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This article covers the history of the United States from January 1, 1991 to Ddecember 31, 1999, the end of the Cold War with the fall of the Soviet Union to the end of the 20th century.

Globalization and the new economy

Clinton's terms in office will be remembered for the nation's domestic focus during this period. The six years span of 1994 through 2000 witnessed the emergence of what many commentators called a technology-driven "new economy," and relatively high increases in real output, low inflation rates, and a drop in unemployment to below five percent. The Internet and related technologies made their first broad penetrations into the economy, prompting a Wall Street technology-driven bubble, which Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan described in 1996 as "irrational exuberance".

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States was the world's dominant military power and Japan, sometimes seen as the largest economic rival to the U.S., was caught in a period of stagnation. China was emerging as the U.S.'s foremost trading competitor in more and more areas. Localized conflicts such as those in Haiti and the Balkans prompted President Clinton to send in U.S. troops as peacekeepers, reviving the Cold-War-era controversy about whether policing the rest of the world was a proper U.S. role. Islamic radicals overseas loudly threatened assaults against the U.S. for its ongoing military presence in the Middle East, and even staged the first World Trade Center attack, a truck bombing in New York's twin towers, in 1993, as well as a number of deadly attacks on U.S. interests abroad.

Immigration, most of it from Latin America and Asia, swelled during the 1990s, laying the groundwork for great changes in the demographic makeup of the U.S. population in coming decades, such as Hispanics replacing African-Americans as the largest minority.

Events

First Iraq War

The considerable dependence of the industrialized world on oil, with much of the proved oil reserves situated in Middle Eastern countries, became evident to the U.S., first in the aftermath of the 1973 world oil shock and later in the second energy crisis of 1979. Although in real terms oil prices fell back to pre-1973 levels through the 1980s, resulting in a windfall for the oil-consuming nations (especially North America, Western Europe, and Japan), the vast reserves of the leading Middle East producers guaranteed the region its strategic importance. By the early 1990s the politics of oil still proved as hazardous as it did in the early 1970s.

Conflict in the Middle East triggered yet another international crisis on August 2, 1990, when Iraq invaded and attempted to annex neighboring Kuwait, as its nineteenth province. Leading up to the invasion, Iraq complained to the United States Department of State about Kuwaiti slant drilling. This had been ongoing for years, but now Iraq needed oil revenues to pay off its debts from the Iran–Iraq War and avert an economic crisis. Saddam Hussein ordered troops to the Kuwaiti border, creating alarm over the prospect of an invasion. April Glaspie, the United States ambassador to Iraq, met with Saddam in an emergency meeting, where the Iraqi president stated his intention to continue talks. Iraq and Kuwait then met for a final negotiation session, which failed. Saddam then sent his troops into Kuwait.

U.S. officials feared that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was then on the verge of armed conflict with oil-rich Saudi Arabia, a close ally of Washington's since the 1940s. The Western world condemned the invasion as an act of aggression; U.S. President George H. W. Bush compared Saddam to Adolf Hitler and declared that if the United States and international community did not act, aggression would be encouraged elsewhere in the world.

The U.S. and Britain, two of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, convinced the Security Council to give Iraq a deadline to leave Kuwait. The Western world was determined to not let the Kuwaiti oil supply fall under the control of Saddam, fearing it would have a dire impact on the global economy. Saddam at that time was pushing oil exporting countries to raise prices and cut back production. Westerners, however, remembered the destabilizing effects of the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s.

Saddam ignored the deadline and the Security Council declared war on Iraq. The war commenced in January 1991, with U.S. troops forming the majority of the coalition which participated in Operation Desert Storm. By the time Iraqi troops withdrew from Kuwait in late February, Iraq had lost an estimated 20,000 troops, with some sources citing as many as 100,000 casualties on the Iraqi side.

Politics

The Clinton administration

Riding high on the success of the first Gulf War, George H. W. Bush enjoyed very high approval ratings for his job as president. However, economic recession and a reneged campaign pledge dogged Bush, sinking his formerly high approval ratings from the high 80s to the lower 40s and upper 30s. In the wake of Bush's political problems, Bill Clinton won the 1992 contest with 43% of the vote in a three way race against Bush's 38%. Independent candidate Ross Perot tapped the discontent of the electorate with both parties, drawing roughly evenly from both candidates to receive a record 19% of the popular vote, but no electoral votes. Ross Perot's 19% of the vote qualified his Reform Party to receive Federal Election Commission matching funds for campaign contributions in the 1996 election, thus laying the ground work for another three-way race during the 1996 presidential election.

Clinton entered office as one of the youngest presidents in U.S. history and the first of the Baby Boom generation to reach the White House. Promising to focus on and resolve some of the United States' many domestic issues, he entered office with high expectations. Immediately, however, he was troubled by controversy over the personal backgrounds of some of his appointees and by political clashes stemming from his announcement that he would permit homosexuals to serve in the U.S. military.

These events in 1993 seemed to set the pattern for a man who would become one of the more divisive U.S. presidents, regarded with great affection by some and abhorrence by others. One early domestic success of the Clinton Administration was the enactment of the 1993 assault rifle ban. The ban was widely decried by the Republican Party, who allowed it to lapse in 2003 while they controlled both Congress and the presidency. Bill Clinton's 1994 proposal of a national health care system, championed by his wife Hillary Rodham Clinton, ignited a political firestorm on the right, which vigorously opposed it on the general principle that government size should be reduced not expanded. The proposed system did not survive the debate, leaving American health care in its continuing disarray.

The Republican Congress

The New Deal, the Great Society, and Watergate helped solidify Democratic control of Congress, but the 1980s and early 1990s were a period of fragmentation of their coalition, when the popularity of Democratic incumbents as constituent servants masked growing disenchantment with Congress' governing capacities. Democrats suddenly lost control of the House and the Senate for the first time in four decades in the 1994 midterm elections. Once in power, House Republicans, led by Newt Gingrich (left), faced the difficulty of learning to govern after forty years as the minority party while simultaneously pursuing their "Contract with America" which they unveiled on the steps of Congress on September 27, 1994.

Year by year, polarization grew in Washington between the president and his adversaries on the right, the Republicans, which assumed the majority in the House of Representatives in January 1995 and elected Newt Gingrich Speaker of the House. There was a surge in the market of new media outlets that gave more voice to the right. Rush Limbaugh's radio talk show was a spectacular success and a major influence in the GOP legislative victory. The Weekly Standard was formed in 1995 and after the election of George W. Bush would advertise itself as the most read publication in the White House. These new media amplified the ever-louder quarrels, causing some to speak of a new 'culture war' in U.S. politics. The more extreme right-wing voices, which veered into uncompromising hostility toward the Federal government--particularly after the botched Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) raid on the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, were somewhat discredited, however, after the Oklahoma City bombing, in April 1995, by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols.

Along with strong backing from traditional Democrats and liberals, Clinton was able to garner the support of moderates who appreciated his centrist "New Democrat" policies, which steered away from the expansion of government services of the New Deal and Great Society and allowed him to "triangulate", taking away many of the Republicans' top issues. One example of such compromises was welfare reform legislation signed into law in 1996. The new law required welfare recipients to work as a condition of benefits and imposed limits on how long individuals may receive payments, but did allow states to exempt 20% of their caseloads from the time limits. Clinton also pursued tough federal anti-crime measures, steering more federal dollars toward the war on drugs, and calling for the hiring of 100,000 new police officers. By the end of his administration, the federal government had experienced the country's longest economic expansion and produced a budget surplus. The first year of the budget surplus was also the first year since 1969 in which the federal government did not borrow from the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds.

Clinton was reelected in 1996, defeating Republican Senator Bob Dole and Ross Perot who had become the 1996 Reform Party nominee.

Many voters in 1992 and 1996 had been willing to overlook long-standing rumors of extramarital affairs by Clinton, deeming them irrelevant. These matters came to a head, however, in February 1998 when reports surfaced of ongoing sexual relations between Clinton and a White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. Clinton initially and vigorously denied the relationship; "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky." His wife Hillary described the allegations as fraudulent smears dredged up by a "vast right-wing conspiracy." Clinton was forced to retract his assertions in August 1998 after the Lewinsky matter came under investigation by independent counsel Kenneth Starr, who had been looking into various allegations of past misdeeds by Clinton for several years. Since Clinton's denials had extended to a deposition before Starr's office, impeachment proceedings began in the House against the President on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

The matter climaxed as Clinton was impeached in the United States House of Representatives, but not convicted at his trial by the U.S. Senate. A public backlash occasioned Newt Gingrich to resign after a poor showing in the 1998 midterm elections. His heir apparent, Speaker-elect Bob Livingston, was forced to resign from Congress before impeachment proceedings began due to a confirmed report of his extramarital affairs. After the impeachment trial, a scandal-weary and embarrassed U.S. public seemed largely satisfied to have the matter resolved.

References

1. THE 1992 ELECTIONS: DISAPPOINTMENT - NEWS ANALYSIS An Eccentric but No Joke; Perot's Strong Showing Raises Questions On What Might Have Been, and Might Be - New York Times

• History of the United States (1991–present)