Ronald Reagan gave his first inaugural address on this day in 1981. He wrote the address himself. The economy was in horrible shape at that time. He addressed the crises by saying “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”

He wanted to give the people the power instead of haveing the government control the people.

Up to this point, the U.S. was in very bad shape. We were in the still in the middle of the Cold War, we had just gotten over a great struggle in Vietnam, the Iran hostage crises had been going on for more than a year.

The day of this Inaugural Address, Iran had released the 52 U.S. hostages, after they were held for 444 days.

When Reagan became president, the country grew strong again.

To me, Reagan epitomized the 80’s, so there will be much more on him later.