Transcript The Bush Presidency

The Bush Presidency
Ch. 32
Sec. 2
Pp. 928-933
A New World Order
• George Bush,
Reagan’s V.P. is
elected president
• Democrats control
House and Senate
A Changing Soviet Union
• Soviet leader
Gorbachev wanted to
end arms race and
reform the Soviet
Union
• 1991 – Strategic Arms
Reduction Treaty
(START) – US and
USSR agreed to
destroy nuclear
weapons for 1st time
Unrest in the Soviet Union
• Shortages of food and
basic goods because
of heavy defense
spending and govt.
mismanagement
• Thousands marched
in Moscow in 1990
demanding an end to
Communist rule
• Unrest spreads
throughout Soviet
Union
A Rising Tide of Freedom
• In Poland, shipyard workers form Solidarity labor
union
• Government forced to hold open elections in
1989
• Communist rule starts to end in Eastern Europe
The Wall Comes Tumbling Down
• Communist govt.
in East Germany
opens Berlin
Wall in 1989
• 1990, East
Germany votes
to reunite with
West Germany
Collapse of Soviet Union
• In USSR, some reformers
wanted faster changes,
but military and secret
police resisted changes
• 1991 – Communist
officials and army
generals stage a coup
(an overthrow of the
govt.)
• Yeltsin, president of
Russian Republic resists
and coup fails
A New Foreign Policy
• Panama – Gen.
Noriega is removed by
US for drug trafficking
• China – economic
reforms, but not
political
• Troops crush student
protests in Tiananmen
Square
• Bush continued to
trade with China
Persian Gulf War
Operation Desert Storm
• Iraq invaded Kuwait in
1990
• Coalition forces under
UN leadership invade
in 1991
• Saddam Hussein was
left in power
• US helps rebuild
Kuwait
• Bush’s popularity is at
90%
War in the Balkans
• Yugoslavia was made
up of several
republics/ethnic groups
• Slovenia, Croatia, and
Bosnia-Herzegovina
declared independence
• Serbs fought them in a
civil war
• 1992 – UN boycotted
trade with Serbia
because of atrocities
Domestic Issues
• During 80s, Reagan
administration had cut
banking regulations
• S&Ls began losing
millions because of
bad loans and
declining real estate
• Federally insured, so
it cost taxpayers
almost $500 billion
Economic Downturn