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American History CHAPTER 13: Toward the 21st Century |
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American History
Ch 1 | Ch 2 | Ch 3 | Ch 4 | Ch 5 | Ch 6 | Ch 7
Ch 8 | Ch 9 | Ch 10 | Ch 11 | Ch 12 | Ch 13 | Ch 14
CHAPTER 13: Toward the 21st Century
An Outline of American History
"America, to endure, must change... Change to preserve America's ideals -- life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. Though we march to the music of our time, our mission is timeless."
-- President Bill Clinton, 1993
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.
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The U. S. Constitution
