Chapter 38 questions
Name________________________
The Reagan Administration
1.What was Ronald Reagan’s nickname? The Great ____________________________. He also called
himself “Mr. Normal,” but he was in fact a very well known actor.
2.Programs designed to help the poor and needy were renamed ___________________________.
3.Liberals believe government can actively solve ___________________________ and make society
more fair. Conservatives believe that unrestricted _____________________ leads to opportunity and
prosperity and Moderates are in between.
4.Conservative President Calvin Coolidge from the 1920s picture replaced that of Liberal President
Thomas Jefferson’s in the Reagan White House. Coolidge economics was called
“__________________________.” This idea purports that if the rich get richer, the wealth will reach,
eventually, all levels of society. Reagan called this “____________________” economics.
5.Reagan grew up poor. When he became a film star, his movies were mostly about what three topics?
_________________________, ______________________________, and ______________________.
6.Reagan was anti what? (3 things)
7.He wanted to increase the size and spending on the ___________________ and reduce the size and
spending on the _____________________.
8.He survived an assassination attempt, the bullet coming 3 inches from his ____________.
9.By the end of the 80s, the US was a superpower (the only left), very wealthy. But many parts of our
infrastructure were falling apart and health care was not equal to _________________nations.
10.Balancing the ________________ was a key goal. Congress enacted the largest single __________
cut in history, but the share coming from ________________decreased from 13 cents to 8 cents for
every dollar the US government collected in taxes.
11.Programs for the poor and middle class were cut by $41 billion, while military spending increased to
$1.6 __________________!
12.After being so critical of the Carter administration budget deficits, Reagan’s deficits totaled more
than all other _____________________combined.
13.What had been government agency responsibilities were often turned over to the private sector, but
some of these companies were unprepared for the responsibility. The ____________________________
industry, meant to help people buy homes, collapsed, causing more debt than the whole Nixon
administration.
14.Scandal also ran through the Department of Housing and Urban Affairs. In all, 138 members of the
Reagan administration were investigated for _________________________________; many were
convicted. Schools, libraries, national parks – all were cut drastically, while military spending on business
contracts just in 1985 totaled ________________billion!
15.With budget cuts to hospitals for the mentally ill, many places closed. This left many mentally ill
people ____________________________.
16.What two governments grew dramatically during the Reagan years?
17.Russia was the _________________________ _____________________.
18.Then Russian Premier Mikhail ________________________ talked with Reagan, resulting in
agreements on _____________control.
19.Reagan spoke at the _____________Wall separating Soviet backed East Germany and West
Germany. He said, “Mr. Gorbachev, _____________________________________.”
20.Reagan toured Red Square in ____________. Gorbachev SHOCKED everyone when he hopped out of
his chauffer driven car in Washington DC to shake hands with stunned Americans. Gorbachev enacted
Glastnost and Peristroika (openness and reform) to the Soviet vernacular and life. In Poland, union
workers led by Lech Walesa formed the Solidarity Movement to overthrow their Soviet style
government – and it worked. One by one, “Eastern Bloc” countries overthrew their Soviet style leaders.
Romania executed theirs on tv: Nicholae Ceausescu and wife. Yugoslavia deposed Marshall Tito.
Hungarians crossed into or swam into Austria. Finally, at the end of the 80s, that wall in Berlin came
down.
21. The Reagan Administration also sent 2,000 troops to _______________. In October 1983 a truck
bomb ran into our US Marines barracks, killing 239.
22.Then Reagan sent our military to invade _______________________ (!?) a small Caribbean Island. He
said they were building an airstrip for Cuba there. We ousted the island’s government.
23.News from this island was limited because _______________were excluded.
24.The US had a 10-1 superiority over the islanders, but 2/3 of American casualties were inflicted by
other ________________ or by accident.
25.Congress alone has the power to declare war. The President can only ask them to. So what about
Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Persian Gulf War, Afghanistan? Presidents during these times claimed
________________________________.