GeorgeH.W.Bush

In the 1988 presidential

campaign, the Republicans

nominated George Bush, Ronald Regan’s Vice

President.

Bush touted Reagan’s record and made it his own:

- Strong on defense

- Tough on crime

- Anti-Abortion

- “Read my lips: No new taxes.”

After a host of other candidates

fell by the wayside, the Democrats nominated

Massachusetts governor Michael

Dukakis.

After eight years of Reagan, the Democrats believed they had effective ammo to defeat four more.

- Both the gap between rich and poor, and the U.S. debt had exploded under Reagan

- A banking crisis was growing brought on by bad decision making and risky loans

- Stock market panic in October 1987 (Black Monday)

- Iran-Contra and corruption

In April, 1989 protestors took the the streets of Beijing, China focusing their protest at Tiananmen Square.

They demanded economic reforms and more freedom throughout China.

On June 4, 1989 the Chinese government sent in the army to end the protests.

Several hundred to several thousand protestors were killed.

Many in America wanted the U.S. government to condemn the

crackdown and place economic and diplomatic

sanctions on China.

President Bush refused. Why?

In Dec. 1989 Bush ordered the U.S. army to Panama.

The goal was to capture the leader of the nation and head of the military Gen. Manuel Noriega.

- Wanted on charges of drug trafficking.

- The U.S. was to turn control of the Panama Canal over to Panama Jan, 2000.

More important things were happening in the Soviet Union.

We’ve already established some important things:

1. The Soviet economy wasn’t good.

2. Regan’s plan to bankrupt the Soviet Union was working.

3. Mikhail Gorbachev had proposed both glasnost and perestroika.

4. The communist states of Eastern Europe depended upon help from Moscow to maintain control.

The call for glasnost and perestroika

awakened a spirit of nationalism and

independence in the nations of the Eastern

European Iron Curtain.

If the economy of the Soviet Union was

terrible, the economies of the Communist Bloc

nations were even worse.

Gorbachev knew the USSR could not support

these ailing Eastern European economies.

He also knew that if popular unrest

turned into popular revolt, the

Soviet military would be

financially unable to help as they had done in 1956 and

1968.

He ordered a large troop

pullback from the region and

warned the leaders of the

Communist Bloc nations to adopt reforms.

Without Soviet support, the communist

governments of Eastern

Europe collapsed

beginning in 1989.

Nowhere was this more important than in Berlin.

The Berlin Wall remained a repressive symbol of Soviet communism.

To calm rising protests in East Germany, the government opened the gates of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989.

Thousands of East Berliners poured into West Berlin.

People pulled down the razor wire and spontaneously began ripping down the wall with axes and sledgehammers and their bare hands.

Beginning in 1990, states of the Soviet Union itself began declaring their independence.

In 1991 Gorbachev resigned as

leader of the Soviet

Union which essentially ceased to exist as a country.

Russia, the largest state of the Soviet Union, inherited power, problems, nuclear weapons, etc. from the U.S.S.R. but would never have as

much power or influence.

The Cold War was over.

America was blown away! Overnight, our enemy for over four decades was gone.

The end of the Cold War left the nation with some nagging questions:

- Who was in control of the Soviet nuclear arsenal? (Russia mostly)

- What would happen to the people of the many new independent nations?

- What would happen to the U.S. economy? (Why was this a question?)

In 1991 alone, the Defense Dept. closed 34 military bases and slashed billions of $ from the

budget. More cuts followed.

On August, 2 1990 Iraq, under

the leadership of Saddam Hussein,

invaded the nation of Kuwait.

Between 1980 and 1988, Iran and Iraq

were at war, largely over

religious issues.

The 8 year war was brutal for both sides and resulted in little land lost or gained. What it did result in was

massive debt for Iraq.

Iraq owed over $14

Billion to the small, oil

rich country of Kuwait.

In hopes of not having to pay

this debt, amongst other

things, Iraq invaded Kuwait

on August 2, 1990.

Saddam Hussein believed that the rest of the

world would not interfere.

However, the invasion of

Kuwait was very disturbing to

the U.S. Why?

The U.S. economy depended upon oil

imported from Saudi

Arabia.Iraq owed the

Saudis $26 Billion from

their war with Iran.

President Bush was very concerned that Iraq would also invade Saudi Arabia.

To prevent that from happening, he asked the Saudi government for permission to station U.S. troops in

Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi government accepted America’s help. The U.S. military launched Operation Desert

Shield on August 7, 1990.

Bush then put together a coalition of 50 countries and

the U.N. that contributed to the defense of Saudi

Arabia, while plans were crafted to push Iraq out of Kuwait.

Operation Desert Storm was finally launched January 16, 1991.

American forces were led by Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf who laid out a very effective plan:- Six weeks of heavy bombing of targets in Iraq.

- A rapid ground invasion into Kuwait and southern Iraq.

- Ground war lasted 100 hours.

Bush, Schwarzkopf, Joint Chiefs Chairman Colin Powell, and Sec. of Defense Dick Cheney were all seen as heroes.

However, President Bush

refused to invade deep into Iraq, or remove Saddam Hussein

from power. Why?

At home Bush’s record was far more mixed:

- Many applauded his approval of the Clean Air Act and the American’s with Disabilities Act, both in 1990.

- He opposed Affirmative Action

- Despite his campaign pledge, he signed a $133 billion tax increase in 1990.

In 1991, Bush nominated Clarence Thomas to replace Thurgood Marshall on the Supreme Court.

- Democrats and liberals did not like him.

- He was against affirmative action and abortion.

As the Senate moved towards a vote on his

confirmation, accusations of sexual

harassment were made against

Thomas by Anita Hill.

After televised hearings into the accusations, the Senate voted to confirm Thomas 52-48.

By 1992, Bush was ready to run for re-election.

As he did so, he had one problem that was more important than all the rest:

“It’s the economy stupid.”

Fin.