Modern AmericaReagan – George Bush

Ronald Reagan• Calif. Gov. – Conservative

Republican• Signed INF Treaty with

Gorbachev, promising to destroy 2,500 missiles in Europe

• Believed in supply side (trickle down) economics. – Offer businesses tax cuts– Businesses would, in turn,

hire more workers and produce more goods

• Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)– Often called “Star Wars”– Planned to have lasers in

space shoot down nuclear missiles launched at the U.S. by other countries

• Nicaragua– Aided the contras

(counterrevolutionaries) of Nicaragua

– Fought the Sandinistas, the ruling Marxist group of Nicaragua

George Bush

• Cold War ended• Berlin Wall came down• Boris Yeltsin became 1st

elected President of Russia

• 1991 – Bush and Gorbachev signed Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START)

Persian Gulf War• Persian Gulf War /

Operation Desert Storm– Dictator Saddam Hussein

invaded Kuwait– The U.S. entered the war

when Hussein refused to withdraw

– Led by Collin Powell and Norman Schwarzkopf

– 700,000 troops from US, Britain, France, Egypt, Saudi Arabia

– 5 day ground war.

Bill Clinton• Arkansas Democratic Gov.• Lost a battle with Congress

over universal health care. Opponents said it would be too expensive and was “big government”

• Republicans, under Newt Gingrich, called for a CONTRACT WITH AMERICA… a pledge to end big government

Impeachment• August 1994, prosecutor

Kenneth Starr and Att. Gen. Janet Reno investigate Whitewater investments by the Clintons

• Affair with WH intern emerges– Lying under oath– Impeached by House but

not convicted by Senate

• Clinton battled Congressional Republicans through his entire Presidency

• Arranged the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which ended trade restrictions with Canada and Mexico