Bill Clinton

Served as President from 1993-2001
Era: The Conservative Resurgence
American Identity and Culture
During President Clinton’s presidency, the United States was becoming more and more racially and culturally diverse. At the same time, life spans were increasing meaning people were living to older ages. By the year 2000, more than 35 million Americans were over the age of 65 and an even larger amount of Americans over the age of 85. With more people living to an older age, there was more emphasis on concerns such as health care, senior retirement homes, social security, and prescription of drugs. During this time, another concern that escalated was the fact that the numbers of single parent households in America were increasing, while the traditional family ideal was decreasing. In the year 2000, families ran by a single mother had hit a staggering amount of 17.6 percent of the American population which is equivalent to 12.8 million families.
Economic Transformations and Globalization
During President Clinton’s presidency, there was a dramatic increase in communications, trade, and capital spreading around across the world due to globalization. Globalization advocated for more development in regional and global economic establishments.In 1994, the World Trade Organization was created to make sure trade rules were being followed, to supervise trade agreements, and to settle any economical disputes. The same year, the International Monetary Fund was created as well as the World Bank. Together, these organizations gave out loans and enforced commercial policies in nations that were stuck in debt.In 2002, 12 nations inthe European Union, which was a union in which 15 nations agreed to have a unified market, decided to have one currency (the euro) that will be accepted in any of the 12 participating nations.
Environment
During President Clinton’s presidency,President Clinton supported many environmental causes. As President, President Clinton used his presidential powers to draft more than 10 new monuments in the United States. These national monuments preserved over 4.6 million acres of land. In 2000, President Clinton personally visited Bangladesh to publicly tell everyone that he has set aside 84 million dollars to help clean energy in areas of South Asia.President Clinton focused on creating alternative energy sources and thus his administration created more than fifty programs to help improve the efficiency of energy and to develop new renewable sources of energy. President Clinton enforced the Safe Drinking Water Act by forcing over 55 thousand water companies to provide reports by their customers explaining the quality of the water. Due to President Clinton’s actions, approximately 90 percent of the water Americans drink are up to par with the federal government’s standards.
Politics and Citizenship
During President Clinton’s first term as President, the Democratic Congress passed the Family and Medical Leave Act in 1993. Also in 1993, President Clinton passed the “motor-voter” law that allowed citizens of the United States with a driver’s license to be able to vote. In his Brady Handgun bill, the bill established that a person must wait for five-days before being able to buy a handgun. The following year, Congress passed President Clinton’s Anti-Crime Bill which gave 30 billion dollars to fund more police and anti-crime programs. To aid in crime prevention, Congress prohibited the sale of any weapons deemed “dangerous” or that could be used to assault anyone.
Slavery and its legacies in North America
As the first president to be from the baby boom generation, President Clinton had received much support for the African Americans living in the United States. As one of President Clinton’s main beliefs, Clinton wanted to improve relationships between different races. In the year 1998, famous New York writer Toni Morrison calls President Clinton the “first Black president” because he grew up raised by one parent, born in a poor middle class family. Also because President Clinton loves eating McDonalds, knows how to play the saxophone, and because President Clinton has experienced people stereotyping him which is an experience many African Americans go through.
War and Diplomacy
In 1993, President Clinton sent troops to Somalia for humanitarian missions. Many of the American troops died there. In 1994, President Clinton sent 20 thousand troops to Haiti in hopes of restoring the elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. In 1998, the United States helped compromise a stop to British control over the island of Northern Ireland. Asia during the 1990s, became increasingly scary as more Asian nations began experimenting with nuclear weapons. At the time North Korea had many prominent nuclear developing programs going on, but agreed to stop development of nuclear weapons after negotiating with President Clinton’s administration. Despite giving agreement, North Korea continued the development of nuclear weapons in secrecy. In 1995, the United States formed a military alliance with Vietnam. At the same time, the United States also were signing commercial agreements with China in hopes of strengthening more diplomatic relationships with Asia.