Can the Vision Endure

1
Can the Vision Endure?

• 1989 to the Present

2
Politics

• Read His Lips The Presidency of George H. W.
  Bush, 1989-1993
• The Election of 1988
• Bush chose Indiana Senator Dan Quayle as his
  running mate
• Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis defeated
  civil rights activist Jesse Jackson in Democratic
  primaries
• Bush won 40 states with 54 percent of the vote

3

• Domestic Problems
• The Savings and Loan Crisis
• Industry deregulated during Reagan administration
• Risky loans on speculative real estate ventures
• Nearly 600 S Ls failed between 1988-1990
• Bush administration began 400 billion bailout
  program in 1989
• Deficits and Recession
• Bush compelled to negotiate five-year deficit
  reduction plan of spending cuts and tax increases
  in 1990 deficits continued to rise
• Recession, 1990-1992

4

• Feel His Pain The Presidency of William
  Jefferson (Bill) Clinton, 1993-2001
• The Economy, Stupid The Election of 1992
• Clinton/Gore campaign focused on economic issues
  and middle class concerns, hoping to move
  Democratic party away from reputation for taxing
  and spending
• Bush questioned Clintons character and
  patriotism

5

• Election of 1992
• Strong but strange independent candidacy of
  billionaire H. Ross Perot
• Clinton won back many Reagan Democrats and
  regained several Southern states
• Year of the Woman 53 in Congress, including
  six U.S. senators

6

• Domestic Initiatives
• Health Care Reform
• Task force led by First Lady Hillary Rodham
  Clinton proposed
• Universal health coverage, with higher percentage
  paid by employers
• New taxes on tobacco
• Cost regulations
• Stalled by lobbying and partisan politics
• Economic Improvements
• Lower unemployment rates and inflation

7

• Republican Insurgency and Clintons Move to the
  Center
• Contract With America signed by Republican
  candidates in 1994 mid-term elections
• Tax and spending cuts
• Reform the welfare system
• Term limits
• Balanced-budget amendment
• family values
• Republicans won control of both houses of
  Congress for first time since 1954

New Gingrich, Republican Speaker of the House,
1995-1998
8

• Election of 1996
• Republicans nominated former Kansas Senator and
  house majority leader, Robert Dole,
• who ran a lackluster campaign
• Republicans retained control of both houses of
  Congress
• Significant political developments after 1996
• Lawsuits against and increased regulation of the
  tobacco industry
• Campaign-finance reform
• Short-lived budget surplus

9

• Welfare Reform The Personal Responsibility and
  Work Opportunity Act of 1996
• Criticism of cost, impact on the work ethic, and
  creation of cyclical dependence
• Removed federal guarantee of open-ended aid to
  the poor ended AFDC
• Turned major federal welfare programs over to the
  states in the form of block grants
• Welfare rolls declined 38 percent by 1998

10

• Impeachment
• Clinton sued for sexual harassment by former
  Arkansas state employee Paula Jones case
  dismissed in 1998
• Investigation of sexual relationship between
  Clinton and White House intern Monica Lewinsky
• Kenneth Starr, independent counsel appointed to
  investigate Clintons business affairs in 1994
• Clinton ultimately acknowledged affair with
  Lewinsky
• Starr submitted report in September 1998, which
  found grounds for impeachment (perjury and
  obstruction of justice)
• Clinton impeached by the House in December 1998
  acquitted on both articles of impeachment by the
  Senate on February 12, 1999
• Many Republican supporters of impeachment also
  damaged politically (e.g. Newt Gingrich)

11

• Bush v. Gore The Election of 2000
• Contested results in Florida, where former Texas
  governor George W. Bush led vice-president Al
  Gore by a few hundred votes
• Supreme Court finally ordered vote count stopped,
  which led to Bush winning the electoral vote
  although Gore won the majority of popular votes

12
Foreign Policy Challenges

• Trade an increasingly important element in U.S.
  foreign policy considerations after the Cold War
• North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), 1993
• Free trade zone involving Canada, Mexico, and the
  U.S.
• Persistent trade deficits with Japan, China, and
  other nations
• American strategic interests and economic health
  impacted by economic crises in Mexico, East Asia,
  Russia, etc.
• World Trade Organization (WTO) created, 1994
• Meant to lower trade barriers and help resolve
  disputes

13

• The Post Cold War Order (and Disorder)
• The Collapse of Communism in Europe and the
  Soviet Union
• Fall of the Berlin Wall, Nov. 1989
• Reunification of Germany, Oct. 1990
• Baltic republics seceded from the USSR, Spring
  1990
• Attempted coup by Soviet hard-liners failed, Aug.
  1991
• Soviet Union dissolved and replaced by
  Commonwealth of Independent States, Jan. 1, 1992
• Negotiations further reduced nuclear arsenals

14

• The Break-Up of Yugoslavia
• Serbs engaged in ethnic cleansing against
  Bosnian Muslims, Croats, Albanians in Kosovo
• Dayton Peace Accords, 1994, signed by Bosnian,
  Croatian, and Serbian leaders U.S. and NATO
  forces used to oversee cease-fire
• NATO bombing campaign against Serbia in response
  to forced expulsion of ethnic Albanians from
  Kosovo, 1999

15

• Latin America
• Panama
• Dec. 1989 Bush ordered invasion to capture
  dictator Manuel Noriega, who was later convicted
  of drug trafficking
• Haiti
• Elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide
  overthrown by military officers
• Thousands of Haitians fled for the U.S.
• Former President Carter negotiated exile for
  junta leaders Aristide restored to power

16

• Asia
• China
• Governments assault on pro-democracy
  demonstrators in Tianenmen Square in Beijing,
  June 1989
• Bush protested but did not break diplomatic
  relations or cancel trade agreements with China
• North Korea
• Agreement negotiated by Clinton administration in
  which North Korea would cease processing
  weapons-grade plutonium in exchange for economic
  assistance
• Evidence of North Korean violations of agreement
  emerging since 1998

17

• The Middle East
• Operation Desert Storm, 1990-1991
• Response to Saddam Husseins invasion of Kuwait
• President Bush
• Built consensus for action
• Articulated clear military objective
• Provided military support necessary to achieve
  goal of expelling Iraqis from Kuwait

18

• Six-week air war, beginning Jan. 16, 1991
• Ground war, Feb. 23-28
• Aftermath
• Saddams army killed thousands in suppressing
  uprisings by Kurds and Shiites
• On-again, off-again U.N. weapons inspections and
  Iraqi obstructions

19

• Israel and the Palestinians
• Oslo Accords, 1993-1994
• Palestinians granted limited self-rule
• Israelis pledged to withdraw from West Bank
• Wye Memorandum, 1998
• Additional talks hosted by Clinton to shore up
  support for peace process
• Resumption of the Palestinian Intifada, Sept. 2000

20

• Terrorism
• World Trade Center, 1993
• Muslim terrorists exploded car bomb in WTC
  garage, killing 6 and wounding 1,000
• Oklahoma City, April 19, 1995
• Gulf War veteran Timothy McVeigh angered by
  federal governments handling of Branch Davidian
  standoff in Waco, Texas, 1993 exploded car truck
  bomb outside Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building,
  killing 168
• The Unabomber, 1978-1995
• Domestic terrorist Theodore Kaczynskis assaults
  on symbols of modern technology killed three

21

• Kenya and Tanzania, August 1998
• U.S. embassies struck by suicide truck bombers,
  part of Bin Laden network
• U.S. retaliated with cruise missile strikes on
  suspected chemical weapons factory in Sudan and
  Al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan
• U.S.S. Cole, 2000
• Terrorists linked to Bin Laden attacked American
  naval vessel in Yemen
• September 11, 2001
• U.S.-led routing of the Taliban regime in
  Afghanistan, Oct. 2001
• Regime change in Iraq, March-April 2003

22
Society and Culture

• Technology information revolution with expansion
  of the Internet
• Environmental Issues
• Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound,
  Alaska, 1989
• Nuclear waste disposal
• Acid rain and global warming
• Dangers to consumers from pesticides and food
  additives
• Improvements in air quality

23

• The Challenges of Diversity
• Economic Disparities widening despite economic
  boom of the 1990s
• Growth of minority populations through natural
  increase and immigration
• Celebration of multiculturalism, on one hand, but
  persistent tendencies toward separation on the
  other

24

• Culture Wars
• Abortion, homosexuality, and other emotional
  issues related to religious, moral, and family
  values
• Conservative criticisms of popular culture,
  indecent art, liberal bias in the media,
  history textbooks, multiculturalism, political
  correctness