1. CHAPTER 31 The Promises and Challenges of Globalization, Since 1989
The American Promise
A History of the United States Fifth Edition
CHAPTER 31
The Promises and Challenges of Globalization,
Since 1989

2. I. Domestic Stalemate and Global Upheaval: The Presidency of George H
I. Domestic Stalemate and Global Upheaval: The Presidency of George H. W. Bush
A. Gridlock in Government 1. Vice president Bush 2. The election of A kinder, gentler nation 4. “No new taxes” 5. The conservative court
I. Domestic Stalemate and Global Upheaval: The Presidency of George H. W. Bush
A. Gridlock in Government
1. Vice President Bush—When Reagan achieved a commanding lead in the 1980 primaries, George H. W. Bush put his own presidential ambitions on hold, adjusted his more moderate policy positions to fit Reagan’s conservative agenda, and accepted second place on the Republican ticket.
2. The Election of 1988—Bush defeated Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis; half the eligible voters stayed home, indicating their disgust with negative campaigning or their satisfaction with the Republican record; the Democrats gained seats in the House and Senate.
3. A Kinder, Gentler Nation—Although Bush saw himself as guardian and beneficiary of the Reagan legacy, he promised “a kinder, gentler nation”; more inclined than Reagan to approve government activity in the private sphere, as evidenced by his signing of the Clean Air Act of 1990 and the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1991.
4. “No New Taxes”—Bush needed to satisfy party conservatives and promised “no new taxes,” opposing most proposals requiring additional federal funds; but a huge federal deficit inherited from the Reagan administration impelled the president and Congress to break their deadlock as Bush agreed to modest tax increases for high-income Americans and higher levies on gasoline, cigarettes, alcohol, and luxury items; did not curb the deficit.
5. The Conservative Court—Bush also continued Reagan’s efforts to create a more conservative Supreme Court; he set off a national controversy by nominating Clarence Thomas, a conservative black appeals judge, who had opposed affirmative action as head of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) under Reagan; faced charges brought by Anita Hill, a law professor and former EEOC employee, who had accused Thomas of sexual harassment; Senate voted narrowly to confirm Thomas, solidifying the Court’s shift to the right.

3. I. Domestic Stalemate and Global Upheaval: The Presidency of George H
I. Domestic Stalemate and Global Upheaval: The Presidency of George H. W. Bush
B. Going to War in Central America and the Persian Gulf 1. Panama 2. Saddam Hussein 3. Operation Desert Storm 4. Elusive stability in the Middle East
I. Domestic Stalemate and Global Upheaval: The Presidency of George H. W. Bush
B. Going to War in Central America and the Persian Gulf
1. Panama—Bush won greater support for his actions abroad, twice sending American troops into battle; the United States had supported Manuel Noriega, but after he was indicted for drug trafficking by an American grand jury and after his troops killed an American Marine, Bush launched “Operation Just Cause”; U.S. forces invaded and overcame Noriega’s troops in Panama, an action that was censured both by the UN and the Organization of American States.
2. Saddam Hussein—Bush’s second military engagement rested solidly on international approval; when Iraqi forces under Saddam Hussein invaded the oil-rich country of Kuwait, Bush, with the consent of Saudi Arabia, ordered a massive mobilization of land, air, and naval forces, assembling some two dozen other nations in an international coalition to stand up to Iraq; reflecting the easing of superpower tensions, the Soviet Union joined the United States in condemning Hussein and cut off arms shipments to Iraq.
3. Operation Desert Storm—When Bush asked Congress to approve war in January 1991, considerable public and legislative sentiment favored waiting to see whether the UN embargo on Iraqi oil would force Hussein to back down; Congress eventually voted for war, and on January 17, 1991, the U.S.-led coalition launched Operation Desert Storm, a forty-day air war against Iraq, bombing military targets, power plants, oil refineries, and transportation networks.
4. Elusive Stability in the Middle East—Most Americans felt no moral ambiguity in the Persian Gulf War and took pride in the display of military victory; only 270 U.S. service members died; yet the victory had not deposed Hussein, and it failed to bring stability to the Middle East.

5. I. Domestic Stalemate and Global Upheaval: The Presidency of George H
I. Domestic Stalemate and Global Upheaval: The Presidency of George H. W. Bush
C. The Cold War Ends 1. Popular uprisings 2. The Berlin Wall falls 3. The Soviet Union dissolves 4. Resisting democracy 5. The nuclear threat D. The 1992 Election 1. Bush’s popularity 2. Clinton’s pledge to the middle class 3. Mandate for change
I. Domestic Stalemate and Global Upheaval: The Presidency of George H. W. Bush
C. The Cold War Ends
1. Popular Uprisings—The forces of change that Gorbachev had encouraged in the Communist world swept through Eastern Europe in 1989; popular uprisings in Hungary, Poland, and elsewhere demanded an end to state repression, official corruption, and economic bureaucracies unable to deliver an acceptable standard of living.
2. The Berlin Wall Falls—East Germany opened its border with West Germany, and in November 1989, Germans began to demolish the Berlin Wall, the dominant symbol of the Cold War.
3. The Soviet Union Dissolves—Inspired by the liberation of Eastern Europe, republics within the Soviet Union sought their own independence; in December 1991, Boris Yeltsin, president of the Russian Republic, announced that Russia and eleven other republics had formed a new entity, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), and other former Soviet states also declared independence; with nothing left to govern, Gorbachev resigned; the Soviet Union had dissolved.
4. Resisting Democracy—China and North Korea, however, resisted the liberalizing tides sweeping the world.
5. The Nuclear Threat—The United States and the Soviet Union signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty in 1990, and the UN General Assembly approved a total nuclear test ban treaty in 1996; India and Pakistan refused to sign and exploded atomic devices in 1998; Republican-controlled Senate defeated U.S. ratification of the test ban treaty in October 1999.
D. The 1992 Election
1. Bush’s Popularity—Despite continuing instability in the Middle East, in March 1991, Bush’s chances for reelection looked golden; Gulf War increased his popularity rating to 88 percent.
2. Clinton’s Pledge to the Middle Class—The Democratic candidate, William Jefferson Clinton, promised to work for the “forgotten middle class” who “do the work, pay the taxes, raise the kids, and play by the rules”; promised a tax cut and to “end welfare as we know it.”
3. Mandate for Change—With no new crises to display his talents in foreign policy, Bush was vulnerable to voters’ concerns about the economy; popularity of a third candidate, H. Ross Perot, revealed Americans’ frustrations with government and the major parties; Clinton received 43 percent of the vote, Bush 38 percent, and Perot 19 percent—the strongest third-party finish since Theodore Roosevelt’s Progressive Party candidacy in 1912; there was a mandate for change, but not the direction it should take.

7. 1. What is the tone of this event?
(Answer: Triumphant; a man stands on the wall with his hands raised, while others line the wall behind him. Thousands of people crowd the area. Equally important, the celebration is orderly and nonviolent. Police on the scene do not interfere and do not appear to make arrests, and the event does not resemble the rioting usually associated with revolution.)
2. Why do you think the fall of the Berlin Wall meant so much to Americans?
(Answer: The fall of the Berlin Wall symbolized the end of the Cold War. Berlin had been separated since the end of World War II. The reunification of the city and Germany as a whole under a democratic government signaled the triumph of democracy and thus the end of communism as a threat.)

8. II. The Clinton Administration’s Search for the Middle Ground
A. Clinton’s Reforms 1. Government as a force for reform 2. Economic rebound 3. Health care 4. A diverse government
II. The Clinton Administration’s Search for the Middle Ground
A. Clinton’s Reforms
1. Government as a Force for Reform—Clinton wanted to restore government as a force for good while not alienating antigovernment voters; achieved a number of reforms; Congress enacted gun control legislation and the Family and Medical Leave Act; eased restrictions on abortion; the Violence against Women Act authorized remedies for combating sexual assault and domestic violence; also increased minimum wage and created AmeriCorps; most significantly, Clinton pushed through a substantial increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit for low wage earners, a program initiated in 1975.
2. Economic Rebound—Shortly before Clinton took office, the economy had begun to rebound, and the boom that followed helped boost his popularity through the 1990s; created a budget surplus that grew even with a substantial tax cut in 1997.
3. Health Care—Clinton stumbled badly, however, over an ambitious health care reform plan to provide universal health insurance and to curb steeply rising medical costs; the plan drew criticism from both sides.
4. A Diverse Government—Clinton wanted to choose his appointments to create a government that “looked like America”; appointed the most diverse group of department heads ever assembled to the executive and judicial branches; included the first female attorney general, Janet Reno, and the first female secretary of state, Madeline Albright.

9. II. The Clinton Administration’s Search for the Middle Ground
B. Accommodating the Right 1. The midterm elections of Oklahoma City 3. Don’t ask, don’t tell 4. Same-sex marriage rights 5. Welfare reform 6. Reelection 7. Deregulating the financial industry
II. The Clinton Administration’s Search for the Middle Ground
B. Accommodating the Right
1. The Midterm Elections of 1994—While parts of Clinton’s agenda fell within liberal tradition, his presidency in general moved the party to the right; the 1994 elections swept away the Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress; Republicans led by Newt Gingrich claimed the election as a mandate for their “contract with America.”
2. Oklahoma City—Far from Washington, a more extreme antigovernment movement emerged in the form of grassroots armed militias claiming the need to defend themselves from government tyranny; two militia members were convicted of bombing a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 169 people.
3. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell—Clinton bowed to conservative views on gay and lesbian rights; instead of lifting the ban on gays in the military as he had promised to do, he implemented the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy; forbade military personnel from inquiring about sexuality but allowed for the dismissal of men and women who were openly gay.
4. Same-Sex Marriage Rights—In 1996, Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act, prohibiting the federal government from recognizing state-licensed marriages between same-sex couples; but gays and lesbians continued to make strides; by 2006, more than half of the country’s five hundred largest companies provided health benefits to same-sex domestic partners; by 2010, gay marriage was legal in six states and the District of Columbia; several others recognized civil unions.
5. Welfare Reform—Clinton’s determination to cast himself as a centrist was nowhere more apparent than in his handling of welfare reform; Clinton vetoed two measures on welfare reform, thereby forcing a less punitive bill, which he signed as the 1996 election approached; the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act abolished Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), a New Deal program that provided a minimum level of subsistence for all the nation’s children; also denied Republicans a partisan issue.
6. Reelection—Clinton ran as a moderate who would save the country from extremist Republicans; 50 percent of voters elected Clinton, while 41 percent favored Republican candidate Bob Dole, and 9 percent favored independent candidate Ross Perot; voters sent a Republican majority back to Congress.
7. Deregulating the Financial Industry—Clinton and Congress passed the Financial Services Modernization Act; allowed financial institutions to engage in insurance, banking, and securities; economists would link this practice to the financial meltdown of 2008.

10. II. The Clinton Administration’s Search for the Middle Ground
C. Impeaching the President 1. Presidential scandals 2. Voting for impeachment D. The Booming Economy of the 1990s 1. Economic growth 2. Persistent gaps 3. Status of people of color
II. The Clinton Administration’s Search for the Middle Ground
C. Impeaching the President
1. Presidential Scandals—In January 1998, independent prosecutor Kenneth Starr, who had taken over the Whitewater probe early in Clinton’s presidency, began to investigate the charge that Clinton had sexual relations with a twenty-one-year-old White House intern and then lied about it to a federal grand jury; Clinton at first denied the charge but subsequently he bowed to the evidence mounted against him.
2. Voting for Impeachment—Starr took his case for impeachment to the House of Representatives, which voted, mostly along party lines, to impeach the president on two counts: perjury and obstruction of justice; most Americans believed that the president had acted inappropriately with Monica Lewinsky, yet they continued to approve his presidency and to oppose impeachment; with a two-thirds majority needed for conviction, the Senate voted 45 to 55 on the perjury count and 50 to 50 on the obstruction of justice count; investigation into the questionable Whitewater land deals also culminated in 2000 with the independent counsel’s finding of insufficient evidence that the Clintons disobeyed the law.
D. The Booming Economy of the 1990s
1. Economic Growth—Clinton’s ability to weather the impeachment crisis owed much to the prosperous economy, which took off in 1991 and began the longest period of economic growth in U.S. history; during the 1990s, gross domestic product grew by one third, the stock market soared, and unemployment reached 4 percent.
2. Persistent Gaps—People at all income levels benefited from the economic boom, but it had uneven effects as the gaps between the rich and the poor, and between the rich and the middle class, continued to widen; more growth in highly skilled information technology jobs than manufacturing jobs for the less skilled.
3. Status of People of Color—Although more minorities than ever attained middle-class status, in general people of color continued to remain lowest on the economic ladder; in 1999, the median income for white households was over $45,000 but stood at $29,423 and $33,676 for black and Latino households, respectively.

12. III. The United States in a Globalizing World
A. Defining America’s Place in a New World Order 1. The new world order 2. Africa 3. Haiti 4. Yugoslavia splinters 5. Deploying missiles instead of soldiers 6. Diplomacy in the Middle East
III. The United States in a Globalizing World
A. Defining America’s Place in a New World Order
1. The New World Order—In 1991, President George H. W. Bush had declared that a “new world order” was emerging from the ashes of the Cold War; the United States would let no nation challenge its military superiority or global leadership; but policymakers struggled to determine when and how to use the nation’s power.
2. Africa—Civil wars, famine, and extreme human suffering in Africa rarely evoked a strong American response; the United States and UN stood by in 1994 when more than half a million people were massacred in the Rwandan Civil War.
3. Haiti—As always, the United States was more inclined to use force nearer its borders, and it did so in the case of Haiti in 1994 as part of an international effort to return its democratically elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power.
4. Yugoslavia Splinters—In Eastern Europe, the collapse of communism ignited a severe crisis;
after the Communists were swept out of Yugoslavia in 1989, the country splintered into separate states and fell into civil war as ruthless leaders exploited ethnic differences between Muslims, Croats, and Serbs to bolster their power; as reports of terror, rape, and torture in Bosnia increased, American leaders worried about the image of the world’s strongest nation unwilling to use its power to stop the violence; in November 1995, leaders of Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia hammered out a peace treaty, prompting President Clinton to send 20,000 American troops to Bosnia as part of a NATO peacekeeping mission; in 1998, new fighting broke out in the southern Serbian province of Kosovo, where ethnic Albanians, who constituted 90 percent of the population, were making a bid for independence; in 1999, NATO launched a U.S.-led bombing attack on Serbian military and government targets, which forced a peace settlement; President Slobodan Milosevic died in 2006 while on trial for genocide by a UN war crimes tribunal.
5. Deploying Missiles Instead of Soldiers—Elsewhere, President Clinton remained willing to deploy American power when he could send missiles rather than soldiers and proved willing to act without international support or UN sanction; in August 1998, bombs exploded at the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania; Clinton responded with missile attacks on terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and facilities in Sudan controlled by Osama bin Laden.
6. Diplomacy in the Middle East—Clinton launched bombing attacks on Iraq in 1993, 1996, and repeatedly between 1998 and 2000; elsewhere in the Middle East, he used diplomatic rather than military power, continuing the decades-long efforts to ameliorate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

16. III. The United States in a Globalizing World
B. Debates over Globalization 1. A global marketplace 2. Free trade 3. Globalization’s critics
III. The United States in a Globalizing World
B. Debates over Globalization
1. A Global Marketplace—The Clinton administration moved energetically to speed up the growth of a “global marketplace”; late-twentieth-century globalization advanced among sovereign nations and involved the industrialization of less developed areas such as Korea and China; new communications technology like the Internet and cell phones connected individuals and organizations at greater speed and less cost than ever before.
2. Free Trade—Building on steps taken by Presidents Reagan and Bush, Clinton sought new measures to ease restrictions on international commerce; in 1993, Congress approved the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which eliminated all tariffs and trade barriers among the United States, Canada, and Mexico; organized labor and others fearing the loss of jobs and industries to Mexico opposed the act; in 1994, the Senate ratified the General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade; established the World Trade Organization, which led to intense protests in Seattle in 1999.
3. Globalization’s Critics—Globalization controversies often centered on relationships between the United States, which dominated the world’s industrial core, and the developing nations on the periphery, whose cheap labor and lax environmental standards attracted investors; opponents of globalization enjoyed a few successes, including a 2000 executive order from President Clinton requiring an environmental impact review before signing any trade agreement as well as a 2000 promise from the World Bank and IMF to provide poor nations with more debt relief and a greater voice in decisions about loans and grants.

17. III. The United States in a Globalizing World
C. The Internationalization of the United States 1. Foreign investment 2. Immigration 3. Racial anxiety 4. An international, interracial society 5. Diversity of social classes
III. The United States in a Globalizing World
C. The Internationalization of the United States
1. Foreign Investment—Globalization was typically associated with the expansion of American enterprise and culture to other countries, yet the United States itself experienced the dynamic forces of globalization within its own borders; by 2002, the paychecks of nearly four million American workers came from foreign-owned companies.
2. Immigration—Globalization transformed not just the economy but society as well, as the United States experienced a tremendous surge of immigration during the late twentieth century; by 2006, the country’s 35.7 million immigrants constituted 12.4 percent of the population; vast majority came from Asia and Latin America; Latinos became the largest minority group in the nation.
3. Racial Anxiety—The racial composition of the new immigration heightened the centuries-old wariness of the native-born toward recent arrivals, based on the beliefs that immigrants took jobs from Americans, suppressed wages, and eroded the dominant culture; the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 penalized employers who hired undocumented aliens but granted amnesty to two million illegal immigrants who had been in the country before 1982.
4. An International, Interracial Society—The new immigration was making America an international, interracial society, and not just along the coasts; immigrants dispersed throughout the country; reflecting this diversity, beginning in 2000 Americans could check more than one racial category on the census.
5. Diversity of Social Classes—Like their predecessors a hundred years earlier, the majority of post-1965 immigrants were unskilled and poor, although some were highly skilled and sought after by high-tech industries; by 2006, nearly one-third of software developers were foreign born, as were 28 percent of all physicians.

18. IV. President George W. Bush: Conservatism at Home and Radical Initiatives Abroad
A. The Disputed Election of The candidates 2. Contested results 3. Recount denied
IV. President George W. Bush: Conservatism at Home and Radical Initiatives Abroad
A. The Disputed Election of 2000
1. The Candidates—The Clinton administration ended with a flourishing economy and Democratic candidate Vice President Albert Gore hoped to retain the White House for his party in the election of 2000, but he was seen as pompous and burdened by the Clinton administration’s scandals; Texas governor George W. Bush emerged as the Republican nominee from a series of bountifully funded, hard-fought primaries.
2. Contested Results—Many observers predicted that the strong economy would give Gore the edge, and he did surpass Bush by more than half a million votes; once the polls closed, however, it became clear that whoever won Florida’s 25 electoral college votes would capture the election.
3. Recount Denied—Democrats asked for hand-counting of Florida ballots in several heavily Democratic counties where machine errors and confusing ballots may have left hundreds of votes unrecorded; Republicans went to court to try to stop the hand-counts; the outcome of the 2000 election hung in the balance for more than a month until a bitterly divided Supreme Court ruled five to four against further recounts of the Florida votes, and Gore conceded the presidency to Bush.

20. IV. President George W. Bush: Conservatism at Home and Radical Initiatives Abroad
B. The Domestic Policies of a “Compassionate Conservative” 1. Religion 2. The economy 3. The environment 4. The court 5. No child left behind 6. Health care 7. Katrina
IV. President George W. Bush: Conservatism at Home and Radical Initiatives Abroad
B. The Domestic Policies of a “Compassionate Conservative”
1. Religion—Bush immediately established the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives to encourage religious groups to participate in government programs; federal courts ruled in several dozen cases that ministries were using government funds to indoctrinate the people they served.
2. The Economy—Bush introduced two huge tax cuts, one in 2001 and one in 2003, which the administration claimed would promote economic growth; critics argued the cuts would favor the rich and increase the record-high federal deficit; deficit passed $400 billion in 2004 and $1 trillion in 2009; made the United States increasingly dependent on China and other foreign investors who held more than half of that debt.
3. The Environment—Bush altered environmental policy by issuing regulations that did not require congressional approval; subordinated environmental protection to larger goals of reducing government regulation, promoting economic growth, and increasing energy production; the administration withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol on global warming; while environmentalists pushed for measures to limit American energy consumption, the administration called for more rapid development of energy resources and provided subsidies to producers of oil, coal, nuclear power, and alternative sources of energy.
4. The Court—Conservatives hailed Bush’s appointment of two new Supreme Court justices, John Roberts, named Chief Justice, and staunch conservative Samuel Alito.
5. No Child Left Behind—In contrast to the partisan conflict that attended tax and environmental policy, Bush mobilized bipartisan support behind his education initiative, the “No Child Left Behind” Act of 2002; marked the greatest change in federal education policy since the 1960s; but by 2004, most states were straining to meet the demands of the new education standards as they struggled with severe budget crises.
6. Health Care—The Bush administration’s second major effort to co-opt Democratic Party issues came in the form of health care reform for seniors, reform which included a prescription drug benefit and an expanded role for private insurers in the Medicare system; medical costs and the number of uninsured Americans continued to soar.
7. Katrina—The Bush administration’s handling of Hurricane Katrina found little approval anywhere; shook a deeply rooted assumption held by Americans: that government owed its citizens protection from natural disasters; federal, state, and local officials had not built the levees to withstand such a deluge and failed to rescue citizens once the levees broke.

21. IV. President George W. Bush: Conservatism at Home and Radical Initiatives Abroad
C. The Globalization of Terrorism 1. 9/11 2. A global alliance against terror 3. Liberty versus security 4. Stretching presidential powers 5. The Department of Homeland Security
IV. President George W. Bush: Conservatism at Home and Radical Initiatives Abroad
C. The Globalization of Terrorism
1. 9/11—On the morning of September 11, 2001, four U.S. civilian airplanes were hijacked by members of Al Qaeda and crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a field in Pennsylvania, killing nearly 2,800 people, including citizens and immigrants from 90 countries; attacks were organized by Al Qaeda’s leader Osama bin Laden from Afghanistan, where the radical Muslim Taliban government had taken control after the Soviet departure.
2. A Global Alliance against Terror—In the wake of the September 11 attacks, President Bush sought a global alliance against terrorism and won at least verbal support from most governments; on October 11, the United States and Britain began bombing Afghanistan; Taliban government destroyed by December, but bin Laden eluded capture until U.S. forces killed him in 2011.
3. Liberty versus Security—At home, the balance between liberty and security tilted, as anti-immigrant sentiment revived and authorities arrested more than one thousand Arabs and Muslims, holding many in prison for months even though they had not been charged with any crimes related to the attacks; Congress passed the USA Patriot Act on October 2001, which gave the government new powers to monitor suspected terrorists and their associates, including the ability to pry personal information about suspected individuals from libraries, universities, and businesses; Patriot Act soon provoked calls for revision from conservatives and liberals.
4. Stretching Presidential Powers—Insisting that presidential powers were virtually limitless in times of national crisis, Bush stretched his powers until he met resistance from the courts and Congress; in 2006, the Supreme Court ruled that the special military tribunals established in 2001 violated international law; congressional leaders openly criticized the administration for wiretapping calls made and received by U.S. residents without obtaining warrants; a federal court later ruled that the wiretapping program was unconstitutional.
5. The Department of Homeland Security—The government also sought to protect Americans from future terrorist attacks by the biggest reorganization of the executive branch since 1948; included the creation of a new Department of Homeland Security; chief responsibilities were intelligence analysis, border security, chemical, biological, and nuclear countermeasures, and emergency preparedness and response.

24. IV. President George W. Bush: Conservatism at Home and Radical Initiatives Abroad
D. Unilateralism, Preemption, and the Iraq War 1. A go-it-alone approach 2. War in Iraq 3. Iraqi resentment 4. The election of Transferring sovereignty 6. A tarnished image and political fallout
IV. President George W. Bush: Conservatism at Home and Radical Initiatives Abroad
D. Unilateralism, Preemption, and the Iraq War
1. A Go-It-Alone Approach—In contrast to the administration’s search for a collective action against the Taliban, on many other international issues, the Bush administration adopted a go-it-alone approach; it withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol, violated international rules about the treatment of military prisoners, scrapped the Antiballistic Missile Treaty in order to develop the space-based missile-defense system, withdrew the United States from the UN’s International Criminal Court, and rejected an agreement to enforce bans on development and possession of biological weapons.
2. War in Iraq—Nowhere was the new policy of unilateralism more striking than in a new war against Iraq, a war pushed by Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld but not by Secretary of State Colin Powell; in an address to West Point graduates in June 2002, Bush proclaimed a new policy for American security that scuttled a defense strategy based on containment for one based on preemption; distressed most allies; administration moved deliberately to apply the doctrine of preemption to Iraq, whose dictator Saddam Hussein had violated UN resolutions from the 1991 Gulf War that required Iraq to destroy and stop further development of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons; Bush also claimed Hussein had ties to Al Qaeda and possessed of weapons of mass destruction; invaded Iraq on March 19, 2003, and Bush declared victory on May 1.
3. Iraqi Resentment—Chaos followed the quick victory over Hussein; U.S. troops failed to secure order or provide basic necessities; while Arabs were glad to see the end of Hussein, many did not welcome American troops; the administration had not planned adequately for the occupation; the 140,000 American forces in Iraq came under attacks almost daily from terrorist groups.
4. The Election of 2004—The war became an issue in the presidential election campaign of 2004, which registered the highest voter turnout since 1968; Bush won a narrow victory over Massachusetts senator John Kerry.
5. Transferring Sovereignty—In June 2004, the United States transferred sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government, and in January 2005, about 58 percent of Iraqis risked their lives to elect a national assembly; but violence only escalated.
6. A Tarnished Image and Political Fallout—By early in 2006, when U.S. military deaths exceeded 2,200 and Iraqi civilian casualties reached tens of thousands, public opinion polls found a majority of Americans believed the Iraq war to be a mistake; the war and occupation hurt the nation’s reputation in the world, especially after revelations of prisoner abuse in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the Guantanámo detention camp in Cuba; anti-Americanism around the world rose to its highest point in history; voters registered their dissatisfaction with the war in the 2006 congressional elections, turning control of both houses back to the Democrats for the first time since 1994; Bush responded to voters’ sentiments by replacing Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, but he clung to his goal of democracy in the Middle East, even as the situation in Iraq deteriorated.

26. V. The Obama Presidency: Reform and Backlash
1. The election of The recession 3. Health care reform 4. Foreign policy 5. The 2010 midterm elections
V. The Obama Presidency: Reform and Backlash
1. The Election of 2008—The Republicans nominated John McCain, a Vietnam War hero and senator from Arizona, who chose as his running mate Alaska governor Sarah Palin; Barack Obama edged out New York senator and former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination; Obama won the nomination with a campaign strategy based on grassroots and Internet organizing and the ability to speak to longings for a new kind of politics and racial reconciliation; defeated McCain, while Democrats increased their majorities in Congress.
2. The Recession—Obama pledged to pursue reforms in health care, education, the environment, and immigration policy, but he confronted the worst economic crisis since the 1980s; fueled by a breakdown of financial institutions thanks to the making of loans for overpriced houses to people who could not afford to repay them; Obama passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, $787 billion worth of spending to stimulate the economy; also pushed Congress to expand regulation with the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
3. Health Care Reform—Obama’s most substantial achievement was passage of a health care reform bill over unanimous Republican opposition; the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 extended health coverage to 30 million Americans; greatest expansion of government since the Great Society.
4. Foreign Policy—Obama reached out to Muslim nations, recommitted the United States to multilateralism, and worked to contain the proliferation of nuclear weapons; removed combat troops from Iraq, but increased the number of troops in Afghanistan.
5. The 2010 Midterm Elections—The midterm elections served as a sharp rebuke to Obama; gave the House to Republicans and cut the Democratic majority in the Senate; a vocal minority of older and mostly white voters expressed their fury at what they considered an overreaching government by joining the Tea Party revolt; this intensely polarized political environment would imperil Obama’s agenda.

28. 1. How does this cartoon portray Hillary Clinton?
(Answer: Based on The Wizard of Oz, the cartoon portrays Clinton as a wicked witch. Her broom reads “smear campaign,” indicating that the artist believed she acted desperately in trying to defeat Obama. Obama’s victory is signified by Clinton’s melting, just as Dorothy defeated the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz.)
2. Do you think the artist was a supporter of Barack Obama?
(Answer: Yes and no; the artist portrays Obama as Dorothy, which feminizes him, but also shows him as the protagonist in the situation. His bucket reads “high-minded rhetoric,” which indicates that the artist believed Obama’s oratorical skill masked his lack of experience and knowledge. However, his skills also seem to be the key to defeating Clinton/the witch. The cat asking “Ding Dong?” questions whether or not Obama’s tactics will succeed against Clinton, in other words, will Dorothy kill the Wicked Witch?)