George HW Bush and the End of the Cold War: Crash Course US History #44
George HW Bush and the End of the Cold War: Crash Course US History #44
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.
Thanks to Michael Williams at http://www.mylifeinplastic.com for the Barbies.
Hey teachers and students - Check out CommonLit’s free collection of reading passages and curriculum resources to learn more about the events of this episode. During President H.W. Bush’s time in office, he oversaw the U.S. response to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the USSR: https://www.commonlit.org/texts/the-b…
Chapters:
Introduction: George H.W. Bush 00:00
George H.W. Bush 0:43
The Election of 1988 1:48
George H.W. Bush’s Foreign Policy 3:48
Saddam Hussein \u0026 The First Iraq War 5:25
Mystery Document 6:45
Domestic Policies: FMLA \u0026 the ADA 8:08
Rodney King \u0026 the L.A. Uprisings 9:29
Economics of the Early 1990s 10:12
Bush’s Failed Re-Election Campaign 11:24
George H.W. Bush’s Legacy 12:34
Credits 13:20
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Content
0.42 -> Hi, I’m John Green, this is CrashCourse
U.S. history and we’ve finally done it we
4.96 -> have reached the moment where we get to talk
about the presidency of George HW Bush.
11 -> The 2nd most important man named George Bush
ever to be President of the United States.
16 -> A man so fascinating that we did not give
him a face.
19.85 -> Mr. Green, Mr. Green, so we’re almost in
the present?
22.19 -> Well we’re never really gonna get to the
present Me From The Past because we’re always
25.47 -> in the past.
26.47 -> But you are like 20 years in the past which
is soon going to create a time paradox that
30.869 -> I can not possibly deal with.
32.14 -> So I’m just going to let Hank deal with
that over on the science shows.
39.53 -> Intro
Anyway despite like calendars and everything,
46.809 -> the 1990s really began in 1988 with the election
of George Herbert Walker Bush, who had probably
53.62 -> the best resume of any presidential candidate
since Teddy Roosevelt.
56.949 -> I mean he was a war hero, having enlisted
in the Navy upon graduating from high school
60.73 -> and then going on to become the youngest pilot
in Navy history.
63.92 -> He flew 58 missions in the Pacific during
WWII and received the Distinguished Flying
68.14 -> Cross for completing a mission in a burning
plane before ditching into the sea.
72.3 -> So just consider that the next time you complete
a heroic mission in Call of Duty 4.
77.31 -> After the war Bush went to college at Yale,
and then moved to Texas where he made millions
80.869 -> in the oil industry.
81.869 -> Then, he became a Congressman, and then ambassador
to the UN, and then director of the CIA, and
86.27 -> then Vice President.
87.409 -> The guy had more careers than Barbie!
89.46 -> Plus like every great American politician
George Bush grew up in hardscrabble poverty
93.869 -> working his way through the Depression…
95.96 -> just kidding he was the son of Connecticut
Senator Prescott Bush.
98.67 -> But I guess after like 20 years of peanut
farmers and former actors, America was ready
103.359 -> to have an aristocrat at the helm again, as
long as he pretended to be from Texas.
108.039 -> Like certain Crash Course teachers wearing
striped polo shirts George HW Bush was an
111.899 -> old school Episcopalion so he was never totally
comfortable with like public professions of
116.549 -> faith.
117.549 -> So when it came down to pick his vice presidential
candidate, Bush chose J Danforth Quayle aka
122.479 -> Dan.
123.479 -> A young, family values, senator from right
here in Indiana.
126.2 -> Now these days of course Dan Quayle is primarily
known for getting in an argument with a fictional
130.119 -> television character named Murphy Brown, and
also for not being able to spell the word
133.819 -> potato, but once upon a time he was a promising
young Republican.
137.599 -> Bush’s opponent in that 1988 was Massachusetts
Governor Michael Dukakis, who was perceived
142.5 -> as competent but kinda heartless and weak
and a little bit clueless.
146.28 -> As this famous picture of him in a tank indicates
he was not a war hero.
149.96 -> But at the beginning of the Democratic primary
the leading contender was actually the reverend,
154.55 -> Jesse Jackson, who had a legitimate shot at
being the first African American Democratic
159.08 -> Presidential nominee.
160.47 -> That would have to wait.
161.47 -> Because instead the Democrats chose the northern,
liberal governor Dukakis and paired him with
165.269 -> Texas Senator Lloyd, I’m gonna make Dan
Quayle look good, Bentsen.
168.34 -> Which I bring up primarily to point out that
Texas actually used to have Democrats.
172.23 -> So negative campaign ads had existed before
1988 but the 1988 election took it to an entirely
177.87 -> new level and ushered in an era of going negative
in politics.
182.049 -> Like everybody says they hate negative ads,
but they also work like the Bush campaign’s
186.5 -> efforts to make Dukakis look weak on defense
and crime were brutally effective.
191.17 -> The most infamous ad featured Willie Horton
who while on furlough from prison committed
195.48 -> rape and murder.
196.92 -> And even though Dukakis’ Republican predecessor
had actually started the furlough program,
201.3 -> the Horton crime occurred while Dukakis was
governor.
204.03 -> The ad featured a terrifying photo of Horton
and prisoners walking through a revolving
205.03 -> door and it worked.
206.03 -> Dukakis was regarded as a liberal who was
weak on crime.
208.41 -> In fact, it was George HW Bush who was the
first to use the word liberal as an insult
212.66 -> in American politics, which represents the
larger shifts that were happening.
216.59 -> So in retrospect, possibly the most important
thing about the 1988 campaign was George Bush’s
221.15 -> famous pledge at the Republican convention:
“Read my lips, No New Taxes!”
227.02 -> No way that’s gonna come back to bite him.
228.45 -> So once he was President, it’s not surprising
that Bush focused more on foreign policy than
232.38 -> domestic concerns.
233.51 -> I mean that was his background with the UN
and at the CIA.
236.78 -> But it also makes sense in the larger historical
context because the Cold War actually ended
240.8 -> during Bush’s presidency.
242.349 -> Even though no one ever gives him credit for
it.
243.849 -> I mean the Berlin Wall came down, Poland’s
military rule ended, the Velvet Revolution
247.909 -> happened in Czechoslovakia during Bush’s
watch.
250.43 -> Let’s go to the Thought Bubble
The end of the Cold War was really a failure
253.22 -> on the part of the USSR rather than the result
of successful American policies.
257.64 -> But it left the U.S. in something of a policy
limbo.
260.24 -> I mean after all, the idea of a super-powerful
malevolent Bowser Boss Soviet Union poised
265.76 -> to destroy the American Way of Life provided
a comfortable structure for all our foreign
270.28 -> relations for almost 50 years as well as providing
the reason for massive military build up and
275.64 -> all the jobs that came with it.
277.2 -> One positive result of the end of the Cold
War was a reduction in nuclear weapons.
281.03 -> Under Bush the U.S. and USSR negotiated and
implemented the START I and START II treaties,
286.6 -> which limited the number of warheads each
country could possess to between 3,000 and
290.8 -> 3,500.
291.8 -> I mean that was still enough to end human
life on Earth several times over but it was
294.93 -> amazing progress.
296.41 -> The collapse of the Soviet Union and end of
the Cold War led the president to declare
299.79 -> the dawn of a New World Order, but calling
it a New World Order didn’t make foreign
304.63 -> policy any easier.
306.12 -> Without the Cold War to orient us foreign
policy issues were much more confusing and
310.4 -> messy.
311.4 -> So for example, Bush kept the United States
out of Yugoslavia, which disintegrated in
315.73 -> 1991, turning into a bloodbath.
318.11 -> But he sent troops into Somalia to help deliver
food aid, resulting in the botched operation
322.75 -> described in the movie, and book, Black Hawk
Down.
325.53 -> And then there was the foreign policy crisis
that Bush handled decisively: Saddam Hussein’s
329.68 -> invasion of Kuwait in August 1990.
332.46 -> Bush brought the issue to the UN and ushered
through a Security Council resolution that
336.26 -> set a deadline for Saddam to leave Kuwait.
338.52 -> When he didn’t meet the January 15, 1991
deadline, the U.S. had already put together
342.95 -> a coalition of 34 nations ready to make him
leave.
346.88 -> America first launched a spectacular air war
that destroyed much of the Iraqi defense capability.
351.53 -> And then our technological prowess was on
display for the world on CNN, which featured
355.82 -> coverage of “smart bombs” blowing stuff
up.
358.72 -> When ground troops led by General Norman z
finally moved in, they were able to defeat
362.97 -> the Iraqi army in just 100 hours.
365.8 -> Thanks Thought Bubble.
366.8 -> So the Iraq war, I guess we now have to say
first Iraq war, was a huge military success.
371.47 -> America lost fewer than 300 soldiers.
373.51 -> Iraq suffered somewhere between 1500 and 9500
killed in action.[1]
377 -> And the US’s military objectives had been
achieved clearly and quickly.
380.34 -> And Bush claimed that the victory had forever
banished the so called “Vietnam Syndrome,”
384.39 -> the reluctance to use American military power
for fear of becoming bogged down in another
388.94 -> “quagmire.”
389.94 -> Now in hindsight, if the Americans had supported
Iraqi efforts to topple Saddam Hussein and
393.79 -> build a new Iraq, we might have achieved that
objective as well, but the mission under the
398.66 -> UN resolution was to get Iraqis out of Kuwait
and so that’s what we did.
403.64 -> Bush didn’t want to take it any further.
404.981 -> Oh it’s time for the Mystery Document?
408.02 -> The rules here are simple
I read the mystery document.
411.56 -> I either guess the author correctly or I get
shocked.
415.84 -> “Five of the seven agree with President
Bush that the war is just or at least necessary.
422.63 -> But not one wants to fight in it.
424.87 -> All are opposed to a draft, though a few said
one might be necessary as a last resort.
429.82 -> They said they would gladly serve in non-military
public service jobs.
433.58 -> “This might sound selfish, but I think it
would be a shame to put America’s best minds
437.35 -> on the front line,” said Jason Bell, 20,
a junior English major from Elizabethtown,
441.38 -> KY.
442.38 -> “If we have to go, we have to go, but I
think it would be a shame.”
446 -> [2]
Yeah, Jason Bell, that does sound selfish.
448.16 -> Alright Stan this is from like a newspaper
or magazine.
450.78 -> I assume that you are using it to call attention
to the fact that this was really the first
454.58 -> big American military initiative without a
draft.
457.64 -> And it also reminds us that the war was not
universally popular, I mean at least before
461.96 -> it was fought, after it was fought it pretty
much was.
463.68 -> But I have no idea who actually wrote the
piece in the mystery document, how would I
467.51 -> know that?
468.51 -> Is it a famous journalist?
469.51 -> Is it like David Halberstam?
470.69 -> No?
471.69 -> David Maraniss?
472.69 -> Who the hell is that?
473.69 -> Does he have a Wikipedia article?
480.06 -> Meredith does he have a Wikipedia article?
481.74 -> Alright apparently he does have a Wikipedia
article.
483.82 -> He even won a Pulitzer Prize so congratulations
sir.
487.34 -> Ahhh!
488.34 -> So the Gulf lifted the President Bush’s
approval rating to an unheard of 89%.
491.9 -> And in April 1991 it looked like there was
no way that George HW Bush would lose his
497.93 -> re-election bid, but he didn’t consider
the domestic issues that were kind of important
502.42 -> to Americans.
503.42 -> We are very happy to talk about all the wars
that we are fighting unless and until someone
507.42 -> raises our taxes!
508.52 -> So Bush wasn’t much interested in putting
together a domestic agenda – he once called
512.14 -> it “the vision thing” – and anyway he
would have had a hard time getting anything
515.509 -> through the Democratically controlled Congress.
517.139 -> So Congress continued to pass New Deal style
“liberal” legislation including expanded
521.74 -> funding for Head Start and welfare, as well
as a Family and Medical Leave bill (which
526.589 -> Bush vetoed twice) but eventually passed nonetheless.
529.41 -> With the Family Medical Leave Act of course
America joined every other country in the
533.529 -> world in offering paid maternity and paternity
leave to new parents.
537.11 -> What’s that?
538.11 -> We didn’t?
539.11 -> We still don’t?
540.11 -> We still don’t have that?
541.11 -> We still don’t have paid leave?
542.11 -> Oh god..
543.67 -> However you are no longer allowed to be fired
for 12 whole weeks while you take unpaid leave
548.54 -> to care for your child.
549.689 -> That’s why Stan couldn’t replace me with
text-to-voice software after my daughter,
553.16 -> Alice, was born.
554.16 -> But in news that actually was sort of cutting
edge Congress also enacted the Americans With
557.759 -> Disabilities Act in 1991.
560.16 -> Before I talk about the recession that ended
George Bush’s presidency I want to talk
563.2 -> about Rodney King.
564.43 -> Because this revealed huge fissures in the
American population and called into question
567.899 -> the achievements of the rights revolution.
569.769 -> In April 1992 an all white jury in Simi Valley
found three of four policemen not guilty of
575.87 -> beating black motorist Rodney King, even though
the incident had been recorded on videotape.
581.22 -> After the verdict, Los Angeles erupted into
the deadliest riots seen in America since
585.04 -> the New York City Draft Riots. 52 people were
killed and 2,300 injured in rioting that caused
590.48 -> $1billion in property damage.
592.67 -> So obviously race remained a volatile issue
in the U.S.
596.16 -> It was also an issue that Bush seemed unprepared
to deal with like he toured burned out LA
601.47 -> neighborhoods but had little in the way of
real comfort to offer, contributing to the
605.36 -> perception that he was this millionaire, Ivy
League-educated, Washington insider who was
610.6 -> out of touch with regular Americas.
612.49 -> But the biggest issue to most Americans was
money.
615.56 -> America fell into recession in 1990 and the
slump lasted until 1992.
619.22 -> It might have been caused by the end of the
Cold War and the subsequent reductions in
622.889 -> defense spending, or by Fed Chairman Alan
Greenspan’s sluggish refusal to lower interest
628.329 -> rates, or maybe the economy just needed to
reset at a lower number after growing every
632.139 -> year since 1982, or maybe macroeconomics is
more complicated than who is President and
636.81 -> sometimes people unjustly get blamed or credited
for things that they had very little to do
641.079 -> with.
642.079 -> Regardless, 4.5 million Americans lost their
jobs and the unemployment rate rose from 5.3%
647.27 -> in 1989 to 7.5% in 1992, its highest level
in almost a decade.
652.86 -> Along with the many thousands of manufacturing
workers who lost their jobs in America’s
657.209 -> continuing de-industrialization, white-collar
workers were thrown out of work, too, and
661.399 -> college graduates, of whom there were record
numbers, couldn’t find work as they came
665.519 -> out of school.
666.839 -> Stop me if any of that sounds familiar.
668.55 -> One person who struggled to find a job after
graduating during the Bush Recession was none
672.14 -> other than CrashCourse writer Raoul Meyer,
who after sending 100 resumes out got 3 job
677.8 -> interviews and ended up working at a small
independent school in Alabama, where he became
681.74 -> the teacher of … Me From the Past.
684.089 -> Now the recession was certainly bad for Bush
politically, but what probably destroyed Bush’s
688.379 -> re-election hopes was the whole taxes thing.
691.019 -> In 1991, with tax receipts dropping and spending
not slowing very much, President Bush did
696.49 -> something that now seems unthinkable: he authorized
a tax increase.
700.569 -> And in doing this he called his conservative
credentials into question.
704.85 -> Especially in the eyes of small-government-wanting-libertarian-leaning
republicans.
709.279 -> They had never really trusted the faux Texan
Bush anyway, but he had said, “Read my lips..”
713.779 -> and they believed him but it turned out he
had no lips!
716.86 -> Now when coupled with Bush’s lukewarm support
of the evangelical wing of the republican
720.949 -> party and his running mate’s inability to
spell the word potato it all prompted a primary
725.339 -> challenge from conservative commentator Pat
Buchanan.
728.16 -> Which he beat back easily, however some of
the GOP voter base, especially the evangelical
733.42 -> Christians, stayed home on Election Day.
735.279 -> Then there was also a third party candidate,
Texas Billionaire and muppet impersonator
738.699 -> H. Ross Perot, who won 19% of the vote (the
best third-party performance since Teddy Roosevelt
744.269 -> in 1912)
All of this came together to open the door
746.66 -> for a pudgy lad from Hope, Arkansas, who had
never inhaled marijuana, and didn’t cheat
751.019 -> on his wife except for sometimes, named William
Jefferson Clinton.
754.36 -> Looking back from today the fascinating thing
about the George HW Bush administration is
757.87 -> that it seems like a weird interruption in
a larger narrative.
761.55 -> For a couple decades we had seen increasing
conservatism and rising partisanship and then
765.519 -> suddenly George HW Bush comes along and everybody
kind of works together.
769.37 -> They didn’t always make good decisions when
working together, but they did make decisions!
772.88 -> But what’s really fascinating to me is that
if you’re from Eastern Europe or China this
776.459 -> period was one of the most important in history.
779.189 -> Whereas if you’re American arguably the
most important thing the leader of this era
782.879 -> ever did was raise George W Bush.
785.63 -> For better and for worse America didn’t
really change that much as a result of the
789.879 -> end of the Cold War.
790.879 -> But we’re creeping up now on the growth
of the Internet which would change the way
793.93 -> that Americans and everyone else imagines
history and everything else forever.
799.499 -> Thanks for watching.
800.499 -> I’ll see you next week.
801.499 -> Crash Course is made with the help of all
of these nice people and it exists because
804.47 -> of your support at Subbable, a voluntary subscription
platform where you can give whatever you want
809.839 -> to help make Crash Course awesome.
811.18 -> There’s also great perks and stuff, so check
out Subbable and, thank you for watching Crash
814.329 -> Course, thanks for making it possible, and
as we say in my hometown, “Don’t forget
815.329 -> to be awesome.”
816.329 -> ________________
[1] source for these numbers is Patterson,
817.329 -> Restless Giant p. 235.
818.329 -> [2] From “It’s Their War, Too” by David
Maraniss Washington Post, 2/11/91
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-K19rVDxoM