William Jefferson Clinton

Clinton came to the White House campaigning as a representative of a "new generation." He is the first President to be born after World War II. Clinton was the second President in American history to be impeached.. Elected 1992, 1996

 

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The Early Years

 

Bill Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe IV in Hope, Arkansas, on August 19, 1946, three months after his father was killed in an automobile accident. He was left in the care of his grandparents while his mother returned to school to become a nurse-anesthetist. During his early years, Clinton spent a great deal of time in his grandfather's grocery store, located in a racially mixed neighborhood. In 1950, Clinton's mother married Roger Clinton, and the family moved to Hot Springs. Clinton was officially adopted by his stepfather and took his last name. He grew up in a comfortable middle-class environment.

Unfortunately, his stepfather was an alcoholic and prone to violence.

Clinton was a high-achiever in school and participated in many extracurricular activities. In 1963, he was selected as the Arkansas representative for Boys Nation, a leadership training program in Washington, D.C. During the trip, he visited the White House and shook hands with President Kennedy. Clinton claims that from that moment, he decided on a career in politics. In 1964, Clinton began his college studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. While at Georgetown, he worked part-time for Senator Fulbright of Arkansas. Upon graduating in 1968 with a degree in International Relations, Clinton received a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University in England.

After returning to the United States, Clinton enrolled at Yale Law School, where he earned his law degree in 1973. While at Yale, he met his future wife, Hillary Rodham, and they married in 1975.

Following graduation from Yale, Clinton returned to Arkansas, where he briefly taught law at the University of Arkansas. In 1974, at the age of 28, he ran for Congress but narrowly lost, earning 48.5% of the vote. In 1976, Clinton successfully ran for the position of state attorney general. In 1978, he won the Democratic nomination for governor of Arkansas, defeating four other candidates. In 1979, he assumed office, becoming the nation's youngest governor since 1938.

After two turbulent years in office, Clinton was defeated in his 1980 re-election bid. However, two years later, he successfully reclaimed the governorship and remained in office for the next ten years.

During his tenure as governor, Clinton placed a strong emphasis on education reform in Arkansas.

 

Accomplishments in Office

President Clinton's early Presidency was been a complete reversal of the Bush Presidency. Clinton embarked on several major domestic initiatives. Foremost among them was health care reform. Those reforms failed to pass Congress, with the failure of his health care program his most significant defeat. He managed to significantly narrow the budget deficit by a combination of spending cutbacks and increased taxes. By the end the Clinton Presidency these actios clearly had succeeded as the Federal budget moved from deficit to surplus for the the first time in a generation.

Despite the election of a Republican Congress in 1994, President Clinton's resilience shone through as he adapted to the new political landscape. He was forced to abandon some of his domestic proposals, but he didn't give up. Instead, he focused on modifying Republican initiatives, a testament to his adaptability and determination.

Clinton was elected on a clear platform of making domestic affairs first on his agenda. The first two years of his Presidency reflected those priorities. His actions in foreign affairs were limited to promoting additional aid to Russia and the Baltic republics and ensuring the passage of the North American Free Trade Zone. He placed greater emphasis on the economic aspects of foreign affairs. His administration played a minor roll in helping Israel and the PLO reach an agreement.

In the administration's third year, it became more heavily involved in foreign affairs. It led a UN invention in Haiti that returned civilian leadership. After two years of allowing the European powers to set the agenda on the War in Bosnia, the US government became actively involved in reaching an accord between the warring factions. That accord was reached under heavy American pressure in Dayton Ohio. The Clinton administration then led NATO in supplying troops to enforce the peace.

Clinton won reelection in 1996 on a platform that stressed his bridge to the 21st century.

In 1998, Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives on the basis of his testimony in the Paul Jones sexual harassment suit. The Senate acquitted him in early 1999. Clinton led the US intervention in Kosovo—that intervention which took the form of an air attack on Serbia. The result was a pullout of Serb troops in Kosovo.

The First Family

Wife: Hillary Rodham
Daughter: Chelsea

Major Events

Healthcare Reform
Intervention in Bosnia
Intervention in Kosovo
Impeachment
Bombing of the Cole

The Cabinet

Secretary of State: Warren Christopher, Madeline Albright
Secretary of The Treasury: Robert Rubin
Secretary of Defense: William Perry Cohen
Attorney General: Janet Reno
Secretary of The Interior: Bruce Babbit
Secretary of Agriculture: Mike Espey
Secretary of Commerce: Ron Brown
Secretary of Labor: Robert Reich
Secretary of Health & Human Services: Donna Shallela
Secretary of Housing & Urban Dev.: Henry Cisneros
Secretary of Energy: Hazel O'Leary
Secretary of Education: Richard Riley
 
  Military

Bosnia Conflict
Kosovo

Did You Know?

Clinton was the first President born after World War II
The second president impeached

Clinton 1st Inaugural Address
Clinton 2nd Inaugural Address