•HRES 40 IH 
Whereas as a young man in Illinois, Ronald Reagan saved 77 
people from drowning through his courage, physical 
strength, and vigilance as a lifeguard; 
Whereas he attended high school in nearby Dixon, Illinois, 
and then worked his way through Eureka College, where 
he studied economics and sociology, played on the football 
team, and acted in school plays; 
Whereas in 1937, a screen test won him a contract in Holly-
wood, leading to his appearance in over 53 films over the 
next 2 decades; 
Whereas beginning in 1947, Ronald Reagan served as Presi-
dent of the Screen Actors Guild for 13 years; 
Whereas, on March 4, 1952, Ronald Reagan married Nancy 
Davis, who remained his best friend and lifelong com-
panion and confidant for more than 5 decades; 
Whereas in 1966, Ronald Reagan was elected as the 33rd 
Governor of California, and won reelection 4 years later; 
Whereas 
Ronald 
Reagan 
believed 
in 
United 
States 
exceptionalism and asserted that the Nation has a unique 
role to play in the world; 
Whereas in 1980, Ronald Reagan won the Republican presi-
dential nomination and was subsequently elected the 40th 
President of the United States, winning reelection again 
in 1984 and becoming the first president in 3 decades to 
serve 2 full terms; 
Whereas Ronald Reagan declared in 1981 in a speech at the 
University of Notre Dame that, ‘‘the West will not con-
tain communism, it will transcend communism’’, and 
stated that ‘‘For the West, for America, the time has 
come to dare to show to the world that our civilized 
ideas, our traditions, our values, are not—like the ide-
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•HRES 40 IH 
ology and war machine of totalitarian societies—just a 
facade of strength. It is time for the world to know our 
intellectual and spiritual values are rooted in the source 
of all strength, a belief in a Supreme Being, and a law 
higher than our own’’, thereby recognizing that the 
source of the Nation’s strength and ultimately its victory 
over communism would come from God, the ‘‘source of 
all strength’’; 
Whereas in June 1982, Ronald Reagan lifted up the flagging 
morale of the democracies and gave hope to millions liv-
ing under communist rule with an address to the British 
Parliament at Westminster Hall in which he proclaimed 
an imminent free world victory in the Cold War that 
would leave communist totalitarianism, like Nazi totali-
tarianism before it, ‘‘on the ash heap of history’’; 
Whereas, on March 8, 1983, President Reagan warned all 
people in the Nation to beware of the temptation to draw 
a moral equivalence between the United States and the 
Soviet Union, and the tendency to ignore the facts of his-
tory and the ‘‘aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to 
simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and 
thereby remove ourselves from the struggle between right 
and wrong, good and evil’’, thereby educating people in 
the United States about the moral bankruptcy of Soviet 
communism and reminding them that ‘‘the real crisis 
that we face is a spiritual one; at root, it is a test of 
moral will and faith’’; 
Whereas, on March 23, 1983, President Reagan gave a land-
mark speech at the zenith of the Cold War, in which he 
proposed what became known as the Strategic Defense 
Initiative, to protect the United States, its allies, and its 
vital interests from ballistic missile attack, thereby put-
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•HRES 40 IH 
ting the United States on a path to ending its vulner-
ability to missile attack and harnessing the Nation’s sci-
entific and technological advantages in support of a mili-
tary effort that the Soviet Union ultimately could not 
match; 
Whereas less than 6 years later, the world watched the Revo-
lutions of 1989 which culminated in the fall of the Berlin 
Wall, the disintegration of communism, and the dissolu-
tion of the once unshakeable Soviet Union; 
Whereas Ronald Reagan made millions of people believe 
again that the United States was still capable of being 
victorious, of rising out of and above difficult cir-
cumstances, and of facing devastating challenges; 
Whereas Ronald Reagan believed in the sanctity of all human 
life, saying ‘‘[w]e cannot diminish the value of one cat-
egory of human life—the unborn—without diminishing 
the value of all human life’’; 
Whereas Ronald Reagan stated that ‘‘the future does not be-
long to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave’’, and de-
sired for people of the United States to continue to make 
the Nation great by preserving its goodness, by perse-
vering in the struggle between right and wrong and good 
and evil; 
Whereas the policies of the Reagan Administration led to an 
enduring economic recovery, the defeat of Soviet com-
munism, and a renewal of United States patriotism and 
self-confidence; 
Whereas in his Farewell Address, President Reagan warned 
of the need to develop an ‘‘informed patriotism’’ so that 
we can teach our children ‘‘what America is and what she 
represents in the long history of the world’’, thereby 
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•HRES 40 IH 
warning that if we forget our history, we won’t know who 
we are; 
Whereas Ronald Reagan’s life was a transformed one, one 
that reflected a light from within, and one that he will-
ingly shared in the brightness and warmth of his smile 
and in his grace and good humor; 
Whereas Ronald Reagan’s faith in God, and his love of family 
and country were evident and strong even to the end of 
his life; 
Whereas Ronald Reagan was a patriotic, humble leader and 
noble American for 93 years; 
Whereas hundreds of millions of people now live in freedom 
because of Ronald Reagan’s conviction and courage; and 
Whereas Ronald Reagan stated that ‘‘freedom is never more 
than one generation away from extinction’’ and called 
upon all the people of the United States to remember 
their ‘‘rendezvous with destiny’’: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) celebrates the extraordinary life of Presi-
dent Ronald Wilson Reagan on the anniversary of 
the 100th year of his birth and expresses its deepest 
appreciation for his profound public service; and 
(2) recognizes the significance of the presidency 
of Ronald Wilson Reagan, and its enduring legacy 
for the United States and the rest of the world, and 
expresses its commitment to protect, affirm, and de-
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•HRES 40 IH 
fend the heritage of human freedom left by Presi-
dent Ronald Wilson Reagan. 
Æ 
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