ATC Play Guide 5P R3 - arizonatheatre.org

★FIVE★

PRESIDENTS

PLAY GUIDE

About ATC 1

Introduction to the Play 2

Meet the Characters 2

Meet the Playwright 3

Behind the Scenes 3

Meet the Presidents 6

Six Presidents: A Timeline 13

Political References 18

People, Places and Vocabulary 31

Nixon’s Obituary 41

APS

Arizona Commission on the Arts

Bank of America Foundation

Blue Cross Blue Shield Arizona

City Of Glendale

Community Foundation for Southern Arizona

Cox Charities

Downtown Tucson Partnership

Enterprise Holdings Foundation

Ford Motor Company Fund

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Foundation

JPMorgan Chase

John and Helen Murphy Foundation

National Endowment for the Arts

Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture

PICOR Charitable Foundation

Rosemont Copper

Stonewall Foundation

Target

The Boeing Company

The Donald Pitt Family Foundation

The Johnson Family Foundation, Inc

The Lovell Foundation

The Marshall Foundation

The Maurice and Meta Gross Foundation

The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation

The Stocker Foundation

The William L and Ruth T Pendleton Memorial Fund

Tucson Medical Center

Tucson Pima Arts Council

Wells Fargo

Five Presidents Play Guide written and compiled by Katherine Monberg, ATC Literary Associate, with assistance from April Jackson, Education Manager; Bryanna Patrick and Luke Young, Education Associates; and Natasha Smith, Artistic and Playwriting Intern

SUPPORT FOR ATC’S EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY PROGRAMMING HAS BEEN PROVIDED BY:

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ABOUT ATC

Arizona Theatre Company is a professional, not-for-profit theatre company This means all of our artists, administrators and production staff are paid professionals, and the income we receive from ticket sales and contributions goes right back into our budget to create our work, rather than to any particular person as a profit

Each season, ATC employs hundreds of actors, directors and designers from all over the country to create the work you see on stage In addition, ATC currently employs about 100 staff members in our production shops and administrative offices in Tucson and Phoenix during our season Among these people are carpenters, painters, marketing professionals, fundraisers, stage directors, sound and light board operators, tailors, costume designers, box office agents, stage crew – the list is endless – representing an amazing range of talents and skills

We are also supported by a Board of Trustees, a group of business and community leaders who volunteer their time and expertise to assist the theatre in financial and legal matters, advise in marketing and fundraising, and help represent the theatre in our community

Roughly 150,000 people attend our shows every year, and several thousand of those people support us with charitable contributions in addition to purchasing their tickets Businesses large and small, private foundations and the city and state governments also support our work financially

All of this is in support of our vision and mission:

OUR VISION IS TO TOUCH LIVES THROUGH THE POWER OF THEATRE.

Our mission is to create professional theatre that continually strives to reach new levels of artistic excellence and that resonates locally, in the state of Arizona and throughout the nation In order to fulfill our mission, the theatre produces a broad repertoire ranging from classics to new works, engages artists of the highest caliber, and is committed to assuring access to the broadest spectrum of citizens

The Temple of Music and Art, the home of ATC shows in downtown Tucson The Herberger Theater Center, ATC’s performance venue in downtown Phoenix

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INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAY

Five Presidents By Rick Cleveland

Directed by Mark Clements

WORLD PREMIERE

The eagerly-anticipated world premiere by the Emmy Award-winning writer of The West Wing, Six Feet Under, Mad Men and House of Cards.

On April 27, 1994, the five living Presidents – Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H W Bush, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton – gather in a conference room at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California, to await the start of Richard Nixon’s funeral A loving, witty and touching speculation on what may have happened at this true-life event, Five Presidents gives us a humanizing and unfor-gettable look at five great men trying to find relevance after their tenure as one of the most powerful people in the world Contains mature language.

Caption?

Actor John Bolger, who plays President Gerald R Ford in ATC’s production of Five Presidents.

Actor Mark Jacoby, who plays President George H W Bush in ATC’s production of Five Presidents.

Actor Martin L’Herault, who plays President Jimmy Carter in ATC’s production of Five Presidents.

Actor Brit Whittle, who plays President Bill Clinton in ATC’s production of Five Presidents.

Actor Steve Sheridan, who plays President Ronald Reagan in ATC’s production of Five Presidents.

Actor Reese Madigan, who plays Special Agent Michael Kirby in ATC’s production of Five Presidents.

MEET THE CHARACTERS

Gerald R. Ford: 38th President of the United States

Jimmy Carter: 39th President of the United States

Ronald Reagan: 40th President of the United States

George H. W. Bush: 41st President of the United States

Bill Clinton: 42nd President of the United States

Special Agent Michael Kirby: An agent of the Presidential Secret Service Detail

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MEET THE PLAYWRIGHT

Rick Cleveland (Playwright) is an Emmy Award-winning writer/producer whose television credits include The West Wing, Six Feet Under, Mad Men, Nurse Jackie, and House of Cards. Mr Cleveland’s stage play Jerry and Tom was adapted into a feature film and was an official selection at both the Sundance and Toronto Film Festivals, and he co-wrote the screenplay for the motion picture adaptation of John Grisham’s Runaway Jury, which starred John Cusack, Rachel Weisz, Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman Mr Cleveland performed his one-man show My Buddy Bill at the Berkshire Theatre Festival, the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Victory Gardens Theatre in Chicago, the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, and won the Best Solo Performance Award at the HBO Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen in 2006 He also performed the piece at the 92nd Street Y in New York City for a one hour Comedy Central special in 2007 As a playwright, Mr Cleveland has earned playwriting grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Kennedy Center’s Fund for New American Plays He was invited to the National Playwrights’

Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center twice, in 1991 and 1993, and is a Founding Member of American Blues Theatre, Chicago’s second oldest ensemble-based theatre company, as well as a Founding Member of the Ojai Playwrights Conference He received his MFA from the University of Iowa’s Playwrights’ Workshop in 1995 Several of his plays have been published by Samuel French and Dramatists Play Service, and have been produced around the country, as well as in the U K , Germany, Scotland, Moscow, Mexico City and Istanbul Mr Cleveland has been a freelance commentator for NPR’s All Things Considered as well as a contributor to Huffingtonpost com, and as a freelance journalist his writing has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and Outside Magazine.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Playwright Rick Cleveland and Makeup and Prosthetics Designer Lauren Wilde found a few moments in their busy pre-production schedules to answer some questions from ATC Literary Associate Katherine Monberg about the play, their crafts, and the Five Presidents journey from script to stage (and everything in between)

FROM PAGE TO STAGE: FIVE PRESIDENTS | An Interview with Playwright Rick Cleveland

KM: What sparked the idea to write a play about the meeting of the five living U.S. Presidents at Richard Nixon’s funeral?

RC: I first got this idea during the first season of The West Wing. Someone showed me the iconic photo of those five presidents, four exes and one current, together at Nixon’s funeral, and it struck a chord Because of Watergate, Nixon’s presidency changed the office for everyone that came after I started wondering what these guys might have talked about when they were together on that memorable day, behind closed doors

KM: The U.S. presidents are some of the most iconic figures in the collective American consciousness. What are the challenges or opportunities that come with writing about such well-known figures?

RC: Oddly enough, Five Presidents is my fourth play about presidents When I was writing my first, My Buddy Bill, I realized that I needed to allow myself enough poetic license to be able to treat these real-life men as characters, while at the same time keeping the words I put in their mouths completely and utterly credible

Playwright and screenwriter, Rick Cleveland.

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KM: One of the many brilliant facets of Five Presidents is the subtlety that weaves decades of American political history into the immediate, natural conversation of the men together in the room. How much research went into crafting the political side of their conversation?

RC: In short, a ton I probably did as much research on these five presidents as I would have if I were writing a biography about them I was especially keen on finding descriptions and quotes from private, off-the-cuff moments in their lives

KM: You have an impressive resume as a screenwriter as well as a playwright – The West Wing, Six Feet Under, Mad Men, Nurse Jackie, and House of Cards. What is different about writing for the screen and writing for the stage?

RC: Writing for a television series requires you to be fast Especially if you’re writing a script for an episode while the show is in production From a first draft to a finished episode might happen in three months or less Writing a play is a luxury I’ve written four or five drafts of Five Presidents over the course of two years, and we haven’t even started rehearsals yet

KM: The past few years seem to have inspired a wave of interest in the political drama as a genre – I’m thinking of television’s The West Wing, House of Cards and Scandal, and recent stage plays like Mario Correa’s Commander and, of course, Five Presidents. What about the genre do you think has suddenly captured the interest of American audiences, and why now?

RC: I think people have always been interested in politics Look at Shakespeare’s plays: at least half of them are political These days, politics seem to be America’s bloodiest sport A few years ago, I was working with Robert Redford on a script for the sequel to The Candidate And then Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination, and we stopped working on it That moment was exactly the wrong time to be working on a political satire Now though, people are feeling pretty cynical about politics again, and I think that’s one of the reasons why House Of Cards is such a hit It’s the anti-West Wing

KM: Is there anything else about the play or the writing process that you’d like to share with us?

RC: I hope folks thoroughly enjoy the play I hope they feel like a fly on the wall while watching it I hope they find it immensely entertaining, and entirely credible As for the process of writing a play? It’s oh, so very lonely

RECREATING REALITY | An Interview with Makeup and Prosthetic Designer Lauren Wilde

KM: Can you walk me through the process of creating a makeup design? What are some of the steps that you have to do in preparation and practice as part of the design team for a theatre production?

LW: When creating a makeup design, there are several factors to take into consideration First and foremost, these characters are based off of real, iconic people – which can be a challenge So my designs must be rooted in what the presidents actually look like at this specific time in their lives I am only one piece of the puzzle, and I need to make sure my part fits perfectly with all the other impor-tant pieces: the wig design, the costumes, the script, how long the characters are on stage, the lighting design, the space, how much time we have to apply makeup before the show and the overall aesthetic and feel The rehearsal period will be a very telling and important time where I will test out my initial prosthetic and makeup designs and make sure everything works with all the other elements – including the actors’ comfort level and ability to adapt with any possible prosthetics Ideally my initial thoughts and design will work, but I will be flexible and understanding, and I will alter any prosthetics or plans if needed in order to make my designs fit with all the other elements Prosthetics and makeup set for application

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KM: How much and what kind of research did you have to do for Five Presidents? Are there any special challenges that come with portraying such well-known figures?

LW: For a period piece where the actors are representing well-known figures, the research period is VERY important All of America and the world is familiar with the faces of these presidents, so everyone will be a critic I try to find as many photos or video of these presidents from the actual event, and then also research of these men from this general time period I take each president into careful review – I look at young pictures of them as well as older pictures of them to see exactly how their faces age and change over time This helps me get a better understanding of their iconic facial features that people associate with them One way I really confirm what specific traits the public associate with these presidents is by looking up caricatures and cartoons of them We want any prosthetics to be realistic, so I have to take into consid-eration their prominent features and also the reality of creating those features on the actors’ faces without going overboard It is quite the challenge to create a prosthetic and makeup design for a large stage performance but with real-istic, film-quality prosthetics, and have it be absolutely believable from any seat in the house I’m excited to work my hardest to try to achieve this effect!

KM: How does one create a prosthetic, and what kinds of pieces can we expect to see in the show?

LW: Any prosthetics the actors will be wearing will be encapsulated silicone prosthetics To create this type of prosthetic, I first take a face cast of the actor Then using an epoxy copy of their actual face, I sculpt the desired pieces – maybe a nose, or nasal labial folds, or jowls, etc When I have finished the sculpt of a piece, I pour more epoxy plastic over the sculpt to create a mold of the sculpt After the clay is removed from the mold, the mold and the copy of their face can be put together, and the empty space where the clay was is filled with a very soft silicone material The silicone is very flesh-like and will allow the prosthetics to move naturally with the actors’ normal facial movements I will pre-paint all the prosthetics, so during pre-call before a show, the actors will just need to apply the prosthetics and also any other 2-D makeup effects In my initial designs, most people only have one or two pieces to apply The most so far is three pieces – two cheeks and one nose – to be worn by the actor playing Gerald Ford But that might change after these [first] rehearsals and makeup tests

KM: What are your favorite and/or least favorite parts of creating makeup and prosthetic designs?

LW: I really enjoy a transformation makeup So much can be achieved with the perfect amount of makeup Tiny shadows or highlights and age spots can really change the appearance of an actor So it is a fun challenge to come up with the complete design of changing someone’s face to look like a different person As for my least favorite part, sometimes (actu-ally, more like always) you will hit speed bumps in the design process A material I thought would work perfectly doesn’t actually work, a sculpt I thought looked good actually doesn’t read correctly on stage, or maybe a mold breaks or the weather is prohibiting your prosthetics from setting up correctly There will always be obstacles, but honestly, this “least” favorite part might secretly be one of my favorite parts I always want to be constantly learning and trying new techniques, and these curve balls in shows keep you on your feet and your brain working So they are a blessing in disguise

KM: How did you get into the field and what kind of training did you need to acquire? Any advice for aspiring designers out there?

LW: I started my career as an opera singer in college One summer while singing in Italy, the makeup designer needed help doing old age makeup on some singers I have always been an artist and a painter, so I volunteered, and I ended up enjoying making someone look old more than I enjoyed singing in the opera So I changed my career path and started designing makeup and wigs for opera and theater After college, I wanted to get more into film, television and special effects, and I realized I would need a little more training So I went to University of North Carolina School of the Arts where I received my Master’s degree in Wig and Makeup Design It was the best and most influential three years of my

Green silicone mold, and the negative of the face

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life, and I owe everything to that experience and my teachers A graduate education is not required by everyone wanting to go into this field (although I will always recommend UNCSA) The most important thing is just to keep finding hands-on opportunities to really hone the craft and practice Meet photographers, sign up for sculpting classes, find models who are willing to let you test out ideas on them, start creating your own portfolio, and in this day and age you can learn so much by watching tutorials online! And through that you meet people and network and form wonderful working relationships

KM: Anything else you’d like to share with folks about your designs, the process, or the show?

LW: I am very excited and grateful to be part of such a wonderful show The script is phenomenal, all the other designers and employees of the theaters are easy and enjoyable to communicate with, and the actors that have been cast are all a joy to create with It is one of the most challenging jobs I have had the honor of working on, and I will be forever grateful for the opportunity I’m thrilled to see how these [initial] tests go and embark on the next leg of the journey from there

MEET THE PRESIDENTS

Gerald Ford was born Leslie Lynch King, Jr on July 14, 1913, in Omaha, Nebraska, where his father was a wool trader and his grandfather was a prominent banker Sixteen days after Ford’s birth, his mother separated from his father and moved with her son to Oak Park, Illinois, and then to Grand Rapids, Michigan, divorcing her husband later that year She remarried in 1916 to Gerald Rudolff Ford, whose name her young son unofficially adopted until he had his name legally changed in 1935

In his youth, Ford was heavily involved in The Boy Scouts of America, and attended the University of Michigan as a star center and linebacker for the Wolverines football team Upon his graduation in 1935, Ford turned down offers from the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers to take up a coaching position at Yale, while applying to law school there He graduated in 1941 and opened a law practice in Grand Rapids, until the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, prompted him to enlist in the U S Navy, where he served until 1946

In 1948, Ford married Elizabeth Bloomer Warren, and began campaigning for his first of thirteen terms as a U S Representative, self-described as “a moderate in domestic affairs, an internationalist in foreign affairs, and a conservative in fiscal policy ” He served as a member of the House Appropriations Committee and the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee before being appointed to the Warren Commission by President Johnson in 1963, a special task force to investigate the assassination of President John F Kennedy

In 1965, Ford became the House Minority Leader under President Johnson’s Democratic Administration, opposing Johnson’s “Great Society” programs and his handling of the American presence in Vietnam Ford later became a White House advocate under the Nixon Administration, helping to shepherd the environmental and tax reforms, and a Revenue Sharing program for state and local governments supported by a bipartisan coalition; Ford’s commitment to fair leadership and his inoffensive personality made him hugely popular on the House floor

On October 19, 1973, Spiro Agnew resigned as Vice President of the United States, pleading no contest to criminal charges of tax evasion and money laundering Ford was almost unanimously nominated by senior Congressional leaders to take up the Vice Presidency, though his short tenure was vastly overshadowed by the ongoing Watergate scandal. When Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, Ford became the only U S President to have never been voted into neither the Presidential or Vice Presidential office Ford then nominated New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller as his V P , over then-Chairman of the Republican National Committee, George H W Bush

In September, 1974, Ford issued Proclamation 4311, which provided a full and complete pardon to former President Nixon for any crimes he may have committed while in office He followed by instituting a conditional amnesty program for the draft dodgers of the Vietnam War and massively reorganizing the cabinet he had inherited from Nixon

President Gerald R. Ford, circa 1974

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While in office, Ford initiated the “Whip Inflation Now” program as his economic policy, calling for reduced spending and consumption, and was a major advocate of the Equal Rights Amendment He also signed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, establishing special education programs throughout the country

Ford continued Nixon’s foreign policy in China and the Soviet Union, still thawing from the tensions of the Cold War. In 1975, Ford signed the Helsinki Accords with the Soviet Union, creating the framework for the eventual Human Rights Watch Ongoing conflicts in the Middle East included the Turkish invasion of Cyprus and the continuing Arab-Israeli conflict, while in Asia the contested aftermath of the Vietnam War raged on Though American offensive operations in Vietnam had officially ended with the Paris Peace Accords in 1973, North Vietnamese forces advanced on Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) just months after Ford took office, and the Communist Khmer Rouge overtook neighboring Cambodia

In September, 1975, Ford was the target of two failed assassination attempts in California The first was in Sacramento at the hands of Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, a dedicated follower of the Charles Manson family who sought to raise awareness for environmental issues in California by eliminating the figurehead of the U S government The second was perpetrated by Sara Jane Moore, a left-wing radical whose extreme political views forced her conclusion that the Republican president must be eliminated

In 1976, Ford agreed to run for a second Presidential term, but first had to overcome a challenger for the Republican nomi-nation: Ronald Reagan, former Governor of California Ford won the nomination and faced off against Democratic candidate Jimmy Carter in the first televised presidential debates since the 1960 election; Ford’s awkward performance is widely considered to be a leading cause of Jimmy Carter’s subsequent election

After Carter’s election, Ford remained relatively active in the public and political view He published his autobiography, A Time to Heal, in 1979, followed by a book of humorous political anecdotes, Humor and the Presidency. He decided to forego joining the ticket as Reagan’s running mate in 1980, ceding the position to George H W Bush He served on numerous corporate boards, served as an honorary co-chair of the Council for Excellence in Government, and established numerous cultural institutions including the Gerald R Ford Institute of Public Policy at Albion College, the Gerald R Ford Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the Gerald R Ford Museum in Grand Rapids

In his later years, he devoted much of his time to the sport of golf, playing in many public and private events with longtime friend, Bob Hope. His heart health began to suffer in the early 2000s, and he died of heart complications on December 26, 2006 at his home in Rancho Mirage, California at the age of 93 He is remembered as an open, honest statesman, who came to be seen as the dignified – if notoriously clumsy – wielder of great responsibility after the nation’s trust was shaken by the Watergate scandal and Nixon’s subsequent pardon

President Ford, reacting to the sound of Sara Jane Moore’s failed shot in an assassination attempt in San Francisco in September, 1975

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James Earl “Jimmy” Carter, Jr. was born Oct 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia Descended from many generations of Georgia cotton farmers, Carter’s father was a local businessman, general store operator, and farmland investor After attending Georgia Southwestern College while awaiting a sponsorship to shoulder the cost, Carter was admitted to the U S Naval Academy in 1943, and married Rosalynn Smith shortly after his graduation in 1946

In 1952, after joining the Navy’s young nuclear submarine program, Carter was dispatched to help with the aftermath of a partial meltdown of the Chalk River Nuclear Reactor, an experience that forever shaped his views on nuclear power and weapons and his eventual decision to defer production of the neutron bomb In 1953, upon the death of his father, Carter was honorably discharged from the navy to return home to run the family peanut farm and business, living for a time in public housing in Plains, Georgia, as he transitioned to farm operation and ownership

In 1962, Carter decided to run for the state Senate, having become a prominent member of his local community and chairman of the Sumter County school board He initially lost the race, but challenged the results; fraudulent voting was confirmed by the sheriff of Quitman County and Carter won when votes were recast

Carter took to the Senate in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement, a staunch supporter of John F. Kennedy, integration of public schools, and racial tolerance He followed his two successful terms in the state Senate by running for Governor of Georgia in 1966, losing to the conservative segregationist Lester Maddox, and leaving him deeply in debt He returned to agriculture until he could try again for the gubernatorial seat in 1970, when he would run a surprising, ultra-conservative campaign to beat Republican Hal Suit at the polls

With his inherent disgust for the inherited wealth and selfishness of American politics and an unwillingness to barter political favors, Carter was not initially popular with the Georgia legislature He prioritized civil rights – a surprise after his arguably racist campaign – and pushed for education reform that sought to provide equal state funding to schools regardless of their wealth, in addition to establishing community centers for mentally handicapped children and opportunities for the education of former convicts

Carter entered the presidential primaries in 1976, when the nation still reeled from the revelations of Watergate; for the first time, his distance from national politics and Washington, D C became an asset He won the Democratic nomination and named Walter Mondale as his running mate, going on to beat incumbent President Ford for the White House

Carter’s presidency is layered with domestic issues of inflation, recession, and the Energy Crisis of 1979. His foreign policy focused on calming conflicts around the world, including ongoing hostilities in the Middle East, the signing of the Panama Canal Treaty in 1977, and the signing of the SALT II agreement with the Soviet Union to curtail the manufacture of strategic nuclear weapons

On November 4, 1979, a group of Iranian students supporting the Iranian Revolution overtook the U S Embassy in Tehran, thus beginning the 444-day Iranian Hostage Crisis. Later that year, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, leading Carter to announce the U S boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympic Games in Moscow Amidst so much controversy, Carter’s bid for re-election in 1980 faced opposition from all sides: from Republican candidate Ronald Reagan, independent candidate John B Anderson, and from the liberal Democrats united under Ted Kennedy. Carter was soundly defeated by Reagan, and returned home to his Georgia peanut farm in 1981 to find it badly mismanaged and heavily in debt

Post-presidency, Carter became active in humanitarian and global health initiatives, and a variety of charitable causes, in addi-tion to an ongoing diplomatic role as a representative of the United States He is particularly active in Habitat for Humanity, and established The Carter Center in 1982 to advocate for democracy, monitor the electoral process in support of free and fair elections, and advance human rights It also works toward the control and eradication of global diseases, and support human rights around the world, working to resolve conflicts in Haiti, Bosnia, Ethiopia, North Korea, Sudan and elsewhere President Carter received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, the only U S president to receive one for his actions outside of his presidency His presidency is associated with his progressive approach as a congenial Everyman of a politician whose policies aligned with the needs of the middle and working classes, though his popularity was largely overshadowed toward the end of his presidency by the panic induced by the energy crisis and the Iranian Hostage Crisis, seen as examples of inadequate national leadership

President Jimmy Carter.

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Ronald Wilson Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois on February 6, 1911 In 1920, the family moved to Dixon, Illinois, where he attended high school and participated in acting and sports, interests he continued at Eureka College, where he was also elected student body president

After graduating from college in 1932, Reagan embarked on an entertainment career in radio and film, first as a broadcaster for the University of Iowa football team, and later as an announcer for the Chicago Cubs In 1937, while traveling with the Cubs, he took a screen test at Warner Bros that led to a seven-year contract His first film appearance was in the 1937 film Love Is on the Air, going on to make 19 films over the next two years He married actress Jane Wyman in 1940, with whom he had two biological children and adopted a third before the couple divorced in 1948

A member of the Army Enlisted Reserve, Reagan was called to active duty in April, 1942, at the height of his film career Classified for limited service because of his poor eyesight,

he spent most of his military service as a member of the First Motion Picture Unit, producing propaganda and training films alongside other veteran actors such as Clark Gable and William Holden

After World War II, Reagan became the third vice president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) in 1946 New conflict-of-interest bylaws in 1947 led the SAG president and six board members to resign, leading to Reagan’s nomination in a special election for the presidency, a position he would fulfill from 1947-1952 and again in 1959 During his tenure, he led SAG through the era of the Taft-Harley Act, the hearings by the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) and the Hollywood black-listing of purported communist sympathizers

Reagan began his political career as a Democrat, participating in politics as much as Warner Bros studios would allow In 1952, Reagan married his second wife, actress Nancy Davis, whose Republican convictions are thought to have contributed to Reagan’s own political shift to the right In 1954, Reagan was hired to host the television drama series General Electric Theater; his self-written, non-partisan speeches began to carry a pro-business, limited-government tone championed by modern American conservatives

In the early 1960s, Reagan was dropped from GE and officially switched to the Republican Party, opposing certain civil rights legislation and the introduction of Medicare as examples of excessive governmental interventions He followed with a successful campaign for Governor of California in 1966, becoming involved with many of the high-profile protest and counterculture movements of the day during his time in office He was re-elected in 1970, his gubernatorial experience helping to solidify his political identity as pro-life, pro-capital punishment, and opposed to the welfare state and governmental regulation of the economy

In 1976, Reagan challenged incumbent President Ford for the Republican presidential nomination as a right-wing conserva-tive, in contrast to Ford’s more moderate appeal Though he lost the nomination, he remained in the public political eye through his Ronald Reagan Radio Commentary series and his Citizens for the Republic political action committee, paving the way for his 1980 presidential campaign

In 1980, Reagan defeated incumbent President Jimmy Carter in the midst of the Iranian Hostage Crisis, running on a platform of lower taxes to stimulate the economy, reduced government intervention, states’ rights and a strong national defense With running mate George H W Bush, he embarked on what would come to be known as the Reagan Revolution, furthering policies to inspire morale, reinvigorate the economy and reduce govern-mental involvement in American life In 1981, Reagan was the victim of an attempted assassination by John Hinckley, Jr ,

Hostages of the Iranian Hostage Crisis upon their return to the U S after 444 days in captivity

President Ronald Reagan.

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outside of a Washington hotel, in John Hinckley’s quest to garner the attention of actress Jodi Foster in an act of national renown He became the first U S president to survive a bullet wound in an assassination attempt

Reagan is largely remembered for his economic policy advocating supply-side, laissez-faire economics and free-market fiscal policy aimed at lowering taxes to spur investment, and pull the country out of recession This “trickle-down” effect became synonymous with his greater economic plan often referred to as “Reaganomics ” He also declared a “War on Drugs” in response to the crack cocaine epidemic that emerged in the 1980s

Reagan’s foreign policy was significantly more aggressive than his immediate presidential predecessors He played a key role in the escalation of the Cold War, fortifying U S defense and the armed forces and introducing plans for the Strategic Defense Initiative, a preventative measure to undercut potential Soviet dominance in nuclear arms The Reagan Administration also provided aid to various anti-communist resistance movements around the world in Latin America, Asia and Africa, sending troops to Lebanon in 1983 at the threat of a Lebanese Civil War, and authorizing the invasion of Grenada after a 1979 coup established a (non-aligned) Communist government in the Caribbean island nation

Reagan was re-elected with an overwhelming margin in 1984, continuing aggressive foreign policy in 1986 with air strikes against Libya, in retaliation for the bombing of a Berlin discotheque that killed an American serviceman and wounded 63 more The Reagan Administration was slightly shadowed in 1986 by the revelation of the Iran-Contra Affair, the illegal passage of the proceeds from arms sales to Iran to the Contras, the opposition to the Sandinista government established in Nicaragua in 1979

While Reagan was responsible for some of the escalation of the Cold War, he also enacted some of its solutions, initiating nuclear armament discussions with Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev through four summit conferences between 1985 and 1988 in Geneva, Reykjavik, Washington, D C , and Moscow, and encouraging the Soviet Union to tear down the Berlin Wall in a speech in 1987

In the 1980s, before leaving office, Reagan underwent three surgeries for suspected cancers, the first instances of his declining health as the oldest U S president to take office Post-presidency, the Reagans purchased a home in Bel Air, Los Angeles and the former president continued to make occasional public appearances, including a speech at the 1992 Republican National Convention His last public appearance was at the funeral of Richard Nixon on April 27, 1994, a few months before he announced his diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease He died of pneumonia, complicated by Alzheimer’s, at his home in Bel Air on June 5, 2004 He is remembered as a powerful, charismatic speaker, and a staunch right-wing conservative whose economic and social policies continue to impact contemporary domestic American life

George H.W. Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, on June 12, 1924, and moved to Greenwich, Connecticut, in his early youth He was active in numerous leadership roles in school including senior class president and captain of the varsity baseball and soccer teams

After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December, 1941, Bush decided to join the Navy after his graduation in 1942, and served until the Japanese surrendered in 1945, ending their involvement in World War II Weeks after returning home, Bush married Barbara Pierce before attending Yale University to earn his Bachelor’s degree in economics

After graduating from college, the Bush family moved to West Texas where he became involved in numerous oil ventures, making his fortune by the mid-1960s By 1964, Bush had set foot into politics as Chairman of the Republican Party of Harris County, Texas, before being elected to the U S House of Representatives in 1966 where he notably supported the Civil Rights Act of 1968, the Nixon Administration’s policies in Vietnam, and the abolition of the draft He was re-elected to the House in 1968

In 1970, Bush was convinced by President Nixon to run instead for the Senate, losing the race to Lloyd Benson; as compensa-tion, Nixon appointed Bush the U S Ambassador to the United Nations In 1973, Bush took over as chairman of the Republican National Committee, in the midst of the Watergate scandal It was Bush who suggested to Nixon that he resign from the Presidency, which he did on August 9, 1974 Nixon’s successor, former Vice President Gerald Ford, appointed Bush as Chief of the U S Liaison Office in the People’s Republic of China Bush was considered as Ford’s Vice President in 1973 and again in 1976, but was passed over both times

President George H.W. Bush.

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In 1976, Bush returned to Washington to become the Director of Central Intelligence, and is credited with helping to restore faith in the CIA after a series of shocking revelations of indiscretions When the Carter Administration began, Bush moved back to Texas until he could make his own bid for the presidency

Bush got that chance in 1980, stressing his wide range of governmental experiences and drawing support from the middle-of-the-road facet of the Republican Party (in contrast to Reagan’s more conservative approach) He lost the nomination to Reagan, but would become his running mate instead, earning him the Vice Presidency in the election of 1980

As Vice President, Bush kept a fairly low political profile, attending numerous state events – including so many state funerals that it became a running joke for popular comedians of the day He also chaired special task forces on deregulation and inter-national drug smuggling, both popular conservative issues at the time

In March, 1981, President Reagan was shot in an assassination attempt in Washington, D C ; Bush notably respected the office of President as temporarily vacant until Reagan’s return to work, including leaving his chair vacant at Cabinet meetings Reagan and Bush were re-elected in 1984 and met the tension of their own scandal in 1986, when the Administration’s participation in the Iran-Contra Affair came to light

Bush made a second bid for the presidency in 1988, running on a platform of “no new taxes ” He was elected and took office in January, 1989, in a period of massive international flux with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union Bush followed his inauguration with military endeavors in Panama and the Persian Gulf, but was forced to break his “no new taxes” rule in the light of economic recession brought on by deficits remaining from the Reagan years

During his term in office, Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Civil Rights Act of 1991, in addi-tion to the Immigration Act of 1990, which raised legal immigration rates in the U S by 40 percent He also advocated a “thousand points of light” movement to endorse the ability of average citizens to enact change and solve community problems

Foreign policy during the Bush Administration was fairly controversial In December 1989, Bush ordered the invasion of Panama in “Operation Just Cause” to remove Manuel Noriega from power; the goal had been articulated since the Reagan Administration, but the Bush Administration’s poor planning for the aftermath and the establishment of a democratic Panamanian government received significant criticism

In August, 1990, Iraq (under President Saddam Hussein) invaded neighboring Kuwait in a dispute over oil fields, sparking the Gulf War; fearing the inevitable oil crisis should Iraq succeed, Bush condemned the invasion and began rallying support among U S allies in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East A U S -led coalition of 34 nations launched Operation Desert Storm in January 1991 to force Iraq to retreat and secure U S oil interests in the Persian Gulf region

Bush held a summit with Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991 where the nations signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I), nearly nine years in its development and the first major arms agreement since 1987 Bush also solidified the end of the Cold War with his and Gorbachev’s mutual declaration of a U S -Russian strategic partnership after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 He was also heavily involved in providing relief to Somalia at the onset of the Somali Civil War, and in highly-criticized NAFTA agreements in the 1990s

In his 1992 campaign for re-election, Bush defeated political columnist Pat Buchanan for the Republican nomination The unex-pected entry of Ross Perot into the race as a third party candidate decreased the Democratic lead established by Bill Clinton, but not enough for Bush to prevail Post-presidency, Bush visited Kuwait in 1993 to commemorate the coalition victory in the Gulf War, where he was targeted in an assassination plot; after tracing the plot back to the Iraqi Intelligence Service, Clinton retaliated by firing 23 cruise missiles at their headquarters in Baghdad Bush continues to make public appearances, as a national figure and in support of modern Republican politics

The Bush Administration is remembered as aggressive in foreign policy and successful in international military operations, though his decision to allow Saddam Hussein to remain in power after the Gulf War was met with significant criticism, and the end of his presidency is largely associated with the economic recession of the early 1990s His reputation as a “pragmatic caretaker” is somewhat overshadowed by the overall impression that he was lacking in a unifying, long-term vision for the nation at home and abroad, indicated by his violation of his original campaign promise to institute “no new taxes,” thought to have contributed to popular support for Democratic nominee Bill Clinton in 1992

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Bill Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946 in Hope, Arkansas His mother, Virginia, moved with her young son to New Orleans to study nursing soon after he was born, having lost her husband in an automobile accident a few months before her son’s birth Growing up in the south in the midst of racial segregation, Clinton’s grandparents owned and operated a small grocery store operating on a platform of racial equality His mother remarried in 1950 to Roger Clinton, and moved to Hot Springs later that year; Clinton used his stepfather’s last name until he legally adopted it when he turned fifteen

In school and at home, Clinton was an active leader and musician, going on to earn a Bachelor’s degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University Upon graduation, Clinton won a Rhodes Scholarship to University College, Oxford, where he studied philosophy, politics and economics, leaving early to pursue a law degree at Yale University While attending school, Clinton was active in Vietnam War protests and protests against the draft, leading to conser-vative criticism later in his career

In 1975, Clinton married fellow lawyer Hillary Rodham, who gave birth to their only child, Chelsea, in 1980 After graduating from Yale, Clinton returned to Arkansas where he was employed as a law professor at the University of Arkansas before joining the race for the House of Representatives in 1974; he lost to Republican incumbent John Paul Hammerschmidt, despite the pro-Democratic leanings intensified by the recent Watergate scandal He was later elected to Arkansas Attorney General in 1976, before becoming Governor of Arkansas in 1978

Clinton lost the race for gubernatorial re-election in 1980, joining a Little Rock law firm until 1982 He was re-elected as Governor in 1982 and held the post for ten years, during which time he transformed the Arkansas economy and educational system, became a leading figure among the New Democrats who advocated for welfare reform and smaller government, among other non-traditional liberal agendas

During Clinton’s bid for the 1992 Democratic presidential nomination, reports surfaced of an alleged extramarital affair with model and actress Gennifer Flowers during the New Hampshire primary Popular opinion plummeted, forcing Clinton and Hillary to negate the allegations on an episode of 60 Minutes; following his television appearance, Clinton came within single digits of winning, earning him the label “The Comeback Kid ” In the following primaries, his campaign focused on his moderate persona as a New Democrat, taking advantage of division among the Republicans created by incumbent President Bush’s reneged promise of “no new taxes” and the lack of the Republican Party’s common, uniting enemy (the Soviet Union) with the recent end to the Cold War.

Clinton defeated Bush, using his term in office to push for a wide variety of legislation including welfare reform, healthcare reform, and a fiscal conservatism that led to significant peacetime economic expansion In November, 1993, Clinton was accused of criminal activity in the Whitewater controversy, though the Clintons maintained innocence and were never officially charged He also notably signed the Brady Bill into law in 1993, imposing a five-day waiting period on handgun purchases, and supported by numerous former U S presidents That same year, Clinton also implemented the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy to allow LGBT members in the armed forces, so long as their sexual orientation was not openly communicated

Clinton was elected to a second presidential term in 1996, beating Republican candidate Bob Dole and Reform candidate Ross Perot at the polls In 1998, Clinton was accused of perjury and obstruction of justice in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, allegations that President Clinton had illegally obfuscated his sexual relationship with the 22-year-old White House intern The House initiated impeachment hearings, but Clinton was later acquitted by the Senate on all charges

During the Clinton presidency, notable military events included the Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia in 1993, in which two U S helicopters were shot down behind enemy lines, resulting in an urban battle that killed 18 American soldiers, wounding 73 others and one being taken prisoner In 1995, U S and NATO aircraft attacked Bosnian Serb targets in retaliation for attacks on U N safe zones, and to pressure a peace accord The Clinton Administration also ordered several failed military missions to capture al-Qaeda founder, Osama bin Laden Other notable events included the 1998 al-Qaeda bombings of U S embassies in East Africa, leading to U S missile strikes against terrorist targets in Afghanistan and Sudan, and participation in the NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999 to stop the genocide of Albanians in Kosovo Clinton also unsuccessfully attempted to negotiate peace in the ongoing Arab-Israeli Conflict

President Bill Clinton.

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Clinton is widely remembered for his charismatic persona, improvement of race relations in the U S and for his many progres-sive legislative successes, as well as for the numerous scandals and allegations of illegalities that earned him the nickname “Slick Willie ” He is generally referred to as a successful president, and remains active in public life, fundraising, and charitable organizations

SIX PRESIDENTS: A TIMELINE

“It’s impossible to be in this job without feeling a special bond with the people who have gone before” – President Bill Clinton, in his speech announcing the death of Richard Nixon form the White House Rose Garden on April 22, 1994

PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON (JANUARY 20, 1969 – AUGUST 9, 1974)

November 5, 1968: Richard Nixon is elected President of the United States

June 1969: Nixon begins to withdraw troops from Vietnam

December 1969: Nixon replaces the military draft with a lottery

January 1, 1970: Nixon signs the National Environmental Policy Act

April 30, 1970: Announcement of military incursion into Cambodia, where communist sanctuaries were aiding North Vietnamese and Viet Cong

February 1972: Makes historic trip to China, agreeing to peaceful relations through the Shanghai Communiqué and ending 25 years of hostility in Sino-American relations

May 1972: Makes historic trip to the Soviet Union, a key turning point in U S -Russia relations

November 7, 1972: Nixon re-elected to the Presidency with largest mandate in American history

December 1972: Peace talks reach an impasse, prompting the U S to begin large-scale bombing of North Vietnam, known as the “Christmas bombings ”

January 27, 1973: Nixon signs the Paris Peace Accords, a ceasefire agreement between the U S , South Vietnam, the Viet Cong and North Vietnam, and ending U S military involvement in the Vietnam War

October 1973: U S provides military aid to Israel during the Yom Kippur War.

Early 1974: Initiation of Middle East peace process through “Shuttle Diplomacy.”

January - July 1974: Watergate scandal erupts

August 8, 1974v: Nixon resigns as President of the United States

President Richard Nixon.

Chinese Premier Chou En-lai and President Richard Nixon share a banquet in Shanghai on February 28, 1972 Photo courtesy of the Washington Post.

Nixon waves goodbye and boards a helicopter outside the White House on August 9, 1974, after resigning the presidency of the United States

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PRESIDENT GERALD R. FORD (AUGUST 9, 1974 – JANUARY 20, 1977)

August 9, 1974: Gerald R Ford, Nixon’s former Vice President, is sworn in as President of the United States

September 8, 1974: Ford pardons Richard Nixon

April 10, 1975: North Vietnamese Army Divisions approach Saigon; Ford unsuccessfully requests Congress to provide financial assistance to South Vietnam and Cambodia

April 12, 1975: Ford evacuates the U S mission in Cambodia as the communist Khmer Rouge advance on the capital, eventually taking control of the country

April 28, 1975: Ford orders emergency evacuation of American personnel and high-risk South Vietnamese nationals as Saigon falls to communist forces

May 12-15, 1975: Communist Cambodia seizes the U S merchant ship Mayaguez in international waters; U S Marines sent to rescue the crew

September 1, 1975: Announcement of Egyptian-Israeli agreement to disengage troops in Sinai Peninsula, where they have been fighting since the Six-Day War in 1967

September 5, 1975: Attempted assassination of President Ford in Sacramento by Charles Manson follower, Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme

September 22, 1975: Attempted assassination of President Ford in San Francisco by left-wing radical, Sara Jane Moore

November 4, 1975: “Halloween Massacre” in which Ford orders a massive reorganization of his Cabinet, appointing George H W Bush as Director of the CIA, among other changes

February 18, 1976: Ford signs Executive Order 11905, prohibiting the U S from engaging in political assassination

June 20, 1976: Ford orders evacuation of U S embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, following the assassination of embassy officials

PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER (JANUARY 20, 1977 – JANUARY 20, 1981)

November 3, 1976: Carter narrowly defeats incumbent President Ford in the Presidential election

January 21, 1977: Carter pardons most who evaded the draft in the Vietnam War

June 30, 1977: Carter stops the B-1 bomber program, angering defense conservatives

August 4, 1977: Carter establishes the cabinet-level Department of Energy

September 7, 1977: Signing of the Panama Canal treaties, pro viding control of the canal to be given to Panama in 1999, and guaranteeing the canal’s neutrality

First Lady Betty Ford greets President Ford after Sara Jane Moore’s attempted assassination of her husband, unaware of the incident

President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian General Omar Torrijos, the signers of the Panama Canal Treaties

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October 5, 1977: Carter signs the International Covenant on Human Rights

November 19, 1977: Egyptian president Anwar Sadat makes a historic visit to Israel, creating a major opportunity for peace in the Middle East

December 1977: Carter signs a Social Security measure that keeps the system solvent until 2030, hugely increasing payroll taxes

April 7, 1978: Carter defers production of the neutron bomb

September 17, 1978: Israeli Prime Minister Begin and Egyptian President Sadat sign the Camp David Accords, a historic moment in the quest for peace in the Middle East

January 16, 1979: Shah Reza Pahlavi flees Iran, having ruled since 1953; conservative Muslim cleric Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Iran from exile, establishing the Iranian Revolution.

March 1979: President Carter journeys to Middle East to save the unraveling Camp David agreements; he succeeds, leading to the signing of the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty on the White House lawn

March 28, 1979: Partial nuclear meltdown at Three Mile Island power plant in Pennsylvania

June 18, 1979: Carter and Soviet Premier Brezhnev sign the SALT II arms control agree-ment in Vienna

July 17, 1979: President Carter asks his entire cabinet to resign, eventually accepting five

July 19, 1979: President Anastasio Somoza is overthrown in Nicaragua by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN).

July 1979: America’s first energy riot in Levittown, Pennsylvania, resulting in one hundred injuries and 170 arrests

August 15, 1979: U N Ambassador Andrew Young resigns after a private meeting with a representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization

September 2, 1979: Carter pledges aid to Sandinista leaders in Nicaragua

October 22, 1979: Carter allows the deposed, ailing Shah of Iran to enter the U S for medical treatment

November 4, 1979: Iranian militants seize the U S Embassy in Tehran, seizing 66 hostages and beginning the 444-day Iranian Hostage Crisis.

December 25, 1979: The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan.

February 20, 1980: Carter urges a boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympic Games in Moscow

April 24, 1980: A hostage rescue mission, “Desert One,” ends in disaster

May 18, 1980: Mount St Helens volcano erupts in Washington State, killing 57

September 22, 1980: Iraq invades Iran, sparking the Iran-Iraq War.

PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN (JANUARY 20, 1981 – JANUARY 20, 1989)

November 4, 1980: Reagan defeats Carter to become President of the United States

January 20, 1981: The hostages in Iran are released moments after Ronald Reagan takes the Oath of Office

October 6, 1981: President Sadat of Egypt is assassinated; Nixon, Ford and Carter attend the funeral

November 5, 1980: New York Stock Exchange surges sharply

Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

A cleanup crew working to remove radioactive contamination at Three Mile Island in 1979

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March 30, 1981: Attempted assassination of President Reagan by John Hinckley, Jr , outside a Washington hotel

August 3, 1981: Air traffic controllers go on strike; Reagan allows them 48 hours to return to work, firing the rest

September 1981: Reagan appoints Sandra Day O’Connor as first female Supreme Court Justice

December 31, 1981: General Wojciech Jaruzelski declares martial law in Poland

June 6, 1982: Israel invades Lebanon

August 25, 1982: U S Marines arrive in Lebanon, a small “peace-keeping force ”

Fall 1982: U S sinks to worst recession since the Great Depression; more than 9 million Americans are unemployed

March 23, 1983: Reagan unveils proposal for a Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI).

Spring 1983: Economy begins to recover; the beginning of a 93-month economic expansion

October 23, 1983: Terrorists drive a truck loaded with TNT into the U S Marine headquarters in Beirut, killing 241 Americans

October 25, 1983: U S troops invade Grenada.

December 15, 1983: U S launches Operation Staunch, advising the international community not to sell weapons to Iran and force a negotiated settlement to the Iran-Iraq War.

November 4, 1984: Reagan defeats Mondale to reelection as President of the United States

January 28, 1986: U S space shuttle “Challenger” explodes 73 seconds after takeoff

March 11, 1985: Mikhail Gorbachev becomes leader of Soviet Union

May 5, 1985: Reagan admits to sponsoring armed insurgencies against Soviet-backed governments in the Third World

June 14, 1985: TWA Flight 847 from Athens is hijacked by terrorists, held captive for 17 days

November 19, 1985: Geneva Summit takes place between Gorbachev and Reagan

April 14, 1986: U S Air Force Navy bombers hit Tripoli and Benghazi in Libya, in retaliation for the bombing of a West Berlin night club where a U S serviceman was killed

April 26, 1986: Explosion at Chernobyl nuclear power station in Kiev, U S S R

October 11, 1986: Reykjavik Summit opens; Reagan walks away from Gorbachev’s proposed limitations to Space Defense Initiative (SDI).

The smoke plume from Space Shuttle Challenger after its breakup in flight, resulting in the deaths of all seven crew members

The Chernobyl nuclear reactor after the disaster Photo taken on April 26, 1986

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November 22, 1986: Attorney General Meese announces Iran-Contra connection, finding evidence that profits from the sale of U S arms to Iran had been knowingly diverted to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua

February 26, 1987: Tower Commission report fails to find a direct link between Reagan and the Iran-Contra Affair; other government officials will later be indicted

December 8, 1987: Washington Summit opens; Reagan and Gorbachev sign the INF treaty, the first U S -Soviet treaty to provide for destruction of nuclear weapons and provide for on-site monitoring of the destruction

April 1988: Soviet troops begin pulling out of Afghanistan

May 29 -June 3, 1988: Moscow Summit between Reagan and Gorbachev; INF Treaty is finalized after being ratified by the U S Senate

GEORGE H.W. BUSH (JANUARY 20, 1989 – JANUARY 20, 1993)

November 8, 1988: Vice President Bush defeats Michael Dukakis to become the 41st President of the United States

June 3, 1988: Chinese government brutally suppresses an uprising in Tiananmen Square

November 9, 1989: Berlin Wall falls

December 20, 1989: U S invades Panama and captures Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega to bring him to trial on drug trafficking charges in the U S

August 2, 1990: Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait in a dispute over oil fields

January 16, 1991: Operation Desert Storm beings

February 28, 1991: Ceasefire declared in Persian Gulf War.

July 1, 1991: Bush nominates Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court

April 29, 1992: Riots break out in Los Angeles after four policemen are caught on tape in the beating of Rodney King

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON (JANUARY 20, 1993 – JANUARY 20, 2001)

November 3, 1992: Clinton elected as 42nd President of the United States

January 29, 1993: Clinton introduces “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that prohibits the military from asking recruits about their sexual orientation

June 26, 1993: U S launches missile attach at Iraq’s intelligence headquarters in Baghdad in response to an Iraqi plot to assas-sinate former President Bush

September 13, 1993: Oslo Peace Accords signed by Yasser Arafat and Yetzhak Rabin on the White House lawn

September 22, 1993: Clinton unveils health care reform proposal to Congress

October 3, 1993: A landmine kills three U S soldiers in Somalia, sparking open conflict between U N troops and the Somali warlord, Mohammed Farah Aidid

October 4, 1993: Russian President Boris Yeltsin faces a revolt led by his Vice President, Alexander Rutskoy

November 3, 1993: Clinton signs Brady Bill into law, mandating a five-day waiting period and background checks for handgun purchases

January 12, 1994: Attorney General Janet Reno appoints an Independent Counsel to investigate allegations against Bill and Hillary Clinton regarding illegal real estate investments, known as the Whitewater scandal

President Bill Clinton (center) with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat (left) and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin, shaking hands in the White House Garden after signing the Oslo Accords in 1993

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POLITICAL REFERENCES

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS’ STRIKE

On August 3, 1981, PATCO, the U S union of air traffic controllers, went on strike seeking better working conditions, higher pay and a 32-hour work week, in violation of a law banning strikes by government agencies President Ronald Reagan allowed 48 hours for the air traffic controllers to return to work and fired the remaining 11,345 who ignored the order, banning them from federal service for the rest of their lives, and leading to the decertification of the PATCO union

ANWAR SADAT AND EGYPT

Anwar Sadat was the third president of Egypt, in office from October 15, 1970 until his assassination on October 6, 1981 Part of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 which overthrew former King Farouk, Sadat initiated the October War in 1973 to regain the Sinai Peninsula, occupied by Israel since 1967’s Six-Day War, and then signing the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty in 1979, ending 30 years of fighting sparked by the Arab-Israeli War in 1948 The Arab League strongly opposed this independent peace with Israel without consultation of the other Arab States, which was one of the primary reasons for Sadat’s assassination by the radical fundamentalist Egyptian Islamic Jihad Former Presidents Nixon, Carter, and Ford were diplomatic representatives at his funeral in Cairo, attended by a record number of world dignitaries but only three representatives from the Arab League Over 300 radical Islamists were indicted for Sadat’s assassination

BEIRUT BARRACKS BOMBING

An incident from October 23, 1983, during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990) in which suicide bombers detonated two trucks filled with TNT, striking barracks housing U S and French members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon, an inter-national peacekeeping force established to oversee the withdrawal of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from the country 241 American servicemen and 58 French soldiers were killed

BERLIN WALL

The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) in 1961 that divided the city of Berlin and which, along with the longer Inner German border separating East and West Germany, came to symbolize the “Iron Curtain” between Western Europe and the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War Before the construction of the Berlin Wall, 3 5 million East Germans defected from the GDR by crossing into West Berlin; between 1961 and 1989, the Wall prevented nearly all such emigration, with only 5,000 documented successful escape attempts and an estimated death toll of 200 A series of protest demonstrations in 1989, coupled with the weakening authority of the Eastern Bloc, led to the beginning of official demolition of the Berlin Wall in June of 1990

Air traffic controllers on strike to protest deplorable working conditions in the Federal Aviation Administration on August 3, 1981

Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, President Jimmy Carter and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin clasp hands on the North Lawn of the White House after signing the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty on March 26, 1979

View from the West Berlin side of the wall in 1986

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BOUTROS AND BOSNIA

Boutros Boutros-Ghali was an Egyptian diplomat who served as the Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1992-1996, during a period of multiple world crises including the Rwandan Genocide and the breakup of Yugoslavia in the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s Following the secession of Slovenia and Croatia from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1991, multi-ethnic Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence, resulting in the factional territorial conflict of the Bosnian War in 1992 The U S , under President Clinton, opposed Boutros’s reluctance to approve the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) intervention in Bosnia

BRADY BILL

Formally the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, signed into law by President Clinton on November 20, 1993 The law institutes required federal background checks and a five-day waiting period on handgun purchases, named after Press Secretary James Brady, who was shot and paralyzed during the attempted assas-sination of President Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley, Jr on March 30, 1981

CHALK RIVER NUCLEAR REACTOR

Chalk River Laboratories, a nuclear research facility in Ontario, Canada, was the site of two nuclear accidents in the 1950s The first incident, in 1952, occurred when a power excursion and partial loss of coolant in the NRX reactor resulted in damage to the core that could not be addressed with control-rods – the established protocol – due to human error and mechanical malfunctions, resulting in a partial meltdown Future President Jimmy Carter was part of the cleanup crew as a U S Navy officer, citing the incident as one of his main reasons for deferring the production of the neutron bomb during his presidency

CHALLENGER EXPLOSION

The space shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight on January 28, 1986, resulting in the deaths of all seven of its crew members, including Christa McAuliffe, the first member of the Teacher in Space Project, who would have been the first civilian in space

The Chalk River Nuclear Reactor, whose 1952 accident is considered to be one of the ten most dangerous nuclear power plant accidents of all time

Egyptian diplomat Boutros Boutros-Ghali in 2002, former Secretary-General of the United Nations

Press Secretary James Brady being introduced by Ronald Reagan in Washington on January 6, 1981

The crew of the space shuttle Challenger.

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CLINTON HEALTHCARE INITIATIVE

The Health Security Act was a 1993 healthcare reform proposal endorsed by the Clinton Administration that sought universal American healthcare It was met by heavy opposition from the healthcare industry and conservative leaders, and a splintering of support among various compromise plans killed the proposal by September 1994

COLD WAR

A perpetual state of political and military tensions after World War II between the Western Bloc (the U S and its allies) and the Eastern Bloc (the Soviet Union and its allies), generally agreed to have spanned 1947-1991

DESERT STORM

Operation Desert Storm was a wartime military operation from January 17, 1991 to February 28, 1991 by U S -led coalition forces of 34 nations against Iraq for Saddam Hussein’s invasion and annexation of Kuwait Desert Storm comprises the second stage of the Gulf War, combined with the previous buildup of troops and defense of Saudi Arabia, known as Operation Desert Shield The Gulf War is known by many names, including the Persian Gulf War, First Gulf War, Gulf War I, Kuwait War and First Iraq War (as opposed to the Iraq War of 2003, code-named Operation Iraqi Freedom)

DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL

Policy enacted by the Clinton Administration in 1993 that barred openly gay, lesbian or bisexual persons from military service, while prohibiting discrimination or harassment against suspected or closeted homosexual or bisexual service members The policy remained in effect until September 20, 2011

ENERGY CRISIS OF 1979

In 1979, under the Carter Administration, the onset of the Iranian Revolution decreased oil output from the Middle East and created a subsequent energy crisis in the United States

GENEVA SUMMIT

The first of four summit meetings between U S President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union to hold talks on diplomatic relations and arms control, held in Geneva November 19-20, 1985 No agreements were reached but it was significant as a first encounter between the two superpowers in a discussion of the nuclear arms race, and the two agreed to meet again the following year

“GREAT SOCIETY”

A domestic legislation program in 1964-65 initiated by President Lyndon B Johnson to work toward the elimination of poverty and racial injustice The Great Society program launched initia-tives to address education, medical care, urban development and transportation, including some initiatives from President Kennedy’s New Frontier program and resembling the New Deal program of Franklin D Roosevelt

President Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev at the Geneva Summit, November 19, 1985 Photo courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Library

President Lyndon Baines Johnson.

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GULF OF TONKIN INCIDENT

The name given to a pair of confrontations between the U S and North Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964 The first incident resulted in the engagement of three North Vietnamese Navy torpedo boats with the USS Maddox destroyer The second incident involved two U S ships, the Maddox and the Turner Joy, firing on radar targets off the North Vietnamese coast, later revealed to perhaps have been unconfirmed or “ghost” targets, but to which President Lyndon Johnson ordered retaliatory measures The two incidents prompted the passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, granting President Johnson the ability to assist any government in Southeast Asia considered to be the target of “communist aggression” through military aid, without the necessity of an offi-cial declaration of war

GULF WAR

Armed conflict lasting from August 1990 to February 1991 between a U S -led coalition of 34 nations – the largest alliance since World War II – and Iraq, prompted by Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait Fearing further jeopardizing of U S oil interests in the Middle East after the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), President Bush initiated Operation Desert Shield to assemble U S defensive forces in Saudi Arabia and prevent the poten-tial invasion by Hussein’s troops A coalition of 34 U N and Arab League forces united to force Iraq’s withdrawal from Kuwait, and launched the general offensive known as Operation Desert Storm on January 19, 1991 On February 28, President Bush declared a ceasefire and the successful liberation of Kuwait, though his administration would face significant criticism for allowing Saddam Hussein to retain his presidency in Iraq

HOUSE UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES COMMITTEE AND HOLLYWOOD BLACKLISTING

The House Un-American Activities Committee was an investigative committee of the U S House of Representatives originally created in 1938 to root out Nazi sympathizers in the U S , but better known for its later investigations into potential Communist sympa-thizers in the 1950s The Hollywood blacklisting of the 1950s was the omission of alleged Communist sympathizers from jobs in the entertainment industry, allegations often determined through HUAC hearings

INTERMEDIATE-RANGE NUCLEAR FORCES (INF) TREATY

Agreement reached after a series of summit discussions between President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union to reduce their INF arsenals in an act of interna-tional preservation The treaty was signed on December 8, 1987, ratified by the U S Senate in May 1988 and deployed on June 1, 1988

The USS Maddox, attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin Incident in August, 1964

Map depicting the 22 member nations of the Arab League.

Ronald Reagan testifying as a friendly witness before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1947, as President of the Screen Actors Guild

Gorbachev and Reagan signing the INF Treaty at the White House in 1987

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INVASION OF GRENADA

The successful U S invasion of the Caribbean island nation of Grenada in Operation Urgent Fury, authorized by the Reagan Administration in 1983, in response to the murder of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop by an oppositional government faction led by Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard The U S cited concerns about American students in the country and the ongoing threat of Soviet-Cuban communist militarization in the Caribbean as justification, though the invasion was opposed by a large portion of the U N General Assembly and Security Council It was later revealed that Grenadian governor-general, Paul Scoon, had requested U S assistance through secret diplomatic channels

INVASION OF PANAMA

The U S invaded Panama on December 20, 1989, under the Bush Administration’s Operation Just Cause, in order to depose dictator Manuel Noriega During the 1960s and 1970s, Noriega had served the CIA as a paid informant and a U S -supported anti-Soviet presence in Central America, but relations began to unravel in the 1980s In 1986, President Reagan requested that Noriega step down from leadership after his involvement in the Iran-Contra Affair was revealed, threatening Noriega with U S indictments for drug trafficking and the removal of protection provided by his relationship with the CIA Following a failed coup in 1988, Noriega’s allegiance shifted toward the Soviets, as Panama began receiving aid from Cuba, Nicaragua, and Libya In May, 1989, Noriega lost the Nicaraguan general election but refused to vacate his post, declaring the election null; later that year, a second failed coup prompted President Bush to halt all negotiations with Panama In December, four U S servicemen were assaulted in Panama City, providing the final justification for the invasion of Panama After several weeks of military operations, Noriega surrendered on January 3, 1990, and was extradited to the U S The invasion provoked international outrage, largely viewed throughout the world as an act of aggression in violation of international law The subsequent economic and organiza-tional chaos left in the wake of the U S invasion would also become a major criticism of the Bush Administration

Map depicting U S plans for the 1983 invasion of Grenada in Operation Urgent Fury

Visual representing the shortened route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans enabled by the Panama Canal

Panamanian General Manuel Noriega being escorted onto a U S Air Force aircraft by agents from the U S Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)

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IRAN-CONTRA AFFAIR

The illegal diversion of proceeds from weapons sales to Iran to the anti-communist Contras rebels in Nicaragua, in opposition to the Cuban-backed Sandinista government in power since their successful military coup in 1979 Carried out by senior officials in the Reagan Administration, the scandal was revealed in October 1986 and nick-named “Irangate” or “Contrasgate” in ironic reference to the Watergate scandal of the 1970s President Reagan appointed the Tower Commission to inquire into the circumstances and the involvement of government officials; the Commission determined no direct link between President Reagan and the diversion of funds to the Contras, but heavily criticized his lack of awareness and control of his staff

IRANIAN HOSTAGE CRISIS

A diplomatic crisis between the U S and Iran, sparked when President Carter allowed the deposed Shah of Iran to be admitted to the U S for cancer treatment A group of Iranian students in support of the Iranian Revolution overtook the U S Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, holding 52 Americans hostage for 444 days, after the initial release of 13 women and African Americans The beginning of the Iran-Iraq War in 1980, coupled with the death of the Shah from complications from cancer, led Iran into negotiations with the U S , organized by the Algerian government and resolving with the Algiers Accords The hostages were released moments after President Reagan took the Oath of Office on January 20, 1981

IRANIAN REVOLUTION

Also known as the Islamic Revolution or the 1979 Revolution, the U S -supported Shah Pahlavi of Iran was forced into exile and replaced by the Islamic republic, led by supreme leader Ruhollah Khomeini, who opposed the Shah’s Westernizing and secularizing efforts coupled with his increasingly oppressive, corrupt, and extravagant regime After the deposition of the Shah, Khomeini’s Islamic revivalist government continued in crisis into the early 1980s, suffering from infrastructure, economic and military collapse, further complicated by the Iranian Hostage Crisis, Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Iran to initiate the Iran-Iraq War in 1980, and the impeachment of Iranian President Abolhassan Banisadr in 1981

Nicaraguan Contra militia, a rebel group in opposition to the Sandinista government in Nicaragua established after the Nicaraguan Revolution in 1979 until 1990

Iranian militants storming the gates of the U S Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979

Mohamad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, overthrown and abolished by the Iranian Revolution in 1979

Ruhollah Khomeini, first Supreme Leader of Iran and leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution

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IRAN-IRAQ WAR

The Iran-Iraq War was the longest conventional war of the 20th century (September 1980 to August 1988) and inspired comparisons to World War I for its large-scale use of trench warfare, manned machine-gun posts, and extensive use of chemical weapons (including mustard gas) The conflict arose from a long history of border disputes between Iraq and Iran, and was escalated by Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Saddam Hussein’s fear of potential insurgent uprisings inspired by Iran’s 1979 Revolution Using the political unrest following the Iranian Hostage Crisis and the death of the Shah, Hussein launched a full-scale invasion of Iran on September 22, 1980 Looking for a Middle Eastern power to counter the rising Ayatollah Khomeini and prevent further Soviet control in the oil-rich area, U S Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan reevaluated American policies toward Iraq Despite a U S -led embargo on the sale of military equipment to Iran and Iraq that was supported by the G7 at the 1984 London Summit, U S -funded weapons were funneled to Iran via Israel during the Iran-Contra Affair Reconnaissance intelligence was also provided to Iraq, and used to launch chemical weapons attacks on Iranian troops An eventual ceasefire between the two nations was called for by U N Security Council Resolution 598, originally adopted by Iran and Iraq in July of 1988 but not in full effect until August of that year, with the last prisoners of war finally exchanged in 2003 Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, one of the inciting incidents of the Gulf War, was motivated in part by Kuwait’s refusal to forgive the nearly $14 billion debt incurred from financial aid provided to fund Hussein’s military actions during the Iran-Iraq War

KHMER ROUGE

Name designating the Communist Party of Kampuchea in Cambodia, formed in 1968 as a branch of the Vietnam People’s Army from North Vietnam The Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, and was allied with North Vietnam and the Viet Cong against anti-communist forces during the Vietnam War The Khmer Rouge are remembered for orchestrating the Cambodian genocide due to its enforcement of abso-lute self-sufficiency as social engineering policy, leading to the deaths of thousands by treatable diseases in addition to arbitrary executions, torture, and internal purges of alleged subversive elements By 1979, the Khmer Rouge had fled Cambodia, and was largely dissolved by the mid-1990s In 2014 two Khmer Rouge leaders, Nuon Chea and Kheiu Samphan were jailed for life after being found guilty of crimes against humanity and condemned for the deaths of up to two million Cambodians – nearly a quarter of the country’s population – during the “killing field” era of 1975-1979

LAUGH-INAn American sketch comedy television program that ran from January 1968 to March 1973 hosted by comedians Dan Rowan and Dick Martin Richard Nixon made a famous appearance on the show during the 1968 presidential election, crediting it as one of the major cultivators of positive public opinion that led to his election

Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan, the last living senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge competent to stand trial, were found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life imprisonment by Cambodian courts in 2014

Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, hosts of television’s Laugh-In.

Map of Southeast Asia.

25

LEBANESE CIVIL WAR

The Lebanese Civil War stretched from 1975 to 1990, sparked by an increase in Lebanon’s left wing, anti-western population as a long-term result of the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 and the subse-quent displacement of Palestinian refugees The arrival of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) forces after their expulsion from Jordan during the Jordanian Civil War’s “Black September” in 1970 militarized the Palestinian refugee population in opposition to the pro-west Maronites, erupting in armed conflict in 1975 Alliances shifted quickly and continuously during the fighting and many foreign powers became involved, including Israel and Syria fighting alongside different factions The Multinational Force in Lebanon, an international peacekeeping force, was created in 1982 and dissolved in 1984 after the Beirut barracks bombing the previous year In 1989, the Arab League appointed a committee to formulate solutions, passing an amnesty law in 1991, and dissolving the militias in May of that year (with the exception of Shi’a Islamist militant group, Hezbollah) Factional tensions remained, and Lebanon continued to be occupied by Syria until 2005

LIBYA BOMBING OF 1986

Known as Operation El Dorado Canyon, the U S launched air strikes against Libya on April 15, 1986, in retaliation for the bombing of the “La Belle” discotheque in West Berlin that killed two and injured 79 American servicemen Libyan agents responsible for the initial attack, operating from their embassy in East Germany, were identified and prosecuted after the reunification of Germany in 1990

NIXON HEALTHCARE INITIATIVE: TED KENNEDY

In February, 1971, President Nixon proposed a healthcare reform plan that included a private health insurance employer mandate, and federalization of Medicaid for the poor with dependent children Senator Ted Kennedy was the new chairman of the Health subcommittee of the Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee, and had recently begun his term with the Kennedy-Griffiths bill to propose universal national healthcare insurance Kennedy and Nixon continued reforming one another’s reform plans until Nixon resigned Kennedy continued his fight for health care reform through the 1970s with Presidents Ford and Carter; the fight was stalled in 1980 in the face of economic deterio-ration, and was picked up again by the Clinton Administration in 1993, who unsuccessfully endorsed another bid for universal healthcare in the United States

The aftermath of the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing during the Lebanese Civil War

Map depicting Libya in North Africa

Senator Ted Kennedy, the youngest brother of President John F Kennedy and Senator Robert F Kennedy

Aftermath of the bombing of La Belle discotheque in Libya in 1986

26

NIXON’S VISIT TO CHINA

President Nixon made a historic visit to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1972, marking the first time that a U S president had visited since the establishment of the communist PRC in 1949, and noted as a major turning point in Sino-American relations following decades of hostilities between the two nations

PARIS PEACE ACCORDS AND THE FALL OF SAIGON

A peace agreement from 1973 intended to establish an end to the Vietnam War and install peace in the region after five years of political negotiations While the agreement ended direct U S military involve-ment in Vietnam, a major point of pressure on the Nixon Administration, the Paris Peace Accords had little practical effect North Vietnamese military forces gradually moved through southern territory; in 1975, President Carter applied to Congress to approve funds to support the South Vietnamese government against the North Vietnamese offensive, but was unsuccessful American officials were evacuated on April 29, 1975, the day before Saigon fell to North Vietnamese forces

PEARL HARBOR

A surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy struck the U S naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941, prompting the U S ’s official entry into World War II Simultaneous attacks were carried out against the U S -held Philippines and on the British pres-ence in Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong as preventive actions to deter interference with Japan’s military actions in Southeast Asia

REAGAN ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS

On March 21, 1981, sixty-nine days into his first term in office, President Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded by John Hinckley, Jr , outside of a Washington, D C hotel after a speaking engagement Convinced that assassinating the president would raise his profile as a national figure and acquire the attention of actress Jodie Foster, whom he idolized as an expression of erotomania – a delusion in which one believes a stranger, usually a famous person, is in love with them – Hinckley began stalking President Jimmy Carter until he was arrested in 1980 for the illegal possession of firearms, and later turned his attention to Ronald Reagan after the new president’s inauguration Reagan suffered a punctured lung and heavy internal bleeding from the attack, a shot that penetrated his chest and lower right arm Reagan was rushed to George Washington University Hospital and underwent emergency surgery, suffering no permanent damage and making a speedy recovery Three others were also injured in the shooting including Press Secretary James Brady, who was left paralyzed from a gunshot wound to the head, and would later be the namesake of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity and remains in a psychiatric facility

Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai and President Richard Nixon in China, February 1972

Photo of Battleship Row at Pearl Harbor, taken from a Japanese plane during the December 7, 1941 attack

The immediate aftermath of the attempted assassination of President Reagan by John Hinckley, Jr , already detained by the cluster of officers and agents in the photograph

27

REYKJAVIK SUMMIT

The second of four summit meetings between U S President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev held in Reykjavik, Iceland on October 11-12, 1986 Earlier that year, Gorbachev had proposed a ban on all ballistic missiles, but Reagan preferred to advance with his proposed Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) Reagan sought to include a discussion of human rights and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan; Gorbachev sought to limit the talks to arms control Gorbachev also suggested an elimination of 50% of strategic arms in exchange for Reagan’s promise not to imple-ment strategic defenses for ten years While no immediate agreement was determined, both sides were able to investigate the extent of concessions that each leader was willing to make The Reykjavik Summit is generally regarded as a breakthrough in U S -Soviet relations, even-tually leading to the signing of the INF (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces) Treaty at the Washington Summit the following year

SANDINISTAS

The Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) is a democratic socialist political party in Nicaragua, named after Augusto Cesar Sandino, who led the Nicaraguan resistance against the U S occupation of Nicaragua in the 1930s The FSLN overthrew U S -backed dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979 and remained in power until 1990, during which time the U S Central Intelligence Agency both supported and trained members of the rebel Contras militia

“SHUTTLE DIPLOMACY”

The diplomatic action of an outside party serving as an intermediary to arbitrate a dispute, avoiding direct contact between disputing parties, and particularly useful when one or more principal entities refuse recognition of the other The term was first identified in relation to the diplomatic agenda of U S Secretary of State Henry Kissinger under the Nixon Administration, who facilitated the end of hostilities following the Yom Kippur War

The former French consulate in Iceland, and the site of the Reykjavik Summit in 1986

Supporters of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) celebrate victory in the Sandinista overthrow of Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979

President Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

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SINKING OF THE USS MAINEThe USS Maine was an armored cruiser, commissioned in 1895 and built in response to increasing naval forces in Latin America toward the end of the 19th century The Maine is remembered for her sudden, inexplicable explosion and sinking on February 15, 1898, resulting in the death of most of her crew After an initial inquiry, the cause of her sinking was ruled as undetermined, but popular opinion and inflammatory press in the U S blamed Spain, accelerating diplomatic hostilities toward the eruption of the Spanish-American War later that year During the war, the phrase “Remember the Maine, to Hell with Spain!” was used as a common call to action

SOMALIA AND THE U.S.

U S relations with Somalia became prominent when Somalia’s socialist government abandoned its alliance with the Soviet Union due to fallout over the Ethio-Somali War (July 1977 – March 1978), when the Soviet Union chose to support Ethiopia’s then-communist regime instead of Somali socialism Somali support shifted toward the U S , who sought an economic relationship to gain access to the Bab el Mandeb gateway to the Red Sea and Suez Canal Somalia’s ties to the Soviet Union and later to the U S enabled them to build the largest army on the African continent, mobilized by the Somali Civil War in 1991 that is still ongoing today The U S embassy in Mogadishu closed in the early 1990s, until the new Federal Government of Somalia was established in 2012, prompting the U S to formally re-establish ties in 2013

STRATEGIC ARMS REDUCTION TREATY (START-I)

A bilateral treaty between the United States and the USSR on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms, signed in July 1991 and entered into force in December 1994 U S President Ronald Reagan first proposed START in 1982, which he referred to as SALT III as the U S had failed to ratify SALT II in 1979 START negotiated the largest and most complex arms control in history, though its original terms would have left the U S with a distinct advantage over the Soviet Union, necessi-tating prolonged negotiations between the Reagan Administration and pre-Gorbachev Soviet leadership Reagan’s introduction of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) in 1983 was perceived as a threat by the Soviet Union and START negotiations halted, leading to a tense nuclear arms race between the two Cold War superpowers Reagan’s SDI caused disagreements between him and Mikhail Gorbachev during their Reykjavik Summit in 1986; a compromise in the INF Treaty was reached instead

TWA FLIGHT 847

On June 14, 1985, during a stop in Athens on its way to San Diego, TWA flight 847 was hijacked by Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad members seeking the release of 700 Shi’ite Muslims from Israeli custody Two Arabic-speaking Lebanese men commandeered the plane shortly after its takeoff in Athens and diverted it to Beirut, Lebanon; over the next three days, the plane traveled between Beurit and Algiers, Algeria, and resulted in the death U S Navy diver Robert Stethem and the release of 39 passengers in exchange for fuel On June 16, the remaining passengers were taken hostage throughout Beirut by the Hezbollah while the pilots remained captive aboard the plane Intervention by President Reagan with the Gamalial government led to the release of all captives on June 30 Israel released over 700 Shia prisoners over the next several weeks but maintained that it had nothing to do with the hijacking and resultant hostage situation in Beirut

Depiction of the sinking of the USS Maine, destroyed by explosion in Havana Harbor, Cuba, in 1898

Map of East Central Africa.

William McKinley, 25th President of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901, six months into his second term in office

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VIETNAM WAR

A Cold War-era conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia spanning November 1, 1955 to the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975 U S involvement began with the arrival of American military advisors in 1950 in what was then known as French Indochina, to prevent Communist power from spreading into South Vietnam in accordance with a containment strategy and the domino theory American involvement escalated in the 1960s and was furthered by the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964 and the subse-quent Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that authorized the president to increase U S military presence Military operations peaked in 1968 as U S forces heavily bombed bordering Laos and Cambodia and the communist alliance launched the Tet Offensive Though unsuccessful in toppling the South Vietnamese government, the Tet Offensive revealed the potential fallibility of the U S -backed anti-communist agenda The Nixon Administration initiated Vietnamization, the process of withdrawing U S ground troops and transferring the fight to stop communism to the South Vietnamese The Paris Peace Accord in January, 1973, was signed by all parties to establish peace, but fighting continued U S military involvement officially ended on August 15, 1973 with the passage of the Case-Church Amendment The North Vietnamese army captured Saigon in April of 1975, leading to the reunification of Vietnam after years of fighting and massive casualties for the Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians, and the U S

WACO SIEGE

The much-disputed siege of the Mount Carmel Center, a compound near Waco, Texas belonging to the Branch Davidians religious group, from February 28 to April 19, 1993 under the Clinton Administration The Branch Davidians, a separatist faction of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, was suspected of weapons violations; federal and Texas law enforcement attempted to raid the ranch, sparking a gun battle and resulting in the deaths of four agents and ten Branch Davidians After the failed raid, the FBI laid siege to the compound, a standoff of 51 days ending in a fire that killed 76 people including Branch Davidian leader, David Koresh The origin of the fire was a point of heavy contention, concluded in a 2000 govern-ment investigation to have been set by sect members The events of Waco were later cited by the perpetrators of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 as one of their primary justifications

WARREN COMMISSION

Officially The President’s Commission on the Assassin-ation of President Kennedy, the investigative body established by President Lyndon B Johnson to inves-tigate the assassination of President John F Kennedy on November 22, 1963 Its 889-page final report concluded that the assassination was the work of single gunman Lee Harvey Oswald, and that Jack Ruby acted alone when he killed Oswald two days later The Commission takes its name from its chairman, Chief Justice Earl Warren, and its findings have been challenged and supported by numerous later controversial studies

The siege of the Mount Carmel Center in Waco, Texas, 1993

The Warren Commission delivers its report to President Lyndon Johnson on September 24, 1964

Lee Harvey Oswald’s mugshot following his arrest in New Orleans in August, 1963

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WASHINGTON SUMMIT

The third of four Cold War-era summit meetings between U S President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in Washington, D C on December 8-10, 1987, in which the two discussed regional conflicts in Afghanistan, Central America and Africa in addition to arms control, the status of START negotiations, and human rights The Summit culminated in the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty

WATERGATE

The Watergate scandal was the revelation of the Nixon Administration’s involvement and subsequent cover-up of the June 18, 1972 break-in at Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D C The break-in led to the arrest of five men, later found to have a cash connection to a slush fund used by the Committee for the Re-Election of the President, Nixon’s official campaign organization As the involvement of the president’s staff was investigated and revealed, it was discovered that Nixon had recorded many conversations with a private tape-recording system in his offices; the Supreme Court unanimously ordered Nixon to relinquish the tapes to investigators The tapes revealed Nixon’s direct knowledge and cover-up of the break-in, leading Nixon to resign the presidency on August 9, 1974, before the House of Representatives had completed near-certain impeachment proceedings

WHITEWATER

The Whitewater controversy was a series of investigations into the real estate investments of Bill and Hillary Clinton and associates into the Whitewater Development Corporation The corporation was a failed business venture in the 1970s and 1980s, brought to light by L Jean Lewis, a Resolution Trust Corporation investigator who issued multiple criminal referrals to the FBI naming the Clintons as witnesses to the failure of Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan Madison Guaranty was operated by Jim and Susan McDougal, the Clintons’ investment partners in Whitewater In 1985, Jim McDougal began investments into local residential construction, naming the project Castle Grande To avoid financial limitations on how much he could borrow from his own Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan, McDougal involved several other investors and intermedi-aries to funnel additional money and avoid investigations, during which time Hillary Clinton provided legal services through Rose Law Firm, where she worked at the time It was also alleged that then-Governor of Arkansas Bill Clinton had pressured investors to provide illegal loans to Susan McDougal Ultimately, the Senate Special Whitewater Committee issued an 800-page report in 1996 that spoke of potentially improper actions, but detailed no direct evidence The Clintons were never charged, but 15 others were convicted of more than 40 crimes surrounding the controversy, including Bill Clinton’s successor as Governor of Arkansas, who was removed from office

1993 WORLD TRADE CENTER BOMBING

On February 26, 1993, a truck bomb exploded below the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City, intended to collide the two towers and destroy them both Though the plan failed, the attack resulted in six deaths and more than a thousand injuries In March 1994, four men were convicted on charges of conspiracy, explosive destruction of property and interstate transportation of explosives, followed by the 1997 convictions of Eyad Ismoil and mastermind Ramzi Yousef, a former trainee of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan Ramzi Yousef is also the nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a senior al-Qaeda member accused of masterminding the September 11 attacks in 2001

Reagan and Gorbachev in the Oval Office during the Washington Summit on December 9, 1987

Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, largely responsible for the investigative journalism that revealed the full extent of the Watergate scandal

Underground damage caused by the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York City

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PEOPLE, PLACES AND VOCABULARY

PEOPLE

Spiro Agnew, former Vice President of the United States

Talent agent Irving Paul “Swifty” Lazar with Diana Ross

Ann Richards, 45th Governor of Texas

J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI, in 1961

Comedian Bob Hope in 1978

John Ellis “Jeb” Bush, 43rd Governor of Florida and the son of former President George H W Bush

James Buchanan, 15th President of the U S from 1857 to 1861, immediately pre-ceding the Civil War

Propaganda poster of North Korean leader Kim Il-Sung.

Actor-comedian Chevy Chase, 1980

G. Gordon Liddy, chief operative of the White House Plumbers

Actor Clint Eastwood at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival

Actress Marilyn Monroe.

President Ronald Reagan meets future Vice President Dick Cheney, 1983

President Abraham Lincoln with First Lady Mary Todd, on their wedding day in Nov , 1842

Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees, and once-husband of Marilyn Monroe

Millard Fillmore, 13th President of the United States from 1850-1853

George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States and son of President George H W Bush

Actress Goldie Hawn. Alexander Haig, U S Secretary of State under the Reagan Admin and White House Chief of Staff under Nixon and Ford

Hillary Clinton, wife of Bill Clinton, as Secretary of State in 2009

Hubert H. Humphrey, 38th Vice President of the United States under President Lyndon B Johnson

Saddam Hussein, the 5th President of Iraq

Soviet Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev, 1987

Pat Buchanan, conservative political commentator, politician, columnist and broadcaster

Ramzi Yousef, mastermind behind the 1993 WTC bombing

Entertainer Red Skelton. Evangelist Billy Graham.

Businessman and politician, Nelson Rockefeller.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States

Ross Perot, independent candidate in the 1992 and 1996 presidential elections

The Smothers Brothers, hosts of television’s Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.

Portrait of William Shakespeare, on display at the National Portrait Gallery and known as the “Chandos portrait” after its previous owner, James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos

John Tyler, 10th President of the United States from 1841 to 1845

Martin Van Buren, 8th President of the United States from 1837 to 1841

Journalist Wolf Blitzer.

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Ann Richards: American politician and former Governor of Texas, defeated for reelection by George W Bush in 1994 She was noted as an outspoken feminist with particularly admirable one-liners

Bob Dole: American politician and representative of Kansas in the U S House of Representatives from 1961-1969 and U S Senator from 1969-1996 He was Vice Presidential running mate to Gerald Ford in the 1976 presidential election, and the Republican presidential nominee in 1996, losing to incumbent President Bill Clinton

Boutros: Boutros Boutros-Ghali was an Egyptian diplomat who served as the Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1992-1996

Buchanan: James Buchanan was the 15th President of the United States, in office immediately prior to the Civil War His inability to address the pro-slavery and anti-slavery partisanship and the secession dilemma with a common ground for peace has him consistently ranked as one of the worst presidents in American history

Chevy Chase: American comedian, actor, and writer, responsible for the creation of the “Weekend Update” skit on Saturday Night Live, and well-known for his comedic portrayal of President Gerald Ford

Clint Eastwood: American actor, filmmaker, musician and politician One of his lines – “Go ahead, make my day” – from the film Sudden Impact was used by President Ronald Reagan in a speech to Congress, and again during the 1984 presidential election

Dick Cheney: American politician and businessman, 46th Vice President under President George W Bush (2001-2009), he served as House Minority Whip in 1989, and as Secretary of Defense under George H W Bush, overseeing Operation Desert Storm in 1991

DiMaggio: Joe DiMaggio was an American Major League Baseball center fielder for the New York Yankees, inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955 and voted the world’s greatest living player in 1969; he was also married to actress Marilyn Monroe for a short time in 1954

Fillmore: Millard Fillmore was the 13th President of the United States, the last Whig president, and the last president that was a member of neither the Republican nor Democratic parties Known as an anti-slavery moderate, he supported the Compromise of 1850 that temporarily defused conflict between pro- and anti-slavery factions regarding the presence of slavery in the territories acquired during the Mexican-American War (1846-1848)

George Junior: Reference to George W Bush, son of George H W Bush, 43rd President of the United States, and former Governor of Texas

Goldie Hawn: American actress, film director, producer, and sometimes singer, winner of the 1969 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her work in Cactus Flower.

Haig: Reference to Alexander Haig, Secretary of State under the Reagan Administration, while George H W Bush served as Vice President

Henry Kissinger: American diplomat, National Security Advisor and Secretary of State under the Nixon and Ford Administrations Kissinger played a significant role in U S foreign policy in the late 1960s and 1970s, pioneering the U S détente policy with the Soviet Union, negotiating the opening of relations with the People’s Republic of China in 1972, and in negotiating the Paris Peace Accords to end U S involvement in the Vietnam War

Hillary Clinton: Politician and wife of President Bill Clinton and leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, she has served as Secretary of State under President Obama, and in the U S Senate from 2001-2009

Hubert Humphrey: 38th Vice President of the United States under President Lyndon B Johnson and U S Senator from Minnesota He was the Democratic nominee for the 1968 presidential election, which he lost to Richard Nixon

Hussein: Saddam Hussein was the fifth president of Iraq from 1979-2003, widely condemned in the Western world for the brutality of his dictatorship He was deposed by a joint U S -U K coalition in 2003 and executed for crimes against humanity in December, 2006

Irving “Swifty” Lazar: American talent agent, famous for representing movie stars and authors

J. Edgar: The first director of the FBI from its founding in 1935 until his death in 1972, J Edgar Hoover was responsible for instituting many modernizations to police technology including centralized fingerprint files and forensic laboratories He became a controversial figure later in life for possible use of excessive methods as director of the FBI

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Jeb Bush: Second son of George W Bush, Governor of Florida from 1999-2007

LBJ: The initials of Lyndon Baines Johnson, 36th President of the United States from 1963-1969 He is known for his “Great Society” domestic programs, which included protections to civil rights, public broadcasting, the environment, Medicare and Medicaid, and the “War on Poverty ” He is also known for escalating American involvement in the Vietnam War, and for having acquired the right to use military power in Southeast Asia without an official declaration of war through the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

Liddy: Reference to G Gordon Liddy, an American lawyer who served as the chief operative in the White House Plumbers, a covert special investigations unit, under the Nixon Administration He also organized and directed the Watergate burglaries; the five men arrested in the incident were five of his operatives He served 52 months in federal prisons, convicted of burglary, conspiracy, and refusal to testify to the Senate committee charged with investigating Watergate

Marilyn Monroe: American actress, model and singer, and a major sex symbol of the 1950s Her personal relationships garnered significant attention from the press, including marriages to Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller, and a reported affair with President John F Kennedy

Mary Todd and Lincoln: Mary Todd was the wife of 16th President Abraham Lincoln, best known for abolishing slavery and leading the U S through the Civil War until his assassination in April, 1865

McKinley: William McKinley was the 25th President of the United States from 1897 until his assassination in 1901, best known for his victory in the Spanish-American War (1898), promoting American industry through protective tariffs, and maintaining the gold standard in the U S

Pat Buchanan: American conservative political commentator, author, politician, broadcaster and columnist who served as a senior advisor to the Nixon, Ford and Reagan Administrations

Pierce: Franklin Pierce was the 14th President of the U S from 1853 to 1857, a northern democrat vehemently opposed to the abolitionist movement His failure to negotiate the slavery dispute through his contradictory actions, namely the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Fugitive Slave Act, created his legacy as one of the worst U S presidents in history

Ramzi Yousef: The Pakistani mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, former al-Qaeda trainee, and nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the senior al-Qaeda member accused of masterminding the September 11 attacks in 2001 Yousef was convicted of the WTC bombing in 1997, and is currently serving a life sentence in Florence, Colorado

Red Skelton: American comedian and entertainer best known for his national radio and television presence from 1937-1971, and as the host of The Red Skelton Show.

Reverend Billy Graham: American evangelical Christian, ordained as a Southern Baptist minister and reaching a height of celebrity as a broadcast evangelist in 1949 He served as spiritual advisor to several presidents including Eisenhower, Johnson, and Nixon and famously bailed Martin Luther King, Jr out of jail in the 1960s when he was arrested in integration demonstrations

Ross Perot: American businessman and independent presidential candidate in 1992 and 1996; he lost to Bill Clinton both times he ran for president

Sadat: Anwar Sadat was the third president of Egypt, in office from October 15, 1970 until his assassination on October 6, 1981 Part of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 which overthrew former King Farouk, Sadat initiated the October War in 1973 to regain the Sinai Peninsula, occupied by Israel since 1967’s Six-Day War, and then signing the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty in 1978, ending 30 years of fighting sparked by the Arab-Israeli War in 1948 The Arab League strongly opposed this independent peace with Israel without consultation of the other Arab States, and was one of the primary reasons for his assassination by the radical fundamentalist Egyptian Islamic Jihad Former Presidents Nixon, Carter, and Ford were diplomatic representatives at his funeral in Cairo, attended by a record number of world dignitaries but only three representatives from the Arab League Over 300 radical Islamists were indicted for Sadat’s assassination

Slick Willie: Nickname for Bill Clinton due to his strategic use of personal charisma and sound-bite-ready dialogue to rate high public approval and run successful, perception-oriented campaigns

Smothers Brothers: Brothers Thomas and Richard Smothers, American comedians, musicians, and singers whose trademark double act consisted of folk songs and brotherly arguments They were frequent guests on television variety shows in the 1960s and their own show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, would become one of the most controversial on American television during the Vietnam War era for their critique of the political mainstream and sympathies toward the counterculture

34

Spiro Agnew: American politician and 39th Vice President of the U S under President Richard Nixon He was investigated in 1973 for extortion, tax fraud, bribery and conspiracy He resigned from the Vice Presidency in exchange for a no contest plea for a charge related to tax evasion in 1967

Ted Kennedy: United States Senator and youngest brother of John F Kennedy and Robert Kennedy, both victims of assassina-tion He was known for his charisma and powerful oratory, for championing an interventionist government with an emphasis on economic and social justice, and for successful bipartisan compromising It is rumored that Marilyn Monroe turned her affections to Ted Kennedy after her alleged affair with JFK had ended

The Bard: Reference to William Shakespeare, English poet, playwright and actor widely regarded as one of the greatest writers and dramatists of the English Language

Tricky Dick: Nickname for Richard Nixon, a reference to his dishonest self-representation during the revelation of the Watergate scandal

Tyler: Tenth President of the United States, 1841-1845, John Tyler was elected as Vice President and took presidential office after the death of his running mate, William Henry Harrison Tyler was a proponent of states’ rights and manifest destiny

Van Buren: Martin Van Buren was the eighth President of the United States, 1837-1841, and Secretary of State under President Andrew Jackson Van Buren was a major organizer of the Democratic Party and a key figure in the “common” man democracy of the Jacksonian Era He is largely remembered for the economic hardship of his presidency, and was often scapegoated for the depression and the financial Panic of 1837

Wolf Blitzer: Journalist and news anchor, a television reporter for CNN since 1990 and the host of The Situation Room.

PLACES

Map depicting the nations formerly united under the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia until 1992

Map of the Middle East. The Oval Office. Map of Central America. Map of North and South Vietnam, divided at the 17th parallel

Map of North Africa. Mount Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania

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Bosnia: A country in southeastern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula One of the six independent republics established under Yugoslavia after the Communist victory in World War II, re-established as independent Bosnia and Herzegovina after the political upheavals in the early 1990s This was followed by the Bosnian War in 1992, a factional territorial conflict, during which the U S sought to intervene

Cairo: The capitol city of Egypt, the largest city in the Middle East, and the longtime center of political and cultural life in the region

Century City: A predominately white, older-aged, high-income commercial and residential district on the west side of Los Angeles, developed on property used in the making of motion pictures by 20th Century Fox in the mid-1900s

China: Sovereign state in East Asia, officially designated the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the world’s most populous country and a single-party state governed by the Communist Party The PRC also claims the Republic of China (ROC), commonly known as Taiwan and some additional territories, a somewhat controversial claim due to complicated political history between the PRC and the ROC

Kilimanjaro: A dormant volcanic mountain in Tanzania, the highest mountain in Africa and the tallest free-standing mountain in the world

LAX: Airport code for Los Angeles International Airport, the primary airport for the Greater Los Angeles Area, the second most populated metropolitan area in the U S

Lebanon: Officially the Lebanese Republic, a country in western Asia bordered by Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, known for a rich history and cultural identity as well as religious and ethnic diversity from its location at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian hinterland

Grenada: An island nation in the southeastern Caribbean Sea consisting of the island of Grenada and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines, known as the “Island of Spice” for its nutmeg and mace production

Libya: Country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea, Egypt, Sudan, Chad, Niger, Algeria and Tunisia Its major cities include its capitol, Tripoli, in the west and Benghazi in the east

Mali: Landlocked country in West Africa whose economy focuses on agriculture and fishing Its northern border is deep within the Sahara Desert, while its southern regions include the Niger and Senegal Rivers

Middle East: World region that generally encompasses Western Asia and Egypt, used as a synonym for Near East (as opposed to Far East) The region is known for its multitude of ethnic groups with Arabs, Persians and Turks constituting the largest populations, and Kurds, Azeris, Copts, Jews, Assyrians, Maronites, Circassians, Somalis, Armenians, Arameans, Druze and other denominations holding significant minorities The region has long held a stereotype as a major site of cultural, economic, and political conflict for its oil-rich reserves in many of the countries bordering the Persian Gulf

Niger: Officially the Republic of Niger, a landlocked country in Western Africa named after the Niger River More than 80 percent of the country is covered by the Sahara Desert, and its predominantly Islamic population is catalogued as one of the lowest-ranked on the U N Human Development Index due to its extreme terrain, poor education and healthcare, poor infra-structure and environmental degradation

North Korea: Officially the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), a country in East Asia in the northern part of the Korean Peninsula When Japan was defeated in World War II, Korea was divided into two occupied zones: the north occupied by the communist Soviet Union and the south occupied by the democratic United States Conflicting claims of sovereignty and the establishment of two distinct governments led to the Korean War in 1950; an armistice established a ceasefire in 1953, but a formal peace treaty was never signed The DPRK holds elections and is self-identified as a self-reliant socialist state, but was widely considered to be a totalitarian, Stalinist dictatorship under Kim Il-Sung, with major, significant human rights violations documented by international organizations

Oval Office: The official office of the President of the United States, in the West Wing of the White House

Panama: Officially the Republic of Panama, the southernmost country of Central America, situated on the isthmus between North and South America and home of the Panama Canal that connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans via the Caribbean Sea France began work on the Panama Canal in 1881, which was completed by the U S in 1914, greatly reducing the time for ships to travel around the world The U S controlled the canal and the surrounding Panama Canal Zone until 1977, and a period of joint U S -Panamanian control ended in 1999 when Panama gained sole control as a result of the Torrijos-Carter Treaties

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Pearl Harbor: A lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu, mainly consisting of a U S deep-water naval base and the headquarters of the U S Pacific Fleet

Pyongyang: The capital of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, commonly referred to as North Korea

San Clemente: A city on the California Coast, midway between Los Angeles and San Diego at the southern tip of Orange County Its official city slogan is “Spanish Village by the Sea ”

Somalia: Officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, located in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Ethiopia, Djibouti, the Gulf of Aden, the Indian Ocean, and Kenya The country established the Federal Government of Somalia in 2012, the first permanent central government since the start of the country’s civil war, ongoing since 1991

Tanzania: A country in East Africa in the African Great Lakes Region, and home of Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain

Togo: Officially the Togolese Republic, a country in West Africa bordered by Ghana, Benin and Burkina Faso

Vietnam: Officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Western Asia Following Japanese occupation in the 1940s, Vietnam was divided into rival North and South Vietnam in 1954, leading to intense conflict and intervention by the U S known as the Vietnam War, which ended with North Vietnamese victory in 1975

World Trade Center: A complex of buildings in Lower Manhattan, New York City, currently under construction to replace an earlier complex of seven buildings with the same name, on the same site The original WTC featured landmark twin towers that were the target of a terrorist bombing in 1993, and were destroyed by the September 11 terrorist attacks of 2001

Yorba Linda: An affluent suburb of Los Angeles in Orange County, California, one of the richest cities in the U S , the location of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and the site of his funeral in April, 1994

VOCABULARY

ABC: The American Broadcasting Company, which launched as a radio network in 1943 and expanded to include television in 1948

AFTRA: The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, a performers’ union formed in 1937 and which merged with SAG (the Screen Actors Guild) in 2012

Bedtime for Bonzo: A 1951 comedy film starring Ronald Reagan, in which Reagan played Peter Boyd, a psychology professor attempting to teach human morality to a chimpanzee named Bonzo

Black Hawks: Refers to the UH-60 Black Hawk, a four-bladed, twin-engine utility helicopter manufac-tured by Sikorsky Aircraft which replaced the Bell UH-1 Iroquois as the U S Army’s tactical transport helicopter in 1979

Burdick v. United States: In 1915 George Burdick, an editor at the New York Tribune, was called to testify before a federal grand jury during an investigation of leaked government secrets; Burdick refused to reveal the source of his information for fear of incriminating himself President Woodrow Wilson granted Burdick a pardon to protect him from further prosecution, but Burdick refused to accept, citing a previous Supreme Court case (United States v Wilson) which ruled that a pardon must be accepted to be in effect Burdick v United States ruled that, among other things, a pardon carries an “imputation of guilt” and accepting a pardon is “an admission of guilt ”

CNN: The Cable News Network, founded in 1980 by Ted Turner, was the first television channel to provide 24-hour news coverage and was the first all-news channel in the U S

Collateral damage: A phrase that refers to damage inflicted upon things or persons other than the intended target, used especially as a military term when non-combatants are accidentally or unintentionally wounded or killed

Publicity poster for Ronald Reagan’s 1951 film, Bedtime for Bonzo.

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Dashiki: Derived from “danshiki,” the Yoruba word for shirt, the dashiki is a colorful men’s garment with several formal and informal versions, worn in West Africa and popularized in America during the 1960s

Def Sec: Inversion of Sec Def, shorthand for the position of Secretary of Defense, the leader and chief executive officer of the Department of Defense and whose power over the U S military is second only to that of the President

Detail: In the military, a party or person selected for a particular assignment of duty

Dog years: A measurement of time based on the popular myth that dogs age seven years in the time it takes a human to age one year

Eulogy: A speech or piece of writing in praise of someone or something; an oration in honor of a deceased person

FCC: The Federal Communications Commission, an independent agency of the U S government that regulates communica-tions by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U S territories

Foreign Policy: Refers to the strategies adopted and employed by a country to safeguard their national interests and pursue their goals when dealing with other nations

Guinea Worm Disease (dracunculiasis): An infection of the guinea worm (Dracunculus medinensis) which is contracted by drinking water contaminated by water fleas carrying guinea worm larvae and prevalent throughout Africa well into the 1980s There were 3 5 million cases reported in 1986 when former U S President Jimmy Carter and his not-for-profit organization The Carter Center started a global campaign to teach prevention and treatment of the disease to endemic areas; in 2013 there were only 148 reported cases and guinea worm disease will likely be the first parasitic disease to be eradicated worldwide

Habitat for Humanity: An international, non-governmental, not-for-profit organization founded in 1976 that addresses the issue of poverty housing by using volunteers to build “simple, decent and affordable” homes that are sold at no profit Former U S President Jimmy Carter became involved in the organization in 1984 through fundraising and publicity as well as actual homebuilding; the Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project is an annual event for Habitat for Humanity today

House floor: Refers to the place within the U S House of Representatives where members sit and make speeches

“I wouldn’t kick her/him out of bed for eating crackers.”: American idiom implying that someone is attractive enough to be forgiven minor transgressions or annoyances, like eating crackers in bed and getting crumbs everywhere

Inauguration: A formal ceremony that marks the beginning of a public leader’s term of office The United States presidential inauguration takes place on January 20th or 21st to commemorate the start of a new four-year term and includes an oath of office made by the president

Irish wake: A traditional mourning custom originating in Ireland which is characterized as a celebratory rather than a solemn occasion; close friends and family gather before the funeral or burial ceremony to honor and remember the departed by sharing memories and stories as well as food and drink

Knight’s Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath (GCB): The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry which consists of the Sovereign (currently Queen Elizabeth II), the Great Master (currently the Prince of Wales), and three Classes of members: Knight or Dame Grand Cross (GCB), Knight or Dame Commander (KCB or DCB), and Companion (CB) Members belong to either the Civil or Military Division and must be British Commonwealth citizens, though Queen Elizabeth II has customarily bestowed honorary membership to visiting heads of state, as she did for former U S Presidents Ronald Reagan in 1989 and George H W Bush in 1993

Legacy: Something that is received from someone who has died; something that happened in the past or that comes from someone in the past

“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics”: Reworded and popularized in America by Mark Twain and used to describe the interpretive power of numbers or to cast doubt on an opponent’s statistics; the original phrase first appeared in print in 1891 in the British newspaper National Observer.

A dashiki.

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Lincoln Bedroom: The Lincoln Bedroom is part of a guest suite located on the second floor of the White House in a room that, prior to the extensive 1948-1952 renovation, was used by President Abraham Lincoln as an office

Logan Act: Passed in 1799 and last amended in 1994, the Logan Act is intended to prevent unau-thorized United States citizens from interfering in U S foreign policy or relations with foreign governments

Meet the Press: A weekly television news and interview program airing on NBC, Meet the Press is notable for being the longest-running TV series in American broadcasting history and for the first live network TV appearance of a sitting U S President: Gerald Ford, in 1975

Mulligan: In golf, a mulligan is an extra shot not counted against the score and permitted in unof-ficial play to a player whose previous shot was poor

Nobel: Named for Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, the Nobel Prize is a set of annual international awards bestowed since 1901 in a number of categories for scientific and cultural advances The Nobel Prize is widely recognized as the most prestigious award available in fields such as literature, medicine, physics, chemistry, peace, and economics

On the rocks: Describes an alcoholic beverage served over ice

Oscar: The Academy Awards, or the Oscars, is an annual American awards ceremony overseen by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) that honors cinematic achieve-ments in the film industry The origin of the statuette’s nickname has been disputed, though one of the earliest origin stories dates to 1939 when the Academy’s Executive Secretary Margaret Herrick saw the statue and remarked that it reminded her of her “Uncle Oscar ”

Pardon: Excuse or forgiveness for a fault, offense, or discourtesy; a release from the legal penal-ties of an offense

Prime Minister: The chief executive of a parliamentary government

Pundits: A learned person; a person who gives opinions in an authoritative manner usually through the mass media

Rangers: The Texas Rangers, a professional baseball team belonging to the American League and located in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex in Arlington, Texas In 1989 the Rangers owner Eddie Chiles sold the franchise to an investment group headed by George W Bush, son of then-President of the United States George H W Bush, for $89 million

Rhodes Scholar: Cecil John Rhodes, a British businessman and politician after whom Rhodes University in South Africa was named, established the Rhodes Scholarship to promote civic-minded leadership amongst young people with “moral force of character” and to help “render war impossible ” Rhodes scholars are selected foreign students permitted to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, England

Rubicon: A bounding or limiting line, especially one that commits a person irrevocably to a course of action when crossed The word comes from the Italian river Rubicone, whose crossing by Julius Caesar in 49 BC was regarded by the Roman Senate as an act of war

Safari: A journey to hunt or see animals, especially in Africa

SAG: The Screen Actors Guild, an American labor union that represented over 100,000 film and television performers world-wide at the time of its 2012 merging with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists to form SAG-AFTRA

Saturday Night Live: Created by Lorne Michaels and featuring a varying cast of performers and guest hosts, Saturday Night Live (SNL) is a late-night television sketch comedy show airing on NBC since 1975 that parodies contemporary culture, news, and politics

Savanna: A tropical or subtropical grassland ecosystem characterized by widely-spaced trees and drought-resistant undergrowth

Image of Oscar, the statuette of the Academy Awards

The Lincoln Bedroom, in the White House

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Silver spoon: From the phrase “born with a silver spoon in their mouth,” an expression that is synonymous with wealth, especially inherited wealth

Speaker of the House: The presiding officer of the U S House of Representatives and the person second in the United States presidential line of succession, after the Vice President The Speaker is elected on the first day of every new Congress by the House of Representatives and is traditionally the head of the majority party in the House; responsibilities include ensuring that the House passes legislation, selecting nine of the thirteen members of the Committee on Rules, and presiding over joint sessions and meetings of Congress

State funeral: In the U S a state funeral is the highest possible honor bestowed upon a person posthumously and is an entitle-ment offered to a sitting or ex-President of the United States, a President-elect, and other individuals as designated by the President State funerals are held in Washington, D C and involve ceremonial protocols, military spectacle, and religious observances

Straight up: Describes an alcoholic beverage served unmixed or without ice

Tandem: One following or behind the other In skydiving, a “tandem jump” refers to a type of dive in which a student diver is connected by a harness to an instructor

Ten-Four: “I acknowledge” in ten-code, code words used to represent common phrases in voice communication developed in 1937 by the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International (APCO)

The Atlantic: An American magazine founded in 1857 in Boston, Massachusetts and now based in Washington, D C , The Atlantic was created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine that has developed a nationally respected reputation and won more National Magazine Awards than any other monthly magazine

The Gipper: A nickname given to Ronald Reagan during his presidential campaign by reporters, referring to his role as college football player George “The Gipper” Gipp in Knute Rockne, All American, a 1940 film about Notre Dame coach Lars Knutson Rockne In the film, Reagan delivered the now-famous “win one for the Gipper” line, a fictionalized version of Gipp’s actual last words to Rockne while he was hospitalized and dying from streptococcus The line went on to become a campaign slogan for Reagan in 1976 and resurfaced again during the 1988 Republican National Convention when Reagan told Vice President George H W Bush, “George, go out there and win one for the Gipper ”

The Road to Hong Kong: A British comedy film released in 1962 starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Joan Collins; the last in the Road to… series, seven films starring Crosby, Hope, and Dorothy Lamour

Think-tank: An institution or organization that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, military, technology, and culture

Tomahawk missiles: Named after the Native American axe, the Tomahawk is a long-range, all-weather, subsonic cruise missile currently being manufactured by Raytheon and which has been used in military strikes, primarily by the U S Navy, since 1983

Veep: Phonetic spelling and pronunciation of the acronym V P , short for Vice President

Vidal Sassoon: A British hairdresser and businessman who established himself in the United States in 1985 by opening the first chain of worldwide hair salons

Ying-yang: Derived from “yin” and “yang”, ancient and complex concepts in Chinese philosophy that together represent the intertwined and interconnected nature of oppo-sites and symbolize the importance of balance in one’s life The phrase “out the ying-yang” is slang for having something in much greater quantity than is desired or needed, the term having somehow become an American euphemism for “ass ”

Image of the 1962 film, The Road to Hong Kong.

Yin yang, a traditional symbol of Chinese philosophy representing balance in opposition

A Tomahawk missile.

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NIXON’S OBITUARY

RICHARD M. NIXON, 37TH PRESIDENT, DIES FUNERAL SCHEDULED FOR WEDNESDAY IN CALIFORNIA FOR ONLY CHIEF EXECUTIVE FORCED FROM OFFICE

By Martin Weil and Eleanor Randolph Washington Post Staff Writers Saturday, April 23, 1994; Page A01

Richard M Nixon, the 37th president of the United States – a polarizing figure who won a record landslide and resigned in disgrace 21 months later – died last night in a New York City hospital four days after suffering a stroke He was 81

Nixon died at 9:08 p m , according to officials of the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, where the former president had slipped into a deep coma on Thursday

As they were through some 40 years of their father’s highs and lows, Nixon’s two daughters, Tricia Cox and Julie Eisenhower, were at his side when he died Pat Nixon, the former First Lady, died last year

President Clinton announced Nixon’s death at a formal appearance in the White House Rose Garden, praising his predecessor as “a statesman who sought to build a lasting structure of peace ”

Clinton declared a national day of mourning, and said he would attend Nixon’s funeral, which will be held at the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda, Calif , on Wednesday at 4 p m California time The body of the former congressman, U S senator, vice president and president will travel aboard a presidential jet to his native California, and public viewing will be from 3 p m Tuesday until 11 a m Wednesday

Nixon will be buried beside his wife His longtime friend the Rev Billy Graham will officiate “I think he was one of the most misunderstood men, and I think he was one of the greatest men of the century,” the Associated Press quoted Graham as saying of the man whose presidency was undone by a web of scandal known as Watergate An unusually large number of American presidents are still living; statements from each were reported by AP and CNN “Dick Nixon was one of the finest, if not the finest, foreign policy president of this century,” said Nixon’s successor, former president Gerald R Ford Ford’s assess-ment was widely shared by public figures and ordinary citizens: that Nixon’s greatest achievements were on the world stage

“His historic visits to China and the Soviet Union paved the way to the normalization of relations between our countries, and to the SALT II accords we signed with the Soviets,” said former president Jimmy Carter

Former president Ronald Reagan, in a statement issued from Los Angeles, said, “Today the world mourns the loss of a great champion of democratic ideals who dedicated his life to the cause of world peace ” Reagan called Nixon “one of the finest statesmen this world has ever seen ”

George Bush, the former president who served as Republican National Committee chairman during Nixon’s presidency, said, “The difficulties he encountered in office may have diminished his presidency, but what should be remembered are his many outstanding achievements, both foreign and domestic ”

Nixon had a stroke at his home in Park Ridge, N J , shortly before dinner Monday evening and was taken by ambulance to the hospital in Manhattan For a day, he was alert, but unable to speak or to move his right arm or leg Apparently improving, he was moved on Tuesday from the intensive care unit to a private room But on Tuesday night, he developed symptoms of cerebral edema, or swelling of the brain, which caused his condition to worsen Nixon had said previously he did not want to be placed on a respirator if he were incapacitated

In addition to expressing his condolences to the former president’s family, Clinton said he “was deeply grateful to President Nixon for his wise counsel ”

He also lauded Nixon for 50 years of public service in which “he gave of himself with intelligence and devotion to duty ” He said of Nixon that “no less than a month before his passing, he was still in touch with me about the great issues of the day ”

Reagan called Nixon “one of the finest statesmen this world has ever seen ”

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After resigning in disgrace and under threat of impeachment for the Watergate scandal in 1974, Nixon went on to win admira-tion and respect from many for the determination with which he subsequently worked to win back a place in public life

Clinton praised his “resiliency” and his “desire to give something back to this world,” while former senator Howard H Baker Jr , the Tennessee Republican who served on the Senate committee that transfixed the nation in 1973 with its televised Watergate hearings, said, “I think I admire most his strength of character that permitted him to recover from his resignation and become a respected senior statesman that was truly remarkable,” AP reported

Until stricken Nixon, the nation’s only president ever forced to resign, had led an active life in retirement, with a busy schedule of travel and writing

On the day of his stroke, page proofs of Nixon’s latest book, called “Beyond Peace,” arrived at his office A staff assistant said the book discusses both the nation’s new role in foreign affairs and its changing domestic priorities

Interviewed by CNN, Nixon’s secretary of state, Henry A Kissinger, remembered his former boss as “actually very idealistic But he was also a realist He felt idealism did not prohibit, and indeed required, an understanding of the world as it was ”

Nixon was the Republican Party nominee for president three times and after losing in 1960 to John F Kennedy – and running unsuccessfully for governor of his home state – he was elected to the office twice, in 1968, when he defeated Hubert H Humphrey and in 1972, the year of the Watergate break-in, when he defeated George S McGovern

McGovern said yesterday that after he went through a period of disappointment at the outcome of the election, he had a “rather cordial relationship with Nixon over the last 15 years or so ”

“I feel saddened about him leaving,” McGovern said “ I greatly admire what he did on the opening to China and the improve-ment of relations with the Soviet Union ”

Sen Edward M Kennedy (D-Mass ) said his brother, the late John F Kennedy, appreciated Nixon’s style after the 1960 election “Despite the intensity of the campaign and the narrow outcome, he accepted the results with grace and without rancor,” Kennedy said

But not all of his surviving foes were as approving “He left many deeds uncorrected and unatoned for,” said Alger Hiss, whose alleged spying for the Soviet Union was the vehicle Nixon rode to his first national fame Hiss released a brief statement in New York, according to the AP

Senate Minority Leader Robert J Dole (R-Kan ) said, “All in all, people are going to look back and say Watergate, the resigna-tion, a lot of these things were bad and shouldn’t have happened I think history will, with a few exceptions, say that this man made a difference You add all that up and he comes out ahead ”

Sen John McCain (R-Ariz ) mourned Nixon for especially personal reasons McCain was a pilot shot down over Vietnam and held prisoner in Hanoi “I have always credited him with securing my release from North Vietnam,” McCain said in a statement “I have always been deeply grateful to him for my freedom ”

According to the statement released by the Nixon Library, eulogies at Nixon’s funeral will be delivered by Clinton, Dole, and California Gov Pete Wilson (R)

Weil reported from Washington, Randolph from New York.