Bill Clinton Domestic Policy

When President Clinton was elected, foreign policy was not something that he was expecting to be employing. Frankly, it was not something that he was at all prepared to do. On inauguration day, he was 46 years old, making him the third-youngest person to hold the oval office. His prior political experience was time as a governor and as the Attorney General for the state. The United States has just finished the Gulf War. He was elected on campaign promises that focused on fixing domestic issues. Despite his promises of a focus on fixing domestic issues, he continually be faced with the decision to intervene or participate in multiple conflicts. His term was the longest period of peace that a U.S President has served, but America would still …show more content…
Somalia had been long plagued with violence and death and rival clans battled for control of the country. The international community attempted to provide aide to the civilians that were caught in the middle of the violence, but with no way to protect this aide, it was quickly taken by the warring clans. President George H. W. Bush deployed the first troops in August of 1992 to help secure the aide and settle the fighting within the cities. Following the death of four U.S soldiers, President Clinton approved Task Force Ranger, consisting of several different special operations forces to better pick apart of the organization in a larger attempt to find a peaceful solution. However, on October 3, 1993, two U.S Blackhawk helicopters were shot down, 19 US soldiers were killed, and over 70 were wounded during the Battle of Mogadishu. Suddenly, Americans who had previously believed that America was in a period of peace were squinting at maps of Africa to see where the largest amount of U.S servicemen killed since the Vietnam War was. Television showed the images of American service men being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu. The battle would have lasting effects to the foreign policy of the President Clinton. Public opinion quickly demanded the withdraw of troops from the region. Soon following the battle, President Clinton announced that all military actions would end and the …show more content…
In June of 1989, Slobodan Milosevic delivered a speech to a group of ethnic Serbians celebrating the anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo. The speech was seen to improve his authority in Serbia, while also intimidating the ethnic Albanians living in Kosovo. Following the speech, Kosovo Albanians began to respond with non-violent demonstrations and began to create “parallel structure”, organization of education, medical, and other government organizations. These were created as an attempt to further achieve independence for Kosovo. In September 1992, they declared themselves independent. Violence began to rise within the country. It wasn’t until the ending of the end of the Bosnian War the international attention was given to the conflict in Kosovo. In 1996, the Kosovo Liberation Army began to present armed resistance for Serbian forces. Violence continued to increase until 1998, when the first attempt at a cease fire was organized. The ceasefire did not last long. A massacre that occurred in January of 1999 brought more attention from the international community. After an additional failed attempt at authoring peace, NATO intervened, beginning a bombing campaign. The campaign lasted until June, when Milosevic agreed to allow foreign military presence within Kosovo. The United Nations Security Council passes Resolution 1244 that placed Kosovo under United Nations