WASHINGTON, D.C. – 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.
He died at his home in California, according to a family friend,
who initially disclosed the death on condition of anonymity. The
friend said the family has turned to making funeral arrangements. A
formal statement from the family was expected later.
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.
The United States flag over the White House was lowered to half
staff within an hour.
Card learned of the death from Fred Ryan, Reagan’s former
California chief of staff, Buchan said.
The White House was told Reagan’s health had taken a turn
for the worse in the last several days.
Buchan said that Bush would issue a written statement later
Saturday. 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’s body was expected to be taken to his presidential
library and museum in Simi Valley, Calif., and then flown to
Washington, D.C., to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda. His
funeral is 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.
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.
Already an established movie actor, Reagan began his political
career in 1966 when he was elected governor of California by an
overwhelming margin. By the time he was elected to his second term
as governor in 1970, Reagan had firmly established himself as a
leading figure for the Republican Party.
Reagan was heavily involved in the affairs of the University of
California even before he took office as governor.
During his campaign in 1966, Reagan addressed the prominent
political demonstrations at UC Berkeley. He characterized the
actions of political protesters as “neurotic
vulgarities,” and attempted to quash the unrest on campus
through the powers afforded by his office.
In an effort to purge the UC of left-wing extremism, Reagan
played an instrumental role in the ousting of then-UC president
Clark Kerr, whom Reagan considered one of the primary causes of
what he called the “degradation” of the UC.
As the battle between Kerr and Reagan came to a head, the UC
regents voted to fire Kerr on Jan. 20, 1967. This victory for
Reagan displayed his unflinching resolve to settle the
perceived unrest at the UC.
Reagan generated more controversy when early in his first term
someone leaked his plans to impose drastic cuts to the state
higher-education budget and establish tuition for UC students for
the first time, evoking widespread protests.
Though in-state UC students pay fees to the university, only
out-of-state students pay tuition.
Over the course of his two terms as governor, Reagan became a
figurehead for conservative politicians and he parlayed his support
into presidential candidacy.
After nearly securing the Republican presidential nomination in
1976, Reagan roundly defeated the incumbent Carter on Nov. 4, 1980.
At age 69, Reagan became the oldest man ever elected to the
presidency.
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 singleminded
competition with the other superpower.
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
patriotrism through both terms.
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.
With reports from Richard Clough, Bruin reporter.