| Name | Bill Clinton |
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| Order | 42nd |
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| Office | President of the United States |
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| Term start | January 20, 1993 |
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| Term end | January 20, 2001 |
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| Vicepresident | Al Gore |
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| Predecessor | George H. W. Bush |
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| Successor | George W. Bush |
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| Order2 | 40th and 42nd |
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| Office2 | Governor of Arkansas |
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| Term start2 | January 9, 1979 |
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| Term end2 | January 19, 1981 |
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| Lieutenant2 | Joe Purcell |
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| Predecessor2 | Joe Purcell (Acting) |
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| Successor2 | Frank D. White |
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| Term start3 | January 11, 1983 |
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| Term end3 | December 12, 1992 |
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| Lieutenant3 | Winston Bryant (1983-1991)Jim Guy Tucker (1991-1992) |
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| Predecessor3 | Frank D. White |
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| Successor3 | Jim Guy Tucker |
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| Order4 | 50th |
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| Office4 | Arkansas Attorney General |
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| Term start4 | January 3, 1977 |
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| Term end4 | January 9, 1979 |
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| Predecessor4 | Jim Guy Tucker |
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| Successor4 | Steve Clark |
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| Birth date | August 19, 1946 |
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| Birth place | Hope, Arkansas |
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| Birthname | William Jefferson Blythe III |
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| Party | Democratic |
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| Spouse | Hillary Rodham Clinton |
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| Children | Chelsea Clinton (b. 1980) |
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| Profession | Lawyer |
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| Alma mater | Georgetown University (B.S.) University College, OxfordYale Law School (J.D.) |
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| Religion | Baptist |
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| Signature | Signature of Bill Clinton.svg |
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| Signature alt | Cursive signature in ink |
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| Website | William J. Clinton Presidential Library |
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William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III, August 19, 1946) served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. At 46 he was the third-youngest president. He became president at the end of the Cold War, and was the first baby boomer president. His wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is currently the United States Secretary of State. Each received a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Yale Law School.
Clinton has been described as a New Democrat. Some of his policies, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and welfare reform, have been attributed to a centrist Third Way philosophy of governance, while on other issues his stance was left of center. Clinton presided over the continuation of an economic expansion that would later become the longest period of peace-time economic expansion in American history. The Congressional Budget Office reported a budget surplus in 2000, the last full year of Clinton's presidency.
After a failed attempt at health care reform, Republicans won control of the House of Representatives in 1994, for the first time in forty years. Two years later, in 1996, Clinton was re-elected and became the first member of the Democratic Party since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win a second full term as president. Later he was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with a scandal involving a White House intern, but was subsequently acquitted by the U.S. Senate.
Clinton left office with the highest end-of-office approval rating of any U.S. president since World War II. Clinton created the William J. Clinton Foundation to promote and address international causes such as treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS and global warming.
In 2004, he released his autobiography My Life, and was involved in his wife Hillary's 2008 presidential campaign and subsequently in that of President Barack Obama. In 2009, he was named United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti. In the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Clinton teamed with George W. Bush to form the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.
Early life and career
.]]
in Washington, D.C., receiving a degree in 1968, during which he ran for President of the Student Council.]]
Bill Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe, III, in Hope, Arkansas. His father, William Jefferson Blythe, Jr., was a traveling salesman who died in an automobile accident three months before Bill was born. The family moved to Hot Springs in 1950.
Although he assumed use of his stepfather's surname, it was not until Billy (as he was known then) turned fourteen that he formally adopted the surname Clinton as a gesture toward his stepfather.
In Hot Springs, Clinton attended St. John's Catholic Elementary School, Ramble Elementary School, and Hot Springs High School - where he was an active student leader, avid reader, and musician.
With the aid of scholarships, Clinton attended the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., receiving a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service (B.S.) degree in 1968. He spent the summer of 1967, the summer before his senior year, interning for Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright. He is a member of Kappa Kappa Psi's National Honorary Band Fraternity, Inc.
Upon graduation, he won a Rhodes Scholarship to University College, Oxford where he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics, though as a result of switching programs and leaving early for Yale, he did not obtain a degree there. He developed an interest in rugby union, playing at Oxford and later for the Little Rock Rugby club in Arkansas. While at Oxford he also participated in Vietnam War protests, including organizing an October 1969 Moratorium event.
Clinton's political opponents charge that to avoid being drafted into the Vietnam War during his college years, he used the political influence of a U.S. Senator, who employed him as an aide. Col. Eugene Holmes, an Army officer who was involved in Clinton's case, issued a notarized statement during the 1992 presidential campaign: "...I was informed by the draft board that it was of interest to Senator Fullbright's office that Bill Clinton, a Rhodes Scholar, should be admitted to the ROTC program... I believe that he purposely deceived me, using the possibility of joining the ROTC as a ploy to work with the draft board to delay his induction and get a new draft classification."
Clinton did not join the ROTC program, but the temporary ROTC status prevented him from being drafted. This was not illegal, but it became a source of criticism from conservatives and some Vietnam veterans.
After Oxford, Clinton attended Yale Law School and obtained a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree in 1973.
The Clintons' personal and business affairs during the 1980s included transactions which became the basis of the Whitewater investigation which dogged his later presidential administration. After extensive investigation over several years, no indictments were made against the Clintons related to the years in Arkansas.
He defeated a total of four Republican candidates for governor: Lowe (1978), White (1982 and 1986), and businessmen Woody Freeman of Jonesboro, (1984) and Sheffield Nelson of Little Rock (1990).
Democratic presidential primaries of 1988
with President
Ronald Reagan and first lady
Nancy Reagan, 1987.]]
In 1987 there was media speculation Clinton would enter the race after then-
New York Governor Mario Cuomo declined to run and Democratic front-runner
Gary Hart withdrew owing to revelations of marital infidelity. Clinton decided to remain as Arkansas governor (following consideration for the potential candidacy of Hillary Rodham Clinton for governor, initially favored – but ultimately vetoed – by the First Lady). For the nomination, Clinton endorsed
Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis. However, he did give the opening night address at the
1988 Democratic National Convention, which was nationally televised, but it was criticized for length. Presenting himself as a moderate and a member of the
New Democrat wing of the Democratic Party, he headed the moderate
Democratic Leadership Council in 1990 and 1991.
1992 presidential campaign
Due to his youthful appearance, he was often called the "Boy Governor". In the first contest, the Iowa caucus, he finished a very distant third to Iowa Senator Tom Harkin. During the campaign for the New Hampshire Primary reports of an extramarital affair with Gennifer Flowers surfaced. As Clinton fell far behind former Massachusetts Senator Paul Tsongas in the New Hampshire polls, Finally, conservatives were previously united by anti-communism, but with the end of the Cold War, the party lacked a uniting issue. When Pat Buchanan and Pat Robertson addressed Christian themes at the Republican National Convention – with Bush criticizing Democrats for omitting God from their platform – many moderates were alienated. Clinton then pointed to his moderate, "New Democrat" record as governor of Arkansas, though some on the more liberal side of the party remained suspicious. Many Democrats who had supported Ronald Reagan and Bush in previous elections switched their allegiance to Clinton.
Clinton's election ended twelve years of Republican rule of the White House and twenty of the previous twenty-four years. The election gave Democrats full control of the United States Congress. Further concern arose when Bill Clinton announced that, with Hillary, voters would be getting two presidents "for the price of one".
Presidency, 1993–2001
During his presidency,
Clinton advocated for a wide variety of legislation and programs, much of which was enacted into law and/or was implemented by the executive branch. At the very end of his presidency, Clinton moved to New York and helped his wife get elected to the U.S. Senate there.
First term, 1993–1997
during his
1993 presidential inauguration.]]
Clinton was inaugurated as the 42nd President of the United States on January 20, 1993. In his inaugural address he declared:
}}
Clinton in his first address to the nation on February 15, 1993, announced his intention to raise taxes to cap the budget deficit.
On February 17, 1993, in a nationally televised address to a joint session of Congress, Clinton unveiled his economic plan. The plan focused on deficit reduction rather than a middle-class tax cut, which had been high on his campaign agenda. (Clinton was pressured by his advisers, including Robert Rubin formerly of Goldman Sachs, to raise taxes on the theory that a smaller federal budget deficit would reduce bond interest rates.) (In December 2010, Clinton defended President Barack Obama’s compromise with the Republican congressional leadership, extending the George W. Bush’s era tax cuts, which many Democrats felt unfairly favored the wealthy.)
Shortly after taking office, Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, which required large employers to allow employees to take unpaid leave for pregnancy or a serious medical condition. While this action was popular, Clinton's attempt to fulfill another campaign promise of allowing openly homosexual men and women to serve in the armed forces garnered criticism from the left (for being too tentative in promoting gay rights) and from the right (who opposed any effort to allow homosexuals to serve). After much debate, Congress implemented the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, stating as long as homosexuals keep their sexuality secret, they may serve in the military. Some gay rights advocates criticized Clinton for not going far enough and accused him of making his campaign promise to get votes and contributions. These advocates feel Clinton should have integrated the military by executive order, noting President Harry Truman used executive order to racially desegregate the armed forces. Clinton's defenders argue an executive order might have prompted the Democratic Senate to write the exclusion of homosexuals into law, potentially making it harder to integrate the military in the future.
The Clinton administration launched the first official White House website on October 21, 1994. It was followed by three more versions, resulting in the final edition launched in 2000. The White House website was part of a wider movement of the Clinton administration toward web-based communication. According to Robert Longley, "Clinton and Gore were responsible for pressing almost all federal agencies, the U.S. court system and the U.S. military onto the Internet, thus opening up America's government to more of America's citizens than ever before. On July 17, 1996, Clinton issued Executive Order 13011 - Federal Information Technology, ordering the heads of all federal agencies to fully utilize information technology to make the information of the agency easily accessible to the public."
who negotiated lifting the remaining sanctions on South Africa.]]
Also in 1993, Clinton controversially supported ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement by the U.S. Senate. Clinton, along with most of his Democratic Leadership Committee allies, strongly supported free trade measures; there remained, however, strong intra-party disagreement. Opposition came chiefly from anti-trade Republicans, protectionist Democrats and supporters of Ross Perot. The bill passed the house with 234 votes against 200 opposed (132 Republicans and 102 Democrats voting in favor; 156 Democrats, 43 Republicans, and 1 independent against). The treaty was then ratified by the Senate and signed into law by the President on January 1, 1994.
On November 30, 1993, Clinton signed into law the Brady Bill, which imposed a five-day waiting period on handgun purchases. He also expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit, a subsidy for low-income workers. In 1999, Clinton signed the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act, a bank deregulation bill that repealed a Depression-era law known as Glass-Steagall.
One of the most prominent items on Clinton's legislative agenda was the result of a taskforce headed by Hillary Clinton, which was a health care reform plan aimed at achieving universal coverage via a national health care plan. Though initially well-received in political circles, it was ultimately doomed by well-organized opposition from conservatives, the American Medical Association, and the health insurance industry. However, John F. Harris, a biographer of Clinton's, states the program failed because of a lack of co-ordination within the White House. and raised taxes on the wealthiest 1.2% of taxpayers. Additionally, through the implementation of spending restraints, it mandated the budget be balanced over a number of years.
As part of a 1996 initiative to curb illegal immigration, Clinton signed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA). Appointed by Clinton, the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform called for reducing legal immigration to about 550,000 a year. The proposals drew criticism from a wide range of business, ethnic and religious groups.
Senators Ted Kennedy – a Democrat – and Orrin Hatch, a Republican, teamed up with Hillary Rodham Clinton and her staff in 1997 and succeeded in passing legislation forming the Children's Health Insurance Program, the largest (successful) health care reform in the years of the Clinton Presidency. That same year Hillary Clinton shepherded through Congress the Adoption and Safe Families Act and two years later Rodham Clinton succeeded in helping pass the Foster Care Independence Act. President Bill Clinton supported both bills as well, and signed both of them into law.
Travelgate controversy
Clinton fired seven employees of the White House Travel Office in May 1993, giving rise to a controversy, though the Travel Office staff served at the pleasure of the President, and could be dismissed without cause. The White House responded to the controversy by claiming that the firings were done because of financial improprieties that had been revealed by a brief FBI investigation. Critics contended the firings had been done to allow friends of the Clintons to take over the travel business and that the involvement of the FBI was unwarranted.
White House FBI files controversy
The White House FBI-files controversy of June 1996 arose concerning improper access by the White House to
FBI security-clearance documents. Craig Livingstone, head of the White House Office of Personnel Security, improperly requested, and received from the FBI, background report files without asking permission of the subject individuals; many of these were employees of former Republican administrations. In March 2000, Independent Counsel
Robert Ray determined that there was no credible evidence of any criminal activity. Ray's report further stated "there was no substantial and credible evidence that any senior White House official was involved" in seeking the files.
Death penalty
The application of the federal death penalty was expanded to include crimes not resulting in death – such as running a large-scale drug enterprise – by Clinton's 1994 Omnibus Crime Bill. During Clinton's re-election campaign he said, "My 1994 crime bill expanded the death penalty for drug kingpins, murderers of federal law enforcement officers, and nearly 60 additional categories of violent felons."
While campaigning for U.S. President, the then Governor Clinton returned to Arkansas to see that Ricky Ray Rector would be executed. After killing a police officer and a civilian, Rector shot himself in the head, leading to what his lawyers said was a state where he could still talk but didn't understand the concept of death. According to Arkansas state and Federal law, a seriously mentally impaired inmate cannot be executed. The courts disagreed with the allegation of grave mental impairment and allowed the execution. Clinton's return to Arkansas for the execution was framed in a New York Times article as a possible political move to counter "soft on crime" accusations.
According to some sources, Clinton was in his early years a death penalty opponent who switched positions. During Clinton's term, Arkansas performed its first executions since 1964 (the death penalty was re-enacted on March 23, 1973). As Governor, he oversaw four executions: one by electric chair and three by lethal injection. However, Clinton was the first President to pardon a death-row inmate since the federal death penalty was reintroduced in 1988. Federal executions were resumed under his successor George W. Bush.
Assassination attempt
Law professor Ken Gromley's book
The Death of American Virtue reveals that Clinton escaped a 1996 assassination attempt in
the Philippines by terrorists working for
Osama bin Laden. During his visit to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in
Manila in 1996, he was saved shortly before his car was due to drive over a bridge where a bomb had been planted. Gromley said he was told the details of the bomb plot by Louis Merletti, a former director of the Secret Service. Clinton was scheduled to visit a local politician in central Manila, when secret service officers intercepted a message suggesting that an attack was imminent. A transmission used the words "bridge" and "wedding", supposedly a terrorist's code words for assassination. The motorcade was re-routed and the US agents later discovered a bomb planted under the bridge. The report said the subsequent US investigation into the plot "revealed that it was masterminded by a Saudi terrorist living in Afghanistan named Osama bin Laden". Gromley said
"It remained top secret except to select members of the US intelligence community. At the time, there were media reports about the discovery of two bombs, one at Manila airport and another at the venue for the leaders' meeting".
Second term, 1997–2001
for his work toward
European integration.]]
Cohen presents President Clinton the DoD Medal for Distinguished Public Service.]]
In the 1996 presidential election, Clinton was re-elected, receiving 49.2% of the popular vote over Republican Bob Dole (40.7% of the popular vote) and Reform candidate Ross Perot (8.4% of the popular vote), becoming the first Democratic incumbent since Lyndon Johnson to be elected to a second term and the first Democrat since Franklin Roosevelt to be elected President more than once. The Republicans lost a few seats in the House and gained a few in the Senate, but retained control of both. Clinton received 379, or over 70% of the Electoral College votes, with Dole receiving 159 electoral votes.
Lewinsky scandal
Clinton's sexual relationship with a 22-year-old White House intern named
Monica Lewinsky led to the
Lewinsky scandal. the House began impeachment hearings before the
mid-term elections. Although the mid-term elections held in November 1998 were at the 6-year point in an 8-year presidency (a time in the electoral cycle where the party holding the White House usually loses Congressional seats), the Democratic Party gained several seats. To hold impeachment proceedings, the Republican leadership called a
lame duck session in December 1998.
presiding.]]
While the House Judiciary Committee hearings ended in a straight-party-line vote, there was lively debate on the House floor. The two charges passed in the House (largely on the basis of Republican support, but with a handful of Democratic votes as well) were for perjury and obstruction of justice. The perjury charge arose from Clinton's testimony about his relationship to Monica Lewinsky during a sexual harassment lawsuit (later dismissed, appealed and settled for $850,000) brought by former Arkansas state employee Paula Jones. The obstruction charge was based on his actions during the subsequent investigation of that testimony. The Senate later voted to acquit Clinton on both charges. The Senate refused to convene to hold an impeachment trial before the end of the old term, so the trial was held over until the next Congress. Clinton was represented by Washington law firm Williams & Connolly.
The Senate concluded a twenty-one day trial on February 12, 1999, with the vote on both counts falling short of the Constitutional two-thirds majority requirement to convict and remove an office holder. The final vote was generally along party lines, with no Democrats voting guilty. Some Republicans voted not guilty for both charges. On the perjury charge, fifty-five senators voted to acquit, including ten Republicans, and forty-five voted to convict; on the obstruction charge the Senate voted 50-50.
Law license suspension
In 2000 the Arkansas Supreme Court's Committee on Professional Conduct called for Clinton's
disbarment, saying he lied about his affair with Monica Lewinsky.
In January 2001 Clinton reached an agreement under which he was ordered to pay $25,000 in fines to Arkansas state's bar officials and his Arkansas law license was suspended for five years. The agreement came on the condition that Whitewater prosecutors would not pursue federal perjury charges against him. Clinton was suspended by the Supreme Court in October 2001, and, facing disbarment from that court, Clinton resigned from the Supreme Court bar in November.
Military and foreign events
Paul Fletcher,
USAF, before boarding
Air Force One, November 4, 1999.]]
Numerous military events occurred during Clinton's presidency.
The
Battle of Mogadishu also occurred in
Somalia in 1993. During the operation, two U.S.
MH-60 Black Hawk helicopters were shot down by
rocket-propelled grenade attacks to their
tail rotors, trapping soldiers behind enemy lines. This resulted in an urban battle that killed 18 American soldiers, wounded 73 others, and one was taken prisoner. There were many more Somali casualties. Some of the American bodies were dragged through the streets – a spectacle broadcast on television news programs. In response, U.S. forces were withdrawn from Somalia and later conflicts were approached with fewer soldiers on the ground.
In 1995 U.S. and NATO aircraft attacked Bosnian Serb targets to halt attacks on U.N. safe zones and to pressure them into a peace accord. Clinton deployed U.S. peacekeepers to Bosnia in late 1995 to uphold the subsequent Dayton Agreement.
In response to the 1998 al-Qaeda bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa that killed a dozen Americans and hundreds of Africans, Clinton ordered cruise missile strikes on terrorist targets in Afghanistan and Sudan. He was subsequently criticized when it turned out that a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan (originally alleged to be a chemical warfare plant) had been destroyed.
, May 5, 1999.]]
To stop the ethnic cleansing and genocide of Albanians by nationalist Serbians in the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's province of Kosovo, Clinton authorized the use of American troops in a NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999, named Operation Allied Force. General Wesley Clark was Supreme Allied Commander of NATO and oversaw the mission. With United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244, the bombing campaign ended on June 10, 1999. The resolution placed Kosovo under UN administration and authorized a peacekeeping force. NATO announced that its forces had suffered zero combat deaths, and two deaths from an Apache helicopter crash. Opinions in the popular press criticized pre-war genocide statements by the Clinton administration as greatly exaggerated. A U.N. Court ruled genocide did not take place, but recognized, "a systematic campaign of terror, including murders, rapes, arsons and severe maltreatments". The term "ethnic cleansing" was used as an alternative to "genocide" to denote not just ethnically motivated murder but also displacement, though critics charge there is no difference. Slobodan Milošević, the President of Yugoslavia at the time, was eventually charged with the "murders of about 600 individually identified ethnic Albanians" and "crimes against humanity."
In Clinton's 1998 State of the Union Address, he warned Congress of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's possible pursuit of nuclear weapons:
}}
holding a joint press conference at the White House, October 29, 1997.]]
To weaken Saddam Hussein's grip of power, Clinton signed H.R. 4655 into law on October 31, 1998, which instituted a policy of "regime change" against Iraq, though it explicitly stated it did not speak to the use of American military forces. The administration then launched a four-day bombing campaign named Operation Desert Fox, lasting from December 16 to December 19, 1998. For the last two years of Clinton's presidency U.S. aircraft routinely attacked hostile Iraqi anti-air installations inside the Iraqi no-fly zones.
Clinton's November 2000 visit to Vietnam was the first by a U.S. President since the end of the Vietnam War. Clinton remained popular with the public throughout his two terms as President, ending his presidential career with a 65% approval rating, the highest end-of-term approval rating of any President since Dwight D. Eisenhower. Further, the Clinton administration signed over 270 trade liberalization pacts with other countries during its tenure. On October 10, 2000, Clinton signed into law the U.S.–China Relations Act of 2000, which granted PNTR trade status to People's Republic of China. The president asserted that free trade would gradually open China to democratic reform. Clinton also oversaw a boom of the U.S. economy. Under Clinton, the United States had a projected federal budget surplus for the first time since 1969.
After initial successes such as the Oslo accords of the early 1990s, Clinton attempted to address the Arab-Israeli conflict. Clinton brought Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat together at Camp David. The situation broke down completely with the start of the Second Intifada.
A U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation did result in convictions against the McDougals for their role in the Whitewater project, but the Clintons themselves were never charged, and Clinton maintains innocence in the affair.
Attempted capture of Osama bin Laden
Capturing Osama bin Laden has been an objective of the United States government since the presidency of Bill Clinton. It has been asserted that in 1996 while the Clinton Administration had begun pursuit of the policy, the Sudanese government allegedly offered to arrest and extradite Bin Laden as well as to provide the United States detailed intelligence information about growing militant organizations in the region, including
Hezbollah and
Hamas, and that U.S. authorities allegedly rejected each offer, despite knowing of bin Laden's involvement in bombings on American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
In 1998, two years after the warning, the Clinton administration ordered several military missions to capture or kill bin Laden that failed.
Troopergate
Troopergate is the popular name of a
scandal involving allegations by two
Arkansas state troopers that they arranged sexual liaisons for then-Governor Bill Clinton. The allegations by state troopers
Larry Patterson and Roger Perry were first reported by
David Brock in
the American Spectator in 1993, then confirmed the next day in
The Los Angeles Times. The story mentioned a woman named
Paula, a reference to
Paula Jones. Brock later apologized to Clinton, saying the article was politically motivated "bad journalism" and that "the troopers were greedy and had slimy motives."
Pardons and campaign finance
Clinton issued 141 pardons and 36 commutations on his last day in office on January 20, 2001. Most of the controversy surrounded
Marc Rich and allegations that Hillary Clinton's brother,
Hugh Rodham, accepted payments in return for influencing the president's decision-making regarding the pardons. Some of Clinton's pardons remain a point of controversy.
The 1996 United States campaign-finance controversy was an alleged effort by the People's Republic of China (PRC) to influence the domestic policies of the United States, prior to and during the Clinton administration, and also involved the fundraising practices of the administration itself.
Judicial appointments
Clinton appointed the following justices to the
Supreme Court:
Ruth Bader Ginsburg - 1993
Stephen Breyer - 1994
In addition to his two Supreme Court appointments, Clinton appointed 66 judges to the United States Courts of Appeals, and 305 judges to the United States district courts. His total of 373 judicial appointments is second in American history, behind Ronald Reagan's. Clinton also experienced a number of judicial appointment controversies, as 24 nominees to 20 different federal appellate judgeships were not processed by the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee.
Public opinion
throughout his presidential career.]]
Clinton's job approval rating ranged from 36% in mid-1993 to 64% in late 1993 and early 1994. In his second term, his rating consistently ranged from the high-50s to the high-60s. After his impeachment proceedings in 1998 and 1999, Clinton's rating reached its highest point at 73% approval. He finished with an approval rating of 68%, which matched those of Ronald Reagan and Franklin D. Roosevelt as the highest ratings for departing presidents in the modern era.
As he was leaving office, a CNN/USA TODAY/Gallup poll revealed 45% said they would miss him. While 55% thought he "would have something worthwhile to contribute and should remain active in public life", 68% thought he would be remembered for his "involvement in personal scandal", and 58% answered "No" to the question "Do you generally think Bill Clinton is honest and trustworthy?". 47% of the respondents identified themselves as being Clinton supporters. 47% said he would be remembered as either "outstanding" or "above average" as a president while 22% said he would be remembered as "below average" or "poor".
The Gallup Organization published a poll in February 2007 asking respondents to name the greatest president in U.S. history; Clinton came in fourth place, capturing 13% of the vote. In a 2006 Quinnipiac University poll asking respondents to name the best president since World War II, Clinton ranked 3% behind Ronald Reagan to place second with 25% of the vote. However, in the same poll, when respondents were asked to name the worst president since World War II, Clinton placed 1% behind Richard Nixon and 18% behind George W. Bush to come in third with 16% of the vote.
In May 2006, a CNN poll comparing Clinton's job performance with that of his successor, George W. Bush, found that a strong majority of respondents said Clinton outperformed Bush in six different areas questioned. ABC News characterized public consensus on Clinton as, "You can't trust him, he's got weak morals and ethics and he's done a heck of a good job." Clinton's 66% Gallup Poll approval rating was also the highest Gallup approval rating of any postwar President leaving office, three points ahead of Reagan.
In March 2010, a Newsmax/Zogby poll asking Americans which of the current living former presidents they think is best equipped to deal with the problems the country faces today, found that a wide margin of respondents would pick Bill Clinton. Clinton received 41% of the vote, while former President George W. Bush received 15%, former President George H. W. Bush received 7%, and former President Jimmy Carter received 5%. Although 26% chose "none", and 5% were not sure, Clinton maintained the highest percentage.
Public image
As the first
baby boomer president, Clinton was the first president in a half-century not to have been shaped by World War II. Authors Martin Walker and Bob Woodward state Clinton's innovative use of
soundbite-ready dialogue, personal charisma, and public perception-oriented campaigning was a major factor in his high public approval ratings. When Clinton played the saxophone on
The Arsenio Hall Show, he was described by some religious conservatives as "the
MTV president." Standing at a height of 6'2" (1.88 m), Clinton is tied with five others as the
fourth-tallest president in the nation's history.
Clinton drew strong support from the African American community and made improving race relations a major theme of his presidency. In 1998, Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison in The New Yorker called Clinton "the first Black president", saying, "Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas", and comparing Clinton's sex life, scrutinized despite his career accomplishments, to the stereotyping and double standards that blacks typically endure.
In 2008, Morrison's sentiments were raised anew as Barack Obama, who would later become the country's first African-American President, ran for the presidency. After endorsing Obama, Morrison distanced herself from her 1998 remark about Clinton, saying that it was misunderstood. She noted that she has "no idea what his real instincts are, in terms of race" and said she was only describing the way he was being treated during the impeachment trial as an equivalent to a poor black person living in the ghetto. Obama himself, when asked in a Democratic debate about Morrison's declaration of Clinton as "black", replied that Clinton had an enormous "affinity" with the black community, but joked he would need to see Clinton's dancing ability before judging "accurately [...] whether he was, in fact, a brother".
Sexual misconduct allegations
Throughout his career, Clinton has been subject to various allegations of sexual misconduct, though only his extramarital relationships with
Monica Lewinsky and
Gennifer Flowers have been admitted by him.
For alleged misconduct during his governorship Paula Jones brought a sexual harassment lawsuit against Clinton while he was president. Clinton argued that as a sitting president, he should not be vulnerable to a civil suit of this nature. The case landed in the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court held that "Deferral of this litigation until petitioner's Presidency ends is not constitutionally required."
However, a U.S. judge in Arkansas, Susan Webber Wright, ruled that since Jones had not suffered any damages, the case should be dismissed. On April 2, 1998, Judge Susan Webber Wright dismissed Jones' lawsuit. On July 31, 1998, Jones appealed the dismissal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
During the deposition for the Jones lawsuit which was held at the White House, Clinton denied having sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky a denial that became the basis for the impeachment charge of perjury.
On November 18, 1998, Clinton agreed to an out-of-court settlement, and agreed to pay Jones and her attorneys a sum of $850,000.00. Clinton, however, still offered no apology to Jones and still denied ever engaging in a sexual affair with her. Gennifer Flowers, Elizabeth Ward Gracen, Sally Perdue, and Dolly Kyle Browning each have reported having adulterous sexual relations with Clinton during or before his service as governor. Gracen later apologized to Hillary Clinton.
Dolly Kyle Browning alleged that she and Clinton engaged in a long sexual affair. Browning began writing a "semi-autobiographical novel" about the affair. In the publication process, Browning asserted that Clinton did everything in his power to prohibit and undermine publication. Browning sued Clinton for damages, but the US Court of Appeals denied her appeal.
Post-presidential career
, dedicated in 2004.]]
in January 2005.]]
,
Laura Bush,
George H. W. Bush,
Condoleezza Rice, and
Andrew Card pay their respects to Pope
John Paul II before the
pope's funeral in April 2005.]]
Just as Clinton was leaving elective office, his wife was entering it, as a U.S. Senator from New York. Bill Clinton proceeded to give speeches around the world, often for over $100,000 a speech. Altogether, Clinton has spoken at the last six Democratic National Conventions, dating back to 1988.
Activities up until 2008 campaign
In 2002 Clinton warned that pre-emptive
military action against Iraq may have unwelcome consequences. In 2005, Clinton criticized the Bush administration for its handling of emissions control, while speaking at the
United Nations Climate Change Conference in
Montreal.
The William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park in Little Rock, Arkansas was dedicated in 2004. Clinton released an autobiography, My Life in 2004. In 2007, he released, which became a bestseller and garnered positive reviews.
In the aftermath of the 2005 Asian tsunami, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Clinton to head a relief effort. After Hurricane Katrina, Clinton established, with fellow former President George H. W. Bush, the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund and Bush-Clinton Tsunami Fund. As part of the tsunami effort, these two ex-presidents appeared in a Super Bowl XXXIX pre-game show, and traveled to the affected areas. They also spoke together at the funeral of Boris Yeltsin.
The William J. Clinton Foundation includes the Clinton Foundation HIV and AIDS Initiative (CHAI), which strives to combat that disease, and has worked with the Australian government toward that end. The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), begun by the Clinton Foundation in 2005, attempts to address world problems such as global public health, poverty alleviation and religious and ethnic conflict. In 2005, Clinton announced through his foundation an agreement with manufacturers to stop selling sugared beverages in schools. Clinton's foundation joined with the Large Cities Climate Leadership Group in 2006 to improve cooperation among those cities, and he met with foreign leaders to promote this initiative. He also spoke in favor of California Proposition 87 on alternative energy, which was voted down.
The foundation has received donations from a number of governments in the Middle East. In 2008, Mr. Clinton travelled to Kazakhstan with Canadian mining magnate Frank Giustra who then won three lucrative uranium mining contracts from the Kazakh government, and Giustra donated $US31 million to Mr. Clinton's charity. Many were especially critical of him following his remarks in the South Carolina primary, which Obama won. Later in the 2008 primaries, there was some infighting between Bill and Hillary's staffs, especially in Pennsylvania. Based on Bill's remarks, many thought that he couldn't rally Hillary supporters behind Obama after Obama won the primary. Such remarks lead to apprehension that the party would be split to the detriment of Obama's election. Fears were allayed August 27, 2008 when Clinton enthusiastically endorsed Obama at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, saying that all his experience as president assures him that Obama is "ready to lead".
After 2008 election
In 2009, Clinton travelled to
North Korea on behalf of
two American journalists imprisoned in North Korea.
Euna Lee and
Laura Ling had been imprisoned for illegally entering the country from China.
Jimmy Carter had made a similar visit in 1994.
Also in 2009, Clinton was named United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti.
In 2010, Clinton announced support and delivered the keynote address for the inauguration of NTR, Ireland's first ever environmental foundation.
Post-presidential health concerns
In September 2004, Clinton received a quadruple bypass surgery. In March 2005 he underwent surgery for a partially collapsed lung. On February 11, 2010, he was rushed to
Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City after complaining of chest pains, and had two
coronary stents implanted in his heart. As a guest on the final show of
Larry King Live, King awkwardly stated that they were both members of the "zipper club". King later explained that he was referring to the zipper chest scar from open heart surgery, to which Clinton responded, "I'm glad you clarified that, Larry". It has been widely reported that Clinton has become a vegan for health reasons, but he still occasionally eats fish.
Honors and accolades
Clinton has received many
honorary degrees. Schools have been named for him, and statues do homage him. He has been honored in various other ways, in countries that include the Czech Republic, New Guinea, Germany, and Kosovo. U.S. states where he has been honored include Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, and New York.
In 1993 Clinton was selected as Time Magazine's "Man of the Year", and again in 1998, along with Ken Starr.
From a poll conducted of the American people in December 1999, Clinton was among eighteen included in Gallup's List of Widely Admired People of the 20th century.
In 2004, he received a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for narrating the Russian National Orchestra's album Wolf Tracks and Peter and the Wolf (along with Mikhail Gorbachev and Sophia Loren) and 2005 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for My Life. In 2005, he received the J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding, and 2007 TED Prize (named for the confluence of technology, entertainment and design).
On June 2, 2007, Clinton, along with former president George H.W. Bush, received the International Freedom Conductor Award, for their help with the fund raising following the tsunami that devastated South Asia in 2004. On June 13, 2007, Clinton was honored by the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria alongside eight multinational-companies for his work to defeat HIV/AIDS.
On September 9, 2008, Bill Clinton was named as the next chairman of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His term began January 1, 2009 and he succeeded Fmr. President George H. W. Bush.
In December 2010 Bill Clinton was named PETA's 2010 person of the year for using his influence "to promote the benefits of following a vegan diet."
References
Further reading
Primary sources
Clinton, Bill. My Life. (2004). ISBN 0-375-41457-6.
--- (with Al Gore). Science in the National Interest. Washington, D.C.: The White House, August 1994.
--- (with Al Gore). The Climate Change Action Plan. Washington, D.C.: The White House, October 1993.
--- (with Al Gore). Technology for America's economic growth, a new direction to build economic strength. Washington, D.C.: The White House, February 22, 1993.
Sidney Blumenthal The Clinton Wars. (2003). ISBN 0-374-12502-3
Taylor Branch The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President. (2009) Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781416543336
Kenneth Starr The Starr Report: The Findings of Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr on President Clinton and the Lewinsky Affair (1998) ISBN 1-891620-24-X
George Stephanopoulos All Too Human: A Political Education (1998) ISBN 0-316-92919-0
S. Daniel Abraham Peace is Possible, foreword by Bill Clinton
Popular books
Peter Baker The Breach: Inside the Impeachment and Trial of William Jefferson Clinton (2000) ISBN 0-684-86813-X
James Bovard Feeling Your Pain: The Explosion and Abuse of Government Power in the Clinton-Gore Years (2000) ISBN 0-312-23082-6
Joe Conason and Gene Lyons The Hunting of the President: The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton (2003) ISBN 0-312-27319-3
Elizabeth Drew On the Edge: The Clinton Presidency (1994) ISBN 0-671-87147-1
David Gergen Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership. (2000) ISBN 0-684-82663-1
Nigel Hamilton Bill Clinton: An American Journey (2003) ISBN 0-375-50610-1
John F. Harris The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House (2005) ISBN 0-375-50847-3
Christopher Hitchens No One Left to Lie to: The Triangulations of William Jefferson Clinton (1999) ISBN 1-85984-736-6
Michael Isikoff Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story (1999) ISBN 0-609-60393-0
Mark Katz Clinton and Me: A Real-Life Political Comedy (2004) ISBN 978-0-7868-6949-7
Joe Klein The Natural: The Misunderstood Presidency of Bill Clinton (2003) ISBN 0-7679-1412-0
David Maraniss First in His Class: A Biography of Bill Clinton (1996) ISBN 0-684-81890-6
David Maraniss The Clinton Enigma: A Four and a Half Minute Speech Reveals This President's Entire Life (1998) ISBN 0-684-86296-4
Dick Morris with Eileen McGann Because He Could (2004) ISBN 0-06-078415-6
Roger Morris (American writer) Partners in Power: The Clintons and Their America (1996) ISBN 0-89526-302-5
Richard A. Posner An Affair of State: The Investigation, Impeachment, and Trial of President Clinton (1999) ISBN 0-674-00080-3
Mark J. Rozell The Clinton Scandal and the Future of American Government (2000) ISBN 0-87840-777-4
Michael Waldman POTUS Speaks: Finding the Words That Defined the Clinton Presidency (2000) ISBN 0-7432-0020-9
Ivory Tower Publishing Company (1995) ISBN 0-88032-748-0
Academic studies
Cohen; Jeffrey E. "The Polls: Change and Stability in Public Assessments of Personal Traits, Bill Clinton, 1993-99" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 31, 2001
Cronin, Thomas E. and Michael A. Genovese; "President Clinton and Character Questions" Presidential Studies Quarterly Vol. 28, 1998
Davis; John. "The Evolution of American Grand Strategy and the War on Terrorism: Clinton and Bush Perspectives" White House Studies, Vol. 3, 2003
Edwards; George C. "Bill Clinton and His Crisis of Governance" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 28, 1998
Fisher; Patrick. "Clinton's Greatest Legislative Achievement? the Success of the 1993 Budget Reconciliation Bill" White House Studies, Vol. 1, 2001
Glad; Betty. "Evaluating Presidential Character" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 28, 1998
Gormley, Kenneth, The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs Starr. Crown. (2010) ISBN 9780307409447
Harris, John F. The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House. (2005) ISBN 0-375-50847-3, biography
William G. Hyland. Clinton's World: Remaking American Foreign Policy (1999) ISBN 0-275-96396-9
Jewett, Aubrey W. and Marc D. Turetzky; " Stability and Change in President Clinton's Foreign Policy Beliefs, 1993-96" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 28, 1998
Johnson, Fard. "Politics, Propaganda and Public Opinion: The Influence of Race and Class on the 1993 - 1994 Health Care Reform Debate." (2004). ISBN 1-4116-6345-4
Laham, Nicholas, A Lost Cause: Bill Clinton's Campaign for National Health Insurance (1996)
Lanoue, David J. and Craig F. Emmert; "Voting in the Glare of the Spotlight: Representatives' Votes on the Impeachment of President Clinton" Polity, Vol. 32, 1999
Livingston, C. Don, Kenneth A. Wink; "The Passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement in the U.S. House of Representatives: Presidential Leadership or Presidential Luck?" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 27, 1997
Maurer; Paul J. "Media Feeding Frenzies: Press Behavior during Two Clinton Scandals" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 29, 1999
Nie; Martin A. "'It's the Environment, Stupid!': Clinton and the Environment" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 27, 1997
O'Connor; Brendon. "Policies, Principles, and Polls: Bill Clinton's Third Way Welfare Politics 1992-1996" The Australian Journal of Politics and History, Vol. 48, 2002
Poveda; Tony G. "Clinton, Crime, and the Justice Department" Social Justice, Vol. 21, 1994
Renshon; Stanley A. The Clinton Presidency: Campaigning, Governing, and the Psychology of Leadership Westview Press, 1995
Renshon; Stanley A. "The Polls: The Public's Response to the Clinton Scandals, Part 1: Inconsistent Theories, Contradictory Evidence" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 32, 2002
Rushefsky, Mark E. and Kant Patel. Politics, Power & Policy Making: The Case of Health Care Reform in the 1990s (1998) ISBN 1-56324-956-1
Schantz, Harvey L. Politics in an Era of Divided Government: Elections and Governance in the Second Clinton Administration (2001) ISBN 0-8153-3583-0
Wattenberg; Martin P. "The Democrats' Decline in the House during the Clinton Presidency: An Analysis of Partisan Swings" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 29, 1999
Wattier; Mark J. "The Clinton Factor: The Effects of Clinton's Personal Image in 2000 Presidential Primaries and in the General Election" White House Studies, Vol. 4, 2004
Smithers, Luken J. "The Miracle Whip"
External links
;Official
White House biography
Clinton Presidential Materials Project Archive of press releases and speech transcripts from the administration.
Clinton Presidential Library official website
Clinton School of Public Service
;Organizations
William J. Clinton Foundation official website
Clinton Global Initiative official website
;Talks and interviews
Oral History Interview with Bill Clinton from Oral Histories of the American South
TED Prize Wish: Bill Clinton on rebuilding Rwanda at TED in 2007
President Clinton: The Youtube Interview
The Wanderer- A profile of Clinton in
The New Yorker, September 18, 2006, the most extensive interview in his post-presidency
;Articles
Full audio of a number of Clinton speeches via the Miller Center of Public Affairs (UVa)
Extensive essays on Bill Clinton and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs
Armigerous American Presidents Series article from the American Heraldry Society.
Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture entry: Bill Clinton
;Books and movies
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