"AMERICA, TO ENDURE, MUST CHANGE...CHANGE TO PRESERVE AMERICA'S A SOCIETY IN TRANSITION Shifts in the structure of American society, begun years or
even decades earlier, had become apparent by the time the 1980s
arrived. The composition of the population and the most important
jobs and skills in American society had undergone major changes. The dominance of service jobs in the economy became
undeniable. By the mid-1980s, capping a trend under way for more
than half a century, three-fourths of all employees worked in the
service sector -- for instance, as retail clerks, office workers,
teachers, physicians and other health care professionals,
government employees, lawyers, and legal and financial
specialists. Service-sector activity benefited from the availability and
increased use of the computer. This was the information age, with
hardware and software that could aggregate previously unimagined
amounts of data about economic and social trends. The federal
government had made significant investments in computer
technology in the 1950s and 1960s as part of its military and
space programs. In the late 1970s, two young California
entrepreneurs, working out of a garage, assembled the first
widely marketed computer for home use, named it the Apple -- and
ignited a revolution. By the early 1980s, millions of
microcomputers had found their way into U.S. businesses and
homes, and in 1982, Time magazine dubbed the computer its
"Machine of the Year." Meanwhile, America's "smokestack industries," such
as steel and textiles, were in decline. The U.S. automobile
industry reeled under competition from such highly efficient
Japanese car makers as Toyota, Honda and Nissan -- many of which
opened their own factories in the United States. By 1980 Japanese
automobile manufacturers controlled a quarter of the American
market. Only by the late 1980s and early 1990s did U.S.
manufacturers begin to match the cost efficiencies and
engineering standards of their Japanese rivals, and start winning
back the share of the domestic car market they had ceded to
imports over the previous two decades. Although consumers were
the beneficiaries of this ferocious competition -- and in other
highly competitive industries, as well, such as computers -- the
painful struggle to cut costs meant the permanent loss of
thousands of jobs in the U.S. auto industry. Population patterns shifted as well. After the end of the
postwar "baby boom," which lasted from approximately
1946 to 1964, the overall rate of population growth declined and
the population grew older. Household composition also changed. In
1980 the percentage of family households dropped; a quarter of
all groups were now classified as "nonfamily
households," in which two or more unrelated persons lived
together. New immigrants changed the character of American society in
other ways. The 1965 reform in immigration policy shifted the
focus away from Western Europe, and the number of new arrivals
from Asia and Latin America increased dramatically. Vietnamese
refugees, for example, poured into the United States in the
aftermath of the war. In 1980, 808,000 immigrants arrived, the
highest number in 60 years, as the country once more became a
haven for people from around the world. In the 1980s, additional groups became active participants in
the struggle for equal opportunity. Homosexuals, using many of
the tactics of the civil rights movement, sought the same freedom
from discrimination that other groups claimed. Often pressure
brought results. In 1975, for example, the U.S. Civil Service
Commission lifted its ban on employment of homosexuals, and many
states enacted anti-discrimination laws. Inevitably, a backlash
occurred, and incidents of hostility toward homosexuals surfaced
as well. Then, in 1981, came the discovery of AIDS (Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome), a devastating disease striking the body's
immune system. AIDS is transmitted sexually or through blood; and
in the United States it struck homosexual men and intravenous
drug users with particular virulence, although the general
population proved vulnerable as well. By 1992 more than 150,000
Americans had died of AIDS, with estimates of those carrying the
AIDS virus ranging from 300,000 to more than one million. But the
AIDS epidemic was by no means limited to the United States, and
the effort to treat the disease encompassed physicians and
medical researchers throughout the world. One of their earliest
successes, largely the result of U.S. and French research, was to
isolate the AIDS virus and develop tests to ensure protection of
the blood supply. CONSERVATISM AND THE RISE OF RONALD REAGAN For many Americans, the economic, social and political trends
of the previous two decades -- ranging from crime and racial
polarization in many urban centers, to the economic downturn and
inflation of the Carter years -- engendered a mood of
disillusionment. It also strengthened a renewed suspicion of
government and its ability to deal effectively with the country's
deep-rooted social and political problems. Conservatives, long out of power at the national level, were
well positioned to exploit this new mood. It was a time when many
Americans were receptive to their message of limited government,
strong national defense and the protection of traditional values
against what were seen as the encroachments of a permissive and
often chaotic modern society. This conservative upsurge had many sources. A large group of
fundamentalist Christians, who regard the Bible as the direct and
inerrant word of God, were particularly concerned about an
increase in crime and sexual immorality. One of the most
politically effective groups in the early 1980s, called the Moral
Majority, was led by a Baptist minister, Jerry Falwell. Another,
led by Pat Robertson, built an organization called the Christian
Coalition which by the 1990s was a potent force in the Republican
Party. Like many such groups, they wanted to return religion to a
central place in American life. Television evangelists like
Falwell and Robertson developed huge followings. Another galvanizing issue for conservatives was one of the
most divisive and emotional issues of the time: abortion.
Opposition to the 1973 Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade, which
upheld a woman's right to an abortion in the early months of
pregnancy, brought together a wide array of organizations and
individuals. They included, but were not limited to, large
numbers of Catholics, political conservatives and religious
fundamentalists, most of whom regarded abortion under virtually
any circumstances as tantamount to murder. They were prepared to
organize in support of politicians who agreed with their position
-- and against those who disagreed with it. Pro-choice and
antiabortion demonstrations became a fixture of the political
landscape. Within the Republican Party, the right wing grew dominant once
again. The right had briefly seized control of the Republican
Party in 1964 with its presidential candidate, Barry Goldwater,
then faded from the spotlight. By 1980, however, with the use of
modern fund-raising techniques, the right overtook the moderate
wing of the party. Drawing on the intellectual firepower of such
conservatives as economist Milton Friedman, journalists William
F. Buckley and George Will, and research institutions like the
Heritage Foundation, the New Right played a significant role in
defining the issues of the 1980s. Like other conservatives, or the "Old Right," the
New Right favored strict limits on government intervention in the
economy. But the New Right was willing to use state power to
encourage its view of family values, restrict homosexual behavior
and censor pornography. In general, the New Right also favored
tough measures against crime, strong national defense, a
constitutional amendment to permit prayer in public schools,
opposition to abortion and defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment
for women. The figure who drew all these disparate strands together was
Ronald Reagan. Reagan, born in Illinois, achieved stardom as an
actor in Hollywood movies and television before turning to
politics. He first achieved political prominence with a
nationwide televised speech in 1964 in support of Barry
Goldwater. In 1966 Reagan won the governorship of California,
owing to a wave of voter reaction against the student rebellion
at the University of California-Berkeley, and served until 1975.
He narrowly missed winning the Republican nomination for
president in 1976 before succeeding in 1980 and going on to win
the presidency from Jimmy Carter. Reagan won overwhelming
reelection in 1984 against Carter's vice president, Walter
Mondale. President Reagan's unflagging optimism and his ability to
celebrate the achievements and aspirations of the American people
persisted throughout his two terms in office. He was a figure of
reassurance and stability for many Americans. Despite his
propensity for misstatements, Reagan was known as the "Great
Communicator," primarily for his mastery of television. For
many, he recalled the prosperity and relative social tranquility
of the 1950s -- an era dominated by another genial public
personality who evoked widespread affection, President Dwight
Eisenhower. Reagan believed that government intruded too deeply into
American life. He wanted to cut programs he contended the country
did not need by eliminating "waste, fraud and abuse."
Throughout his tenure, Reagan also pursued a program of
deregulation more thoroughgoing than that begun by Jimmy Carter.
Reagan sought to eliminate regulations affecting the consumer,
the workplace and the environment that he argued were
inefficient, expensive and impeded economic growth. THE ECONOMY IN THE 1980s President Reagan's domestic program was rooted in his belief
that the nation would prosper if the power of the private
economic sector was unleashed. A proponent of "supply
side" economics, a theory which holds that a greater supply
of goods and services is the swiftest road to economic growth,
Reagan sought large tax cuts to promote greater consumer
spending, saving and investment. Supply-side economists argued
that a tax cut would lead to increased business investment,
increased earnings and -- through taxes on these earnings --
increased government revenues. Despite only a slim Republican
majority in the Senate and a House of Representatives controlled
by the Democrats, President Reagan succeeded during his first
year in office in enacting the major components of his economic
program, including a 25-percent tax cut for individuals to be
phased in over three years. The Reagan administration also sought
and won significant increases in defense spending to modernize
the nation's military and counter what it felt was a continual
and growing threat from the Soviet Union. A recession marked the early years of Reagan's presidency,
hitting almost all sections of the country. Real gross national
product (GNP) fell by 2.5 percent in 1982, as the unemployment
rate rose above 10 percent and almost one-third of America's
industrial plants lay idle. Throughout the Midwest, major firms
like General Electric and International Harvester released
workers. The oil crisis contributed to the decline. As gains in
U.S. productivity slowed, economic rivals such as Germany and
Japan won a greater share of world trade. American consumption of
goods produced by other countries rose sharply. Farmers also suffered hard times. The number of farmers
declined, as production became concentrated in the hands of a
smaller number. During the 1970s, American farmers had helped
India, China, the Soviet Union and other countries suffering from
crop shortages, and had borrowed heavily to buy land and increase
production. Then the rise in oil prices raised farm costs and a
worldwide economic slump in 1980 reduced the demand for farm
products. Farmers had major difficulties making ends meet. But the deep recession throughout 1982 -- combined with
falling oil prices -- had one important benefit: it curbed the
runaway inflation that had started during the Carter years.
Conditions improved for some segments of the economy in late
1983; by early 1984, the economy rebounded and the United States
entered one of the longest periods of sustained economic growth
since World War II. Japan agreed to impose a voluntary quota on
its car exports to the United States. Consumer spending increased
in response to the federal tax cut. The stock market climbed as
it reflected the optimistic buying spree. Over a five-year period
following the start of the recovery, GNP grew at an annual rate
of 4.2 percent. The annual inflation rate remained between 3 and
5 percent from 1983 to 1987, except in 1986 when it fell to just
under 2 percent -- the lowest level in decades. The nation's
Gross National Product grew substantially during the 1980s; from
1982 to 1987, the U.S. economy created more than 13 million new
jobs. However, an alarming percentage of this growth was based on
deficit spending. Under Reagan the national debt nearly tripled.
Furthermore, virtually all the growth in national wealth took
place in the highest income group. Many poor and middle-class
families actually lost ground, as low- and semi-skilled jobs were
eliminated from the economy, or failed to keep pace with the rest
of society. Steadfast in his commitment to lower taxes, Reagan signed the
most sweeping federal tax-reform measure in 75 years during his
second term. This measure, which had widespread Democratic as
well as Republican support, lowered income tax rates, simplified
tax brackets and closed loopholes, taking an important step
toward taxing low-income Americans more equitably. Still, serious
problems remained. The chronically poor failed to benefit as the
economy improved. Farmers continued to suffer, and serious
droughts in 1986 and 1988 compounded their distress. The increased military budget -- combined with the tax cuts
and the growth in government health spending -- resulted in the
federal government spending far more than it received in revenues
each year. Some analysts charged that the deficits were part of a
deliberate administration strategy to prevent further increases
in domestic spending sought by the Democrats. However, both
Democrats and Republicans in Congress refused to cut such
spending. From $74 thousand million in 1980, the deficit soared
to $221 thousand million in 1986 before falling back to $150
thousand million in 1987. A stock market crash in late 1987
dramatized doubts about the stability of the economy. FOREIGN AFFAIRS In foreign policy, President Reagan sought a more assertive
role for the nation, and Central America provided an early test.
The United States provided El Salvador with a program of economic
aid and military training when a guerrilla insurgency was
threatening to topple its government. It also actively encouraged
the transition to an elected democratic government, but efforts
to curb the active right-wing death squads were only partly
successful. U.S. support helped stabilize the government, but the
level of violence in El Salvador remained undiminished and
actually increased in late 1989. A peace agreement was reached,
however, in early 1992. U.S. policy toward Nicaragua was much more controversial. In
1979 revolutionaries calling themselves Sandinistas overthrew the
repressive right-wing Somoza regime. The Sandinista government
rejected U.S. demands to cut its military ties to Cuba and the
Soviet Union and open its political system to democratic reforms.
Regional peace efforts ended in failure, and the focus of
administration efforts shifted to support for the anti-Sandinista
resistance, known as the contras. Following intense political
debate over this policy, the Congress ended all military aid to
the contras in October 1984, but continued humanitarian
assistance. Congress, under administration pressure, reversed
itself in the fall of 1986, and approved $100 million in military
aid for the contras. However, a lack of success on the
battlefield, charges of human rights abuses and the revelation
that funds from secret arms sales to Iran had been diverted to
the contras undercut political support in Congress for continuing
military aid to the anti-Sandinista guerrillas. Subsequently, the administration of President George Bush
abandoned any effort to secure military aid for the contras. The
Bush administration also supported the opposition political
coalition, led by Violetta Chamorro, which won an astonishing
upset election over the Sandinistas in February 1990. The Reagan administration was more fortunate in witnessing a
return to democracy throughout Latin America, from Guatemala to
Argentina. The emergence of democratically elected governments
was not limited to Latin America, however; in Asia, the
"people power" campaign of Corazon Aquino overthrew the
dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, and elections in Korea ended
decades of military rule. By contrast, South Africa remained intransigent in the face of
the Reagan administration's efforts to encourage an end to racial
apartheid through the controversial policy of "constructive
engagement." In 1986, frustrated at the lack of progress,
the U.S. Congress overrode Reagan's veto and imposed a set of
economic sanctions on South Africa. Only in December 1988, in the
last weeks of the Reagan administration, did years of patient
U.S. mediation contribute to an historic peace settlement and
independence for the territory of Namibia in southern Africa. Despite its outspoken anti-communist rhetoric, the Reagan
administration's direct use of military force was relatively
restrained. On October 25, 1983, U.S. forces landed on the
Caribbean island of Grenada after an urgent appeal for help by
neighboring countries. The action followed the assassination of
Grenada's leftist prime minister by members of his own
Marxist-oriented party. After a brief period of fighting, U.S.
troops captured hundreds of Cuban military and construction
personnel and seized caches of Soviet-supplied arms. In December
1983, the last American combat troops left Grenada, which held
democratic elections a year later. But military efforts in Lebanon, where the United States was
attempting to bolster a weak, but moderate, pro-Western
government, ended tragically, when 241 U.S. Marines were killed
in a terrorist bombing in October 1983. In April 1986, U.S. Navy
and Air Force planes struck targets in Tripoli and Benghazi,
Libya, in retaliation for Libyan-instigated terrorist attacks on
U.S. military personnel in Europe. In the Persian Gulf, the earlier breakdown in U.S.-Iranian
relations and the Iran-Iraq war set the stage for U.S. naval
activities in the region. Initially, the United States responded
to a request from Kuwait for protection of its tanker fleet; but
eventually the United States, along with naval vessels from
Western Europe, kept vital shipping lanes open by escorting
convoys of tankers and other neutral vessels traveling up and
down the Gulf. U.S.-SOVIET RELATIONS In relations with the Soviet Union, President Reagan's
declared policy was one of peace through strength. Rooted in the
Cold War tradition, he was determined to stand firm in dealing
with the country he termed the "evil empire." Two
events increased U.S.-Soviet tensions: the suppression of the
Solidarity labor movement in Poland in December 1981, and the
destruction of an off-course civilian airliner, Korean Airlines
Flight 007, by a Soviet jet fighter on September 1, 1983. The
United States also condemned the continuing Soviet occupation of
Afghanistan and provided aid to the mujahidin resistance there. In Reagan's first term, his administration spent unprecedented
sums for a massive defense buildup, including the placement of
intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe to counter Soviet
deployments of similar missiles. And on March 23, 1983, in one of
the most hotly debated policy decisions of his presidency, Reagan
announced the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) research program
to explore advanced technologies, such as lasers and high-energy
projectiles, to defend against intercontinental ballistic
missiles. Although many scientists questioned the technological
feasibility of SDI and economists pointed to the extraordinary
sums of money involved, the administration pressed ahead with the
project. After reelection in 1984, Reagan softened his rigid position
on arms control. For its part, Moscow was amenable to agreement,
in part because the Soviet economy was incapable of sustaining
the level of expenditures necessary to compete with the U.S.
defense build-up. In November 1985, Reagan held a summit meeting
with the new Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, in Geneva. They
agreed in principle to seek 50-percent reductions in strategic
offensive nuclear arms as well as an interim agreement on
intermediate-range nuclear forces. In December 1987, President
Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev signed the
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty providing for the
destruction of a whole category of nuclear weapons. SPACE SHUTTLE If the Strategic Defense Initiative was problematical for the
Reagan administration, other efforts in space were more
promising. In 1981 the U.S. launched the space shuttle Columbia
-- the first reusable manned spacecraft. Between 1981 and 1985,
the shuttle demonstrated extraordinary versatility, with
astronauts conducting experiments, taking photographs, and
launching, retrieving and repairing satellites while in orbit.
But in January 1986, tragedy struck: the space shuttle Challenger
exploded 73 seconds after takeoff, instantly killing six
astronauts and a schoolteacher who was to have been the first
ordinary citizen in space. Space shuttle missions were postponed
indefinitely while NASA set out to redesign the shuttle for
safety. By the time the United States successfully launched the
shuttle Discovery in late 1988, there had been over 300 changes
in the shuttle's launch systems and computer software. IRAN-CONTRA AND BLACK MONDAY The Reagan administration's most serious foreign policy
problem surfaced near the end of the president's second term. In
1987 Americans learned that the administration had secretly sold
arms to Iran in an attempt to win freedom for American hostages
held in Lebanon by radical organizations controlled by Iran's
Khomeini government. Investigation also revealed that funds from
the arms sales had been diverted to the Nicaraguan contras during
a period when Congress had prohibited such military aid. The ensuing Iran-contra hearings before a joint House-Senate
committee examined issues of possible illegality as well as the
broader question of defining American foreign policy interests in
the Middle East and Central America. In a larger sense, the
Iran-contra hearings, like the celebrated Senate Watergate
hearings 14 years earlier, addressed fundamental questions about
the government's accountability to the public, and the proper
balance between the executive and legislative branches of
government. The United States suffered an economic setback on October 19,
1987, so-called "Black Monday," when the value of
stocks tumbled 22 percent -- immediately bringing back memories
of the fabled stock market crash of 1929, which had been followed
by the Great Depression of the 1930s. The causes of the crash
included anxiety about U.S. international trade and
federal-budget deficits, concern about the high level of
corporate and personal debt, and a new stock market innovation
known as "program trading" in which computers
automatically ordered the buying or selling of a large volume of
shares when certain circumstances occurred. Nevertheless, the nation recovered in a remarkably short time.
Although many Americans turned from the stock market to safer
forms of investment, a recession did not materialize. In fact,
economic growth continued, with the unemployment rate dropping to
a 14-year low of 5.2 percent in June 1988. THE PRESIDENCY OF GEORGE BUSH President Reagan enjoyed unusually high popularity at the end
of his second term in office, but under the terms of the U.S.
Constitution he could not run again in 1988. His political heir,
the vice president during all eight years of his presidency,
George Bush, benefited greatly from Reagan's popularity and was
elected the 41st president of the United States. Bush campaigned by promising voters a continuation of the
prosperity Reagan had brought; he also argued that his expertise
could better support a strong defense for the United States than
that of the Democratic Party's candidate, Michael Dukakis.
Dukakis, the governor of Massachusetts, claimed that less
fortunate Americans were hurting economically and that the
government had to help those people while simultaneously bringing
the federal debt and defense spending under control. The public
was much more engaged, however, by Bush's economic message: a
promise of no new taxes. In the balloting, Bush finished with a
54-to-46-percent popular vote margin. During his first year in office, Bush followed a conservative
fiscal program, pursuing policies on taxes, spending and debt
that were faithful to the Reagan administration's economic
program. Yet, with an outsized budget deficit and a
deficit-reduction law requiring that it be pared, Bush found
himself locked into a program permitting few if any new budget
items while requiring spending cuts. Thus, administration
policies that would cost Washington the least progressed the
furthest. On environmental protection and education -- issues in
which private industry and local and state government pay most of
the bills -- Bush introduced changes in policy. In November 1990,
Bush signed sweeping legislation to impose new federal standards
on urban smog, automobile exhaust, toxic air pollution and acid
rain, but most of the costs were assigned to industrial
polluters. He signed legislation ensuring physical access for the
disabled, but the costs were transferred to business. The
president also launched a campaign to encourage volunteerism for
social beneficence, which he called, in a memorable phrase,
"a thousand points of light." BUDGETS AND DEFICITS Bush administration efforts to gain control over the federal
budget deficit, however, were more problematic. One source of the
difficulty was the savings and loan crisis. Fraud, mismanagement,
lax regulation and economic downturns in certain regions of the
United States in the early and mid-1980s led to widespread
insolvencies among savings-and-loan institutions. Of more than
3,100 such institutions that existed in the late 1970s, only
2,453 remained as of June 30, 1990. By 1993 the total cost of
selling and closing down failed thrifts -- whose deposits were
guaranteed by the government -- was staggering: between $300 and
$500 thousand million. In January 1990 President Bush presented his budget proposal
to Congress. Democrats argued that administration budget
projections were far too optimistic, and that meeting the deficit
reduction law would require tax increases and sharper cuts in
defense spending. The budget negotiations dragged on, and by June
-- in spite of his campaign promise -- President Bush told
congressional leaders that changing circumstances in the national
economy meant that tax increases would have to be part of any
overall budget package. Despite the budget agreement, the combination of economic
recession, losses from the savings and loan industry rescue
operation, and escalating health-care costs for Medicare and
Medicaid offset all the deficit reduction measures and produced a
shortfall in 1991 at least as large as the previous year's. END TO THE COLD WAR Superpower relations in the late 1980s were driven by
political turmoil in Eastern Europe. The United States and the
world watched as popular uprisings for democratic reforms
resulted in the fall of communist governments throughout the
region. Despite a successful 1989 summit meeting between Bush and
Gorbachev in Malta, few would have predicted the extraordinary
achievements to be made in U.S.-Soviet relations in 1990. In his
January State of the Union message, President Bush announced his
intention to cut U.S. troops stationed in Europe to 195,000. In
February, the Bush administration held discussions with the
Soviets on arms control as well as the unification of East and
West Germany. Within seven months, after numerous bilateral and
multilateral discussions, the Soviet Union had renounced its
wartime rights and accepted a unified Germany with full
membership in NATO. The Treaty on the Final Settlement with
respect to Germany was signed in Moscow on September 12. President Bush and the heads of state of 21 other countries
signed the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) on
November 19, 1990, at a three-day summit meeting of the
Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE). The CFE
Treaty was one of the most complex and ambitious arms agreements
ever concluded, covering thousands of tanks, aircraft and
artillery pieces deployed by NATO and the countries of the former
Warsaw Pact from the Atlantic to the Ural Mountains. Then, on July 31, 1991, the United States reached its last
major arms agreement with the Soviet Union when Presidents Bush
and Gorbachev signed the long-negotiated Strategic Arms Reduction
Treaty (START) in Moscow, which mandated cuts of 30 to 40 percent
in the nuclear arsenals of both sides. But even these cuts were
dwarfed by President Bush's agreement with Boris Yeltsin,
president of the new Russian Federation, to eliminate all
multiple-warhead missiles completely by the year 2003. In
combination, the two agreements would reduce the number of
nuclear warheads by two-thirds, from approximately 21,000 to
between 6,000 to 7,000. The disposal of nuclear materials, and
the ever-present concerns of nuclear proliferation superseded the
threat of nuclear conflict between Washington and Moscow. The Cold War was indeed over. THE GULF WAR The euphoria caused by the drawing down of the Cold War was
dramatically overshadowed by the August 2, 1990, invasion of
Kuwait by Iraq. Iraqi control of Kuwait and the danger it posed
to Saudi Arabia and the smaller Gulf states threatened a vital
U.S. interest, because the United States, and the West in
general, remained dependent on this region for much of its oil
supplies. President Bush strongly condemned the Iraqi action and called
for Iraq's immediate and unconditional withdrawal. An emergency
session of the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to condemn
Iraq, urge a cease-fire and demand the withdrawal of Iraqi troops
from Kuwait. Later in August, Iraq announced the annexation of Kuwait,
ordered the closing of all embassies in that country, and began
taking U.S. and British citizens in Kuwait hostage. On August 8,
President Bush went on national television to announce the
deployment of U.S. troops to the Middle East. The president then
worked to assemble one of the most extraordinary military and
political coalitions of modern times, with military forces from
Asia, Europe and Africa, as well as the Middle East. In the days and weeks following the invasion, the U.N.
Security Council passed 12 resolutions condemning the Iraqi
invasion and imposing wide-ranging economic sanctions on Iraq.
The 12th resolution, issued on November 29, approved the use of
force by U.N. member states if Iraq did not withdraw from Kuwait
by January 15, 1991. The new U.S.-Soviet relationship provided
the necessary condition for the U.N. action to stem the Iraqi
invasion. Without the new entente between the two countries, the
United Nations would never have authorized military action
against Iraq. Members of Congress had publicly called on President Bush and
the international community to exhaust all means for resolving
the Gulf crisis peacefully. But the underlying issue was
constitutional: the U.S. Constitution gives the legislative
branch the power to declare war. Yet in the second half of the
20th century, the United States has repeatedly become involved in
armed conflicts without such a congressional mandate, most
notably in Vietnam. Some members of Congress declared that Bush
must get congressional backing before going to war. Others
argued, however, that Congress really wanted a voice in where,
when and under what conditions the United States goes to war --
not the responsibility of declaring war itself. On January 12, 1991, three days before the U.N. deadline,
Congress granted President Bush the authority he sought in the
most explicit and sweeping war-making power given a president in
nearly half a century. War broke out less than 24 hours after the U.N. deadline. The
United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, Saudi Arabia and
Kuwait succeeded in liberating Kuwait with a devastating,
U.S.-led air campaign that lasted slightly more than a month. It
was followed by a massive invasion of Kuwait and Iraq by armored
and airborne infantry forces. With their superior speed, mobility
and firepower, the allied forces overwhelmed the Iraqi forces in
a land campaign lasting only 100 hours. The United States and its allies achieved their military goal,
but the victory was incomplete. Saddam Hussein remained in power,
savagely repressing the Kurds in the north and the Shiites in the
south, both of whom had risen in rebellion after the war.
Hundreds of oil-well fires, deliberately set by the Iraqis, took
until November 1991 to extinguish. Saddam's regime also attempted
to thwart United Nations inspectors who, operating in accordance
with Security Council resolutions, worked to locate and destroy
Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear facilities
and huge stocks of chemical weapons. Indirectly, however, the Gulf War enabled the United States to
persuade the Arab states, Israel and a Palestinian delegation to
begin direct negotiations aimed at resolving the complex and
interlocked issues that could eventually lead to a lasting peace
in the region. The talks began in Madrid, Spain, on October 30,
1991. In turn, they set the stage for the secret negotiations in
Norway that led to the historic agreement between Israel and the
Palestine Liberation Organization, signed at the White House on
September 13, 1993. PANAMA AND NAFTA The president also received broad bipartisan congressional
backing for the brief U.S. invasion of Panama on December 20,
1989, that deposed dictator General Manuel Antonio Noriega. In
the 1980s, addiction to crack cocaine reached epidemic
proportions, and President Bush put the "war on drugs"
at the center of his domestic agenda. The United States had
compelling evidence that Noriega was involved in drug smuggling
operations and by means of the invasion sought to bring Noriega
to justice. But there were other reasons. One of Bush's aims was
to replace Noriega with a government headed by Guillermo Endara,
who had won a presidential election that Noriega subsequently
annulled. Bush also told reporters that he ordered U.S. troops to
Panama to safeguard the lives of American citizens, to help
restore democracy and to protect the integrity of the Panama
Canal treaties. Noriega eventually turned himself over to U.S.
authorities, and he was later tried and convicted in U.S. federal
court in Miami, Florida, of drug trafficking and racketeering. The Bush administration marked progress on the economic front
with the negotiation of the North America Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada, which became the focus of an
intense ratification debate in the Clinton administration. Labor
unions charged that NAFTA would encourage the export of U.S.
jobs, and environmentalists expressed concern that the agreement
provided incentives to industries to relocate to regions having
lax controls on industrial pollution. Both the Bush and Clinton
administrations, however, argued that NAFTA would permit a
greater flow of goods and services at lower cost, and would make
industry in all three countries more competitive in the global
marketplace. NAFTA, which was approved by the Congress after a
vigorous national debate in late 1993, is viewed by many as a
testing ground for future trade agreements, which could
eventually lead to free trade throughout the Western Hemisphere. 1992 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION As the 1992 presidential election approached, Americans found
themselves in a world transformed in ways almost unimaginable
four years earlier. The familiar landmarks of the Cold War --
from the Berlin Wall to intercontinental missiles and bombers on
constant high alert -- were gone. Eastern Europe was independent,
the Soviet Union had dissolved, Germany was united, Arabs and
Israelis were engaged in direct negotiations, and the threat of
nuclear conflict was greatly diminished. It was as though one
great history volume had closed and another had opened. Yet at home, Americans were less sanguine -- and faced some
deep and familiar problems. Once the celebrations and parades
following the Gulf War ended, the United States found itself in
its deepest recession since the early 1980s. Many of the job
losses were occurring among white-collar workers in middle
management positions, not solely among blue-collar workers in the
manufacturing sector who had been hit hardest in earlier years.
Even when the economy began recovering in 1992, its growth was
virtually imperceptible until late in the year, and many regions
of the country remained mired in recession. Moreover, the federal
deficit continued to mount, propelled most strikingly by rising
expenditures for health care. Many Americans exhibited profound
pessimism about their future, believing that their country was
headed in the wrong direction. Despite an early challenge by conservative journalist Patrick
Buchanan, President Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle easily won
renomination by the Republican Party. On the Democratic side,
Bill Clinton, governor of Arkansas, defeated a crowded field of
candidates to win his party's nomination. As his vice
presidential nominee, he selected Senator Al Gore of Tennessee,
generally acknowledged as one of the Congress's most
knowledgeable and eloquent advocates of environmental protection.
But the country's deep unease over the direction of the
economy also sparked the emergence of a remarkable independent
candidate -- wealthy Texas entrepreneur H. Ross Perot. Perot, who
earned a fortune in computers and data processing, tapped into a
deep wellspring of frustration over the inability of Washington
to deal effectively with economic issues, principally the federal
deficit, and his volunteers succeeded in collecting enough
signatures to get his name on the ballot in all 50 states.
Although Perot squandered even a remote chance of winning the
election by dropping out of the presidential contest in July only
to reenter in the fall, his presence ensured that economic issues
remained at the center of the national debate. Every U.S. presidential election campaign is an amalgam of
issues, images and personality; and despite the intense focus on
the country's economic future, the 1992 contest was no exception.
The Bush reelection effort was built around a set of ideas
traditionally used by incumbents: experience and trust. It was in
some ways a battle of generations. George Bush, 68, probably the
last president to have served in World War II, faced a young
challenger in Bill Clinton who, at age 46, had never served in
the military and had participated in protests against the Vietnam
War. In emphasizing his experience as president and
commander-in-chief, Bush also drew attention to what he
characterized as Clinton's lack of judgment and character. For his part, Bill Clinton organized his campaign around
another of the oldest and most powerful themes in electoral
politics: change. As a youth, Clinton had once met President
Kennedy, and in his own campaign 30 years later, much of his
rhetoric challenging Americans to accept change consciously
echoed that of Kennedy in his 1960 campaign. As governor of Arkansas for 12 years, Clinton could point to
his experience in wrestling with the very issues of economic
growth, education and health care that were, according to public
opinion polls, among President Bush's chief vulnerabilities.
Where Bush offered an economic program based on lower taxes and
cuts in government spending, Clinton proposed higher taxes on the
wealthy and increased spending on investments in education,
transportation and communications that, he believed, would boost
the nation's productivity and growth and thereby lower the
deficit. Similarly, Clinton's health care proposals to control
costs called for much heavier involvement by the federal
government than Bush's. Clinton successfully hammered home the theme of change
throughout the campaign, as well as in a round of three televised
debates with President Bush and Ross Perot in October. On
November 3, Bill Clinton won election as the 42nd president of
the United States, despite receiving only 43 percent of the
popular vote. AFTERWORD From its origins as a set of obscure colonies hugging the
Atlantic coast, the United States has undergone a remarkable
transformation into what political analyst Ben Wattenberg has
called "the first universal nation," a population of
almost 250 million people representing virtually every
nationality and ethnic group on the globe. It is also a nation
where the pace and extent of change -- economic, technological,
cultural, demographic and social -- is unceasing. The United
States is often the harbinger of the modernization and change
that inevitably sweep up other nations and societies in an
increasingly interdependent, interconnected world. Yet the United States also maintains a sense of continuity, a
set of core values that can be traced to its founding. They
include a faith in individual freedom and democratic government,
and a commitment to economic opportunity and progress for all.
The continuing task of the United States will be to ensure that
its values of freedom, democracy and opportunity -- the legacy of
a rich and turbulent history -- are protected and flourish as the
nation, and the world, approach the doorway of a new century. =================================================================
SIDEBAR: A NATION OF IMMIGRANTS By the time American independence was declared in 1776,
two-fifths of all settlers were of non-English origin. The first
U.S. census, taken in 1790, revealed a population of just under
four million people, with about 10,000 new settlers arriving each
year. When the U.S. government began keeping records of arriving
passengers in 1820, the majority of immigrants were from Northern
Europe; by the end of the 19th century, they came largely from
Southern and Eastern Europe. Today, the majority arrive from
Latin America and Asia. Their reasons for coming, however --
opportunity and freedom -- remain unchanged. =================================================================
SIDEBAR: THIRD-PARTY AND INDEPENDENT CANDIDATES The United States is often thought of as a two-party system.
In practical effect it is: either a Democrat or a Republican has
occupied the White House every year since 1852. At the same time,
however, the country has produced a plethora of third and minor
parties over the years. For example, 58 parties were represented
on at least one state ballot during the 1992 presidential
elections. Among these were such obscure parties as the Apathy,
the Looking Back, the New Mexico Prohibition, the Tish
Independent Citizens and the Vermont Taxpayers. In general, third parties organize around a single issue or
set of issues. They tend to fare best when they have a
charismatic leader. With the presidency out of reach, most seek a
platform to publicize their political and social concerns. Theodore Roosevelt. The most successful third party candidate
of this century was a Republican, Theodore Roosevelt, the former
president. His Progressive or Bull Moose Party won 27.4 percent
of the vote in the 1912 election. The progressive wing of the
Republican Party, having grown disenchanted with President
William Howard Taft, whom Roosevelt had hand-picked as his
successor, urged Roosevelt to seek the party nomination in 1912.
This he did, defeating Taft in a number of primaries. Taft
controlled the party machinery, however, and secured the
nomination. Roosevelt's supporters then broke away and formed the
Progressive Party. Declaring himself as fit as a bull moose
(hence the party's popular name), Roosevelt campaigned on a
platform of regulating "big business," women's
suffrage, a graduated income tax, the Panama Canal and
conservation. His effort was sufficient to defeat Taft. By
splitting the Republican vote, however, he helped ensure the
election of the Democrat Woodrow Wilson. Socialists. The Socialist Party also reached its high point in
1912, attaining 6 percent of the popular vote. Perennial
candidate Eugene Debs won over 900,000 votes that year,
advocating collective ownership of the transportation and
communication industries, shorter working hours and public works
projects to spur employment. Jailed for sedition during World War
I, Debs campaigned from his cell in 1920, but neither he nor his
successors ever duplicated the results of 1912. Robert LaFollette. Another Progressive was Senator Robert
LaFollette, who won 16.6 percent of the vote in the 1924
election. Long a champion of farmers and industrial workers, and
an ardent foe of big business, LaFollette was a prime mover in
the recreation of the Progressive movement following World War I.
Backed by the farm and labor vote, as well as by Socialists and
remnants of Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party, LaFollette ran on a
platform of nationalizing railroads and the country's natural
resources. He also strongly supported increased taxation on the
wealthy and the right of collective bargaining. Despite a strong
showing in certain regions, he carried only his home state of
Wisconsin. Henry Wallace. The Progressive Party reinvented itself in 1948
with the nomination of Henry Wallace, a former secretary of
agriculture and vice president under Franklin Roosevelt. Briefly
Harry Truman's secretary of commerce, he was fired for opposing
Truman's firm stand against the Soviet Union. Wallace's 1948
platform opposed the Cold War, the Marshall Plan and big
business. He also campaigned to end discrimination against blacks
and women, backed a minimum wage and called for the elimination
of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. His failure to
repudiate the U.S. Communist Party, which had endorsed him,
undermined his popularity and he wound up with just over 2.4
percent of the popular vote. Dixiecrats. The same percentage was attained by the States
Rights or Dixiecrat Party, led by South Carolina governor Strom
Thurmond. Like the Progressives, the Dixiecrats broke away from
the Democrats in 1948. Their opposition, however, stemmed not
from Truman's Cold War policies, but his civil rights platform.
Although defined in terms of "states rights," the
party's main goal was continuing racial segregation and the
"Jim Crow" laws which sustained it. George Wallace. The racial and social upheavals of the 1960s
helped bring George Wallace, another segregationist Southern
governor, to national attention. Wallace built a following
through his colorful attacks against civil rights, liberals and
the federal government. Founding the American Independent Party
in 1968, he ran his campaign from the statehouse in Montgomery,
Alabama, winning 13.5 percent of the overall presidential vote. H. Ross Perot. Every third party seeks to capitalize on
popular dissatisfaction with the major parties and the federal
government. At few times in recent history, however, has this
sentiment been as strong as it was during the 1992 election. A
hugely wealthy Texas businessman, Perot possessed a knack for
getting his message of economic common sense and fiscal
responsibility across to a wide spectrum of American people. Lampooning the nation's leaders and reducing his economic
message to easily understood formulae, Perot found little
difficulty gaining media attention. His campaign organization,
United We Stand, was staffed primarily by volunteers and backed
by his personal fortune. Far from resenting his wealth, many
admired Perot's business success and the freedom it brought him
from soliciting campaign funds from special interests. Perot withdrew from the race in July. Re-entering it a month
before the election, he won over 19 million votes, by far the
largest number ever tallied by a third party candidate and second
only to Roosevelt's 1912 showing as a percentage of the total. Embassy of the United States of America
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