Preview

Summary: Who Was Reagan Overrated?

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1375 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Summary: Who Was Reagan Overrated?
Reagan Was Overrated
Hist/145
October 26, 2014
Mr.BurnetteReagan Was Overrated
In my opinion, Reagan was overrated. I didn’t despise him but I certainly felt like he was a clown. That doesn’t sound very respectful but I respect the office of the president but it was very hard to respect him. I thought he was an actor who accidentally fell into the job of president. He was an actor so he was convincing. I don’t feel that he had enough experience to govern this country and that a lot of things fell into place and worked, not because of his great governing ability but because it was an accident. I know that Reagan did a lot of good, just like many presidents do a lot of good, but he did a lot that I feel was unacceptable.
The New
…show more content…
Reagan was of course high on my list of possible candidates; and you might say that for a European I made a fairly strong case for him—but to no avail. Amongst a group of 500 very bright first-year students, there seemed to be only one correct answer, and that was not Ronald Reagan but, rather, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. By a considerable margin it was the Russian rather than the American who won the overwhelming majority of votes (over 70 percent of the total). (History Now, 2012). I agree because by the time that the Berlin Wall fell, the Russian economy was not in good shape. Many people inside Russia felt that Communism had failed. Gorbachev was a leader that was not afraid to take a …show more content…
Members of the National Security Council enlisted the Iranians, who had been our mortal enemies, to use their influence with Lebanon for the release of seven American hostages. Israel was to send weapons to Iran and in turn, the United States would replace the weapons that Israel had sent to the Iranians. The United States would receive the money for these weapons. The anti-Communist rebels in Nicaragua would receive some of the money to help their cause. They were also called Contras and there was an embargo against selling or giving arms to Nicaragua and Congress had voted not to fund the Contras any more. (West 's Encyclopedia of Americanlaw,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Choose three topics from the list below to make your case whether Reagan is overrated or underrated:…

    • 161 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    But Oliver North supported that funding the Contras was morally correct and, therefore, appropriated funds taken from a secret arms sale that had been made to encourage the release of the hostages held in Lebanon. This activity became known as the Iran-Contra Affair and caused tremendous blame for President Reagan.…

    • 511 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In November, 1986, Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa reported that U.S has sold weapons to Iran secretly just to get the hostages freed. A plane that was transferring weapons from U.S. was shot down in Nicaragua. November, 21, Oliver North and his secretary started to shred all the documents that said they and numerous of others were involved in the Iran-Contra Affair. Reagan even tried to deny his involvement to the whole scandal by saying that “A few months ago, I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that’s true, but the facts and evidence tell me it is not.” This shows, how two-faced and untrustworthy he actually was since he could not even admit the…

    • 992 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dramatic Change Dbq

    • 134 Words
    • 1 Page

    So much change was in effect during the previous time period, that backlash would soon become inevitable. Conservatives were on a rise and they began to take control during this era. A traditional president, Reagan was elected, and his goals were clearly geared towards Republican America. Although Reagan may be viewed as a step in the wrong direction, he is quite frankly the opposite of that. He had detailed views on the Cold War, and did a great job of dealing with it. On a separate note, the post-Cold War led to challenges for US foreign and domestic policy. In regards to all these factors, American society continually faced dramatic change. This would be the case for all future events to occur, and America still continues to be the greatest…

    • 134 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The 1980s had many influences to make it one of the decades with the most changes and inventions. There were lots of new technology and inventions. One of the biggest influences on the 1980s in politics was Ronald Reagan. Some people say he is the greatest president the United States has ever had. Ronald Reagan was an expert at turning the economy around, having one of the best foreign policies, and he gave American’s hope and made them more patriotic for the first in decades.…

    • 489 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    No other president of the twentieth-century had a more effective and enduring influence than the 40th President of the United States, Ronald Wilson Reagan. He accomplished more than he set out to do. And, he accomplished much more in his eight years of presidency than most presidents of the twentieth-century.He was quite successful at home, and abroad. He worked to revive the economy, to win the Cold War, and to bring back the idea of exceptionalism to America.…

    • 681 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Communism was slowly building up in the time after the Vietnam War. Soviet Union and the US were splitting up their alliance and most countries were still bouncing back after the recession. Ronald Reagan one the most iconic presidents to sit in the oval office was president at the time. Reagan’s skills got tested from the very start. Few days into his first term there was a huge bombing in Lebanon and just days after that a small Caribbean island started to lose its socialist views and gained communist ones. Reagan believed that dealing with the small island, Grenada, was equal value as dealing with the bombing. Much of the US was tentative on supporting their leader and his military after the US involvement in Vietnam. All faith in the US…

    • 1605 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    At the time, America and the Soviet Union were enemies, and America did not trust the Soviets. Reagan labeled the Soviet Union as “The Evil Empire,” but Gorbachev was able to persuade him and America that they mean America no harm and that they want to both be at peace with one another (PBS). For the Soviet Union and the United States to be allies is a major step forward to peace being made in the world. Gorbachev and Reagan worked together to end the war, and during that period of time, a real friendship had kindled between them. The end of the Cold War was beneficial to both the United States and Russia, but the Soviets had an extremely tough time dealing with the aftermath. Gorbachev’s economic reforms began to fail and some Soviets demanded independence by using the word glasnost, which translates to openness from Russian (PBS). Since Gorbachev was able to make peace with one of his many enemies at the time adds to the list of how he was an impactful…

    • 804 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Franklin Delano Roosevelt is easily the best president of his era. He had the single best approach to the economic problems and social problems that followed the economic problems of the time. Many people would say that he couldn’t make decisions for himself because of how he was constantly changing his ideas but in truth, his plan was to do whatever it took to work and he was going to make something work. In case it was not known, FDR was a fighter. He never gave up on the USA or stepped down even after being stricken by polio. A lot of his ideas came from his “brain trust” which was comprised of many advisors of all different back rounds and political beliefs. He was constantly keeping the American people informed with the state of the government and economy through a new invention popularly known as the radio. He would go out of his way to help the banks and would do anything to dig the US out of the pit that Hoover had dug and did nothing really to dig them out other than laying the foundation for FDR to bring America back from the brink of complete collapse. Using the foundation laid by Hoover many Administrations, Acts, and even some Corporations were put in place and somewhere welcomed and others weren’t, but FDR took all of the success and failures and made sure it worked out for the American people and the world when WWII came around. His foreign policy in WWII was very much respected and still is today because FDR would not let the crimes of others go unpunished. All in all everything FDR did was for the best of this country and the way he handled WWII both domestically and overseas.…

    • 1584 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    He acted for the good of all, and for the sake of the nation. It is very obvious that he showed little to no self-interest during his presidency and credited his success to his team. He used his strengths to lead people into advancing the ideology that the country was founded on. President Reagan was highly respected because he embodied the values of a family man and saw people for their personal worth instead of their political views. Reagan exemplified values-based leadership, which influenced his followers through shared and internalized values that support the common good. On top of having common values, Reagan also led through spiritual leadership. Reagan’s kindness, integrity, patience, courage, and appreciation spoke miles about how he enabled his followers and created a movement throughout the United States. Rarely, did Reagan use destructive or negative emotions in his leadership. Instead, he focused on the positives of every individual which led to many of his…

    • 1673 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Regan was criticised throughout his presidential career because he didn’t much care for how things got done he just wanted what he wanted. He was called arrogant by many. This had no effect on his popularity because he was coming up with ideas and solutions unlike some of the previous presidents before him. Ronald Reagan’s presidency was filled with plenty of notable events. One of the most popular of these events was Reagan’s appointment of Robert Bork and the supreme court decision.…

    • 713 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ronald Reagan Influence

    • 832 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Anti-Communist forces grew a lot stronger during the end of the Cold War. Reagan increased Military spending from 36 million to 197 million in the year 1984. America helped Anti communist forces in South and Central America. The Contras, As the anti Communist rebel group was called, fought to overthrow the Sandinistas, the communist regime that ruled over South America, and their numbers grew into the thousands with U.S. support. Ronald Reagan referred to the South American Contras as “freedom fighters” this caused a gain in public and congressional…

    • 832 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    President Reagan's prediction of the collapse of Soviet communism had come true. America and its allies had prevailed in the Cold War. President Reagan's policies of preserving peace through strength and promoting the advancement of democracy around the world significantly contributed to this victory. President Reagan’s Farwell Speech summed up his achievements well, he says "The way I see it, there were two great triumphs, two things that I'm proudest of. One is the economic recovery...The other is the recovery of our morale. America is respected again in the world and looked to for leadership...They called it the Reagan Revolution. Well, I'll accept that, but for me it always seemed more like the great rediscovery, a rediscovery of our values and our common sense...The lesson of all this was...as long as we always remember our first principles and believe in ourselves, the future will be ours. And something else we learned. Once you begin a great movement, there's no telling where it will end. We meant to change a nation, and instead, we changed a…

    • 1229 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In his speech, he made everyone aware of an interesting and alarming fact. “ How many of us realize that today federal agents can invade a man’s property without a warrant? They can impose a fine without a formal hearing, let alone a trial by jury? They can also seize and sell his property at auction to enforce the payment of that fine. p.442” If we did not have the right to our inalienable rights, how were we actually free? It is as if our rights are in limbo and can be taken from our grip at any moment from the government is what Reagan concluded. Although both Lyndon B. and Ronald both wanted to see our society strengthen, they had different thoughts about how the government could be involved. LBJ used the government as a tool to smooth out the rough patches in life and guarantee freedom. Reagan had a completely different view on that. Reagan saw the government as the enemy of freedom. He also thought that it messed with the natural order of…

    • 1057 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ronald Reagan was a actor and California governor, served as the 40th U.S. president from 1981 to 1989. Raised in a small-town of Illinois, he became a Hollywood actor in his 20s and later served as the Republican governor of California from 1967 to 1975. He was known as a Communicator, and being on television helped Reagan to become a popular president in both terms s. He cut taxes, increased defense spending, negotiated a nuclear arms reduction agreement with the Soviets. He was also credited for bringing a quicker end to the Cold War.…

    • 1482 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays