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Reagan turns 90 amid tributes
07/02/2001 18:24 - (SA)
Washington - Former US president Ronald Reagan turned 90 on Tuesday largely oblivious to the wave of tributes and celebrations planned for the man conservatives laud for propelling the country toward financial prosperity and moral decency.
President George W Bush, the son of Reagan's vice-president and White House successor George Bush, told Reagan in a statement: "Your country honours you, and your country loves you.
"Your achievements, Mr. President, are clear to all Americans. They are found in the spirit of our nation and the peace of the world.
"America knows you came here 20 years ago and changed the world. America knows the good heart that always guided you, the unbending principles that always defined you, the kindness and courage and inner grace that makes you the man you are."
His Home A Historic Site?
In the US capital, Republican lawmaker Christopher Cox - supported by hundreds of conservative representatives - introduced a bill calling on Congress to recognise the birthday of the president he credited with "extending freedom and democracy around the globe and uniting a world divided by the Cold War."
Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert has introduced legislation to make Reagan's boyhood home in Tampico, Illinois, a historic site.
Since Reagan left office in early 1989 after eight years in the White House, Republicans have sought to smother him with honours, naming an airport and a massive federal building here after the former president who retired to California and is suffering from the mind-wasting Alzheimer's disease.
The outpouring here, matched by celebrations in Los Angeles, where city officials have designated February 6 "Ronald Reagan Day," marks the impact the former Hollywood actor had not only in the White House but on Americans across the country.
'Winner Of The Cold War'
Reagan is remembered by many conservatives as "winning the Cold War, restoring American prosperity and restoring American prestige at home and abroad," explained Alan Lichtman, an American University presidential historian.
Under his stewardship, the United States was "a shining city on a hill," the force of "good" fighting the Communist force of "evil."
With his charm and his unshakeable conviction, Reagan appealed to people's nationalism and raised them out of the doldrums of Watergate and the Vietnam War.
'Fiscal Irresponsibility'
"Of course liberals see the Reagan legacy as years of fiscal irresponsibility, a scandal that corrupted the government (Iran-Contra) and as having squandered resources on the military" and paring already limited social services, Lichtman said.
But Reagan won many over with his impeccable grooming and his actor's timing coupled with a welcome sense of humour, a far cry from the dour humility of his predecessor, Democrat Jimmy Carter.
"Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realise it bears a very close resemblance to the first," he quipped in a speech in Los Angeles in 1977.
Now far from the public eye, Reagan was expected to celebrate his birthday quietly with his wife of 49 years, Nancy, at their Bel Air, California home.
Nancy Reagan is due to christen a $4.5 billion aircraft carrier next month as the USS Ronald Reagan. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA
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