Ronald Reagan an Overrated President
Tami Arreguin
HIS/145
July 15, 2013
Nancy Fraleigh

Ronald Reagan an Overrated President
Ronald Reagan, the nation's 40th president, only recently became one of the most revered men in history. Reagan's ratings were higher than the averages of his three immediate predecessors Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, and Richard Nixon (Newport, Jones, & Saad, 2004) . How and why would so many Americans too soon forget all of the dishonesty and broken promises that came out of the White House while Reagan was in office? It is clear that many factors came into play that goes to show that Ronald Reagan is highly overrated as not only the president, but also an individual.
One of the first situations that occurred, as Reagan was sworn in, was the release of the 51 hostages from the American Embassy in Tehran. It seemed that the projected win of the future President Reagan triggered some fear in the Iranians. However, there were a few incidences that occurred, prior to the inauguration of Reagan, that actually set the stage for the emanate release of the hostages. (United States History, n.d.) In July, near the last leg of the presidential race, The Shah of Iran died. The return of the Shah, being one of the many requests in negotiations with the Iranian’s, was now neutralized. This brought the negotiations one step closer to closure (United States History, n.d.). Also, shortly after the death of the Shah, Iraq invaded Iran which created a need for weapons. With previous attempts of negotiating arms-for-hostages with President Carter, Iran felt the need to re-negotiate and with election almost over, they had hopes for a new President and weapons. Ultimately, with the wants and needs of the Iranians changing, this left the door open for Carter to make his move and maybe lock in his re-election. However, with what was called the “October Surprise” in the 11th hour, negotiations delayed and the hostages were released 5 min after the inauguration of President Ronald Reagan (United States History, n.d.). It is still up for debate as to whether or not there were prior meetings with Reagan’s campaign officials and Iranian officials to delay the release of the hostages in return for backing against the Iraq invasion (Killgore, 1992). This seems to be the start of the lies and dishonesty that followed.
Throughout Reagan’s campaigning he assaulted the Carter administration’s free-spending (Killgore, 1992). He made promises to cut spending, but ultimately spent more. The most common misconception is that Reagan saved our economy with his famous Reaganomics. This of course included the modern trickle-down theory or supply-side economics, which included major tax decreases, specifically on the wealthy. These tax decreases, coupled with high military spending, created a massive debt and led the country into one of the worst depressions since the Great Depression. When Reagan entered the presidency in 1981 the national debt was at $900 billion. By the time he left it had over tripled to $2.8 trillion. To top it off, many of the military projects the money was used to create went unused or incomplete. One project that was deserted was Star War! Skyrocketing debt was not the only problem. With recession obviously came unemployment. After the Reaganomics policies were put into place unemployment steadily and quickly grew until it peaked at 11%, one of the highest unemployment rates on record (Newport, Jones, & Saad, 2004). Also hit by the recession were business. Growth and sales stalled. However, this did not affect many major corporations. Reagan's policies were lenient, and in some cases even encouraging, when it came to outsourcing, and moving companies and jobs overseas. All of these elements created a recession which lasted about two years.
Eventually Reagan did get the country out of the recession, but he did it by abandoning his beloved Reaganomics, and raising taxes 11 times in his last 6 years (Richman, 1988) . The largest of these was the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982. It was written and proposed by the Democratic Congress, and was reluctantly signed in by Reagan. This was the turning point and boost the economy needed, and spurred economic growth. For some reason today's Republicans still cling to the failed policy that is trickle-down.
Reagan also struggled with domestic and foreign issues. Something not talked about a lot is Reagan's mishandling of the AIDS crisis, which killed tens of thousands (Richman, 1988). Little medical aid, money, or policies were set up to combat it. It was put on the back-burner, to be dealt with after military issues. Also ignored was the education system. He did nothing to stop the downhill slide of inner city schools, and crumbling systems. It's apparent that issues overseas took precedence. But even with all this focus, Reagan became misguided.
He was so caught up with fighting communism and keeping the Soviets out of Afghanistan, that he failed to see he was aiding a western and U.S. hating militant group. The Taliban, the same group that attacked the America on 9/11, and we were fighting for over ten years, were trained and supplied by the United States. Sure, he kept the Soviets out of Afghanistan, but the whole idea that he brought the downfall of the Soviet Union and ended the Cold War is a myth. The Soviet Union collapsed under its own policies. Policies like perestroika and glasnost. These polices strengthened the individual Soviet states, allowing more independence and market-reform (Siegelbaum, n.d.). These in turn brought more revolution amongst the states. Obviously Reagan had nothing to do with this. Many also question his foreign policy regarding Latin America. Reagan sunk billions of dollars into small wars in countries like Nicaragua. These were done without consulting Congress and were done merely to protect our nation's business interests, or show strength during the Cold War. All of these factors put together: the horrible recession and subsequent abandoning of his own policies, the ignorance of AIDS and our education system, and his shady foreign policy, prove how truly bad of a president he was. The glory given to him today is only advanced by myths and ignorance of facts. Reagan is not the great president he's made to be. Rather, he is probably the most overrated president in our history.

References
Killgore, A. I. (1992). The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. American Educational Trust, 6(4), 70.
Newport, F., Jones, J. M., & Saad, L. (2004,June). Ronald Reagan From the People’s Perspective: A Gallup Poll Review. Retrieved from http://www.gallup.com/poll/11887/Ronald-Reagan-From-Peoples-Perspective-Gallup-Poll-Review.aspx
Richman, S. L. (1988,October). The Sad Legacy of Ronald Reagan. The Free Market, 6(10), 6.
Siegelbaum, L. (n.d.). 1985: Perestroika and Glasnost. Retrieved from http://www.soviethistory.org/index.php?page=subject&SubjectID=1985perestroika&Year=1985
United States History. (n.d.). Iran Hostage Crisis. Retrieved from http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h2021.html