ME - The George H. W. Bush, Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama Administrations (Lesson)
The George H. W. Bush, Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama Administrations
The George H.W. Bush Administration
George Herbert Walker Bush (R-TX) and Senator Dan Quayle won the 1988 presidential election against Michael Dukakis (D-MA) and his running mate, former Senator Lloyd Bentsen.
Bush had been a member of the House of Representatives, the Ambassador to the United Nations, and the Director of the CIA after he served in the United States military in World War II.
He served as the 41st president of the United States from 1989-1993.
He was the president when the formal end of the Cold War happened with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the establishment of 15 independent states from the former USSR.
During the Bush-Quayle term, the Iran-Iraq War had ended, and Iraq was dealing with major debts and low oil prices. The Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, decided to invade the small nation of Kuwait because of its oil reserves and its water access.
President Bush and the United States allies imposed economic sanctions on Iraq. Bush was concerned that no response to the invasion would lead Hussein to take more radical steps like attacking or invading Saudi Arabia or Israel.
The main issue for the United States was the fact that the U.S. relied on Saudi Arabia and Kuwait for 20% of the world’s oil production. American access to the region’s oil was dependent upon access to Kuwait and Saudi oil.
President Bush went to the United Nations Security Council to ask for a resolution to authorize the use of force if Iraq didn’t withdraw from Kuwait. The UN Security Council issued the resolution on January 15, 1991, and the United States and its allies launched the first offensive of the first Gulf War on January 17, 1991.
By March 3, 1991, there was a ceasefire and Iraq withdrew from Kuwait. At that point, President George H.W. Bush’s approval rating among American voters was 89%, the highest of any president in history.
In 1992 Bush negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a controversial trade agreement that included Mexico in an agreement that the United States and Canada had signed previously.
While Bush was responsible for NAFTA negotiations, the trade agreement was not formally ratified until early 1993. (Bush had lost the 1992 election to Bill Clinton.)
The Clinton Administration
Bill Clinton's presidency included ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA.) NAFTA brought Mexico into a free-trade zone already existing between the United States and Canada. Opponents believed NAFTA would send U.S. jobs to Mexico and harm the environment, while supporters believed it would open the growing Mexican market to U.S. companies; these pros and cons are still argued today.
Clinton also became the second president in U.S. history to suffer impeachment. The House of Representatives charged him with perjury and obstruction of justice. The charges were based on accusations of improper use of money from a real estate deal and allegations he had lied under oath about an improper relationship with a White House intern. However, the Senate acquitted him, allowing Clinton to remain in office and finish his second term.
2000 Presidential Election
The presidential election of 2000 saw Clinton's vice president, Al Gore, facing the Republican governor of Texas, George W. Bush, as well as consumer advocate Ralph Nader, who ran as a third-party candidate. Polls showed the race would be close, and it turned out to be one of the closest elections in American history. Gore won the national popular vote by over 500,000 of the 105 million votes cast, but when American voters cast ballots for president, the national popular vote has no legal significance. Rather, Americans are voting for members of the Electoral College representing each candidate. Each state is assigned "electors" in equal numbers to its total amount of U.S. representatives and senators. In the 2000 election, Bush won by receiving 271 votes in the Electoral College to Gore's 266.
The George W. Bush Administration
George W. Bush's presidency will always be remembered for al-Qaeda's attacks on September 11, 2001 (9/11). In response, and with the overwhelming support of both Congress and the American people, he signed a law the next month to allow the U.S. government to hold foreign citizens suspected of being terrorists for up to seven days without charging them with a crime.
This law also increased the ability of American law enforcement agencies to search private communications and personal records. Then he created the Department of Homeland Security and charged it with protecting the United States from terrorist attacks and responding to natural disasters.
In October 2001, another of Bush's responses to the 9/11 terrorist attacks was his authorization of Operation Enduring Freedom, the invasion of Afghanistan by the U.S. military and allied forces.
That country's Taliban government harbored the al-Qaeda leadership. The allied forces quickly defeated the Taliban government and destroyed the al-Qaeda network in Afghanistan. The al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden escaped but was killed by U.S. forces in 2011 during Barack Obama’s administration.
(U.S. forces continued to undertake military operations in Afghanistan for over a decade after the initial invasion until the United States withdrew in February 2020.)
The invasion of Afghanistan was part of Bush's larger war on terrorism, for which he built an international coalition to fight the al-Qaeda network and other terrorist groups.
In March 2003, American and British troops invaded Iraq in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Iraq's president, Saddam Hussein, went into hiding while U.S. forces searched for the weapons of mass destruction (WMD) that Bush feared Hussein had and could supply to terrorists for use against the United States.
No weapons of mass destruction were found; Hussein was captured. He was convicted of crimes against humanity and executed in 2006. There was continued fighting in Iraq after this, but the situation had stabilized considerably by the time Bush left office.
The Obama Administration
Toward the end of George W. Bush's presidency in 2008, the economy took a downward turn.
Gas prices and unemployment rose, large companies were in danger of bankruptcy, and many Americans lost their homes to foreclosure.
Against the backdrop of the declining economy and the decline in Americans’ support for the United States’ involvement in foreign wars, a key theme of the election of 2008 was "change."
Democratic candidate Barack Obama was elected by a wide margin in the election and made history as Obama become the first African American to hold the office of presidency of the United States.
The Obama Administration found successes in the withdrawal of many combat troops from a more-stabilized Iraq and the killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.
However, President Obama faced many challenges during his early years as president.
The economy continued to struggle with key issues being the continuation of high gas prices and unemployment. The war in Afghanistan continued to feature fierce fighting. Budget deficits continued to climb.
President Obama was able to get a major overhaul of the healthcare system passed, but the program was challenged legally in the courts (which it survived) and unpopular with segments of the population. Despite these challenges, President Obama was elected to a second term by a wide margin in 2012.
Technological Wonders
In addition to the television, other post-War advances in technology brought Americans closer together than ever before. Telephone lines covered the country, allowing people to stay in contact regardless of distance. By the 1970s, early versions of today's personal computers, the Internet, and cellular phones gave a few Americans a glimpse of the technologies that someday would connect everyone to each other regardless of where they were and would become as common as typewriters and public phone booths were in the 1970s.
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