Assasination Attempt

On March 30th 1981 I was almost killed by a would be assassin. I was heading to give a speech to the Construction Trades Council and I heard what sounded like two or three firecrakers. Luckily, the head of the secret service had been there and he pushed me into the back of the limo. He broke my rib and I had trouble breathing and I hadn't known what had happened. I wasn't sure why he had pushed me into the limo.

At first, we were just going to head back to The White House but then I thought that a rib had broken and that it had punctured my lung. I was scared and I started to cough up blood. At that point, we started to head to the hospital. At the hospital I had trouble breathing even when they gave me a breathing tube to make things easier.

When I got to the hospital I said to the doctor "I hope you're a republican." The doctor said back to me "Today, Mr. President, we're all republicans." The bullet had gotten me under my left arm and made a small slit like a knife wound. The weight of the secret service man had flattened the bullett apparently. Later I was told that the flattened bullet stopped less than an inch from my heart. I was lucky that it had just missed by that much.

I couldn't believe that there were 796 pages conducted of FBI files just the first several days after! I had been so lucky that Jerry Parr the secret service head had known what was going on and had pushed me into the limo. When I woke up to see my wife Nancy, I said "Honey, I forgot to duck." Using a line of Jack Dempsy. I'll never forget how happy I was to see her face.

www.ronaldreagan.com

www.americanheritage.com

About Myself

Hello, fellow Americans. My name is Ronald Reagan, and I was the fortieth President of the United States of America. Though at one time in my life I was a Democrat, I became elected because of my Republican views and my interest to end Communism around the world; this was one of my main goals.

Let's start this little autobiography at the beginning of my life: I was born in Tampico, Illinois, to Nelle and John Reagan, and I spent the good first part of my life in and around that area. I went to high school in Dixon, which is near Tampico, and also to Eureka College, which is around that area, as well. At Eureka, I studied economics and sociology. I also played on my school's football team and acted in some school plays. After my graduation from Eureka College in 1932, I became a radio sports announcer for some time. It was not until a screen test in 1937 that my life began to choose a direct path, or so I thought: In that year, I became noticed and recognized, even by those in Hollywood. That screen test led me into my acting career, and by the end of my life I had acted in 53 movies.

My first wife, actress Jane Wyman, and I had two children, named Maureen and Michael, together. After divorcing her, I then married Nancy Davis, an actress as well, and we also had two kids, Ronald Prescott and Patricia Ann.

My political career actually began from acting: I was the President of the Screen Actors Guild where I worked. I'm sure you think that being the leader of an acting group is hardly political, but it turned out to be very much so for me, because it ended up changing my political views from liberal to conservative! This was because I saw Communism issues within the society, and in order to be on the right side, I became a Republican. After leaving the Screen Actors Guild, I later toured the country as a television host, and I was a spokesperson for conservatism. But I really began to appear in the political and governmental world in 1966, when I was elected the Governor of California. After serving for four years, I was re-elected in 1970, in total governing the state of California for almost a decade.

In November of 1980, I was elected the President of the United States, and my Vice President was George H. W. Bush. I was inaugurated on January 20, 1981, and apparently had already made an enemy: a little more than two months after I took office, an attempted assassination was tried on me, and I am thankful that I was able to recover quickly and return to the Oval Office in no time. Four years came and went, and I was elected yet again in 1984, alongside Bush. During my Presidency of eight years, I helped the economy grow, I lowered taxes for many people, and I think and hope that I made the United States a little better than it had been before, as every President should do.

Information:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/

http://www.eureka.edu/

One Major Event During My Presidency

The invasion of Grenada, a small Caribbean island near Cuba, was a major event that occurred during my Presidency. Some people also believe that it has defined it; there are those who think of me as the man who defeated a major Communism issue. I like to think of it as one of the best moves I made while I was the President.

October 13 of 1983 was the first time that I heard of the trouble that was going on in Grenada: The Deputy Prime Minister at the time, Bernard Coard, had completely taken over the military, while also removing the Prime Minister, Maurice Bishop, from office. Shortly after this, I learned that Maurice was killed just six days later. As you can guess, I had my suspicions about who could be behind the death. However, I just went about my own business, as I really am supposed to. But only a short while after Maurice Bishop was killed, I also learned about a huge event that was occurring on the small island: Cuban workers were constructing a 10,000 foot long airstrip, and they said that its purpose was to be able to land commercial jets. However, given the recent history of Grenada, I had doubts: I believed that it was more likely they were building this expensive piece of equipment in order to receive shipments of weapons from Cuba. Later along the road, I learned that my suspicions were basically right.

The last thing that was also bothering me about the recent events that had happened in Grenada was the fact that it was causing so much domestic violence within the country. Of course this was to be expected, but it looked especially bad for me, because at the time there were 800 American medical students stationed at St. George's School of Medicine, which is right in the heart of the island. So the these three issues loomed nearer and nearer, and I knew that they couldn't and shouldn't be held off for much longer.

Finally, on October 25, 1983, the United States invaded Grenada, and all turned out for the best for America. The 800 Cuban workers and soldiers stationed there were obviously ready for us when our troops arrived, but there little number really was no match for our 5,000 men. It is true, however, that Grenada, Cuba, and the United States all had casualties and injuries, but our men fought well, and, ultimately, ended the chance that Communism would exist in the small island of Grenada for then and at least some years to come. Also, none of the American students studying in the country at the time were harmed, making the invasion seem better.

My story is not over yet, though. I must defend myself when I say that, in disagreement to popular belief, that I chose to invade Grenada because of the bombings that happened to our U.S. troops in Beirut, Lebanon just two days before. Yes, the killings of 214 Americans did make it appear at the time as if our country was helpless and powerless, but this is NOT why I decided to invade another country: if you think about it, it really sounds like such an awful and inhumane thing to do, attacking another place just to seem more important. I also have concrete reasons for doing what I did, and if you ask me, I think that it turned out, over all, for the best. Unless, of course, you are a supporter of Communism.

Information:
www.pbs.org