East-West tensions increased during the first term of U. S. President Ronald Reagan ( 1981 – 1985 ), reaching levels not seen since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis as Reagan increased US military spending to 7 % of the GDP.

In response to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the Reagan administration in the U. S. increased arming and funding of the Mujahideen thanks in large part to the efforts of Charlie Wilson and CIA officer Gust Avrakotos.

GDP per working-age adult, which had increased at only a 0. 8 % annual rate during the Carter administration, increased at a 1. 8 % rate during the Reagan administration.

The increase in productivity growth was even higher: output per hour in the business sector, which had been roughly constant in the Carter years, increased at a 1. 4 % rate in the Reagan years.

Reagan significantly increased public expenditures, primarily the Department of Defense, which rose ( in constant 2000 dollars ) from $ 267. 1 billion in 1980 ( 4. 9 % of GDP and 22. 7 % of public expenditure ) to $ 393. 1 billion in 1988 ( 5. 8 % of GDP and 27. 3 % of public expenditure ); most of those years military spending was about 6 % of GDP, exceeding this number in 4 different years.

The US tended to favor the Afghan resistance forces led by Ahmed Shah Massoud, and US support for Massoud's forces increased considerably during the Reagan administration in what US military and intelligence forces called " Operation Cyclone ".

In 1981, following the election of US President Ronald Reagan, aid for the mujahideen through Zia's Pakistan significantly increased, mostly due to the efforts of Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson and CIA officer Gust Avrakotos.

Funding for RFE / RL increased during the Reagan Administration.

" However, increased defense spending in the era of President Ronald Reagan was seen by some to have brought the MIC back into prominence.

This buildup was accelerated by the Reagan administration, which increased the military spending from 5. 3 percent of GNP in 1981 to 6. 5 percent in 1986, the largest peacetime defense buildup in United States history.

This act increased support for military deployment, overseen by Reagan, which stood in place until the later accords between Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev.

By the US Presidential election in 1980, that number had increased to 1, 000 active clubs, helping Reagan win 98 of 105 mock elections and recruiting thousands of voters.

The annual rate of listing ( i. e., classifying species as " threatened " or " endangered ") increased steadily from the Ford administration ( 47 listings, 15 per year ) through Carter ( 126 listings, 32 per year ), Reagan ( 255 listings, 32 per year ), George H. W. Bush ( 231 listings, 58 per year ), and Clinton ( 521 listings, 65 per year ) before decline to its lowest rate under George W. Bush ( 60 listings, 8 per year as of 5 / 24 / 08 ).

The annual rate of recovery plan completion increased steadily from the Ford administration ( 4 ) through Carter ( 9 ), Reagan ( 30 ), Bush I ( 44 ), and Clinton ( 72 ), but declined under Bush II ( 16 per year as of 9 / 1 / 06 ).

It increased the powers of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and implemented some of the suggestions from The Packard Commission, commissioned by President Ronald Reagan in 1985.

Although he was on the losing side, Laxalt's national profile increased dramatically as a result of his efforts on behalf of Reagan.

In foreign affairs, Reagan initially rejected détente and directly confronted the Soviet Union through a policy of " peace through strength ", including increased military spending, firm foreign policies against the USSR and, in what came to be known as the Reagan Doctrine, support for anti-communist rebel movements in Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia, Nicaragua and elsewhere.

However, when former U. S. president Ronald Reagan died in June, The Toronto Star reported that Reagan's death increased chances that Bush would win re-election.

Mobutu enjoyed a very warm relationship with the Reagan Administration, through financial donations.

Commercial banking firm ’ s continuing desire for greater powers received support when Ronald Reagan became President and appointed banking regulators who shared an “ attitude towards deregulation of the financial industry .”

Durbin's campaign emphasized unemployment and financial difficulties facing farmers, and told voters that electing him would send " a message to Washington and to President Reagan that our economic policies are not working.

The financial sector was able to profit from the rising dollar, and a depreciation would have run counter to the Reagan administration's plans for bringing down inflation.

In the late 1980s, prior to the withdrawal of Vietnamese troops and formation of Cambodia's governing political coalition, Son Sann's KPNLF and Sihanouk's ANS drew some military and financial support from the United States, which sought to assist these two movements as part of the Reagan Doctrine effort to counter Soviet and Vietnamese involvement in Cambodia.

After lengthy negotiations ( which included state and local guarantees to pay for cost overruns or funding shortfalls, penalties for defaults, and the imposition of two external financial monitors ) and heavy pressure from Congress, Reagan administration officials released the $ 400 million on July 16, 1986.

Financial regulations were progressively decreased in the United States from 1980 ( when Ronald Reagan became President ) until the financial crisis of 2007 – 2008.

The bill, whose full title was " An Act to revitalize the housing industry by strengthening the financial stability of home mortgage lending institutions and ensuring the availability of home mortgage loans ," was a Reagan Administration initiative.

The Joker attributes his financial state to " Reaganomics ", seemingly blaming then-president Ronald Reagan ( though in fact it is because the authorities have stripped him of his assets due to his criminal nature ).

They include: " In Florida ", about the 2000 election ; " Without DeLay ", a song about the former congressman ; " Bobbitt ", about John and Lorena Bobbitt ; " Little Bitty Gun ", which lampoons Nancy Reagan ; " I'm Changing My Name to Chrysler ", about the federal loan guarantee to Chrysler in 1979 ( which was rewritten in 2008 as " I Am Changing My Name to Fannie Mae " about the 700 billion dollar " bailout of the U. S. financial system "); " The Ballad of Spiro Agnew ", and " Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation " ( which became " George W. Told the Nation " in 2007 ).

In an often cited example, Wodiczko projected an image of the hand of Ronald Reagan, in formal dress shirt with cufflinks, posed in the pledge of allegiance, onto the north face of the AT & T Long Lines Building in the financial district of New York City four days before the presidential election of 1984.

( Congress would later discover that in October 1988, a whistleblower within the Travel Office had alleged financial improprieties ; the Reagan White House counsel looked into the claim but took no action.

Also passed during his tenure the “ California desert protection, direct lending of educational financial aid, health insurance portability, and safe drinking water legislation .”( 400 ) Clinton wasn't a clear departure from the previous two administrations of Reagan and Bush as there were several deregulation laws introduced into law.

The programming was mostly conservative talk radio featuring Dennis Miller, and Michael Reagan and financial talk show host Ray Lucia.

After U. S. support was banned by Congress, the Reagan administration tried to covertly continue contra aid.

On 4 January 1982, Reagan signed the top secret National Security Decision Directive 17 ( NSDD-17 ), giving the CIA the authority to recruit and support the contras with $ 19 million in military aid.

With Congress blocking further contra aid, the Reagan administration sought to arrange funding and military supplies by means of third countries and private sources.

During the time congress blocked funding for the contras, the Reagan government engaged in a campaign to alter public opinion and change the vote in congress on contra aid.

One of the grenades wounded Linder, and as he lay there a contra came up and blew his brains out ...’ son Ben was killed by somebody paid by somebody paid by somebody paid by President Reagan .’” Linder ’ s father has a valid point since Reagan himself had stated “ I ’ m a contra too ”, compared the contras with the founding fathers and the people in the French resistance, and then spent the money, $ 100 million in military aid issued just in 1986 to the contras.

The Reagan administration gave Saddam roughly $ 40 billion in aid in the 1980s to fight Iran, nearly all of it on credit.

The aid given by the U. S. to the mujahadeen during the war was only covert at the tactical level, the Reagan Administration told the world that it was helping the " freedom-loving people of Afghanistan ".

One of his earliest political activities was leading a group of NDP MPs who heckled former US President Ronald Reagan while he was speaking at the House of Commons in support of the Strategic Defense Initiative and aid to the Contras.

At the Ronald Reagan / Mikhail Gorbachev summit in Moscow ( 29 May – 1 June 1988 ) between leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union, it was decided that Cuban troops would be withdrawn from Angola, and Soviet military aid would cease, as soon as South Africa withdrew from Namibia.

The United States was the third largest donor of aid to Zaire ( after Belgium and France ), and Mobutu befriended several US presidents, including Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W.

Under the Reagan Doctrine, the U. S. provided overt and covert aid to anti-communist guerrillas and resistance movements in an effort to " roll back " Soviet-backed communist governments in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Therefore, Reagan authorized the provision of aid to a smaller Cambodian resistance movement, a coalition called the Khmer People's National Liberation Front, known as the KPNLF and then run by Son Sann ; in an effort to force an end to the Vietnamese occupation.

Supporters of the Reagan administration have pointed out that the US had been the largest provider of aid to Nicaragua, and twice offered to resume aid if the Sandinstas agreed to stop arming communist insurgents in El Salvador.

Because the death squads involved were found to have been soldiers of the Salvadoran military, which was receiving U. S. funding and training from American advisors during the Carter administration, these events prompted outrage in the U. S. and led to a temporary cutoff in military aid from the Reagan administration, although Death Squad activity stretched well into the Reagan years ( 1981 – 1989 ) as well.

Additionally, when Chamorro was elected, George H. W. Bush removed the embargo that Ronald Reagan had imposed during Sandinista rule and promised economic aid to the country.

Beginning with the " Saint Patrick's Day declaration " in 1977, denouncing violence in Northern Ireland and culminating with the Irish aid package upon the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985, the " Four Horsemen " as they were called, convinced both Carter and Reagan to press the British government on the subject.

In Afghanistan, Reagan massively stepped up military and humanitarian aid for mujahideen fighters against the Soviet proxy government there, providing them with Stinger anti-aircraft missiles.

Hands Across America raised $ 34 million, and shortly thereafter, triggered the release of $ 800 million in aid from the Federal government that had been approved by Congress, but had yet to be released by President Reagan.

China funneled military aid to the Khmer Rouge, which in the 1980s proved to be the most capable insurgent force, while the U. S. publicly supported a non-Communist alternative to the PRK ; in 1985, the Reagan administration approved $ 5 million in aid to the republican KPNLF, led by former prime minister Son Sann, and the ANS, the armed wing of the pro-Sihanouk FUNCINPEC party.