential "investigation" and recorded the plan of "exchanging weapons for hostages". The secret documents of the Reagan era could have been made public from 200 1, but President george walker bush signed a bill to keep these documents secret indefinitely, which made it impossible for people to know more about them. The United States was convicted by the International Court of Justice for supporting Nicaraguan terrorists during Reagan's term (Nicaragua v. United States). Although the United Nations General Assembly resolution requires the United States to obey the judgment, the United States has never paid compensation.
Reagan's fiscal and tax reduction policies were criticized as widening the gap between the rich and the poor, while his reduction of social welfare and income tax rates was criticized by some critics as a policy that benefited the rich. The unprecedented growth of national debt during his term of office has also been criticized, which will endanger the health of the national economy. After the deregulation of banking in1980s, credit cooperatives were free to invest depositors' deposits in commercial real estate (before they were restricted to residential real estate), and many credit cooperatives began to make venture capital. Federal housing loan banks, which are in charge of federal industry supervision, tried to limit this risky behavior, so they began to conflict with Reagan administration policies. Reagan wanted to deregulate most industries, including banking. Reagan therefore refused to submit the budget review of the Federal Housing Loan Bank to Congress. The conflict cost the United States 50 billion yuan and almost led to the collapse of the credit cooperative industry.
Liberals also criticized Reagan's tough foreign policy, which may lead to the crisis of nuclear war. Critics pointed out that Reagan ignored the human rights issues in Central and South America and South Africa, and Reagan's support for South Africa's apartheid policy was strongly criticized by African Americans. Although Reagan also tried to end the apartheid system in South Africa and liberalize it, he opposed the imposition of economic sanctions on South Africa, thinking that it was "a seemingly favorable sanctions plan, which would actually reduce the influence of the South African government and make many good people in South Africa suffer economic difficulties."
People in western European countries regard Reagan as a very special American president. Although Reagan was strongly supported by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, he was also satirized by many British media as slow-witted or senile, which was also caused by many practical accidents. Including1985165438+1October 9, he forgot the name of Princess Diana in his speech, hesitated for a while and called it "Princess David", which caused widespread ridicule.
Scandal and controversy
Several scandals during Reagan's tenure led to the conviction of several government officials. The most famous case is the Iran-contra incident, in which weapons were secretly sold to Khomeini's Islamic fundamentalist regime, and the profits from the sale were used to support the anti-communist guerrillas in Nicaragua. 65,438+00 government officials were found guilty, including lying to the National Assembly and the tax bureau. However, Reagan survived the scandal after apologizing for it.
There were several other scandals during Reagan's tenure; One of them involves the staff of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. A sponsor of Reagan's presidential campaign was later subsidized by the Reagan administration to build low-income housing, but his background qualifications were not carefully checked. James watt, another campaign sponsor and former director of the Environmental Protection Agency, helped him borrow money and mortgage from the government, and was also paid for lobbying, so six government officials were convicted.
There were many other scandals during Reagan's eight years in office. Reagan's aides, Michael Deaver and Lynn Nofziger, were also convicted of lobbying.