Ronald Wilson Reagan (lahir di Tampico, Illinois, 6 Februari 1911 – meninggal di Bel Air, Los Angeles, California, 5 Juni 2004 pada umur 93 tahun) ialah Presiden Amerika Serikat ke-40 (1981–1989) dan Gubernur California ke-33 (1967–1975). Sebelum terjun ke dunia politik, Reagan adalah seorang aktor radio, film, dan televisi. Ia hidup lebih panjang daripada Presiden yang lainnya (93 tahun, 119 hari) dan merupakan Presiden terpilih tertua (69 tahun, 349 hari saat mengambil kekuasaan). Reagan dilahirkan di Tampico di Whiteside County, Illinois, dipelihara dalam Dixon di Lee County, Illinois, dan dididik di Eureka College di Eureka, dengan gelar Bachelor of Arts di bidang ekonomi dan sosiologi. Setelah lulus, Reagan pertama pindah ke Iowa untuk bekerja sebagai seorang penyiar radio dan kemudian pada 1937 ke Los Angeles, California. Ia memulai karier sebagai seorang aktor, pertama di film dan televisi kemudian, muncul di lebih dari 50 produksi film dan produktif cukup berhasil menjadi figur, terkenal diakui publik. Beberapa peran yang paling menonjol adalah dalam ''Knute Rockne, All American'' dan ''Kings Row''. Reagan menjabat sebagai Presiden Screen Actors Guild, dan kemudian juru bicara General Electric (GE), memulai kariernya di politik terjadi selama pekerjaannya untuk GE. Semua dia menjadi anggota Partai Demokrat, kemudian beralih ke Partai Republik pada tahun 1962. Setelah menyampaikan sambutan meriah untuk mendukung calon presiden Barry Goldwater pada tahun 1964, ia dibujuk untuk mencari gubernur California, pemenang dua tahun kemudian dan sekali lagi pada tahun 1970. Ia kalah dalam pencalonan untuk nominasi presiden dari Partai Republik pada tahun 1968 maupun 1976, tetapi memenangkan nominasi dan pemilihan dengan mengalahkan Presiden Petahana Jimmy Carter pada tahun 1980.
Sebagai presiden, Reagan menerapkan inisiatif menyapu politik dan ekonomi baru. Sisi penawaran ekonomi, kebijakan ekonomi, dijuluki Reaganekonomik, menganjurkan mengurangi tarif pajak untuk memacu pertumbuhan ekonomi, mengendalikan suplai uang untuk menurunkan inflasi, deregulasi ekonomi, dan mengurangi pengeluaran pemerintah. Dalam masa jabatan pertamanya ia selamat dari upaya pembunuhan, mengambil garis keras terhadap serikat buruh, dan memerintahkan aksi militer di Grenada. Ia terpilih kembali pada tanah longsor pada tahun 1984 dan menyatakan, Morning in America (Pagi di Amerika). Istilah kedua adalah terutama ditandai oleh hal-hal asing, seperti berakhirnya Perang Dingin, pengeboman Libya 1986, dan wahyu dari Peristiwa Contra Iran.
Publik menggambarkan Uni Soviet sebagai "kekaisaran jahat", dia mendukung gerakan anti-komunis di seluruh dunia dan menghabiskan masa jabatan pertamanya berpantang strategi pengenduran dengan memesan penumpukan militer besar-besaran dalam perlombaan senjata dengan Uni Soviet. Reagan menegosiasikan dengan Sekretaris Jenderal Uni Soviet Mikhail Gorbachev, yang berpuncak pada Perjanjian INF dan penurunan persenjataan nuklir kedua negara. Reagan menyelesaikan masa jabatan kepresidenan pada tahun 1989. Pada tahun 1994, mantan presiden ini mengungkapkan bahwa ia telah didiagnosa terkena penyakit Alzheimer awal tahun dan ia meninggal sepuluh tahun kemudian pada usia 93 tahun. Reagan memperoleh peringkat tinggi dalam jajak pendapat umum Presiden Amerika Serikat, dan merupakan ikon konservatif.
Ronald Wilson Reagan (/ˈrɒnəld ˈwɪlsən ˈreɪɡən/; February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor, who served as the 40th President of the United States from 1981 to 1989. Prior to his presidency, he served as the 33rd Governor of California from 1967 to 1975, following a career as a Hollywood actor and union leader. Raised in a poor family in small towns of Northern Illinois, Ronald Reagan graduated from Eureka College in 1932 and worked as a sports announcer on several regional radio stations. After moving to Hollywood in 1937, he became an actor and starred in a few major productions. Reagan was twice elected as President of the Screen Actors Guild, the labor union for actors, where he worked to root out Communist influence. In the 1950s, he moved into television and was a motivational speaker at General Electric factories. Having been a lifelong liberal Democrat, his views changed. He became a conservative and in 1962 switched to the Republican Party.
In 1964, Reagan's speech, "A Time for Choosing," in support of Barry Goldwater's floundering presidential campaign, earned him national attention as a new conservative spokesman. Building a network of supporters, he was elected Governor of California in 1966. As governor, Reagan raised taxes, turned a state budget deficit to a surplus, challenged the protesters at the University of California, ordered National Guard troops in during a period of protest movements in 1969, and was re-elected in 1970. He twice ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nominations in 1968 and 1976; four years later, he easily won the nomination outright, going on to be elected the oldest President, defeating incumbent Jimmy Carter in 1980.
Entering the presidency in 1981, Reagan implemented sweeping new political and economic initiatives. His supply-side economic policies, dubbed "Reaganomics," advocated tax rate reduction to spur economic growth, control of the money supply to curb inflation, economic deregulation, and reduction in government spending. In his first term he survived an assassination attempt, escalated the War on Drugs, and fought public-sector labor. Over his two terms, his economic policies saw a reduction of inflation from 12.5% to 4.4%, and an average annual growth of real GDP of 3.44%; while Reagan did enact cuts in domestic discretionary spending, increased military spending contributed to increased federal outlays overall, even after adjustment for inflation. During his reelection bid, Reagan campaigned on the notion that it was "Morning in America," winning a landslide in 1984 with the largest electoral college victory in history. Foreign affairs dominated his second term, including ending of the Cold War, the bombing of Libya, and the Iran–Contra affair. Publicly describing the Soviet Union as an "evil empire", he transitioned Cold War policy from détente to rollback, by escalating an arms race with the USSR while engaging in talks with Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, which culminated in the INF Treaty, shrinking both countries' nuclear arsenals.
During his famous speech at the Brandenburg Gate, President Reagan challenged Gorbachev to "tear down this wall!". One and a half years after the end of his term, the Berlin Wall fell, and on December 26, 1991, nearly three years after he left office, the Soviet Union collapsed. Leaving office in 1989, Reagan held an approval rating of sixty-eight percent, matching those of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and later Bill Clinton, as the highest ratings for departing presidents in the modern era.[2] While having planned an active post-presidency, in 1994 Reagan disclosed his diagnosis with Alzheimer's disease earlier that year, appearing publicly for the last time at the funeral of Richard Nixon; he died ten years later at the age of 93. An icon among Republicans, he ranks favorably in public and critical opinion of U.S. Presidents, and his tenure constituted a realignment toward conservative policies in the United States.
