Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan, an American actor and politician of Irish descent, was born on February 6, 1911, in Illinois, United States of America, and died on June 5, 2004. Initially working in radio as a sports journalist, he had a relatively unremarkable film career between the late 1930s and the 1950s.
From then on, political activity came to dominate his life. Identifying himself as a member of the more conservative faction of the Republican Party, Reagan was elected governor of California in 1966, a position he held until 1974. He then tried more than once to be his party's candidate for the presidential elections, but only in 1980 did he secure the nomination. Defeating then-President Jimmy Carter, he became the fortieth president of the United States of America. He served two terms, from 1981 to 1989, always with George Bush as his vice-president, who would succeed him in office.
The years of his presidency were marked by important events on the domestic and, above all, international front. Reagan was the target of an assassination attempt in 1981, which he survived, but which left him seriously wounded. Meanwhile, he opted to pursue an aggressive foreign policy, investing in the sphere of defense and diplomacy with the clear objective of combating international communism. In his second term, however, he expressed openness to dialogue with the Soviet reformist leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The two reached an agreement on the need for progressive disarmament on both sides, thus ending the so-called Cold War. The final years of Reagan's presidency were troubled by a compromising discovery: the money resulting from the (illegal) sale of weapons to Iran was allegedly being used to support guerrillas who opposed the Nicaraguan regime. Although there was no clear evidence of involvement or even knowledge of the situation on the part of the president, the case shook Reagan's own credibility, and public opinion pressure led to the removal of certain members of his administration.
In Infopédia [Online]. Porto: Porto Editora, 2003-2009. [Accessed 2009-10-08].