History of the United States (1988-present)
1988 presidential election
For details see the main article U.S. presidential election, 1988.
The Persian Gulf War
For details see the main article Persian Gulf War.
The Persian Gulf War was perhaps the first major test of the post-Cold War world order. Iraq, left bankrupt by the Iran-Iraq War, which Iraqi President Saddam Hussein felt had positioned Iraq as a bulwark against the expansion of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution. Faced with rebuilding its infrastructure destroyed in the war, Iraq needed money. Although Iraq had borrowed a tremendous amount of money from other Arab states, including Kuwait, during the 1980s to fight its war with Iran, no country would lend it money except the United States, which left Saddam's regime a virtual client state of the US.
Saddam felt that the war had been fought for the benefit of the other Gulf Arab states and even the United States and argued that all debts should be forgiven. Kuwait, however, did not forgive its debt and further provoked Iraq by slant drilling oil out of wells that Iraq considered within its disputed border with Kuwait.
In 1990 Iraq complained to the United States Department of State about Kuwaiti slant drilling. This had continued for years, but now Iraq needed oil revenues to pay off its debts and avert an economic crisis. Saddam ordered troops to the Iraq-Kuwait border, creating alarm over the prospect of an invasion. April Glaspie, the United States ambassador to Iraq, met with Hussein in an emergency meeting, where Hussein stated his intention to continue talks. Iraq and Kuwait then met for a final negotiation session, which failed. Saddam then sent his troops into Kuwait.
The U.S. and Britain, two of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, convinced the Security Council to give Iraq a deadline to leave Kuwait. Eventually a reluctant Security Council declared war on Iraq, which President George Bush declared was "for the New World Order." Saddam, shocked and apparently misled, ignored the deadline and by the end of the Gulf War, Iraq had lost an estimated 20,000 troops and had been expelled from Kuwait. Other sources speak of more than 100,000 on Iraqi side.
Prior to that point, however, Iraq's stances in the international community had alarmed Western powers. Iraq was the leading country in forming the Arab League similar to the European Economic Community, an alliance of European countries. All oil nations would share and work together and plan their own army that would include no Europeans. Iraq at the time had compiled a huge foreign debt and was striving to pay off the debts accumulated during the Iraq-Iran War. Perhaps in response, Saddam was pushing oil-exporting countries to raise oil prices and cutback production. Westerners, however, remember the very destabilizing effects of the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s.
1992 presidential election
For details see the main article U.S. presidential election, 1992.
Riding high on the success of the Gulf War, Bush enjoyed very high approval ratings for his job as president. However, economic problems dogged Bush, and with the entry of H. Ross Perot into the race, Bush found himself losing a three-way race between himself, independent candidate Perot, and Democratic nominee Bill Clinton. See U.S. presidential election, 1992 for more.
The Clinton administration
(not close to finished)
The years 1994-2000 witnessed solid increases in real output, low inflation rates, and a drop in unemployment to below 5%. The year 2001 witnessed the end of the boom psychology and performance, with output increasing only 0.3% and unemployment and business failures rising substantially. The response to the terrorist attacks of September 11 showed the remarkable resilience of the economy. Moderate recovery is expected in 2002, with the GDP growth rate rising to 2.5% or more. A major short-term problem in first half 2002 was a sharp decline in the stock market, fueled in part by the exposure of dubious accounting practices in some major corporations.
Welfare reform legislation enacted in 1996 under President Bill Clinton (1993-2001) requires welfare recipients to work as a condition of benefits and imposes limits on how long individuals may receive payments.
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Referenced By
American History | Causes of the American Civil War | Causes of the Civil War | Colonial America | Colonial History of the United States | Coming of the Civil War | Financial motivations behind the American Civil War | HistoryOfUnitedStates | History of UnitedStates | History of United States | History of United States of America | History of the United States | History of the United States (1776-1861) | History of the United States (1776-1865) | History of the United States (1865-) | History of the United States (1865-1918) | History of the United States (1918-1945) | History of the United States (1945-present) | History of the United States (1964-1980) | History of the United States (1964-present) | History of the United States (1980-1988) | History of the United States (1980-present) | History of the United States of America | Origins of the American Civil War | Origins of the Civil War | The Coming of the Civil War | US History | United States/History | United States History | What caused the American Civil War? | What caused the Civil War
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