Section+3

The New President, George H. W. Bush   Vice President George H.W. Bush was an easy choice to succeed Ronald Reagan. George H.W. Bush was a representative for the Republicans. He won the election against Governor Michael Dukakis. Bush recieved 53% of the popular vote to Dukakis's 46%. He took 426 electoral botes to Duckakis's 111! As a pilot in World War II, he had won a gold medal for bravery. He left Connecticut after the war and began a successful oil business in Texas. He served as an ambassador for Congress and the director of the CIA. 

"My friends, we are not the sum of our possessions. They are not the measure of our lives....We cannot hope only to leave our children a bigger car, a bigger bank account. We must hope to give them a sense of what it means to be a loyal friend, a loving parent, a citizen who leaves his home, his neighborhood and town better than he found it." = Drugs, Education, and the Environment = = =  George Bush had spoken out strongly on the need to control the spread of illegal drugs. He appointed William Bennett to be a special "drug czar" to oversee the nation's war on drugs. The President also promised to chart a new course for the environment. The President appointed a strong defender of the environment, William Reilly, to head the Environmental Protection Agency. For education, Bush called a conference of the nation's governors to set national goals for education.

= S&L Crisis = = =  A rash of savings bank failures put even more pressure on the nation's finances. The S&Ls had long financed mortgages for Americans buying homes. When interest rates soared in the late 70's, savings banks were stuck with low interest, long-term mortgages. Many S&Ls were on the verge of going out of business.

=Flags and the Supreme Court =

Early in his administration, President Bush was angered by a Supreme Court decision. The Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that had made burning the American flag a crime in 1989. The justices ruled that burning the flag in protest was a form of free speech. It was found to be defended by the 1st Amendment.

=<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; text-align: center; font-size: 200%;">Section 4 =

=**<span style="display: block; text-align: center; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">The End of the Cold War? **=

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; text-align: center; display: block;">Since the end of World War II, Soviet-dominated governments had controlled the nations of Eastern Europe. In 1989 and 1990, however, the Eastern bloc change radically. One after another, communist governments collapsed. Dissenters, once treated as enemies of the state, began to come into power. No single event symbolized these changes more vividly than the opening of the Berlin Wall. In November of 1989, after months of protests by East Germans, the East German government stunned the world by announcing that it was opening the wall.

=<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; text-align: center;">New Directions in Latin America = <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; text-align: center; display: block;"> George Bush took a less militant approach toward affairs in Nicaragua than Ronald Reagan had. He did not continue to press for military aid to the contras. Instead, the Bush administration worked out a bipartisan agreement with Congress. Under its terms, the United States would provide the contras with food, clothing, and medical supplies. =<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; text-align: center; display: block;"> Unrest in China = =<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; text-align: center; display: block;"> = <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; text-align: center; display: block;"> The wave of reform that swept communist Europe sent shock waves through China. In the spring of 1989, dissident Chinese students began to campaign for democratic reforms. Hundreds of thousands gathered at Tiananmen Square in the capital city of Beijing. Americans watched the demonstrations, hoping that one of the world's most rigid communist regimes would begin its own reform. In June, Thousands of protesters were killed or arrested as army tanks rumbled into Tiananmen Square.



=<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; text-align: center; display: block;">A Policy Toward South Africa = =<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; text-align: center; display: block;"> = <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; text-align: center; display: block;"> The worldwide move toward democracy also seemed to spread to South Africa. Congress called for economic sanctions to pressure the South African government to end apartheid. In October 1986, Congress passed a sanctions bill over President Reagan's veto. The economic sanctions forbid American firms to invest in South Africa or to import South African products. At the same time, many American universities and some state governments sold their stock in companies that operated in South Africa. This policy became known as divestiture. =<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; text-align: center; display: block;">War Clouds in the Middle East =

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; text-align: center; display: block;">Despite hopeful signs in other parts of the world, the Middle East remained a threat to world peace. After the Iran-Iraq was ended in 1988, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein rebuilt his military. On August 2, 1990, his troops invaded neighboring Kuwait, one of the richest oil-producing nations in the Middle East. This move reminded some observers of Hitlers's assault on Czechoslovakia in 1939. =<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; text-align: center; display: block;"> = =<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; text-align: center;"> = = =