XVI. The United States Since 1968
Learning Objective:
Understand the election of 1968.
By early 1968 the debate over the American involvement in Vietnam
was beginning to tear the country apart. The February Tet offensive
by the North Vietnamese seriously discredited the Johnson administration
which had been claiming that the war would soon be over with
an American victory. Eugene McCarthy, a Democratic Senator from
Minnesota, entered the presidential 1968 contest as an anti-war
candidate. Thousands of students rushed to New Hampshire, site
of the first presidential primary, to help McCarthy. Even though
Johnson won, McCarthy's vote was great enough that Johnson realized
that his re-election was seriously threatened. A few weeks later,
on March 31, 1968, President Johnson went on national television
to announce that he would not run for re-election.
With Johnson's withdrawal, Vice President Hubert Humphrey entered
the race for the Democratic party presidential nomination. He
had an immediate edge on McCarthy since the party professionals
favored him and he was an old favorite of the labor movement
and minorities, groups to whom he had devoted his career. However,
Humphrey was so closely associated with Johnson's Vietnam policy
that the anti-war movement would not accept him. With the withdrawal
of Johnson, Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York also entered
the race. Kennedy threatened both McCarthy and Humphrey. His
antiwar record was excellent and he maintained contacts with
the party professionals and labor leaders on whom Humphrey was
counting. In addition, he had strong Hispanic and black support.
But, on June 6, the night he won the California Democratic primary,
Kennedy was murdered by a Palestinian Arab who resented the
senator's sympathy for Israel.
The assassination demoralized the antiwar Democrats and helped
lead to protests at the Democratic party convention in Chicago.
The police responded violently, clubbing and arresting hundreds
of antiwar demonstrators. After Kennedy's death, Humphrey easily
won the Democratic nomination (Senator Edmund Muskie from Maine
was the Democratic Vice Presidential nominee).
Richard M. Nixon won the Republican nomination. After his defeat
in 1960 to John Kennedy, Nixon had run for governor of California
— he had been soundly defeated and it looked like his political
career was over. Yet, he continued to work hard to firm up his
support within the Republican party. He attended every local
Republican function to which he was invited, no matter how small.
By making himself so available to the party's grass-root workers,
Nixon built up energetic, active cadres of supporters. Governor
Spiro T. Agnew of Maryland was picked as Nixon's vice-presidential
running-mate.
George Wallace, governor of Alabama, also threw his hat into
the ring as the American Independent party candidate. Wallace
attempted to forge an alliance of conservatives and racists
who believed that both parties were too liberal. Wallace knew
that he could not win the election. His purpose was to take
just enough electoral votes from both Humphrey and Nixon to
throw the election into the House of Representatives. Because
each state had one vote in selecting the president, segregationist
southern congressmen under his leadership could make a deal
with one of the presidential candidates.
The election was very close. Nixon received 31.8 million votes
(43.4% of the total), against 31.3 million for Humphrey and
9.9 million for Wallace. The margins were greater in the electoral
college: 301 for Nixon, 191 for Humphrey, and 46, all in the
Deep South, for Wallace.
Learning Objective:
Understand the election of 1972 and the Watergate crisis.
By 1972, Nixon had greatly reduced American involvement in
Vietnam and his Secretary of State, Henry Kissenger, had promised
the American people that "peace was at hand" in Vietnam.
In addition, mainstream Americans looked favorably on the administration's
opening up relations with Communist China and reducing tensions
with the Soviet Union. Inflation, which had been running as
high as 14% a year, had been reduced to around 3% a year. And,
the Nixon presidency was seen as a stabilizing influence in
society. Many Americans were tired of the "excesses"
of the 1960s — draft and civil rights disturbances, "free-love,"
drug use, women's liberation, hippies — the entire counter
culture scene was very disturbing to many Americans; Nixon played
upon people's fears and frustrations.
The Democrats on the other hand, had reorganized the system
by which they selected convention delegates. They guaranteed
minimum representation to minority groups, young people and
women. The people who gathered at the 1972 Democratic convention
formed the youngest convention in political history and reflected
the values of their generation. They nominated George McGovern,
senator from South Dakota, and an outspoken critic of the Vietnam
war as their candidate. McGovern selected Thomas Eagleton, senator
from Missouri, as his running mate. A couple of weeks after
the convention the press discovered that Eagleton had undergone
psychiatric treatment (including electric shock treatment for
severe depression) several years earlier. At first McGovern
defended Eagleton "1000%." But then he turned on him
and forced him to drop out of the race. McGovern then had the
embarrassing task of having several top Democrats turn him down
when he asked them to replace Eagleton. Finally, Sargent Shriver,
JFK's brother-in-law, and ex-head of the Peace Corps, agreed
to take the second place spot on the Democratic ticket, but
the damage had already been done.
The Republicans featured McGovern as the "candidate of
acid, amnesty and abortion." To vote for George McGovern
was to vote for sin, and Nixon won easily with 60.8% of the
popular vote. He carried the electoral vote of every state except
Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. The Democrats did
manage to hold on to wide margins in Congress.
On June 17, 1972, early in the presidential campaign, Washington,
DC police arrested five men who were trying to plant electronic
listening devices in the Democratic Party National Headquarters
in the Watergate office complex in Washington, DC. Three of
the suspects had White House contacts and were on the payroll
of the Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP) — the other
two were Cuban exiles who had worked for the CIA. McGovern tried
to exploit the break-in during the campaign, but Nixon diffused
the issue by claiming that no one on his staff had any knowledge
of the break-in, and that it was just a "third rate burglary."
Nixon had probably not know about the break-in in advance, but
when he learned of it the next day he immediately order his
staff to cover up the incident and to pay the burglars hush
money.
After the election new and disturbing information came to light.
During the two years after the break-in, the term Watergate
came to describe a series of illegal or immoral acts involving
President Nixon and his associates. Among them were:
Nixon was already reeling when it was revealed that Vice President
Agnew had accepted bribes when he was governor of Maryland and
Vice President. To avoid prosecution, Agnew pleaded no contest
to charges of income-tax evasion and resigned from the vice
presidency in October 1973. Under the 25th amendment to the
Constitution (adopted in 1967) Nixon appointed the Republican
minority leader of the House of Representatives, Gerald R. Ford,
Vice President.
Several of the Nixon's top aides were indicted, and later sent
to jail. During the judicial process it was learned that Nixon
had made secret voice tapes of conversations that took place
in the Oval Office. The judge handling the case demanded that
President Nixon release the tapes which figured in the cases
before his court. Nixon, claiming executive privilege, refused.
Finally, in July 1974 the Supreme Court ordered Nixon to turn
the tapes over. This decision forced Nixon to release transcripts
of conversations which showed that he knew about, and tried
to cover up, the break-in. Moreover, the tapes indicated that
Nixon had lied about his role in the cover-up. They also damaged
his support by showing that Nixon used racial slurs and that
he cursed profusely.
In October 1973, the House of Representatives ordered the House
Judiciary Committee to begin impeachment proceedings against
President Nixon. On July 27, 1974 the Committee recommended
that the House impeach Nixon for obstruction of justice in the
Watergate case. The televised hearings of this committee had
a profound effect in turning public opinion against Nixon. By
the summer of 1974, only about 25% of the electorate approved
of his presidency.
Nixon realized that the game was up and on August 8, 1974 he
resigned from the presidency. Gerald Ford, the first person
to become President who had not been elected to the presidency
or vice-presidency, took office the next day. In September President
Ford pardoned former President Nixon for all the crimes that
he committed during his presidency. Nixon received until his
death in 1994, as do all past presidents, a government pension
of about $100,000 a year.
Learning Objective:
Understand the presidencies of Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy Carter.
A major crisis of the Ford administration was the OPEC oil
embargo of 1973. Americans, while only about 6% of the world's
population, consumed 33% of the world's annual production of
oil—39% of all that oil was imported (in 1990 it was 50%).
In October 1973, in response to American support of Israel during
its war with Syria and Egypt earlier in the month, the Arab
nations levied a temporary embargo on oil exports and announced
the first of a series of big jumps in the price of oil. The
price of a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. quickly jumped from
30 cents to nearly $2.00 a gallon.
The giant rise in oil prices fed inflation which by 1974 reached
12 percent per annum. The Ford administration persuaded the
federal reserve board to reduce the money supply in order to
help control inflation and the result was the most serious recession
since World War II — unemployment climbed to 9%. Ford was stymied
by the same vicious circle that caught up his predecessor and
successor: slowing inflation meant throwing people out of work;
fighting unemployment meant inflation; trying to steer a middle
course meant "stagflation," mild recession plus inflation.
Jimmy Carter, came out of nowhere to win the Democratic nomination
in 1976. His political career consisted of one term in the Georgia
assembly and one term as governor. But, through adroit political
maneuvering, Carter was able to win enough primary elections
to garner the Democratic nomination. Carter ran as an "outsider"
to the political establishment, which, after the manipulations
to the system by Johnson and Nixon, was exactly what people
wanted. Ford lost a close election to Carter because of his
pardon of Nixon and the nation's poor economic condition.
Carter will probably go down in history as one of our worst
presidents. Even though the Democrats had large majorities in
Congress, Carter either refused, or did not know how, to work
with them. Inflation reached almost 20 percent by 1980. Between
1970-1980 the value of the dollar declined by half. Relations
with the Soviet Union deteriorated. When the Soviet Union invaded
Afghanistan in 1979 to support a Soviet sponsored regime against
anti-Communist rebels, Carter cut-off U.S. grain exports to
the Soviet Union (thus greatly angering American farmers), stopped
discussion on the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT-II),
and refused to allow American athletes to participate in the
1980 Moscow Olympics. None of these actions had any impact on
Soviet policy — they continued to stay in Afghanistan, they
bought their wheat from other countries, they built many more
missiles. They retaliated to Carter's Olympic boycott by not
allowing their athletes to participate in the 1984 Los Angeles
Olympics.
While Carter did achieve some diplomatic successes (the peace
treaty between Israel and Egypt, and the Panama Canal Treaty)
the steadily worsening economy would have probably doomed his
reelection chances in 1980. As it was, the Iranian hostage crisis
sealed his fate. In 1951 Iran had nationalized its petroleum
industry. But, Iran was unable to produce and market oil in
the face of an international boycott organized by the expropriated
oil companies. The country became poorer and political disturbances
more serious until in 1953, with the help of the CIA, the Shah
dismissed the prime minister and took total control of the country.
He then gave the oil industry back much of what it had lost
in 1951. The U.S. immediately provided an emergency grant of
$45 million to the Shah.
To keep control, the Shah gave his secret police (the SAVAK)
almost unlimited power. Through arbitrary arrests and the torture
of prisoners, it made many enemies for the Shah's government.
The average Iranian was extremely poor, yet a small group of
friends of the Shah lived in absolute luxury. The U.S. supported
the Shah since the U.S. government wanted Iran's oil and the
Shah was seen as a buffer against Soviet expansion into the
region. The oppression by the Shah caused riots to break out
in late 1977 and early 1978. In both cases a number of people
were killed when the army fired into mobs. These deaths triggered
further mass demonstrations in the capital city of Tehran and
elsewhere in spite of official bans. Massacres of demonstrators
by the Shah's troops ended all pretense that there was broad
popular support for him, and the bloodshed united opposition
groups in the single goal of ridding the country of the monarch
once and for all.
After months of confusion and strikes, with oil production
and exports halted and the economy in chaos, the Shah finally
left the country on January 16, 1979. The Ayatollah (an Ayatollah
is an Islamic scholar and holy man) Khomeini, who had been living
in exile in Paris for the preceding 15 years, took control of
the government. On April 1, 1979 the Islamic Republic of Iran
was proclaimed. In October, despite warnings from the embassy
in Teheran that his action could lead to reprisals against Americans
in Iran, President Carter admitted the Shah to the United States
to get medical treatment for cancer.
A few days later, a group of Iranian students seized the American
embassy compound and took fifty Americans hostage. For more
than a year, American public opinion was centered on the crisis.
Nightly news broadcasts signed-off with "and this is the
220th day of captivity for the hostages." The ABC news
program "Nightline" began as a program that did nothing
else except cover the Iranian hostage crisis. President Carter
knew that unless he solved the hostage crisis he was doomed
to defeat in the 1980 presidential election. In April, 1980
he sent an ill planned and ill conceived rescue mission into
Iran to try and rescue the hostages. The helicopters carrying
the American commandos became disoriented in a desert sand storm,
and during a refueling stop on the floor of the Iranian desert,
a helicopter and a cargo plane collided, killing eight soldiers.
The mission was canceled before it hardly began.
The Republican party had long been split between "liberal"
and "conservative" wings. In the election of 1980
the conservative wing won and the Republicans nominated Ronald
Reagan for president. Reagan was an ex-movie actor and a successful
two term governor of California. Reagan had almost taken the
nomination away from Gerald Ford in 1976 and he had strong support
from conservative special interest groups. Reagan easily defeated
Carter in November and he passed the word to the Iranians that
he would take drastic action if the crisis was not resolved
before he took office. The deposed Shah had died in Egypt on
July 27th and this removed the Iranian fear that the U.S. might
try to reinstate him in Iran. The hostages were released on
inauguration day, January 20, 1981.
Learning Objective:
Understand the United States under the presidency of Ronald
Reagan.
A fundamental goal of the Reagan presidency was to overhaul
the basic programs of the New Deal. Reagan wanted to reduce
the involvement of the federal government in social programs
and increase the amount of money spent on defense; he was successful
in both attempts (in 1986 the government spent about $172 billion
on nondefense discretionary spending — a cut of 20% between
1980 and 1986 in constant dollars. The defense budget was $300
billion in 1988 — an increase of more than 100% between 1980
and 1988).
A major objective of the Reagan administration was to do away
with the progressive income tax that had been instituted by
FDR during the New Deal. Through a series of tax laws culminating
with the 1986 "tax reform" act, and by setting a governmental
climate of pro-business and anti-labor (the firing of the Air
Traffic Controllers for their illegal strike exemplifies this
attitude), the Reagan presidency created a significant change
in American policy. Average real hourly earnings for American
employees declined about 6% from 1972 to 1987. The real median
income of families in the U.S. dropped (in consistent 1984 dollars)
from $28,200 in 1973 to $26,433 in 1984. Meanwhile, the percent
of total net personal wealth controlled by the wealthiest 1%
of households increased about 25% between 1968 and 1988. They
controlled approximately 40% of the nation's personal wealth.
Their average net personal worth was more than $5 million per
household. In sharp contrast, the average annual income of the
poorest 20% of the nation's families dropped (in 1984 dollars)
from $9,136 to $7,297 during the decade of 1973-1984. Even the
upper middle class was not doing that well, during the same
decade the top fifth of the nation's families average annual
income fell from $68,278 to $66,607.
Corporate wealth also become more concentrated. The largest
200 corporations now control roughly 60% of the assets of all
industrial corporations—a 10% growth since the early 1950s.
In Germany and Japan managers and administrators make up about
4 to 5% of total private employment. In the U.S. these corporate
bureaucrats make up about 12% of total private employment, and
they tend to earn at least twice the compensation of their Japanese
equivalents. In 1984 the CEO of IBM made $200,000 and his secretary
made $25,000 (a ratio of 10 to 1), in 1996 the CEO made $2 million
and his secretary made $50,000 (a ratio of 40 to 1).
The tax bill of 1986 drastically reduced the top income-tax
rate from 50 to 28%. This reduction gave a select group of Americans
— 390,000 taxpayers making over $200,000 a year — reductions
averaging $50,000 apiece in their federal taxes. This adds up
to nearly $20 billion. It would have been enough revenue to
make a real dent in the federal deficit and it was more than
twice what the government spent every year on its basic welfare
programs. It was roughly ten times what the bill devoted to
tax relief for the millions of poor families with incomes of
$10,000 or less. These 390,000 beneficiaries were the taxpayers
in the top bracket who were not using tax shelters that were
scaled back or eliminated by changes in the 1986 law. Other
high income taxpayers lost proportionately when their tax shelters
were eliminated. Even so, the wealthiest gained the most from
the 1986 tax bill in terms of after-tax income. For people who
made above $200,000 a year, the tax bill provided an average
dividend of $2,856—compared with about $200 for families on
the middle of the income ladder. In addition, higher social
security taxes, actually raised the tax burden of most Americans
during the Reagan years.
For years the country has been consuming more than it produces,
making up the difference by borrowing from abroad. At the end
of 1996 the U.S. national debt was $5 trillion—interest on
this debt was around $200 billion a year. Our foreign investment
deficit had reached $1 trillion. At this level, interest and
other payments to foreigners exceed $50 billion a year, or 1%
of the G.N.P. The United States attempted to work itself out
of this dilemma by devaluing the dollar and reducing the cost
of goods made in the U.S. and sold abroad. The lower dollar
boosted exports, but it did not reduced imports (which cost
more and therefore increased even more the country's foreign
debt). Between 1985-1987 the dollar's value fell against major
foreign currencies by 50%, and imports actually increased. Most
of the large corporations in America contract out a large portion
of their parts and labor to lower-cost foreign manufacturers.
This trend will not be reversed easily. So, even when consumers
"buy American" they tend to increase the country's
foreign debt. There is really only one way to reduce imports
and that is to reduce consumer demand. Unfortunately reduced
consumer demand leads to recession and recent experience shows
that this is not a popular political platform to run on.
One way to solve our economic problems is to reduce the nation's
military spending. The U.S. spends about 6% of its G.N.P. on
defense (about 25% of the national budget), compared with around
3% for Europe and 1% for Japan. With the collapse of the Soviet
Union, a debate has begun over how much can be cut from the
military and how to spend the savings. Many congressmen refuse
to cut defense spending because of the defense jobs in their
district.
In 1984 Reagan easily won re-election by defeating Carter's
vice president Walter Mondal. Mondal's running mate was New
York congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro. She was the first woman
ever named to a national party ticket. In 1991 Reagan was shot
and wounded by an potential assassin. His courage and demeanor
during and after the incident increased his stature among the
public.
In foreign affairs Reagan called the Soviet Union the "Evil
Empire." To protect the U.S. from a Soviet Missile attack
he initiated the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), or as it
was commonly known — Star Wars. This antiballistic missile
attack program cost tens of billions of dollars with little
tangible results. In October 1983 The U.S. invaded the Caribbean
island of Grenada to oust a pro-Communist government (18 Americans
died). The United States increased aid to the conservative government
of El Salvador to aid it in its fight against left-wing rebels.
In 1983 Reagan sent the Marines to Lebanon as part of an effort
to stabilize the region. Terrorists drove a truck loaded with
explosives into the Marine barracks early one morning, killing
241 of the Marines.
Reagan, through the CIA, gave large sums of money to support
the Contras ("those against" in Spanish) who were
fighting the left-wing Sandinista government of Nicaragua. Increased
ties with Communist bloc nations and the expropriation of property
strained Nicaraguan relations with the U.S.. In the spring of
1981 the Reagan administration suspended all aid to Nicaragua
and the State Department accused the Sandinistas of aiding the
leftist guerrillas in El Salvador. In 1982, U.S. backed guerrillas,
the Contras, composed primarily of supporters of the deposed
Nicaraguan dictator Somoza, attacked government outposts from
bases in Honduras. In response, the Nicaraguan government declared
a state of siege. Opposition political activities were banned,
most constitutional guarantees were suspended, and censorship
imposed on the news media.
According to President Reagan, Nicaragua was "a Soviet-supported
client state" that the U.S. had to oppose in order to prevent
a red tide from sweeping over the Western Hemisphere. In 1989
the Soviet Union supplied Nicaragua with $750 million in aid.
In 1986 a impassioned debate broke out in the United States
as to whether the U.S. should continue to give military aid
to the Contras. The U.S. Congress voted to give $100 million
in "humanitarian" aid to the Contras. The discovery,
in late 1986, that members of the President's staff were illegally
diverting money from the sale of arms to Iran (in return for
Iran freeing western hostages in Lebanon) to the Contras confused
the issue even more than before.
In 1988, Latin and Central American countries, led by Costa
Rican President Oscar Arias, urged the U.S. to halt aid to the
Contras and back a negotiated settlement in Central America.
The six year war had cost Nicaragua 60,000 casualties and created
an estimated 350,000 internal refuges. The Iran-Contra scandal
caused American and Congressional opinion to swing away from
supporting the Contras and the Reagan administration agreed
to suspend its covert military operations in Nicaragua.
The Nicaraguan economy was devastated by the war. These problems
were exacerbated by the October, 1988 hurricane that hit the
country. The resulting damage may have exceeded the damage of
the 1972 earthquake. One-third of college-educated professionals
had fled Nicaragua by the end of 1988 along with hundreds of
thousands of less educated citizens. The economic collapse (caused
in large part through U.S. efforts) led President Ortega in
February, 1989 to sign a joint declaration with the four other
Central American Presidents to hold free elections in February
1990 (although the victors did not take office until January,
1991). The collapse of the Soviet Union ended aid from that
country to Nicaragua. The election of February, 1990 produced
a stunning upset when the National Liberation Front was decisively
defeated and Violeta Chamorro, the leader of the 14 party National
Opposition Union (UNO), was elected president. With the end
of the Cold War and the defeat of Ortaga, the U.S. lost interest
in Nicaragua.
Americans tend to seek the middle ground. The vast majority
of us are neither right nor left wing extremists. The Iran-Contra
Affair of 1986-87 weakened the Reagan White House. The two men
directly responsible for the affair (LTC North & Admiral
Pondexter) were convicted of violating the laws of Congress.
Evidence that Reagan consulted an astrologer before making major
decisions, and that he often did not know what was going on
in his administration have reduced his stature since he has
left office. ("The battle for the mind of Ronald Reagan
was like the trench warfare of World War I; never have so many
fought so hard for such barren terrain." — Reagan speech
writer Peggy Noonan).
Learning Objective:
Understand the U.S. during the presidency of George Bush
In the presidential election of 1988 the Democrats nominated
Michael Dukakis, governor of Massachusetts and the Republicans
nominated George Bush, Reagan's vice president. After a slow
start, hurt by the selection of Dan Quayle as his vice presidential
candidate (Quayle had used family influence to join the National
Guard during the Vietnam War and he was perceived as an intellectual
light-weight), Bush and his advisors ran a masterful campaign.
In the election Bush emphasized the factors that had won the
Republican party the presidency in every election, but one,
since 1968: anti-Communism; conservative social issues (limited
access to abortion, being tough on crime and drugs, the pledge
of allegiance, the death penalty [during the final televised
debate the first question asked Dukakis was if would he still
oppose the death penalty if his wife, Kitty, had been raped
and brutally murdered — when Dukakis said "yes" Bush
had the election sewn up]); subtle racism (the Willie Horton
commercial blasted Dukakis for allowing a black convict to be
furloughed from prison — Horton raped a white women while out);
and, "read my lips: no new taxes." Bush easily won.
During the Reagan years the United States relations with the
President of Panama, Manuel Noriega had deteriorated. For years
Noriega had been playing a double game. He accepted United States
money ($1.2 million during the 1980s) for intelligence information,
a pro-American stand, and for not interfering with the operation
with the Panama Canal. On the other hand, he also fed intelligence
information to Cuba's Castro, he allowed aid to the rebels in
El Salvador and to the Communists in Nicaragua to travel freely
through Panama, and Panama became a major transfer point for
Latin American drugs traveling to the rest of the world. Noriega
was paid for all of these activities.
On May 7, 1989 Panama held elections and neutral observers
reported that Guillermo Endara won the election by a 3-1 margin.
Noriega refused to give up power and on May 10th he annulled
the election, claiming that "obstruction by foreigners"
had made the election meaningless. Noriega had his "Dignity
Battalions" break up protests in Panama City over his decision
and Endara was severely beaten by Noriega's thugs. President
Bush denounced the election and called for Noriega to resign;
he also sent 2,000 additional troops to Panama. The OAS condemned
the election abuses by Noriega and called for a "peaceful
transfer to democracy." On October 3, 1989 a coup attempt
against Noriega failed and the leader of the coup was killed.
The United States had actively participated in the coup, but
had refused to commit troops at the last minute.
On December 15, Panama's National Assembly voted unanimously
in naming Noriega "maximum leader" of Panama and the
members declared that Panama was in a "state of war"
with the U.S. During the next few days several incidents occurred
in which an American soldier was killed and several Americans
were harassed and beaten-up. Shortly after midnight on December
20, 1989, 11,000 troops from the U.S., along with 13,000 already
stationed in Panama, invaded Panama. An additional 2,000 troops
joined the forces on December 22 to help restore order. Noriega
took refuge in the Vatican embassy until he surrendered on January
3. After his surrender he was flown to the United States were
he stood trial, and was convicted, for drug trafficking. Endara
was sworn in as president on the day of the invasion. Casualties
were reported as 24 American soldiers and 139 Panamanian (probably
higher). Civilian casualties were probably in the hundreds but
are unknown.
American objectives in the invasion of Panama were to remove
Noriega from power, reduce the drug traffic flowing through
Panama, and to support U.S. interests in Central America. The
OAS censured the U.S. use of force and in the UN Security Council
the U.S. had to veto a resolution critical of its action. Domestic
reaction was generally favorable. Evidence in early 1994 indicated
that other drug traffickers have replaced Noriega and the drug
traffic through Panama has not slowed down.
On August 2, 1990, Iraq, led by the military dictator Saddam
Hussein, invaded and occupied Kuwait. Kuwait had been pumping
more oil than it was allocated under OPEC quotas, and had driven
down oil costs, greatly hurting Iraq which needed revenue to
pay for the expenses that it had occurred during the eight year
long Iraq-Iran War. Iraq was a nation of 18 million people in
an area slightly larger than California. With Kuwait, Hussein
controlled 20% of the world's oil.
With a one million man army, the fourth largest in the world,
Iraq represented a major conventional power a the beginning
of the Persian Gulf conflict. In 1988 during the last major
battle of the Iran-Iraq war, Hussein's troops had killed 65,000
Iranians. Favored in that war by the U.S. government as the
"lesser of two evils," Hussein was shipped extraordinary
amounts of sophisticated military equipment — supplied mostly
by the USSR, Great Britain, and France.
The U.S. and the UN condemned Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and
demanded its immediate withdrawal. General Norman Schwarzkopf
was named commander of Operation Desert Shield, the code name
for the defensive phase of the Gulf War, and a naval blockade
of Iraq was mounted and all shipments of Iraqi oil were halted.
The UN set a January 15, 1991 deadline for Iraq to leave Kuwait.
When it refused to do so, the coalition forces began a massive
bombing campaign called Operation Desert Storm. By war's end
more bomb tonnage had been dropped on Iraq than had been dropped
by U.S. forces during all of World War II. At the same time
thousands of American, Egyptian, Syrian, French, British and
other troops moved to Saudi Arabia. At the height of battle,
some 500,000 American troops were deployed to the Gulf.
After six weeks of Allied bombing, half of Iraq's front-line
army had deserted. On February 24, 1991 the Allied ground campaign
began and it met with little resistance. The fighting ended
after 100 hours on February 27. 390 Americans died in the war,
with an additional 458 wounded in action. Other allied nations
had 510 casualties. Iraq suffered an estimated 10,000-12,000
deaths during the air war, and about 10,000 Iraqis were killed
during the ground war. Iraq was forced out of Kuwait, and its
freedom of action in future military and economic matters severely
restricted.
Learning Objective:
Understand the U.S. during the presidency of Bill Clinton.
In the 1992 election events at first favored Bush. Daniel Ortega
in Nicaragua allowed free elections to be held and when he lost
the national debate over Central America was effectively ended.
The Soviet Union, under Mikhail Gorbachev, liberalized its policies
toward the West, and then collapsed. The end of the Soviet Union
left Bush free to let the democratization and capitalization
of Eastern Europe take place without any fear of Communist retaliation.
Bush's strong response to the August, 1990 invasion of Kuwait
by Iraq, and the easy American victory in Operation Desert Storm,
brought the president's popularity to an all-time high. Political
commentators speculated that the Democrats would not even be
able to find someone to run against the President.
Things began to change in late 1991. The United States economy
underwent a severe economic recession. Many women were galvanized
into action when the Supreme Court ruled in 1989 that states
could restrict a women's right to an abortion. Women were further
incensed when Bush appointed Clarence Thomas, a black conservative
to the Supreme Court, and he was charged with sexual harassment
by Annita Hill. The Senate confirmation of Thomas helped regenerate
the women's movement.
The winding down of the Cold War weakened the Republican Party's
hard line anti-Communist stand. Because of the rising national
debt, Bush went back on his pledge not to raise taxes, but the
money raised did not go into social programs. Bush's aversion
to social legislation hurt social programs like education, housing,
and health care. In May, 1992 riots and looting broke out in
Los Angles in protest to a jury verdict that acquitted four
white policemen for beating a black motorist. Because of Bush's
apparent lack of concern over social problems, people began
to question his policies.
Concern over the environment began to increase and the Democrats
were perceived as the more activist party in this area. The
Savings and Loan crisis, brought on in large part because of
Republican advocated deregulation, cost the American taxpayer
$500 billion — when the magnitude of this cost hit home (in
the form of new taxes), it hurt Bush.
When the election was held in November, 1992, Saddam Hussein
was still in power in Iraq, Kuwait was still an absolute monarchy,
the national government did not have an energy policy to reduce
the country's dependence on foreign oil, and in retrospect,
the American victory in the Persian Gulf War did not seem as
splendid as it did to the American people in 1991.
Because a Bush presidential victory had seemed such a sure
thing after the Gulf War, many high powered Democrats decided
not to run for the Democratic presidential nomination. This
decision allowed the 47 year old governor of Arkansas, Bill
Clinton, to gain the Democratic nomination. Clinton selected
Tennessee Senator Al Gore as his running mate. Texas billionaire
Ross Perot also declared himself an independent candidate. His
candidacy helped Clinton because many frustrated Republicans
had someone to vote for and he took votes away from Bush. Perot's
major program was a plan to reduce the $5 trillion national
debt. In Clinton's campaign headquarters was a sign that said
"It's the economy, stupid." That was indeed the case.
A severe recession, the end of the Cold War, the gender gap,
frustration with "trickle down" economics, and Clinton's
masterful campaign allowed the Democrats to win the presidency
for the first time since 1976.
In Clinton's first two years of office the Democratic controlled
Congress passed a family leave act; a motor-voter act; a budget
that increased taxes on the wealthy, decreased taxes on the
poor, and reduced the rate of increase of the national debt
(zero Republican votes); the Brady Gun Control Act; a ban on
assault weapons, and, with the help of Republicans in Congress,
the North American Free Trade Agreement (strong labor opposition).
Clinton also proposed a major reform of the nation's health
care system that failed to pass Congress. In the off-year elections
of 1994 the Republicans gained control of both houses of Congress
for the first time since 1948.
With the Republican congressional victory many pundits again
wrote off Clinton. During a press conference one reporter even
asked him if he was "still relevant" in the political
process. Clinton played a masterful game. He moved toward the
political center, taking away many traditional Republican issues
(the signing of a "a welfare reform act" is an indication
of this move). The Congressional Republicans misjudged their
power, and the political climate, and in a fight over the budget
allowed the government to be shut-down twice.
In 1996 the Republicans nominated the 73-year-old Senate majority
leader Bob Dole for the presidency. The stock market was at
a record high, inflation was low, and the economy was booming.
Earlier in his presidency Clinton had sent the U.S. military
into Haiti and Bosnia as part of peacekeeping operations, and
both operations were perceived as successful by the American
public. Clinton's advocacy of a woman's right to have an abortion,
his appointment of women and minorities to high government positions,
his strong commitment to civil rights and social issues like
education increased the "gender gap" between Democrats
and Republicans, and also ensured him the vast majority of the
African-American and Hispanic vote. Clinton easily won the presidential
election and the Republicans kept control of Congress.
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Courtesy of George Burson, Aspen School District,
Aspen, Colorado.
