Download George HW Bush

THE MODERN ERA
G.H.W. Bush
1989-93
George Herbert Walker
Bush
*Election of 1988
*George Bush
Representative from Texas
Head of the CIA
Vice President
*Bush would win the election
with the campaign promise
to continue Reagan’s
policies & a promise
not to raise taxes
“READ MY LIPS,
NO NEW TAXES.”
VS
Michael Dukakis
Harvard Law Graduate
Massachusetts
Governor
Massachusetts
Legislator
Domestic Policy
• Greatest domestic
challenge was to reduce
the growing budget
deficit
– Was able to cut spending
in the military because of
the end of the Cold War
– Agreed to increase
income tax on the
wealthy
– Never able to make a
significant reduction to
deficit
Civil Rights and Civil Unrest
• Recession was hard on young
African Americans.
• Riots erupted in Los Angeles
when a jury found policeman not
guilty of beating Rodney King,
enough though there was video
evidence
• 70 people were killed and
numerous business destroyed
• Riots highlighted the plight of
minorities and continuing racial
tension.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4
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Americans With Disabilities Act
of 1990
• Prohibited discrimination
against people with
disabilities in employment
and in public
accommodations
• Restaurants, hotels and
theaters had to install
accessible areas for those in
wheelchairs
• Employers had to make
special accommodations
wherever possible
Foreign Policy
Invasion of Panama (1989)
• General Manuel Noriega, Panama
• Declared war on the U.S. rather than succumb to U.S. drug
war pressure
• U.S. launched a successful lightning attack against Panama:
-protect U.S. citizens
-drug trafficking
-protect the Panama canal
-protect democracy & Panamanian human rights
• Bush came out as a hero.
*The Cold War Ends*
• 1989, with the fall of the
Berlin Wall (during
Reagan’s term)
• East & West Germany
reunited
• Soviet Union dissolves
and becomes the
Commonwealth of
Independent States
*Persian Gulf War
(Operation Desert Storm, Gulf War)
• August 1990, *Saddam Hussein, dictator of Iraq,
invaded Kuwait for territorial claims & oil
• The U.N. condemned the action & the U.S. forms a
coalition to oust Iraq from Kuwait
• Operation Desert Storm began Jan. 1991
• *Kuwait was liberated in 6 wks & coalition forces
pushed to within 150 mi of Bagdad before returning to
the border
• Did not oust
Saddam Hussein
Hawk Missile System
Preparing for “Dirty Bombs”
Colin Powell – first
African American to
hold the position of
Joint Chief of Staffs
Norman Schwarzkopf Commander of the
Allied Forces in
Desert Storm
The End of Sadaam Hussein, 2003
• Coalition forces invaded Iraq for a 2nd time, March
2003.
• Looking for WMD’s (weapons of mass destruction)
*Leader of
Iraq
Sadaam
Hussein,
deposed in
2004
Somalia
• Bush began a
humanitarian airlift of
food and supplies to wartorn Somalia in NE
Africa where millions of
people faced starvation
• Bush sent in U.S. troops
when local warlords and
bandits stole food and
threatened food
shipments
• Bush nominated a
conservative black judge to
the Supreme Court in 1991.
• Liberals & women were
angered.
• Won confirmation after
televised Senate hearings that
ignited public debate on the
issue of sexual harassment.