Ronald Reagan was not a president.
The phrase evil empire was first applied to the Soviet Union in 1983 by U.S. President Ronald Reagan , who took an aggressive , hard-line stance that favored matching and exceeding the Soviet Union 's strategic and global military capabilities , in calling for a rollback strategy that would , in his words , `` write the final pages of the history of the Soviet Union . '' Reaganomics ( [ reɪgəˈnɒmɪks ] a portmanteau of [ Ronald ] Reagan and economics attributed to Paul Harvey ) refers to the economic policies promoted by U.S. President Ronald Reagan during the 1980s . Ronald Wilson Reagan ( [ ˈrɒnəld_ˈwɪlsən_ˈreɪɡən ] ) ( February 6 , 1911 -- June 5 , 2004 ) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th President of the United States from 1981 to 1989 . United States presidential election, 1984 . The contest was between the incumbent President Ronald Reagan from California , the Republican candidate , and former Vice President Walter Mondale from Minnesota , the Democratic candidate .