USA: The Reagan-Bush years
Ronald Reagan was a new kind of president. Unlike the obsessive workaholic Carter, he made a virtue of his hands-off approach to the job, joking for example that "they say hard work never killed anybody, but I figured why take the risk?" This laissez-faire attitude extended to his domestic economic policies, under which the rich were left to get as rich as they could; his successors were left to cope with the explosion in the national debt that followed deregulation of the financial markets and the collapse of the Savings and Loan system. The common perception that Reagan was unaware of what went on around him ensured that his popularity remained undented through a succession of scandals, and he was re-elected in 1984. He did have his pet projects, however, such as the enormously expensive attempt to seal off American skies with the Strategic Defense Initiative ("Star Wars"), and a personal vendetta against Colonel Qaddafi of Libya. The administration's persistent maneuverings to destabilize the left-wing Sandinista government in Nicaragua culminated in the labyrinthine "Iran-Contra" affair, under which the profits from illegal arms sales to Iran were used to buy arms for the Contra rebels in Nicaragua (unbeknownst to Congress or the public). Like other conservatives before him, Reagan was adept at Cold War posturing, and was allowed greater leeway by his electorate than a Democrat might have been in arms-control negotiations with Mikhail Gorbachev, the new leader of what Reagan called the "Evil Empire."In 1988, Reagan was replaced in office by his vice-president George Bush . For a moment, it seemed that Jesse Jackson, at the head of his multiracial "Rainbow Coalition," might become the first black presidential candidate of a major party, but after an early strong showing in the Democratic primaries, he lost the nomination to a more traditional - and, it was thought, more "electable" - Democrat, Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis. During the ensuing race, Bush succeeded in labeling Dukakis a "card-carrying liberal," and voters responded to Bush's pledge, "read my lips - no new taxes," a vow that would help undo him a few years later.
Bush's one term in office was marked by the increasing influence of the US in foreign affairs, largely made possible by the sudden end of the Cold War, which was brought on by the collapse of the communist governments in eastern Europe; the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, and the Soviet Union crumbled away. Bush was also president when Operation Desert Storm drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait in February 1991, an undertaking that lasted 100 hours and in which virtually no American lives were lost. Bush's unprecedented popu larity at the moment of triumph in Kuwait convinced many that he was certain of a second term in office. His success was short-lived, however. During the 1992 election campaign it became clear that Americans were more concerned with domestic affairs than with what was happening overseas, and Bush appeared woefully out of touch with the common man when he was confused by the workings of a supermarket cash register during a campaign appearance. Twelve years of Republican government came to an end with the election of the Arkansas governor Bill Clinton in 1992.
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