Gulf War

Recall that President Lyndon Johnson is known for two things, the Great Society and the Vietnam War. President George H.W. Bush (the father of President George W. Bush) is known for three things: breaking his pledge of "no new taxes," winning the Persian Gulf War, and nominating Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. We discuss the first two here, and discuss Clarence Thomas in the next section.

In 1988 the economy was doing well based on eight years of conservative policies under President Reagan. President George H.W. Bush, Reagan's Vice President, won the Republican nomination for president and rode on Reagan's successes to win the presidential election in 1988. But he made a famous campaign promise of "Read my lips, no new taxes," which he later broke as President when he signed a tax increase passed by the Democratic Congress. The tax increase was to deal with a massive budget deficit, but breaking that promise caused enormous political damage to Bush.

In 1990, Saddam Hussein thought that America would do nothing when he invaded and easily conquered nearby Kuwait, where there are lucrative oil fields. President George H.W. Bush, alarmed by the consequences of Saddam Hussein controlling so much oil and the injustice of the invasion, struck back with American troops. We quickly defeated (and killed) Hussein's army and drove the few survivors back to Baghdad. American casualties were extremely low, and President Bush was a hero. This combat was code-named Operation Desert Storm. The Operation never intended to overthrow or capture Saddam Hussein himself, but President George H.W. Bush was later criticized for not "finishing the job," and some say that his son (the future President George W. Bush) wanted to take care of that.

The high point in the war came when Saddam Hussein began launching missiles at the troops, missiles thought to contain chemical warheads that could cause horrific death. But the American troops secretly had Patriot missiles, the design of which was based on President Reagan's "Star Wars" program, and these American missiles intercepted and shot down the Iraqi missiles in mid-flight. It was spectacular to watch a fast-moving enemy missile be tracked and then explode in mid-air due to a collision by another fast-moving defense missile. This was something that liberals, including scientists, claimed was impossible to do. Hussein launched missile after missile, while an American soldier sitting in front a computer screen in a trailer fired Patriot missile after missile to shoot down the enemy missiles.

Angry and frustrated, Hussein then fired his missiles at civilian populations in Israel. It had been developing its own missile defense program, but it was not ready for this. Quickly the American troops rushed their missile defense to Israel so it could protect its population too.

Clarence Thomas

In 1991, President George H.W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas as the second African American to the U.S. Supreme Court, to fill the vacancy left by the retirement of Thurgood Marshall (who was the first black Supreme Court Justice).

Clarence Thomas was and is a conservative opponent of affirmative action, which is giving preferences to people based on race. He was and is considered to be an opponent of abortion also, and a conservative on most other issues. Liberals seem to grow angrier when confronted with a conservative African American, like Clarence Thomas, or a conservative woman. They did everything they could to prevent confirmation of his appointment by the Senate.

The "smear" campaign against Thomas was one of the worst in American history, and Thomas himself appeared on national television to bitterly describe it as a "high-tech lynching." In a flagrant violation of the rules of the Senate, the staff of a Democratic member of the Judiciary Committee leaked a confidential FBI background report to the National Public Radio (NPR), which contained a vicious personal allegation about Thomas's past. Nothing was proven and there was much reason to disbelieve the allegation. But the plan was to intimidate Thomas into withdrawing, or turn the public against him, or give senators enough of a reason to vote against him. The liberals even scheduled a vote on the nomination almost immediately after the airing of the allegation, which could only be postponed by unanimous consent under Senate rules, in order to force senators to vote before the allegation could be disproved. But the vote was postponed, hearings were held, and only one senator moved from being for Thomas to being against him: the former Ku Klux Klan Democratic Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia. Thomas was confirmed by a vote of 52-48, the narrowest margin in history for a Supreme Court Justice.

Your teacher was in D.C. at the time and had personally met Clarence Thomas a year earlier. Your teacher, the entire city of D.C., and even the entire nation, was riveted by this drama. Since 1991 Thomas has been part of a conservative block on the Supreme Court that has grown to a total of 4 or 5 Justices out of a total of 9, sometimes enough for a majority and sometimes just shy by one vote.