Objective

• To determine the extent to which George H. W. Bush carried on the “Reagan Revolution”.

The Presidency of George H.W. Bush

I. Election of 1988

I. Election of 1988

• Election of 1988

– Low voter turnout (50.1 percent)

– Most attribute low turnout to negativity of the campaign.

– Bush won with the promise of no new taxes.

II. Domestic Policy

• “Betrayal of the Reagan Revolution”?– By 1990, the US had entered another

recession– Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990

• Raised Taxes (oops)

– Savings and Loans industry collapsed. The President reached a compromise with Congress that ended up costing taxpayers more than $100 billion.

II. Domestic Policy

• “Betrayal of the Reagan Revolution”?– The Americans with Disabilities Act (1990)

• made it illegal for employers to discriminate against the disabled, guaranteed the disabled adequate access to places of business and public venues, expanded access to transportation

– Clean Air Act (1990)• Exxon-Valdez • reducing urban smog, curbing acid rain, and

eliminating industrial emissions of toxic chemicals

III. Foreign Policy

• A Changing World

– Glasnost and perestroika awakened a spirit of nationalism in the subject nations of Eastern Europe.

– Gorbachev knew the USSR could not support the ailing Eastern European economies.

– He ordered a large troop pullback from the region and warned leaders to adopt reforms.

III. Foreign Policy

The Fall of the Wall

• To calm rising protests in East Germany, the government opened the gates of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989.

– Thousands of East Berliners poured into West Berlin.

– Spontaneous destruction of the wall

• Less than a year later, East Germany and West Germany were reunified as one country.

III. Foreign Policy

The Soviet Union Crumbles– Beginning in 1990, Soviet republics started

declaring their independence.– Boris Yeltsin, the leader of the Russian

Republic, helped foil a hard-liners’ coup against Gorbachev in 1991.

– Gorbachev resigned as president and the Soviet Union dissolved.

III. Foreign Policy

• Panama– US invasion of Panama to remove the dictator

Colonel Manuel Noriega on drug charges (Operation Just Cause).

– Largely successful, but led some to believe that American interventionism in Latin America would continue after the Cold War

III. Foreign Policy

• China and Tiananmen Square (1989)

– Chinese students called on their Communist leaders to embrace reforms.

– Led huge pro-democracy demonstrations that filled Tiananmen Square.

– Tanks surrounded the protesters and opened fire. Hundreds(?) were killed.

– Bush announced an arms embargo… whoopee!

III. Foreign Policy

The Persian Gulf War (August, 1990- Feb 1991)– Iraq’s Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990.

– The UN imposed sanctions but the deadline passed.

– US commenced Operation Desert Storm in Jan. of 1991

– Made Bush incredibly popular (for a while)

IV. Election of 1992