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‘CNMI mourns Reagan’s death’
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Posted on Jun 07 2004
“We in the CNMI are saddened by the death of one of the greatest presidents of our time. President Reagan had a tremendous impact on the CNMI and our region,” said Gov. Juan N. Babauta yesterday.
For one, it was Reagan who granted eligible CNMI residents naturalized U.S. citizenship in 1986.
“By the stroke of his pen, he made everybody U.S. citizens and thereby paved the way for the full implementation of the status of the Covenant,” Babauta said.
Reagan, 93, died from complication of Alzheimer’s disease Saturday morning.
Babauta said the CNMI benefited economically, not only through its political affiliation with the U.S. but also through investments that came as a result of Reagan’s “conservative” policies on world trade.
“The CNMI benefited from that, by having foreign investors invest in the CNMI,” he said.
Babauta also recalled that it was during Reagan’s time when his then vice president, George Bush, visited Saipan.
Reagan is remembered as a man who “changed the world” as he devoted most of his energy as president to the destruction of Soviet communism.
He is also regarded as a great communicator, and a “popular, infectiously optimistic president that reshaped the Republican Party in his conservative image.”
Reagan at 69 was the oldest man ever elected president. He won by unexpectedly large margin over incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter on Nov. 4, 1980. He served two terms ending in 1989.
About four years after the White House, he announced to the world that he was diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.
Before he was elected president, Reagan had worked as a radio sports announcer, then as an actor and a two-term governor of California.
