THE PRESIDENCY OF GEORGE BUSH

Conservative suspicions of Bush increased during the first months of this presidency. Many considered his stated desires for a “kinder, gentler America” to be efforts to distance himself from the social policies of former-president Reagan. Bush’s major domestic problem was an evergrowing federal deficit. To broker a deal with Congress to lower the deficit, Bush broke his campaign promise of “no new taxes” and in 1990 signed a bill authorizing tax increases. Many conservatives never forgave him for his decision. During Bush’s term, few substantive domestic programs were instituted; some commentators complained of the gridlock created by a Republican president and a Democratic congress.

During the presidency of George Bush, the 45-ycar-old Cold War ended. In late 1988 Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev admitted to Communist party leaders that the incredible amount of the Soviet economy that was devoted to military spending and to “protecting” the satellite countries was preventing economic growth of any type from taking place. In 1989 the Soviets began to withdraw support from the satellite states; many in Moscow naively believed that communist leaders in the satellite states could remain in power without being propped up by the Soviet Union. In Poland, Solidarity, the noncommunist labor party, removed the communist government from power; throughout late 1989 communists were removed from power in all of the satellite nations. Many of the republics of the Soviet Union also desired independence. In December of 1991 Russian President Boris Yeltsin announced the abolition of the Soviet Union and the creation of 11 independent republics.

A large amount of American aid was pumped into Russia and the other Eastern European states. American academics rushed to Moscow and other major centers in the region, explaining to leaders how capitalism could be introduced in the shortest amount of time. This transition proved much more difficult than many would have ever believed; as this volume is being written, this process is still not completed in Russia and Eastern Europe.

American aid was also sent to help several of the former Soviet republics dismantle the nuclear missiles that had been placed there in the Cold War era. The meaning of the Cold War is still being debated by academics; whether the United States won the Cold War or whether the Soviet Union lost it is still a topic of numerous books and historical papers.

The central crisis of the Bush presidency began on August 2, 1990, when the army of Iraq invaded Kuwait. Fears that Saddam Hussein’s next target would be Saudi Arabia, the largest importer of oil to the United States, pushed the United States into action. Almost immediately, in Operation “Desert Shield” large numbers of American troops were sent to protect Saudi Arabia.

Encouraged by the United States, members states of the United Nations condemned the Iraqi aggression and authorized the creation of a multinational military force to remove Saddam Hussein from Kuwait. The high point of the Bush presidency was the personal diplomacy undertaken by the presidency to get almost all of the states of the Middle East to support military action against Iraq. On February 24, 1991, a ground offensive, termed Operation “Desert Storm.” was instituted against Iraq. Iraqi casualties were over 40,000, while the Americans (who made up most of the troops of the UN international force) lost 150 soldiers in battle. Iraqi soldiers surrendered by the hundreds as they retreated from Kuwait. In a decision that would later be questioned, American forces did not move into Iraq and force Saddam Hussein from power. It should be noted that was not part of the United Nations mandate, and such an action would have definitely created division in the Middle Eastern coalition so carefully crafted by Rush.

Bush’s popularity was at an all time high after Desert Storm. However, problems soon arose that his administration seemed incapable of solving. A recession and continued economic difficulties hit the United States in early 1992. In addition, the end of the Cold War brought new difficulties in several states formerly controlled by the Soviet Union. In the former Yugoslavia, Serbs began to practice “ethnic cleansing” against Bosnian Muslims. Critics of Bush claimed that he lacked any “vision” of what the role of the United States should be in a post-Cold War world.