Clinton, Bill

Clinton, Bill ( William Jefferson) (1946– ) 42nd US president (1993–2001). Clinton became the youngest-ever US governor when he was elected to represent Arkansas (1978–80, 1983–92). Economic recession and Clinton's centrist agenda led to an easy electoral victory (1992) over the incumbent president, George Bush. As president, Clinton made health-care an immediate priority, appointing his wife, Hillary Clinton, to head a commission on reform. Clinton was a leading advocate of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which won congressional approval in 1993. The Whitewater investigation and the blocking of reforms and appointments by a Republican-dominated Congress dogged his first term. Despite allegations of financial and personal impropriety, a buoyant domestic economy and Bob Dole's lacklustre campaign enabled Clinton to become the first Democratic president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to serve successive terms in office. The priorities for his second term were education and welfare reforms, and the expansion of NATO. Economic growth enabled Clinton to announce a balanced budget for 1998. His second term was dogged by sexual scandal. Following the investigations of special prosecutor Kenneth Starr, Clinton was forced to admit that he had an improper relationship with Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern. In 1998, facing charges of perjury over the affair, he became only the second US president (after Andrew Johnson) to be impeached. Clinton refused to resign and launched Operation Desert Fox (December 1998), a concerted bombing campaign against Iraq for failing to comply with UN resolutions. In 1999, the Senate cleared him of impeachment charges. George W. Bush, son of his predecessor in office, succeeded him as president.

http://www.clinton.archives.gov; http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents