What cultural conflicts emerged in the 1990s

What cultural conflicts emerged in the 1990s?

F O C U S Q U E S T I O N S What were the major international initiatives of the Clinton administration in the aftermath of the Cold War?

What forces drove the economic resurgence of the 1990s?

What cultural conflicts emerged in the 1990s?

How did a divisive political partisanship affect the election of 2000?

Why did Al Qaeda attack the United States on September 11, 2001?

F R O M T R I U M P H T O T R A G E D Y

★ C H A P T E R 2 7 ★

1 9 8 9 – 2 0 0 1

The year 1989 was one of the most momentous of the twentieth century. In April, tens of thousands of student demonstrators occupied Tianan-men Square in the heart of Beijing, demanding greater democracy in China. Workers, teachers, and even some government officials joined them, until their numbers swelled to nearly 1 million. Both the reforms Mikhail Gorbachev had introduced in the Soviet Union and the example of American institutions inspired the protesters. The students erected a figure reminiscent of the Statue of Liberty, calling it “The Goddess of Democracy and Freedom.” In June, Chinese troops crushed the protest, killing an unknown number of people, possibly thousands.

In the fall of 1989, pro- democracy demonstrations spread across eastern Europe. Gorbachev made it clear that unlike in the past, the Soviet Union

★ 1071

1072 ★ CHAPTER 27 From Triumph to Tragedy

would not intervene. The climactic event took place on November 9 when crowds breached the Berlin Wall, which since 1961 had stood as the Cold War’s most prominent symbol. One by one, the region’s communist govern- ments agreed to give up power. In 1990, a reunified German nation absorbed East Germany. The remarkably swift and almost entirely peaceful collapse of communism in eastern Europe became known as the “velvet revolution.”

Meanwhile, the Soviet Union itself slipped deeper and deeper into crisis. Gorbachev’s attempts at economic reform produced only chaos, and his policy of political openness allowed long- suppressed national and eth- nic tensions to rise to the surface. In August 1991, a group of military lead- ers attempted to seize power to over- turn the government’s plan to give greater autonomy to the various parts of the Soviet Union. Russian president Boris Yeltsin mobilized crowds in Mos- cow that restored Gorbachev to office. Gorbachev then resigned from the Communist Party, ending its eighty-

four- year rule. One after another, the republics of the Soviet Union declared themselves sovereign states. At the end of 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist; in its place were fifteen new independent nations.

The sudden and unexpected collapse of communism marked the end of the Cold War and a stunning triumph for the United States and its allies. For the first time since 1917, there existed a truly worldwide capitalist system. Even China, while remaining under Communist Party rule, had already embarked on market reforms and rushed to attract foreign investment. Other events sug- gested that the 1990s would also be a “decade of democracy.” In 1990, South Africa released Nelson Mandela, head of the African National Congress, from prison. Four years later, as a result of the first democratic elections in the coun- try’s history, Mandela became president, ending the system of state- sponsored racial inequality, known as “apartheid,” and white minority government.

The Goddess of Democracy and Freedom, a statue reminiscent of the Statue of Liberty, was displayed by pro- democracy advocates during the 1989 demonstrations in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. After allowing it to continue for two months, the Chinese government sent troops to crush the peaceful occupation of the square.

THE POST– COLD WAR WORLD ★ 1073

Throughout Latin America and Africa, civil- ian governments replaced military rule.

The sudden shift from a bipolar world to one of unquestioned American predominance promised to redefine the country’s global role. President George H. W. Bush spoke of the com- ing of a new world order. But no one knew what its characteristics would be and what new challenges to American power might arise.

T H E P O S T– C O L D W A R W O R L D A New World Order?

Bush’s first major foreign policy action was a throwback to the days of American interven- tionism in the Western Hemisphere. At the end of 1989, he dispatched troops to Panama to overthrow the government of General Manuel Antonio Noriega, a former ally of the United States who had become involved in the international drug trade. The United States installed a new government and flew Noriega to Florida, where he was tried and convicted on drug charges.

The Gulf War

A far more serious crisis arose in 1990 when Iraq invaded and annexed Kuwait, an oil- rich sheikdom on the Persian Gulf. Fearing that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein might next attack Saudi Arabia, a longtime ally that supplied more oil to the United States than any other country, Bush rushed troops to defend Kuwait and warned Iraq to with- draw from the country or face war. His policy aroused intense debate in the United States. But the Iraqi invasion so flagrantly violated

1989 Communism falls in eastern Europe

U.S.-led Panamanian coup

1990 Americans with Disabilities Act

Germany reunifies

1991 Gulf War

Dissolution of the Soviet Union

1992 Los Angeles riots

Casey v. Planned Parent- hood of Pennsylvania

Clinton elected president

1993 Israel and Palestine Liber- ation Organization sign the Oslo Accords

North American Free Trade Agreement approved

1994 Republicans win Congress; Contract with America

Rwandan genocide

1995 Oklahoma City federal building bombed

1996 Clinton eliminates Aid to Families with Dependent Children

Defense of Marriage Act

1998– Clinton impeachment 1989 proceedings

Kosovo War

1999 Protests in Seattle against the World Trade Organization

Glass- Steagall Act repealed

2000 Bush v. Gore

2001 9/11 attacks

What were the major international initiatives of the Clinton administration in the aftermath of the Cold War?

1074 ★ CHAPTER 27 From Triumph to Tragedy

international law that Bush succeeded in building a forty- nation coalition com- mitted to restoring Kuwait’s independence, secured the support of the United Nations, and sent half a million American troops along with a naval armada to the region.

In February 1991, the United States launched Operation Desert Storm, which quickly drove the Iraqi army from Kuwait. Tens of thousands of Iraqis and 184 Americans died in the conflict. The United Nations ordered Iraq to disarm and imposed economic sanctions that produced widespread civilian suffering for the rest of the decade. But Hussein remained in place. So did a large American military establishment in Saudi Arabia, to the outrage of Islamic fundamental- ists who deemed its presence an affront to their faith.

The Gulf War was the first post– Cold War international crisis. Relying on high- tech weaponry like cruise missiles that reached Iraq from bases and aircraft carriers hundreds of miles away, the United States was able to prevail quickly and avoid the prolonged involvement and high casualties of Vietnam. The Soviet Union, in the process of disintegration, remained on the sidelines. In the war’s immediate aftermath, Bush’s public approval rating rose to an unprecedented 89 percent.

Visions of America’s Role

In a speech to Congress, President Bush identified the Gulf War as the first step in the struggle to create a world rooted in democracy and global free trade. But it remained unclear how this broad vision would be translated into policy. Soon after the end of the war, General Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Dick Cheney, the secretary of defense, outlined different visions of the future. Powell predicted that the post– Cold War world would be a dangerous environment with conflicts popping up in unexpected places. To avoid being drawn into an unending role as global policeman, he insisted, the United States should not commit its troops abroad without clear objectives and a timetable for withdrawal. Cheney argued that with the demise of the Soviet Union, the United States possessed the power to reshape the world and prevent hostile states from achieving regional power. It must be willing to use force, independently if necessary, to maintain its strategic dominance. For the rest of the 1990s, it was not certain which definition of the American role in the post– Cold War world would predominate.

The Election of Clinton

Had a presidential election been held in 1991, Bush would undoubtedly have been victorious. But in that year the economy slipped into recession. Despite

THE POST– COLD WAR WORLD ★ 1075

Tiranë Sofia

Prague

Berlin

Helsinki

Athens

Budapest

Rome

Warsaw

Bucharest

Ankara

Belgrade

Minsk

Sarajevo

Podgorica

Zagreb

Tallinn

Riga

Vilnius

Skopje

Bratislava

Ljubljana

KievVienna

Copenhagen

Oslo

Stockholm

Moscow

¸Chisinau˘

Yerevan Baku

Tbilisi

Ashgabat

ITALY

GERMANY

CZECH REPUBLIC

SLOVAKIA AUSTRIA

HUNGARYSLOVENIA CROATIA

BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA

MONTENEGRO SERBIA

ALBANIA MACEDONIA

GREECE TURKEY

ROMANIA

BULGARIA

MOLDOVA

UKRAINE

POLAND

RUS. LITHUANIA

LATVIA

ESTONIA

BELARUS

NORWAY

SWEDEN

FINLAND

DENMARK RUSSIA

KAZAKHSTAN

UZBEKISTAN

TURKMENISTAN GEORGIA

AZERBAIJANARMENIA

Black Sea

Caspian Sea

Aral Sea

Bal tic

Se a

North Sea

0

0

250

250

500 miles

500 kilometers

E A S T E R N E U R O P E A F T E R T H E C O L D WA R

The end of the Cold War and breakup of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia redrew the map of eastern Europe (compare this map with the map of Cold War Europe in Chapter 23). Two additional nations that emerged from the Soviet Union lie to the east and are not indicated here: Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

victory in the Cold War and the Gulf, more and more Americans believed the country was on the wrong track. No one seized more effectively on the widespread sense of unease than Bill Clinton, a former governor of Arkansas. In 1992, Clinton won the Democratic nomination by combining social liberal- ism (he supported abortion rights, gay rights, and affirmative action for racial

What were the major international initiatives of the Clinton administration in the aftermath of the Cold War?

1076 ★ CHAPTER 27 From Triumph to Tragedy

minorities) with elements of conservatism (he pledged to reduce government bureaucracy and, borrowing a page from Republicans, promised to “end wel- fare as we know it”). A charismatic campaigner, Clinton conveyed sincere con- cern for voters’ economic anxieties.

Bush, by contrast, seemed out of touch with the day- to- day lives of ordi- nary Americans. On the wall of Democratic headquarters, Clinton’s campaign director posted the slogan, “It’s the Economy, Stupid”—a reminder that the eco- nomic downturn was the Democrats’ strongest card. Bush was further weak- ened when conservative leader Pat Buchanan delivered a fiery televised speech at the Republican national convention that declared cultural war against gays, feminists, and supporters of abortion rights. This seemed to confirm the Demo- cratic portrait of Republicans as intolerant and divisive.

A third candidate, the eccentric Texas billionaire Ross Perot, also entered the fray. He attacked Bush and Clinton as lacking the economic know- how to deal with the recession and the ever- increasing national debt. That millions of Americans considered Perot a credible candidate— at one point, polls showed him leading both Clinton and Bush— testified to widespread dissatisfaction with the major parties. Perot’s support faded as election day approached, but he still received 19 percent of the popular vote, the best result for a third- party candidate since Theodore Roosevelt in 1912. Clinton won by a substan- tial margin, a humiliating outcome for Bush, given his earlier popularity.

Clinton in Office

In his first two years in office, Clinton turned away from some of the social and economic policies of the Reagan and Bush years. He appointed several blacks and women to his cabinet, including Janet Reno, the first female attorney gen- eral, and named two supporters of abortion rights, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, to the Supreme Court. He modified the military’s strict ban on gay soldiers, instituting a “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy by which officers would not seek out gays for dismissal from the armed forces. His first budget raised taxes on the wealthy and significantly expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)—a cash payment for low- income workers begun during the Ford administration. The most effective antipoverty policy since the Great Society, the EITC raised more than 4 million Americans, half of them children, above the poverty line during Clinton’s presidency.

Clinton shared his predecessor’s passion for free trade. Despite strong oppo- sition from unions and environmentalists, he obtained congressional approval in 1993 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a treaty nego- tiated by Bush that created a free- trade zone consisting of Canada, Mexico, and the United States.