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George HW Bush and the End of the Cold War: Crash Course US History #44

From: U.S. History by Crash Course

In which John Green teaches you about the end of the Cold War and the presidency of George H.W. Bush. It was neither the best of times nor the worst of times. On the domestic front, the first president Bush inherited the relative prosperity of the later Reagan years, and watched that prosperity evaporate. That was about all the interest Bush 41 had, domestically, so let's move to foreign policy, which was a bigger deal at this time. The biggie was the end of the Cold War, which is the title of the video, so you know it's important. The collapse of the Soviet Union was the biggest deal of Bush's term, and history has assigned the credit to Ronald Reagan. We give the guy a break and say that he helped. He was certainly an expert in foreign policy, having been an envoy to China, ambassador to the United Nations, and head of the CIA. Bush also oversaw the first Gulf War, which was something of a success, in that the primary mission was accomplished, and the vast majority of the troops were home in short order. It didn't do much to address some of the other problems in the region, but we'll get to that in the next few weeks. Along with all this, you'll learn about Bush's actions, or lack thereof, in Somalia and the Balkans, and you'll even be given an opportunity to read Bush's lips.

Full Transcript

George HW Bush and the End of the Cold War Crash Course US History 44

speaker01 00:00:00

I'm John Green, this is Crash Course us history, and we've finally done it. We have reached the moment where we get to talk about the presidency of George HW Bush, the second most important man named George Bush ever to be president of the United States, a man so fascinating that we did not give him a face. Mr Green. Mr Green, so we're almost in the present, but we're never really going to get to the present from the past because we're always in the past. But you are like 20 years in the past, which is soon going to create a time paradox that I cannot possibly deal with. I'm just gonna let Hank deal with that over on the science shows.

speaker01 00:44:00

Anyway, despite like calendars and everything, the 1990s really began in 1988 with the election of George Herbert Walker Bush, who had probably the best resume of any presidential candidate since Teddy Roosevelt. I mean, he was a war hero, having enlisted in the Navy upon grad gradu from high school and then going on to become the youngest pilot in Navy history. He flew 58 missions in the Pacific during World War 2 and received the Distinguished Flying Cross for completing a mission in a burning plane before ditching into the sea. So consider that next you complete a heroic mission in Call of Duty for after the war Bush went to college at Yale and then moved to Texas, where he made millions in the oil industry. Then he became a congressman and then ambassador to the UN and then director of the CIA and then vice president. The guy had more careers than Barbie. Plus, like every great American politician, George Bush grew up in hard Scrabble poverty, working his way through the just kidding, he was the son of Connecticut Senator Prescott Bush. But I guess after like 20 years of peanut farmers and former actors, America was ready to have an aristocrat at the helm again as long as he pretended to be from Texas like certain crash course teachers wearing striped polo shirts.

speaker01 01:50:00

George HW Bush was an old school Episcopalian, so he was never totally comfortable with public is of. So when it came down to pick his vice presidential candidate Bush chose J Danforth Quail, aka Dan, a young family value senator from right here in Indiana. Now these days, of course Dan Quail is primarily known for getting an argument with a fictional television character named Murphy Brown and also for not being able to spell the word. But once upon a time, he was a promising young Republican.

speaker01 02:17:00

Bush's opponent in the 1988 election was Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, who was perceived as competent but kind of heartless and weak and a little bit clueless. Famous of him indicates he was not a war hero. But at the beginning of the Democratic primary, the leading contender was actually the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who had a legitimate shot at being the first African American Democratic presidential nominee. That would have to wait, because instead, the Democrats chose the northern liberal Governor Dukakis and paired him with Texas Senator Lloyd. I'm going to make Dan Qua look good, Benson, which I bring up primarily to point out that Texas actually used to have Democrats.

speaker01 02:52:00

So negative campaign ads had existed before 1000 and 988, but the 1000 and 988 election took it to an entirely new level and ushered in the era of going negative in politics. Like everybody says, they hate negative ads, but they also work like the Bush campaign's efforts to make Dukakis look weak on defense and crime were brutally effective. The most infamous ad featured Willie Horton, who, while on furlough from prison, committed rape and murder. And even though dukakis' Republican predecessor, had actually started the furlough program, the Horton crime occurred while Dukakis was governed. The ad worked.

speaker01 03:24:00

Dukakis was regarded as a liberal who was weak on crime. In fact, it was George HW Bush who was the first to use the word liberal as an insult in American politics, which represents the war, larger shifts that were happening. So in retrospect, possibly the most important thing about the 19988 campaign was George Bush's famous pledge at the Republican convention. Read my lips, no new taxes, no way that's going to come back to bite him.

speaker01 03:48:00

So once he was president, it's not surprising that Bush focused more on foreign policy than domestic concerns. I mean, that was his background with the UN and at the CIA. But it also makes sense in the larger historical context because the Cold War actually ended during Bush's presidency, even though no one ever gives him any credit for it. I mean, the broken wall came down. Poland's military rule ended. The Velvet Revolution happened in Czechoslovakia during Bush's watch. Let's go to the thought. The end of the Cold War was really a failure on the part of the USSR rather than the result of successful American policies. But it left the us and something of a policy limbo.

speaker01 04:20:00

I mean, after all, the idea of a super powerful, malevolent Bowser boss, Soviet Union poised to destroy the American way of life provided a comfortable structure for all our foreign relations for almost 50 years, as well as providing the reason for massive military buildup and all the jobs that came with it.

speaker01 04:37:00

One positive result of the end of the Cold War was a reduction in nuclear weapons. Under Bush, the us and USSR negotiated and implemented the Start one and Start two treaties, which limited the number of warheads each country could possess to between 3000 and 3500. I mean, that was still enough to end human life on Earth several times over, but it was amazing progress.

speaker01 04:56:00

The collapse of the Soviet Union in the end of the Cold War, when President Bush declared the dawn of a new world order. But calling it a new world order didn't make foreign policy any easier. Without the Cold War to orient us, foreign policy issues were much more confusing and messy. So for example Bush kept the United States out of Yugoslavia, which disintegrated in 1991, turning into a bloodbath, But he sent troops into Somalia to help deliver food aid, resulting in the botched operation described in the movie. And then there was the foreign policy crisis that Bush handled decisively.

speaker01 05:28:00

Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. Bush brought the issue to the UN and ushered through a Security Council resolution that set a deadline for Saddam to leave Kuwait when he didn't meet the January 15, 1991, deadline, the us had already put together a coalition of 34 nations ready to make him leave. America first launched a spectacular air war, deployed much of the Iraqi defense capability, and then our technological prowess was on display for the world on CNN, which featured coverage of smart bombs blowing stuff up when ground troops, led by Norman schwartzkopf finally moved in, they were able to defeat the Iraqi army in just 100 bubble. So the Iraq war, I guess we now have to say, first Iraq war was a huge military success. America lost fewer than 300 soldiers. Iraq suffered somewhere between 1000 509500 killed in action. The US military objectives have been achieved clearly and quickly, and Bush claimed that the victory had forever banished the so called AED Vietnam syndrome.

speaker01 06:24:00

The reluctance to use American military power for fear of becoming boggy down in another quagmire. Now, in hindsight, if the Americans had supported Iraqi efforts to topple Saddam Hussein and build a new Iraq, we might have achieved that objective as well. But the mission under the UN resolution was to get Iraqis out of Kuwait. And so that's what we did. Bush didn't want to take it any further.

speaker01 06:45:00

It's time for the mystery document. The rules here are simple. I read the mystery document. I either guess the author correctly or I get shocked. All right, let's see what we got today.

speaker01 06:57:00

Five of the seven agree with President Bush the war is just or at least necessary, but not one wants to fight in it. All are opposed to a draft, though a few said one might be necessary. As a last resort. They said they would gladly serve in non-emi litar public service jobs. This might sound selfish, but I think it would be a shame to put America's best minds on the front lines, said Jason Bell, 20, a junior English major from Elizabethtown, Kentucky, If we have to go, we have to go. But I think it would be a shame. Yeah, Jason Bell, that does sound selfish.

speaker01 07:28:00

All right Sta. This is from like a newspaper magazine, I assume that you are using it to call attention to the fact that this was really the first big American military initiative without a draft, and it also reminds us that the war was not universally popular, I mean, at least before it was fought, after it was fought at pretty much war. Have no idea. I actually wrote the piece in the mystery document now that I know that it's a famous journalist like David Halberstam.

speaker01 07:53:00

David Marinus Marinus. But who the hell is that? Does he a Wikipedia article? Meredith, does he have a Wikipedia article? All right, apparently he does have a Wikipedia article, even won a Pulitzer Prize, so congratulations, sir.

speaker01 08:08:00

So the Gulf War lifted President Bush's approval rating to an unheard of 89%, and in April 1991, it looked like there was no way that George HW Bush would lose his reelection bid. But he didn't consider the domestic that were kind of important to Americans. We are very happy to talk about all the wars that we are fighting unless and until someone raises our taxes. So Bush wasn't much interested in putting together a domestic agenda. He once called it the vision thing. And anyway, he would have had a hard time getting anything through the Democratically controlled Congress.

speaker01 08:37:00

So Congress continued to pass New Deal style liberal legislation, including expanded funding for Head Start and welfare, as well as a family and medical leave bill, which Bush vetoed twice, but eventually passed with the Family Medical Leave Act. Of course, America joined every other country in the world in offering paid maternity and paternity leave to new parents. What's that we didn't? We still don't have that's paid leave. Oh God, however, you are no longer allowed to be fired for 12 whole weeks while you take unpaid leave to care for your child. That's why Stan couldn't replace me with text to voice software after my daughter Alice was born. News that actually was sort of cutting edge. Congress also enacted the Americans with Disabilities Act in 19 9 91.

speaker01 09:19:00

OK, before I talk about the recession that ended George Bush's presidency, I want to talk about Rodney King, because this revealed huge fishers in the American population and called into question the achievements of the rights revolution. In April 1992, an all white jury in Simi Valley found three of four policemen not guilty of beating black motorist Rodney King, even though the incident had been recorded on videotape. After the verdict Los Angeles erupted into the deadliest riot scene in America since the New York City draft riot, 50 TW people were killed in 2300 injured in rioting that caused a billion dollars in property damage. So obviously race remained a volatile issue in the U. It was also an issue that Bush seemed unprepared to deal with, like it burned out La neighborhoods, but he had little in the way of real comfort to offer, which contributed to the perception that he was this millionaire Ivy League educated Washington insider who was out of touch with regular Americans.

speaker01 10:12:00

But the biggest issue to most Americans Americans was money.

speaker01 10:15:00

America fell into recession in 1990, and the slump lasted until 1992. It might have been caused by the end of the Cold War and subsequent reductions in defense spending or by Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan's sluggish refusal to lower interest interest rates. Or maybe the economy just needed to reset at a lower number after growing every year since 1982. Or maybe macroeconomics is more complicated than news president, and sometimes people unjustly get blamed or credited for things that they had very little to do with. Regardless, 4.5 million Americans lost their jobs, and the unemployment rate rose from 5.3% in 19 89% to 7.5% in 1992, its highest level in almost a decade. Along with the many thousands of manufacturing workers who lost their job in America's continuing deindustrialization, White collar workers thrown out of work, too, and college graduates, of whom there were record numbers, couldn't find work as they came out of school. Stop me if any of that sounds familiar. One person who struggled to find a job after graduating during the Bush recession was none other than crash course writer Raul Meier, who, after sending 100 resumes out, got three job interviews and ended up working at a small independent school in Alabama, where he became the teacher of me from the past.

speaker01 11:24:00

Now, the recession was certainly bad for Bush politically, but what probably destroyed his re-election hopes with the whole taxes thing in 19 9 91, with tax receipts dropping and spending not slowing very much President Bush did something that now seems unthinkable, he authorized a tax increase and in doing this, he really called his conservative credentials into question, especially in the eyes of small government wanting libertarian leaning Republicans that never really trusted the Pex Bush anyway. But he had said read my lips and they believed him, but it turned out he had no lips. Now when coupled with Bush's lukewarm supported the evangelical wing of the Republican Party and his running mates inability to spell the word potato, it all prompted a primary challenge from conservative commentator Pat Buchanan, which he beat back easily. However, some of the GOP voter base, especially evangelical Christians, state home on Election Day. Then there was also a third party candidate, Texas billionaire and Muppet impersonator h.h. Ross Perot, who won 19% of the vote, the best third party performance since Teddy Roosevelt in 1000 and 912. All of this came together to open the door for a pudgy La from Hope, Arkansas, who never inhaled marijuana and didn't cheat on his wife except for some time named William Jefferson Clinton.

speaker01 12:34:00

Looking back from today, the fascinating thing about the George HW Bush administration is that it seems like a weird interruption in a larger narrative. Couple days, we've seen increasing conservatism and rising partisanship, and then suddenly George HW Bush comes along and everybody kind of works together. They didn't always make good decisions when working together, but they did make decisions. But what's really fascinating to me is that if you're from Eastern Europe or this period was one of the most important in history, whereas if you're and arguably the most important thing the leader of this era ever did was raise George W and Bush for better and for worse, America didn't really change that much as a result of the end of the Cold War. But we're creeping up now on the growth of the internet, which will change the way that Americans and everyone else imagines history and everything else forever. Thanks for watching I'll see you next week.

speaker01 13:21:00

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