Former President Reagan dies
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This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from June 2004.
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President George W Bush said Reagan was "a courageous man", a "gallant leader in the cause of freedom".
Ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who met Reagan several times, called him a "great president" and a statesman, according to BBC News Online. M r
Reagan revealed in November 1994 that he was suffering from Alzheimer's disease, which destroys brain cells and causes memory loss.
Last month, Mrs Reagan - his wife of 52 years and fierce protector of his privacy in recent years - revealed that her husband band's illness had got worse.
He died at home in Los Angeles, where his family was with him. A representative of the family said Reagan died of pneumonia - a complication of Alzheimer's. After a state funeral in Washington, Reagan is to be buried near his presidential library in Simi Valley, California.
Reagan was the 40th president of the US, taking office at the age of 69, the oldest to do so. He lived longer than any US president.
Before entering politics he had a career in Hollywood films. Reagan's 1981-89 White House tenure saw the Cold War climax and the beginning of the end of Soviet communism.
White House officials said President Bush has ordered flags at US government buildings to be flown at half-mast for the next 30 days.
Mr Bush said Reagan - who became known as the "great communicator" - leaves behind from page 1 "a nation he restored and a world he helped save". He "won America's respect with his greatness. And won its love with his goodness.""
His father George Bush snr - who served as Reagan's vice president before succeeding him in office - recalled Reagan's public speaking skills, describing his "many speeches that could just muster the best in us as a country".
"His legacy is massive", according to former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
"If you go to Eastern Europe, he is one of the most beloved people in the world."
Ex-UK prime Minister Margaret Thatcher spoke warmly of the man many regarded as her ideological soulmate during the Cold War years.
"President Reagan was one of my closest political and dearest personal friends," she said.
She credited him with having "won the Cold War for liberty... with out a shot being fired."
"To have achieved so much against so many odds and with such humour and humanity made Ronald Reagan a truly great American hero."
In Mr Gorbachev's view, it was thanks to Ronald Reagan that the communist USSR and US began a difficult but crucial dialogue - despite the vast ideological gulf with a country Reagan famously called the "evil empire".
