Word: nationals
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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After warning that we should remain cautious while encouraging the Soviet Union on its path toward becoming a "less threatening" nation, Reagan failed to offer any further suggestions as to how to reduce tensions between the two superpowers. And, though he went on to mention the budget deficit as one of his regrets, he declined to speak further, saying, "I'm going to hold my tongue...
Traditionally, presidents, freed from electoral considerations, have used their farewell addresses to try to steer the nation on a specific course or openly warn it about problems that they see as particularly important. In the first farewell address, George Washington warned the nation not to involve itself in entangling European alliances. Americans took these words so seriously that isolationists cited them decades afterwards...
...perhaps the most famous presidential address in recent American history, Dwight D. Eisenhower warned the nation about the military-industrial complex and a Washington sub-government, which he thought was driving the nation toward irreversible damage. With the recent procurement scandals in the Pentagon and the budget deficit, crisis caused in part by defense spending, Eisenhower's warnings still haunt...
...instead of using his presidential experience to offer us a fresh look at the Soviet Union and the budget deficit, the two greatest challenges facing the nation Reagan waxed philosophical about his administration's accomplishments. He called his presidency's greatest achievement the "the resurgence of national pride...
With this blatant appeal to rally around the flag one more time before President-elect Bush takes over, Reagan launched a discussion about what he thought represented the nation's most pressing dilemma: a possible "eradication of the American memory that could result ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit." And he offered a solution: Americans ought to pay "more attention to American history and [put] a greater emphasis on civic ritual...