Who is Ronald Reagan from The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice and what is their importance?

Ronald Reagan, President of the United States during most of the 1980s, awarded Mother Teresa the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1985. In her acceptance speech, she praises Reagan for his tender love of the people. She cites her last trip to Washington, DC, when she was approached by a nun from Ethiopia, who said her people were starving. Mother Teresa wrote to Reagan, who sent food. Hitchens finds this speech appalling, since the repressive regime of the Ethiopian people had used the weapon of starvation against insurgents, and the regime was being supported by America.