How Reagan Changed America

Successes of President Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan was America's 40th president. He is among America's most influential presidents. He was able to make several positive contributions to the development of the American Republic. America grew to be a stronger superpower during his tenure as president. Ronald Reagan was also once a governor of California State before being elected president of the United States. Before joining politics, he spent much of his time in Hollywood and came out a polished public relations individual. The Hollywood experience made him fit for public appeal. At Hollywood, he was also able to rise to a leadership level when he was elected the president of the Hollywood Actors Guild. This paper seeks to reveal the successes of Ronald Reagan and their effect on America's destiny.

The successes of Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan contributed to the American nation. One contribution that he is associated with was on the issue of the cold war. The Cold War took place during the period of the 1980s. He is the one who won the cold war as per political pundits. During the cold war, Russia and the U.S. competed for superiority. In this war, there was no use of weapons (Sibley, 2010). The arsenal that was engaged was a war of words and ideologies. In the end, Reagan managed to outwit the Russian president and won the war on technical grounds. He was able to neutralize the onslaught that was set by the Russian Mandarins. His astuteness and ability to tackle complex situations enabled him to win this ideological war.

The second achievement attributed to Ronald Reagan was termed as Reaganomics (White, 2014). During the time of Ronald Reagan's tenure, the country faced many economic hurdles. Because of the Cold War, the U.S. economy was a bit shaken. During the cold war, stockpiling of arms was a war tactic. In this war strategy, money was dispensed largely by all the big powers including the U.S. In this war, there was a strategy to outsmart the other in terms of who had better weapons and military might. The nature of the showdown in terms of weapon amassment involved massive expenditure in the manufacture of these weapons. In real terms, each country faced the challenge. Taxes had to be raised to service the expenditures. People felt the crunch as the cost of living went up. Ronald Reagan came up with policies that were able to salvage the U.S. economy back on its feet. For this, Reagan has been remembered as the father of the modern school of economic thought called Reaganomics.