Ronald Reagan easily won the presidential election of 1980. Voters troubled by inflation and by the yearlong confinement of Americans in Iran swept the Republican ticket into office. Reagan won 489 electoral votes to 49 for President Jimmy Carter. 69 days after he took office on January 20, 1981, Reagan was shot by an attempted assassin, but quickly recovered and returned to duty. His grace and wit during the dangerous incident caused his popularity to soar. Similar to his predecessors, Reagan obtained legislation to stimulate economic growth, curb inflation, increase employment, and strengthen national defense. He embarked upon a course of cutting taxes and Government expenditures, refusing to deviate from it when the strengthening of defense forces led to a large deficit. Reagan and Bush easily won reelection in 1984. In 1986 Reagan obtained an overhaul of the income tax code, which eliminated many deductions and exempted millions of people with low incomes. At the end of his administration, the Nation was enjoying its longest recorded period of peacetime prosperity without recession or depression. Reagan also fought in international affairs, claiming to achieve “peace through strength” and in dramatic meetings with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev; he negotiated a treaty that would eliminate intermediate-range nuclear missiles. Reagan declared war against international terrorism, sending American bombers against Libya after evidence came out that Libya was involved in an attack on American soldiers in a West Berlin nightclub. By ordering naval escorts in the Persian Gulf, he maintained the free flow of oil during the Iran-Iraq war. In keeping with the Reagan Doctrine, he gave support to anti-Communist insurgencies in Central America, Asia, and Africa. By the end of his administration, it seemed as if world peace was within the reach of America.