USA history: 1990s

Early in the 1990s, the once powerful Soviet Union breaks up into separate countries. This ends decades of tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Cold War is over. The United States is now, undisputedly, the most powerful country in the world. But the global superpower faces some major problems at home.

Healthcare costs are spiralling, violent crime is high, and the economy is struggling. In 1992, Bill Clinton wins the presidential election promising change. His presidency, however, gets off to a shaky start. Clinton appoints his wife, Hillary, to lead a team tasked with fixing the healthcare system. But the plan they come up with is complicated and controversial.

Politicians and health industry leaders rally against it. None of the plan makes it into law. More promising is President Clinton’s 1994 crime bill which includes funding to hire 100,000 new police officers. Over the decade, violent crime declines overall. But a number of deadly attacks shock the public.

In 1995, a bomb explosion outside a federal building in Oklahoma kills 168 people and injures over 500. There are also several mass shootings by teenagers. At a school in Columbine, Colorado, two students kill 13 people, then themselves. The tragedies deeply impact Americans’ sense of safety. As for the economy, things improve dramatically under Clinton.

He opens up trade with Canada and Mexico through the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. Production rises, while unemployment and the national debt fall. But there’s another factor at play in the economic upturn, one Clinton can’t take credit for. In 1991, ordinary Americans can, for the first time, connect their computers with others’ via a groundbreaking innovation: The Worldwide Web. The web shows users pages on the Internet, providing them a staggering quantity of information at their fingertips.

This changes the way business works. New companies spring up selling Internet-related products and services like web browsers, search engines, and platforms to send and receive mail. Other companies start using the web to sell traditional products. Online stores offer everything from books, to computers, to holidays abroad. By the second half of the 1990s, this electronic marketplace, e-commerce, is booming.

The web transforms not only the economy, but people’s everyday lives too. Americans shop, chat, fall in love, and learn online, all at ever increasing speeds. But as the turn of the century nears, there is a creeping worry on everyone’s mind. Many computer programs represent four-digit years, like 1999, with only the final two digits — 99. This will make the year 2000 indistinguishable from 1900.

The ‘Year 2000 problem’ could bring down computer systems worldwide impacting everything from banking to air travel! Many people panic. Some, fearing a computer-induced apocalypse, stock up on food and water, and withdraw their money from the bank. Thankfully, computer programmers take urgent action. They fix and upgrade most computer systems to deal with the bug before the decade ends.

President Clinton faces another kind of chaos as the ‘90s draw to a close. His reputation is shaken when evidence surfaces of an affair he had with a White House intern. Clinton is accused of lying about the affair and put on trial, impeached, by Congress, who has the power to end his presidency. Clinton is found not guilty of the charges and remains in office. But the scandal undermines Americans’ faith in Clinton’s moral character… concerns that they will soon take to the polls in the 2000 presidential election.