Chapter 30

The reading of Chapter 30 of the book has been significant for me in giving me a better understanding about how the social activism in the society of 1960’s gave rise to new changes in the political trends. It was imperative for me to discover that the economic policies of President Reagan led to steep deficits and the strategy of deregulation made the Reagan administration lose sight of the business giving out varied results. I was surprised to learn that besides Reagan’s intense military spending and his second term scandals like Iran –contra, Reagan maintained a high popularity level among the public. I also learned a great deal about how President Reagan met Mikhail Gorbachev of Russia as the Cold War ended, and the situations in the Middle East started to decline with an emerging intense conflict and violence between Palestine and Israel along with an increase over the attacks involving both America and other Western nations.

            I think after the end of Cold War the emergence of new kind of issues like Saddam Husain invading Kuwait and United States and its allies objective to move him out of Kuwait was a major event in the political history of the world as it visibly changed the political scenarios existing in the Middle East. For United States as well, major changes occurred that came in the form of bad recession days to the increased racial tensions. Consequently President Bush paid a heavy price because of ignoring the domestic issues as the people of America elected Bill Clinton as their President in the year 1992.

            In my view the policies which were introduced by Clinton and his concentration on domestic issues along with his economic reform package played a vital role in bringing back America on a much better footing. Clinton’s stance on dismantling of Cold War nuclear arsenals and the proliferation of nuclear weapons are one of the major moves that I would appreciate by him. The reelection of Clinton and his support for tax cuts and presenting a balanced budget really helped achieve America a budget surplus. But the scandal of Monica Lewinsky proved to be of much harm to the overall reputation of the president resulting in his impeachment. It was also another major turning point for American political history as after Clinton’s impeachment President George W Bush got elected.

It was interesting to learn that during 1990’s America also saw rise in stock market numbers and for the time being the factor of unemployment declined. However I think the increase in income inequality is something which affected America and economic trends of the country. On the other hand it was really important for me to discover the cultural changes that were brought about in the 1990 and the rise of media and internet began as a major technological revolution. In fact to me the 1990’s was a decade where not only America but the overall world saw many significant changes that provided firm base for the innovations concerning the future of the world.