Ronald Reagan's Inaugural Address

In 1980 America was faced with an economic crisis for the ages and they chose Ronald Reagan to deal with it. By the end of Jimmy Carter’s presidency the interest rate was 15.26 percent, inflation was at 12.5 percent and unemployment at 7.1 percent and these rates were still on the rise.[1] Coupled with an economy that was not growing, these rates pushed the United States into a recession. Due to the current situation President Jimmy Carter had put us in, Ronald Reagan was elected in a landslide victory and at 69 he was the oldest elected president. Reagan was faced with a task comparable to Franklin Roosevelt and his inaugural address needed to reestablish confidence in the American economy. As well as the economic crisis, Reagan was handed a continuing crisis in the Middle East. This crisis not only included a hostage situation at the United States embassy in Iran but also growing tensions between Iraq and Iran. It was Ronald Reagan’s first inaugural address that would cover these issues and give the American people the confidence they needed to get itself out of the current recession. He would call each and every American person a “hero” and speak to them as a whole group being affected by the current crisis. [2] He would look to make Americans “dream heroic dreams” and forget about the pessimistic views about the Carter administration.[3] Reagan knew that he was going to have to make an impact very quickly otherwise the American people would quickly turn on him and question their decision to elect him as president. In a sense, Reagan’s address is the beginning of the most vital part of American History in the late 20th century, which saved America from economic disaster. Just as Herbert Hoover was blamed for the Great Depression, Jimmy Carter had been blamed for the terrible situation our economy was in at the end of his term in 1980 and especially the Iran hostage crisis. Due to the nations woes at the time, President Carter was viewed as a weak leader

Bibliography: Boller, Paul F., and Ronald Story, Eds. A More Perfect Union. 6th ed. Vol. 2. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005. Boyarsky, Bill. Ronald Reagan: His Life and Rise to Presidency. New York: Random House, 1981. Cannon, Lou. President Reagan: the Role of a Lifetime. New York: PublicAffairs, 2000. Diggins, John P. Ronald Reagan: Fate, Freedom and the Making of History. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007. Grafton, John. 28 Great Inaugural Addresses: From Washington to Reagan. Dover Publications, 2006. "People & Events: Carter 's "Crisis of Confidence" Speech." PBS Online. 23 Apr. 2008 . Reagan, Ronald. An American Life. New York: Pocket Books, 1992. Reagan, Ronald. Speaking My Mind. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989. Reagan, Ronald. The Reagan Diaries. New York: HarperCollins, 2007.