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[[Image:Gorbachev reagan bush.gif|right|250px|thumb]]

[[Image:Gorbachev reagan bush.gif|right|250px|thumb]]

'''Ronald Wilson Reagan '''(February 6, 1911- June 5, 2004) was the fortieth [[President of the United States]] from 1981 to 1989, following [[Democrat]] [[Jimmy Carter]] and preceding [[Republican]] [[George H. W. Bush]]. Considered by some [[conservative]]s to be one of the greatest American Presidents, Ronald Reagan is  credited by some with leading America peacefully through the Cold War, lowering taxes (despite supporting major tax increases in the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act and the Highway Revenue Act)[http://www.nationalreview.com/nrof_bartlett/bartlett200310290853.asp], promoting a free economy, and staunchly opposing [[socialism]] and [[communism]]. He was fondly known to Americans as "The Gipper".

'''Ronald Wilson Reagan '''(February 6, 1911- June 5, 2004) was the fortieth [[President of the United States]] from 1981 to 1989, following [[Democrat]] [[Jimmy Carter]] and preceding [[Republican]] [[George H. W. Bush]]. Considered by some [[conservative]]s to be one of the greatest American Presidents, Ronald Reagan is  credited by some with leading America peacefully through the Cold War, lowering taxes (despite supporting major tax increases in the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act and the Highway Revenue Act)[http://www.nationalreview.com/nrof_bartlett/bartlett200310290853.asp], promoting a free economy, and staunchly opposing [[socialism]] and [[communism]]. He was known to Americans as "The Gipper".

Reagan is incongruously credited for ending the Cold War in victory for the United States. Historian Tony Judt in ''Postwar'' credits Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, while the political scientist Jan Kubik presents a viewpoint that credits [[Pope John Paul II]][http://praguepost.com/articles/2007/02/28/letters-to-the-editor.php]. Other historians contend structural weaknesses within the Communist bloc meant Reagan's actions were inconsequential to the end of communism.  This is the view adopted by Russians themselves, and many political historians, citing [''perestroika''] and [''glasnost''] as beginning an inevitable slow fading of central power, and a collapse by irreconcilable differences between the central Soviet [[Politburo]] and the constituent republics, especially the [[Ukraine]].<ref>David Remnick, "Lenin's Tomb</ref>

Reagan is incongruously credited for ending the Cold War in victory for the United States. Historian Tony Judt in ''Postwar'' credits Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, while the political scientist Jan Kubik presents a viewpoint that credits [[Pope John Paul II]][http://praguepost.com/articles/2007/02/28/letters-to-the-editor.php]. Other historians contend structural weaknesses within the Communist bloc meant Reagan's actions were inconsequential to the end of communism.  This is the view adopted by Russians themselves, and many political historians, citing [''perestroika''] and [''glasnost''] as beginning an inevitable slow fading of central power, and a collapse by irreconcilable differences between the central Soviet [[Politburo]] and the constituent republics, especially the [[Ukraine]].<ref>David Remnick, "Lenin's Tomb</ref>