Bill Clinton

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Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton

In office January 20 1993 – January 20 2001, 42nd President, Vice President Al Gore, Preceded by George H. W. Bush, Succeeded by George W. Bush

Born August 19 1946, Hope, Arkansas, Political party Democrat, Spouse Hillary Rodham Clinton


William Jefferson Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. Clinton served five terms as the Governor of Arkansas. His wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is presently in her first term as the junior U.S. Senator from New York.

Presenting himself as a moderate and a member of the New Democrat wing of the Democratic Party, he headed the centrist Democratic Leadership Council in 1990 and 1991. He was elected president in 1992 and 1996 with vice president Al Gore.

During his tenure as president, his domestic priorities included efforts to create a universal healthcare system, improve education, increase local police forces, restrict handgun sales, balance the federal budget, strengthen environmental regulations, improve race relations, and protect the jobs of workers during pregnancy or medical emergency. He raised income taxes in 1993. His most dramatic domestic move was the radical reform of the welfare system in 1996 in cooperation with Republicans who had taken control of Congress.

Internationally, his priorities included reducing trade barriers, support for the North American Free Trade Agreement, preventing nuclear proliferation, and mediating the Northern Ireland peace process and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, and military intervention to end the Bosnian War and the Kosovo War. He engaged in air attacks on Saddam Hussein's Iraq, most notably in Operation Desert Fox, and funded efforts to overthrow Saddam.

Clinton was the third-youngest president, behind Theodore Roosevelt (the youngest) and John F. Kennedy (the youngest elected). He was the first baby boomer president and the first Democratic president to be re-elected since Franklin Roosevelt in 1944. The Clinton/Gore ticket of 1992 was the youngest in history, with a combined age of 90 (Clinton was 46, Vice Presidential nominee Al Gore was 44). Clinton was one of only two Presidents in American history to be impeached, and was acquitted by a vote of the United States Senate on February 12, 1999. Clinton remained popular with the public throughout his two terms as president, ending his Presidential career with a 65% approval rating, the highest end-of-term approval rating of any President in the post-Eisenhower era.

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Early life


William Jefferson Blythe III was born in Hope, Arkansas, and raised in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He was named after his father, William Jefferson Blythe, Jr., a traveling salesman who had been killed in an auto accident three months before his son was born. His mother, born Virginia Dell Cassidy (1923–1994), remarried in 1950 to Roger Clinton. Roger Clinton owned an automobile dealership business with his brother, Raymond Clinton. The young Billy, as he was called, was raised by his mother and stepfather, assuming his last name "Clinton" throughout elementary school, but not formally changing it until he was 14. Clinton grew up in a traditional, albeit blended, family; however, according to Clinton, his stepfather was a gambler and an alcoholic who regularly abused Clinton's mother, and sometimes Clinton's half-brother Roger, Jr.

Clinton was a member of the Masonic Youth Order of DeMolay, but never actually became a Freemason.[3]

Bill Clinton as a child went to St. John's Catholic School and Ramble Elementary School. While at Hot Springs High School, Clinton was an excellent student and a talented saxophonist. He considered dedicating his life to music, but a visit to the White House of President John F. Kennedy, following his election as a Boys Nation Senator, led him to pursue a career in politics.

Clinton received a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service (B.S.F.S.) degree from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington D.C., where he became a brother of Alpha Phi Omega, worked for Senator J. William Fulbright, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and won a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford, (University College) in England. While at Oxford he played rugby union as a lock, later in life he played for The Little Rock Rugby club in his home state of Arkansas

After attending Oxford, Clinton obtained a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Yale Law School in 1973. While at Yale, he met a classmate who would eventually be his wife, Hillary Rodham; the couple married in 1975. Their only child, Chelsea, was born in 1980.

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Arkansas political career

In 1974, his first year as a University of Arkansas law professor, Clinton ran for the House of Representatives. The incumbent, John Paul Hammerschmidt, defeated Clinton with 52% of the vote. In 1976, Clinton was elected Attorney General of Arkansas without opposition in the general election.

In 1978, Bill Clinton was first elected governor of the state of Arkansas, the youngest to be elected governor since 1938. His first term was fraught with difficulties, including an unpopular motor vehicle tax and popular anger over the escape of Cuban prisoners (from the Mariel boatlift) detained in Fort Chaffee in 1980.

In the 1980 election, Clinton was defeated in his bid for a second term by Republican challenger Frank D. White. As he once joked, he was the youngest ex-governor in the nation's history. But in 1982, Clinton won his old job back, and over the next decade helped Arkansas transform its economy. He became a leading figure among the New Democrats, a branch of the Democratic Party that called for welfare reform, smaller government, and other ideas that reached out to Democrats and Republicans alike.

Clinton's approach mollified conservative criticism during his terms as governor. However, personal and business transactions made by the Clintons during this period became the basis of the Whitewater investigation, which dogged his later presidential administration. After very extensive investigation over several years, no indictments of any kind were made against either of the Clintons growing out of their Arkansas years.

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Presidency

1992 presidential campaign

Clinton's first foray into national politics occurred when he was enlisted to speak at the 1988 Democratic National Convention, introducing candidate Michael Dukakis. Clinton's address, scheduled to last 15 minutes, lasted over half an hour.[2] Toward the end of the speech, conventioneers began chanting “Get off!” The speech drew cheers only when Clinton uttered the words, “in conclusion.” Clinton later poked fun at himself on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show by saying that the speech "had not been my finest hour, not even my finest hour and a half."

Four years later, Clinton prepared for a run in 1992 against incumbent President George H. W. Bush. In the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War, Bush seemed unbeatable, and several potential Democratic candidates — notably New York Governor Mario Cuomo — passed on what seemed to be a lost cause. Clinton won the Democratic Party's nomination.

Clinton chose U.S. Senator Albert A. Gore Jr. (D-Tennessee) to be his running mate on July 9 1992. Initially this decision sparked criticism from strategists due to the fact that Gore was from Clinton's neighboring state of Tennessee which would go against the popular strategy of balancing a Southern candidate with a Northern partner. In retrospect, many now view Gore as a helpful factor in the 1992 campaign.

Many character issues were raised during the campaign, including allegations that Clinton had dodged the draft during the Vietnam War, and had used marijuana, which Clinton claimed he had pretended to smoke, but "didn't inhale". Allegations of extramarital affairs and shady business deals were also raised. Clinton displayed the resiliency in the face of scandal that would later be pivotal in his presidency. As the candidate with the most money and the best-articulated campaign strategy — creating more jobs — Clinton was able to stay in the race the longest, fending off all rivals long before the Democratic convention.

Election

Official Presidential Portrait of President Bill ClintonClinton won the 1992 presidential election (43.01% of the vote) against Republican George H. W. Bush (37.4% of the vote) and billionaire populist H. Ross Perot who ran as an independent (18.9% of the vote), largely on a platform focusing on domestic issues; a large part of his success was due to George H.W. Bush's steep decline in public approval. Previously described as "unbeatable" due to his approval ratings in the 80 percent range during the Persian Gulf conflict, Bush saw his public approval rating drop to just over 40% by election time.

Clinton's victory came about for several reasons. The recession of 1992 caused job losses in the white collar sector, and this fueled strong discontent with Bush, who to many voters seemed out of touch, and overly focused on foreign affairs. By contrast, the highly telegenic Clinton appeared to voters as sympathetic, and more in touch with ordinary families.

Bush's reneging on his promise not to raise taxes was exploited by the Clinton campaign. In his acceptance speech at the Republican Convention of 1988, Bush had famously proclaimed: "Read my lips ... No new taxes." Clinton repeatedly condemned Bush's failure to keep this promise. His campaign ran ads hinting that the failure reflected on Bush's character.

Finally, Bush's coalition was in disarray. Ross Perot's independent campaign played to moderates' concerns about the budget deficit, siphoning crucial swing votes from Bush. Previously, conservatives had been united by anti-communism; with the end of the Cold War, old rivalries re-emerged. The Republican Convention of 1992 was dominated by evangelical Christians, and this alarmed some moderate voters, who thought the Republican Party had been taken over by religious conservatives.[4] All this worked in Clinton's favor. Clinton could point to his moderate, 'New Democrat' record as Governor of Arkansas. Liberal Democrats were impressed by Clinton's academic credentials, his 1960s-era protest record, and support for social causes such as a woman's right to abortion. The Reagan Democrats who had supported Reagan and Bush in previous elections switched their allegiance to the more moderate candidate, Clinton.

Clinton was the first Democrat to serve two full terms as president since Franklin D. Roosevelt. His election ended an era in which the Republican party had controlled the White House for 12 consecutive years, and for 20 of the previous 24 years. That election also brought the Democrats full control of the political branches of the federal government, including both houses of U.S. Congress as well as the presidency, for the first time since the administration of the last Democratic president, Jimmy Carter.

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Significant Events of the First Term:


Shortly after taking office, Clinton fulfilled a campaign promise by signing the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, which required large employers to allow their employees to take unpaid leave because of pregnancy or serious medical condition. While this action was popular, Clinton's initial reluctance to fulfill another campaign promise relating to the acceptance of openly homosexual members of the military garnered criticism from both the left (for being too tentative in promoting gay rights) and the right (for being too insensitive to military life). During the campaign, Clinton had promised to lift the ban on gays serving their country. Instead, after much debate, Clinton implemented the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, which remained in effect under two administrations of George W. Bush, stating that homosexual men and women may serve in the military as long as their sexuality is kept secret; By 1999, Clinton said he didn't "think any serious person could say" that the policy was not "out of whack".[5] Some gay rights advocates criticized Clinton for not going far enough and accused him of making his campaign promise simply to get votes and contributions.[6][7] These advocates felt Clinton should have integrated the military by executive order, noting that President Harry Truman ended segregation of the armed forces in that manner. Clinton's defenders argued that an executive order might have prompted the then-Democrat-controlled Senate to write the exclusion of gays into law, potentially making it even harder to integrate the military in the future.

Critics, however, said that the issue was one that should be experimented on in society as a whole, not in the military. The military's goal was not to be a "social Petri dish," but to defend the nation. (Patterson, Robert, Lt. Colonel, USAF (Ret) (2003). Dereliction of Duty: The Eyewitness Account of How Bill Clinton Endangered America's Long-Term National Security, 101, Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing Company. ISBN 0895261405.)

Clinton pushed another controversial issue during this period: that of free trade. In 1993, Clinton supported the North American Free Trade Agreement for ratification by the US Senate. Despite being negotiated by his Republican predecessor, Clinton (along with most of his Democratic Leadership Committee allies) strongly supported free trade measures. Though the measure was opposed by some anti-trade Republicans, most of the opposition came from protectionist Democrats and supporters of Ross Perot. Ultimately, the treaty was ratified, a major legislative victory.

Clinton also signed into law the Brady Bill, which imposes a five-day waiting period on handgun purchases so that background checks can be done to help keep handguns away from criminals. President Clinton expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit, which benefits working class families with dependent children.

The most important item on Clinton's legislative agenda, however, was a complex health care reform plan, the result of a taskforce headed by Hillary Clinton, aimed at achieving universal coverage via a national healthcare plan. Though initially well-received in political circles, it was ultimately doomed by well-organized opposition from conservatives, the American Medical Association, and the health insurance industry. Despite his party holding a majority in the House and Senate, the effort to create a national healthcare system ultimately died under heavy public pressure. It was the first major legislative defeat of Clinton's administration.

Two months later, after two years of Democratic party control under Clinton's leadership, the mid-term elections in 1994 proved disastrous for the Democrats. They lost control of both houses of Congress for the first time in 40 years, in large part due to the failed attempt to create a comprehensive health care system.

The spotlight shifted to the Contract with America spearheaded by Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. This initiative presented a blanket of traditional Republican proposals, plus a number of anti-corruption measures. Without a friendly legislative body, Clinton shifted from pushing new policy to blocking the Republican (GOP) agenda.
In August of 1993, Clinton had signed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 which passed Congress without a single Republican vote. It significantly raised taxes on the top 2% of taxpayers, without providing middle class tax cuts as he promised during the campaign. But more importantly, it mandated that the budget be balanced over a number of years, and put spending restraints in place. The Republicans objected vociferously, claiming that it would wreck the economy. In November of 1994, the Republicans took control of the House of Representatives. They were furious at being strait jacketed into spending cuts by the bill, but they couldn't ignore it without appearing to be softer on deficit spending than the Democrats.

In 1996, the GOP passed a budget with significant spending cuts thinking that Clinton could either sign the bill (a major political defeat) or veto it (resulting in a shutdown of most government services). GOP leaders believed that their recently energized supporters would stand with them, while the shutdown would be blamed on Clinton's veto of the spending bills. Clinton instead vetoed the bills and staged a media blitz, rallying his constituencies to blame the shutdown on the Republicans. The public largely agreed with Clinton's interpretation of the situation, and the Republicans suffered a major political defeat. The perception that the congressional Republicans were dangerous radicals stayed with them for the remainder of the Clinton presidency, and Clinton repeatedly made skillful use of this perception to pass his initiatives while blocking theirs.

Clinton cleverly managed the other major challenge posed by the Contract with America: that of welfare reform. The welfare system, unpopular with middle-class voters, was a major target of the Republicans. However, rather than present the programs as inefficient, bureaucratic and expensive, as they had (unsuccessfully) done in the past, their new tactic was to focus on the success of welfare in its stated goal: fighting poverty. In this they were more successful. Using statistics often compiled by welfare advocates to demand more spending, they pointed to a widening gap between rich and poor and the emergence of a dependent welfare "underclass." Under their proposed welfare reform, individuals could not receive benefits for more than five years. States, meanwhile, would receive "block grants" of federal funds that they would be free to spend on anti-poverty initiatives as they wished, rather than according to federal rules. This amounted to a major shift in welfare policy, and was bitterly contested by Democrats. Clinton, however, supported the plan (to the fury and astonishment of even some members of his Cabinet). In his 1996 State of the Union speech, Clinton promised to "end welfare as we know it". He later signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996.

This proved to be a major political victory, and a vindication of his strategy of "triangulation." Republicans were robbed of the issue with which they were getting the best traction, while Clinton was presented as a fair-minded, mainstream moderate.

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Significant events of the second term



In the 1996 presidential election a few months later, Clinton was re-elected, receiving 49.2% of the popular vote over Republican Bob Dole (40.7% of the popular vote) and Reform candidate Ross Perot (8.4% of the popular vote). The Republicans lost a few seats, but overall retained control of the Congress. Although he did not win a clear majority of the popular vote, Clinton received over 70% of the electoral college vote.

Throughout 1998, there was a controversy over Clinton's relationship with a young White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. Clinton initially denied having any improper relationship with Lewinsky. After it was revealed that investigators had obtained a semen-stained dress as well as testimony from Lewinsky, Clinton admitted that an improper relationship with Lewinsky had taken place. He apologized to the nation for his actions, agreed to pay a $25,000 court fine, settled his sexual harassment lawsuit with Paula Jones for $850,000 and was temporarily disbarred from practicing law in Arkansas and before the U.S. Supreme Court. He was not tried for nor found guilty of perjury in a court.

In a lame duck session after the 1998 elections, the Republican-controlled House voted to impeach Clinton. The next year, the Senate voted to acquit Clinton of the charges brought against him.

In the closing year of his Administration, Clinton attempted to address the Arab-Israeli conflict. After initial successes such as the Oslo accords of the early 90's, the situation had quietly deteriorated, breaking down completely with the start of the Second Intifada. Clinton brought Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat together at Camp David. However, these negotiations proved unsuccessful. Critics charged Clinton with trying to "shoot the moon" to benefit his historical legacy, but instead making the situation worse with a botched negotiation. Supporters consider Clinton to have attempted to address new tensions from the recent outbreak of violence at its root causes, and that Clinton can hardly be blamed for a centuries-old conflict. Some further argue that the perception that Arafat walked away from an offer that supposedly contained all of his previously stated demands enabled the US to pursue a more pro-Israel policy in later years.

Despite occasional political troubles, Clinton remained popular with the American people. In addition to his political skills, Clinton also benefited from a very skillful management of the US economy. Under Clinton, the United States had a projected federal budget surplus for the first time since 1969.[8] While Clinton, Congress and the private sector have all been given credit at different times, this economic success was a source of immense political strength for Clinton. He remained popular through and beyond the end of his terms in office.

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Legislation and programs

Major legislation signed

• February 5 1993 - The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993
  
• August 10 1993 - Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 - Raised
  income tax rates; income tax, top rate: 39.6%; corporate tax: 35%
  
• September 21 1993 - creation of the AmeriCorps volunteer program
  
• November 30 1993 - Brady Bill
  
• September 13 1994 - Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, part of an omnibus crime bill, the federal death penalty was expanded to some 60 different offenses (see Federal assault weapons ban)
  
• 1995 - Executive Order 12958, created tough new standards for the process of classifying documents.
  
• February 1 1996 - Communications Decency Act
  
• February 8 1996 - Telecom Reform Act: eliminated major ownership restrictions for radio and television groups.
  
• February 26 1996 - Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, a welfare reform bill
  
• March 14 1996 - authorized $100 million counter-terrorism agreement with Israel to track down and root out terrorists.
  
• April 9 1996 - Line Item Veto Act
  
• April 24 1996 - Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act
• August 20 1996 - Minimum wage Increase Act
  
• September 21 1996 - Defense of Marriage Act, allowed states the power to refuse to recognize gay marriages granted in other states, banned federal government from providing LGBT Americans with equal access to federal immigration, taxation and family laws
  
• August 5 1997 - Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997
  
• October 28 1998 - Digital Millennium Copyright Act
  
• October 31 1998 - Iraq Liberation Act

Major legislation vetoed

• national budget
  
• H.R. 1833, partial birth abortion ban
  
• Twice vetoed welfare reform before signing
  
• the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. Congress overrode the veto, however, to enact the bill into law.
  
• Proposals not passed by Congress
  
• Health care reform
  
• Campaign finance reform (1993)
  

Initiatives

• Appointed a committee on Social Security Reform and then dismissed their recommendations without ever proposing legislation.
  
• Tried to get Ehud Barak of Israel and Yasser Arafat of the Palestinian National Authority, to agree to a final settlement agreement.
  
• Initiated the Don't ask, don't tell policy toward gays in the military, 1993.
  
• Reversed a ban on senior Sinn Féin politicians entering the U.S.
  
• Proposed a national challenge to end the racial divide in America, the One America Initiative.
  
• Extraordinary rendition got approval for the first time in the USA from the Clinton administration

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The economy


During Clinton's tenure, the U.S. enjoyed continuous economic expansion, reductions in unemployment, and growing wealth through a massive rise in the stock market. The economic boom ended in the first quarter of 2000, approximately 10 months before his term ended in January 2001, possibly indicative of a stock market bubble. Although the reasons for the expansion are continually debated, Clinton proudly pointed to a number of economic accomplishments, including:

• More than 22 million new jobs created
  
• Homeownership rate increase from 64.0% to 67.5%
  
• Lowest unemployment rate in 30 years
  
• Higher incomes at all levels
  
• Largest budget deficit in American history converted to the largest surplus of over $200 billion
  
• Lowest government spending as a percentage of GDP since 1974 [9]
  
• Higher stock ownership by families than ever before
  
• 220% increase in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, 300% increase in the NASDAQ from 1993 to 2001

The reasons for this growth are hotly debated, but Clinton supporters cite his 1993 tax increase as the reason that eventually led to the reduction in the annual budget deficits every year of his tenure. These deficit reductions stimulated consumption and consumer spending and strengthened the dollar, which encouraged foreign investment in the United States economy. Alan Greenspan supported the 1993 tax increase, which was approved by Congress without a single Republican vote.[10] Critics of Clinton point to Alan Greenspan's strong chairmanship of the Federal Reserve, 1995 spending cuts and the Republican Party's Contract with America initiatives as alternative reasons for America's strong economic growth of the late 90's. Critics also argue that the economic recovery had already begun before Bill Clinton took office and did not pick up momentum until 1995 and 1996, after the GOP took over Congress (despite the fact that GDP growth was higher in 1994 than in either 1995 or 1996). Many economists attribute massive growth to the dot-com boom which just happened to come during Clinton's term, thus adding many new jobs which may not be directly attributed to policies of the Clinton administration.

Trade

Clinton strongly supported the NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. Initiated during the tenure of his predecessor, George H.W. Bush, it was passed by the United States Congress in 1993, after Clinton and Gore lobbied heavily for it.

The Clinton administration used the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights thirteen times and prevailed in the WTO thirteen times

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Foreign Policy:


Clinton deployed the U.S. military hesitantly several times under hostile circumstances. In 1993, U.S. troops, initially deployed to Somalia by the Bush administration, fought the Battle of Mogadishu which attempted to capture local warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. The Clinton administration withdrew U.S. troops after suffering 19 deaths and 73 wounded at the hands of Somalia militiaman. These militia were later proved to have been trained by the Al Qaeda terrorist network. In 1994, Clinton sent U.S. troops into Haiti to restore Jean-Bertrand Aristide as president, ending a period of intense violence. Aristide, who had been elected, had been ousted in a coup just seven months into his term in 1991. Aristide was a socialist who had often spoke against America. He continued with his anti-American rhetoric even after he was reinstated as the Haitian leader by American troops.(Patterson, Robert, Lt. Colonel, USAF (Ret) (2003). Dereliction of Duty: The Eyewitness Account of How Bill Clinton Endangered America's Long-Term National Security, 118-119, Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing Company. ISBN 0895261405.) Clinton also committed troops twice in the former-Yugoslavia to stop ethnic violence, most notably in Kosovo. In addition, Clinton launched military strikes on Iraq several times to punish violations of UN sanctions and an attempt to have former President George H. W. Bush assassinated. Clinton did not intervene militarily to end the Rwandan genocide, a decision he later regarded as a "personal failure".

In 1994, Clinton negotiated and signed the Nuclear Accords with North Korea. The underlying concern was that North Korea was developing nuclear weapons technology under the guise of a nuclear power plant. In exchange for assistance with energy needs, North Korea agreed to abandon all ambitions for acquiring nuclear weapons. However, by the mid 1990s defectors from North Korea, along with reports from the IAEA, indicated that North Korea was violating both the Nuclear Accords and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. In December 2002, North Korea expelled IAEA inspectors from its Yongbyon nuclear facility, and announced (privately in 2003 and publicly in 2005), that they possessed nuclear weapons.

In November, 1995, Clinton committed troops to the Balkans saying the mission would be “precisely defined with clear realistic goals” that could be achieved in a “definite period of time". Clinton assured Americans the mission would take about one year. In October 1996, shortly before Clinton's reelection, the Clinton Administration denied any change in the plans to withdraw troops in December, 1996. However, shortly after reelection, Clinton announced troops would stay longer. Troops ultimately stayed in Bosnia for nine years.[12]

On February 17 1998, Clinton gave a speech signaling the danger of rogue nations providing weapons of mass destruction to terrorist organizations with global reach. Clinton specifically pointed to Saddam Hussein's Iraq.[13] In August 1998 UN weapons inspectors left Iraq, leading to Operation Desert Fox in December.

During Clinton's tenure, Al-Qaeda began to emerge as a major terrorist threat. In 1993, Al Qaeda bombed the World Trade Center. In 1998, the group bombed the American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. In retaliation, Clinton ordered Operation Infinite Reach, which involved cruise missile strikes on terrorist camps in Kandahar, Afghanistan and a suspected chemical weapons facility in Khartoum, Sudan that was believed to be tied to bin Laden.[14] Clinton also gave orders authorizing the arrest or, if need be, assassination of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. At the end of his term, in late 2000, the terrorists struck again with the USS Cole bombing. In 2004, Clinton said he regarded Al-Qaeda as the foremost threat to national security.[15] In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the independent investigating commission was critical of Clinton for focusing more on diplomatic than military means to eliminate the bin Laden threat.[16]

Some critics argue that the American attacks in Kosovo, Somalia, Bosnia, Sudan, and Afghanistan violated international law.[17][18][19]

After his presidency, Clinton identified his proudest foreign policy accomplishments as mediating peace talks between Israel and the PLO, resulting in the Oslo Accords (1993). Subsequent events, including the collapse of the 2000 Camp David Summit and the commencement of the al-Aqsa Intifada, resulted in the Oslo Accords being widely discredited within Israel and in various Palestinian factions by 2004.

Clinton identified his major foreign policy failure as lack of response to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Along with the United Nations, the Clinton administration initially did not publicly acknowledge that genocide was occurring. This delayed the mandatory response to the crisis and nearly one million people died.[20] A report from the Organization for African Unity singled out the United Nations, Belgium, France and United States for condemnation.[21] In 1998, Clinton went to Africa where he said he "did not fully appreciate the depth and speed with which you were being engulfed by this unimaginable terror."[22] A report from the National Security Archive showed that Clinton Administration had collected considerable amounts of information during the crisis and it was passed up to policymakers.[22] In 2005, the former President apologized for his "personal failure" to stop the genocide.[23] However, the Clinton administration deployed 2,300 troops to Rwanda in an attempt to stop the genocide. The troops were withdrawn two months afterwards. (Patterson, Robert, Lt. Colonel, USAF (Ret) (2003). Dereliction of Duty: The Eyewitness Account of How Bill Clinton Endangered America's Long-Term National Security, 117, Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing Company. ISBN 0895261405.)

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Investigation and impeachment

In 1998, as a result of allegations that he had lied during grand jury testimony regarding his relationship with a young female White House intern (Monica Lewinsky), Clinton was the second U.S. president to be impeached by the House of Representatives. The House held no serious impeachment hearings before the 1998 mid-term elections: Republican candidates rarely mentioned the issue of impeachment, but Democrats generally came out strongly against impeachment. In spite of the serious allegations against the President, his party picked up seats in the Congress. The Republican leadership called a lame duck session in December 1998 to hastily hold impeachment proceedings: if they had waited until the newly-elected Congress convened in January 1999, the Republicans would not have had enough votes.

Although the House Judiciary Committee hearings were perfunctory and ended in a straight party line vote, the debate on the Floor of the House was lively. The two charges which were narrowly passed by the House were for perjury and obstruction of justice. The perjury charge arose from Clinton's testimony about his relationship to Monica Lewinsky during a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by former Arkansas-state employee Paula Jones. The obstruction charge was based on his actions during the subsequent investigation of that testimony. Two other charges were voted down.

The presumptive incoming Speaker of the House, Bob Livingston lost his job as an indirect result of the impeachment process, after he was forced to admit to marital infidelity of his own.

Impeachment trial in the Senate

The Senate refused to convene to hold an impeachment trial before the end of the old term, so the trial was held over until the next Congress. The Constitutionality of this was widely questioned, although the most recent set of impeachment proceedings, against Judge Walter Nixon in 1988 and 1989, also spanned two Congresses.

On February 12, the Senate concluded a 21-day trial with the vote on both counts falling short of the Constitutional requirement of a two-thirds majority to convict and remove an office holder. The final vote was generally along party lines, with all of the votes to convict being cast by Republicans. On the perjury charge 55 senators voted to acquit, including 10 Republicans, and 45 voted to convict; on the obstruction charge the Senate voted 50-50.[24] Clinton, like the only other president to be impeached, Andrew Johnson, served the remainder of his term.

Contempt of court citation

In April, 1999, about two months after being acquitted by the Senate, Clinton was cited by Federal District Judge Susan Webber Wright for civil contempt of court for his "willful failure" to obey her repeated orders to testify truthfully in the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit. For this citation, Clinton was assessed a $90,000 fine, and the matter was referred to the Arkansas Supreme Court to see if disciplinary action would be appropriate.[4]

Regarding Clinton's January 17, 1998 deposition where he was placed under oath, the judge wrote:

"Simply put, the president's deposition testimony regarding whether he had ever been alone with Ms. (Monica) Lewinsky was intentionally false and his statements regarding whether he had ever engaged in sexual relations with Ms. Lewinsky likewise were intentionally false . . ." [5]
Later--in January, 2001, on the day before leaving office--Clinton agreed to a five year suspension of his Arkansas law license as part of an agreement with the independent counsel to end the investigation. Based on this suspension, Clinton was also automatically suspended from the United States Supreme Court bar, from which he chose to resign. [6][17][18]

Clinton's resignation was mostly symbolic, as he had never practiced before the Supreme Court and was not expected to in the future. The Paula Jones lawsuit was eventually settled out of court for $850,000.