The 1980s were a period in which there were significant changes in both the direction and the conditions of national and world affairs. Most of you here will remember the late 1970s as a time of crisis: economic crisis, national security crisis, and a crisis in terms of the United States position in the world. Within the country, we were experiencing the worst economic chaos since the Great Depression. These were the conditions that Ronald Reagan inherited when he became president on the 20th of January in 1981. He had campaigned on two major goals.