Ex-President Ronald Reagan dies

[Umma]

Former US President Ronald Reagan has died, aged 93, after a long struggle with Alzheimer's disease.

He died at home in Los Angeles, where his family were with him.

Mr Reagan - who was president from 1981 to 1989 - had not been seen in public for several years, and spent his last years being tended by his wife Nancy.

Mr Reagan's two terms in the White House were marked by the climax of the Cold War and the beginning of the end of Soviet communism.

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[DudeAsInCool]

Reagan Had Long Struggle With Alzheimer's Disease

ASHINGTON -- Ronald Reagan, the cheerful crusader who devoted his presidency to winning the Cold War, trying to scale back government and making people believe it was "morning again in America," died Saturday after a long twilight struggle with Alzheimer's disease. He was 93.

The family had turned to making funeral arrangements, a friend of the family said.

In Paris, White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said President Bush was notified of Reagan's death in Paris at about 4:10 p.m., EDT, by White House chief of staff Andy Card, who learned of the death from Fred Ryan, Reagan's former California chief of staff.

The United States flag over the White House was lowered to half staff within an hour.

Reagan's body was expected to be taken to his presidential library and museum in Simi Valley, Calif., and then flown to Washington to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda. His funeral was expected to be at the National Cathedral, an event likely to draw world leaders. The body was to be returned to California for a sunset burial at his library.

The White House was told his health had taken a turn for the worse in the last several days.

The president planned to participate in D-Day ceremonies in Normandy on Sunday and then fly back to the United States for an international economic summit in Georgia.

She said it was not known at this point whether Bush would change his travel plans because of Reagan's death.

Five years after leaving office, the nation's 40th president told the world in November 1994 that he had been diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimer's, an incurable illness that destroys brain cells. He said he had begun "the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life."

Reagan lived longer than any U.S. president, spending his last decade in the shrouded seclusion wrought by his disease, tended by his wife, Nancy, whom he called Mommy, and the select few closest to him. Now, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton are the surviving ex-presidents.

Although fiercely protective of Reagan's privacy, the former first lady let people know his mental condition had deteriorated terribly. Last month, she said: "Ronnie's long journey has finally taken him to a distant place where I can no longer reach him."

Reagan's oldest daughter, Maureen, from his first marriage, died in August 2001 at age 60 from cancer. Three other children survive: Michael, from his first marriage, and Patti Davis and Ron from his second.

Over two terms, from 1981 to 1989, Reagan reshaped the Republican Party in his conservative image, fixed his eye on the demise of the Soviet Union and Eastern European communism and tripled the national debt to $3 trillion in his single-minded competition with the other superpower.

Taking office at age 69, Reagan had already lived a career outside Washington, one that spanned work as a radio sports announcer, an actor, a television performer, a spokesman for the General Electric Co., and a two-term governor of California.

At the time of his retirement, his very name suggested a populist brand of conservative politics that still inspires the Republican Party.

He declared at the outset, "Government is not the solution, it's the problem," although reducing that government proved harder to do in reality than in his rhetoric.

Even so, he challenged the status quo on welfare and other programs that had put government on a growth spurt ever since Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal strengthened the federal presence in the lives of average Americans.

In foreign affairs, he built the arsenals of war while seeking and achieving arms control agreements with the Soviet Union.

In his second term, Reagan was dogged by revelations that he authorized secret arms sales to Iran while seeking Iranian aid to gain release of American hostages held in Lebanon. Some of the money was used to aid rebels fighting the leftist government of Nicaragua.

Despite the ensuing investigations, he left office in 1989 with the highest popularity rating of any retiring president in the history of modern-day public opinion polls.

That reflected, in part, his uncommon ability as a communicator and his way of connecting with ordinary Americans, even as his policies infuriated the left and as his simple verities made him the butt of jokes. "Morning again in America" became his re-election campaign mantra in 1984, but typified his appeal to patriotism through both terms.

At 69, Reagan was the oldest man ever elected president when he was chosen on Nov. 4, 1980, by an unexpectedly large margin over incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter.

Near-tragedy struck on his 70th day as president. On March 30, 1981, Reagan was leaving a Washington hotel after addressing labor leaders when a young drifter, John Hinckley, fired six shots at him. A bullet lodged an inch from Reagan's heart, but he recovered.

Four years later he was re-elected by an even greater margin, carrying 49 of the 50 states in defeating Democrat Walter F. Mondale, Carter's vice president.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/05/politics...IRE-REAGAN.html

[rainbowdemon]

Sad. Mr. Reagan was one of America's great presidents!!

[Cerebral_Assassin]

President Reagan was truly one of the great leaders of our time. I, being a Democrat went against the grain and voted for him. I felt that he was the best man for the job, Republican or Democrat........didn't make a bit of difference to me.

We have lost a great person and a friend to everyone in America......may he Rest In Peace.

''Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidise it''.

Ronald Reagan

[Bombardier]

This is a sad day :(

Ronald Regan was one of the best U.S. Presidents. 93 was a long time to live, considering he had Alzheimer's disease.

May he rest in peace r.i.p.

[desdemona]

what a sad way to go, that has to be one of the worst scourges elderly face.

Ronald Reagan was an excellent leader, one thing I remember he did for manufacturing in ohio, he gave the tax break for Honda but only if they built the product in the US, thus we have a Honda car assembly plant in Marion, Oh. I'm curious to the ceremony they will afford him, in my lifetime the only state funeral for a president I saw was JFK's when I was a child. Nixon had resigned so he wasn't entitled to one. I think he'll probably lay in state at the capitol. To quote Reagan "are you better off now than you were 4 yrs ago"? I think we should be asking the same question this time too.

Edited June 5, 2004 by desdemona

[Kooperman]

Lyndon Johnson also lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda after his death in 1973, but his funeral was in Texas, where he was buried. I'm sure the body of President Reagan will also be there soon too. Although his illness was an inevitable death sentence for him, he was as tough in illness as he was in his vigorous years, holding on for much longer than would ordinarily be expected. That tenacity and innate resolve also served him well in his political career, allowing him to surpass the expectations of most political observers. With his death, we've probably seen the last of the great conservative leaders who could garner support from both sides of the political aisle. I voted for him twice and never felt like I made a mistake, even in his last term when he was aging faster (perhaps due to early stages of Alzheimer's) and his duties were spread around to more people.

********************************************************************

(After more research I discovered that Lyndon Johnson did have a state funeral in Washington, as well as in Texas.)

[desdemona]

ok, I do remember LBJ's funeral now, but I guess it just didn't stay in mind as well as JFK's. It's quite an extraordinary event, alot of military history involved.

[MxRob]

He was a great man who did many important things for the USA. Today is a sad day

r.i.p. Ronald Reagan

Edited June 6, 2004 by MxRob

[slum_goddess]

i for one will never forget how RR totally ignored any mention of AIDs for over 5 years thus signing the death warrants for a lot of my friends. so i couldn't give a shit that he's dead.

[Potato]

He was president in the decade I was born in, so I really couldn't tell you what I thought of his presidency. However, he lived a full life, and it was his time. Ninety-three years is a long damned time. May he rest in peace.

Honestly the only thing I know about him is that in some election with him and Walter Mondale, he won every state except Minnesota. Mondale won MN, and they say that's because he's from here.

[DudeAsInCool]

I have mixed feelings about Reagan's Presidency. When I got out of school at UCLA, his trickle down economic policy exacerbated an already shakey economy. There were no jobs and graduates were told to go hang out in Europe or see the world until it got better. Eventually his supply side economic plan jumpstarted the economy, but at a price--it also created a huge budget deficit. Reagan deserves credit for helping fuel the fall of Communism with his huge buildup of the military, although I would argue that the media (MTV and other western lures) played an even bigger role in waking the people up behind the iron curtain. A practical dreamer, Reagan tried to go one step further in stopping nuclea war with his Star Wars plan, but it was a bigger dream than a reality. If he wasn't so likable personally and such a good communicator (age and the end of his term also played contributing factors), it is highly likely that his Presidency would have ended with the unfolding of the Iran Contra scandal. Nancy Reagan played a stronger role than most people perceive--she helped moderate his policies, and heads rolled in the Iran Contra affair when she found out what was going down. Then again, she was involved in the 'just say no' anti-drug program, which never worked and ultimately was a joke. Probably the think I liked about Reagan the most was you knew where he was coming from; even if you disagreed with his policies (which I did for the most part), at least there was no double-talk. He walked his talk.