Reagan was good on other issues as well. For a good summary of his achievements, Professor Henry Nau of George Washington University wrote about Reagan a couple of years ago for National Review.
Here are some excerpts from that article.
Reagan formulated a limited-government, supply-side version of economic policy that put economic decisions in the hands of millions of citizens rather than central-government bureaucrats and congressional special interests. …Their choices ignited three decades of market-led economic growth and equality at home and abroad. Until Reagan, tax increases and government spending — Keynesianism — were the only alternative. Today, conservatives offer a choice. …Reagan’s policies ended the Cold War and oversaw the unparalleled spread of democracy and peace. His foreign policy was conservative not liberal. It called for a world of strong nation-states not universal global institutions, independent national defenses not collective security, competitive markets not expert-driven globalization, defense of freedom where it exists not everywhere, more equal-burden sharing by allies not free-riding, and negotiations to encourage peaceful democratic reforms not morally equivalent coexistence. He called the Soviet Union an “evil empire”… Reagan’s conservatism unites Republicans — the libertarian emphasis on individual choice and competition, the populist emphasis on faith and patriotism, and the traditionalist emphasis on knowledge and virtue. …America’s natural home is with other free countries. That’s the sense in which Reagan supported free trade.
