A Look at Ronald Reagan's Presidency
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Simmons 1 A Period of True Sincerity? A Look at Ronald Reagan's Presidency Will Simmons U.S. in 20* Century World David Brandt February 12^ 2007 Simmons 2 Table of Contents Statement of Purpose 3 Biography 4 Historical Contextualization 6 Interview Transcription 17 Audio Time Indexing Log 31 Analysis 32 Works Cited 36 Simmons 3 Statement of Purpose The purpose of this Oral History project is to examine the second term of Ronald Reagan's presidency, from the eyes of Katherine Ortega, the treasurer of the United States under Reagmi in the 1980's. Reagan's second presidency had mmiy important events, including the Cold War, tax cuts, and Reaganomics, which would eventually influence the modern day. Simmons 4 Biography of Katherine Ortega Kalhemie Orlega wasboni July l£i , 1934 She w^slhe yDm^eslof mne children Her family ongm IS Mexican-Amencan Herfalher was ablacksnulh, andlalerofeneda reslairrani Orlega was farlofbig fanulywho preached Ihe golden rule She alw^]^ worked hard, because people Ihoi^hl Ihal she was spoiledbeir^ Ihe yDm^esI and wanled lo prove Ihem wroi^ Orlega m her early life wailed lable sand ran eirands for he rfanuly Herparenis wanled her lobe independenlandEelf-sufTicienl Orlega loved school, excellir^ m hisloiy and business Once she lefl school, she saved up enoi^hmoneyandpul herself Ihroi^h college She allendedEaslem New Mexico Universily Simmons 5 Ortega's goal when she left college to was to become a business teacher at a high school. However, she ended up doing accounting business with her sister and brother. Later she took an oil operation job. She then became an accountmit for a small public utility company. While she was mi accountant, she saw that a male was making more money than her even though she was better qualified. Since her father had told her that if she set her mind to something she could do it, she became a certified public accountant. Later she was appointed as the treasurer of the United States. Ortega has won many awards including the Horatio Alger award in 2002. Ortega now lives in Washington D.C, with her husband Lloyd Derrickson. While still interested in politics, Ortega, enjoys relaxing activities. Simmons 6 Historical Contextualization Presidents in Americmi History have either been remembered or forgotten. They may do things that America will remember forever, or they do not make a significant difference. Ronald Reagan was a president that made important differences in America, good and bad. Ronald was bom February 6, 1911 in Tampico, Illinois. He had a normal childhood. He had one brother and his fathers name was John Edwmd Reagan. His mother was Nellie Clyde Wilson. His older brother was Neil Reagan. His family was the descendants of the Irish, and his great grandfather on his father's side emigrated from Ireland. During his childhood Reagan went to Mount Lebanon, a high school where he excelled in acting and speaking. [Msofficei] In November 1941 Reagmi was called up for combat, but was not allowed to go because of astigmatism. However, after the attack on Pearl Hmbor 1941, Reagan was summoned mid was sent to the First Motion Picture Unit in the United States Army Air Forces in 1942 (NMUSAF 1), where he created educational military films. Later in his life he appeared in many television drmiias and was making around $125,000 a year, an $800,000 yearly income by today's monetary standards. (Pines 2) Reagan's family began with his marriage to actress Jmie Wyman on Jmiuary 24 ; 1940.They had a daughter in 1941, nmiiing her Maureen. They also adopted a son, Michael, in 1945. Not long after, they conceived a second daughter, Christine but she Simmons 7 died June 26 , 1947[Msoffice2]. Reagan divorced Wynn on June 28 1948, which could have been influenced by their daughter's death. Reagan married again on Mmch 4, 1952 to Nancy Davis, another actor. He had another daughter named Patti who was born that year on October 21. (Lmdb 1) Throughout this tumultuous fmiiily history, Reagan's political stands changed over time. When Reagan first started, he took a democratic approach, and was a follower of the New Deal. Reagmi's first political job was as the president of the Screen Actor's Guild, which was the labor union that represented most Hollywood actors. It was then that Reagan started to attain a conservative philosophy. Reagan believed that communists were "infiltrating" the Screen Actors Guild. From then, Reagmi stmted keeping tabs on people who he thought to be communists or overall untrustworthy. The threat of communism started to affect Reagan's political views. He believed that the Republican Party was more of an enemy to the communists than the Democrats and decided to ally himself with them. However, Reagmi stayed as a registered Democrat, though he supported Republican presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Richmd Nixon. Later, thinking that Kennedy was responsible for the Cubmi Missile Crisis and (CNN l|Msoffice3]), Reagmi switched parties|Msoffice4]. Reagan was elected as the governor of California in 1966. Hepvisoffices] was elected again in 1977. Reagmi stmted to contemplate running for president in 1968. He ran in the 1976 presidential election against [Msoffice6]Gerald Ford. Reagan ran as the conservative nomination while Ford was a moderate. However, Reagan lost by around 97 votes. [Msoffice7](History Central 1) Simmons 8 Again Reagan ran for president during the 1980 election against Carter. Reagan wanted to take Ford as his vice president but he would have nothing of it, so Reagan elected George Bush Senior as his vice president. People looking for a fresh start after Nixon were very receptive to Reagmi's fairness, lack of hard-headedness, mid openness to many ideas. Reagan was not as much focused on black civil rights, but when Carter accused him of being racist it backfired because Reagan had no racist views, but was just preoccupied with other matters. When Cmter tried to use this in his debates against him, Reagan was able to explain why his focus was not focused on Civil Rights, which boosted his support. Reagan's 1984 election found him defeating Walter Mondale by winning 49 of 50 states, and carrying almost 60% of the populm votes (History Central 1). It was a crushing defeat. Mondale tried to hurt Reagan's credibility, in debates but was unsuccessful (Reagmi University of Texas l).|Msoffice8] Reagan's policies were quite conservative but he had some parts of him that were somewhat liberal. When Reagan entered the presidential position the inflation quota was the highest since 1947. Reagan's views were mostly a small government ideal, which meant that he wanted to have the government stay out of most people's affairs. Reagan's first move as president to decrease the price of oil, which helped economically since oil was such a precious commodity. Reagan wanted to revive the economy because it was in bad shape in . During Reagan's first term unemployment increased by 7.5 %; however, by his second term it had dropped back down to normal and for the next five years steadily declined. Simmons 9 Reagan also argued for fiscal responsibility and enacted the biggest tax cuts in Americmi history. (Kruger 1) Reagan also had other interests during his presidency. He was deeply focused on the AIDS epidemic. Reagmi spent $5.7 billion dollars on research for AIDS and HIV. This was a significant number because it was much more than what was spent on the cancer foundation, which kills many more than AIDS. He said that AIDS should be the highest priority in the Department of Health and Human Services. Reagan was the first president to ever invite a homosexual couple, Ted Graber and Archie Case, to spend the night at the White House as his guest. This signified his openness to people of different sexual orientations. However, Reagan said when it came down to sexual disease, abstinence was the best policy. (Boyd 1) When Reagan was governor, he was pro-choice. However, after he became president mid more conservative in his views, he becmiie more and more pro-life. In fact, Reagan wrote a book. The Conscience of Nation, in which he argued that abortion was a disrespect of life. Reagan's second term is widely known for the economic situation and foreign affairs. However, he did focus a lot of his attention on the laws at home. For instance he authorized The Voting Rights Act of 1965 for another 25 years, though in his first term he was against it[Msoffice9]. This extension was important to America because it now included the blind, disabled, and illiterate voters. Other important policies passed were the Internal Revenue Code in 1986 and the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which helped the victims of the Japanese-Internment cmiips in America. Also, Reagan started an Simmons 10 advertisement-based war on drugs. Nancy Reagan played a large role in this cmiipaign, with her "Just Say No" televised messages. (MSNBCl) Reagan's second term was pivotal in the resolution of the Cold Wm. Reagmi was a big advocate of anti-communist views. Reagan said that because of the communist system, the Soviet Union's economy would deteriorate. He thought that if the U.S. spent more on weapons than the Soviet Union, it would stmt the end of the war. Therefore, Reagan stmledto accelerate the production of arms. Reagan's idea was that the U.S. would get peace by strength. This meant that if they had a huge number of weapons and military strength, Russia would not attempt to do anything in fear of the reprisal of the United States.