President's term (1981-1989)
Domestic policy
When Reagan took office, he must first solve serious domestic economic problems. At that time, the American economy faced double-digit inflation (which would make economic planning quite unpredictable) and 2% bank interest rate (which made it difficult for most people to mortgage loans), and nearly 8 million people were unemployed. The average hourly wage of workers is 5% lower than that before 1976, while the personal tax rate levied by the federal government is as high as 67% on average. The national debt is nearly 1 trillion yuan. Regan was regarded as a libertarian economically. He advocated reducing taxes, reducing the size of the government and reducing the control of business. But at that time, no one knew how he would proceed, and he was not sure whether the House of Representatives, which was dominated by the Democratic Party, would support him.
in the summer of p>1981, a large number of air traffic controllers at the federal airport went on strike illegally under the leadership of the Air Traffic Controllers' Union (PATCO) because of the dispute over salary and working environment. Reagan fired all the air traffic controllers who took part in the strike according to the warning stated in advance. Because this trade union was one of the few two trade unions that supported Reagan in the 198 general election, Reagan's action caused a great political uproar.
the main goal of Reagan's first term was to revive the American economy, which was in so-called stagflation (stagnant economic development and high inflation). Reagan's first order was to stop the government's control of oil prices in order to restore the domestic market power in oil production and exploration. [5] In order to solve the double-digit inflation, Reagan supported the plan of Paul Volcker, chairman of the Federal Reserve System, to reduce the money supply by dramatically raising bank interest rates. Milton Friedman, an economist, described Reagan's understanding that "financial control and a short recession are inevitable if inflation is to be successfully curbed". Reagan used the method of tight money supply and comprehensive tax reduction to stimulate business investment (according to Reagan: "Chicago School of Economics, supply-side economics, whatever you want to call it. I noticed that some people even called it Reagan Economics until it came into effect ... "). Reagan's opponents ridiculed this as "voodoo economy", "trickle-down effect" and "Reagan economics", but Reagan succeeded in launching a comprehensive tax cut.
In order to end inflation, the money supply was tightened, which caused the American economy to start a sharp recession in July 1981 and hit the bottom in November 1982. After the recession in 1981-1982, the American economy began a dramatic economic recovery in 1983. The Reagan administration advocated that tax cuts helped the economic recovery and created more job opportunities, which would eventually make the federal government get more tax revenue, from $517 billion a year in the early 198s to more than $1 trillion. The Reagan administration's new military strategy increased a large number of military budgets, which led to an unprecedented federal budget deficit. Some critics believe that this policy of investing heavily in the military industry actually belongs to classical Keynesian economics, and that the subsequent economic growth is not caused by tax cuts, but the result of large government expenditures.
The House of Representatives, which was dominated by the Democratic Party at that time, opposed Reagan's reduction in social welfare and other domestic expenditures.
Aware of the increase in social welfare expenditure, Reagan appointed Alan Greenspan to lead the social welfare reform and drew up a plan to slow down social welfare expenditure. With the growth of age, the allowance from social welfare will also increase slowly (also in line with the gradually increasing national life expectancy), so that this system will not exceed the government's affordability in the next 5-7 years. The plan also increases the government's tax revenue by raising the payroll tax rate of social welfare.
In order to solve the budget deficit, the Reagan administration borrowed a lot of national debt from domestic and foreign countries. By the time of Reagan's second term, the national debt held by the people had greatly increased from 26% of GDP in 198 to 41% in 1989, the highest since 1963. In 1988, the national debt totaled 2.6 trillion US dollars, and the total amount of foreign loans exceeded that of domestic loans. The United States also changed from the world's largest creditor country to the world's largest borrower country.
Reagan's economic policy widened the gap between the rich and the poor; However, during Reagan's tenure, the income of all economic classes increased, including the bottom poor population, which also increased by 6% (US Census Bureau, 1996). At the same time, the richest 1% Americans have increased their income by 1 trillion yuan (ZINN, 23).
The Reagan administration was criticized by the gay rights movement and others for not dealing with the rising HIV-/AIDS quickly. The White House first discussed the disease in October 1982; Reagan first publicly discussed the government's measures to deal with the disease at a press conference in 1985.
despite criticism, Reagan spent $57 billion to fight HIV and AIDS during his tenure, and most of the money was invested in the National Institutes of Health. Resources for HIV and AIDS research increased by 45% in 1983, 134% in 1984, 99% in 1985 and 148% in 1986. In September 1985, Reagan said: "Including our budget in 1986, we have invested more than 5 million yuan in AIDS research, and I am sure other medical organizations are also conducting these studies simultaneously. We have a budget of 1 million yuan this year and 126 million yuan next year, so this is our first priority. There is no doubt about the seriousness of this disease, and we must find out the cause of the disease. " By 1986, Reagan had invested a lot of money in the prevention and research of AIDS, and declared that AIDS was "the first priority disease in the public health of the Ministry of Health and Human Services."
Reagan also played an important role in another rare debate about AIDS. Robert Gallo, an American researcher, and Luc Montagnier Nier, a French scientist, both claimed that they had discovered the virus of human immunodeficiency (HIV) and named it respectively. This debate was finally negotiated by Reagan and French President francois mitterrand, so that both of them and their team had the same credit for their names. This incident is quite rare, ignoring the scientific basis of naming, and it is also the first time that the biological debate has risen to the political level. Obviously, Montagni and Reagan learned that the two great powers should not have disputes over this issue.
Reagan strongly opposed abortion. He published the book Abortion and the Concordance of a Nation, in which he accused abortion of being disrespectful to life. Many conservative radicals believe that Reagan is the most Pro-life president in history. However, two Supreme Court judges appointed by him, Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy, voted that the anti-abortion law was unconstitutional in Roe v. Wade. When Reagan was governor, he also wrote the right to free abortion into the California statute.
Although Reagan's second term was marked by his foreign policy, he also dominated many important domestic bills. In 1982, Reagan signed a bill to extend the Voting Rights Act of 1965 for 25 years-although he opposed the extension in the 198 election campaign. This bill protects the voting rights of the blind, the disabled and the illiterate.
Other important bills include the Tax Reform Act of 1986 and the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which included compensation for Japanese-Americans detained in World War II. Reagan also legislated to authorize the death penalty for murder involving drug trafficking.
Milton Friedman put forward the number of federal documents (which recorded the laws and regulations issued by the federal government every year) during Reagan's term of office to illustrate Reagan's policy trend of opposing government regulation. Since the 196s, the number of federal documents issued by each president has been increasing continuously, but the number of federal documents issued after Reagan took office has decreased sharply, which proves Reagan's opposition to government regulation. The number of federal official documents only maintained a small increase during Reagan's tenure, and it did not start to increase greatly until Reagan left office.
foreign policy and intervention
Reagan held one-on-one talks with Gorbachev, general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. Reagan was the first world leader to argue that * * * capitalism would collapse. On March 3, 1983, he said, "I believe that * * * capitalism is a sad and strange page in human history-the last one that is still in progress." At that time, the mainstream view of the west on the Soviet Union was that a new generation of Soviet Union was coming, and the western world was bound to cooperate with them. But Reagan argued that the Soviet Union was in a serious economic crisis, and he intended to increase this crisis by cutting off the scientific and technological exchanges between the Soviet Union and the West. It is believed that the worst thing in the Soviet Union is to "run counter to the trend of human history and wipe out the freedom and dignity of its people."
the orthodox view of American scholars on the end of the cold war is this: "Because the free and democratic western countries kept their advantages in military position, ideological power and economic system, it eventually led to the surrender of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war. These factors reveal the moral illegality of * * * materialism and highlight its economic stagnation. " (Salla and Summy,p 3) This view can be accepted by both the Party (emphasizing Reagan's role) and the Democratic Party (emphasizing Truman, Kennedy, Johnson and Carter's long-standing containment policy). This view is also widely accepted by eastern European countries. For example, Lech Walesa, the leader of the Polish Solidarity Union, said in 24: "When talking about Ronald Reagan, I must talk about him from my personal point of view, and all of us in Poland will talk about him from our point of view. Why? Because the freedom we got was given by him. " German Chancellor helmut kohl said: "His appearance is the luck of the world. Two years after Reagan called on Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall, the Berlin Wall really fell, and 11 months later Germany was unified. " Irish Prime Minister Bertie Bertie Ahern said: "President Reagan was a staunch resister of * * * capitalism, and he played an important role in ending * * * capitalism and the division of Europe after World War II." vaclav havel, who later became the president of Czechoslovakia in 1989, said: "He was a man with firm principles, and there is no doubt that he contributed to the collapse of * * * capitalism."
Reagan chose a tough direct confrontation with the Soviet Union, instead of adopting a detente policy like previous presidents such as Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. Under the assumption that the Soviet Union was no longer able to invest more in the military budget than the United States, a new wave of arms race was launched, and he tried to make the Cold War economically and superficially fierce.
The Reagan administration carried out a large-scale military expansion under the policy of "only strength can achieve peace", which was named in contrast to theodore roosevelt's tough foreign policy and his famous saying "Speak softly and hold a big stick (meaning military strength)". The Reagan administration's newly-established policy toward the Soviet Union aimed at winning the Cold War. This strategy was named NSDD-32 (National Security Decisions Directional). This strategy outlined Reagan's plan to confront the Soviet Union on three fronts: economically-reducing the opportunities for the Soviet Union to acquire high-tech technology and reducing its resources, including lowering the value of Soviet goods in the world market; Militarily-increase US military expenditure to consolidate US position in negotiations and force the Soviet Union to transfer more economic resources to military purposes; Handling, from the anti-Soviet guerrillas in Afghanistan to the solidarity trade union movement in Poland (which was also supported by Soros and the Holy See). Reagan also put forward an active strategic defense plan, called "Star Wars", a missile defense network based on outer space. This is usually regarded as a threat by countries outside the United States, because it will probably offset the Soviet Union's ability to "guarantee mutual destruction" to the United States-in theory, it will enable the United States to launch the first strike of a nuclear war and avoid the subsequent Soviet counterattack; The leaders and people of the Soviet Union are increasingly frustrated by the situation because they feel that they may lose their balanced position in the arms race and the strategic foundation of the world. In October 1986, Reagan and Soviet leader Gorbachev met in Iceland, during which Gorbachev eagerly hoped that the United States would cancel this defensive and offensive missile defense network. On March 11th, 199, Lithuania declared its independence from the Soviet Union under the leadership of the newly elected President Vytautas Landsbergis, and the other Soviet Union countries declared their independence in 1991, so the Soviet Union officially disintegrated. Margaret Thatcher described this: "Reagan won the Cold War without firing a shot."
Reagan argued that the American economy began to recover; The rapid computerized economy and high-tech technology are the main forces, but the Soviet Union is far behind in this respect, and even South Korea's high technology has surpassed it, and it is lagging behind year by year. Reagan further prohibited the United States and its allies from exporting high-tech technology to the Soviet Union, which made the situation of the Soviet Union even worse. For a time, when the price of oil was extremely high, this backwardness was covered up because the Soviet Union exported a large amount of oil, but this advantage was also lost in the early 198s. In order to compete with the western countries in economy, it is obviously necessary to carry out a thorough reform. Gorbachev started this reform. He expected the openness and new thinking in the new policy to revive the Soviet economy, but these reforms failed to find a solution, instead, they produced more dissatisfaction with the Soviet system. Reagan's large-scale military expansion and his tough anti-Soviet remarks caused the Soviet Union to have a near-panic reaction in the 1983 NATO routine exercise (Able Archer 83). Although the crisis of this nuclear war quickly subsided with the end of the exercise, this exercise also showed the possible negative consequences of Reagan's tough attitude. Some historians, such as Beth B. Fischer, argued in his book The Reagan Reversal that the crisis had a far-reaching impact on Reagan's policies, which changed his attitude towards the Soviet Union from direct confrontation to a harmonious and friendly policy.
among European leaders, his most important ally and his best friend is British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who also supported Reagan's deterrent attitude towards the Soviet Union. Although Reagan signed arms limitation treaties with the Soviet Union, such as the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Weapons Treaty (INF) and the Strategic Arms Reduction Negotiations (START I), Reagan still carried out the Star Wars plan and deployed it outside.