2004-6-11
This is In the News in VOA Special English.
As America's fortieth president, Ronald Reagan promised the
nation a hopeful future. This made him very popular. So did his warm
ways with people.
Mister Reagan was laid to rest
Friday with a national funeral service in Washington. His body was
then flown for burial in California, where he died last Saturday at
the age of ninety-three.
Ronald Reagan was president from nineteen-eighty-one to
nineteen-eighty-nine. This week's Economist magazine calls him "the
man who beat Communism." He worked hard for the defeat of the Soviet
Union which finally happened in nineteen-ninety-one.
Political experts say his policies also made the United States
more conservative for years to come. Ronald Reagan said government
cannot solve problems. He said government was the problem.
The former Democrat changed the Republican Party. He was the
first Republican candidate for president in years to win the support
of many labor union members. Religious conservatives also liked his
positions on social issues.
Today Republicans control both the White House and Congress. Some
in Congress now were first elected in the nineteen-eighties.
During his first term, Mister Reagan got Congress to reduce taxes
in an effort to improve the economy. He said letting people keep
more of what they earned would increase growth. But he also set
records for defense spending. Budget deficits grew. Other programs
were reduced.
Critics say his administration hurt the poor through cuts in
social programs. His position on defense was also criticized. He
called the Soviet Union an "evil empire." But many historians say
his policies helped end the years of tension known as the Cold War.
They say his military spending forced the Soviets to also spend
more, until they had no more to spend.
To try to prevent war, Mister Reagan met five times with Soviet
leader Mikhail Gorbachev. They agreed to reductions in nuclear
missiles.
Mister Reagan's foreign policy also supported anti-Communist
forces. Experts say this helped end the Soviet occupation of
Afghanistan. But several officials in his administration got into
legal trouble for giving money secretly to rebels in Nicaragua. This
went against the wishes of Congress.
The money came from secret sales of weapons to Iran. President
Reagan had approved the sales as part of an effort to win the
release of some American hostages in Lebanon. But he said he did not
know the money went to Nicaraguan rebels known as the contras.
George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton followed Mister Reagan in
office. Both also followed his example of using military force when
they thought it was needed, as has the current President Bush.
For more about Ronald Reagan's life, listen on Sunday at this
hour for PEOPLE IN AMERICA, in VOA Special English. In the News was
written by Jerilyn Watson.