Clinton, Bill

Clinton, Bill (born William Jefferson Clinton) (1946– ) US politician, 42nd President of the USA, inaugurated in 1993. Born in Arkansas, he was educated asaa Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, and at Yale University. A Democrat, he succeeded BUSH on a programme to reduce the federal deficit by cutting military spending and reforming taxation, increasing investment in education, training, and public infrastructure. He appointed his wife Hillary to head the administration's health-care taskforce; her plans to provide health insurance for all Americans were rejected by Congress in 1994. Abroad, he pursued tighter controls against trading rivals while seeking to underpin Russia's reform economy. During 1994 Clinton agreed with Russian leader Boris YELTSIN not to keep their nuclear weapons constantly aimed at each other's countries and arranged the dismantling of many Ukrainian nuclear weapons in return for aid. He lifted the trade embargo on Vietnam and pledged to work towards the creation of a trans-Pacific free-trade zone. He also decided to maintain trade links with China, despite its poor human rights record. Following mid-term elections in 1994, Clinton's position was weakened as the Democrats suffered such heavy losses that the Republicans gained control of the Senate. This allowed Congress to vote in favour of unilaterally ending the arms embargo against the former Yugoslavia, effectively agreeing to supply the Bosnian Muslims with weapons, despite the personal opposition of Clinton himself. He continued to support trade sanctions against Cuba and authorized the bombing of strategic targets in Iraq (1996) in response to Iraqi violations of a UN-imposed no-fly zone above Kurdish areas. Despite personal and financial scandals he was re-elected in 1996. In 1999 he was impeached on counts of perjury and obstruction of justice for lying about his sexual relationship with a young White House trainee, but was found not guilty by the Senate.