Main political leaders.

18.3.1. President John F. Kennedy (1961-1963) ushered in a more activist approach to governing. As president, he sought to accelerate economic growth by increasing government spending and cutting taxes, and he pressed for medical help for the elderly, aid for inner cities, and increased funds for education. Kennedy also stepped up American space exploration. After his death, the American space program surpassed Soviet achievements and culminated in the landing of American astronauts on the moon in July 1969.

18.3.2.President Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) had been the little-known governor of Georgia, but after a remarkable rise to national prominence, he defeated Republican President Gerald R. Ford. Unlike every Democratic president since Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945), he did not propose any new or sweeping solutions to social problems. Carter, unlike any of the other Democratic presidents in the XX century, did keep the United States out of any foreign wars, and he substantially increased the percentage of minorities and women in high-level bureaucratic and judicial positions. Opinion polls regularly showed that the public liked Carter as a person but lacked faith in his leadership abilities. Following his presidency, Carter remained active in public life and gained new respect as an effective peacemaker, acting as a mediator in several international conflicts. He also used his influence as a former president to call attention to economic and social problems in developing countries and to promote human rights and democracy. In 2002 Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his accomplishments in these areas.

18.3.3. President Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) based his economic program on the theory of supply-side economics, which advocated reducing tax rates so people could keep more of what they earned. Reagan also undertook a campaign to reduce or eliminate government regulations affecting the consumer, the workplace, and the environment. At the same time, he feared that the United States had neglected its military in the wake of the Vietnam War, so he successfully pushed for big increases in defense spending.

18.3.4.President Bill Clinton (1993-2000) declared that the era of "big government" was over in America. He pushed to strengthen market forces in some sectors, working with Congress to open local telephone service to competition. He also joined Republicans to reduce welfare benefits. Still, although Clinton reduced the size of the federal work force, the government continued to play a crucial role in the nation's economy. Most of the major innovations of the New Deal, and a good many of the Great Society, remained in place. He appointed minorities and women to high-level positions. In March 1999 under his order NATO forces began bombing Serbia and Serbian targets in Kosovo, parts of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Modern US policy.

18.4.1. In 1991 George Bush won public approval for his management of the Persian Gulf War. First the brief war caused oil prices to rise, and war costs put new pressures on federal finances. Second, Bush had promised “no new taxes,” but in fact agreed to raise taxes. Finally, the president clashed with Congress over how to improve the economy and reduce the huge national deficit.

As a moderate “New Democrat,” Bill Clinton in 1992 bucked the trend. He supported centrist, middle-class goals such as efficient government, economic growth, a balanced budget, and health care reform. But Clinton's most important goal—a sweeping reform of the national health care system—failed. Clinton's reputation suffered in 1998 with the revelation of an extramarital affair with a White House intern. Clinton was acquitted by the Senate in February 1999.

18.4.2. At the century's end, Americans were enmeshed in the global economy; tens of millions of American jobs depended on world markets. Many U.S. companies set up operations abroad to reduce labor costs and to ensure access to foreign markets. The global economy also meant that events in markets around the world had a greater effect on financial markets in the United States. Many American investors discovered this effect in the fall of 1998, when stock prices, influenced by markets in Japan, Europe, and around the globe, wavered wildly.

18.4.3. In the last quarter of the 20th century, the United States underwent social changes as well as economic ones. The new diversity reflected rising immigration rates. Immigrants from Asia and Latin America quickly surpassed in number those who came from Europe. The new immigration of the late 20th century differed from that of a century earlier. Economic problems in Mexico spurred still more immigration, legal and illegal. The largest number of illegal aliens in the 1990s came from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Haiti. Many others came from Canada, Poland, China, and Ireland.

18.4.5. Critics of immigration policy contended that lawmakers who passed immigration laws since the 1960s had underestimated their effect. They believed that the new immigration created more problems than benefits. They saw high immigration rates as threatening America's common culture, increasing competition for jobs, lowering wages, profiting only employers, injuring labor, and especially harming those at the bottom of the job market.

The experience of the last decades of the century suggests that the pursuit of American ideals—of liberty, equality, and democracy—is a process that rests on conflict as well as consensus.

LECTURE 19

Date: 2015-12-18; view: 802