Transcript Aim: What were the accomplishments of the Clinton

Aim: What were the
accomplishments of the
Clinton administration?
3. President Clinton Works for
Change
► Bill
Clinton’s inauguration in January 1993
signaled change from the conservatism of
the Reagan-Bush years.
► Republicans, Democrats, reporters and the
public closely watched the new President
during his first few weeks in office.
► Despite criticism and a number of setbacks,
Clinton pressed ahead with his reform
platform.
William Jefferson Clinton
3.1 Getting Started
► President
Clinton declared that he wanted
his staff of appointed officials to look like
America.
► He chose persons that he thought
represented all the different people in
America.
► Some of the people Clinton selected were
new to national politics.
► One
of these was Janet Reno, the first
woman ever to be Attorney General of the
United States.
► Others included Henry Cisneros, Secretary
of Housing and Urban Development,
Federico Pena, Secretary of Transportation
and Hazel O’Leary, Department of Energy
while appointing Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the
United States Supreme Court.
Janet Reno-Attorney General
Henry Cisneros-Secretary of Housing
and Urban Development
Federico Pena-Secretary of
Transportation
Hazel O’Leary-Department of Energy
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
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Before the November 1992 election, candidate Bill Clinton
had said that his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, would be an
important member of his administration.
One of President Clinton’s first acts was to name Mrs.
Clinton to create and lead a special task force-a group of
people temporarily working together to accomplish a
certain goal.
The President directed the task force to plan a way for all
Americans to have health insurance.
Although the United States had the most advanced medical
knowledge, not all Americans had insurance to cover their
medical expenses.
President Clinton regarded change in the health care
system vital to economic growth-he made it the
centerpiece of his reform program.
Hillary Rodham Clinton
3.2 Problems at Home
► President
Clinton had to deal with some
unexpected domestic emergencies in the
early months of his administration.
► The three biggest challenges were the
Branch Davidians, the first bombing of the
World Trade Center and the Flooding of the
Midwestern United States.
The Branch Davidians
► On
February 28th, 1993, federal law
enforcement agents raided a compound (a
walled settlement) in Waco, Texas.
► The members of the compound were
members of a religious cult called the
Branch Davidians.
► The agents had obtained warrants because
they had heard members were keeping
illegal weapons on the compound.
► The
Branch Davidians shot and killed four
federal law enforcement agents while
stopping others from entering the
compound.
► Federal agents then surrounded the
compound preventing anything or anyone
from coming or going.
Waco, Texas
► Government
agents still surrounded the
compound when Attorney General Reno
tried unsuccessfully to bring an end to the
standoff.
► Reno, then ordered an attack on the
compound when no end came to the
standoff.
► Federal agents launched tear gas into the
compound. The compound erupted in
flames, killing 80 cult members.
Branch Davidian Compound
Branch Davidian Compound After
David Koresh-Leader of the
Branch Davidians
► Some
Americans questioned the government’s
handling of the Waco standoff and the tragic
ending.
► The issue also addressed two constitutional
questions:
(1) Does religious freedom give people the right to
refuse a legal search by the government?
(2) Does the right to bear arms allow people the
right to build up large stockpiles of weapons?
Terror in New York
► Equally
troubling was a 1993 explosion at
the World Trade Center, the tallest
skyscraper in New York.
► On February 26th, a bomb exploded in the
underground parking lots of the building,
killing 11 and injuring hundreds.
► Several levels of the building were damaged
as a result of the explosion.
► It
became clear that terrorists had planted the
bomb.
► Americans were shocked and frightened because
terrorist attacks in the United States were seldom
if not a rare occurrence.
► Within days the FBI had acquired enough evidence
to identify the persons responsible for the attack.
► The men who were involved were religious
Muslims thought to be connected with nations at
odds with the United States.
World Trade Center
The World Trade Center Attack
1993
Images of the WTC 1993
Images of the WTC 1993
Images of the WTC 1993
Time Magazine
Ramzi Yousef-WTC Conspirator
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Mohammed was involved in the planning
and executing of 9/11.
He was captured soon after the attack.
Flooding in the Midwest
►A
major natural disaster added to the
human-made tragedies facing the new
Clinton administration.
► In the summer of 1993, unusually heavy
rains made the Mississippi and Missouri
Rivers and their tributaries overflow their
banks in the “Great Flood of 1993.”
► People experienced the worst flooding in
the region during this period of time.
► At
Cairo, Illinois, the Mississippi River rose
40 feet above flood level. The flood killed
sixteen and some 22,000 people were
forced from their homes.
► Throughout most of the Mississippi and
Missouri River systems, dwellings were
washed away, crops were ruined and whole
towns were destroyed.
► President
Clinton made several trips to the
flooded areas and promised federal disaster
funds.
► Clinton asked Congress for $2.4 billion
dollars in aid.
► Many people believed that this was a paltry
sum and would only cover some of the
losses.
Cairo, Illinois
The Flood of 1993
Levees Built After the 1993 Flood
3.3 Challenges in Foreign Policy
► Even
before Clinton took office on January
20, 1993, foreign affairs were becoming an
issue that the new president would have to
deal with early in his administration.
► The areas that the Clinton administration
would deal with included Somalia, Eastern
Europe, the Middle East and Haiti.
War and Famine in Somalia
► During
the last year of the Bush presidency,
Americans saw terrible scenes in the East
African nation of Somalia.
► The United Nations sent bundles of food to
the area. The United States began sending
food in September 1992 and these
deliveries did not solve the crisis brewing in
the nation.
Somalia
► Civil
war, along with famine, troubled
Somalia.
► Local civil war leaders, called warlords, led
armed gangs who stole donated food
supplies and sold them for profit.
► Meanwhile many Somalians died from
starvation, many of them in the rural areas
outside the capital city of Mogadishu.
► Many Americans demanded the Bush
administration to do more.
► In
December 1992, President Bush’s
ordered an American humanitarian mission
to Somalia.
► Bush wanted to prevent Somalia’s armed
gangs from stealing food from their own
people.
► President-elect Clinton and many members
of the United States Congress had backed
Bush’s decision.
► On
December 9, about 1,800 United States
Marines arrived in Mogadishu, as
representatives of the United Nations.
► The Marines patrolled the streets and seized
weapons from Somalian warlords.
► After order was restored, more Marine and
Army units arrived with more food and
supplies.
► The
American relief units proceeded from
Mogadishu into the rural areas of the
nation.
► The Americans joined other nations to help
feed and provide medical aid for the Somali
people.
Americans Killed in Somalia
► By
the fall of 1993, the famine conditions in
Somalia had improved.
► Somali farmers began to plant, grow and
harvest crops again.
► People in the United States wanted to know
when the soldiers would return.
► US soldiers were asked by the United
Nations to remain in Somalia to capture
Somali warlord Mohammed Farrah Aidid-a
key player in the civil war.
► Some
Somalis in Mogadishu, however, did
not agree with UN and United States efforts
to capture Aidid.
► In October 1993, Somali street fighters
killed 16 American soldiers and wounded
70.
► People were shocked at the atrocity.
Members of Congress asked President
Clinton to define our policy in Somalia.
► The US withdrew its troops in 1994.
Mohammed Farrah Aidid
Mogadishu, Somalia 1993
Eastern Europe
► Like
his predecessor, Clinton supported
Boris Yeltsin as president of Russia.
► The United States feared that the high
prices in Russia-caused by its shift towards
capitalism-would destroy the Yeltsin
government.
► Yeltsin also faced challenges from old
Russian communist leaders bent returning
Russia back to communism. Clinton asked
our allies to support Yeltsin.
Boris Yeltsin
► Clinton
also continued some of Bush’s
policies towards Yugoslavia.
► In 1991, some of the small republics that
made up Yugoslavia declared their
independence.
► Civil wars broke out in Bosnia and
Herzegovina when well-armed Serbs living
in these states attacked the Muslims who
lived there.
► Like
Bush, Clinton refused to send troops or
weapons to help the Muslims.
► The United States worked with the United
Nations and the nations of Western Europe
to find a way of ending the civil war.
► By the summer of 1993, negotiations
produced a plan to divide Bosnia and
Herzegovina along religious and ethnic lines.
► None of the ethnic groups supported the
plan.
Yugoslavia Before 1991
Yugoslavia After 1992
Genocide in Bosnia
Genocide in Bosnia
Genocide in Bosnia
New Accords in the Middle East
► President
Clinton and his Secretary of State,
Warren Christopher, tried to get Israel and
its Arab neighbors back to negotiating a
peace treaty.
► On August 30, 1993, a surprised world
found out that Israel and the Palestinian
Liberation Organization were negotiating
their own agreements for peace.
► Israel’s
Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin and
the leader of the PLO, Yassir Arafat agreed
to recognize each other as a partner in the
peace process.
► Israel was recognized by the Palestinian
Liberation Organization and the PLO was
given self-rule in the Gaza Strip and the
West Bank.
► Fighting continued for months before the
treaty was signed.
Washington, DC-September 13, 1993