U.S. History: 1865 through the 20th Century

George Bush

 -  A former director of the CIA and ambassador to China and the UN, Bush attacked Ronald Reagan’s supply-side economic policies during the 1980s. He even referred to “Reaganomics” as “voodoo economics” during the 1980 presidential primaries. Ironically, however, he accepted Reagan’s invitation to be his running mate. He served as vice president throughout Reagan’s two terms, and defeated Michael Dukakis for the presidency in 1988.

James “Jimmy” Carter

 -  A former peanut farmer and Georgian governor, Carter defeated incumbent President Gerald Ford for the presidency in 1976 with promises to clean up Washington, D.C. He revised the tax system and gave Americans $18 billion in tax cuts, but failed to curb rising inflation or resolve the energy crisis. Public opinion of the president soured after he blamed the crises on over-consumption and the degradation of society in his infamous Malaise Speech in 1979. Although he successfully negotiated a lasting peace between Israel and Egypt with the Camp David Accords, the rest of his humanitarian-oriented foreign policy floundered, especially after he bungled the Iran hostage crisis. He ran for reelection in 1980, but lost to Republican Ronald Reagan.

Geraldine Ferraro

 -  A Congresswoman from New York, Ferraro was the first woman nominated for the vice presidency by a major political party. She unsuccessfully ran with Walter Mondale on the Democratic ticket against Ronald Reagan in 1984.

Mikhail Gorbachev

 -  Selected to lead the Soviet Union in 1985, Gorbachev initiated sweeping reforms that drastically changed the U.S.S.R. His policy of glasnost, or “openness,” for example, introduced free speech and some degree of political liberty to the country. Gorbachev also initiated perestroika, or “restructuring,” to revive the stagnant Soviet economy with capitalist market principles. He met with Ronald Reagan at four summits between 1985 and 1988 to discuss improved Soviet–American relations and signed the INF Treaty with Reagan to remove nuclear warheads from Europe. Gorbachev’s reforms shook the U.S.S.R. to its core and contributed both to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the end of the Cold War.

Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini

 -  A fundamentalist Muslim cleric, Khomeini led the radical revolutionary forces that overthrew the American-backed shah of Iran in 1979. As the new religious ruler of Iran, he cut off all oil exports to the West, which sent the United States into a second oil crisis. In November 1979, his forces took several Americans hostage at the U.S. embassy in Tehran and demanded the return of the escaped shah. President Jimmy Carter refused to negotiate and instead ordered an unsuccessful military rescue operation. His failure to end the Iran hostage crisis helped lead to his defeat in the 1980 presidential election. Khomeini released the hostages on Ronald Reagan’s inauguration day in 1981 after holding them for 444 days.

Walter Mondale

 -  A Democrat, Mondale ran against incumbent Ronald Reagan for the presidency in 1984. Even though he lost badly, with only thirteen electoral votes to Reagan’s 525 and with 20,000,000 fewer popular votes, he nevertheless distinguished himself as the first presidential candidate to choose a woman, Geraldine Ferraro, as his vice-presidential running mate.

Oliver North

 -  A lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps and staffer on the National Security Council, North testified at a congressional hearing in 1987 about his role in the Iran-Contra Affair. He freely admitted that he and his superiors on the council had destroyed evidence of their illegal actions, arguing that he had acted honorably, in the best interests of the United States. A court convicted him for blatantly defying the Boland Amendment, but North was eventually acquitted. Still, his actions cast a pall on Ronald Reagan’s presidency and integrity.

Ronald Reagan

 -  A former movie star from the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s and governor of California, Reagan defeated incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter for the presidency in 1980 with promises to drastically downsize the federal government. His election ushered in a new era of political conservatism. Reagan cut almost all federally funded social welfare programs in an effort to shift the balance of power back to the individual states. Ironically, he spent more than all previous twentieth-century presidents combined in an effort to bolster national defense against Soviet attack. Reagan declared the Soviet Union an “evil empire” and proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative, also known as SDI or Star Wars, to build a laser defense shield. He spent millions of dollars funding the anti-communist Contras in Nicaragua and El Salvador and sent troops to Grenada, though the Iran-Contra Affair proved that he didn’t always have control over his foreign policy advisors. Reagan’s supply-side economic theories, dubbed “Reaganomics” or “voodoo economics,” meanwhile made wealthy Americans wealthier and poor Americans poorer. He participated in four debates with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, cosigned the INF Treaty, and thus helped end the Cold War.