Cold War’s demise, conservative values defined 40th president

WASHINGTON – Ronald Reagan, an actor-turned-politician whose sunny disposition and ardent conservatism transformed American politics and lifted the nation’s spirits, lost his 10-year struggle with Alzheimer’s disease Saturday. He was 93.

The 40th president died quietly at his Bel Air, Calif., home at 1:09 p.m., with his wife, Nancy, and other family members nearby. His passing brought an international outpouring of tributes from friends and former adversaries.

“A great American life has come to an end,” President Bush told reporters in France, where he planned to mark the 60th anniversary of the D-Day invasion today. “He leaves behind a nation he restored and a world he helped save. During the years of President Reagan, America laid to rest an era of division and self-doubt. And because of his leadership, the world laid to rest an era of fear and tyranny.”

Reagan’s body will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol, and he will be buried at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif. A large crowd of mourners gathered outside a Santa Monica funeral home that will handle the arrangements.

The leader who convinced a nation that it was “morning again in America” spent his last years in the long twilight of a disease that slowly dimmed his ability to function. Reagan revealed his Alzheimer’s diagnosis on Nov. 5, 1994, five years after leaving the White House.

“When the Lord calls me home, whenever that may be,” he wrote with a shaky hand, “I will leave with the greatest love for this country of ours and eternal optimism for its future. I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead.”

Nancy Reagan, who said last month that Alzheimer’s had taken her husband “to a distant place where I can no longer reach him,” announced his death in a brief statement.

“My family and I would like the world to know President Ronald Reagan has passed away,” she said.

It was the end of a storybook life, an all-American tale more colorful than any of the 53 movies he starred in before entering politics.

Born poor but blessed with a magnetic personality, he succeeded at almost everything he ever tried – sports, acting, politics – before twice winning election as president of the United States.

He shaped his times more than all but a few presidents in history and he remains the most beloved since John F. Kennedy.

Even Reagan’s political opponents found it hard not to like him. A ruggedly handsome man who looked as good in a cowboy hat and dungarees as in a tuxedo, he exuded sunny optimism.

“He was always the Republican Party’s happy warrior,” Democratic Party Chairman Terry McAuliffe said in a statement mourning his death as “a loss for all Americans.”

William Clark, who worked with Reagan in California before serving as national security adviser and Interior secretary, said Reagan was as polite in private as he was in public.

“I cannot recall one unkind word that the president uttered against another person,” he said. “I cannot think of a personal attack he ever made on anyone in the many years I worked with him.”

He loved to smile and tell jokes. His dad nicknamed him “Dutch.” The Secret Service called him “Rawhide.” His easy, avuncular manner and his warm, husky voice helped persuade people to trust and believe in him.

Reagan’s political success stemmed from a combination of enormous personal charm and rock-hard convictions.

He stood for clear, firm principles – individual liberty, small government, free markets, low taxes, anti-communism and military strength. He presented his views with such selfless, patriotic sincerity that even many who disagreed nonetheless respected and admired him.

Born in 1911, raised in several small Illinois towns, Reagan turned a Depression-era radio sports-announcing job into a springboard to Hollywood fame and fortune.

After a successful quarter-century career in movies and on television, at age 53 he turned his energies to politics full time and quickly became the inspirational leader of conservative Republicans nationwide.

After two terms as California’s governor from 1967 to 1975, Reagan, at age 69, in 1980 became the oldest man ever elected president, America’s 40th. Four years later he swept to a landslide re-election, winning 49 of 50 states.

He left office in 1989 with the highest public approval rating – 63 percent in the Gallup poll – of any departing president since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s death in 1945.

History records a mixed legacy from Reagan’s presidency.

He cut taxes and spending sharply upon taking power, but by the time he left office the government was bigger and spent more than ever – and the national debt had tripled.

He calmly counseled patience through the nation’s worst recession since the 1930s, then presided over one of the richest periods of prosperity in history, but did little to shrink the growing gap between rich and poor.

He greatly strengthened the military, then helped end the Cold War by boldly striking agreements with the Soviet Union to reduce nuclear arsenals for the first time.

Reagan’s greatest achievements, however, arguably were symbolic, perhaps even spiritual.

He renewed the American spirit of can-do optimism after almost 20 years of doldrums from the Vietnam War, Watergate, economic stagnation and weak leadership.

He reinvigorated the Republican Party and led it to an era of dominance, as his conservative values reshaped American politics. Democrats could not win the presidency again until Bill Clinton amended liberal ideology in 1992 to echo such Reaganesque themes as cutting taxes, fighting crime, reforming welfare and shrinking government.

“Over time, he converted much of the country to his own views and values. His more important legacy is how much he changed our minds,” suggested David Gergen, formerly Reagan’s communications director.

His physical resilience was legendary.

He survived a 1981 assassination attempt, a 1985 colon cancer operation and 1987 prostate and skin-cancer surgery.

“Honey, I forgot to duck,” he told his wife with characteristic humor after John Hinckley Jr. shot a bullet into his chest outside the Washington Hilton Hotel.

He earned the nickname “the Great Communicator” and his persuasive skills were beyond dispute. His Hollywood training obviously helped, but he also felt an instinctive bond with ordinary people that informed his ability to reach them as both actor and politician.

But he usually spoke from notes on cue cards, even in small-group settings. And his masterful public leadership was not matched by managerial prowess.

Both as governor and as president, Reagan was highly dependent upon his staff, to whom he delegated an unusual degree of responsibility for running the government.

He set the broad thematic agenda and made the big decisions, but he knew little detail of the government he headed, and often didn’t bother to find out much about it.

When Reagan’s staff functioned well, as was typical through his first term, his presidency tended to succeed. Early in his second term, however, when a largely new staff stumbled into the Iran-Contra scandal, Reagan almost faced impeachment before others led him out of the mess he had blundered into.

“He thought of himself as the leading man, not the producer or the director, and he usually counted on his aides and sometimes on his wife to know what was best for him,” wrote Lou Cannon, his most authoritative biographer.

“Reagan thought in terms of performance, and those closest to him approached his presidency as if it were a series of productions casting Reagan in the starring role.”

Unlike many of the nation’s chief executives, the presidency did not burden him.

He typically slept eight hours a night and worked from 9 to 5:30, with Wednesday afternoons off.

“Show me an executive who works long overtime hours, and I’ll show you a bad executive,” he said more than once.

True to that spirit, Reagan spent 183 weekends over eight years at the presidential retreat in Camp David, Md., and 345 days of his presidency at Rancho del Cielo, his rustic home outside Santa Barbara, Calif.

But for many people, all that mattered less than his leadership.

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher called him “a truly great American hero” who changed the world.

“Ronald Reagan had a higher claim than any other leader to have won the Cold War for liberty, and he did it without a shot being fired,” Thatcher said.

In the end, even Reagan’s detractors were softened in their views by his long struggle with Alzheimer’s and his quiet retreat from public life.

“He always told us that for America, the best was yet to come. And now that’s true for him, too,” Bush said.

“His work is done. And now a shining city awaits him.”