William Jefferson Clinton- American politician.
Bill Clinton was born August 19, 1946 in Hope. He hasn't seen his father since he died in a car accident while Bill's mother was still pregnant with him. At the age of 4, his mother remarried, and he took the surname Clinton from his stepfather. He graduated from school, where he was fond of jazz and played the saxophone in a local band. Then he began studying at Georgetown University and studying international relationships. He graduated in 1968 with a bachelor's degree.
Then he became the owner of a Rhodes scholarship and began studying at Oxford. After graduating from Oxford, he returned to America and began studying at Yale University, where he studied law and graduated in 1973. There he met his future wife Hillary. After graduating from university, he returned to his hometown and began working as a teacher at the law school at the local university until 1976.
In 1974, he first tried to run for congressman from his state as a Democrat, but lost. A year later he got married, and 5 years later he and Hillary had a daughter, Chelsea.
In 1976, he became the state's Minister of Justice and Attorney General, where he fought against state monopolies and their influence on government.
In 1978 he became governor of Arkansas, but next elections did not repeat the success, made a lot of efforts and in 1982 again became the governor of the state. In his second term, he brought in his wife, who became head of the government committee on reform of education standards.
In 1984, Clinton again remained in office, and in 1986 he repeated his success, thus becoming the first state governor to be elected four times in a row. In 1990, he remained in office again and became head of the Democratic Leadership Council. This organization was formed recently and served the idea of shifting the party's position to the center of politics. In 1991, Clinton ran for president of the country, and overtook his rival Perot, becoming the 42nd president of the United States.
During his tenure, he signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), negotiated the Dayton Peace Accords in the Balkans and the truce between Palestine and Israel. In 1993 he sent troops into Somalia, but failed.
In 1996, he again became president and served a second term.
At this time he became harsher towards foreign policy. While in office at this time, he advocated the expansion of NATO to include Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic. In 1998, after Iraq refused to cooperate with international weapons inspectors, he issued a decree to launch several air strikes across the country. In 1999, he carried out NATO operations against Yugoslavia, in June of this year he withdrew Yugoslav troops from Kosovo and sent peacekeeping forces UN and NATO.
During his tenure as president, he was involved in a number of scandals. Thus, in 1994 he was involved in the bankruptcy scandal of the Whitewater corporation, and in 1998 in a sex scandal regarding an intimate relationship between him and his intern Monica Lewinsky. In 1998, there was a scandal about the Troopergate case, in which former government employee Paula Jones also accused the president of harassment.
In 2000, he left his post with an appeal to the people with the words of his indicators.
After his presidency, he became the head and founder of a charity foundation to combat AIDS, childhood obesity, global warming and the like. In 2004, he published a book of memoirs, Mo's Life, which became incredibly popular.
In May 2009, Ban Ki-moon appointed him UN special envoy for Haiti. His wife continued to engage in politics, to which Bill responded with help. Hillary rose to become US Secretary of State and even thought about running for president.
Now Clinton is engaged in charity and social activities, visiting countries with public events. In 2005, with George W. Bush, he became the head of a charity campaign to raise funds for victims of Hurricane Katrina, and in January 2010, with him, he became the head of a fund to help victims of the earthquake in Haiti and donated more than $1 million to the country to rebuild schools, for which received the local National Order of Honor and Merit.
Bill Clinton's achievements:
Twice President of the United States
Under him, the unemployment rate, the country's external debt and the budget deficit decreased
Dates from the biography of Bill Clinton:
August 19, 1946 – born in Hope
1968-1973 – studies at Oxford, Georgetown and Yale
1976 – Arkansas Attorney General
1978-1990 – state governor
1992-2000 – President of the United States
2004 – book My Life
2009 - charity
Interesting Bill Clinton Facts:
Was the third child in the family
He is an honorary professor at Moscow State University.
Monument to former president erected in Kosovo
In 2010, he became Person of the Year for his beliefs in veganism.
Actively supported Obama
From his daughter Chelsea has a granddaughter Charlotte
At the age of 46, Bill Clinton became the 42nd President of the United States. Eight years of ruling the country had both positive and negative results for the country. Before reaching the country's political elite, Clinton worked for a long time in the political and administrative sphere, in general, living an ordinary life. Our review today features photographs of Bill Clinton before he took charge of his home country.
William Jefferson Clinton(William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton) was born on August 19, 1946 in Arkansas. It’s true that he received his surname Clinton only at the age of 15 - before that he bore the surname of his father Blythe, who died when the boy was only 4 years old. Basically, little Bill spent his childhood with his grandparents - they ran a grocery store and served not only white but also “colored” customers, which often resulted in conflicts with other residents of the city. However, it is believed that this became the basis for the understanding of racial equality, which later became one of fundamental principles Clinton's policies.
Bill's stepfather was an alcoholic, so Bill did not have to wait for money for education. Bill worked and studied, and even received increased scholarship thanks to his academic success. He graduated from Oxford College and went to Yell University, where he met his future wife Hillary. Together, after the wedding, they taught at this university for some time.
At 32, Bill Clinton became the youngest governor of a state (his native Arkansas) in the history of the country. Clinton was at the helm of the state for 11 years, and during this time he managed to fundamentally change the educational system (it became accessible to all residents of the state, regardless of income and skin color), and he also helped the state significantly increase revenues.
In 1993, Bill Clinton was inaugurated as President. Without experience in big politics, Clinton has repeatedly faced failures: a peacekeeping mission in Somalia, which was ultimately drawn into hostilities; health care reform has completely failed; problems with team formation. However, at the same time, the US economy was growing at an impressive rate, the high-tech sector had expanded greatly, and unemployment was minimal.
Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton is the forty-second President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. His full name William Jefferson Clinton.
Biography of Bill Clinton - early years.
Bill Clinton was born on August 19, 1946 in Hope, Arkansas, USA. The father of the future president, William Jefferson Blythe Jr., worked as a traveling salesman selling equipment. His mother is Virginia Dell Cassidy, a nurse and anesthesiologist. His parents got married in 1943; after the wedding, his father was drafted into the army and served in Egypt during the Second World War. When he returned home, he and his wife moved to Chicago. The couple wanted to buy a house in Hope, but on May 17, 1946, on the way from Chicago to Hope, William died in a car accident. Bill Clinton had not yet been born at that time. Bill Clinton has a half-sister and a half-brother on his father's side from his first and second marriages. Virginia, after the birth of her son Bill, returned to Shreveport to continue her studies. In the first years of his life, Bill was raised by his grandparents, Eldridge and Edith Cassidy. When Bill was four years old, his mother got married and new family Bill moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas. Bill Roger Clinton's stepfather was involved in the car trade. In 1956, Bill Clinton's brother was born into the family. At the age of 15, Bill decided to change his father’s surname – “Blythe” to the surname of his stepfather Clinton, due to the soundlessness of his surname: translated from English, Blythe means decline, degradation.
Bill Clinton was an excellent student at school and led the school jazz band, which is where his love for the saxophone came from. At the age of 17, Bill represented the youth delegation at a meeting of national youth organizations with John F. Kennedy, where he was awarded a handshake by the president himself. This was a turning point in Clinton's biography. From that time on, he decided to engage in social activities and politics.
Bill Clinton alternately studied at Georgetown University in Washington, Oxford, and Yale. There was no money in the family for education; by that time, his stepfather was addicted to alcohol, and Bill got out on his own - he worked three jobs, studied well and received an increased scholarship. At age 29, Bill Clinton married Hillary Clinton.
In 1974, Bill Clinton decided to run for the US Congress from Arkansas. But despite losing the election, Bill Clinton acquired the necessary connections in the political sphere from the Democratic Party. And already in 1976, Bill Clinton was elected to the post of Secretary of Justice and Attorney General of the State of Arkansas, and in 1978, Bill Clinton became the Governor of Arkansas, one of the poorest states in the United States. Bill Clinton became the youngest governor in US history. Bill Clinton served as governor for eleven years. During this time, he did a lot for the state: the level of state income increased, the issue of access to education was resolved, regardless of race and income level of the population.
In 1980, Bill Clinton had a daughter, Chelsea.
Biography of Bill Clinton - his mature years.
Having gained experience as governor of Arkansas, in 1991 Bill Clinton decided to run for President of the United States of America. Bill Klinon represented the Democratic Party. In his election campaign, he focused on the poor economic state of the country: budget deficit, inflation, resulting unemployment and national debt, which led to Republican rule, including criticizing the work of President George W. Bush. As a result, Bill Clinton took the lead and defeated his opponent, Albert Gore, who participated in the election. Clinton outperformed his opponent in states where Republicans have traditionally held the upper hand. There has not been such a furor since John Kennedy. And so, on January 20, 1993, Bill Clinton’s biography was expanded important event- his inauguration. During his inauguration, Bill Clinton announced the directions of his future work: reducing unemployment, reforming health care, reducing taxes on the middle class and increasing taxes on the rich. But the governor’s existing experience was not enough for big politics, and in the first term of the presidency this had negative consequences. It took a long time for the presidential apparatus to be formed. So Zoe Beard, who was under investigation for tax evasion, was offered the position of prosecutor general. An unpleasant moment also occurred when Clinton lobbied for homosexuals to serve in the army. In military and foreign policy, the peacekeeping operation in Somalia under UN cover was a failure. And the pinnacle of failure in his political career was health care reform. His wife, Hillary, who had no experience in the political sphere, was appointed to the post of head of the reform committee. Clinton wanted to put the costs on health insurance for all citizens on employers and drug manufacturers. As a result, the manufacturers, of course, were not happy with this, and as a result, a conflict arose with Congress.
And to top it off, Bill Clinton's biography is famous for the sex scandal associated with intimate relationships with 25-year-old secretary Monica Lewinsky. In connection with this, in 1996, Bill Clinton was accused of perjury under oath, which served as the beginning of the president's impeachment. This scandal lowered the president's ratings. During the reign of Bill Clinton, the country emerged from unemployment, the external debt decreased, the United States took a leading place in the world in terms of high technology development, and expanded its foreign policy influence (NATO expansion).
After his presidency, Bill Clinton has been engaged in public political work and is actively involved in charity work. So Bill Clinton is a member of the Trilateral Commission. In 2008, Bill Clinton came out in support of Barack Obama.
Bill Clinton's biography is full of events related to awards. So in 1998 in the Czech Republic he was awarded the Order of the White Lion, 1st class, on a chain. In 2006, in Papua New Guinea, he was awarded the Order of Lagohu, in South Africa, the Order of Good Hope, 1st class.
Look all portraits
© Biography of Bill Clinton. Biography of US President Bill Clinton. Biography of the 42nd President of the United States
If she wins the election, Hillary Clinton will become the first female president in US history. Her husband, accordingly, will become the first spouse of a sitting president in American history. There was a lot of talk about what it would be called in this case. There are many female governors in the states, and their husbands bear the title of First Gentleman.
In the case of Bill Clinton, things may be simpler. In the United States, there is a tradition in which people holding high elected positions retain this title as a form of honor after leaving office. Bill Clinton is thus still referred to both at official events and in the press as Mr. President. He will retain this appeal if his wife becomes president herself, so the Clintons have every chance of becoming Mr. and Mrs. President.
Seems hard to find little known facts about a man who held the main position in the country for 8 years, however, ForumDaily collected information about the 42nd President of the United States, which is not known to everyone.
Worked three jobs
The future President of the United States was born on August 19, 1946 in Hole, Arkansas. After graduating from school, he studied alternately at Georgetown University in Washington, University College (Oxford), and Yale University. Despite the fact that Bill’s family belonged to the middle class by American standards, his parents did not have money to study at a prestigious university, and by that time his stepfather was already seriously suffering from alcoholism, and Bill managed on his own - he received an increased scholarship, worked 3 jobs at the same time .
At Yale University, from which he graduated in 1973, he met Hillary Rodham, whom he married on October 11, 1975.
After graduation, Bill taught briefly at the University of Arkansas School of Law at Fayetteville.
Record-breaking politician
In 1974, at the age of 28, Bill ran for Congress in his home state of Arkansas, but lost. In 1976, he was elected Secretary of Justice and Attorney General of Arkansas, and in 1978 he won the gubernatorial election and became the youngest state governor in the history of the country at that time (at 32 years old). Bill was inaugurated as President of the United States, which he held from 1993 to 2001, at the age of 46, becoming one of the “three” youngest presidents in US history.
With a height of 188 cm, he was also one of the tallest American presidents, writes BiographyYourdictionary.com.
Lewinsky was acquitted in the “scandal”
Monica Lewinsky.
Another unique record is that Bill Clinton became the second US president to go through the impeachment process.
After Monica Lewinsky said she had an affair with Clinton sexual relations, the 42nd president denied this under oath in court, but then when Lewinsky provided evidence, he admitted that he had an “inappropriate relationship” with her, explaining that he did not initially lie, but simply based on their different definition of “sexual relationship.”
As a result, Clinton was charged with contempt of court. His license to practice law was suspended in Arkansas for five years and then Supreme Court USA. He was also fined $90,000 for perjury, The New York Times writes.
In December 1998, some Democratic members of Congress (Clinton's party) and most Republicans believed that Clinton's perjury allegedly influencing Lewinsky's testimony was an attempt at obstruction of justice and was therefore subject to prosecution. impeachment. The House of Representatives voted to begin impeachment proceedings against Clinton, followed by a 21-day trial in the Senate.
All Senate Democrats acquitted Clinton on both counts of perjury and obstruction of justice. Ten Republicans voted to acquit on the perjury charge, and five Republicans voted to acquit on the obstruction of justice charge.
Thus, President Clinton was acquitted of all charges and remained in office, writes CNN.
He took the surname Clinton at the age of 15.
William Jefferson Blythe III was the name given to the future US President at birth. His father, William Jefferson Blythe Jr., died in a car accident 3 months before his son was born. A few years later, the mother married Roger Clinton for the second time. Although Billy (as the 42nd President of the United States was called as a child) adopted his stepfather's last name and responded to it from the age of 5, he officially changed his last name as a sign of gratitude to his stepfather only at the age of 15.
According to Clinton, he remembered his stepfather as a gambler and alcoholic who regularly beat his mother and half-brother Roger until Bill intervened in the fight with the threat of retaliatory use of force, the 42nd President of the United States said in a conversation with Support Winfrey.
Pardoned his criminal brother, but refused to pardon his matchmaker
Bill Clinton has a half-brother, Roger Jr., whom he pardoned after his conviction while president, writes BiographyYourdictionary.com. Roger served a sentence for cocaine possession back in the 80s. But on January 20, 2001, Bill pardoned him, thus clearing his criminal record, writes Lifedaily.com.
At the same time, the 42nd President of the United States pardoned those convicted quite selectively.
His son-in-law's father, Edward Mezvinsky, a Democratic congressman from Iowa and the House of Representatives, was convicted of fraud in 2001 and served time in prison. According to Politico, he asked Bill Clinton for a presidential pardon, which was never granted. It is unclear whether Clinton even read the letters from Mezvinsky.
However, on the last day of his presidency, Bill showed unprecedented generosity, pardoning 140 prisoners at once.
Conquered the Democrats with his “boringness”
Party congresses, at which famous and not so famous politicians spoke, often became the ticket to a successful political future for many who made brilliant speeches.
But sometimes there have been cases where a newcomer has turned into a rising star despite the fact that his speech was a failure. In 1988, Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta. It lasted so long that the audience loudly cheered the words “In conclusion...”.
Overnight, Clinton became widely known as a very boring politician. However, 2 years later Clinton was nominated for the presidency, won the election, and can now be proud to have become one of the most popular US presidential speakers, writes Share America.
Shaked Kennedy's hand as a teenager
Bill was a very diligent, successful and active student. IN high school he was rewarded with a trip to Washington, D.C., where he met and was able to shake hands with President John F. Kennedy. This was in the 1960s. Having discovered this photo later, journalists joked that Kennedy transferred to Clinton the energy of the presidency, as well as a penchant for infidelity to his wife, which both politicians were guilty of, writes Goliath.
Scandalous confessions
President Clinton is remembered by many for his bright charisma and openness, as well as a number of scandalous confessions.
For example, he admitted that he tried marijuana in college, but assured the American public that he did not smoke heavily. He also said that he prefers short boxer shorts to other types of men's underwear, although the purpose of his publicizing this information is still unclear. Among other confessions: according to Bill, he had at least one affair behind Hillary’s back, writes Lifedaily.com.
Clinton was one of the "blind mice"
When Bill was in high school, he played saxophone in a jazz trio called the Three Blind Mice. He did not lose his love for playing the saxophone during his presidency, writes
On January 20, 1993, in the person of Bill Clinton, for the first time since 1980, The White house the Democratic Party candidate re-entered. Aside from President Jimmy Carter's brief interregnum, Democrats have abstained from power for nearly a quarter of a century. It seemed that Clinton's success in the elections would end the neoconservative era of Reagan-Bush and begin a liberal renewal of the state and society. Accordingly, high hopes were placed on the 42nd President of the United States.
William Jefferson Blythe IV was born on August 19, 1946 in Hope, Arkansas, in the Arkansas-Louisiana-Texas Triangle (Ark-La-Tex). Even before his birth, his father died in an accident, and 4 years later his mother married car dealer Roger Clinton, whose surname his stepson officially adopted at the age of 15. The family belonged to the American middle class. His parents worked, and Bill and his younger half-brother Roger were cared for by servants during the day. Marriage of parents and family life were marred by their stepfather's alcohol problems. Bill Clinton was ambitious and a good student, and throughout his years at school he was consistently one of the best students. Along with this, he was a student speaker and leader of the school jazz orchestra (playing the saxophone is still something of his distinctive feature). A key event in his life was meeting President John F. Kennedy when, as a delegate of a national youth organization, he was honored to shake the president's hand in Washington in July 1963. By his own admission, this visit to the White House made a deep impression on him and contributed to his decision to become a politician himself.
Although he was a member of the Southern Baptist Church, he attended the prestigious Catholic Georgetown University in Washington. He received a scholarship which allowed him to study from 1968 to 1970 at Oxford. After graduating from Yale Law School, where he met his future wife Hilary Rodham, Clinton returned to Arkansas. His extraordinary energy - he financed his studies himself while working three part-time jobs - and his outstanding intellectual abilities became the basis of a brilliant political career.
After a brief stint teaching at the University of Arkansas School of Law at Fayetteville, Clinton became active in politics in 1974. In Arkansas's Third District, he ran for a Democratic congressional seat but was defeated. The incumbent Republican's victory was narrow, so the Arkansas political establishment turned its attention to the "wunderkind" Clinton. Clinton won the Arkansas Attorney General election in 1976 and successfully ran for governor in 1978. At the age of 32, he became the youngest governor in the history of the United States.
Arkansas was one of the poorest federal states in the United States. In 1975, it ranked second to last behind Mississippi in income statistics; in 1991, the state moved up two places to 47th; the growth rate was 4.1%. This result of Clinton's 11-year rule is, at first glance, unimpressive, but given the state's major structural problems, it should not be underestimated. Clinton pursued business-friendly policies to attract investment and thereby create or secure jobs. He considered education policy to be his main task. Overcoming stubborn resistance, he achieved the publication of an extensive reform program, and today Arkansas allocates more funds per capita for education than most other states.
When Clinton announced his candidacy for the presidency on October 3, 1991, he still had little prominence at the federal political level. He had already made a name for himself as one of the most important representatives of the New Democrats, a predominantly Southern faction within the Democratic Party that, in contrast to liberal orthodoxy, emphasized efficiency-oriented pragmatism to win back middle-class and working-class white voters in the 80s. s passed to the Republicans (the so-called “Reagan Democrats”). The “forgotten” middle class, to whom he promised tax relief in the future, also constituted the most important target group of Clinton’s election strategy. Memorable saying: “Fool, it’s all about economics!” - became the most popular slogan of the campaign, which, along with numerous socio-political tasks, brought to the center primarily the economic demands of the future. Accordingly, after the end of the Cold War, Clinton relegated foreign policy, which Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush had given priority, to subordinate importance. He believed that the trading nation of the United States could continue to carry out its global tasks only on the basis of a powerful and competitive National economy. Due to the economic downturn with rising numbers of unemployed and falling real earnings this appeal fell on fertile ground and helped Kling-gon unexpectedly defeat the supposedly invincible after winning the war in Persian Gulf George Bush. At the same time, candidate Ross Perot, a non-partisan entrepreneur, brought him a clear benefit. who was able to chalk up almost a fifth of the votes. That neither Clinton (43%) nor Bush (38%) achieved an outright majority was a symptom of Americans' growing dissatisfaction with the policies of both parties.
The successful election campaign, however, was overshadowed by doubts about Clinton's sincerity and strength of character, which still accompany his presidency. Conduct during the Vietnam War, which saved him from being drafted military service, an unconvincing admission that as a student he smoked marijuana, but did not inhale, and besides, his extramarital affair sex life, in which he seemed to imitate his great idol John F. Kennedy, was widely discussed by the sensation-hungry press and the often sanctimonious public. A charge of sexual harassment during his governorship brought to trial and an investigation into his role in a shady affair with real estate, in which Hillary Rodham Clinton was also involved, caused significant damage to the moral authority of the president, although in both cases the validity of the charges is questionable.
Ronald Reagan left a heavy legacy that included, among other things, the highest national debt in US history and an annual government deficit of more than $200 billion and rising. Since the early 1990s, the state budget has been burdened with interest payments of about $200 billion annually. In the face of this threat, the Bush government began to take the first measures to contain gigantic national debts. Clinton, in his State of the Union report on February 17, 1993, declared eliminating the deficit as the primary goal of his presidency. He pledged to cut the federal deficit by $140 billion by 1997 and, after tough negotiations and votes, pushed a five-year budget through the Senate, combining tax increases (mostly on high-income groups) with spending cuts to strengthen the budget with remarkable persistence. Even if the budget proposal, overloaded with many compromises, seemed to some in Congress not radical enough, its publication still represented a significant political success for the president.
The initially planned energy tax with far-reaching environmental and political assumptions turned out to be unfeasible. Vice President Ale Gore, one of the most prominent environmental politicians in his still environmentally carefree country, spoke in favor of an energy consumption tax that was approved in principle by the president. However, it remains only to note that the protection policy environment The Clinton administration has not yet lived up to its expectations.
According to many experts in the field of economics, the fiscal and political premises of the Clinton government significantly influenced the economic recovery of the American economy. After three years of recession, the US economy has returned to growth rates of 2% to 3% since 1993. The upward trend is also evident in the form of a low inflation index, the creation of numerous new jobs and a declining number of unemployed. Real incomes, however, remain well below the levels of the early 1980s.
The main domestic policy item on Clinton's agenda was fundamental health care reform through the introduction of universal health insurance. First of all, the rapidly increasing costs in health care, the share of which in the state budget from 1965 to 1992 increased from 2.6 to 16%, had to be controlled. The President entrusted his wife with leadership of the White House task force responsible for health care reform, giving her the most important and influential role the "First Lady" has ever officially exercised. Thus, Hilary Clinton, who has a successful career as a lawyer behind her and has been active in the field of education and social policy for many years, has finally gone beyond the mandatory role of a “wife on his side,” especially since Clinton emphasized even during the election campaign that she would belong to the circle of his closest and most important advisers. The project of the century to fundamentally reform health care, as one might expect, encountered numerous obstacles, most notably related to the employer's demand for employer participation in costs. That Clinton and his wife pushed for global reform at a time when it had long been clear that the majority in Congress would support only individual changes to the health care system was a grave political mistake. The reform could not be approved before the congressional elections in the fall of 1994, and after the dramatic defeat of the Democrats in the midterm elections, the prospect of implementing the concept promoted by Clinton during his current term as president was reduced to zero.
Clinton's anti-crime law, which was passed at the end of August 1994, was destined for greater success. Due to the constantly growing crime rate, especially in major cities, the package of laws as a whole was considered urgently needed, although its individual components were highly controversial. They included spending $30.2 billion to hire 100,000 new police officers, expand prisons and develop government programs such as a ban on 19 types of semi-automatic weapons, which the National Rifle Association has fiercely opposed. Third-time offenders should automatically receive life in prison (once they are sentenced in federal court), and teenagers over 13 years of age for certain crimes should not be tried under juvenile law, but under common criminal law. While governor of Arkansas, Clinton confirmed several death sentences and embraced traditionally Republican territory by endorsing the "tough" homeland security stance of New Democrats.
The president’s still open domestic political reform projects include a number of socio-political measures, especially the restructuring of the social security system, an investment program to create new jobs (the first draft budget included only a small line item for this), reform of election campaign financing and the creation of a national information network, the so-called communication superhighway.
On the international stage, Bill Clinton almost defiantly abandoned the pronounced personal presence characteristic of his Republican predecessor, thereby emphasizing the advantage domestic policy. His intention, like a “laser beam,” to concentrate on the economic problems of the United States is clearly reflected in foreign policy, since its center of gravity has clearly shifted from security policy to foreign economic policy. Since the American economy can only expand without growth in the world economy limited volume, then free world trade must be strengthened and at the same time the conditions of competition for American products must improve. Both Congressional ratification of the Bush Administration's North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in November 1993 and the timely completion of the GATT Uruguay Round the following month are consistent with this goal. At the same time, especially the ratification of the North American Agreement should be assessed as personal success president, because it had to overcome significant protectionist resistance in Congress and in his own party.
Indicative of the Clinton administration's more assertive foreign economic policy is the increasing pressure on Japan to force the long-sought opening of its market to American goods and thereby help eliminate a chronic negative trade balance. At the Asia-Pacific Nations Conference top level in Seattle in November 1993, the President expressed his opinion that this economic space benefits in terms of security from the military presence and leading regional role of the United States, although the United States will not have a corresponding share in the resulting economic prosperity. Also in relations with states. European Union There is a desire by the Clinton administration to achieve a balanced balance between security responsibilities and economic power. Fitting into this picture is that Clinton spoke in favor of admitting the economic “superpowers” Germany and Japan to the UN Security Council.
The emerging strategic turn in American foreign policy boils down to the formula of “leadership through selective multinational cooperation” (Ernst-Otto Champil). Without abandoning the leading role and international political responsibility of the United States, allies in Europe and Asia must become more actively involved in regional responsibility for peace and stability in order to relieve the United States in matters of political security and remove it from its role as the omnipresent “world policeman.” American restraint in the Bosnia-Herzegovina conflict is as symptomatic as desired NATO reform, including its eastward expansion.
The most important areas of American foreign policy include relations with Russia. While Foreign Secretary Warren Christopher has made progress primarily in the Middle East peace process, reaching a historic turning point with the signing of the peace treaty between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization at the White House in September 1993, American policy towards Russia has is largely in the hands of Deputy Foreign Secretary Strobe Talbott. The Russia "czar," a friend of the president's at Oxford, steered the U.S. firmly toward support for Russian President Boris Yeltsin, whom Washington supported after an attempted coup in the fall of 1993 and who was not denied support despite brutal actions against the breakaway Caucasian republic of Chechnya. The full involvement of Russia in the political consultations of the G7 states at the Naples conference was aimed, among other things, at strengthening Yeltsin’s personal authority. The economic assistance Russia urgently needed was rather meager, and in 1994 the Senate made it conditional on the final withdrawal of Russian soldiers from the Baltic countries.
The Partnership for Peace, which was adopted on January 10, 1994 at the NATO conference in Brussels, ran into strong Russian prejudice against the alliance's eastward expansion. However, during his trip to Europe in July 1994 and later, Clinton repeatedly stated that the accession of the Central and of Eastern Europe joining NATO is not a question of “whether to join”, but only a question of “when” and “how”.
The refusal of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine to nuclear weapons Clinton achieved important partial success in his efforts to prevent the circle from expanding nuclear powers. After significant tensions arose between Washington and Pyongyang over nuclear ambitions in the summer of 1994 North Korea, the communist country made concessions and promised to “freeze” its nuclear program in the future. However, due to the desire of various countries - among them Iran, Iraq and Libya - to have their own atomic bomb and other types of weapons of mass destruction, it can be assumed that proliferation control will continue to be one of Clinton's primary tasks in the area of the now difficult-to-observe international situation.
Fortunately, the president has not yet had to deal with international crises on a large scale. Both in the events in Somalia and in the attempt to resolve the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina, he received little applause. Negotiations with Cuba to contain the dramatic increase in the number of refugees in the summer of 1994 were, on the contrary, successful. In Haiti, the Clinton administration managed, with the help of military pressure and diplomatic mediation, to restore President Aristide, who had been overthrown by the putschists; However, Clinton did not make a convincing impression as a crisis handler. American soldiers, which landed on the island nation in late September, were to be replaced during 1995 by UN peacekeeping troops.
Although Clinton can tout a significant domestic policy record, he has failed to parlay those successes into personal popularity. In the midterm elections of November 8, 1994, American voters gave the president and the Democratic Party an almost unprecedented rebuff. In both chambers, the Senate and House of Representatives, Republicans achieved comfortable majorities for the first time in 40 years and have now fielded 31 of the 50 governors. Even the southern states, where from the end civil war The majority always voted for Democrats; for the first time in 130 years, more Republicans than Democrats were sent to Congress. The long-term consequences of this Republican "conquest" of the southern states for the American party system are impossible to predict.
However, the election results are, without a doubt, a resounding slap in the face primarily for Bill Clinton. There are a number of reasons for this. The Clinton administration's start was a major failure because the president allowed himself to be drawn into a dispute about the possibility of recruiting homosexuals into the American armed forces. Along with numerous turmoil, mistakes in appointments and an often unclear picture of what is happening in the White House, whose chief of staff, Thomas McCarty, one of Clinton's oldest friends, was replaced by budget manager Leon Panetta in June 1994, the already mentioned personal scams of the president turned out to be a heavy guarantee of the past. That Clinton has so far shown little dignity befitting his office (such as talking to reporters about his underwear preference) is of little appeal to most Americans, as is his tendency to trivialize himself as president through excessive media appearances. Combined with this symptomatic uncertainty of style, Clinton's lack of ability to demonstrate decisiveness and strength of leadership caused a crisis of his presidential authority.
The deeper reasons for the election collapse should also not be overlooked. The elections marked an intensification of conservative and religious fundamentalist tendencies in American society. The growing discontent and disillusionment of the white middle class is expressed in resistance to illegal immigration (Case 187 in California) and in criticism of allegedly going too far in support of minorities. Clinton has already tried to soften this dissatisfaction with a promise to ease taxes for the middle class. On many important issues, a strong opposition led by the popular Speaker of the House Newton Jindrich successfully wrested leadership from the hands of the President. If Clinton wants to be elected in 1996, he must align himself with the ultra-conservatives who currently set the tone among the American public and make further concessions, difficult for liberal Democrats, to the right-wing tendency of the population. Much so far suggests that Clinton will go down in history not as a renovator of the United States, but as a benevolent but unlucky transitional president.
On many issues, a strong opposition led by popular House Speaker Newt Gingrich has successfully wrested the leadership of opinion-making from the president's hands.
The weeks and months following the midterm elections were marked by a feverish campaign in which Gingrich campaigned for his "Compact with America" initiative. The ten-point program, which provides, among other things, for enshrining budget equalization in the constitution and laws to reduce government spending and taxes, however, unexpectedly remained in its infancy. The budget equalization amendment to the Constitution, the core of the program, failed in the Senate by one vote short of the required two-thirds majority. Clinton intercepted Gingrich's other legislative initiatives using his veto power.
However, in 1995, hardly anyone would have dared to predict the triumphant success with which Bill Clinton won the presidential elections November 6, 1996 against his Republican opponent, Senator Robert Dole of Ohio. Clinton received 49% of the votes cast, 41% of the votes were cast for Dole and 8% for Ross Perot (for a very low participation of 49%). In Congress, the balance of forces remained unchanged, although the Republican majority in the House of Representatives again weakened somewhat.
Clinton's success in one of the most boring presidential campaigns in American history is due not only to his politically experienced but generally colorless rival Dole. It was largely the Republicans' tactical mistakes with Gingrich that allowed him to go on the offensive unexpectedly quickly. When Republicans rejected the budget bill to force the president to make cuts in social and tax policies, Clinton emerged with great agility, slamming Republicans for rolling back social policies and presenting himself as opposed to sweeping cuts in social sphere. The American public attributed the double closure of some American federal services in the winter of 1995/96 not to the president, but to the Republican opposition, which overestimated its powers to carry out reforms just as Clinton overestimated his own mandate in 1993. As Clinton simultaneously advocated for a balanced budget and tax cuts, Republicans increasingly moved to the ends of the argumentative spectrum, while the president successfully maintained his center. With the economy continuing to boom, Clinton managed to turn things around again in his favor during 1996. Time will tell whether the president will use his second term, with clear Republican majorities in both houses of Congress and widespread skepticism of the broad reform agenda, to pursue long-term reforms.