LECTURE #24: THE REAGAN REVOLUTION & THE END OF THE COLD WAR (1981-1991)

1. LECTURE #24: THE REAGAN REVOLUTION & THE END OF THE COLD WAR(1981-1991) Derrick J. Johnson, MPA, JD Advanced Placement United States History, School for Advanced Studies

2. The Ronald W. Reagan Presidency President Ronald W. Reagan Born: February 6, 1911 Died: June 5, 2004 Term in Office: (1981-1989) Political Party: Republican

3. The Ronald W. Reagan Presidency

4. The Ronald W. Reagan Presidency Supreme Court Appointments by President Reagan Sandra Day O’Connor - 1981 William Rehnquist (Chief Justice) – 1986 Antonin Scalia – 1986 Anthony Kennedy - 1988

5. Reagan Assassination Attempt • Admirers and detractors of Ronald Reagan both agree that he was a true mater of politics. Reagan used his previously honed skills as an actor to set the right tone and present the right message. • However, as Reagan was getting his presidency of the ground, he would face his first personal crisis. On Monday, March 30, 1981, just 69 days into his presidency, President Reagan and three others were shot and wounded by John Hinckley, Jr. The Reagan assassination attempt occurred While leaving a speaking engagement at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. • No formal invocation of presidential succession took place, although Secretary of State Alexander Haig controversially stated that he was "in control here" while Vice President George H. W. Bush returned to Washington. This incident eventually lead to his resignation.

6. Reagan Assassination Attempt • Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity and remained confined to a psychiatric facility. Reagan suffered a punctured lung, but prompt medical attention allowed him to recover quickly. Reagan handled the crisis with humor and charm that he emerged from the ordeal as an even more popular figure.

7. The New Federalism • Reagan accelerated a policy that the Carter Administration started called deregulation. under deregulation, federal restrictions were eased on saving and loans institutions, corporate mergers and takeovers, and environmental protection. • Regulations on emissions and auto safety were reduced to help the auto industry. The Reagan Administration opened up lands for timber production and waters for off-shore drilling. • Despite once being the president of the Screen Actors Guild, Reagan took a stance against unions. • He fired thousands of striking air traffic controllers for violating their contract and decertified their union.

8. The Battle of the Budget • For over two decades, the government budget had slowly and steadily risen, much to the disturbance of the tax-paying public, and by the 80s, the public was tired of the New Deal and the Great Society and ready to slash bills, just as Reagan proposed. • His federal budget had cuts of some $35 billion, and he even wooed some Southern Democrats to abandon their own party and follow him, Reagan’s budget cost $695 million, and the vast majority of budget cuts fell upon social programs, not on defense, but there were also sweeping tax cuts of 25% over three years. • The president appeared on national TV pleading for passage of the new tax-cut bill, and bolstered by “boll weevils,” or Democrats who defected to the Republican side, Congress passed it.  

9. Reaganomics • Reagan instituted traditional conservative economic practices. In 1981, federal taxes were cut by 5% and then by another 10% in 1982 and 1983. • Reagan believed in “supply-side economics,” Which stated that if more money was put in the hands of wealthy Americans by cutting taxes, they would invest in the economy, thus creating more jobs and additional growth. • Reagan’ budget embraced “supply side” economics to lower individual taxes, almost eliminate federal estate taxes, and create new tax-free savings plans for small investors. • However, this theory backfired as the nation slid into its worst recession since the Great Depression, with unemployment reaching nearly 11% in 1982 and several banks failing. Capital gain taxes were also reduced to encourage growth.

10. Reaganomics • With less money coming into the government, many social programs had to be cut. At the same time, Reagan increased spending on the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) program. As envisioned, this system would shoot down enemy missiles from outer space. • Critics argued that Reagan’s programs and tax cuts had caused this mayhem, but Reagan and his advisors sat out the storm, waiting for a recovery that seemed to come in 1983. • However, during the 1980s, income gaps widened between the rich and poor for the first time in the 20th century (this was mirrored by the emergence of “yuppies”), and it was massive military spending (a $100 billion annual deficit in 1982 and nearly $200 million annual deficits in the later years) that upped the American dollar (as well as the trade deficit, which reached a record $152 billion in 1987) and made America the world’s biggest borrowers.  

11. Grenada Invasion • On the small island nation of Grenada, a coup led to the establishment of a pro-Cuban regime. • In 1983, Reagan ordered a small group of marines to invade the island in order to prevent the establishment of a strategic Communist military base in the Americas. • The invasion was successful and it established a new pro-American government.

12. The Election of 1984 • The return of perceived prosperity restored confidence in the Reagan Administration. The Republicans re-nominated the ticket of President Reagan and Vice President George H.W. Bush at the 1984 Republican convention. • Among the Democrats, Jesse Jackson became the first African American to make a strong run for the presidency by seeking the support of all minority groups under the banner of the Rainbow Coalition. • Despite Jackson's strong showings, the majority of Democrats nominated former Vice President Walter F. Mondale for president. Mondale chose Representative Geraldine Ferraro to be his running mate, which made her the first woman to run on a major party presidential ticket. Only Sarah Palin would follow her lead in the 2008 presidential election.

13. The Election of 1984 • Mondale ran a very liberal campaign against Reagan which was no match for Reagan's popularity. Reagan won re-election in a landslide with 525 electoral votes (54,455,472popular votes) to Mondale’s 13 electoral votes (37,577,352 popular votes). • Analysis of the voting returns indicated that the New Deal Coalition had been dissolved. Only African Americans and people earning less than $12,500 a year still supported the Democrats.  

14. The Culture of the 1980s • The 1980s was a decade of yuppies and excess. Marijuana was replaced by cocaine (crack) as the drug of choice and crime reached an all time high. • In terms of music, we saw the advent of rap music lead by rap artists like Run DMC, LL Cool J and the Beastie Boys. New wave artists like Devo, Talking heads, and Duran Duran also emerged. While pop bands and artists like The Police, U2, Madonna, Prince, and Michael Jackson would achieve icon status through the use of music videos, which aired on the newly formed MTV station.

15. The Culture of the 1980s • In the film industry, we saw the advent of mega hits like the next two installment of the Star Wars saga (Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back and Episode VI – The Return of the Jedi), Flashdance, Footloose, Ghostbusters, and Beverly Hills Cop. However, the highest grossing film of the decade was E.T.: the Extra Terrestrial. • In terms of fashion, the 1980’s were an era of anything goes. Significant hairstyle trends of the 1980s include the Perm, the Mullet the Jheri curl, the Flattop, the Hi-top fade and Big hair. Clothing included acid washed jeans and members only jackets.

16. Reagan and the Courts • Prior to the “Reagan Revolution,” the Supreme Court started to move in a more conservative direction. For example, in the 1974 Milliken vs. Bradley case, the Supreme Court ruled that desegregation plans could not require students to move across school-district lines. • This reinforced the “white flight” that pitted the poorest whites and blacks against each other, often with explosively violent results. • The new conservative tilt also attacked affirmative action. For example, the Bakke case of 1978 saw the Supreme Court barely rule that Allan Bakke had not been admitted into U.C. Davis because the university used racial quotas.

17. Reagan and the Courts • The Court ordered the college to admit Bakke and the Supreme Court’s only African-American justice, Thurgood Marshall, warned that the denial of affirmative action might sweep away the progress gained by the civil rights movement. • In the face of this new judicial conservatism, Reagan sought to build upon it by appointing more conservative justices to the Court. In 1981, he would appoint the first woman Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O’Connor. • When Chief Justice Warren E. Burger retired in 1986, Reagan turned to Justice William H. Rehnquist, who was originally appointed by Nixon, to succeed him and he appointed Antonin Scalia to fill Rehnquist’s old seat. • Reagan would also appoint Anthony Kennedy after the Senate rejected former Solicitor General Robert Bork, Reagan’s ultraconservative original choice to fill the empty space on the Supreme Court.

18. Reagan’s Foreign Policy • Foreign policy issues dominated Reagan’s second term, one that saw the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev, a personable, energetic leader who announced two new Soviet policies: glasnost, or “openness,” which aimed to introduce free speech and political liberty to the Soviet Union, and perestroika, or “restructuring,” which meant that the Soviets would adopt free-market economies similar to those in the West.

19. Reagan’s Foreign Policy • At a summit meeting at Geneva in 1985, Gorbachev introduced the idea of ceasing the deployment of intermediate-range nuclear forces (INF); at a second one at Reykjavik, Iceland, in November 1985, there was stalemate; but at the third one in Washington D.C., the treaty was finally signed, banning all INF’s from Europe. • The final one at Moscow saw Reagan warmly praising the Soviet chief for trying to end the Cold War. • Also, Reagan supported Corazon Aquino’s ousting of Filipino dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, ordered a lightning raid on Libya in 1986 in retaliation for Libya’s state-sponsored terrorist attacks, and began escorting oil tankers through the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq War.  

20. The Challenger Disaster • On Tuesday, January 28, 1986, when Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, leading to the deaths of its seven crew members. The spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of central Florida, • In an effort to ease and comfort a shocked nation, Reagan gave one of his greatest speeches. “We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and 'slipped the surly bonds of Earth' to 'touch the face of God.'”

21. The Iran Contra Scandal • In November 1986, it was revealed that a year before, American diplomats had secretly arranged arms sales to Iranian diplomats in return for the release of American hostages and had used that money to aid Nicaraguan contra rebels. • All of this violated the Boland Amendment, which forbade the sale of weapons to belligerent groups. • This brazenly violated the congressional ban on helping Nicaraguan rebels, not to mention Reagan’s personal vow not to negotiate with terrorists. • An investigation concluded that even if Reagan had no knowledge of such events, as he claimed, he should have, and this scandal not only cast a dark cloud over Reagan’s foreign policy success but also brought out a picture of Reagan as a senile old man who slept through important cabinet meetings. • Reagan remained left office a popular figure, but his public image was forever tarnished by the scandal.

22. The Election of 1988 • The Democrats regained control over the Senate in 1986 and they had hoped with the aftermath of the Iran Contra Scandal and the enormous high deficits that the Reagan Administration ran, that they could have the advantage going into the 1988 election. • The Republicans settled on Vice President George H.W. Bush. As a former CIA Director, UN Ambassador and Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Bush had an impressive resume in government service. However, many Republicans felt that he lacked Reagan’s charisma. • The Democratic presidential field was less stable. In 1988, Senator Gary Hart tried to get the Democratic nomination but had to drop out due to a sexual affair involving an actress/model, Donna Rice.

23. The Election of 1988 • After the Hart sex scandal, Rev. Jesse Jackson was the front runner for the nomination for a while until the Democratic field finally settled on Governor Michael Dukakis. • The campaign was dominated by Bush’s promise to “Read my lips… No new taxes” and his attack on Dukakis showing him weak on crime (the Willie Horton ad). • Bush emerged victorious with 426 electoral votes (48,886,597popular votes) to Dukakis’ 111 electoral votes (41,809,476 popular votes). Bush would become the first sitting vice-president, since Martin Van Buren, to ascend to the presidency due to the natural expiration or retirement of the incumbent president’s term.

24. THE END OF LECTURE #24