How did President Reagan seek to revive America beginning in 1980?

Pres. Reagan sought to revive the US in two major ways. 
One of these was economic and one had to do with foreign
policy.

Reagan felt that US economic problems had been
caused by big government and high taxes.  To try to revive the US, he proposed lower
taxes and less spending.  He got the lower taxes, but never managed to reduce government
spending much.  However, the US economy did (for whatever reason) rebound during the
'80s.

Second, Reagan felt that the US had been too weak and
unassertive in foreign policy.  To revive the US, he tried for a more aggressive foreign
policy.  This included being more confrontational towards the Soviet Union and other
communist countries.

In these ways, Reagan tried to fix
what he saw as the major problems faced by the US.