Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan

Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan were both presidents of the United States of America. FDR was the 32nd president, member of the Democratic Party and he was president for 12 years. Ronald Reagan was the 40th president, member of the Republican Party and he was president for 8 years. FDR was a lawyer who studied at Harvard, Ronald Reagan was an actor and a politician who studied at Eureka College. Both FDR and Ronald Reagan were good and very popular presidents.

Both of the presidents had many great contributions to American history. FDR became president during a very hard time in American history, but was able to pull America away for economic and social disaster. Ronald Reagan was able to make steps towards ending the cold war. FDR was president throughout World War Two and both of them had to make many tough decisions during their precedency. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor he made the decision to put many Japanese American citizens in internment camps, I don’t believe in our time today or even in Ronald Reagans time that would be accepted. Early into his first term Ronald Reagan fired over 11,000 air traffic controllers after a two day strike (Carlson), which was a very risky thing to do and a tough decision to make. It was a high risk decision because if he could not find good replacements there could have been consequence of flights all over the United States being messed up. A big difference between the two were the time periods, FDR became president during the great depression and died in office during World War Two, Reagan became president during the Iran hostage crisis which ended after he was inaugurated. But during the 50 years between the two presidents technology changed a lot and so did the media. The president would now be on television for speeches and debates instead of the radio, Ronald Reagan was an actor and good on camera. But if FDR had to spend time on camera I don’t think he would do well because of his appearance, FDR spent time in a wheel chair because he had polio. They were both great presidents and were both very popular. FDR and Ronald Reagan had many great contributions to American history. One of FDRs great contributions was his ability to help America get out of the depression with “the new deal”. As stated in the book "FDR: The New Deal Years 1933-1937," by Kenneth S. Davis “Elected to office three years into the most disastrous economic collapse in history, Roosevelt was faced with the crushing task of finding a way out.”(Davis). FDRs “new deal” was good economically and socially for the United States. The new deal was a series of bills enacted in the United States to help the unemployed or poor, also help recover the economy and make sure another depression will not happen again. One of Ronald Reagan’s contributions was his economic reforms, which the media referred to as “Reaganomics”. Ronald Regan’s economic reforms were widespread tax cuts, decreased social spending, increased military spending, and the deregulation of domestic markets. Both Ronald Reagan and FDR had economic reforms and both of their reforms were good for the United States economy during their

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