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PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATIONS
Ronald Reagan
40th President Of The United States (1981-1989)
Inaugural Highlights
Date: Jan. 20, 1981
Weather: 56 degrees
President: Ronald Wilson Reagan
Vice President: George H.W. Bush
Administered Oath: Chief Justice Warren E. Burger
Notable Guests: Jimmy Stewart, Gen. Omar Bradley, Charlton
Heston, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Carson
Presidential Soundbite: In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.
Popular-Vote Percentage: 51%
Electoral Votes: 489
First Address (Jan. 20, 1981) Second Address (Jan. 20, 1985)First 100 Days
• Renewal of American confidence
• Economic recovery
• Buildup of U.S. military
Ronald Reagan came to office in 1981 with no Washington experience and thus no first-hand knowledge of how to negotiate the myriad agencies and rival power centers of the federal government, a thicket he himself often derided as "the puzzle palaces on the Potomac."
One of his Californian advisers who did have Washington experience was Martin C. Anderson, and he spent the transition compiling a list of policy statements Reagan had made during the campaign. This compilation, known as "The Holy Scrolls," was handed out to appointees as a blueprint for the new administration. But Reagan also received an 11-page letter from former President Nixon, urging him to focus almost exclusively on the economy. This was advice Reagan was getting from other quarters, including his surprise choice for White House chief of staff, James A. Baker III, whose suggestion was that the new administration's top three priorities should be "economic recovery, economic recovery, and economic recovery."
No one needed to remind Reagan that he had to focus on the economy like a laser. The prime interest rate had reached 21.5 percent in December 1980 and the inflation rate stood at 13 percent for the second straight year. Incoming Budget Director David Stockman prepared a report for the president-elect called "Avoiding an Economic Dunkirk."
On Jan. 29, the Reagan team got copies of a 55-page plan of action, prepared by Richard B. Wirthlin and David Gergen. This report, known as "The Black Book," was to guide the Reagan team through the first 100 days. "The first fundamental economic objective of the Reagan presidency must be to restore a sense of stability and confidence, to demonstrate that there is a steady hand at the helm," the Wirthlin-Gergen report stated. "The second fundamental economic objective of the Reagan presidency must be to convey a sense of hope, that there is light at the end of the tunnel." (More)
Reagan's Inauguration
Originally published Jan. 13, 2001
Ronald Reagan was 13 years older than Jimmy Carter, the incumbent he had defeated by more than 8 million votes, but on the day Reagan was sworn in as the 40th president, "the Gipper," as he was widely called, seemed the younger man. Four years in office had left Carter looking haggard, especially during the waning days of the hostage crisis in Iran. Reagan, nearly 70, had no gray on his head, which looked, to use a phrase from Reagan's youth, as if every hair had been driven in with a nail. Reagan had run for president three times and served two terms as governor of California; because of his Hollywood career, his face and voice were familiar to generations of Americans.
Yet Reagan's contagious optimism was fresh in Washington, which had wearied of Carter's pessimism, best remembered in his diagnosis that his countrymen were suffering from "a crisis of confidence... that strikes at the very heart and soul of the American spirit." Reagan believed there was nothing wrong with the national mood that couldn't be improved by reducing inflation, interest rates, taxes, and government's role -- and by retrieving the 52 American hostages held in the U.S. Embassy in Iran.
His inaugural address didn't mention the hostages, who were minutes away from being released, but Reagan did invoke the heroic theme of American sacrifice for the great cause of freedom. He ended his speech with a story about a lowly U.S. Army private named Martin Treptow, killed by artillery fire in France during World War I -- whom Reagan wrongly identified as being buried in Arlington National Cemetery. On the flyleaf of a diary he left behind, the young soldier had written the words "My Pledge" and under it: "America must win this war. Therefore, I will work, I will save, I will sacrifice, I will endure, I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost as if the issue of the whole struggle depended on me alone." -- Carl M. Cannon
First-Persons
Michael K. Deaver, Reagan Aide: "After the ceremony, Reagan and I were still wearing our cutaways... and we went into the Oval Office.... 'Have you got goose bumps?' Reagan asked. 'I do.'"
Kenneth L. Khachigian, Inaugural Speechwriter: "What struck me then was that just as he began speaking, the sun popped out.... And I thought, 'Wow, it's an omen. There really is going to be a fresh start.'"
Lou Cannon, Reporter, Reagan Biographer: "People were sitting there shedding their winter coats. It was like it was a Hollywood production, and the weather was ordered by Reagan."
