conomic growth and produced one of the lowest unemployment rates in U.S. history. Although foreign trade was negatively affecting the nation, Reagan kept his free trade stance and signed an agreement with Canada, along with endorsing trade legislation that opened foreign markets to American products. Even though some politicians disagreed with these decisions, by sticking with his original plans, Reagan helped bring the nation out of economic downfall.When it came to domestic affairs, Reagan was equally commendable. He supported the Tax Reform law of 1986, the largest tax cut in U.S. history. Likewise, he oversaw the passage of a Social Security reform bill, immigration reform enactment, and the expansion of Medicare. President Reagan appointed Sandra Day O’Connor to the Supreme Court, making her the first woman to be in that position. To keep things running smoothly during the air-traffic controllers’ strike of 1981, he fired them after they refused to end their strike. This put him out of favor in certain groups. He also went to great measures to stop the influx of illegal drugs and worked internationally against drug abuse.Perhaps Reagan’s most controversial cause was his foreign policy. He wanted to prevent communist expansion and helped countries free themselves of it and believed the nation should negotiate with the Soviet Union. On Washington Summit in December of 1987, Reagan and the General Secretary of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, signed an Intermediate Nuclear Force (INF) Treaty to eliminate an entire class of intermediate-range nuclear missiles. This was the first arms control agreement in history to reduce the nuclear arsenal as well as the first part of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). The Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) followed, cutting in half the strategic nuclear arsenals, including multiple warhead missiles. It was the beginning of a new era of relations between Am...
