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George H.W. Bush Policy Chronology
Issues/Policy Timelines:
Invasion of Panama
Gulf War
Cold War End Game Diplomacy
Economy
Biographies:
William Bennett, Federal Drug Czar
James Baker, Secretary of State
Brent Scowcroft, National Security Adviser
James Lilley, U.S. Ambassador to China
1989
January 20
George H. W. Bush is inaugurated as the forty-first
President.
Inaugural address available at:
http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/, via “Research” and
“Public Papers.”
February 6
President Bush, at a White House press conference,
introduced his bail-out plan for troubled savings and
loans banks. His complex plan provided for a sale
of $50 billion in government bonds to finance the
bail-out of failed banks, and gave the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) regulatory
oversight over S&Ls.
Press conference announcing the plan available at:
http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/, via “Research” and
“Public Papers.”
March 14
The Bush administration, at the urging of federal
drug czar William Bennett, announced a temporary
ban on the importation of semi-automatic rifles, a
reversal of President Bush’s earlier statements that
no restriction on these firearms would be enacted.
March 24
In the worst oil spill on American territory, the
Exxon Valdez supertanker ran aground in
southeastern Alaska. The tanker dumped 240,000
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barrels of oil into the surrounding waters and caused
extensive environmental damage.
April 17
President Bush offered a program of special
assistance for Poland, whose communist
government had agreed to negotiations with the
opposition party Solidarity that produced a plan for
free elections. Elections were held in August, 1989,
which led to the end of single-party rule in Poland.
Speech, “Remarks to Citizens in Hamtramck,
Michigan, April 17, 1989, at:
http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/, via “Research” and
“Public Papers.”
June 4
The People’s Liberation Army, the military arm of
the Chinese government, used tanks and armored
cars to suppress a burgeoning pro-democracy
movement that had encamped in Tiananmen
Square, Beijing, China. Estimates on the number of
demonstrators killed vary between 700 and 2,700.
June 5
In the wake of the Tiananmen Square massacres,
President Bush announced a number of
condemnatory actions, including the suspension of
the sale of American weapons to China.
Press Conference, June 4, at:
http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/, via “Research” and
“Public Papers.”
National Security Archives, briefing book on the
Tiananmen crisis, especially documents 12 through
29.
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsaebb/nsaeb16/ind
ex.html
August 9
President Bush signed into law the Financial
Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement
Act of 1989, a compromise with Congress on the
bail-out of savings and loans. This law differed
from President Bush’s February 6 proposal by
financing the bail-out from the Treasury
Department, and not a bond sale. It offered $166
billion worth of aid to troubled savings and loans
institutions and created a new government body, the
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Resolution Trust Company, to oversee the merger
or liquidation of troubled banks.
Bill signing ceremony, August 9, at:
http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/, via “Research” and
“Public Papers.”
November 9
The Berlin Wall fell, marking the symbolic end of
communism in eastern Europe and the Cold War.
November 17
President Bush signed the Fair Labor Standards
Amendments of 1989, which by April 1991 would
raise the minimum wage to $4.25 an hour. The law
was a significant victory for Bush over
congressional Democrats, who in the spring of 1989
passed a bill that raised the minimum wage to
$4.55, which President Bush vetoed on June 13.
Veto message of June 13 and comments at the
November 17 signature ceremony,
http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/, via “Research” and
“Public Papers.”
November 21
President Bush signed a new anti-drug law that
provided over $3 billion for expanded anti-drug
programs, including treatment facilities, federal
prison expansion, education, and law enforcement.
December 2-3
President Bush and Soviet President Mikhail
Gorbachev hold their first meeting of Bush's
presidency in the harbor of Valetta, Malta to
discuss nuclear disarmament and the
strengthening of Soviet-American trade
relations. Both leaders announced that the Cold
War was effectively over.
[COLD WAR TIMELINE]
December 20
American armed forces invade Panama to
capture Manuel Antonio Noriega, the country’s
military dictator. Noriega, who had been
indicted in the United States on drug trafficking
charges, surrendered on January 3, 1990. On
April 9, 1992, Noriega was convicted on drug
charges and sent to prison.
[PANAMA TIMELINE]
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1990
June 1
At a summit meeting in Washington, D.C.,
President Bush and Soviet President Mikhail
Gorbachev signed the broadest arms reduction
agreement in two decades. The agreement provided
that the United States and the Soviet Union would
scrap 25% and 40%, respectively, of their nuclear
stockpile.
June 26
President Bush, in a written statement released
to the press, reneged on his pledge from the 1988
presidential campaign of “no new taxes” by
stating that in order to solve the deficit problem,
tax revenue increases might be necessary in the
federal budget for the 1991 fiscal year.
Statement at the Bush Library via
http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu
[ECONOMY TIMELINE]
July 26
President Bush signed the Americans with
Disabilities Act, which affected over 43 million
Americans, and forbade discrimination in
employment, public accommodations, and
transportation.
August 2
Iraq invaded Kuwait. President Bush strongly
condemned Iraq's actions, setting the stage for
an American response.
[GULF WAR TIMELINE]
October 3
Seven months after East Germans overwhelmingly
approve re-unification, the two German states were
formally reunited.
October 22
President Bush vetoed the Civil Rights Act of 1990,
stating that the bill would “introduce the destructive
force of quotas into our nation's employment
system.”
Veto message available at the Bush Library via
http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/.
November 5
President Bush signed a budget law intended to
reduce the federal budget by almost $500 billion
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over the next five years. The law included $140
billion dollars in new taxes.
[ECONOMY TIMELINE]
November 8
President Bush increased the number of
American troops in Saudi Arabia to 400,000.
[GULF WAR TIMELINE]
November 15
President Bush signed the Clean Air Act of 1990,
which tightened air pollution standards, with the
goals of reducing urban smog, cutting acid rain
pollution by one-half, and eliminating industrial
emissions of toxic chemicals by the end of the
century.
November 19
The United States, Canada and twenty other
European nations signed the Conventional Forces in
Europe Treaty (CFE). The CFE limited NATO and
Warsaw Pact weapons holdings and capped the
American troop presence in Central Europe at
195,000.
November 29
President Bush signed the Immigration Act of 1990,
the most extensive revision to immigration law in
more than a half century. The new law allowed for
the admission of 700,000 aliens each year.
1991
January 15
The Persian Gulf War, code-named Operation
Desert Storm, began with a massive, Americanled air attack on Iraq.
[GULF WAR TIMELINE]
February 24
Ground troops, including a large contingent of
American soldiers, began operations in
Operation Desert Storm.
[GULF WAR TIMELINE]
February 27
After liberating Kuwait, coalition troops
advanced rapidly into Iraqi territory,
encountering no resistance. President Bush,
deciding that the war’s objectives had been met,
called off the ground offensive.
[GULF WAR TIMELINE]
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July 10
President Bush lifted most American sanctions
against the Republic of South Africa, saying that the
movement to end apartheid was now “irreversible.”
Press conference at http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu.
July 31
President Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev met in
Moscow to sign a nuclear arms reduction treaty
(START-I) that calls for both nations to make
significant reductions in the number of nuclear
warheads in their respective arsenals.
October 15
Clarence Thomas, President Bush’s nominee to
replace retiring Justice Harry A. Blackmun on the
Supreme Court, was confirmed by the Senate in a
close 52-48 vote. Thomas’ confirmation hearings
focused on charges of sexual harassment made by
Anita F. Hill, a black law professor.
November 21
President Bush signed the Civil Rights Act of 1991,
which made it easier for employees to sue
employers on grounds of discrimination.
Comments upon signing the act at
http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu.
December 31
The constituent republics of the Soviet Union
dissolved the Union of the Soviet Socialist
Republics.
1992
January 10
The Labor Department announced that
unemployment rose to 7.1% in December 1991,
the highest mark in over five years.
Department of Labor collection of labor statistics
available at http://data.bls.gov/cgibin/surveymost?lf.
[ECONOMY TIMELINE]
February 1
At the presidential retreat at Camp David,
Maryland, President Bush and Russian
President Boris Yeltsin met to discuss U.S.-
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Russia relations and officially declared the end
of the Cold War.
[COLD WAR TIMELINE]
February 18
President Bush won the New Hampshire primary,
but faced a strong challenge from conservative
media personality Patrick Buchanan. The
conservative wing of the Republican Party
supported Buchanan, revealing a division in the
party.
April 1
President Bush announced an aid plan of $24
billion to help the development of democracy
and a free market economy in the former Soviet
Union.
[COLD WAR TIMELINE]
May 23
The United States signed agreements with
Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan that
ensured these nations’ participation in the
nuclear arms reduction treaties singed by the
USSR before its collapse in late 1991.
[COLD WAR TIMELINE]
June 12
Speaking at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, President Bush announced that the United
States would not sign a treaty designed to protect
rare and endangered animals and plants, saying that
it would retard the development of technology and
the protection of ideas. The U.S. did sign the
Framework Convention on Climate Change aimed
at preventing further global warming.
June 16
President Bush and President Yeltsin announced
an agreement by which the United States and
Russia would reduce their nuclear warheads to
between 3,000 and 3,500 by the year 2003.
[COLD WAR TIMELINE]
June 22
President Bush signed a supplemental
appropriations act that provided aid to inner cities,
specifically Los Angeles, which was trying to
recover from the riots of April, 1992.
July 3
President Bush signed the Unemployment
Compensation Amendments of 1992, which
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extended coverage for the unemployed for 26
weeks, after their initial 26 weeks of benefits had
expired. The Labor Department announced the
previous day that the unemployment rate had
reached 7.8%, its highest level since 1984.
August 19-20
The Republican Party nominated President George
Bush for a second term as President. The party also
re-nominated Vice-President Dan Quayle. There is
some evidence that the Bush team had considered
replacing Quayle on the Republican ticket.
See The Presidency of George Bush by John Robert
Greene for a full account of the 1992 race.
Transcript of Bush’s acceptance speech at
http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu.
November 3
Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, a Democrat, was
elected President after defeating President Bush and
Ross Perot, an independent from Texas. Clinton
won 43% of the vote and 370 Electoral College
votes, to Bush’s 38% and 168, and to Perot’s 19%
and 0.
December 9
American troops landed in Somalia as part of the
UN-sponsored “Operation Restore Hope.” The
humanitarian mission’s first goal was to ensure the
distribution of food and medical aid and supplies to
suffering Somalis. Somalia had been wracked by
starvation, drought, and violence.
1993
January 20
President Bush and his wife Barbara flew home to
Houston, Texas.
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Sources
1.
Carruth, Gorton. The Encyclopedia of American Facts and Dates. 10th ed. New
York: HarperCollins, 1997.
2.
Grenville, J. A. S. A History of the World in the Twentieth Century. Vol. 2.
Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 1997.
3.
Howard, Michael, and Wm. Roger Louis, editors. The Oxford History of the
Twentieth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
4.
Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George Bush, 1992-1993.
Book 1. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1993. (also 1989, 1990, 1991)