ch 42 outline

Ch 42

Economic Revolutions

--->Entrepreneurs led the way to making the Internet a 21st century mall, library, and shopping center

--->White-collar jobs in financial services and high tech engineering were being outsourced to other countries like Ireland and India

--->In the Spring of 2000, the stock market began its biggest slide since WWII

--->By 2003, the market had lost $6 trillion in value

--->American’s pension plans shrank to 1/3 or more

--->Scientific research propelled the economy

--->Researchers unlocked the secrets of molecular genetics (1950s)

--->They developed new strains of high yielding, pest/weather resistant crops

--->They sought to cure hereditary diseases

Affluence and Inequality

--->Median household income in 2002 = $42,400

--->Americans, however, weren’t the world’s wealthiest people

--->The richest 20% in 2001 raked in nearly half the nation’s income while the poorest 20% got a mere 4%

--->The Welfare Reform Bill (1996) restricted access to social services and required able-bodied welfare recipients to find work

--->Chief executives roughly earned 245 times as much as the average worker

--->In 2004, over 40 million people had no medical insurance

--->34 million (12% of population) were impoverished

--->the increase of low-skilled immigrants

--->under funding of many schools in poor urban areas

The Feminist Revolution

--->1990s, nearly half of all workers were women

--->Many universities opened their doors to women (1960s):

--->Yale

--->Princeton

--->West Point

--->The Citadel and Virginia Military Institute (VMI)

--->women still got lower wages

--->For example, in 2002, on 29  % of women were lawyers or judges and 25% physicians

---->Women still voted for Democrats more than men

---->Mens’ lives changed in the 2000s as well

--->More men shared the traditional female responsibilities

--->cooking, laundry, and child care

--->In 1993, congress passed the Family Leave Bill, mandating job protection for working fathers as well as mothers who needed to take time off from work for family reasons

New Families and Old

---->by 1990s, one out of every two marriages ended in divorce

--->7x more children were affected by divorce compared to the beginning of the decade

--->The proportion of adults living alone tripled in the 4 decades after 1950s

--->In 1990s, 1/3 of women age 25 - 29 had never married

--->Kids in households were raised by a single parent, stepparent, or grandparent, and even kids with gay parents encountered a degree of acceptance that would have been unimaginable a century earlier.

--->y marriage and teenage pregnancy was on a decline after the mid-1900s

The Aging of America

--->Old age was expected, due to the fact that Americans were living longer than ever before, people born in 2000 could anticipate living to an average 70 years

--->1 American in 8 was over 65 years of age in 2000

--->The share of GNP spent on health care for people over 65 more than doubled

--->The ratio of active workers to retirees had dropped so low, that drastic adjustments were necessary

--->As WW2 baby boomers began to retire the Unfunded Liability the difference between what the government promised to pay to the elderly and the taxes it expected to take in was about $7 trillion

--->Pressure mounted:

--->to persuade older Americans to work longer

The New Immigration

--->Newcomers continued to flow into Modern America

--->Nearly 1 million per year from 1980s up to 2000s

--->Contradicting history, Europe provided few compared to Asia/Latin America

--->What prompted new immigration to the US?

--->New immigrants came for many of the same reasons as the old…

--->they came in search of jobs and economic opportunities

--->Some came with skills and even professional degrees and found their way into middle-class jobs

--->However, most came with fewer skills/less education, seeking work as janitors, nannies, farm laborers lawn cutters, or restraint workers

--->The southwest felt immigration the hardest, since Mexican migrants came heavily from there

--->By the turn of the century, Latinos made up nearly 1/3 of the population in California, Arizona, and Texas, and nearly 40% in New Mexico

--->Latinos succeeded in making the south west a bi-cultural region by holding onto to their culture by strength in numbers, compared to most immigrants whom had to conform. Plus, it did help to have their ‘mothering country” right next door

--->Some “old-stock” Americans feared about the modern America’s capacity to absorb all these immigrants

--->The Immigration Reform and Control Act (1986) attempted to choke off illegal entry by penalizing employers of the undocumented aliens and by granting amnesty of those already here

--->Ant-immigrant sentiment flared (a lot in CA) in the wake of economic recession in the early 1990s

CA voters approved a ballot initiative that attempted to deny benefits, including education, to illegal immigrants (later struck down by courts)

State then passed another law in 1998 which put an end to bilingual teaching in state schools

--->The fact was, that only 11.5% of foreign-born people accounted for the US population

Beyond the Melting Pot

--->Thanks to their increasing immigration and high birthrate Latinos were becoming an increasingly important minority

--->By 2003, the US was home to about 39 million of them

--->26 million Chicanos, Mexican American

--->3 million Puerto Ricans

--->1 million Cubans

--->Flexing political powers, Latinos elected mayors of Miami, Denver, and San Antonio

--->After many years of struggle, the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC0, headed by Cesar Chavez, succeeded in making working conditions better for Chicano “stoop laborers” who followed the planting cycle of the American West

--->Asian Americans also made great strides

--->By the 1980s, they were America’s fastest-growing minority and their numbers reached about 12 million by 2003

--->Citizens of Asian ancestry were now counted among the most prosperous

--->In 2003, the average Asian household was 25% better off than that of the average white household

Indians, the original Americans, numbered some 2.4 million in 2000 census

--->Unemployment and alcoholism had blighted reservation life

--->Many tribes took advantage of their special legal status of independence by opening up casinos on reservations to the public

--->However, discrimination and poverty proved hard to break

Cities and Suburbs

--->Cities grew less safe, crime was the great scourge of urban life

--->The rate of violent crimes raised to its peak in the drug infested 80s, but then leveled out in the 90s.

--->The number of violent crimes substantially dropped in many areas after 1995

--->None the less, murders, robberies and rapes remained common in cities and rural areas and the suburbs

--->In mid-1990s, a swift and massive transition took place from cities to suburbs, making jobs “suburbanized.”

--->The nation’s brief “urban age” lasted for only a little less than 7 decades and with it, Americans noticed a new form of isolationism

--->Some affluent suburban neighborhoods stayed secluded, by staying locked in “gated communities”

--->By the first decade of the 21st century, big suburban rings around cities like NY, Chicago, Houston, and Washington DC had become more racially and ethically diverse

--->A huge shift of US population was underway from East to West

--->The Great Plains hurt from the 60% decline of all counties

--->Commercial redevelopment gained ground in cities like…

--->New York

--->Chicago

--->Los Angeles

--->Boston

--->San Francisco

ch 41 outline

Ch 41

Bill Clinton: the First Baby-Boomer President

--->In 1992, the Democrats chose Bill Clinton as their candidate and Albert Gore, Jr. as his running mate

--->The Democrats tried a new approach, promoting growth, strong defense, and anticrime policies while campaigning to stimulate the economy

--->The Republicans dwelt on “family values” and selected Bush for another round and J. Danforth Quayle as his running mate

--->Third party candidate Ross Perot added color to the election by getting 19,742,267 votes in the election but Clinton won, 370 to 168 in the Electoral College

--->Congress and the presidential cabinet were filled with minorities and more women, including the first female attorney general ever, Janet Reno, Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the Supreme Court

A False Start for Reform

--->Upon entering office, Clinton called for accepting homosexuals in the armed forces, but finally had to settle for a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that unofficially accepted gays and lesbians

--->Clinton also appointed his wife, Hillary, to revamp the nation’s health and medical care system, and when it was revealed in October 1993, critics blasted it as cumbersome, confusing, and unpractical, thus suddenly making Hillary Rodham Clinton a liability whereas before, she had been a full, equal political partner of her husband

--->By 1996, Clinton had shrunk the federal deficit to its lowest level in a decade, and in 1993, he passed a gun-control law called the Brady Bill, named after presidential aide James Brady who had been wounded in President Reagan’s attempted assassination

--->In July 1994, Clinton persuaded Congress to pass a $30 billion anticrime bill.

--->During the decade, a radical Muslim group bombed the World Trade Center in New York, killing six

---> An American terrorist, Timothy McVeigh, bombed the federal building in Oklahoma in 1995, taking 169 lives

The Politics of Distrust

--->In 1994, Newt Gingrich led Republicans on a sweeping attack of Clinton’s liberal failures with a conservative “Contract with America,” and that year, Republicans won all incumbent seats as well as eight more seats in the Senate and 53 more seats in the House

--->In 1996, Clinton ran against Republican Bob Dole and won, 379 to 159, and Ross Perot again finished third

Clinton Again

--->Clinton became the first Democrat to be re-elected since FDR

--->He put conservatives on the defensive by claiming the middle ground

--->He embraced the Welfare Reform Bill.

--->He balanced affirmative action

--->Mostly, Clinton enjoyed the popularity of a president during an economic good-time

--->He supported the controversial NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) which cut tariffs and trade barriers between Mexico—U.S.—Canada

--->Similarly, he supported the start of the WTO (World Trade Agreement) to lower trade barriers internationally

--->The issue of campaign finance reform rose to water level. Republicans and Clinton alike, gave the issue lip service, but did nothing

Problems Abroad

--->Clinton sent troops to Somalia (where some were killed), withdrew them, and also meddled in Northern Ireland to no good effect

--->Clinton committed American troops to NATO to keep the peace in the former Yugoslavia, and he sent 20,000 troops to return Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power in Haiti

--->He resolutely supported the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that made a free-trade zone surrounding Mexico, Canada, and the U.S., then helped form the World Trade Organization (WTO), the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and also provided $20 billion to Mexico in 1995 to help its faltering economy

--->Clinton also presided over an historic reconciliation meeting in 1993 between Israel’s Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian Yasir Arafat at the White House

Scandal and Impeachment

--->The end of the Cold War left the U.S. groping for a diplomatic formula to replace anti-Communism and revealed misconduct by the CIA and the FBI

--->Political reporter Joe Klein wrote Primary Colors, mirroring some of Clinton’s personal life/womanizing

--->In 1993, Vincent Foster, Jr. apparently committed suicide, perhaps overstressed at having to manage Clinton’s legal and financial affairs

--->Clinton began his second term, the first by a Democratic president since FDR, he had Republican majorities in both houses of Congress going against him

--->his place likely was made with the infamous Monica Lewinski sex scandal

---> Clinton had oral sex in the White House Oval Office with the intern Lewinski then he denied that he had done so, figuring that oral sex was not actually sex

--->For his “little white lie,” Clinton was impeached by the House

--->However, Republicans were unable to get the necessary 2/3 super-majority vote in the Senate to kick Clinton from the White House

Clinton’s Legacy

--->In his last several months as president, Clinton tried to secure a non-Monica legacy

---->He named tracts of land as preservations

---->He initiated a “patients’ bill of rights”

--->He hired more teachers and police officers

The Bush-Gore Presidential Battle

--->The 2000 election began to shape up as a colorful one

--->Democrats chose Vice President Albert Gore

--->The Green Party (consisting mostly of liberals and environmentalists) chose consumer advocate Ralph Nader

--->Republicans chose Texas governor George W. Bush

--->What to do with the extra money

--->Bush said to make big cut taxes for all

--->Gore said to make smaller tax cuts to the middle class only, then use the rest to shore up the debt, Social Security, and Medicare

--->Nader, in reality, was little more than a side-show

The Controversial Election of 2000

--->A close finish was expected, but not to the degree to which it actually happened

--->Controversy surrounded Florida

--->Having the nation’s 4th most electoral votes, Florida was the swing-state

--->Florida effectively had a tie, with Bush ahead by the slightest of margins

--->State law required a recount

--->The recount upheld Bush’s narrow win

--->As the confusion wore on and America needed a president A.S.A.P., Florida eventually validated the Bush vote

--->Gore actually got more popular votes (50,999,897 to Bush’s 50,456,002), but lost the critical electoral vote (266 to Bush’s 271)

Bush Begins

--->Bush took office talking up his Texas upbringing (true) and talking down his family’s Back-East privilege

--->Bush took on hot topics and fired up both sides of the political spectrum

--->He withdrew U.S. support from international programs that okayed abortion

--->He advocated faith-based social welfare programs

--->He opposed stem-cell research, which had great medical possibilities, on the grounds that the embryo in reality was a small person and doing tests on it was nothing other than abortion

--->He angered environmentalists with his policies

--->He even worried conservatives by cutting taxes $1.3 trillion. The budget surpluses of the 90s turned into a $400 billion deficit by 2004

Terrorism Comes to America

--->On September 11, 2001, America’s centuries-old enjoyment of being on “our side of the pond” ended when militant Muslim radicals attacked America

--->Two planes slammed into the World Trade Center towers in New York City

--->A third plane slammed into the Pentagon

--->A fourth plane was aiming for the White House, but heroic passengers took back the plane before it crashed in a Pennsylvania field

--->President Bush’s leadership after the attacks was solemn and many began to forget the disputed election of 2000.

--->He identified the culprits as Al Qaeda, a religious militant terrorist group, led by Osama Bin Laden

---> Bush called for Bin Laden’s head. Afghanistan refused to hand him over so Bush ordered the military to go on the offensive and hunt him down. The hunt proved to be difficult and Bin Laden proved elusive

--->The Patriot Act gave the government extended surveillance rights. Critics charged this was a Big Brother-like infringement of rights—a reversal of the freedoms that Americans were fighting for.

Bush Takes the Offensive Against Iraq

--->Saddam Hussein had been a long time menace to many people

--_>At heart of problems: intelligence at the time suggested that Hussein had and was actively making weapons of mass destruction (“WMDs”)

--->Bush decided it was time for action, Bush sought the U.N.’s approval for taking military action, but some nations, notably France with its Security Council veto, had cold feet

--->Heavy majorities of Congress in October of 2002 approved armed force against Iraq

Owning Iraq

--->Iraqi insurgents attacked American G.I.’s and casualties mounted to nearly 1,200 by 2004

--->new goals

---> establish security in Iraq, hopefully by Iraqi troops

--->create and turn over control to a new democratically elected Iraqi government

--->A new government was created and limited power handed over on June 28, 2004

A Country in Conflict

--->Other issues divided America:

--->Democrats continually grumbled about the “stolen” 2000 election

--->Civil libertarians fumed over the Patriot Act

--->Pacifists said the WMD reasoning was made up from the get-go to start a war

--->Big business (like Enron and WorldCom that monkeyed with their books) supposedly fattened t

--->rich and gleaned the poor

--->Social warfare continued over abortion and homosexuality

--->Affirmative action still boiled, and the Supreme Court came up with mathematical formulae for minority admittance to undergrads

Reelecting George W. Bush

--->Republicans put Bush up for reelection in 2004

--->Democrats selected Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts

--->Bush said to “stay the course”; Kerry took an anti-war position

--->Kerry’s position and image was somewhat confounding:

--->Kerry was a Vietnam war hero, but then a Vietnam war protestor

--->Kerry voted for military action in Iraq, but then voted against a bill for military spending for the war

--->In the election, and despite polls to the contrary, Bush won with a surprisingly strong showing (a popular vote of 60,639,281 to Kerry’s 57,355,978) of 286 electoral votes to Kerry’s 252

ch 40 outline

Ch 40

The Election of Ronald Reagan, 1980

--->Ronald Reagan backed a political philosophy that condemned federal intervention in local affairs, favoritism for minorities, and the elitism of arrogant bureaucrats

---> "neoconservatives"-supporting free-market capitalism, questioning liberal welfare programs and affirmative-action policies, and calling for reassertion of traditional values of individualism and the centrality of family

--->Ronald Reagan won the election of 1980, beating Democratic president Jimmy Carter

The Regan Revolution

--->Iranian's released the hostages on Reagan's Inauguration Day, January 20, 1981, after 444 days of captivity

--->to the dismay of environmentalists, James Watt became the secretary of the interior

---> proposed a new federal budget that called for cuts of $35 billion, mostly in social programs like food stamps and federally-funded job-training centers

--->On March 6, 1981, Reagan was shot

---> 12 days later, Reagan recovered and returned to work

The Battle of the Budget

--->Reagan made tax cuts, amounting to 25% across-the-board reductions over a period of 3 years

---> In August 1981, Congress approved a set of tax reforms that lowered individual tax rates, reduced federal estate taxes, and created new tax-free saving plans for small investors
---> anti-inflationary polices that caused the recession of 1982 had actually been initiated by the Federal Reserve Board in 1979, during Carter's presidency

--->income gaps widened between the rich and the poor

---> Some economists located the sources of the economic upturn in the massive military expenditures

---> Reagan gave the Pentagon nearly $2 trillion in the 1980s

Reagan Renews the Cold War

--->Reagan's strategy for dealing with the Soviet Union was simple

---> by enormously expanding U.S. military capabilities, he could threaten the Soviets with an expensive new round in the arms race

---> In March 1983, Reagan announced his intention to pursue a high-technology missile-defense system called the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), also known as Star Wars

---> The plan called for orbiting battle satellites in space that could fire laser beams to vaporize intercontinental missile on liftoff

--->In 1983, a Korean passenger airliner was shot down when it flew into Soviet airspace

---> By the end of 1983, all arms-control negotiations were broken, and the Cold War was intensified

Troubles Abroad

--->In June 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon, seeking to destroy the guerrilla bases from which Palestinian fighters attacked Israel

---> In 1979, Reagan sent "military advisors" to El Salvador to prop up the pro-American government

---> In October 1983, he dispatched a heavy-fire-power invasion force to the island of Grenada, where a military coup had killed the prime minister and brought Marxists to power

Round Two for Reagan

--->Ronald Reagan overwhelmingly won the election of 1984, beating Democrat Walter Mondale and his woman vice presidential nominee, Geraldine Ferraro

--->Foreign policy issues dominated Reagan's second term

---> Mikhail Gorbachev became the chairman of the Soviet Communist party in March 1985 --->Glasasnost and Perestroika, aimed at ventilating the Soviet society by introducing free speech and a measure of liberty, and reviving the Soviet economy by adopting many of the free-market practices, respectively

---> In December 1985, Reagan and Gorbachev signed the IFN treaty, banning all intermediate-range nuclear missiles from Europe

The Iran-Contra Imbroglio

--->Two foreign policy problems arose to Reagan

---> the continuing captivity of a number of American hostages seized by Muslim extremist groups in battered Lebanon

---> continuing grip on power of the left-wing Sandinista government in Nicaragua

--->November 1986, news of the secret dealings broke and ignited a firestorm of controversy

--->Criminal indictments were brought against Oliver North, Admiral John Poindexter, and Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger

Reagan's Economic Legacy

--->Ronald Reagan had taken office vowing to stimulate the American economy by rolling back government regulations, lowering taxes, and balancing the budget

--->combination of tax reduction and huge increases in military spending caused $200 billion in annual deficits

--->In the early 1990s, median household income actually declined

The Religious Right

--->In 1979, Reverend Jerry Falwell founded a political organization called the Moral Majority

---> He preached with great success against sexual permissiveness, abortion, feminism, and the spread of gay rights

Conservatism in the Courts

--->The Supreme Court had become Reagan's principal instrument in the "cultural wars"

----> By the time he had left office, Reagan had appointed 3 conservative-minded judges, including Sandra Day O'Connor, the first women to become a Supreme Court Justice

---> Reaganism rejected two icons of the liberal political culture

---> affirmative action and abortion

--->Affirmative Action - In two cases in 1989 (Ward's Cove Packing v. Antonia and Martin v. Wilks), the Court made it more difficult to prove that an employer practiced racial discrimination in hiring

--->Abortion - In Roe v. Wade (1973), the Court had prohibited states from making laws that interfered with a woman's right to an abortion during the early months of pregnancy

---> In Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989), the Supreme Court approved a Missouri law that imposed certain restrictions on abortion, signaling that a state could legislate in an area in which Roe had previously forbidden them to legislate

---> In Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), the Court ruled that states could restrict access to abortion as long they did not place an "undue burden" on the woman

Referendum on Reagansim in 1988

--->"Black Monday," October 19, 1987, the stock market plunged 508 points-the largest one-day decline in history

--->The Republicans nominated George Bush for the election of 1988

---> Black candidate Jesse Jackson, a rousing speech-maker who hoped to forge a "rainbow collation" of minorities and the disadvantaged, campaigned energetically, but the Democrats chose Michael Dukakis

--->Despite Reagan's recent problems in office, George Bush won the election

George Bush and the End of the Cold War

--->George Bush had gained a fortune in the oil business in Texas

---> He served as a congressman and then held various posts in several Republican administrations, including ambassador to China, ambassador to the United Nations, director of the CIA, and vice president

--->In 1989, thousands of prodemocracy demonstrators protested in Tiananmen Square in China

--->In early 1989, the Solidarity movement in Poland toppled the communist regime

---> Communist regimes also collapsed in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, and Romania

---> In December 1989, the Berlin Wall came down, and the two Germanies were reunited in October 1990

--->In August 1991, a military coup attempted to preserve the communist system by trying to dislodge Gorbachev from power

---> With support of Boris Yelstin, the president of the Russian Republic (one of the several republics that composed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or USSR), Gorbachev foiled the plotters

----> In December 1991, Gorbachev resigned as Soviet president

--->In 1991, the Chechnyan minority tried to declare its independence from Russia

---> Boris Yelstin was forced to send in Russian troops

--_>In 1990, the white regime in South Africa freed African leader Nelson Mandela, who had served 27 years in prison for conspiring for overthrow the government

--->Four years later, he was elected as South Africa's president

---> In 1990, free elections removed the leftist Sandinistas in Nicaragua from power

---> In 1992, peace came to El Salvador

The Persian Gulf Crisis

--->On August 2, 1990, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, seeking oil

---> The United Nations Security Council condemned the invasion and on August 3, demanded the immediate withdrawal of Iraq's troops

----> After Hussein refused to comply by the mandatory date of January 15, 1991, the United States spearheaded a massive international military deployment, sending 539,000 troops to the Persian Gulf region

Fighting "Operation Desert Storm"

--->On January 16, 1991, the U.S. and the U.N. launched a 37-day air war against Iraq

--->American general Norman Schwarzkopf, planned to soften the Iraqis with relentless bombing and then send in waves of ground troops and armor

---> On February 23, the land war, "Operation Desert Storm," began.  Lasting only 4 days, Saddam Hussein was forced to sign a cease-fire on February 27

Bush on the Home Front

--->President Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, prohibiting discrimination against citizens with physical or mental disabilities

---> In 1992, he signed a major water projects bill that reformed the distribution of subsidized federal water in the West

---> In 1990, Bush's Department of Education challenged the legality of college scholarships targeted for racial minorities

--->In 1991, Bush nominated conservative African American Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court.

--->By 1992, the unemployment rate had exceeded 7%, and the federal budget deficit continued to grow

Bill Clinton:   The First Baby-Boomer President

--->For the election of 1992, the Democrats chose Bill Clinton as their candidate (despite accusations of womanizing and draft evasion) and Albert Gore, Jr. as his running mate

--->The Republicans dwelled on "family values" and selected Bush for the presidency and J. Danforth Quayle for the vice presidency.

--->Third party candidate, Ross Perot entered the race and ended up winning 19,237,247 votes, although he won no Electoral votes

--->Clinton won the election of 1992, by a count of 370 to 168 in the Electoral College

--->Presidency Clinton placed in Congress and his presidential cabinet minorities and more women, including the first female attorney general, Janet Reno, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Donna Shalala, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the Supreme Court

A False Start for Reform

--->Octoober 1993, critics blasted it as cumbersome, confusing, and stupid, yhe previous image of Hillary as an equal political partner of her husband changed to a liability

---->In 1993, Clinton passed the Brady Bill, a gun-control law named after presidential aide James Brady, who had been wounded in President Reagan's attempted assassination

--->By 1996, Clinton had shrunk the federal deficit to its lowest levels in ten years

--->In July 1994, Clinton convinced Congress to pass a $30 billion anticrime bill

--->On February 26, 1993, a radical Muslim group bombed the World Trade Center in New York, killing six people

---> On April 19, 1993, a fiery standoff at Waco, Texas between the government and the Branch Davidian cult took place; it ended in a huge fire that killed 82 people

---> On April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh bombed a federal building in Oklahoma, killing 169 people.  By the time all these events had taken place, few Americans trusted the government

The Politics of Distrust

--->In 1994, Newt Gingrich led Republicans on a sweeping attack of Clinton's liberal failures with a conservative "Contract with America"

--->In the election of 1996, Clinton beat Republican Bob Dole

---> Ross Perot, the third party candidate, again finished third

Problems Abroad

--->Clinton sent troops to Somalia, but eventually withdrew them

--->Clinton committed American troops to NATO to keep the peace in the former Yugoslavia and sent 20,000 troops to return Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power in Haiti

---> He fully supported the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that made a free-trade zone surrounding Mexico, Canada, and the U.S

---> He also provided $20 billion to Mexico in 1995 to help its faltering economy

A Sea of Troubles

--->The end of the Cold War left the U.S. probing for a diplomatic formula to replace anti-Communism, revealing misconduct by the CIA and the FBI

--->Political reporter Joe Klein wrote Primary Colors, mirroring some of Clinton's personal life/womanizing

--->In 1993, White House councilman, Vincent Foster, Jr. apparently committed suicide, perhaps overstressed at having to (possibly immorally) manage Clinton's legal and financial affairs