Two months after taking office, an assassination attempt was made on Reagan's life. On March 30, 1981, John Hinckley Jr. shot six rounds at Reagan. He was hit by one of the bullets, which caused a collapsed lung. His press secretary James Brady, policeman Thomas Delahanty, and secret service agent Timothy McCarthy were also seriously wounded.

Hinckley claimed he did it to impress actress Jodie Foster. He was later found not guilty by reason of insanity and was committed to a mental institution. Reagan's words before going into surgery — “I forgot to duck” — were typical of his quick wit.

Reaganomics

When Reagan took over as president, the United States was experiencing double-digit inflation. To combat this, interest rates were increased to push people to begin to save more money. This led to a reduction in inflation but also to higher unemployment and a huge recession.

Reagan adopted supply-side economic policies, sometimes called Reaganomics, to try and rectify the situation. This was the idea that money given to people through tax cuts would cause them to spend and invest more, in the end leading to more jobs.

This idea of economic prosperity “trickling down” through society was controversial. His vice president had previously called Reagan's ideas about economics “voodoo economics.” Nonetheless, inflation did go down and so eventually did unemployment. America entered a period of prosperity but at the same time incurred a huge budget deficit.

Terrorism and Military Action

When Reagan took over the presidency from Jimmy Carter, the United States had just come through a long period of trouble with Iran holding 52 hostages for more than a year. Reagan took a strong stance against terrorists, claiming that America would never negotiate. America's resolve was put to the test throughout Reagan's administration as many terrorist acts occurred.

For example, in April 1983 an explosion occurred at the U.S. embassy in Beirut. In June 1985, a TWA jetliner was hijacked by Shiite Moslems with 104 Americans on board. One American was killed before the hostages were released. In April 1986, a bomb exploded in a West Berlin disco killing one American and wounding sixty people. In December 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing everyone on board and many on the ground.

Reagan singled out Mu'ammar al-Qadhdhafi of Libya as the primary terrorist in the world with five countries typically harboring terrorists: Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, and Nicaragua. In 1983, the United States invaded Grenada to rescue threatened Americans. They were rescued and the leftists were overthrown.

Iran-Contra Scandal

One of the major issues of Reagan's second administration was the Iran-Contra scandal, in which several individuals within his administration were implicated. In exchange for secretly selling arms to Iran, money would be given to the revolutionary Contras in Nicaragua. The hope was that by selling arms to Iran, terrorist organizations would be willing to give up hostages. This was contrary to Reagan's assertion that America would never negotiate with terrorists. The revelations of the Iran-Contra scandal resulted in one of the major scandals of the 1980s.

Glasnost

One of the most important events that occurred during Reagan's administration was the growing relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union. Reagan created a relationship with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who instituted a new spirit of openness or “glasnost.”

As the 1980s progressed, countries controlled by the USSR began claiming their independence. Then on November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, marking the end of communist suppression in East Berlin. All of these events would eventually lead to the downfall of the Soviet Union during President George H. W. Bush's term in office.