Who Was The First President? - CLT Livre

Who Was The First President?

Who Was The First President

What are all the 45 presidents?

List of U.S. Presidents

1. George Washington 2. John Adams 4. James Madison
33. Harry S. Truman 34. Dwight D. Eisenhower 36. Lyndon B. Johnson
37. Richard M. Nixon 38. Gerald Ford 40. Ronald Reagan
41. George H.W. Bush 42. Bill Clinton 44. Barack Obama
45. Donald Trump 46. Joe Biden

Who was the former first President?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The president of India is the head of state of the Republic of India and the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces, The president is referred to as the first citizen of India. Although vested with these powers by the Constitution of India, the position is largely a ceremonial one and executive powers are de facto exercised by the prime minister,

The president is elected by the Electoral College composed of elected members of the parliament houses, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, and also members of the Saasana Sabha or Vidhan Sabha, the state legislative assemblies. Presidents may remain in office for a tenure of five years, as stated by article 56, part V, of the Constitution of India.

In the case where a president’s term of office is terminated early or during the absence of the president, the vice president assumes office. By article 70 of part V, the parliament may decide how to discharge the functions of the president where this is not possible, or in any other unexpected contingency.

There have been 15 presidents of India since the post was established when India was declared as a republic with the adoption of the Indian constitution in 1950. Apart from these fifteen, three acting presidents have also been in office for short periods of time. Varahagiri Venkata Giri became the acting president in 1969 after Zakir Husain, died in office.

Giri was elected president a few months later. He remains the only person to have held office both as a president and acting president. Rajendra Prasad, the first president of India, is the only person to have held office for two terms. Seven presidents have been members of a political party before being elected.

Six of these were active party members of the Indian National Congress, The Janata Party has had one member, Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, who later became president. Two presidents, Zakir Husain and Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, have died in office. Their vice presidents served as acting presidents until a new president was elected.

Following Zakir Husain’s death, two acting presidents held office until the new president, Varahagiri Venkata Giri, was elected. When Giri resigned to take part in the presidential elections, he was succeeded by M. Hidayatullah as acting president. The 12th president, Pratibha Devisingh Patil, is the first woman to hold the office, elected in 2007,

Have there been 45 or 46 presidents?

By the numbers – There have been 46 presidencies (including the current president, Joe Biden, whose term began in 2021), and 45 people have served as president. Grover Cleveland was elected to two nonconsecutive terms, and as such is considered the 22nd and 24th president of the United States. Of the 45 different people who have been or are currently serving as president:

  • 32 presidents had previous military experience; 9 were generals in the US Army.
  • 27 presidents were previously lawyers.
  • 20 presidents previously served as governors; 17 presidents were state governors; 9 were governors immediately before election as presidents. Two, William Henry Harrison and William Howard Taft, served as territorial governors. One, Andrew Jackson, served as a military governor of a territory (Florida) before it became a state. Johnson served in Tennessee during the Civil War.
  • 18 presidents previously served as U.S. representatives; 6 of 18 held this office prior to the four ‘previous positions’ shown in this table. Only one – James A. Garfield – was a representative immediately before election as president. Only Garfield and Abraham Lincoln had served in no higher office than representative when elected president. Only John Quincy Adams served as a U.S. representative after being president. Additionally, after being president, John Tyler served in the Provisional Confederate Congress and was later elected to the Confederate House of Representatives, but he died before taking his seat.
  • 17 presidents previously served as U.S. senators; only 3 immediately before election as president. Only one president, Andrew Johnson, served as a U.S. senator after his presidency.
  • 15 presidents previously served as vice presidents. All except Richard Nixon and Joe Biden were vice presidents immediately before becoming president; 9 of the 15 succeeded to the presidency upon the death or (in one case) resignation of the elected president; 5 of those 9 were not later elected.
  • 9 presidents were out of office (for at least one year) immediately before election as president.
  • 8 presidents previously served as Cabinet secretaries; 6 as secretary of state; 5 of the 8 served immediately before election as president.
  • 7 presidents had previous experience in foreign service.
  • 5 presidents had never been elected to public office before becoming president: Zachary Taylor, Ulysses S. Grant, Herbert Hoover, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Donald Trump, Most of these had, however, been appointed to several prominent offices. Hoover’s contributions toward the Treaty of Versailles preceded his appointment as United States Secretary of Commerce, Taylor, Grant, and Eisenhower led U.S. forces to victory in the Mexican–American War, American Civil War, and World War II, respectively – each occupying the highest-ranking command post of their time. Trump is the group’s sole exception, having never held any public office nor any military position.
  • 5 presidents taught at a university: James A. Garfield, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama,
  • 2 presidents served as party leaders of the House of Representatives, James A. Garfield and Gerald Ford,
  • 1 president served as an ordained minister, serving as a pastor in the Disciples of Christ (Christian) Church, James A. Garfield,
  • 1 president served as speaker of the House of Representatives, James K. Polk,
  • 1 president served as president pro tempore of the United States Senate, John Tyler,
  • 1 president served as party leader of the United States Senate, Lyndon B. Johnson,
  • 1 president served as president of the United States for two non-consecutive terms, Grover Cleveland,
  • 1 president had a PhD, Woodrow Wilson,
  • 1 president had neither prior government nor military experience before becoming president, Donald Trump,

Who was the 3rd President?

Thomas Jefferson

The biography for President Jefferson and past presidents is courtesy of the White House Historical Association. Thomas Jefferson, a spokesman for democracy, was an American Founding Father, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and the third President of the United States (1801–1809).In the thick of party conflict in 1800, Thomas Jefferson wrote in a private letter, “I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”

This powerful advocate of liberty was born in 1743 in Albemarle County, Virginia, inheriting from his father, a planter and surveyor, some 5,000 acres of land, and from his mother, a Randolph, high social standing. He studied at the College of William and Mary, then read law.

In 1772 he married Martha Wayles Skelton, a widow, and took her to live in his partly constructed mountaintop home, Monticello. Freckled and sandy-haired, rather tall and awkward, Jefferson was eloquent as a correspondent, but he was no public speaker. In the Virginia House of Burgesses and the Continental Congress, he contributed his pen rather than his voice to the patriot cause.

As the “silent member” of the Congress, Jefferson, at 33, drafted the Declaration of Independence. In years following he labored to make its words a reality in Virginia. Most notably, he wrote a bill establishing religious freedom, enacted in 1786. Jefferson succeeded Benjamin Franklin as minister to France in 1785.

His sympathy for the French Revolution led him into conflict with Alexander Hamilton when Jefferson was Secretary of State in President Washington’s Cabinet. He resigned in 1793. Sharp political conflict developed, and two separate parties, the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans, began to form.

Jefferson gradually assumed leadership of the Republicans, who sympathized with the revolutionary cause in France. Attacking Federalist policies, he opposed a strong centralized Government and championed the rights of states. As a reluctant candidate for President in 1796, Jefferson came within three votes of election.

Through a flaw in the Constitution, he became Vice President, although an opponent of President Adams. In 1800 the defect caused a more serious problem. Republican electors, attempting to name both a President and a Vice President from their own party, cast a tie vote between Jefferson and Aaron Burr.

The House of Representatives settled the tie. Hamilton, disliking both Jefferson and Burr, nevertheless urged Jefferson’s election. When Jefferson assumed the Presidency, the crisis in France had passed. He slashed Army and Navy expenditures, cut the budget, eliminated the tax on whiskey so unpopular in the West, yet reduced the national debt by a third.

He also sent a naval squadron to fight the Barbary pirates, who were harassing American commerce in the Mediterranean. Further, although the Constitution made no provision for the acquisition of new land, Jefferson suppressed his qualms over constitutionality when he had the opportunity to acquire the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon in 1803.

During Jefferson’s second term, he was increasingly preoccupied with keeping the Nation from involvement in the Napoleonic wars, though both England and France interfered with the neutral rights of American merchantmen. Jefferson’s attempted solution, an embargo upon American shipping, worked badly and was unpopular.

Jefferson retired to Monticello to ponder such projects as his grand designs for the University of Virginia. A French nobleman observed that he had placed his house and his mind “on an elevated situation, from which he might contemplate the universe.” He died on July 4, 1826. Learn more about Thomas Jefferson’s spouse,,

: Thomas Jefferson

Who was the 5 President?

The biography for President Monroe and past presidents is courtesy of the White House Historical Association. James Monroe was the fifth President of the United States (1817–1825) and the last President from the Founding Fathers. On New Year’s Day, 1825, at the last of his annual White House receptions, President James Monroe made a pleasing impression upon a Virginia lady who shook his hand: “He is tall and well formed.

His dress plain and in the old style. His manner was quiet and dignified. From the frank, honest expression of his eye I think he well deserves the encomium passed upon him by the great Jefferson, who said, ‘Monroe was so honest that if you turned his soul inside out there would not be a spot on it.’ ” Born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, in 1758, Monroe attended the College of William and Mary, fought with distinction in the Continental Army, and practiced law in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

As a youthful politician, he joined the anti-Federalists in the Virginia Convention which ratified the Constitution, and in 1790, an advocate of Jeffersonian policies, was elected United States Senator. As Minister to France in 1794-1796, he displayed strong sympathies for the French cause; later, with Robert R.

  1. Livingston, he helped negotiate the Louisiana Purchase.
  2. His ambition and energy, together with the backing of President Madison, made him the Republican choice for the Presidency in 1816.
  3. With little Federalist opposition, he easily won re-election in 1820.
  4. Monroe made unusually strong Cabinet choices, naming a Southerner, John C.

Calhoun, as Secretary of War, and a northerner, John Quincy Adams, as Secretary of State. Only Henry Clay’s refusal kept Monroe from adding an outstanding Westerner. Early in his administration, Monroe undertook a goodwill tour. At Boston, his visit was hailed as the beginning of an “Era of Good Feelings.” Unfortunately these “good feelings” did not endure, although Monroe, his popularity undiminished, followed nationalist policies.

Across the facade of nationalism, ugly sectional cracks appeared. A painful economic depression undoubtedly increased the dismay of the people of the Missouri Territory in 1819 when their application for admission to the Union as a slave state failed. An amended bill for gradually eliminating slavery in Missouri precipitated two years of bitter debate in Congress.

The Missouri Compromise bill resolved the struggle, pairing Missouri as a slave state with Maine, a free state, and barring slavery north and west of Missouri forever. In foreign affairs Monroe proclaimed the fundamental policy that bears his name, responding to the threat that the more conservative governments in Europe might try to aid Spain in winning back her former Latin American colonies.

  • Monroe did not begin formally to recognize the young sister republics until 1822, after ascertaining that Congress would vote appropriations for diplomatic missions.
  • He and Secretary of State John Quincy Adams wished to avoid trouble with Spain until it had ceded the Floridas, as was done in 1821.
  • Great Britain, with its powerful navy, also opposed reconquest of Latin America and suggested that the United States join in proclaiming “hands off.” Ex-Presidents Jefferson and Madison counseled Monroe to accept the offer, but Secretary Adams advised, “It would be more candid to avow our principles explicitly to Russia and France, than to come in as a cock-boat in the wake of the British man-of-war.” Monroe accepted Adams’s advice.

Not only must Latin America be left alone, he warned, but also Russia must not encroach southward on the Pacific coast.”. the American continents,” he stated, “by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European Power.” Some 20 years after Monroe died in 1831, this became known as the Monroe Doctrine.

Who is the 4th President?

James Madison The biography for President Madison and past presidents is courtesy of the White House Historical Association. James Madison, America’s fourth President (1809-1817), made a major contribution to the ratification of the Constitution by writing The Federalist Papers, along with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay.

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In later years, he was referred to as the “Father of the Constitution.” At his inauguration, James Madison, a small, wizened man, appeared old and worn; Washington Irving described him as “but a withered little apple-John.” But whatever his deficiencies in charm, Madison’s wife Dolley compensated for them with her warmth and gaiety.

She was the toast of Washington. Born in 1751, Madison was brought up in Orange County, Virginia, and attended Princeton (then called the College of New Jersey). A student of history and government, well-read in law, he participated in the framing of the Virginia Constitution in 1776, served in the Continental Congress, and was a leader in the Virginia Assembly.

When delegates to the Constitutional Convention assembled at Philadelphia, the 36-year-old Madison took frequent and emphatic part in the debates. Madison made a major contribution to the ratification of the Constitution by writing, with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, the Federalist essays. In later years, when he was referred to as the “Father of the Constitution,” Madison protested that the document was not “the off-spring of a single brain,” but “the work of many heads and many hands.” In Congress, he helped frame the Bill of Rights and enact the first revenue legislation.

Out of his leadership in opposition to Hamilton’s financial proposals, which he felt would unduly bestow wealth and power upon northern financiers, came the development of the Republican, or Jeffersonian, Party. As President Jefferson’s Secretary of State, Madison protested to warring France and Britain that their seizure of American ships was contrary to international law.

The protests, John Randolph acidly commented, had the effect of “a shilling pamphlet hurled against eight hundred ships of war.” Despite the unpopular Embargo Act of 1807, which did not make the belligerent nations change their ways but did cause a depression in the United States, Madison was elected President in 1808.

Before he took office the Embargo Act was repealed. During the first year of Madison’s Administration, the United States prohibited trade with both Britain and France; then in May, 1810, Congress authorized trade with both, directing the President, if either would accept America’s view of neutral rights, to forbid trade with the other nation.

  • Napoleon pretended to comply.
  • Late in 1810, Madison proclaimed non-intercourse with Great Britain.
  • In Congress a young group including Henry Clay and John C.
  • Calhoun, the “War Hawks,” pressed the President for a more militant policy.
  • The British impressment of American seamen and the seizure of cargoes impelled Madison to give in to the pressure.

On June 1, 1812, he asked Congress to declare war. The young Nation was not prepared to fight; its forces took a severe trouncing. The British entered Washington and set fire to the White House and the Capitol. But a few notable naval and military victories, climaxed by Gen.

  1. Andrew Jackson’s triumph at New Orleans, convinced Americans that the War of 1812 had been gloriously successful.
  2. An upsurge of nationalism resulted.
  3. The New England Federalists who had opposed the war–and who had even talked secession–were so thoroughly repudiated that Federalism disappeared as a national party.

In retirement at Montpelier, his estate in Orange County, Virginia, Madison spoke out against the disruptive states’ rights influences that by the 1830’s threatened to shatter the Federal Union. In a note opened after his death in 1836, he stated, “The advice nearest to my heart and deepest in my convictions is that the Union of the States be cherished and perpetuated.” Learn more about James Madison’s spouse,,

Who was the 7th President?

Andrew Jackson

The biography for President Jackson and past presidents is courtesy of the White House Historical Association. Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States from 1829 to 1837, seeking to act as the direct representative of the common man.More nearly than any of his predecessors, Andrew Jackson was elected by popular vote; as President he sought to act as the direct representative of the common man.

Born in a backwoods settlement in the Carolinas in 1767, he received sporadic education. But in his late teens he read law for about two years, and he became an outstanding young lawyer in Tennessee. Fiercely jealous of his honor, he engaged in brawls, and in a duel killed a man who cast an unjustified slur on his wife Rachel.

  1. Jackson prospered sufficiently to buy slaves and to build a mansion, the Hermitage, near Nashville.
  2. He was the first man elected from Tennessee to the House of Representatives, and he served briefly in the Senate.
  3. A major general in the War of 1812, Jackson became a national hero when he defeated the British at New Orleans.

In 1824 some state political factions rallied around Jackson; by 1828 enough had joined “Old Hickory” to win numerous state elections and control of the Federal administration in Washington. In his first Annual Message to Congress, Jackson recommended eliminating the Electoral College.

He also tried to democratize Federal officeholding. Already state machines were being built on patronage, and a New York Senator openly proclaimed “that to the victors belong the spoils. ” Jackson took a milder view. Decrying officeholders who seemed to enjoy life tenure, he believed Government duties could be “so plain and simple” that offices should rotate among deserving applicants.

As national politics polarized around Jackson and his opposition, two parties grew out of the old Republican Party–the Democratic Republicans, or Democrats, adhering to Jackson; and the National Republicans, or Whigs, opposing him. Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and other Whig leaders proclaimed themselves defenders of popular liberties against the usurpation of Jackson.

  1. Hostile cartoonists portrayed him as King Andrew I.
  2. Behind their accusations lay the fact that Jackson, unlike previous Presidents, did not defer to Congress in policy-making but used his power of the veto and his party leadership to assume command.
  3. The greatest party battle centered around the Second Bank of the United States, a private corporation but virtually a Government-sponsored monopoly.

When Jackson appeared hostile toward it, the Bank threw its power against him. Clay and Webster, who had acted as attorneys for the Bank, led the fight for its recharter in Congress. “The bank,” Jackson told Martin Van Buren, “is trying to kill me, but I will kill it!” Jackson, in vetoing the recharter bill, charged the Bank with undue economic privilege.

  1. His views won approval from the American electorate; in 1832 he polled more than 56 percent of the popular vote and almost five times as many electoral votes as Clay.
  2. Jackson met head-on the challenge of John C.
  3. Calhoun, leader of forces trying to rid themselves of a high protective tariff.
  4. When South Carolina undertook to nullify the tariff, Jackson ordered armed forces to Charleston and privately threatened to hang Calhoun.

Violence seemed imminent until Clay negotiated a compromise: tariffs were lowered and South Carolina dropped nullification. In January of 1832, while the President was dining with friends at the White House, someone whispered to him that the Senate had rejected the nomination of Martin Van Buren as Minister to England.

Are all 50 presidents related?

Ancestral background of presidents of the United States

The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia’s, Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing that are of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be,, or, Find sources: – · · · · ( June 2023 ) ( )

Map showing ancestry The ancestral background of presidents of the United States has been relatively consistent throughout American history. With the exception of and perhaps, every president has ancestors from the, which in turn makes many of them distantly related to one another.

Ennedy was of pure descent, Van Buren was of lineage; and Eisenhower was of and heritage. is the only president to have ancestry from outside ; his paternal family is of the of, He is also believed to be a direct descendant of, a colonial-era slave born in modern-day, Despite speculation, there is no evidence that any of the United States’ presidents have had any ancestry.

The most common ethnic groups in the were those hailing from either or, Those of other backgrounds (such as Irish, Dutch, German, or ) would see attempts to assimilate them into the dominant and predominately, Some political groups within the United States were adamantly opposed to identifying with a foreign nation and would coin those who did as,

Is there 47 presidents?

List of presidents of the United States The, official residence of the president of the United States, pictured in May 2006 The is the and of the United States, to a four-year via the, The officeholder leads the of the and is the of the, Since the office was established in 1789, 45 men have served in 46 presidencies.

  1. The first president,, won a unanimous vote of the Electoral College.
  2. Served two non-consecutive terms and is therefore counted as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, giving rise to the discrepancy between the number of presidencies and the number of persons who have served as president.

The incumbent president is, The presidency of, who died 31 days after taking office in 1841, was the shortest in American history. served the longest, over twelve years, before dying early in his fourth term in 1945. He is the only U.S. president to have served more than two terms.

  • Since the ratification of the in 1951, no person may be elected president more than twice, and no one who has served more than two years of a term to which someone else was elected may be elected more than once.
  • Four presidents of natural causes (William Henry Harrison,,, and Franklin D.
  • Roosevelt), four were (,, and ), and one resigned (, facing and removal from office).

was the first to assume the presidency during a presidential term, and set the precedent that a vice president who does so becomes the fully functioning president with his presidency. Throughout most of its history, has been dominated by, The Constitution is silent on the issue of political parties, and at the time it came into force in 1789, no organized parties existed.

  1. Soon after the convened, began rallying around dominant officials, such as and,
  2. Concerned about the capacity of political parties to destroy the fragile unity holding the nation together, Washington remained with any political faction or party throughout his eight-year presidency.
  3. He was, and remains, the only U.S.

president never affiliated with a political party.

Who was the first woman President?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pratibha Patil
Official portrait, 2007
12th President of India
In office 25 July 2007 – 25 July 2012
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari
Preceded by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
Succeeded by Pranab Mukherjee
17th Governor of Rajasthan
In office 8 November 2004 – 23 June 2007
Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje
Preceded by Madan Lal Khurana
Succeeded by Akhlaqur Rahman Kidwai
Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha
In office 21 June 1991 – 16 May 1996
Preceded by Sudam Deshmukh
Succeeded by Anantrao Gudhe
Constituency Amravati
9th Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha
In office 18 November 1986 – 5 November 1988
Preceded by M.M. Jacob
Succeeded by Najma Heptulla
Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha
In office 1985–1990
Constituency Maharashtra
Member of the Legislative Assembly, Maharashtra
In office 1962–1985
Constituency
  • Jalgaon (1962–1967)
  • Edlabad (1967–1985)
Personal details
Born Pratibha Narayan Rao Patil 19 December 1934 (age 88) Nadgaon Village district, Bombay Presidency, British India (now Maharashtra, India)
Political party Indian National Congress
Spouse Devisingh Ramsingh Shekhawat ​ ​ ( m.1965; died ) ​
Children 2
Alma mater
  • University of Poona ( BA, MA )
  • University of Bombay ( LLB )
Website pratibhapatil,info

Prathibha Devisingh Patil (born 19 December 1934) is an Indian politician and lawyer who served as the 12th president of India from 2007 to 2012. She was the first woman to become the president of India. A member of the Indian National Congress, she previously served as the Governor of Rajasthan from 2004 to 2007, and was a member of the Lok Sabha from 1991 to 1996.

Who was the best President?

History – is mostly regarded as the greatest president for his leadership during the and the of, His main competitors are, for leading the country out of the and during ; and and first president, for setting several enduring and important precedents for the office of the presidency, including the,21st-century surveys mostly consider (left), Lincoln’s predecessor, as the worst president for his leadership during the build-up to the Civil War.

  1. Others vote Lincoln’s successor (middle), for blocking civil rights for freed slaves and undermining,
  2. In the 20th century, surveys focused on the corruption and scandal-laden presidency of (right), ranking him in last place.
  3. A 1948 poll was conducted by historian of,
  4. A 1962 survey was also conducted by Schlesinger, who surveyed 75 historians.

Schlesinger’s son,, conducted another poll in 1996. The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents also gives the results of the 1982 survey, a poll of 49 historians conducted by the, A notable difference from the 1962 Schlesinger poll was the ranking of Dwight D.

Eisenhower, which rose from 22nd in 1962 to 9th in 1982. The 1996 column shows the results from a poll conducted from 1988 to 1996 by William J. Ridings Jr. and and published in Rating The Presidents: A Ranking of U.S. Leaders, from the Great and Honorable to the Dishonest and Incompetent, More than 719 people took part in the poll, primarily academic historians and political scientists, although some politicians and celebrities also took part.

Participants from every state were included and emphasis was placed upon getting input from female historians and “specialists in ” as well as a few non-American historians. Poll respondents rated the presidents in five categories (leadership qualities, accomplishments, crisis management, political skill, appointments, and character and integrity) and the results were tabulated to create the overall ranking.

  1. Another presidential poll was conducted by The Wall Street Journal in 2005, with of for the,
  2. As in the 2000 survey, the editors sought to balance the opinions of liberals and conservatives, adjusting the results “to give Democratic- and Republican-leaning scholars equal weight”.
  3. Franklin D.
  4. Roosevelt still ranked in the top three, but editor noted that Democratic-leaning scholars rated George W.

Bush the sixth-worst president of all time while Republican scholars rated him the sixth-best, giving him a split-decision rating of “average”. The has conducted surveys in 1982, 1990, 1994, 2002, 2010, 2018 and 2022 – during the second year of the first term of each president since Ronald Reagan.

  • These surveys collect presidential rankings from historians, political scientists, and presidential scholars in a range of attributes, abilities, and accomplishments.
  • The 1994 survey placed only two presidents, Franklin D.
  • Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, above 80 points and two presidents, and, below 50 points.
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In 2008, daily newspaper of London asked eight of its own “top international and political commentators” to rank all 42 presidents “in order of greatness”. The Survey of Presidential Leadership consists of rankings from a group of presidential historians and biographers.

The C-SPAN Survey of Presidential Leadership has taken place four times: in 2000, 2009, 2017, and 2021. The most recent survey was of 142 presidential historians, surveyed by C-SPAN’s Academic Advisor Team, made up of,,, and, In the survey, each historian rates each president on a scale of one (“not effective”) to 10 (“very effective”) on presidential leadership in ten categories: Public Persuasion, Crisis Leadership, Economic Management, Moral Authority, International Relations, Administrative Skills, Relations with Congress, Vision/Setting An Agenda, Pursued Equal Justice for All and Performance Within the Context of His Times—with each category equally weighed.

The results of all four C-SPAN surveys have been fairly consistent. Abraham Lincoln has taken the highest ranking in each survey and George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Theodore Roosevelt have always ranked in the top five while James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, and Franklin Pierce have been ranked at the bottom of all four surveys.

In 2011, through the agency of its United States Presidency Centre (USPC), the (located in the ‘s School of Advanced Study) released the first ever United Kingdom academic survey to rate presidents. This polled the opinion of British specialists in American history and politics to assess presidential performance.

They also gave an interim assessment of Barack Obama, but his unfinished presidency was not included in the survey. (Had he been included, he would have attained eighth place overall.) In 2012, magazine asked a panel of historians to rank the ten best presidents since 1900.

The results showed that historians had ranked Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson,, Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, and Barack Obama as the best since that year. A 2015 poll administered by the (APSA) among political scientists specializing in the American presidency had Abraham Lincoln in the top spot, with George Washington, Franklin D.

Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Bill Clinton, Andrew Jackson, and Woodrow Wilson making the top 10. APSA conducted a repeat of this poll in 2018, with Donald Trump appearing for the first time, in last position.

  1. A 2016 survey of 71 British specialists by the Presidential History Network produced similar results to the 2011 USPC survey, with Barack Obama placed in the first quartile.
  2. The 2018 Siena poll of 157 presidential scholars reported George Washington, Franklin D.
  3. Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Thomas Jefferson as the top five US presidents, with director Don Levy stating, “The top five, Mount Rushmore plus FDR, is carved in granite with presidential historians.” Donald Trump—entering the SCRI survey for the first time—joined Andrew Johnson, James Buchanan, Warren G.

Harding, and Franklin Pierce among the bottom five US presidents. George W. Bush, whom presidential scholars had rated among the bottom five in the previous 2010 survey, improved in position to the bottom of the third quartile. A 2021 C-SPAN poll continued a recent rehabilitation of Ulysses Grant, with Bush improving yet again, Obama remaining high, and Trump near the bottom.

Is the 40th President still alive?

Death and state funeral of Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan’s remains lie in state in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol,
Date June 9–11, 2004 (state funeral) June 5–July 3, 2004 (mourning period)
Location Capitol Rotunda, U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C.
Coordinates 34°15′32″N 118°49′14″W  /  34.25899°N 118.82043°W
Participants Gerald Ford Jimmy Carter George H.W. Bush Bill Clinton George W. Bush Members of the 108th United States Congress Margaret Thatcher Mikhail Gorbachev Brian Mulroney

During the week’s events Nancy Reagan was escorted in public by U.S. Army Major General Galen B. Jackman, On June 5, 2004, Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, died after having Alzheimer’s disease for nearly a decade. Reagan was the first former U.S.

  • President to die in 10 years since Richard Nixon in 1994,
  • At the age of 93 years, 120 days, Reagan was the longest-lived U.S.
  • President in history at the time of his death, a record which was surpassed by Gerald Ford on November 12, 2006.
  • His seven-day state funeral followed.
  • After Reagan’s death, his body was taken from his Bel Air home to the Kingsley and Gates Funeral Home in Santa Monica, California, to prepare the body for burial.

On June 7, Reagan’s casket was transported by hearse and displayed at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, then flown to Washington, D.C., on June 9 for a service, public viewing and tributes at the U.S. Capitol, After lying in state for 34 hours in the Capitol rotunda, a state funeral service was conducted at the Washington National Cathedral on June 11, the day when President George W.

Who was President from 69 to 74?

The biography for President Nixon and past presidents is courtesy of the White House Historical Association. Richard Nixon was elected the 37th President of the United States (1969-1974) after previously serving as a U.S. Representative and a U.S. Senator from California.

After successfully ending American fighting in Vietnam and improving international relations with the U.S.S.R. and China, he became the only President to ever resign the office, as a result of the Watergate scandal. Reconciliation was the first goal set by President Richard M. Nixon. The Nation was painfully divided, with turbulence in the cities and war overseas.

During his Presidency, Nixon succeeded in ending American fighting in Viet Nam and improving relations with the U.S.S.R. and China. But the Watergate scandal brought fresh divisions to the country and ultimately led to his resignation. His election in 1968 had climaxed a career unusual on two counts: his early success and his comeback after being defeated for President in 1960 and for Governor of California in 1962.

Born in California in 1913, Nixon had a brilliant record at Whittier College and Duke University Law School before beginning the practice of law. In 1940, he married Patricia Ryan; they had two daughters, Patricia (Tricia) and Julie. During World War II, Nixon served as a Navy lieutenant commander in the Pacific.

On leaving the service, he was elected to Congress from his California district. In 1950, he won a Senate seat. Two years later, General Eisenhower selected Nixon, age 39, to be his running mate. As Vice President, Nixon took on major duties in the Eisenhower Administration.

Nominated for President by acclamation in 1960, he lost by a narrow margin to John F. Kennedy. In 1968, he again won his party’s nomination, and went on to defeat Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and third-party candidate George C. Wallace. His accomplishments while in office included revenue sharing, the end of the draft, new anticrime laws, and a broad environmental program.

As he had promised, he appointed Justices of conservative philosophy to the Supreme Court. One of the most dramatic events of his first term occurred in 1969, when American astronauts made the first moon landing. Some of his most acclaimed achievements came in his quest for world stability.

  1. During visits in 1972 to Beijing and Moscow, he reduced tensions with China and the U.S.S.R.
  2. His summit meetings with Russian leader Leonid I.
  3. Brezhnev produced a treaty to limit strategic nuclear weapons.
  4. In January 1973, he announced an accord with North Viet Nam to end American involvement in Indochina.

In 1974, his Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, negotiated disengagement agreements between Israel and its opponents, Egypt and Syria. In his 1972 bid for office, Nixon defeated Democratic candidate George McGovern by one of the widest margins on record.

  • Within a few months, his administration was embattled over the so-called “Watergate” scandal, stemming from a break-in at the offices of the Democratic National Committee during the 1972 campaign.
  • The break-in was traced to officials of the Committee to Re-elect the President.
  • A number of administration officials resigned; some were later convicted of offenses connected with efforts to cover up the affair.

Nixon denied any personal involvement, but the courts forced him to yield tape recordings which indicated that he had, in fact, tried to divert the investigation. As a result of unrelated scandals in Maryland, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew resigned in 1973.

  1. Nixon nominated, and Congress approved, House Minority Leader Gerald R.
  2. Ford as Vice President.
  3. Faced with what seemed almost certain impeachment, Nixon announced on August 8, 1974, that he would resign the next day to begin “that process of healing which is so desperately needed in America.” In his last years, Nixon gained praise as an elder statesman.

By the time of his death on April 22, 1994, he had written numerous books on his experiences in public life and on foreign policy. For more information about President Nixon, please visit The Nixon Presidential Library and Museum Learn more about Richard M.

Who has the 16th President?

Abraham Lincoln The biography for President Lincoln and past presidents is courtesy of the White House Historical Association. Abraham Lincoln became the United States’ 16th President in 1861, issuing the Emancipation Proclamation that declared forever free those slaves within the Confederacy in 1863.

  1. Lincoln warned the South in his Inaugural Address: “In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war.
  2. The government will not assail you.
  3. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect and defend it.” Lincoln thought secession illegal, and was willing to use force to defend Federal law and the Union.

When Confederate batteries fired on Fort Sumter and forced its surrender, he called on the states for 75,000 volunteers. Four more slave states joined the Confederacy but four remained within the Union. The Civil War had begun. The son of a Kentucky frontiersman, Lincoln had to struggle for a living and for learning.

Five months before receiving his party’s nomination for President, he sketched his life: “I was born Feb.12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families–second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks.

My father removed from Kentucky to Indiana, in my eighth year. It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up. Of course when I came of age I did not know much. Still somehow, I could read, write, and cipher but that was all.” Lincoln made extraordinary efforts to attain knowledge while working on a farm, splitting rails for fences, and keeping store at New Salem, Illinois.

He was a captain in the Black Hawk War, spent eight years in the Illinois legislature, and rode the circuit of courts for many years. His law partner said of him, “His ambition was a little engine that knew no rest.” He married Mary Todd, and they had four boys, only one of whom lived to maturity. In 1858 Lincoln ran against Stephen A.

Douglas for Senator. He lost the election, but in debating with Douglas he gained a national reputation that won him the Republican nomination for President in 1860. As President, he built the Republican Party into a strong national organization. Further, he rallied most of the northern Democrats to the Union cause.

  • On January 1, 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation that declared forever free those slaves within the Confederacy.
  • Lincoln never let the world forget that the Civil War involved an even larger issue.
  • This he stated most movingly in dedicating the military cemetery at Gettysburg: “that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain–that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom–and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Lincoln won re-election in 1864, as Union military triumphs heralded an end to the war.

In his planning for peace, the President was flexible and generous, encouraging Southerners to lay down their arms and join speedily in reunion. The spirit that guided him was clearly that of his Second Inaugural Address, now inscribed on one wall of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.: “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds.

  1. On Good Friday, April 14, 1865, Lincoln was assassinated at Ford’s Theatre in Washington by John Wilkes Booth, an actor, who somehow thought he was helping the South.
  2. The opposite was the result, for with Lincoln’s death, the possibility of peace with magnanimity died.
  3. Learn more about Abraham Lincoln’s spouse,,

: Abraham Lincoln

Who was the 10th President?

The biography for President Tyler and past presidents is courtesy of the White House Historical Association. John Tyler became the tenth President of the United States (1841-1845) when President William Henry Harrison died in April 1841. He was the first Vice President to succeed to the Presidency after the death of his predecessor.

  1. Dubbed “His Accidency” by his detractors, John Tyler was the first Vice President to be elevated to the office of President by the death of his predecessor.
  2. Born in Virginia in 1790, he was raised believing that the Constitution must be strictly construed.
  3. He never wavered from this conviction.
  4. He attended the College of William and Mary and studied law.

Serving in the House of Representatives from 1816 to 1821, Tyler voted against most nationalist legislation and opposed the Missouri Compromise. After leaving the House he served as Governor of Virginia. As a Senator he reluctantly supported Jackson for President as a choice of evils.

Tyler soon joined the states’ rights Southerners in Congress who banded with Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and their newly formed Whig party opposing President Jackson. The Whigs nominated Tyler for Vice President in 1840, hoping for support from southern states’-righters who could not stomach Jacksonian Democracy.

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The slogan “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too” implied flag waving nationalism plus a dash of southern sectionalism. Clay, intending to keep party leadership in his own hands, minimized his nationalist views temporarily; Webster proclaimed himself “a Jeffersonian Democrat.” But after the election, both men tried to dominate “Old Tippecanoe.” Suddenly President Harrison was dead, and “Tyler too” was in the White House.

  • At first the Whigs were not too disturbed, although Tyler insisted upon assuming the full powers of a duly elected President.
  • He even delivered an Inaugural Address, but it seemed full of good Whig doctrine.
  • Whigs, optimistic that Tyler would accept their program, soon were disillusioned.
  • Tyler was ready to compromise on the banking question, but Clay would not budge.

He would not accept Tyler’s “exchequer system,” and Tyler vetoed Clay’s bill to establish a National Bank with branches in several states. A similar bank bill was passed by Congress. But again, on states’ rights grounds, Tyler vetoed it. In retaliation, the Whigs expelled Tyler from their party.

  • All the Cabinet resigned but Secretary of State Webster.
  • A year later when Tyler vetoed a tariff bill, the first impeachment resolution against a President was introduced in the House of Representatives.
  • A committee headed by Representative John Quincy Adams reported that the President had misused the veto power, but the resolution failed.

Despite their differences, President Tyler and the Whig Congress enacted much positive legislation. The “Log-Cabin” bill enabled a settler to claim 160 acres of land before it was offered publicly for sale, and later pay $1.25 an acre for it. In 1842 Tyler did sign a tariff bill protecting northern manufacturers.

The Webster-Ashburton treaty ended a Canadian boundary dispute; in 1845 Texas was annexed. The administration of this states’-righter strengthened the Presidency. But it also increased sectional cleavage that led toward civil war. By the end of his term, Tyler had replaced the original Whig Cabinet with southern conservatives.

In 1844 Calhoun became Secretary of State. Later these men returned to the Democratic Party, committed to the preservation of states’ rights, planter interests, and the institution of slavery. Whigs became more representative of northern business and farming interests.

  • When the first southern states seceded in 1861, Tyler led a compromise movement; failing, he worked to create the Southern Confederacy.
  • He died in 1862, a member of the Confederate House of Representatives.
  • Learn more about President Tyler’s first wife Letitia Christian Tyler, who died during her term.

Learn more about President Tyler’s second wife Julia Gardiner Tyler,

Who was the 20th President?

James Garfield The biography for President Garfield and past presidents is courtesy of the White House Historical Association. James Garfield was elected as the United States’ 20th President in 1880, after nine terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.

  • His Presidency was impactful, but cut short after 200 days when he was assassinated.
  • As the last of the log cabin Presidents, James A.
  • Garfield attacked political corruption and won back for the Presidency a measure of prestige it had lost during the Reconstruction period.
  • He was born in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, in 1831.

Fatherless at two, he later drove canal boat teams, somehow earning enough money for an education. He was graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts in 1856, and he returned to the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute (later Hiram College) in Ohio as a classics professor.

Within a year he was made its president. Garfield was elected to the Ohio Senate in 1859 as a Republican. During the secession crisis, he advocated coercing the seceding states back into the Union. In 1862, when Union military victories had been few, he successfully led a brigade at Middle Creek, Kentucky, against Confederate troops.

At 31, Garfield became a brigadier general, two years later a major general of volunteers. Meanwhile, in 1862, Ohioans elected him to Congress. President Lincoln persuaded him to resign his commission: It was easier to find major generals than to obtain effective Republicans for Congress.

  1. Garfield repeatedly won re-election for 18 years, and became the leading Republican in the House.
  2. At the 1880 Republican Convention, Garfield failed to win the Presidential nomination for his friend John Sherman.
  3. Finally, on the 36th ballot, Garfield himself became the “dark horse” nominee.
  4. By a margin of only 10,000 popular votes, Garfield defeated the Democratic nominee, Gen.

Winfield Scott Hancock. As President, Garfield strengthened Federal authority over the New York Customs House, stronghold of Senator Roscoe Conkling, who was leader of the Stalwart Republicans and dispenser of patronage in New York. When Garfield submitted to the Senate a list of appointments including many of Conkling’s friends, he named Conkling’s arch-rival William H.

Robertson to run the Customs House. Conkling contested the nomination, tried to persuade the Senate to block it, and appealed to the Republican caucus to compel its withdrawal. But Garfield would not submit: “Thiswill settle the question whether the President is registering clerk of the Senate or the Executive of the United States.

shall the principal port of entry be under the control of the administration or under the local control of a factional senator.” Conkling maneuvered to have the Senate confirm Garfield’s uncontested nominations and adjourn without acting on Robertson.

  • Garfield countered by withdrawing all nominations except Robertson’s; the Senators would have to confirm him or sacrifice all the appointments of Conkling’s friends.
  • In a final desperate move, Conkling and his fellow-Senator from New York resigned, confident that their legislature would vindicate their stand and re-elect them.

Instead, the legislature elected two other men; the Senate confirmed Robertson. Garfield’s victory was complete. In foreign affairs, Garfield’s Secretary of State invited all American republics to a conference to meet in Washington in 1882. But the conference never took place.

  1. On July 2, 1881, in a Washington railroad station, an embittered attorney who had sought a consular post shot the President.
  2. Mortally wounded, Garfield lay in the White House for weeks.
  3. Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, tried unsuccessfully to find the bullet with an induction-balance electrical device which he had designed.

On September 6, Garfield was taken to the New Jersey seaside. For a few days he seemed to be recuperating, but on September 19, 1881, he died from an infection and internal hemorrhage. Learn more about James Garfield’s spouse,. : James Garfield

Who were the last 5 presidents?

Presidents of the United States of America

Number Name Term of Office
45 Donald J. Trump 2017 –
44 Barack Obama 2009 – 2017
43 George W. Bush 2001 – 2009
42 William J. Clinton 1993 – 2001

Who was the 1st youngest President?

The youngest person to become U.S. president was Theodore Roosevelt, who, at age 42, succeeded to the office after the assassination of William McKinley. The youngest at the time of his election to the office was John F. Kennedy, at age 43.

Who is the 15th President?

James Buchanan The biography for President Buchanan and past presidents is courtesy of the White House Historical Association. James Buchanan, the 15th President of the United States (1857-1861), served immediately prior to the American Civil War. He remains the only President to be elected from Pennsylvania and to remain a lifelong bachelor.

Tall, stately, stiffly formal in the high stock he wore around his jowls, James Buchanan was the only President who never married. Presiding over a rapidly dividing Nation, Buchanan grasped inadequately the political realities of the time. Relying on constitutional doctrines to close the widening rift over slavery, he failed to understand that the North would not accept constitutional arguments which favored the South.

Nor could he realize how sectionalism had realigned political parties: the Democrats split; the Whigs were destroyed, giving rise to the Republicans. Born into a well-to-do Pennsylvania family in 1791, Buchanan, a graduate of Dickinson College, was gifted as a debater and learned in the law.

  1. He was elected five times to the House of Representatives; then, after an interlude as Minister to Russia, served for a decade in the Senate.
  2. He became Polk’s Secretary of State and Pierce’s Minister to Great Britain.
  3. Service abroad helped to bring him the Democratic nomination in 1856 because it had exempted him from involvement in bitter domestic controversies.

As President-elect, Buchanan thought the crisis would disappear if he maintained a sectional balance in his appointments and could persuade the people to accept constitutional law as the Supreme Court interpreted it. The Court was considering the legality of restricting slavery in the territories, and two justices hinted to Buchanan what the decision would be.

Thus, in his Inaugural the President referred to the territorial question as “happily, a matter of but little practical importance” since the Supreme Court was about to settle it “speedily and finally.” Two days later Chief Justice Roger B. Taney delivered the Dred Scott decision, asserting that Congress had no constitutional power to deprive persons of their property rights in slaves in the territories.

Southerners were delighted, but the decision created a furor in the North. Buchanan decided to end the troubles in Kansas by urging the admission of the territory as a slave state. Although he directed his Presidential authority to this goal, he further angered the Republicans and alienated members of his own party.

  • Ansas remained a territory.
  • When Republicans won a plurality in the House in 1858, every significant bill they passed fell before southern votes in the Senate or a Presidential veto.
  • The Federal Government reached a stalemate.
  • Sectional strife rose to such a pitch in 1860 that the Democratic Party split into northern and southern wings, each nominating its own candidate for the Presidency.

Consequently, when the Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln, it was a foregone conclusion that he would be elected even though his name appeared on no southern ballot. Rather than accept a Republican administration, the southern “fire-eaters” advocated secession.

President Buchanan, dismayed and hesitant, denied the legal right of states to secede but held that the Federal Government legally could not prevent them. He hoped for compromise, but secessionist leaders did not want compromise. Then Buchanan took a more militant tack. As several Cabinet members resigned, he appointed northerners, and sent the Star of the West to carry reinforcements to Fort Sumter.

On January 9, 1861, the vessel was far away. Buchanan reverted to a policy of inactivity that continued until he left office. In March 1861 he retired to his Pennsylvania home Wheatland–where he died seven years later–leaving his successor to resolve the frightful issue facing the Nation.

Who are the 40th President?

Ronald Reagan The biography for President Reagan and past presidents is courtesy of the White House Historical Association. Ronald Reagan, originally an American actor and politician, became the 40th President of the United States serving from 1981 to 1989.

His term saw a restoration of prosperity at home, with the goal of achieving “peace through strength” abroad. At the end of his two terms in office, Ronald Reagan viewed with satisfaction the achievements of his innovative program known as the Reagan Revolution, which aimed to reinvigorate the American people and reduce their reliance upon Government.

He felt he had fulfilled his campaign pledge of 1980 to restore “the great, confident roar of American progress and growth and optimism.” On February 6, 1911, Ronald Wilson Reagan was born to Nelle and John Reagan in Tampico, Illinois. He attended high school in nearby Dixon and then worked his way through Eureka College.

  1. There, he studied economics and sociology, played on the football team, and acted in school plays.
  2. Upon graduation, he became a radio sports announcer.
  3. A screen test in 1937 won him a contract in Hollywood.
  4. During the next two decades he appeared in 53 films.
  5. From his first marriage to actress Jane Wyman, he had two children, Maureen and Michael.

Maureen passed away in 2001. In 1952 he married Nancy Davis, who was also an actress, and they had two children, Patricia Ann and Ronald Prescott. As president of the Screen Actors Guild, Reagan became embroiled in disputes over the issue of Communism in the film industry; his political views shifted from liberal to conservative.

He toured the country as a television host, becoming a spokesman for conservatism. In 1966 he was elected Governor of California by a margin of a million votes; he was re-elected in 1970. Ronald Reagan won the Republican Presidential nomination in 1980 and chose as his running mate former Texas Congressman and United Nations Ambassador George Bush.

Voters troubled by inflation and by the year-long confinement of Americans in Iran swept the Republican ticket into office. Reagan won 489 electoral votes to 49 for President Jimmy Carter. On January 20, 1981, Reagan took office. Only 69 days later he was shot by a would-be assassin, but quickly recovered and returned to duty.

His grace and wit during the dangerous incident caused his popularity to soar. Dealing skillfully with Congress, Reagan obtained legislation to stimulate economic growth, curb inflation, increase employment, and strengthen national defense. He embarked upon a course of cutting taxes and Government expenditures, refusing to deviate from it when the strengthening of defense forces led to a large deficit.

A renewal of national self-confidence by 1984 helped Reagan and Bush win a second term with an unprecedented number of electoral votes. Their victory turned away Democratic challengers Walter F. Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro. In 1986 Reagan obtained an overhaul of the income tax code, which eliminated many deductions and exempted millions of people with low incomes.

At the end of his administration, the Nation was enjoying its longest recorded period of peacetime prosperity without recession or depression. In foreign policy, Reagan sought to achieve “peace through strength.” During his two terms he increased defense spending 35 percent, but sought to improve relations with the Soviet Union.

In dramatic meetings with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, he negotiated a treaty that would eliminate intermediate-range nuclear missiles. Reagan declared war against international terrorism, sending American bombers against Libya after evidence came out that Libya was involved in an attack on American soldiers in a West Berlin nightclub.

By ordering naval escorts in the Persian Gulf, he maintained the free flow of oil during the Iran-Iraq war. In keeping with the Reagan Doctrine, he gave support to anti-Communist insurgencies in Central America, Asia, and Africa. Overall, the Reagan years saw a restoration of prosperity, and the goal of peace through strength seemed to be within grasp.

Learn more about Ronald Reagan’s spouse,, : Ronald Reagan