Chapter 24

Acting Out: George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton

IN THIS CHAPTER

Ending the Cold War, starting a war with Iraq: Bush

Generating prosperity and scandal: Clinton

This chapter covers two of the country’s more recent presidents — George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Together, the two of them would have made a potent combination, with Bush’s expertise in foreign affairs and Clinton’s ability to connect with the average voter. Unfortunately, they were each undermined by their weaknesses — Bush by his domestic policy weakness and Clinton by his personal weakness.

George H. W. Bush won the presidency in 1988 on the coattails of the Reagan revolution but disappointed both conservatives and liberals. He broke a campaign pledge when he raised taxes to cover an increasing deficit, and he pursued conservative social policies.

Bush’s major successes came in the area of foreign relations. He presided over the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, and he punished aggression in the Middle East by forcefully expelling Iraq from Kuwait with Operation Desert Storm. For his foreign policy accomplishments, he deserves credit. Bush is arguably one of the best foreign policy presidents in U.S. history. He loved foreign policy and excelled at it. But his domestic policies destroyed his presidency — especially his tax hike in 1991.

Bill Clinton, on the other hand, excelled in domestic politics. He gave the United States eight years of economic growth and prosperity. He disliked foreign policy, and this showed in unsuccessful endeavors in Somalia and Haiti. His second term was hamstrung by sexual scandals.

Bringing an End to the Cold War: George Bush

George H. W. Bush, shown in Figure 24-1, will go down in history as one of the great foreign policy presidents in U.S. history. During his administration, the Soviet Union collapsed and the Cold War came to an end. After almost 50 years of competition between the United States and the Soviet Union, the United States emerged victorious. Bush handled the liberation of Eastern Europe skillfully. Without his diplomatic skills, the reunification of Germany, divided since the end of World War II, would not have occurred so quickly. Bush added to his foreign policy success by implementing major arms control agreements with the Soviet Union, and later Russia, to reduce the threat of nuclear war in the world.

When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, Bush stood up to him, punished him for his aggression by defeating the Iraqi army, and liberated Kuwait, defending American national oil interests. Bush was a great foreign policy leader, indeed, and history will look kindly upon his presidency.

Courtesy of the Library of Congress

FIGURE 24-1: George Herbert Walker Bush, 41st president of the United States.

GROWING UP PROMINENT

George Bush was born into one of the most prominent families in the United States. He grew up in a wealthy family committed to civil service, and his parents instilled in him a sense of civic obligation. Bush was born in Massachusetts in 1924, but he grew up in Connecticut. His father was a prominent Wall Street lawyer who later served two terms in the U.S. Senate.

Young Bush attended the best schools and was ready to go to Yale when World War II broke out. He enlisted in the navy in 1942 and became a torpedo bomber pilot. While serving his country, Bush became one of the youngest and most distinguished pilots of World War II. He flew more than 50 bombing missions against Japan.

In 1944, his plane was shot down by the Japanese. Bush survived hours in the Pacific Ocean before a U.S. submarine rescued him.

Bush returned home in late 1944. He married Barbara Pierce, the daughter of a magazine publishing magnate — her father published Redbook and McCall’s magazines — in 1945. Bush also returned to Yale, graduating in 1948 with a degree in economics.

Instead of relying on his family connections in the Northeast, Bush moved to Texas to make a life of his own. He started a business producing oil-drilling equipment. Within a few years, Bush was a millionaire.

George Bush was just the second sitting vice president in more than 150 years to win the presidency — Martin Van Buren was the first in 1836. Bush was also the second sitting vice president in history to lose reelection — again, Martin Van Buren was the first in 1840.

Bush’s early political career

Like his father, Bush was a moderate Republican. In 1962, he became the chairman of the Republican Party in Harris County (Houston), Texas. A couple of years later, Bush thought he was ready to run for office. His father had been a senator, so Bush figured he should be one, too. He ran against incumbent Democrat Ralph Yarborough in 1964 and lost. However, he gained the attention of the Republican Party by receiving a record number of votes for a Republican in Texas. Former vice-president Richard Nixon took Bush under his wing, and in 1966, Bush became the first Republican to represent Houston in the House of Representatives.

Bush’s career in Congress was a distinguished one. He pushed to give 18-year-olds the right to vote, and he pushed to abolish the military draft. In 1970, Bush ran for the Senate one more time. This time he faced Lloyd Bentsen. Again he lost the race for the Senate. President Nixon, still seeing a lot of potential in Bush, came to the rescue by appointing Bush ambassador to the United Nations.

Gaining a wide variety of experience

From 1971 to 1977, Bush served in a lot of government positions, including

• Ambassador to the United Nations (1971–1973): In this position, Bush gained knowledge of foreign affairs and established many personal ties. These ties came in handy during his presidency.

• Chairman of the Republican National Committee (1973–1974): In this function, Bush raised money for the Republican Party and was forced to defend President Nixon to the public.

  Bush came to believe that Nixon was guilty in the Watergate scandal. In 1974, Bush actually sent his mentor a letter asking him to resign.

• U.S. Envoy to China (1974–1975): In this position, Bush laid the foundation for establishing diplomatic relations between the United States and China, which was accomplished in 1979.
• Head of the CIA (1976–1977): As the head of the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), Bush had to defend the agency to Congress many times. He is widely credited for restoring trust and prestige to the CIA.

With the Democrats winning the White House in 1976, Bush’s public career was over for the time being. So he turned his attention to the big prize — the presidency.

Becoming vice president

In 1980, Bush ran for the Republican presidential nomination — he was the only real challenger to Ronald Reagan. He ran as a moderate, pointing out his differences with the more conservative Reagan. In the campaign, Bush even referred to Reagan’s economic agenda as “voodoo economics.”

When Reagan won the nomination, he selected Bush to be his running mate. Bush had to promise to support Reagan’s policies, even if he disagreed with them.

President Reagan believed strongly in delegating authority, which made Bush a very active player in the Reagan administration. Bush attended all cabinet meetings and defended Reagan’s policies in speeches he gave throughout the country and around the world. His world travel gave him more foreign policy connections.

At home, Bush was put in charge of the task forces on terrorism and drugs. Bush was involved in the Iran-Contra scandal, but he denied any wrongdoing and was later cleared of all charges.

Running for the presidency one more time

In 1988, Bush was the frontrunner for the Republican nomination. He easily beat a challenge by Senator Robert Dole of Kansas. Bush benefited from the fact that Reagan had retired as one of the most popular presidents in U.S. history. Reagan actively campaigned for Bush, and Bush promised to continue Reagan’s policies. Bush promised the U.S. public that, as president, he would preside over a “kinder, gentler America,” where especially the poor would benefit. At the Republican convention, he further pledged not to raise taxes, saying “The Congress will push me to raise taxes, and I’ll say no, and they’ll push, and I’ll say no, and they’ll push again and I’ll say to them, ‘Read my lips, no new taxes.’” — a promise he later had to break.

The 1988 campaign got nasty. Bush, trailing in the polls, attacked his Democratic opponent, Michael Dukakis, the governor of Massachusetts, by accusing him of being soft on crime. Bush also highlighted Dukakis’s plan to make cuts in the military and attacked him for supporting the right to burn the U.S. flag. Bush’s negative attacks worked. He won 54 percent of the vote and carried 426 electoral votes to Dukakis’s 111.

President George Herbert Walker Bush (1989–1993)

Unlike Reagan, Bush was a hands-on president. He showed up early for work, and he deeply immersed himself in decision making. This work ethic showed especially in the area of foreign affairs, where Bush had many major accomplishments. However, Bush wasn’t nearly as successful in domestic policy.

Excelling in foreign policy

Foreign policy was Bush’s great love, and he excelled at it. His major foreign policy accomplishments include

• The invasion of Panama: In December 1989, President Bush ordered the invasion of Panama. The Panamanian dictator, Manuel Noriega, was actively involved in drug smuggling, and he nullified a democratic vote that he had lost. The murder of a U.S. marine by Noriega’s forces was the last straw that prompted Bush to invade the country with 24,000 U.S. troops. The troops captured and removed Noriega from office in January 1990. He was brought back to the United States for trial. Noriega was subsequently tried in the United States in April 1992, convicted of drug trafficking, and incarcerated.
• German unification: President Bush played an active role in convincing Soviet president Gorbachev to allow Germany, which had been divided since 1945 (see Chapter 17), to reunify in 1990.
• START I (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty): This treaty, ratified in 1991, reduced U.S. and Soviet nuclear arsenals. The number of nuclear warheads was cut to 8,500 for the United States and 6,500 for the Soviet Union.
• The Understanding on Nuclear Arms Reduction Resolution: This resolution, signed in 1992, further reduced the nuclear arsenals of the United States and Russia (after the collapse of the Soviet Union). The new numbers were 3,500 warheads for the United States and 3,000 for Russia.

• The end of the Cold War: With the collapse of the Soviet Union in late 1991, the United States had won the Cold War. It was the only remaining superpower. Bush proceeded slowly, trying not to antagonize Russia, and assured Russia economic aid.

  Bush was also actively involved in the liberation of Eastern Europe from Soviet control. He advocated a slow, cautious transition and extended economic aid to the new democracies in Eastern Europe.

• The Gulf War: In 1990, Saddam Hussein, the leader of Iraq, invaded neighboring Kuwait. Kuwait holds some of the largest oil reserves in the world, and it neighbors U.S. ally Saudi Arabia. Bush was afraid that Saudi Arabia would be Iraq’s next target. Bush created an international alliance sanctioned by the United Nations, including such unlikely allies as the Soviet Union and many Arab countries, to punish Iraq.

Having problems at home

President Bush’s foreign policy successes lifted his approval rating to an astonishing 91 percent, the highest ever for a sitting president. He seemed to be a shoo-in for reelection in 1992, but domestic problems interfered. Bush wasn’t nearly as successful with domestic politics as he was with foreign policy. His problems at home included:

• The deficit: By 1989, the budget deficit had risen to $350 billion annually. The overall budget deficit reached $3.2 trillion — the highest it had ever been. In 1991, the Bush administration, together with Congress, increased taxes to reduce the deficit.
• The collapse of the savings and loan industry: President Reagan and Congress deregulated the savings and loan industry in 1982. This freed institutions to engage in risky speculation, and many institutions were mismanaged. By 1989, approximately 1,000 savings and loan businesses had collapsed or were on the verge of collapsing. The government had to step in and spend an estimated $500 billion to bail these industries out so that millions of Americans didn’t lose their savings.

Finding some success with domestic policy

The Bush administration succeeded in some areas of domestic policy. The following are some of the most notable successes:

• The Americans with Disabilities Act: This act made it mandatory for government installations, businesses, and public places to eliminate any physical obstacle that handicapped citizens may be facing. For example, elevators had to be installed in all government facilities.
• The Clean Air Act: This act provided higher standards for air quality.
• NAFTA (The North American Free Trade Agreement): Bush proposed NAFTA in 1991. It eliminated most tariffs between the United States, Canada, and Mexico, and made provision for eligible Latin American countries to join at a later date. Congress stalled the agreement until President Clinton signed it in 1993.

President Bush appointed the second African American justice to the Supreme Court. (The first was Thurgood Marshall, who was appointed by President Johnson in 1967.) In 1991, he appointed Clarence Thomas, who narrowly won confirmation in a bitter Senate battle.

OPERATION DESERT STORM

Operation Desert Storm — the liberation of Kuwait — began on January 17, 1991, and lasted just a few weeks. On February 27, 1991, United States marines liberated Kuwait City, the capital of Kuwait. Iraq was defeated, and the war was over. The allied alliance lost fewer than 200 soldiers, while Iraq lost 100,000 soldiers.

Kuwait was free, but Hussein was still in power. Bush knew that removing Hussein would anger his Arab allies and destabilize the Persian Gulf region, allowing Iran to take over the region. Bush is still widely criticized for his decision not to remove Hussein from power in Iraq.

Losing reelection in 1992

President Bush fully expected to win reelection in 1992. He had many great foreign policy successes, and he thought that would be good enough. In addition, he was opposed by a Democratic governor, with a lot of personal baggage, from a small state.

But what ultimately cost Bush the election was a third-party candidate, H. Ross Perot, a billionaire from Texas. Perot siphoned off conservative votes and won almost 20 percent of the total vote. Studies show that almost two-thirds of all Perot voters would have voted for Bush had Perot withdrawn.

During the candidate debates, Bush seemed disinterested. On election night, he lost badly, receiving only 37 percent of the popular vote and 168 electoral votes. The Democrat, Bill Clinton, won the presidency with 43 percent of the popular vote and 370 electoral votes.

Retiring and advising

George H. W. Bush left office in 1993 and moved back to Houston, Texas. When asked about his greatest success as president, Bush replied, “By the grace of God, America won the Cold War.”

Bush’s proudest moments involved his sons. In 1994, his son George W. Bush became governor of Texas, and in 1998, another son, Jeb, won the governorship of Florida. Then, Governor George W. Bush became president in 2001.

When Jeb Bush was elected governor of Florida and George W. Bush was reelected in Texas, it marked only the second time in U.S. history that a pair of brothers became governors. Nelson (New York, 1959–1973) and Winthrop (Arkansas, 1967–1971) Rockefeller were the others.

George H. W. Bush supported every Republican nominee for president until 2016. He refused to endorse or campaign for Donald J. Trump and after the election admitted to voting for Hillary Clinton.

In 2005, former Presidents Bush and Clinton worked together to collect aid for the victims of hurricane Katrina. The two hit it off and became close friends. They would play golf together, travel the world, and Bush would refer to himself as the father Clinton never had.

George H. W. Bush died on November 30, 2018, at the age of 94.

Scandal Amid Domestic Policy Success: Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton, shown in Figure 24-2, is one of the most controversial U.S. presidents in history. He achieved great successes in domestic policy and was the first Democrat to be elected to two terms since Franklin Roosevelt.

Clinton single-handedly transformed the Democratic Party, moving it to the center of the political spectrum. He effectively used the media to communicate with the public. He was also a wizard at campaigning.

Clinton could have been considered a great U.S. president if it had not been for the many scandals involving him and his administration. From the Whitewater financial scandal to his affair with intern Monica Lewinsky, which got him impeached by the House of Representatives but not convicted in the Senate, to Pardongate — the money-for-pardons scandal that marred his last days in office and beyond — Clinton’s terms seemed to be full of scandals.

Courtesy of the Library of Congress

FIGURE 24-2: Bill Clinton, 42nd president of the United States.

OVERCOMING THE ODDS

Bill Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe, IV, in Hope, Arkansas, in 1946. His father, a traveling salesman, was killed a few months before his birth. His mother remarried, and Bill took his stepfather’s last name, Clinton. His stepfather was an alcoholic who frequently beat his wife and the two boys (Bill and his stepbrother, Roger). At the age of 14, Clinton stood up to his stepfather and threatened him. The violence stopped.

Clinton was an excellent student and very active in school politics — he ran for so many offices that the principal finally told him that he’d held enough offices. He was also an avid saxophone player. He won first prize in a statewide contest and started a band with two friends called the “Three Blind Mice.”

In 1963, the American Legion’s Boys Nation Program selected Clinton to travel to Washington to meet President Kennedy. After this meeting, Clinton made up his mind to enter politics. To this end, he attended Georgetown University and graduated with a degree in international affairs in 1968.

After graduating from Georgetown, he received a Rhodes scholarship to travel and study at Oxford University in Great Britain. At Oxford, he protested the United States involvement in the ongoing war in Vietnam. Clinton knew that he wouldn’t have to serve in Vietnam because he had a very high number in the draft lottery.

In 1970, Clinton received a scholarship to study law at Yale, where he met his future wife, Hillary Rodham. They shared the same political views, and both worked for George McGovern during his 1972 presidential campaign.

Clinton graduated in 1973 and moved back to Arkansas to teach law at the University of Arkansas. Hillary Rodham joined the faculty in 1974 and married Clinton in 1975.

Clinton’s early political career

In 1974, Clinton ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. He figured the timing was good, with the Republican Party discredited by Watergate. He faced incumbent Republican congressman John Paul Hammerschmidt and nearly won, receiving 48 percent of the vote.

Clinton’s near-upset brought him to the attention of the Arkansas Democratic Party. The party saw him as an up-and-coming politician and nominated him for attorney general in 1976. Clinton easily won the race. In 1978, the governor of Arkansas, David Pryor, ran for the Senate, leaving the governorship open. Clinton won the election for the governorship and became the nation’s youngest governor at the age of 32.

Governing Arkansas — Part 1

When Clinton took over in Arkansas, the state was in shambles. It ranked low in national rankings of income, education, and standard of living. Clinton wanted to change all that.

Clinton needed money to improve education and the Arkansas infrastructure, so he implemented a tax increase. As an environmentalist, Clinton opposed the tree-harvesting practices of Arkansas’s largest employers — paper companies. His tax increase and opposition to tree harvesting made him widely disliked in the state and led to his defeat when he ran for reelection in 1980.

Clinton wasn’t discouraged. He learned from his mistakes and was ready to run again in 1982. He apologized to the people of Arkansas for the mistakes he made during his first term and won the election with 55 percent of the vote. He governed Arkansas for the next ten years, winning reelection three more times.

Governing Arkansas — Part 2

Clinton became one of the most successful governors in the United States. In 1986, Newsweek magazine ranked him the fifth-best governor in the country, and in 1991, he was ranked the best governor by his fellow governors.

As governor, Clinton pushed for education reform, job growth, and the inclusion of minorities in state government. He increased taxes to help pay teachers higher salaries, provided poor students with scholarships, and changed the high-school curriculum in Arkansas to emphasize hard sciences, such as mathematics and physics. As a result of Clinton’s programs, the graduation rate in Arkansas increased, and tests showed that Arkansan children were learning much more and much better than they had been.

Clinton also pushed for laws to make Arkansas attractive to large businesses. This strategy worked: Many businesses moved to Arkansas to take advantage of cheap, skilled labor and tax breaks.

Running for president in 1992

Clinton had announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination in October 1991, starting his path to the presidency. He was active in the Democratic Leadership Council, a group of moderate Democrats trying to impact national politics through progressive policies. This group provided him with the political foundation and issues necessary to run for the presidency, though he still faced an uphill battle to win the Democratic presidential nomination. He was helped by the fact that many prominent Democrats sat out the 1992 election, believing that President Bush was unbeatable.

By the spring of 1992, Clinton had emerged as the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, which he easily received that summer.

He ran his campaign as a New Democrat, conservative on many social issues, such as the death penalty, which he supported. He based his campaign solely on domestic issues, knowing that Bush was stronger on foreign policy. Clinton emphasized the weakening economy and promised a turnaround. He advocated a tax cut for the middle class, promised to reduce the deficit, and called for a cut in defense spending. Most importantly, he advocated healthcare reform and welfare reform.

During his campaign, Clinton had to overcome personal attacks involving a long-lasting relationship he had with an Arkansas state employee and nightclub singer, Gennifer Flowers. Clinton and his wife appeared on the television show 60 Minutes to defend their marriage and ask the media and the public to respect their privacy. The strategy worked. Clinton’s affair didn’t become an issue in the 1992 campaign.

Clinton excelled in the candidate debates and went on to beat Bush in November. An independent candidate, H. Ross Perot, helped Clinton by draining votes from Bush. At 46, Clinton became the third-youngest president in U.S. history and the first president born after WWII.

President William Jefferson Clinton (1993–2001)

Clinton assumed office in January 1993, saying in his inaugural address, “There is nothing wrong with America that can’t be fixed with what is right in America.”

Clinton was ready to implement reforms quickly. However, one of his first proposals almost destroyed his presidency. Clinton proposed legislation lifting the ban on homosexuals serving openly in the military. The military, the Republican Party, and many Democrats were incensed and opposed to the plan. This opposition, combined with the public’s negative reaction to the change in policy, forced Clinton to back down. A compromise was struck. A don’t ask, don’t tell policy was put in place. In other words, superiors cannot ask whether a serviceperson is homosexual, and gays and lesbians in the military cannot openly admit to their sexual orientation.

Succeeding at home

Clinton achieved major domestic successes, giving the U.S. economy eight years of unprecedented growth. Clinton’s successes include the following:

• Reducing the federal deficit: When Clinton assumed office, the budget deficit had reached $290 billion. To combat the deficit, Clinton passed a major tax increase in 1993, which together with spending cuts was supposed to reduce the deficit by $500 billion over the next five years. By 1997, the federal government ran a surplus of $70 billion, the first surplus since 1969. The surplus was available to pay off the country’s national debt, which topped $5 trillion.
• The Crime Bill: This bill put more police officers on the street to help reduce crime. It also banned assault weapons and implemented controls on handgun purchases.
• The Family and Medical Leave Act: This act, passed in 1993, provided new parents with an unpaid 12-week leave. It also included similar leaves for people caring for sick relatives or recovering from serious illness.
• AmeriCorps: This new program allowed students to perform community service to finance college or repay student loans.
• Welfare reform: In 1996, Bill Clinton initiated major welfare reform. The bill limited lifetime welfare benefits to five years and required able adults on welfare to go back to work after being on welfare for two years.
• The 1997 tax cut: Clinton kept his 1992 campaign promise when he signed a major tax cut into law in 1997.
• Safe Drinking Water Act: This act, passed in 1996, improved the quality of drinking water by tightening the standards of the Clean Water Act, passed in 1977 to regulate water pollution nationwide. Under the act, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can set water quality standards to assure safe drinking water for the U.S. public.

Failing with healthcare

One of Clinton’s major campaign promises was to reform the healthcare system in the United States. To fulfill this promise, Clinton appointed his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, as the leader of a task force. This task force, entitled the Presidential Task Force on National Healthcare Reform, had the job of coming up with a way to restructure the U.S. healthcare system.

The task force’s plan was more than 240,000 words long and contained provisions that would obligate businesses to provide medical insurance for their employees. Opponents — primarily insurance companies, other businesses, and Republicans — criticized the plan as too complicated and charged that it gave the federal government too much control over medical care. The opponents launched a successful public relations effort to get the public on their side. With the public opposed to it, the task force’s plan was never even submitted to Congress.

Losing Congress in 1994

By 1994, Bill Clinton had become an unpopular president. His support for the rights of homosexual military personnel and his failed healthcare plan created resentment, especially among white male voters. These voters turned out heavily in 1994 and voted for Republican congressional candidates.

The Democrats lost both Houses of Congress for the first time since the Eisenhower era. Clinton faced a hostile Congress and its new Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich. Gridlock resulted: The Democratic President and Republican Congress battled each other to a standstill on most issues.

In late 1995 and early 1996, the federal government was shut down twice because Congress and the president could not agree on a budget. The Republicans wanted to cut spending for Medicare and educational and environmental programs, while the president planned to increase spending in these areas. Republicans paid a bitter price for this conflict in the 1996 elections, receiving the blame for shutting down the government.

During the summer of 1996, Clinton and Congress did reach agreement on increasing the minimum wage and reforming the welfare system.

Winning reelection in 1996

In 1996, President Clinton ran against Republican senator Robert Dole of Kansas. Dole desperately tried to make Clinton’s character a campaign issue, but he was unsuccessful. With the economy doing well, the voters were happy with Clinton’s performance. He won reelection easily with 49 percent of the popular vote and 379 electoral votes. Dole, on the other hand, received 41 percent of the popular vote and 159 electoral votes. Third-party candidate H. Ross Perot ran a distant third, winning only 8 percent of the vote.

Dealing with foreign policy

During the Clinton presidency, many foreign policy crises took place. With Clinton specializing in domestic policies, it was clear that foreign policy wasn’t as important to him. The major events included:

• NAFTA (The North American Free Trade Agreement): Clinton’s predecessor, George H. W. Bush, laid the foundation for NAFTA before he left office (see “Having problems at home” earlier in this chapter for the details). Many in the United States, especially labor unions, feared that NAFTA would take jobs away from U.S. workers because people could buy cheaper foreign goods and companies could move to Mexico to take advantage of cheap labor. Clinton went against many in his own party and pushed for passage of the agreement in 1993.
• Somalia: Clinton inherited the mess in Somalia from his predecessor, George H. W. Bush. Bush sent troops to Somalia to protect United Nations food deliveries. President Clinton increased U.S. troops and attempted to restore order in the country, which was torn by civil war. In 1993, 18 U.S. soldiers had been killed, and by 1994, the troops were recalled.

• Haiti: In 1991, a military coup ousted democratically elected president Aristide. By 1993, thousands of Haitians tried to flee to the United States, and Clinton acted. He demanded that President Aristide be returned to power. The Haitian military refused, and Clinton sent troops.

  Before military personnel reached Haiti, a peace delegation headed by former president Jimmy Carter reached an agreement to restore Aristide to power.

• The bombing of U.S. embassies in Africa: In 1998, al Qaeda (see Chapter 25) bombed U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing hundreds. Clinton ordered missile attacks against Sudan and Afghanistan, the two countries harboring al Qaeda.
• The Dayton Peace Accords: These accords, reached in 1995, settled the conflict in Bosnia by dividing the country into three parts, with each faction in the conflict — Croats, Serbs, and Bosnians — controlling one part.

• The attack on Yugoslavia: By 1998, Serbian troops were committing genocide, or mass murder, in the province of Kosovo, inhabited by ethnic Albanians. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and President Clinton initiated strikes against Serbia in the spring of 1999. By the summer of 1999, Yugoslavia had agreed to the presence of United Nations peacekeeping forces in Kosovo.

  In 2000, a democratic rebellion toppled the communist leader of Yugoslavia, settling the crisis for good.

All the president’s scandals

Scandals surfaced throughout the Clinton presidency. The most famous of these include

• The Whitewater affair: In 1993, a financial dealing the Clintons had in Arkansas became an issue for the Clinton presidency. The Clintons were involved in a land-development deal in Arkansas in 1978, called the Whitewater Development Corporation. When the deal went sour, the Clintons lost a chunk of money, as did their business partners. Later, these partners, James and Susan McDougal, opened a small savings and loan. The savings and loan went under in 1989; it was later bailed out by the federal government. President Clinton was accused of using his position as governor of Arkansas to help out his former business partners.

  A federal investigation, headed by independent counsel Kenneth Starr, filed no charges against the Clintons. But the Clintons’ former business partners, the McDougals, and the governor of Arkansas, Jim Guy Tucker, were convicted of wrongdoing.

• The Paula Jones case: In 1994, Paula Jones, a former secretary for the state of Arkansas, accused President Clinton of sexual harassment. The case was at first dismissed, but Jones appealed it. Rather than go to court, Clinton paid her $850,000 to drop the case.

• The Lewinsky affair: During the Paula Jones case, lawyers became aware of a rumor that President Clinton was having an affair with one of his interns, 24-year-old Monica Lewinsky. In early 1998, President Clinton denied the affair under oath. Evidence later contradicted his testimony.

  Ms. Lewinsky admitted to the affair and stated that Clinton told her to lie in front of a grand jury — a criminal offense.

  In August 1998, the President appeared in front of a grand jury and admitted the affair — contradicting his earlier testimony. A few days later, the president apologized for the affair and admitted to the U.S. public that he had lied.

  In December 1998, the House voted to impeach President Clinton on two charges — obstruction of justice and perjury (lying under oath). The Senate, however, failed to muster the two-thirds majority needed to convict and remove Clinton. Clinton’s presidency was saved, and he served out his term. (For an explanation of the impeachment process, turn to the “How to get impeached” sidebar in Chapter 11.)

Bill Clinton was the first elected U.S. president to be impeached in the House of Representatives. The two other presidents to be impeached by the House were Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln after Lincoln’s assassination, and Donald Trump, who was acquitted by the Senate.

Leaving under a cloud

Throughout the impeachment hearings, much of the public stood behind Clinton. While they disapproved of his behavior and his character, they approved of his politics.

Clinton served out the last two years in office enjoying an ever-expanding economy. By 1999, the budget surplus grew to $123 billion, and it looked as if the federal deficit could be paid off by 2002 — a feat that hadn’t been accomplished since Andrew Jackson’s time in office.

Democratic nominee Vice President Al Gore didn’t ask Clinton to campaign for him in 2000 because he didn’t want to be tied to Clinton’s scandals. Clinton and others later blamed this decision for Gore’s eventual loss.

Clinton campaigned heavily for his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who won a Senate seat in the state of New York, where Clinton was very popular. Hillary Rodham Clinton is the first “first lady” to win a seat in the U.S. Senate.

Clinton retired to New York after the 2000 elections to write his memoirs and oversee the construction of his presidential library in Arkansas.

His scandals followed him into retirement. Right before leaving office, President Clinton granted pardons for criminal convictions to 141 people, some of them major donors to the Democratic Party. “Pardongate” further tarnished Clinton’s reputation, even though he was eventually cleared of all wrongdoing.

Since leaving office, Bill Clinton has been actively involved in Democratic politics. He raises funds for the party and actively campaigned for his wife Hillary Clinton in both the 2008 and 2016 presidential elections. He also teamed up with former president George H. W. Bush to establish the Bush-Clinton Katrina fund. After a devastating earthquake hit Haiti in 2010, he teamed up with another former President, George W. Bush, to raise money. Together, the two raised over $54 million for the country.

In 2010, Bill Clinton became vegan after having continuous heart problems. He had quadruple bypass surgery in 2004 and subsequently had two coronary stents put into coronary arteries encircling his heart in 2010.