Former President Ronald Reagan, credited with helping end the Cold War, has died. He was 93 years old and had long suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. A family friend announced he died Saturday at his home in Los Angeles.
A former Hollywood actor and governor of California governor, the 40th president of the United States was swept into office on a conservative tide in the elections of 1980. He promised to restore public confidence in government at a time the country was plagued by economic woes and humbled by a hostage crisis in Iran.
Mr. Reagan saw his greatest mission as the fight against the Soviet Union, which he termed the “evil empire”, and boosted U.S. military force to that end. Castigated by his critics as holding what they considered a simplistic and militaristic world view, Mr. Reagan was admired by others as embodying strong American values.
Some said the two-term president was “teflon-coated” – no scandals or foreign policy failures seemed to cause him political damage. As his presidency came to a close, he was 77 years old, had survived an attempted assassination, and many viewed him as a grandfather of the nation figure. He was also referred to as “The Great Communicator”.
In recent years, conservative groups have moved to honor Mr. Reagan across the nation, renaming an airport outside Washington Reagan National, and pushing to have his face imprinted on the dime.
Ronald Wilson Reagan was born in the midwestern state of Illinois in 1911.
He is survived by his wife Nancy, daughter Patti, and son Ron. A second daughter, Maureen, died of cancer in August 2001.
