Ronald Reagan, a conservative Republican, won the 1980 presidential election in a landslide. He won reelection in 1984 by one of the largest margins in US history.
Reagan’s campaign brought together a “New Right” coalition of economic conservatives, members of the Christian Right, working-class whites, and supporters of a more aggressive Cold War foreign policy.
President Reagan initially engineered large tax cuts, but as deficits grew proposed select tax increases. Over the course of his presidency, inflation and unemployment fell, while the national debt nearly tripled.
In foreign policy, President Reagan sought to assert American power in the world. He denounced the Soviet Union as an “evil empire,” and authorized the largest military buildup in US history.
Reagan's administration funded anti-communist “freedom fighters” in Afghanistan, Angola, Nicaragua, and elsewhere in order to effect a rollback of worldwide communist influence.
Despite Reagan's strong stance against communism, US-Soviet relations warmed during Reagan’s second term. In 1987 Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed the first-ever nuclear arms reduction treaty. By the end of Reagan's second term the Cold War was coming to an end.
President Reagan’s second term was roiled by the Iran-Contra affair, in which the Reagan administration secretly sold weapons to Iran and used money from the sale to covertly fund the Contras, a group opposed to the government of Nicaragua.
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THE IRAN-CONTRA AFFAIR
In the Iran-Contra affair, the Reagan administration secretly sold weapons to Iran to effect the release of American hostages held in Lebanon.
Money from the Iran weapons-sale then was used to fund the Contras, a group of guerrilla “freedom fighters” opposed to the Marxist government of Nicaragua.
Both the sale of arms to Iran and the military aid to the Contras were illegal, and Colonel Oliver North and others in the president’s administration were dismissed and charged with breaking the law.
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THE GULF WAR
n August 1990, Iraq invaded the country of Kuwait to its southeast in a bid to gain more control over the lucrative oil supply of the Middle East.
In response, the United States and the UN Security Council demanded that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein withdraw Iraqi troops from Kuwait, but Hussein refused.
Over the course of six weeks in January and February 1991, a United States-led coalition of 34 nations began an intensive bombing campaign against strategic Iraqi locations, culminating with a four-day ground campaign against Iraqi forces known as Operation Desert Storm.
At the end of February, Hussein signed a cease-fire agreement and released Kuwait. After the war, Iraq was required to submit to inspections to ensure it possessed no chemical or other weapons of mass destruction.
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BILL CLINTON
Bill Clinton was the 42nd president of the United States. He was elected in 1992 and reelected in 1996, becoming the first Democratic president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to serve two terms in office.
Clinton came to the White House with an ambitious domestic policy agenda centered on economic growth and immediately took steps to reduce the federal budget deficit.
Clinton’s second term was marred by scandal, as he was impeached for lying to Congress and the American people about an extramarital affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
Despite the Lewinsky affair, Clinton left the White House with the highest approval rating of any US president in the post-World War II era.
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GEORGE W. BUSH
Republican George W. Bush served two terms as president, from 2001-2009.
The September 11, 2001 terrorist attack led President Bush to reframe American foreign policy as a War on Terror, and to fight two wars in the Middle East.
A housing market crash led to a severe economic downturn in President Bush’s final years in office.
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9/11
On September 11, 2001, terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda hijacked and flew airplanes into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Nearly 3,000 Americans were killed in the attacks.
The administration of President George W. Bush declared a Global War on Terror and sent troops to Afghanistan, where the ruling Taliban regime was providing safe haven to al-Qaeda, and to Iraq, where Saddam Hussein purportedly was harboring weapons of mass destruction.
Concerns about US national security resulted in the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and the signing of the USA Patriot Actinto law. These developments sparked a debate over constitutional rights and protections, and the proper balance between security and liberty in a democracy.
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THE GREAT RECESSION
The Great Recession of 2007-2009 was the worst global economic crisis since the Great Depression in the 1930s.
The recession resulted from a combination of tax cuts, spending increases, and the devastating effects of a banking crisis in the subprime mortgage market.
The recession contributed to rising income inequality and prompted a debate about the role of the federal government in regulating private industry.
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OBAMA
arack Obama was the 44th president of the United States and the first African American president in US history. He was elected in 2008 and served two terms.
Obama came into office during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and authorized a massive economic stimulus package that mitigated the worst effects of the crisis but substantially increased the federal debt and the federal budget deficit.
Though Obama’s presidential campaign was highly critical of the George W. Bush administration’s conduct in the War on Terror, once in office he pursued a similar approach to global terrorism.
Obama’s signature domestic legislative achievement was the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, known colloquially as “Obamacare.”