William J. Clinton
During the administration of William Jefferson Clinton, the
U.S. enjoyed more peace and economic well being than at any
time in its history. He was the first Democratic president
since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win a second term. He could
point to the lowest unemployment rate in modern times, the
lowest inflation in 30 years, the highest home ownership in
the country's history, dropping crime rates in many places,
and reduced welfare rolls. He proposed the first balanced
budget in decades and achieved a budget surplus. As part of a
plan to celebrate the millennium in 2000, Clinton called for a
great national initiative to end racial discrimination.
After the failure in his second year of a huge program of
health care reform, Clinton shifted emphasis, declaring "the
era of big government is over." He sought legislation to
upgrade education, to protect jobs of parents who must care
for sick children, to restrict handgun sales, and to
strengthen environmental rules.
President Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III on
August 19, 1946, in Hope, Arkansas, three months after his
father died in a traffic accident. When he was four years old,
his mother wed Roger Clinton, of Hot Springs, Arkansas. In
high school, he took the family name.
He excelled as a student and as a saxophone player and once
considered becoming a professional musician. As a delegate to
Boys Nation while in high school, he met President John
Kennedy in the White House Rose Garden. The encounter led him
to enter a life of public service.
Clinton was graduated from Georgetown University and in
1968 won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University. He
received a law degree from Yale University in 1973, and
entered politics in Arkansas.
He was defeated in his campaign for Congress in Arkansas's
Third District in 1974. The next year he married Hillary
Rodham, a graduate of Wellesley College and Yale Law School.
In 1980, Chelsea, their only child, was born.
Clinton was elected Arkansas Attorney General in 1976, and
won the governorship in 1978. After losing a bid for a second
term, he regained the office four years later, and served
until he defeated incumbent George Bush and third party
candidate Ross Perot in the 1992 presidential race.
Clinton and his running mate, Tennessee's Senator Albert
Gore Jr., then 44, represented a new generation in American
political leadership. For the first time in 12 years both the
White House and Congress were held by the same party. But that
political edge was brief; the Republicans won both houses of
Congress in 1994.
In 1998, as a result of issues surrounding personal
indiscretions with a young woman White House intern, Clinton
was the second U.S. president to be impeached by the House of
Representatives. He was tried in the Senate and found not
guilty of the charges brought against him. He apologized to
the nation for his actions and continued to have unprecedented
popular approval ratings for his job as president.
In the world, he successfully dispatched peace keeping
forces to war-torn Bosnia and bombed Iraq when Saddam Hussein
stopped United Nations inspections for evidence of nuclear,
chemical, and biological weapons. He became a global proponent
for an expanded NATO, more open international trade, and a
worldwide campaign against drug trafficking. He drew huge
crowds when he traveled through South America, Europe, Russia,
Africa, and China, advocating U.S. style freedom.
