Fall 2022 Part 2

 

The Presidents Part 6: The End of an Era (and Changing Times)

The era of Presidents from Lyndon Baines Johnson to William Jefferson Clinton involves some of the greatest changes in human history from humans going to the Moon to the black freedom movement reaching new heights of power. Life would never be the same. Many of the same debates back then about foreign policy matters, social issues, economic issues, and cultural issues persist today. Also, the Presidents from 1963 to 2001 saw a fluctuation in the expansion and decrease in the role of government. For example, The Great Society obviously expanded the powers of the federal government to promote the general welfare of the people. The Great Society helped to give millions of Americans health care, civil rights protections, voting rights, and other progressive blessings that some take for granted. Reagan saw cuts to many aspects of the federal government as part of his conservative revolution agenda. By the time Bill Clinton was President, we saw a centrist movement that impacted society in many ways too. Clinton passed both moderate and progressive legislation during his Presidency. From the civil rights, women's rights, and other movements, it was never a time without excitement. Scandals dominated the time from Watergate, Iran Contra, and the Clinton impeachment scandal. 

The United States of America faced some of its greatest tests in world history. A lot of heroes lost their lives fighting for our freedom like Malcolm X, Ruby Doris Smith Robinson, Dr. King, Fred Hampton, and other human beings. To reflect on that time period is to realize the truth that you need both federal government policies and grassroots organizing plus activism in seeing the real change to be widespread. You need investments and cultural development. You need intellectual growth and agriculture plus the growth of the industry in order to see the Dream realized. Building institutions that we own and control benefiting the masses of the people will develop into more success. There should be no minimizing of the power of local and state power too. Judges, school board members, mayors, governors, etc. have huge power in our lives, and we do have the responsibility to vote for the right person in order to desire the results that we deserve. A radical redistribution of economic and political party (as the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has said) makes senses to help the collective masses of the people period. Therefore, the fight for justice continues, and we will be always apt to advocate for freedom plus justice for all. 

LBJ

President Lyndon Baines Johnson was one of the most important Presidents in American history. His Presidential legacy is mixed. He made great contributions in areas of civil rights, environmental protection, health care, immigration, and other areas. Yet, one of the worst parts of his legacy was not just about his bad policy of defending the Vietnam War. It was also his overall foreign policy being extremist, hawkish, and reactionary in opposition to a more progressive, sober-minded foreign policy agenda. LBJ not only aided with hawkish political leaders, but he executed reactionary policies in the Dominican Republic, Brazil, and other places in the world. To understand fully a person's life, you have to conclusively evaluate his or her life chronologically from the beginning to the end. August 27, 1908, was when Lyndon Baines Johnson was born to Sam Ealy Johnson Jr. and Rebekah Baines Johnson. LBJ was the oldest of his siblings. By 1928, he graduated from Johnson City High School. Early on in his career, he attended Southwest Texas State Teachers College (now Texas State University). Later, he tutored and taught Mexican American students at a school in Cotulla, Texas. First hand, he saw racism and prejudice against Hispanic and Black Americans. By 1930, LBJ graduated from college and taught at Peasall High School and then later Sam Houston High School. 

By 1931, Lyndon Baines Johnson served as House of Representative Richard M. Kleberg's legislative secretary. On November 17, 1934, he married Claudia Atla Taylor, or known as "Lady Bird" Claudia. Many people know that LBJ was a World War II veteran when he was appointed as Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1940. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt greatly respected LBJ, and vice versa. By 1941, Lyndon Baines Johnson lost to the incumbent Governor of Texas W. Lee O'Daniel in the race for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination. By December 1941, Representative Lyndon B. Johnson reported to duty to serve in the U.S. Navy. In 1942, FDR sent Johnson to the Southwest Pacific, and he reported to General Douglas MacArthur. On July 17, 1942, Lyndon Johnson returned to Washington, D.C. after he was released from active combat. By 1944, his first daughter, Lynda Bird, was born. His 2nd daughter was born in 1947, and her name is Luci Baines. Lyndon Johnson was Commander of the Navy on October 19, 1949, and he ended his time in the Navy Reserve by January 18, 1964. In 1948, there was a contested Senate. Lyndon Baines Johnson won this time around against the Republican Jack Porter. His victory existed in controversy in the Democratic primary came against Coke Stevenson. LBJ was selected Senate Majority Whip in 1951. Also, he was the Senate Minority Leader in 1952. By 1954, he was elected Senate Majority Leader following the Democrats taking of the Senate. LBJ ran for President in 1960. He lost the Democratic Party nomination to the young Senator from Massachusetts named John Fitzgerald Kennedy. JFK had 806. It was a tough and, at times, personal campaign. Kennedy made him his running mate in the 1960 Presidential election. The reason was that John F. Kennedy was smart to want to gain Southern states, especially in Texas.

RFK didn't want LBJ to be the Vice President because of personal reasons. LBJ and RFK didn't like each other. It was personal as Lyndon Johnson bragged about calling RFK's father, Joseph Kennedy as an appeaser of the Nazis. RFK called LBJ a ruthless animal, and LBJ called RFK names as well. Vice President Lyndon Johnson always wanted to be President early on. His role as Vice President was the representative of the President's policies. He spoke and did engagements. One of his most famous speeches as Vice President was when LBJ gave a speech at Gettysburg to call for equality for black people, even before President John F. Kennedy's historic June 11, 1963 speech advocating for the same thing. LBJ said the following words at Gettysburg on May 30, 1963 in endorsing racial justice.

"...Until the world knows no aggressors, until the arms of tyranny have been laid down, until freedom has risen up in every land, we shall maintain our vigil to make sure our sons who died on foreign fields shall not have died in vain.

As we maintain the vigil of peace, we must remember that justice is a vigil, too--a vigil we must keep in our own streets and schools and among the lives of all our people--so that those who died here on their native soil shall not have died in vain.

One hundred years ago, the slave was freed.

One hundred years later, the Negro remains in bondage to the color of his skin.

The Negro today asks justice.

We do not answer him--we do not answer those who lie beneath this soil--when we reply to the Negro by asking, "Patience."

It is empty to plead that the solution to the dilemmas of the present rests on the hands of the clock. The solution is in our hands. Unless we are willing to yield up our destiny of greatness among the civilizations of history, Americans--white and Negro together--must be about the business of resolving the challenge which confronts us now...Until justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men's skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact. To the extent that the proclamation of emancipation is not fulfilled in fact, to that extent we shall have fallen short of assuring freedom to the free."

After John F. Kennedy's evil assassination on November 22, 1963, LBJ was President now. He was the 36th President. On November 29, 1963, LBJ renamed the Apollo Launch Operations Center as the John F. Kennedy Space Center; the Cape Canaveral launch facilities became Cape Kennedy until 1973. In 1964, he not only defeated Republican Barry Goldwater in a landslide election. Barry Goldwater was so extreme that he wanted to stop federal civil rights legislation and possibly use nuclear weapons in North Vietnam. President Johnson promoted a plan to end poverty in America. He fought to sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on July 2, 1964. The irony is that for years before the 1960s, LBJ voted against every civil rights bill ever introduced on the Hill in favor of states' rights. He changed his mind because he could never be a Democratic President opposing federal civil rights legislation. Times were changing.  1964 was the year of the birth of LBJ's The Great Society. The Great Society was a federal government program to fund investments to help American society. He defeated Goldwater by a margin of close to 16 million popular votes. 

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In 1965, he signed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. Also, he signed the Voting Rights Act in 1965 being one of the most progressive forms of legislation in human history. The new law helped to expand human rights to black people and all Americans. It came after the Selma voting rights movement existed in Alabama. It was the peak of the support of the Civil Rights Movement. Afterward, the Watts rebellion happened in 1965. A traffic stop existed in Los Angeles, conflict over the arrest happened, and the rebellion occurred. The rebellion resulted from long decades of economic exploitation, police brutality, and other forms of oppression against the black people of Los Angeles, California. Dr. King came to Los Angeles in trying to calm people down, but he was booed by some people (which was rare in 1965). Dr. King came to realize that the whole structure of society must change by redistributing power to the people in order to solve these complex, horrendous problems in our communities. In 1965, President Johnson supported the overthrow in Brazil and forced out George Papandreou in Greece in 1965. These are reactionary policies. The Greek ambassador protested this development, and LBJ replied to the ambassador in these words, "Then listen to me Mr. Ambassador: F___ your Parliament and your Constitution. America is the elephant. They may just get whacked by the elephant's trunk, whacked good...We pay a lot of good American dollars to the Greeks, Mr. Ambassador. If your Prime Minister gives me talk about Democracy, Parliament, and Constitutions, he, his Parliament, and his Constitution may not last very long," (William Blum, The CIA: A Forgotten History, pg. 244). So, it is clear, that President Johnson was a complete extremist on international issues. While, President John F. Kennedy wanted to go about promoting nationalism in Congo, Indochina, the Middle East, and Indonesia to make these nations independent, LBJ did the opposite. Kennedy was working on modes of detente with Cuba and the USSR by 1963. This was hated by the military-industrial complex. Then, you have the far-right backlash growing in 1966. Republicans gained power in Congress and in other institutions of power nationwide by 1966. The Vietnam War has grown even more during the Johnson administration. LBJ was stubborn to support a near-permanent military presence to fight North Vietnam, when a peaceful negotiated settlement is the best way to end that war. 

By the year of 1967, President Lyndon Baines Johnson nominated Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Supreme Court, and he appointed Robert C. Weaver to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. After the evil assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968 to fight housing discrimination. By October 22, 1968, he signed the Gun Control Act of 1968. By this time, his approval ratings drop as the anti-Vietnam War movement increased. Many people want the war to end, and LBJ refuses to do so. In 1968, Hubert Humphrey (his Vice President) lost the 1968 Presidential election to Richard M. Nixon. Humphrey almost won the race, but he announced a plan for peace talks late in his campaign. In 1969, the United States Supreme Court ruled that people could view whatever they wished in the privacy of their homes. In response, President Lyndon Baines Johnson funded the "President's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography" starting in 1968. The study wanted to study the effects of people watching pornography more freely (and it tried to stop juveniles from having access to pornography). The findings wanted accurate sexual education or people to have sexuality without harm, it recommended against any restrictions for adults, and it said that obscenity and pornography were not important societal problems. America was more conservative then, so the Senate rejected the Commission's findings and recommendations by a 60-5 vote. President Nixon rejected the findings of the report. By January 1969, President Lyndon Johnson leaves the White House, and in 1970, he had many heart attacks. He supports the liberal Democratic Presidential candidate in 1972, who was George McGovern. LBJ was concerned about the Democratic Party being too left, but the neoliberals would gain power later on. After 1972, the Democratic Party would shift to the right, and the Republican Party would be even more far-right. Nixon won re-election, and LBJ passed away in 1973. LBJ fought heart disease, and he continued to smoke cigarettes constantly. Lyndon Baines Johnson could have been one of the greatest Presidents in history, but his extremist foreign policy ended his Presidency rapidly. He combined many legitimate legislative reforms along with supporting a bad Vietnam War policy stubbornly. 

Nixon

President Richard M. Nixon was one of the most controversial Presidents in history. What you see is what you get with him. His tapes showed what type of man he was. On tapes, we know about his paranoia, his bigotry, and his involvement in the Bohemian Grove. He was completely honest in his pettiness, deviousness, sensitivity, and his calculated motivations for power. It is important to evaluate his life from the beginning to the end, so future generations can witness what not to do. President Richard Nixon was not only complicit in war crimes in the neocolonial wars in Vietnam (and in Cambodia). He funded the FBI's domestic illegal monitoring of progressive groups and any organization that disagreed with the interests of the reactionary establishment. Nixon made no bones about his disdain of the anti-war movement and the progressive group of Black Panthers. Nixon lived a life in massive eras from the Great Depression to the end of the Cold War. He lived to witness the start of the Bill Clinton Presidency and the conclusion of the Persian Gulf War back during early 1990's. Richard Nixon was constantly claiming to be some moderate, but he allied with people like Ronald Reagan who definitely weren't moderate by any stretch of the imagination. To start, Richard M. Nixon was born to Quaker parents in Yorba Linda, California on January 9, 1913. His parents were Frank and Hannah Milhous Nixon, being the 2nd born of five brothers.

Later, Frank Nixon sold the family home in 1922. The family lived in Whittier, California. By 1930, Nixon was 3rd in his high school class. He won many awards like the Harvard Club California award for outstanding all-around student. He earned a scholarship to Harvard University. He went to Whittier College, because even back then, Harvard was very expensive. At Whittier College, Richard Nixon was elected student body president, founder, and President of the Orthogonian Society. He joined the debate team, acted in many plays, and was on the football team. Richard Nixon met his future wife, Pat Ryan, at a Whittier Community Players tryout for the play, "The Dark Tower" in 1938. The couple married on June 21, 1940, at the Mission Inn in Riverside, California. During World War II, life changed. By 1942, he worked as an attorney at the Office for Price Administration (OPA) in Washington, D.C. where he witnessed first-hand the problems of government bureaucracy. This would cause Nixon to be more conservative in his life. People know that he was a U.S. Navy officer during WWII too. Richard Nixon, when he was in the Navy, worked in the South Pacific at Bougainville and at Green Island. He opened a Nick's Hamburger Stand at Bougainville for flight crews on their way to battle missions. He knew how to play poker while on active duty. Back in Whittier, California, many Republicans wanted him to run for Congress for the U.S. House of Representatives. 

In January 1946, he was honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy with the rank of Lieutenant commander. Richard and Pat Nixon's first daughter, Tricia, was born on February 21, 1946. By November 1946, Richard Nixon defeated the five-term veteran Democratic Congressman Jerry Voorhis. He was part of California's 12th district in the U.S. House of Representatives. This was in November 1946. He was a rabid anti-communist. He also promoted the Marshall Plan. Nixon was so anti-communist that he was a lead committee member in the investigation of accused Soviet spy Alger Hiss. Hiss was convicted on the charge of perjury as Nixon accused Hiss of being a Communist. By 1950, Nixon was elected to the U.S. Senate after defeating Democratic Congresswoman and Hollywood star Helen Gahagan Douglas. Richard Nixon soon was Dwight D. Eisenhower's running mate on July 11, 1952. Eisenhower won the Presidency. Before that, Nixon gave his famous Checker's Speech to confront charges of financial corruption. As Vice President of the United States, Richard Nixon supported Eisenhower's policies. Nixon traveled into Asia and the Middle East on a goodwill tour. Nixon toured with his wife, Pat Nixon, too. By September 1955, President Eisenhower had a heart attack. Nixon had to preside over Cabinet and National Security Council meetings temporarily. By the Spring of 1958, Richard Nixon and his wife traveled to South America through countries from Columbia, Brazil, and to Venezuela. In Caracas, Venezuela, the Vice President and Second Lady narrowly escaped death after a violent communist mob attacked this motorcade.

Richard Nixon loved to debate. So, on July 24, 1959, he had a debate about capitalism and communism with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. It was done at the American Exhibition in Moscow in an event called the "Kitchen Debate." By 1960, Vice President Richard Nixon ran for the President of the United States. He defeated many Republicans in the primary and faced the U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy. Kennedy was witty, smart, and charismatic. Nixon was smart too, but he didn't have the charisma that Kennedy had. They had one major television debate. Nixon viewed Kennedy as too soft on Communism. Kennedy wanted to show that Nixon was too rash and even Eisenhower wasn't so keen on Nixon in Kennedy's eyes. Their televised debate was the first one of its kind in American history. On the TV, Nixon was sweating and had difficulty. John F. Kennedy spoke about the New Frontier of creating a new vision for American society. Kennedy's idealism appeared to the youth. Kennedy defeated Nixon being the smallest popular vote margin in American history. The growth of the black American vote, the growth of Kennedy's popularity, and Texas heavily influenced JFK's victory in 1960. Nixon lost the gubernatorial campaign against the progressive Governor Pat Brown. That was in 1962 after he wrote his book "Six Crises."  From 1963 to 1967, Nixon traveled the world and campaigned for the GOP candidates in 1964 and in 1966. By 1966, the right-wing movement (aka the white backlash) gained more power in Congress. Reagan was soon the new governor of California by the late 1960's. There were protests for civil rights, anti-war protests, rebellions in urban communities, and other issues going on. Richard Nixon ran for President again in 1968, and he won the Republican nomination. He used the Southern Strategy (which is about using policies to appear to certain people in the South to gain Republican votes) and words about "peace with honor" to promote his campaign. Nixon viewed himself as being in opposition to progressives, who he called the "shouters." His campaign focused on police deification, political polarization, and race-baiting rhetoric. 1968 was the time of the assassinations of Dr. King and Robert Kennedy. It was the time of the bloody 1968 police riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in the city of Chicago, where even innocent journalists were beaten up by crooked police officers. Richard Nixon condemned the Black Panthers and any progressive liberation movement. Nixon defeated Vice President Hubert Humphrey on November 6, 1968. Hubert Humphrey almost won the 1968 election, but his call for a peaceful resolution for the Vietnam War was very late in his campaign. Humphrey was tied to LBJ and broke with him on Vietnam at the very end of the election. He also defeated the Alabama Governor George Wallace in the Presidential election too. By January 20, 1969, Richard Nixon was inaugurated as the 37th President of the United States of America.

Richard Nixon wanted to be a transformative figure. He promoted Vietnamization. That plan is about funding South Vietnamese forces in the Vietnam War, so they could get enough resources to defeat North Vietnam by themselves over the course of a period of time. This policy obviously didn't work.

Nixon visited France, Great Britain, and the Vatican in February 1969. He praised Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin going to the Moon in a delayed phone call on July 20, 1969. Nixon promoted federalism or a turn from New Deal progressive policies and sent more powers to the state including local governments. He supported the FBI's harassment and illegal monitoring of the Black Panthers, anti-war groups, etc. Nixon's policies on civil rights caused many people to resign from his office. Nixon signed the National Environmental Police Act, the Clean Air Act, the Clean War Act, and the invention of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970. These environmental policies are things that I have no issue with. He illegally invaded Cambodia which he claimed was giving sanctuary to North Vietnamese military forces. This was on April 30, 1970, causing massive protests nationwide. Then, the Kent State massacre happened when students were shot at by the police. President and Mrs. Nixon’s daughter Tricia married Edward Finch Cox in the Rose Garden at the White House on June 12, 1970. Nixon came into the Soviet Union and China. He wanted to go to China to reduce tensions among both countries. He met with Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai. China and America built a roadmap to a more peaceful political deal via the Shanghai Communique. By 1972, President Nixon came into the Soviet Union and signed the historic agreement on the limitation of strategic arms with Premier Leonid Brezhnev. He became the first American President to visit the Soviet Union. He won re-election on November 7, 1972, with a large victory against candidate George McGovern. Watergate happened when far-right extremists illegally came into the Democratic headquarters. Nixon at first denied any involvement. Later, we know that he was involved in the cover-up and he did other immoral acts that cost him the Presidency. By 1973, the United States, South Vietnam, Viet Cong, and North Vietnam formally sign “An Agreement Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam” in Paris.

American POWs came home from Vietnam. On June 22, 1973, Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev visited the United States for the Summitt II talks. A Prevention of Nuclear War Agreement is signed. In October 1973, Nixon gave military aid to Israel during the Yom Kippur War. Israel was preemptively attacked in that war. Nixon worked on Middle Eastern policy. Watergate was crashing down on Nixon. Nixon could have been thrown out of office by the Senate, but he resigned as President on August 8, 1974. Gerald Ford took over as United States President. After his Presidency, Richard Nixon worked with Ronald Reagan, Geroge H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton on especially foreign policy affairs. He was interviewed by Frost in the Summer of 1977, which 45 million people watched that show. He wrote his memoirs in 1978 to defend his actions of Watergate. Nixon continued to write books in the 1980's and moved into Saddle River, New Jersey. President Nixon attended the dedication of the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace with four Presidents and their First Ladies, and 50,000 friends and supporters (on July 19, 1990). Richard Nixon finished his ninth book, Seize the Moment: America’s Challenge In A One-Superpower World. That was in 1992. First Lady Pat Nixon passed away at Park Ridge, New Jersey on June 22, 1993. She was 81 years old, and Nixon told her passing very hard. She was buried at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California. On January 1994, on the 25th Anniversary of his first inauguration, President Nixon opened the Nixon Center for Peace and Freedom, a Washington foreign policy think tank based on pragmatic and principled realism. Nixon created his final and 10th book called Beyond Peace in 1994. It was published posthumously. President Richard Nixon passed away on April 22, 1994, at New York City, and he was 81 years old. 

On April 27, 1994, President Nixon was laid to rest at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California, next to First Lady Pat Nixon and just yards away from his birthplace and boyhood home. Presidents Bush, Reagan, Carter, and Ford attended the funeral, as did then-Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole. Rev. Billy Graham officiated the ceremonies which tens of millions observed on television. In his eulogy, Senator Dole said that the second half of the 20th century would be known as “The Age of Nixon.” Richard M. Nixon lived a long life, and he had a profound understanding of foreign policy affairs. He was at his core a center-right person, but he certainly followed far-right policies on certain issues. Nixon also was more progressive on environmental issues than other Presidents like Trump or Reagan. Nixon's mixed legacy is representative of many Presidents who allowed egoism to overtake their better judgments. The myth of Nixon promoting peace with honor involving Vietnam is easy to refute. Nixon allowed carpet bombing of civilian population centers in North Vietnam, even harbors. He supported Operation Phoenix in South Vietnam, which was an assassination program against suspected "enemies." Nixon supported the secret and illegal bombings against Laos and Cambodia which are overt war crimes and abuses of power. After Watergate, Nixon issued some of the most intellectual commentaries on foreign policy. Therefore, we have to show the truth about President Nixon without whitewashing or compromising. 

Gerald Ford

President Gerald Ford lived a long life with a Presidency that was in an age of transition. Ford was an athlete, a Congressperson, and the man who was President after the significant Watergate scandal. He was an Eisenhower Republican or a center-right political leader who wanted normal in his eyes after the Vietnam War including Watergate. He was born in Omaha, Nebraska to Leslie and Dorothy King. His original name was Leslie Lynch King, Jr. He was born on July 14, 1913. Later, Dorothy King and Gerald Ford fled Omaha to Grand Rapids, Michigan to live with his grandparents. Dorothy was a victim of domestic abuse from her husband. Dorothy King married Gerald R. Ford Sr. (who was a Grand Rapids businessman). Leslie Lynch King Jr. was later renamed to Gerald R. Ford, Jr. Gerald Ford attended Madison Elementary School in Grand Rapids. He joined the Trinity Methodist Church, and he was involved in football at South High School in Grand Rapids too. He was named All-City and All-State teams. As a younger person, Ford worked with his father's paint and varnish factory and a local hamburger stand. By the 1930's, he graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in Economics. He was part of the honor society of Michigaua, and he was a member of the fraternity of Delta Kappa Epsilon. In college, he was a center on the football team. Gerald Ford was the MVP on the 1934 team. He played many games. He declined to play for the Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions. By September of 1935, Ford was hired by Yale University to be an assistant football and boxing coach. Ford was an Intern Forest Ranger at Yellowstone Park's Canyon Station. By the summer of 1937, Ford attended law classes at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He worked hard in the Yale University Law school. He supported the isolationist America First Committee as America saw war across Europe in February 1938. Look Magazine featured a photography of Ford and his then girlfriend Phyllis Brown (a model for Cosmopolitan Magazine). By the Fall of 1940, he supported the Republican Wendell Willkie's Presidential campaign. He volunteered for him, and he attended his first Republican convention in Philadelphia. 

On Spring of 1941, Ford graduated in the top third of his law school class at Yale. Gerald Ford has his own law firm in May of 1941 with his friend Philip Bunchen. It's found in Suite 621 of the Michigan Trust Building. During World War II, he joined the U.S. Navy. He was sent to Chapel Hill, North Carolina as an athletic training officer. Gerald Ford was placed on the carrier USS Monterey as the ship's athletic officer. He worked on the ship's gunnery officers. He saw action in the Pacific Theater while being on the USS Monterey in the Battle of Makin. The ship attacked targets in Kwajalein and Eniwetok, New Guinea, Saipan Guam, and Formosa. The Monterey survived the typhoon in the Pacific. He survived it on December 18, 1944.  By the Spring of 1945, Ford is promoted to Lieutenant Commander and assigned to Glenview, Illinois, to train new naval officers for sea duty. In February 1946, Ford was honorably discharged from active duty in the United States Navy. During his service, he was awarded the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign medal with one silver star and four bronze stars, the Philippine Liberation Ribbon with two bronze stars, the American Campaign Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal. Gerald Ford worked in Grand Rapids to work on the law firm of Butterfield, Keeney, and Amberg (with his friend Philip Buchen). Gerald Ford has worked in charities like the Red Cross, the American Legion, and the VFW. Reforming Grand Rapids politics was part of his life. He was influenced by the Senator Arthur Vandenberg, who believed in internationalism. Gerald Ford dated Elizabeth Bloomer Warren. They were introduced by mutual friends. 

Gerald Ford ran for Congress for the U.S. House of Representatives, Fifth Congressional District of Michigan on June 14, 1948. He defeated the isolationist Bertel Jonkman, a McKay associate. On October 15, 1948, Ford and Betty Bloomer Warren wed at Grace Episcopal Church in Grand Rapids. Marrying in the middle of his congressional campaign, the couple honeymoon briefly in Ann Arbor, attend the University of Michigan-Northwestern football game, and then drove to Owosso, Michigan to attend a rally for Republican Presidential candidate Thomas Dewey. By 1948, Gerald Ford was elected to the U.S. Congress. Gerald Ford supported Eisenhower, Nixon, and the Republican Party. He has children like Michael Gerald Ford and John Gardner Ford. Ford supported funding the military and was very popular in Michigan. Ford attended an address of the South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem in May 1957. Diem was speaking to Congress. When Kennedy was President, he supported many of JFK's foreign aid initiatives. He was awarded the Congressional Distinguished Service Award from the American Political Science Association. People know him also as being part of the Warren Commission. He was appointed by President Lyndon Johnson. The Warren Commission believes that there was no conspiracy in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Ford would publish his own book about the tragedy entitled, Portrait of an Assassin with his friend John R. Stiles. Ford won his ninth term as Congressman by 1964 after LBJ defeated Barry Goldwater. Gerald Ford became the House Minority leader in 1965 over Halleck. In his first term as House Minority Leader, Ford offers Republican alternatives to the Great Society legislation of the Johnson administration. He appears with Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen of Illinois in weekly press conferences (known as the “Ev and Jerry Show”) to offer critiques of Johnson administration policies. He also campaigns on behalf of Republican candidates during the 1966 midterm elections. Ford in his second term as House Minority Leader begins attacking Johnson’s position on the war in Vietnam asking in an August 8, 1967 speech, “Why are we pulling our best punches in Vietnam?”

Gerald Ford supported a changing Republican Party. By the end of the 1960's, the Republicans declined in the amount of liberals and moderates, while conservatives came into the GOP in droves (especially with the Southern Strategy's race based plan). Ford supported Nixon and Spiro Agnew. He supported Nixon's policies in the House, despite Nixon's extremism and corruption. During Watergate, Spiro Agnew, under investigation for accepting bribes and income tax evasion while Governor of Maryland, resigns as Vice President of the United States. Gerald Ford was later made Vice President of the United States by President Richard Nixon. The Senate supported Ford's nomination by a vote of 92-3. Ford takes his oath as Vice President on 1973. By August 9, 1974, Gerald Ford was sworn in as the 38th President of the United States. He gave his famous speech that, "Our long, national nightmare is over.” Following the ceremony, President Ford goes immediately to work, meeting with Congressional leaders, senior White House staff, transition advisors, senior economic advisors, and foreign emissaries. He faces a nation with massive inflation like now in 2022. He tried to fight it. He promoted clemency for Vietnam War draft evaders in 1974 after giving a major speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Chicago. Ford nominated Nelson Rockefeller (former Governor of New York) to be Vice President. Ford pardoning Richard Nixon shocked the nation, and his poll numbers went down. His wife, Betty Ford, fought breast cancer by undergoing surgery. Whip Inflation Now is part of his movement to stop inflation. He also signed the Federal Election Campaign Act Amendments of 1974 which wanted to regulate campaign fundraising and spending. Ford vetoed the Freedom of Information Act Amendments believing not enough protection is given to sensitive and classified intelligence documents. Congress overrides Ford’s veto on November 21, 1974, making the bill law.

By 1974, Republicans lost 40 seats in the House and 4 in the Senate over the economy, the pardoning of Nixon, and other issues. Ford traveled to Japan, South Korea, and the Soviet Union. He goes to meet Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the U.S.S.R., meet in Vladivostok, U.S.S.R. Following Congressional approval, Nelson Rockefeller is sworn in as the forty-first Vice President of the United States on December 19, 1974. Ford signed the Privacy Act of 1974. Gerald Ford was honest to say that the state of the Union is not good in his 1975 State of the Union Address. Ford wants tax cuts for American families and reductions in government spending. Ford knows that the Vietnam War was near over, so he evacuated American personnel and South Vietnamese nationals on April 28, 1975, when Saigon becomes under total control by the Communists. American troops recovered civilians from the U.S. merchant ship Mayaguez in international waters. The Marines rescue the ship's crew, but many Marines have died. It was from May 12-15, 1975. Gerald Ford traveled the world and he runs for President starting in July 8, 1975 for the 1976 Presidential election. Ford departs on a trip to Europe for visits to West Germany, Poland, Finland, Romania, and Yugoslavia. In Helsinki, Ford joins leaders of 34 nations in signing the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. The Act’s human rights provisions greatly help East Europeans seeking an end to their communist regimes.

Gerald Ford survived an assassination attempt by Charles Manson follower Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme in Sacramento, California on September 5, 1975. Sara Jane Moore failed to assassinate Ford too in San Francisco, California. Ford, like Hoover, wants financial restraint for New York City during its budget crisis. He didn't want federal help for New York City at this time. He sent the city a line of credit by November 26, 1975. He organized his cabinet by naming neo-cons in his administration. He names Donald Rumsfeld as Defense Secretary, Elliot Richardson as Commerce Secretary, George Bush as CIA Director, and Richard Cheney as White House Chief of Staff. Henry Kissinger remains Secretary of State; however, he turns over his duties as National Security Advisor to Brent Scowcroft. Under pressure from Republican Party Conservatives, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller withdraws his name from consideration as Ford’s 1976 running mate. Ford supported John Paul Stevens to be on the Supreme Court by 1975. The Senate approves him unanimously in a vote of 98-0. Later, Ford talks to  Chinese Premier Deng Xiaoping and Chairman Mao Zedong to build momentum toward the normalization of relations. In 1976, Ford barely beat Ronald Reagan by 1,250 votes in the New Hampshire primary. Ford had a strong opponent in Reagan during the 1976 Republican primary. July 4, 1976, was America’s Bicentennial of independence. The year is marked by numerous head of state visits and state gifts to the United States. On July 4, President Ford attends events at Valley Forge, PA; Operation Sail in New York City; and Philadelphia, PA.

Queen Elizabeth II came to the White House during the bicentennial celebration. After defeating Reagan in the Republican primary, Ford had a race against Jimmy Carter. He had a debate with him. The Second presidential candidate debate, on foreign policy and defense issues, in San Francisco. During the debate, Ford comments that “there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration.” This misstatement is fodder for the press and public for the next several days. He had his final debate in Williamsburg, Virginia. Jimmy Carter won the 1976 election. Ford left office by January 20, 1977., Gerald Ford and his wife create their memoirs. He goes on to support Ronald Reagan as President. His Presidential Library is found Ann Arbor, Michigan, and his Presidential Museum is in Grand Rapids, Michigan. On October 10, 1981, at the request of President Reagan, Ford joins former Presidents Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter as part of the official American delegation attending the funeral of assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. The Betty Ford Center was dedicated on October 3, 1982. His football jersey of 48 was retired at a Michigan State football game. He and President Carter wanted President Clinton to be censured instead of impeached during the 1998 impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton. Ford also wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times to defend the University of Michigan’s system of admission standards that uses affirmative action. 

President Ford was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, by President Clinton on August 11, 1999. On October 27, 1999, President Ford received the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award bestowed by the Legislative branch. By the year of 2000, he spoke about the Vietnam War. Following the closely contested 2000 Presidential election, Former Presidents Ford and Carter are named as honorary Co-Chairmen of the National Commission on Federal Election Reform. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, President, and Mrs. Ford attend the National Day of Prayer and Remembrance ceremony at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. The NCAA named Ford as the fourteenth most-influential student-athlete of the last 100 years. On December 26, 2006, President Ford died at his California home. He was 93 years old. The nation enters a period of mourning, and funeral services are held in Palm Desert, California; Washington, D.C.; and Grand Rapids, Michigan. At the conclusion of funeral services at St. Margaret’s Church in Palm Desert, California, President Ford’s body is flown to Washington, D.C. to lie in state at the U.S. Capital Rotunda and for services at the National Cathedral. Before arriving at the Capital, the funeral procession drives to Alexandria, Virginia, and the Ford’s former home there. The procession also pauses for a ceremony at the World War II Veteran’s Memorial in Washington, D.C. on January 2, 2007, Funeral services are held for President Ford at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Eulogies are given by President George W. Bush, Former President George H.W. Bush, Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and Journalist Tom Brokaw. Following the service, President Ford’s body is flown back to Grand Rapids to lie in repose and for services. Funeral services are held for President Ford at Grace Episcopal Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. During the service, eulogies are given by Former President Jimmy Carter, Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and Historian Richard Norton Smith. Following the service, President Ford is interred on the grounds of his Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Gerald Ford was a center right conservative man, but he wasn't an extremist who wanted America to be ruined. He felt, in his heart, that it was his duty to improve the society of America. Also, he followed many progressive views like his support of affirmative action and his opposition to the Iraq War. Gerald Ford was a person who lived in both the 20th and 21st centuries seeing a massive amount of political and social evolutions in the world society. President Gerald Ford loved his wife and children realizing that family and friends make a soul become more enriched. 

Jimmy Carter

President Jimmy Carter is the oldest living American President now. He is a human being who worked hard from being a peanut farmer to working in Habitat for Humanity decades after his Presidency. He is one of the most humble Presidents in American history. He was only in office for one term, but his legacy has stretched for long decades. After his Presidency, he became much more progressive in his outlook on life and his political views. He was born on October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia. His parents were Earl and Lillian Carter. Earl Carter bought a 350-acre farm 3 miles from Plain in the community of Archtery. The Carter family lived in a house on the farm without running water or electricity. He was in first grade at Plains High School in 1930. By 1941, he graduated from Plains High School, and he enrolled at Georgia Southwestern College in Americus, Georgia. By 1942, Jimmy Carter was transferred to Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. During Jimmy Carter's life, he wanted to join the Navy as a child. Then, he would get his wish as he would be appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis by 1943. Jimmy Carter earned his naval commission and married Rosalynn Smith of Plains. They moved into Norfolk, Virginia by July 7, 1946. From 1946 to 1952, he traveled the world as a naval officer to places like Virginia, Hawaii, Connecticut, and New York. He had 3 sons during this time like Jack in 1947, Chip in 1950, and Jeff in 1952. 

By 1953, Earl Carter, Jimmy father, passed away from cancer. Lt. Jimmy Carter resigned from the U.S. Navy returning to Plains with his family to run Carter's Warehouse. They had to live in Public Housing Apartment 9A in Plains. From 1954-1962, he increased his service to his community. He worked on many local boards. Education was important in his life, so Jimmy Carter accepted an appointment to the Sumter County Board of Education. Jimmy Carter was elected to the Georgia State Senate and served 2 terms from 1962 to 1966. He lost his governor's race to the controversial Lester Maddox in 1966. By 1967, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter's fourth child, Amy, was born. He ran for governor again and won the election in 1971. He was Georgia's 6th Governor starting on January 12, 1971. Jimmy Carter shown his policies, and he ran for President in 1974. Thousands of people visit Plains in hopes of meeting him. The town changed from agriculture-based businesses to tourist shops selling souvenirs. Jimmy Carter ran a tough Presidential campaign. He supported musicians, he defeated Gerald Ford, and he appeared to working-class people. Also, Carter is a born-again Christian. He caused a new era of more born-again Christians being involved in politics. He won the 1976 election to be the 39th President of the United States of America. 

Jimmy Carter was inaugurated as President of the United States of America on January 20, 1977, in Washington, D.C. President Carter addresses the country on energy needs. The Panama Canal treaty was signed. By 1978, the U.S. and the People’s Republic of China establish full diplomatic relations. President Carter negotiated and mediated an accord between Egypt and Israel at Camp David.  In 1979, the Department of Education is formed. Iranian radicals overrun the U.S. Embassy and seize American hostages. The Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty (SALT II) is signed. Jimmy Carter wanted his foreign policy to promote human rights around the world. The controversial Brzezinski inspired Carter to support the Mujahideen attacking the Soviets in Afghanistan by 1979 too. In 1980, the Alaskan National Interest Lands Conservation Act was signed. A rescue attempt to get American hostages out of Iran is unsuccessful. Jimmy Carter was defeated in his bid for a second term as President by Ronald Reagan in November. Ronald Reagan had a tidal wave of support involving the new conservative movement. This movement was growing since the days of Goldwater back in 1964. With Evangelical support, neo-con support, and other far right people, Ronald Reagan organized a massive system that caused him to have a Presidential victory in 1980. In 1981, President Carter continued to negotiate the release of the American hostages in Iran. Minutes before his term as President is over, the hostages were released.  Former President Carter leaves Washington, DC and head to Germany to greet the hostages. President Carter and Mrs. Carter return to their home in Plains, Georgia. Jimmy Carter lost the 1980 election to Ronald Reagan. The conservative leader Reagan had too much power. Carter struggled with economic issues, foreign policy matters, and even attacks from progressives. His disagreement with Edward Kennedy over health care caused Jimmy Carter to this very day to say that his plan was better than Kennedy's plan. In 1982, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter after much planning and fundraising established The Carter Center in Atlanta. The Jimmy Carter Library and Museum and The Carter Center in Atlanta opened in 1986. 

After his Presidency, Jimmy Carter has become very progressive. He has been a voice for the oppressed for decades. He traveled the world to fight racism, poverty, and injustice. Jimmy Carter monitored elections overseas, wrote books, taught Sunday school, and became a real activist for real political change. He opposed the Iraq War, promoted equality among Israelis and Palestinians, and fought for justice for all. 

 

Ronald Reagan

President Ronald Reagan was overt in his views. What you see is what you get with him. Ronald Reagan use eloquence to promote his conservative ideologies, and there was a progressive opposition to his views from economics to foreign policy. He saw the existence of 2 centuries and more than 8 decades of life. The conservative movement was strengthened by his Presidency. Barry Goldwater was the godfather of the modern conservative movement, and Ronald Reagan was the influential evangelist of that movement. He inspired the existence of the Tea Party too. Ronald Reagan is a controversial person. As a black American, you already know that I don't agree with many of the views of Reagan from domestic to foreign policy matters. Also, it is important to give a summary of his life and Presidency in order for us to learn lessons in creating a better future. Ronald Reagan was born in the Midwest on February 6, 1911. His parents were Nell Wilson Reagan and John Edward Reagan. He lived in Dixon, Illinois by 1920. Ronald Reagan lived a curious life being a lifeguard at Lowell Park, near Dixon. He saved 77 lives during the 7 summers that he worked there. 1926 was the year when he started being a lifeguard. By 1928, Ronald Reagan had graduated from Dixon High School. While he was in high school, he was student body president. Also, he played in football, basketball, track, and school plays. From 1928-to 1932, he attended Eureka (Illinois) College, where he majored in economics and sociology. During his sophomore year, Reagan becomes interested in drama. Reagan also serves as student body president.

Back in those days, Ronald Reagan was a liberal. Reagan even supported Franklin Delano Roosevelt when FDR was President. Reagan in 1932 received a temporary sports broadcasting job with WOC, Eureka (Illinois) College, where he majored in economics and sociology. During his sophomore year, Reagan becomes interested in drama. Reagan also serves as student body president. In 1937, Reagan enlisted in the Army Reserve as a private but is soon promoted to 2nd lieutenant in the Officers Reserve Corps of the Cavalry. An agent for Warner Brothers "discovered" Reagan in Los Angeles and offered him a seven-year contract. By 1940, Ronald Reagan played the role of the Notre Dame football legend George Gipp in his most acclaimed film, Knute Rockne, All American. The role earned Reagan the nickname "the Gipper." Ronald Reagan married the actress Jane Wyman on January 24, 1940. They met while working on the movie Brother Rat. Maureen Reagan was born on January 4, 1941. By 1942, Reagan was called to active duty by the Army Air Force. He is assigned to the 1st Motion Picture Unit in Culver City, Calif., where he makes over 400 training films. After WWII, Reagan worked on acting and makes more films. He was in a TV movie too. The Reagans adopted Michael Reagan in March 1945. By 1947, he was elected President of the Screen Actors Guild for the first of five consecutive terms, Reagan testified as a friendly witness before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. The hearings result in the blacklisting of many writers and directors thought to have ties to the Communist Party. In 1948, Ronald Reagan supported Harry Truman for President. In 1949, Reagan and Wyman divorced.

Reagan by the 1950's became conservative from liberal. In 1950, he campaigned for the California Democrat Helen Gahagan Douglas in her bid for the U.S. Senate against Richard Nixon.  In 1952, Ronald Reagan campaigned as a Democrat for Eisenhower. Ronald Reagan and Nacy Davis married on March 4, 1952. Their daughter Patricia was born on October 21, 1952. In 1954, Reagan is hired to host the General Electric Theater on television, a job he holds for eight years. Reagan tours the country giving speeches as a GE spokesman. By 1956, Reagan campaigned for President Dwight D. Eisenhower's re-election as a Democrat. Ronald Prescott Reagan was born on May 20, 1958. In 1960, he campaigned, as a Democrat, for Richard Nixon for President. It would be in 1962 that Ronald Reagan changed his party registration to Republican. On October 27, 1964, Ronald Reagan gave a television address supporting Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. The speech, called "A Time for Choosing," launched Reagan's political career. Reagan was so extreme that he opposed the 1964 Civil Rights Act, he opposed the Housing rights bills in California, and he was caught on tape making a racist remark about Africans (with Richard Nixon during the 1970's). Reagan incorrectly compared JFK's Medicare proposal for seniors to socialism. In 1965, Ronald Reagan released his autobiography called, Where's the Rest of Me? -- the title is a line from his 1942 movie King's Row -- was published.

In 1966, Reagan defeated the incumbent California Governor Edmund G. Brown (a progressive man) in a landslide. As Governor of California, Ronald Reagan was in the middle of the culture war. He opposed the views of the hippies, he supported the unjust Vietnam War, he opposed federal civil rights legislation, and he opposed the Black Panthers. By 1968, Reagan ran for President, waiting until the Republican National Convention in Miami to announce his candidacy. He later joins in supporting nominee Richard Nixon. In 1969, Reagan sent the National Guard to break up protests at the University of California at Berkeley after university officials block activists' efforts to create a "People's Park." Reagan was re-elected California governor in 1970. In 1974, Reagan wrote a syndicated newspaper column and provides commentaries on radio stations across the country after his 2nd term as California's governor. Ronald Reagan lost the Republican Party's nomination to Gerald Ford in 1976, but it was a prelude to his victory in 1980. Reagan and his conservative allies built alliances, worked hard, and joined with many of the Religious Right. Back in the day, many conservative Christians refused to be in politics. That would change. On November 13, 1979, Ronald Reagan announced his candidacy for President of the United States of America. By November 4, 1980, Ronald Reagan was elected President in a landslide victory over the incumbent Jimmy Carter. By January 20, 1981, Ronald Reagan was sworn in as the 40th president of the United States. On the same day, Iran releases the 52 remaining hostages who had been held at the U.S. embassy in Tehran for 444 days. On March 30, 1981, Reagan is shot in the chest upon leaving a Washington hotel but made a full recovery after surgery. Three other people, including Reagan press secretary James Brady, are wounded in the assassination attempt. John Hinckley Jr. is charged but found not guilty by reason of insanity. On April 28, 1981, Reagan appeared before Congress for the first time since the assassination attempt. He receives a hero's welcome and overwhelming support for his economic package, which includes cuts in social programs and taxes, and increases in defense spending. Reagan's social spending cuts harm many poor and communities of color (including black people). On July 29, 1982, Congress passed Reagan's tax bill. Instead of a 30% tax cut over three years, Reagan accepts 25%. By August 3, 1981, Air traffic controllers go on strike. Reagan gives them 48 hours to get back to work and fires those who refuse. Reagan appointed Sandra Day O'Connor as the first woman justice on the United States Supreme Court in September of 1981. The late Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor would mostly judge in the center. On October 18, 1981, Reagan conceded that the United States is in "a slight recession" but predicts recovery by the spring.

On November 10, 1981, Budget Director David Stockman charges that the 5% economic growth rate that the administration had assumed was a "rosy scenario," and pans "supply side" economics as a way to benefit the rich. In a speech to the British House of Commons, Reagan predicts "the march of freedom and democracy...will leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash heap of history ..." This was on June 8, 1982. He was hawkish on the Soviet Union for years. By the Fall of 1982, the nation sinks into its worst recession since the Great Depression. Reagan fears budget deficits as high as $200 billion. On Nov. 1, more than 9 million Americans are officially unemployed. By January 31, 1983, Reagan submits his fiscal 1984 budget to Congress. The recession, tax cuts, and increased defense outlays are blamed for a projected $189 billion budget gap. Reagan vows to "stay the course," rejecting advice to raise taxes or cut defense. On March 8, 1983, in a speech to the National Association of Evangelicals, Reagan warns against ignoring "the aggressive impulses of an evil empire," the U.S.S.R. On March 23, 1983, Reagan showed his proposal for a Strategic Defense Initiative, later dubbed "Star Wars," in a national speech: "I call upon the scientific community in our country, those who gave us nuclear weapons, to turn their great talents now to the cause of mankind and world peace, to give us the means of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete." Today, missile interception technology has been much more advanced than during the 1980's. A Soviet fighter downs Korean Air Lines flight (KAL 007), killing all 269 people aboard, including 61 Americans. Reagan denounces it as a "crime against humanity" (on September 1, 1983). 

The suicide bomber attack in Beirut, Lebanon on October 23, 1983 caused 241 members of the peacekeeping force. U.S. troops invade Grenada to oust Marxists who had overthrown the government, and to protect U.S. medical students on the Caribbean island (on October 25, 1983). Reagan wanted a return to arms talk with the USSR on January 16, 1984. In a televised speech, Reagan urged helping the Contra "freedom fighters" in Nicaragua (on May 9, 1984). The truth is that the Contras were terrorists involving in drug trafficking too. By June 6, 1944, Reagan gave an emotional speech in Normandy, France commemorating the 40th year anniversary of the events of D-Day (which liberated millions from Nazi fascist tyranny). On July 19, 1984, Walter Mondale accepts the Democratic presidential nomination and promises to raise taxes. By August 11, 1984, while checking a microphone prior to a radio broadcast, Reagan jokes: "...I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes." Reagan and Mondale debate each other. Reagan struggles in the debate, and Reagan continues to work on his campaign. Congress banned funding the military aid to the Nicaragua Contras.

In his second debate with Mondale, Reagan quips: "I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience." That was on October 21, 1984. By November 4, 1984, Reagan defeats Mondale in a landslide. Reagan carries 49 states -- 525 electoral votes to Mondale's 10, and 59% of the popular vote. Ronald Ragan was 73 years old when he was sworn in the 2nd time. In June 1985, TWA Flight 847 from Athens is hijacked by terrorists. The pilot is forced to fly to Beirut, where hijackers beat and kill a Navy diver. The plane is flown to Algiers, then back to Beirut again. Most passengers are released; 39 are held captive in Lebanon. Reagan vowed that the U.S. will never give in to terrorists' demands. The remaining hostages are freed after 17 days. By November 19, 1985, Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev held a "fireside" summit in Geneva. The leaders disagreed on the Strategic Defense Initiative but pledge to meet again and seek a 50% cut in nuclear arms. On January 28, 1986, the U.S.  space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff, killing all on board -- six astronauts and teacher Christa McAuliffe, the first civilian to go into space. By April 14, 1986, Reagan ordered air strikes against Libya in retaliation for the bombing of a West Berlin disco in which two U.S. servicemen were killed and more than 200 people were injured. A Reagan-Gorbachev arms summit in Reykjavik, Iceland, ended without agreement after a rift over SDI on October 11, 1986. 

The Iran Contra scandal grows when Reagan admits sending some defensive weapons and spare parts to Iran but denies it was part of an arms-for-hostages deal on November 13, 1986. National Security Adviser John Poindexter resigned and national security aide Col. Oliver North was fired in the widening Iran-Contra affair. In a press conference, Attorney General Edwin Meese announced that $10-$30 million of profits from the sale of U.S. arms to Iran had been diverted to the Nicaraguan Contras. The Tower Commission report on Iran-Contra concluded that Reagan's passive management style allowed his staff to mislead him about the trade of arms to Iran for hostages held in Lebanon and to pursue a secret war against the Nicaraguan government (on February 26, 1987). Reagan yielded to pressure from his advisers (including his wife Nancy) to fire Chief of Staff Donald Regan, and Ronald Reagan admitted his mistake in the Iran Contra affair on March 4, 1987. In a speech at Berlin's Brandenberg Gate, Reagan demands Gorbachev "tear down this wall." That was on June 12, 1987.

The Cold War rapidly starts to end in 1987. By December of 1987, in a Washington summit, Reagan and Gorbachev sign Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty to eliminate 4% of the superpowers' nuclear arsenals. It is the first U.S.-Soviet treaty to provide for the destruction of nuclear weapons and to provide for on-site monitoring of the destruction. Oliver North, John Poindexter, and two others are indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiring to defraud the U.S. government by secretly providing funds and supplies to the Contras. On March 16, 1988. Afghanistan and the Soviet Union agreed to start withdrawing Soviet troops from Afghanistan on April 14, 1988. On May 5, 1988, in his memoir For the Record, Donald Regan reveals that Nancy Reagan relied on an astrologer to set the dates for her husband's public appearances. On May 27, 1988, the Senate ratifies the INF treaty, the first arms-control agreement since 1972's Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I) to receive Senate approval. Vice President George Bush defeated Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis to become the 41st president of the United States on November 8, 1988. January 11, 1989, was when Reagan gave his farewell address to the nation, in which he says the so-called Reagan revolution "made a difference." On January 20, 1989, George Bush was inaugurated. Reagan leaves the White House with the highest approval rating of any president since FDR. Reagan retires to California, travels, meets with various world leaders, and gives public speeches in support of charitable organizations, Republican candidates and causes. Reagan undergoes surgery to remove fluid on his brain attributed to an incident a few months earlier in which he has been knocked off a horse in Mexico. The Berlin Wall came down in November 1989 allowing free movement between East and West Germany. President Ronald Reagan gave amnesty to many undocumented immigrants, signed a law to make Dr. King's holiday a federal holiday (after pressure), and vetoed anti-apartheid legislation (claiming that he didn't want boycotts as a method to end apartheid. Congress overriden his veto). 

By February 1990, Reagan gave videotaped testimony in the Iran-Contra trial of former aide John Poindexter. The Soviet Union ended by December 1991. On November 5, 1994, Reagan disclosed in a letter that he has Alzheimer's disease. "I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life," he writes. "I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead." Maureen Reagan, Reagan's oldest daughter, died at 60 after a long struggle with cancer on August 8, 2001. President Ronald Reagan passed away in California at the age of 93 years old on June 5, 2004. I was in college when he passed away. I remember the somber news just like yesterday. Ronald Reagan helped to lift the confidence up of a new generation of conservative people. On June 11, 2-004, a state funeral was conducted in the Washington National Cathedral, presided over by President George W. Bush. Eulogies were given by former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, and both former President George H. W. Bush and President George W. Bush. Also in attendance were Mikhail Gorbachev and many world leaders, including British Prime Minister Tony Blair; Prince Charles, representing his mother Queen Elizabeth II; German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder; Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi; and interim presidents Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and Ghazi al-Yawer of Iraq.

After the funeral, the Reagan entourage was flown back to the Ronald W. Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, where another service was held, and President Reagan was interred. At the time of his death, Reagan was the longest-lived president in U.S. history, having lived 93 years and 120 days (2 years, 8 months, and 23 days longer than John Adams, whose record he surpassed). He was also the first U.S. president to die in the 21st century. Reagan's burial site is inscribed with the words he delivered at the opening of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library: "I know in my heart that man is good, that what is right will always eventually triumph and that there is purpose and worth to each and every life." Reagan gave conservatives a spine, inspiration, and influence modern-day society. I don't agree with Reagan on many issues, but I don't hate the man. I realize his legacy, and I do realize the important fight to create justice for everybody. 

 

George H. W. Bush

President George H. W. Bush acted as a throwback to the center-right Presidents like Dwight D. Eisenhower and Gerald Ford. They were definitely conservative people, but they weren't extremists. President Bush Sr. was a person whose Presidency was old school, mainline conservative. He wasn't as conservative as his predecessor Ronald Reagan. For decades, Bush Sr. was a member of the establishment by being Director of the CIA, worked at the United Nations, and his father Prescott Bush had a political career too. George H. W. Bush was born on June 12, 1924, in Milton, Massachusetts. His parents were Prescott Bush and Dorothy Walker Bush. Weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Bush met Barbara Pierce at a Christmas dance. George H. W. Bush joined the U.S. Navy when he turned 18 years old in 1942. By 1943, he was the youngest commissioned pilot in the naval air service. Bush Sr. married Barbara Pierce in January of 1945 while he was on leave.  George H. W. Bush worked in the oil business early on. By 1948, he graduated from Yale University (he was a Skulls and Bones member) and took up a job in the oil industry. He moved his family to Texas. 1952 was the year when he co-founded Zapata Petroleum. His father, Prescott Bush was elected to the U.S. Senate from Connecticut in the same year. Bush Sr. had his own political aspirations too. So, he became chairman of the Harris County Republican Committee. His father retired from the Senate in 1962. George H. W. Bush lost his run for the U.S. Senate in 1962. Later, he won an election to the U.S. House of Representatives being the first freshman in 63 years to be offered a seat on the powerful Ways and Means Committee. George H. W. Bush back in the 1960s was wrong to oppose the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 

In 1970, George H. W. Bush ran for the Senate after giving up his House seat. He lost the election to Democrat Lloyd Bentsen. By 1971, Richard Nixon appointed him as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. George H. W. Bush and Nixon were friends. By 1974, he was appointed to be chief of the U.S. Liaison Office in China by President Gerald Ford, and he was named Director of the CIA in 1976. 

George H. W. Bush worked in the CIA for a short period of time, and George H. W. Bush decided to publicly run for President in 1979. He faced off against Ronald Reagan, who was a skilled politician. He was an actor, so he used many tactics to win the 1980 election. Reagan told someone that he was paying for the microphone Mr. Green who even got George Bush Sr. to cheer Reagan on. Reagan wanted to balance his ticket, so he picked George H. W. Bush to appeal to moderates and center-right people. After Reagan's landslide victory, George H. W. Bush would be Vice President of the United States of America from 1981 to 1989. As early as 1987, George Bush Sr. publicly ran for President. He enlisted many of the Reagan team and neo-cons to help him out. One low point of his campaign was when he promoted the Willie Horton ad that played to racist stereotypes, fear-mongering, and agitation that divided Americans. He won the election against Mike Dukakis as the Democratic Party was having a political civil war between moderates (in the DLC, etc.) and progressives among other reasons. Mike Dukakis rode in a tank and did actions that didn't inspire a mass coalition to vote for him. Jesse Jackson just had more charisma, eloquence, and inspiration than Dukakis, but Jackson lost the Democratic primary. President George H. W. Bush was sworn in on January 20, 1989. The oath was given by Chief Justice William Rehnquist. 

On February 6, 1989, President Bush promoted his bailout plan for the troubled savings and loans banks. It gave for the sale of $50 billion in government bonds to finance the bailout. It also gave the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) regulatory oversight over the S&Ls. The Bush administration signed the historic semi-automatic rifle ban on March 14, 1989. He was urged to do so by the federal drug czar William Bennett. The Exxon Valdez oil spill took place on March 24, 1989. It was the worst oil spill on American territory other than the Gulf of Mexico oil spill years later. The tanker of Exxon Valdez dumped 240,000 barrels of oil into waters causing massive environmental damage. Bush sent aid to Poland when it had a Communist government on April 17, 1989. The Tiananmen Square Massacre took place on June 4, 1989, when Chinese pro-democratic protests advocated for freedom. The People's Liberation Army, the military arm of the Chinese government, used tanks and armored cars to suppress the protests. From 700 to 2,700 people were killed by governmental forces. President George H. W. Bush condemned China's actions plus he suspended the sale of American weapons to China. The Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 was passed to bail out Savings and Loans. Troubled banks were dealt with by the governmental body of the Resolution Trust Company. The Berlin Wall falls on November 9, 1989. Then, people could peacefully travel between Eastern and Western Germany. Communism ends all over Eastern Europe. By 1990, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Lithuania, and Romania end Stalinist Communist rule. The Soviet Union comes to be gone by December 1991. Gorbachev has resigned. Bush and Gorbachev make sure that the Soviet Union and the Cold War ended as peacefully as possible. The minimum wage is increased. George H. W. Bush supports the anti-drug laws that gave more than $3 billion to War on Drugs enforcement policies, federal prison expansion, and anti-drug programs like treatment facilities. President Bush Sr. supports arms reductions in 1990 with Gorbachev. Bush promoted new taxes on June 26, 1990, after his no new taxes pledge. 

President George H. W. Bush allowed America to invade Panama to capture Manuel Noriega (he is brought to America to stand trial for drug trafficking). One of the greatest events of the Bush Sr. administration was when President George H. W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act on July 26, 1990. This has helped over 43 million Americans, and it has forbidden discrimination based upon disability in employment, public accommodations, and transportation. The ADA helped tons of lives. President Bush Sr. supported German reunification by October 3, 1990. Many people were afraid that German reunification would harm Europe, but it didn't. Bush Sr. was wrong to veto the Civil Rights Act of 1990. The budget was passed on November 5, 1990, filled with cuts of $500 billion over the five years along with getting $140 billion in new taxes. President Bush sent troops into Saudi Arabia, and he signed the Clean Air Act to fight air pollution by November 15, 1990. He caps military forces in Europe with the CFE Treaty and allowed many immigrants via the Immigration Act of 1990. Bush Sr. was famous for promoting his Thousands of Points of Light plan to promote volunteerism in American society. 

In August 1990, Bush signed the Ryan White CARE Act, the largest federally funded program dedicated to assisting persons living with HIV/AIDS. Throughout his presidency, the AIDS epidemic grew dramatically in the U.S. and around the world, and Bush often found himself at odds with AIDS activist groups who criticized him for not placing a high priority on HIV/AIDS research and funding. Frustrated by the administration's lack of urgency on the issue, ACT UP, dumped the ashes of HIV/AIDS victims on the White House lawn during a viewing of the AIDS Quilt in 1992. By that time, HIV had become the leading cause of death in the U.S. for men aged 25–44.

Later, in 1991, America and its allies have a military operation to get Iraqi forces out of Kuwait on January 17, 1991. Iraq invading Kuwait threatened oil prices, and the Persian Gulf War was debated heavily in Congress. Many people supported and opposed that war. Operation Desert Storm was filled with military bombings, military troops fighting, and aerial attacks. After 100 hours after the start of the ground assault, a cease-fire was made. The West had stronger air power, tanks, and digital technology than the Iraqis, so victory was easy. Many neo-cons in the Bush Sr. administration wanted to invade Iraq, but President George H. W. Bush refused to do so citing ethnic divisions and the burden of an occupying force in one nation. President Bush lifted most American sanctions against South Africa as the movement to end apartheid was nearly completed in their goal by July 10, 1991. START I was signed in 1991 to reduce nuclear arms. One of the most controversial actions of George H. W. Bush was his support of Clarence Thomas to replace retiring Justice Thurgood Marshall. The Senate confirmed Thomas with a close 52-48 vote. Clarence Thomas is an open book being a far-right extremist. Thomas' wife, Ginni Thomas, wanted to steal the 2020 election too. He would be so extreme that he would vote to gut the Voting Rights Act in Section 5. Anita Hill accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. To this day, Thomas denies those allegations. To this day, Anita Hill maintains her allegations being an inspirational voice against sexual harassment. George H. W. Bush signed the Civil Rights Act of 1991 making it easier for employees to sue employers on the grounds of discrimination by November 21, 1991. 

George H. W. Bush declared a new world order against the Persian Gulf War, and he ran for President in 1992. The Soviet Union officially ended on December 31, 1991. The recession caused unemployment to rise to 7.1 percent in December 1991. This was its highest mark in 5 years. By February 1, 1992, President Bush met with new Russian President Boris Yeltsin to talk about U.S. Russian relations. They publicly declare the end of the Cold War. By this time, George H. W. Bush faced many problems like a recession. President Bush won the New Hampshire primary, but he faced a strong challenge from the Knight of Malta Patrick Buchannan (he is the conservative Roman Catholic who helped to increase the magnitude of the culture wars in our modern time). President Bush Sr. wanted $24 billion in aid to help states in the former Soviet Union. Bush Sr. dealt with more agreements to deal with nuclear arms reductions among Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. This was on May 23, 1992. Bush Sr. attended the Earth Summitt at Rio de Janeiro to address climate change and fight to stop global warming on June 12, 1992. In 1992, Bush Sr. signed a U.S. Russian nuclear agreement to reduce nuclear warheads to 3,000 and 3,500 by the year 2003. After the LA Rebellion in 1992, George H. W. Bush promoted a supplemental appropriations act to help aid inner cities, especially in Los Angeles, California. Bush Sr. signed coverage for the unemployed for 26 weeks of benefits. The unemployment rate was 7.8 percent by 1992. President Bush and Dan Quayle ran for office in the 1992 election. Bush's education platform consisted mainly of offering federal support for a variety of innovations, such as open enrollment, incentive pay for outstanding teachers, and rewards for schools that improve performance with underprivileged children. Though Bush did not pass a major educational reform package during his presidency, his ideas influenced later reform efforts, including Goals 2000 and the No Child Left Behind Act.

Bill Clinton was on the scene as a new type of politician. Clinton was viewed as a change agent who talked about taxing the rich, investing in the middle class, and preparing for the future. William Jefferson Clinton also was in support of the moderate DLC movement that wanted to go away from some of the old school FDR New Deal liberalism into the centrist neoliberalism. George H. W. Bush was shocked at the growing popularity of Bill Clinton, and then Ross Perot was in the race. These factors caused Bush Sr. to lose the 1992 election to Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton won 43 percent of the vote and 370 Electoral College votes, Bush had 38 percent with 168 votes, and Perot had 19 percent with no electoral votes. American troops were in Somalia by December 9, 1992, in the UN sponsored Operation Restore Hope. The goal of this mission was the humanitarian distribution of food and medical aid plus more supplies to Somalis suffering. Somalia experienced starvation, drought, and violence for a long time. 

George H. W. Bush continued in public life and attends the inauguration of his son, George W. Bush, as the 43rd President of the United States of America. This is the first time, since John and John Quincy Adams, that a father and son have been elected President. George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton have grown to be great friends. They worked together to promote charity and aid to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. George Bush Sr. criticized Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and even his own son (George W. Bush) for the handling of foreign policy after 9/11. Bush Sr. supported John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012 when they ran for President. Both of them were defeated by Democratic leader President Barack Obama. President Barack Obama awarded President George H. W. Bush the 2010 Medal of Freedom during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C. on February 15, 2011. George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Jeb Bush never supported Donald Trump because of the obvious reasons (Trump's policies are overtly bigoted and authoritarian. Trump has a tendency to use over-the-top ad hominem attacks against people who disagree with him. Also, Trump disrespected Jeb Bush and his wife.  So, Trump is one of the most corrupt Presidents in American history). In August 2017, after the violence at Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, both Presidents Bushes released a joint statement saying, "America must always reject racial bigotry, anti-Semitism, and hatred in all forms[. ...] As we pray for Charlottesville, we are all reminded of the fundamental truths recorded by that city's most prominent citizen in the Declaration of Independence: we are all created equal and endowed by our Creator with unalienable rights." He skydived on his 90th birthday in 2014.

George H. W. Bush's wife, Barbara Bush, passed away on April 17, 2018, at the age of 92. Her funeral was held at St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Houston four days later. Bush, along with former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush (son), Bill Clinton, and First Ladies Melania Trump, Michelle Obama, Laura Bush (daughter-in-law), and Hillary Clinton attended the funeral and posed together for a photo as a sign of unity. Former President George H. W. Bush did another skydive for the 8th time that the former president did a parachute jump, including on his 80th and 85th birthdays. 

On November 1, 2018, Bush went to the polls to vote early in the midterm elections. This would be his final public appearance. President George H. W. Bush passed away on November 30, 2018, at the age of 94 years old. He had a battle with vascular Parkinson's disease, and he transited at Houston, Texas. He was the 2nd longest-living President in American history. Bush lay in state in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol from December 3 through December 5; he was the 12th U.S. president to be accorded this honor. Then, on December 5, Bush's casket was transferred from the Capitol rotunda to Washington National Cathedral where a state funeral was held. After the funeral, Bush's body was transported to George H.W. Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas, where he was buried next to his wife Barbara and daughter Robin. At the funeral, former President George W. Bush eulogized his father saying, "He looked for the good in each person, and he usually found it." Bush Sr. was a lifelong Episcopalian like many Presidents were. He regularly attended St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Houston. The legacy of President George H. W. Bush was that he was a President in transition. He saw the end of the Cold War and the start of the new school post-Cold War era. During his Presidency, he saw the monumental foreign policy changes in the world with a lot of dedicated care. Some of his great accomplishments would be promoting the reunification of Germany and ending the Cold War in a fashion that didn't cause WWIII. He was a center-right President domestically. Some of his policies were very legitimate in defense of the environment, defense of disability rights, and in defense of many policies. He made errors too. President George H. W. Bush worked across the aisle to make many laws as he was a center-right conservative. Therefore, George H. W. Bush sailed the ship from the end of the 20th century that impacted our world in the 21st century. 

Bill Clinton

William Jefferson Clinton was a very historic President in many ways. He was the first President who existed completely after the Cold War, and he was the first President whose Presidency existed during the 21st century. So, he saw both the old school and new school realities of American society. I remember growing up and hearing the far-right extremists viewing Bill Clinton as far left, near Communist, and extreme. These views are laughable. With more research now, we see that Bill Clinton was a centrist President not a super progressive President. Bill Clinton's ultimate legacy as President is that he made monumental contributions to society, and many scandals almost ruined his Presidency. Yet, he made many comebacks to make the country to be a better space in 2001 than in 1993 when his Presidency started. To start, Bill Clinton was born on August 19, 1946, and his original name is William Jefferson Blythe IV. Hope, Arkansas was the place of his birth. His biological father died in a traffic accident. He took his last name from his stepfather named Roger Clinton. Bill Clinton's mother was Virginia Kelley. 

By July 24, 1963, he was a high school student and delegate to the American Legion Boys Nation. Bill Clinton met his political hero President John F. Kennedy in the White House Rose Garden and is photographed shaking Kennedy's hand. President John F. Kennedy believed in Social Security, universal health care for the elderly, civil rights, and ending oil allowances for large oil corporations. By 1968, Bill Clinton won a Rhodes Scholarship to go to Oxford University in England. In the same year, he earned a Bachelor's degree from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. In 1973, he earned a law degree from Yale University and took a teaching job at the University of Arkansas Law School. By this time, she met Hillary Clinton, who was a legal scholar herself. Bill Clinton ran for office and lost an Arkansas congressional race to the incumbent Republican Rep. John Paul Hammerschmidt back in 1974. Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham married on October 11, 1975, in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Clinton continues onward with his political career to be elected Attorney General of Arkansas in 1976. Bill Clinton was ambitious in his life. So, he was elected governor of Arkansas on November 7, 1978, defeating Republican Lynn Lowe. On February 27, 1980, the couple Bill and Hillary Clinton gave birth to their daughter of Chelsea. Bill Clinton lost his re-election bid as Arkansas governor on November 4, 1980. Therefore, he took a job at a private law firm. 

Bill Clinton fought long and hard to win re-election as governor as he defeated the Republican Governor Frank D. White in the rematch of the 1980 race. By the 1980s, he had grown his popularity and was part of the new, neoliberal DLC movement. This movement wanted moderate views, not old-school New Deal liberalism, to dominate the Democratic Party ideologically. Bill Clinton ran for President on October 3, 1991, during his fifth term as governor of Arkansas. Most of the Democratic candidates for President were moderates. Clinton had to face many people. The person that he didn't like in the Democratic Primary was California political leader Jerry Brown. Jerry Brown was more progressive. Bill Clinton defended his wife against Brown's allegation. By this time, the country of America was in a recession. Jobs were lost, and people were suffering. President George H. W. Bush was in low popularity because he experienced a recession by the end of his first term. Bush Sr. accused Bill Clinton of being a tax and spend liberal. Clinton wanted a change from Bush Sr. Clinton wanted more investments, tax increases for the super-rich, and other policies. Bill Clinton criticized Reaganomics as a detriment to the growth of the economy of Americans. Bill Clinton won the Democratic Party's nomination and decided to pick Al Gore as his Vice-Presidential candidate. Bill Clinton is known for his great oratory ability and his debating skills, so he is similar to Barack Obama being a great one in a generation political leader. Even back then, he or Bill Clinton had controversies. Unlike Barack Obama, Bill Clinton unjustly criticized Sistah Soujah for misinterpreting what she meant. Sistah Soujah responded to Clinton and set the record straight about what she meant. In 1992, Bill Clinton had accusations of draft dodging during the Vietnam War, allegations of an extramarital affair, etc. He finished 2nd in the New Hampshire Democratic primary and said that he is "the comeback kid." By June 2, 1992, he won the Democratic nomination for President. He became the Democratic party's candidate for President at the Democratic National Convention in New York. Al Gore is his running rate. In that speech in New York, Bill Clinton said the following words: "Our country is falling behind. The President is caught in the grip of a failed economic theory. We have gone from first to 13th in the world in wages since Ronald Reagan and Bush have been in office." That speech had him wanting to unify the Democratic party on July 16th, 1992, on Thursday at Madison Square Garden. 

Ross Perot came into the debate and Presidential race as an Independent candidate. By November 3, 1992, Bill Clinton won the election. He had 43 percent of the popular vote and 370 electoral votes to defeat both President George H. W. Bush and Ross Perot. Democrats have the majority in both houses of Congress. He was inaugurated as the 42nd President of the United States on January 20, 1993, when I was in the 4th grade. Maya Angelou gave a speech at the inauguration. From the beginning, he started to work. On January 22, 1993, he signed orders overturning Reagan and Bush-era restrictions on abortions. By February 5, 1993, he signed his first law. It is called the Family and Medical Leave Act, which allowed workers at large companies to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to attend to family concerns. The federal raid at Waco took place on April 19, 1993. At Waco, cult leader David Koresh called himself Jesus Christ and had followers. Attorney General Janet Reno authorized a federal raid to end a standoff at the compound. Many people died in a fire, including the cult leader David Koresh. There is controversy over whether the federal raid was too excessive or not. On July 19, 1993, after disputes over whether to allow homosexuals to serve in the military, Clinton proposes a "don't ask, don't tell" compromise with military leaders. The policy allowed homosexuals to serve in the military if they do not reveal their homosexuality and refrain from homosexual conduct. President Barack Obama would later end don't ask and don't tell to allow LBGTQIA+ people to serve openly in the military. White House attorney Vince Foster was found dead on July 20, 1993. By August 10, 1993, President Clinton signed the first federal budget -- which calls for reducing spending and increasing taxes to reduce the deficit -- after it narrowly gained Congressional approval.  Ruth Bader Ginsburg was sworn into the Supreme Court to replace Justice Byron White, becoming the second woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court on August 10, 1993. Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization signed a peace accord at the White House outlining limited Palestinian self-rule in Israeli-occupied territories. That existed on September 13, 1993. Bill Clinton signed the legislation forming AmeriCorps programs, that helped people to volunteer for national service and earn money for college (on September 21, 1993). 

Eighteen U.S. soldiers, part of peacekeeping and the humanitarian force sent to Somalia by President Bush, are killed after coming under fire (on October 3, 1993). One of his best accomplishments was when Bill Clinton signed the Brady Bill on November 30, 1993. That imposed a waiting period and background checks for purchasing handguns. One of the most controversial bills that he signed was the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on December 8, 1993. It sought to reduce tariffs and other trade barriers between North American nations. Progressives didn't like parts of it not dealing with labor and environmental issues. Many conservatives didn't like it over national sovereignty issues. Attorney General Janet Reno named Robert Fiske as independent counsel to investigate questions surrounding the Clintons' real-estate investment in the Whitewater Development Corporation. That was on January 20, 1994. American troops left Somalia in March of 1994. On May 6, 1994, Paula Jones filed a civil lawsuit, later dismissed by a U.S. District Court judge, alleging Clinton made sexual advances toward her in 1991, while he was governor of Arkansas.  At the White House, leaders of Israel and Jordan signed a historic agreement ending a longstanding state of war between the two nations on July 25, 1994. He ordered 200 U.S. troops to help Rwanda's humanitarian relief efforts after tons of people died in a civil war. On August 3, 1994, Stephen Breyer was sworn in to replace Justice Harry Blackmun on the U.S. Supreme Court. On September 13, 1994, Bill Clinton signed a bill banning assault weapons and funding police hiring plus state anti-crime efforts. The Crime Bill was now law. Congress failed to support Clinton's universal health care initiative, which was led by Hillary Rodham Clinton. It was taboo back then to advocate for universal health care. The Affordable Care Act would be passed many years later during the Obama Presidency. 

On October 10, 1994, facing a threat from U.S. military forces, Haitian military leader Raoul Cedras yielded power to democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.  North Korea agreed to shut down nuclear plants that could produce bomb material in exchange for U.S. help in setting up alternate power supplies. This was on October 21, 1994. Troops left Rwanda in October of 1994. On November 8, 1994, there were historic Republican gains being majorities in both houses of Congress in the mid-term elections. There was pressure from conservatives to make Clinton more moderate after Republicans stopped many of his progressive nominees from cabinet positions. On December 8, 1994, Clinton signed the global trade agreement that created the World Trade Organization. 

On April 19, 1995, the Oklahoma City bombing took place at the federal building in Oklahoma City killing 168 human beings. Timothy McVeigh was involved along with Terry Nichols. I was in the 6th grade when it took place. I remember the events just like yesterday. It was total mayhem and destruction. Clinton gave a speech showing confront and proposed legislation similar to the Patriot Act. On August 5, 1995, America and Vietnam formed diplomatic relations. In 1996, he signed the telecommunications deregulation bill. On April 26, 1996, after the 2nd government shutdown, Clinton and Congress finally agree on a compromise federal budget. Republican Newt Gingrich lost the battle, and Clinton improved his popularity by 1996. He signed the amendments to strengthen the Safe Drinking Water Act. The law that I disagree with Clinton the most is the welfare reform bill that he signed on August 22, 1996. Many Democrats and progressives opposed him, because the bill limited welfare benefits for five years, gives more control to the states, and ruins much of the New Deal social safety net protections for poor, oppressed communities. 

After the OKC Bombing, Bill Clinton ran for President for his 2nd term. He fought hard against Republican candidate Bob Dole. He won easily in 1996 because the economy was stronger, he was popular, and Bill Clinton signed many pieces of legislation that benefited people. Bill Clinton spoke about his views at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on August 28, 1996. America used missiles at Iraq to stop Kurdish oppression. By November 5, 1996, Bill Clinton has re-elected President with 49 percent of the popular vote and 379 electoral votes, defeating Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., and Reform Party candidate Ross Perot. By January 20, 1997, Bill Clinton was sworn into his 2nd term. By August 5, 1997, after a compromise with Republicans, signed tax-relief plan reducing estate and capital gains taxes, increasing cigarette taxes, establishing tax credits for children and college tuition, and created Roth IRAs. In 1997, he promoted SCHIP, which saved many lives. 1997 was a time when Bill Clinton was hugely popular. Then, 1998 existed. On January 16, 1998, Kenneth Starr, who replaced Fiske as independent counsel in August 1994, receives permission from Reno to expand his investigation to include a probe of Clinton's alleged sexual affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. By January 17, 1998, Bill Clinton denied a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky in a deposition for Jones' lawsuit. He lied. On January 26, 1998, Bill Clinton publicly denied the allegations by saying, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." On April 1, 1998, the U.S. District Court judge dismisses Jones' lawsuit. She later drops an appeal of the dismissal, agreeing to a financial settlement. Later, President Bill Clinton admitted that he had an affair with Monica Lewinsky.  I remembered the date of August 7, 1998, when terrorists bomb U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Hundreds of people were killed and thousands of people were injured. The coward Osama bin Laden and his terrorists were involved in the attack. 

Bill Clinton testified via closed-circuit television from the White House before the federal Whitewater grand jury, becoming the first president to testify before a grand jury in his own defense by August 17, 1998. August 20, 1998, was when Bill Clinton Orders retaliatory missile attacks in response to the embassy bombings. The attacks in Afghanistan and Sudan are said to target Osama bin Laden's terror network, which is suspected of launching the embassy attacks. Sept. 9, 1998, was when Starr delivered to Congress an explicit report detailing the findings of his years-long investigation into Clinton's alleged wrongdoing. Oct. 23, 1998, was when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat reached an agreement at Clinton-organized talks in Maryland that Israel will transfer more West Bank territory into Palestinian control in exchange for Palestinian efforts to curb terrorism. However, violence later increases and Israel refuses to transfer the territory. Oct. 28, 1998, was the date when Clinton announces a $70 billion budget surplus -- the first federal surplus since 1969. Dec. 16, 1998, was when Bill Clinton becomes the second U.S. president to be impeached by the House of Representatives. On February 12, 1999, the Senate finds Clinton not guilty of the House's impeachment charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. On March 24, 1999, NATO forces, including those from the United States, start bombing Serbian military targets in Kosovo. Some of the NATO bombings constitute war crimes. On June 10, 1999, negotiators reached an international peace plan for Kosovo. NATO suspends bombing campaign.

Oct. 13, 1999, was when the U.S. Senate refuses to ratify the Clinton-signed Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which would have to forbid nuclear weapons testing. Sept. 2, 1999, was when The Clintons purchase a home in Chappaqua, N.Y., north of New York City. Feb. 4, 2000, was the time when Bill Clinton announced that the U.S. economy has set a record for its longest uninterrupted economic expansion. April 22, 2000, was when Federal agents seized Elian Gonzalez, a 6-year-old Cuban refugee boy, in a raid on the Miami home of his relatives. Officials eventually returned Gonzalez to his father's custody in Cuba, angering many U.S.-based Cubans. July 13, 2000, was when the United States and Vietnam normalize trade relations. Oct. 10, 2000 was the time when Clinton signed a bill to grant permanent normal trade relations with China. Oct. 12, 2000, was when terrorists attacked the USS Cole in a Yemeni port, blowing a hole in the side of the ship and killing 17 sailors. Nov. 7, 2000, was when Hillary Clinton is elected to represent New York state in the U.S. Senate. Turmoil involving the vote in Florida leaves the presidential race between Gore and Republican Texas Gov. George W. Bush unresolved, though Bush eventually emerges as the winner. Nov. 17, 2000, was when Bill Clinton arrives for the first official state visit to Vietnam by a U.S. president. Jan. 20, 2001, or on his last day in office, Clinton grants pardons to dozens of people, including Marc Rich, a commodities trader living in Switzerland to avoid prosecution on numerous charges. Bill Clinton ends his Presidency. Bill Clinton works in Harlem, NYC in his office space. Living History was released in 2003 being Hillary Clinton's memoirs. Bill Clinton survived heart bypass surgery in New York City on September 6, 2004. Bill Clinton works with George H. W. Bush (his friend) to invest in a response to help the victims of the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean. He fights childhood obesity with Mike Huckabee. He works to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina with Bush Sr. too. When Hillary Clinton ran for President in 2008, Bill Clinton didn't like Barack Obama for a time. It was personal. Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama criticized each other. On January 26, 2008, there was a controversy by explaining Barack Obama's success in the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary against his wife, Hillary Clinton, by citing an earlier African-American candidate's record there: "Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in '84 and '88. Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here." The book Game Change paraphrases a conversation between Senator Ted Kennedy and former President Bill Clinton in which the latter (i.e. Bill Clinton) says about President Obama, “A few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee, reports POLITICO. When Kennedy endorsed Obama instead of Hillary Clinton, the former president is said to groaned, “the only reason you are endorsing him is because he’s Black. Let’s just be clear.” These quotes from the book Game Change, which was written by journalists MARK HALPERIN AND JOHN HEILEMANN. 

Bill Clinton has promoted the Clinton Foundation with his family. Clinton was the U.N. special envoy in dealing with the effort to help people during the 2010 Haitian Earthquake disaster. Recently, he spoke during the night of the 2021 Biden inauguration ceremony to advance unity in American society. President William Jefferson Clinton had a wide-ranging legacy as President. He helped to expand the American economy to new heights. He worked to lower the crime rates in America, he expanded the social safety net in many ways, and he has grown the Democratic Party in many ways. He made numerous mistakes like adultery, the welfare reform act, many imperial policies, the growth of the prison industrial complex, and other compromises with Republicans (as Bill Clinton was a leader of the Democratic Leadership Council being a centrist, neoliberal group dedicated to the status quo on many political issues). The 1996 welfare reform law was one of Clinton's biggest errors as President causing about 426,000 children to live in poverty in a year after the law was passed (according to a report by the Children's Defense Fund). By and large, his Presidency marked the end of the 20th century and the start of the 21st century in the increase of economic growth. Clinton was a moderate President who believed in the power and strength of America to do some good in enriching its general welfare. He was a great orator and a politically astute person who loved the art of political strategy. 

Conclusion

The era from LBJ to Bill Clinton made America grow to new heights and witness complex, new problems too. Afterward, we saw the Presidency of George W. Bush. The era of Presidents from George W. Bush to Joseph Biden dealt with a new 21st-century world. During this century, we face complex situations domestically and internationally. The massive advancements in communication and technology like IPhones, Ipads, and the Meta devices make us more interconnected. Yet, the same problems of climate change, racism, sexism, xenophobia, poverty, economic oppression, and injustice in general remain. The terrible events of Hurricane Katrina and the police murder of George Floyd prove to us that we have a long way to go in making the Dream real. The themes among these Presidents relate to economic instability, social movements, events of various wars, and new cultural developments in America plus the world. The war on terror existed along with massive environmental disasters. There were four Presidents in this era, 2 Democrats and 2 Republicans. Out of every President, one stood out as the first African American President in United States history. He is President Barack Obama. Another President stood out as one of the worst, racist, and xenophobic Presidents in American history. He is Donald Trump. So, this time saw the rise of social progress and the far right-wing backlash. Now, in 2022, we have the right-wing backlash coming back with a vengeance being filled with evil Supreme Court decisions harming Marinda rights, and extremists wanting to even whitewash America's racist history (calling it being anti-CRT when CRT is taught in colleges in a limited way). When George W. Bush was president, we saw a new era of far-right policies, and when Joseph Biden was President, we have seen the continued fight for justice in unique ways. I don't know exactly what the future holds. I do know that in the end, we shall be victorious despite the obstacles. 

By Timothy