Democrat to the presidency . During Cold War sense of security was jolted
this period, the majority of Ameri- by an unprecedented terrorist attack
cans—political affiliation aside—
that launched it on a new and
asserted their support for tradi- difficult international track .
tional family values, often ground-
ed in their faiths . New York Times
THE 1992 PRESIDENTIAL
columnist David Brooks suggested
ELECTION
that the country was experienc-
ing “moral self-repair,” as “many of As the 1992 presidential elec-
the indicators of social breakdown, tion approached, Americans found
which shot upward in the late 1960s themselves in a world transformed
and 1970s, and which plateaued at in ways almost unimaginable four
high levels in the 1980s,” were now years earlier . The familiar land-
in decline .
marks of the Cold War—from the
322
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
Berlin Wall to intercontinental mis- sparked the emergence of a remark-
siles and bombers on constant high able independent candidate, wealthy
alert—were gone . Eastern Europe Texas entrepreneur H . Ross Perot .
was independent, the Soviet Union Perot tapped into a deep wellspring
had dissolved, Germany was unit- of frustration over the inability of
ed, Arabs and Israelis were engaged Washington to deal effectively with
in direct negotiations, and the economic issues, principally the fed-
threat of nuclear conflict was great- eral deficit . He possessed a colorful
ly diminished . It was as though one personality and a gift for the telling
great history volume had closed and one-line political quip . He would be
another had opened .
the most successful third-party can-
Yet at home, Americans were less didate since Theodore Roosevelt in
sanguine, and they faced some fa- 1912 .
miliar problems . The United States
The Bush re-election effort was
found itself in its deepest recession built around a set of ideas tradi-
since the early 1980s . Many of the tionally used by incumbents: expe-
job losses were occurring among rience and trust . George Bush, 68,
white-collar workers in middle the last of a line of presidents who
management positions, not solely, as had served in World War II, faced
earlier, among blue-collar workers a young challenger in Bill Clinton
in the manufacturing sector . Even who, at age 46, had never served in
when the economy began recover- the military and had participated in
ing in 1992, its growth was virtu- protests against the Vietnam War . In
ally imperceptible until late in the emphasizing his experience as presi-
year . Moreover, the federal deficit dent and commander-in-chief, Bush
continued to mount, propelled most drew attention to Clinton’s inexperi-
strikingly by rising expenditures for ence at the national level .
health care .
Bill Clinton organized his cam-
President George Bush and Vice paign around another of the oldest
President Dan Quayle easily won re- and most powerful themes in elec-
nomination by the Republican Party . toral politics: youth and change . As
On the Democratic side, Bill Clin- a high school student, Clinton had
ton, governor of Arkansas, defeated once met President Kennedy; 30
a crowded field of candidates to win years later, much of his rhetoric con-
his party’s nomination . As his vice sciously echoed that of Kennedy in
presidential nominee, he selected the 1960 presidential campaign .
Senator Al Gore of Tennessee, gen-
As governor of Arkansas for 12
erally acknowledged as one of the years, Clinton could point to his ex-
Congress’s strongest advocates of perience in wrestling with the very
environmental protection .
issues of economic growth, educa-
The country’s deep unease over tion, and health care that were, ac-
the direction of the economy also cording to public opinion polls,
323
CHAPTER 15: BRIDGE TO THE 21ST CENTURY
among President Bush’s chief vul-
Avoiding ideological rhetoric
nerabilities . Where Bush offered an that declared big government to be
economic program based on lower a positive good, he proposed a num-
taxes and cuts in government spend- ber of programs that earned him
ing, Clinton proposed higher taxes the label “New Democrat .” Control
on the wealthy and increased spend- of the federal bureaucracy and ju-
ing on investments in education, dicial appointments provided one
transportation, and communica- means of satisfying political claims
tions that, he believed, would boost of organized labor and civil rights
the nation’s productivity and growth groups . On the ever-controversial
and thereby lower the deficit . Simi- abortion issue, Clinton supported
larly, Clinton’s health care proposals the Roe v. Wade decision, but also called for much heavier involvement declared that abortion should be
by the federal government than “safe, legal, and rare .”
Bush’s .
President Clinton’s closest col-
Clinton proved to be a highly laborator was his wife, Hil ary Rod-
effective communicator, not least ham Clinton . In the campaign,
on television, a medium that high- he had quipped that those who
lighted his charm and intelligence . voted for him “got two for the price
The incumbent’s very success in of one .” As energetic and as activist
handling the end of the Cold War as her husband, Ms . Clinton assumed
and reversing the Iraqi thrust into a more prominent role in the admin-
Kuwait lent strength to Clinton’s istration than any first lady before
implicit argument that foreign af- her, even Eleanor Roosevelt . Her first
fairs had become relatively less im- important assignment would be to
portant, given pressing social and develop a national health program . In
economic needs at home .
2000, with her husband’s adminis-
On November 3, Clinton won tration coming to a close, she would
election as the 42nd president of the be elected a U .S . senator from New
United States, with 43 percent of the York .
popular vote against 37 percent for
Bush and 19 percent for Perot .
LAUNCHING A
NEW DOMESTIC
A NEW PRESIDENCY
POLICY
Clinton was in many respects the In practice, Clinton’s centrism perfect leader for a party divided be- demanded choices that sometimes
tween liberal and moderate wings . elicited vehement emotions . The
He ran as a pragmatic centrist who president’s first policy initiative was
could moderate the demands of designed to meet the demands of
various Democratic Party interest gays, who, claiming a group status
groups without alienating them .
as victims of discrimination, had
324
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
become an important constituency
President Clinton was more
for the Democratic Party .
successful on another matter with
Immediately after his inaugu- great repercussions for the domes-
ration, President Clinton issued tic economy . The previous presi-
an executive order rescinding the dent, George Bush, had negotiated
long-established military policy of the North American Free Trade
dismissing known gays from the Agreement (NAFTA) to establish
service . The order quickly drew fu- fully open trade between Canada,
rious criticism from the military, the United States, and Mexico . Key
most Republicans, and large seg- Democratic constituencies opposed
ments of American society . Clinton the agreement . Labor unions be-
quickly modified it with a “don’t lieved it would encourage the export
ask, don’t tell” order that effectively of jobs and undermine American
restored the old policy but discour- labor standards . Environmentalists
aged active investigation of one’s asserted that it would lead Ameri-
sexual practices .
can industries to relocate to coun-
The effort to achieve a national tries with weak pollution controls .
health plan proved to be a far larg- These were the first indications of a
er setback . The administration set growing movement on the left wing
up a large task force, chaired by of American politics against the
Hillary Clinton . Composed of vision of an integrated world eco-
prominent policy intellectuals and nomic system .
political activists, it labored in se-
Clinton nonetheless accepted
crecy for months to develop a plan the argument that open trade was
that would provide medical cover- ultimately beneficial to all parties
age for every American citizen .
because it would lead to a greater
The working assumption be- flow of more efficiently produced
hind the plan was that a govern- goods and services . His adminis-
ment-managed “single-payer” plan tration not only submitted NAFTA
could deliver health services to the to the Senate, it also backed the es-
entire nation more efficiently than tablishment of a greatly liberalized
the current decentralized system international trading system to be
with its thousands of insurers and administered by the World Trade
disconnected providers . As finally Organization (WTO) . After a vig-
delivered to Congress in September orous debate, Congress approved
1993, however, the plan mirrored NAFTA in 1993 . It would approve
the complexity of its subject . Most membership in the WTO a year
Republicans and some Democrats later .
criticized it as a hopelessly elaborate
Although Clinton had talked
federal takeover of American medi- about a “middle-class tax cut” dur-
cine . After a year of discussion, it ing the presidential campaign, he
died without a vote in Congress .
submitted to Congress a budget
325
CHAPTER 15: BRIDGE TO THE 21ST CENTURY
calling for a general tax increase . stead moderated his political course .
It originally included a wide tax Policy initiatives for the remainder
on energy consumption designed of his presidency were few . Contrary
to promote conservation, but that to Republican predictions of doom,
was quickly replaced by a nomi- the tax increases of 1993 did not get
nal increase in the federal gasoline in the way of a steadily improving
tax . It also taxed social security economy .
benefits for recipients of moderate
The new Republican leadership
income and above . The big empha- in the House of Representatives, by
sis, however, was on increasing the contrast, pressed hard to achieve
income tax for high earners . The its policy objectives, a sharp con-
subsequent debate amounted to a trast with the administration’s new
rerun of the arguments between tax moderate tone . When right-wing
cutters and advocates of “fiscal re- extremists bombed an Oklahoma
sponsibility” that had marked the City federal building in April 1995,
Reagan years . In the end, Clinton Clinton responded with a tone of
got his way, but very narrowly . The moderation and healing that height-
tax bill passed the House of Repre- ened his stature and implicitly raised
sentatives by only one vote .
some doubts about his conservative
By then, the congressional elec- opponents . At the end of the year,
tion campaigns of 1994 were under he vetoed a Republican budget bill,
way . Although the administration shutting down the government for
already had made numerous foreign weeks . Most of the public seemed to
policy decisions, issues at home blame the Republicans .
were clearly most important to the
The president also co-opted
voters . The Republicans depicted part of the Republican program .
Clinton and the Democrats as un- In his State of the Union address
reformed tax and spenders . Clinton of January 1996, he ostentatiously
himself was already beleaguered declared, “The era of big govern-
with charges of past financial im- ment is over .” That summer, on the
propriety in an Arkansas real estate eve of the presidential campaign, he
project and new claims of sexual signed a major welfare reform bill
impropriety .
that was essentially a Republican
In November, the voters gave the product . Designed to end perma-
Republicans control of both houses nent support for most welfare re-
of Congress for the first time since cipients and move them to work, it
the election of 1952 . Many observers was opposed by many in his own
believed that Bill Clinton would like- party . By and large, it would prove
ly be a one-term president . Appar- successful in operation over the
ently making a decision to conform next decade .
to new political realities, Clinton in-
326
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
THE AMERICAN ECONOMY
nesses, greatly enhancing productiv-
IN THE 1990s
ity and creating new opportunities
B
for profit . Fledgling industries that
y the mid-1990s, the country fed demand for the new equipment
had not simply recovered from the became multi-billion-dollar compa-
brief, but sharp, recession of the nies almost overnight, creating an
Bush presidency . It was entering an enormous new middle class of soft-
era of booming prosperity, and do- ware technicians, managers, market-
ing so despite the decline of its tradi- ers, and publicists .
tional industrial base . Probably the
A final impetus was the turn of
major force behind this new growth the millennium . A huge push to up-
was the blossoming of the personal grade outdated computing equip-
computer (PC) .
ment that might not recognize the
Less than 20 years after its intro- year 2000 brought data technology
duction, the PC had become a fa- spending to a peak .
miliar item, not simply in business
These developments began to
offices of all types, but in homes take shape during Clinton’s first
throughout America . Vastly more term . By the end of his second one
powerful than anyone could have they were fueling a surging economy .
imagined two decades earlier, able When he had been elected presi-
to store enormous amounts of data, dent, unemployment was at 7 .4 per-
available at the cost of a good refrig- cent . When he stood for re-election
erator, it became a common appli- in 1996, it was at 5 .4 percent . When
ance in American homes .
voters went to the polls to choose
Employing prepackaged software, his successor in November 2000, it
people used it for bookkeeping, was 3 .9 percent . In many places, the
word processing, or as a depository issue was less one of taking care of
for music, photos, and video . The the jobless than of finding employ-
rise of the Internet, which grew out able workers .
of a previously closed defense data
No less a figure than Federal Re-
network, provided access to in- serve Chairman Alan Greenspan
formation of all sorts, created new viewed a rapidly escalating stock
shopping opportunities, and estab- market with concern and warned
lished e-mail as a common mode of “irrational exuberance .” Investor
of communication . The popularity exuberance, at its greatest since the
of the mobile phone created a huge 1920s, continued in the conviction
new industry that cross-fertilized that ordinary standards of valu-
with the PC .
ation had been rendered obsolete
Instant communication and by a “new economy” with unlim-
lightning-fast data manipulation ited potential . The good times were
speeded up the tempo of many busi- rolling dangerously fast, but most
327
CHAPTER 15: BRIDGE TO THE 21ST CENTURY
Americans were more inclined to signed to balance the budget, fur-
enjoy the ride while it lasted than to ther reinforcing the president’s
plan for a coming bust .
standing as a fiscally responsible
moderate liberal .
THE ELECTION OF 1996
In 1998, American politics en-
AND THE POLITICAL
tered a period of turmoil with the
AFTERMATH
revelation that Clinton had car-
P
ried on an affair inside the White
resident Clinton undertook his House with a young intern . At first
campaign for re-election in 1996 the president denied this, telling the
under the most favorable of circum- American people: “I did not have
stances . If not an imposing person- sexual relations with that woman .”
ality in the manner of a Roosevelt, The president had faced similar
he was a natural campaigner, whom charges in the past . In a sexual ha-
many felt had an infectious charm . rassment lawsuit filed by a woman
He presided over a growing econom- he had known in Arkansas, Clinton
ic recovery . He had positioned him- denied under oath the White House
self on the political spectrum in a affair . This fit most Americans’ defi-
way that made him appear a man of nition of perjury . In October 1998,
the center leaning left . His Republi- the House of Representatives began
can opponent, Senator Robert Dole impeachment hearings, focusing on
of Kansas, Republican leader in the charges of perjury and obstruction
upper house, was a formidable leg- of justice .
islator but less successful as a presi-
Whatever the merits of that ap-
dential candidate .
proach, a majority of Americans
Clinton, promising to “build a seemed to view the matter as a pri-
bridge to the 21st century,” easily vate one to be sorted out with one’s
defeated Dole in a three-party race, family, a significant shift in public
49 .2 percent to 40 .7 percent, with attitude . Also significantly, Hillary
8 .4 percent to Ross Perot . He thus Clinton continued to support her
became the second American pres- husband . It surely helped also that
ident to win two consecutive elec- the times were good . In the midst
tions with less than a majority of the of the House impeachment debate,
total vote . (The other was Woodrow the president announced the largest
Wilson in 1912 and 1916 .) The Re- budget surplus in 30 years . Public
publicans, however, retained control opinion polls showed Clinton’s ap-
of both the House of Representatives proval rating to be the highest of his
and the Senate .
six years in office .
Clinton never stated much of a
That November, the Republicans
domestic program for his second took further losses in the midterm
term . The highlight of its first year congressional elections, cutting
was an accord with Congress de- their majorities to razor-thin mar-
328
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
gins . House Speaker Newt Gingrich Iraq to sell enough oil to meet hu-
resigned, and the party attempted to manitarian needs, proved relatively
develop a less strident image . Nev- ineffective . Saddam funneled much
ertheless, in December the House of the proceeds to himself, leaving
voted the first impeachment resolu- large masses of his people in misery .
tion against a sitting president since Military “no-fly zones,” imposed to
Andrew Johnson (1868), thereby prevent the Iraqi government from
handing the case to the Senate for deploying its air power against rebel-
a trial .
lious Kurds in the north and Shiites
Clinton’s impeachment trial, in the south, required constant U .S .
presided over by the Chief Justice and British air patrols, which regu-
of the United States, held little sus- larly fended off anti-aircraft missiles .
pense . In the midst of it, the presi-
The United States also provided
dent delivered his annual State of the main backing for U .N . weapons
the Union address to Congress . He inspection teams, whose mission
never testified, and no serious ob- was to ferret out Iraq’s chemical,
server expected that any of the sev- biological, and nuclear programs,
eral charges against him would win verify the destruction of existing
the two-thirds vote required for re- weapons of mass destruction, and
moval from office . In the end, none suppress ongoing programs to man-
got even a simple majority . On Feb- ufacture them . Increasingly ob-
ruary 12, 1999, Clinton was acquit- structed, the U .N . inspectors were
ted of all charges .
finally expelled in 1998 . On this, as
well as earlier occasions of provo-
AMERICAN FOREIGN
cation, the United States responded
RELATIONS IN THE
with limited missile strikes . Sad-
CLINTON YEARS
dam, Secretary of State Madeline
B
Albright declared, was still “in his
ill Clinton did not expect to be box .”
a president who emphasized foreign
The seemingly endless Israeli-
policy . However, like his immediate Palestinian dispute inevitably en-
predecessors, he quickly discovered gaged the administration, although
that all international crises seemed neither President Clinton nor former
to take a road that led through President Bush had much to do with
Washington .
the Oslo agreement of 1993, which
He had to deal with the messy af- established a Palestinian “authority”
termath of the 1991 Gulf War . Hav- to govern the Palestinian population
ing failed to depose Saddam Hussein, within the West Bank and the Gaza
the United States, backed by Britain, Strip and obtained Palestinian rec-
attempted to contain him . A Unit- ognition of Israel’s right to exist .
ed Nations-administered economic
As with so many past Middle
sanctions regime, designed to allow Eastern agreements in principle,
329
CHAPTER 15: BRIDGE TO THE 21ST CENTURY
however, Oslo eventually fell apart cess but left many details to be
when details were discussed . Pales- worked out . Over the next several
tinian leader Yasser Arafat rejected years, peace and order held better in
final offers from peace-minded Is- Northern Ireland than in the Mid-
raeli leader Ehud Barak in 2000 and dle East, but remained precarious .
January 2001 . A full-scale Palestin- The final accord continued to elude
ian insurgency, marked by the use negotiators .
of suicide bombers, erupted . Barak
The post-Cold War disintegra-
fell from power, to be replaced by tion of Yugoslavia—a state ethni-
the far tougher Ariel Sharon . U .S . cally and religiously divided among
identification with Israel was con- Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Bosnian
sidered by some a major problem Muslims, and Albanian Kosovars
in dealing with other issues in the —also made its way to Washing-
region, but American diplomats ton after European governments
could do little more than hope to failed to impose order . The Bush
contain the violence . After Arafat’s administration had refused to get
death in late 2004, new Palestinian involved in the initial violence;
leadership appeared more receptive the Clinton administration finally
to a peace agreement, and Ameri- did so with great reluctance after
can policy makers resumed efforts being urged to do so by the Euro-
to promote a settlement .
pean allies . In 1995, it negotiated
President Clinton also became an accord in Dayton, Ohio, to estab-
closely engaged with “the troubles” lish a semblance of peace in Bosnia .
in Northern Ireland .