PRESIDENCY OF GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH

Aim: How did the presidency of the first George Bush impact the

United States?

Election of 1988• Promised to carry out on Reagan’s programs. • “No New Taxes” • Attacked opponent Michael Dukakis as soft on Crime

Difference Between Reagan and Bush Presidency

Reagan

• Reagan had much stronger mandate

Bush

• Democrats controlled the House and Senate

End of the Cold War • Gorbachev was Soviet Leader • Encouraged satellite nations to

support perestroika and glasnost• Popular support in Eastern Europe

for better living conditions and economy

• Increased calls for free trade and free enterprise

• Berlin Wall comes down in 1989• Germany reunited in 1990• Soviet Union collapses around the

same time and renamed Russia• Boris Yeltsin elected President

Mikhail Gorbachev

Persian Gulf Crisis• August 1990: Saddam Hussein

invades Kuwait to gain control of oil there

• US gives deadline of January 15, 1991 to withdraw

• Operation Desert Storm (air assaults) begins on January 16

• Ground war lasts 5 days in February • Entire conflict lasts 42 days• Ends with liberation of Kuwait

• Would be continued by Bush’s son more than 10 years later

US Involvement • US troops weren’t sent onto Iraq to take down Saddam

Hussein• Thought regime was weak and would be overthrown by

opponents within Iraq • Saddam not taken down until current conflict in Iraq,

2003

Panama 1989• Continuation of Reagan’s

War on Drugs• Manuel Noriega (dictator of

Panama) captured and brought to US on drug charges

• Currently in federal prison• 81 years old 2015

Bush’s Approach to the Recession 1990’s

• Slowly spent more on social programs • Launched a deficit reduction plan that included new taxes

Domestic Policy • Budget deficit

• Cut some military spending • Slight increase in taxes • Never made significant impact on deficit

• Supreme Court appointment• David Souter and Clarence Thomas

• Both conservatives

• Civil Rights • Rodney King (LA) police brutality (violently

arrested) causes race riots• 70 killed • Bush fails to take strong stand in favor of King

• Savings and Loan Scandal 1990 • Misuse of funds by savings and loans

institutions surfaced• American taxpayers would pay hundreds of

billions of dollars to bail out the savings and loan industry

David Souter

Clarence Thomas