Content creation has become a multibillion-dollar industry
In November 1993, the Clinton administration implemented a Department of Defense directive known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," allowing gay and lesbian citizens to serve in the military as long as they did not make their preferred orientation public. In December 2010, President Barack Obama signed a repeal act, which allows gay and lesbian military members to serve openly in the armed forces.
Bill Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States. During his two terms in office, Clinton presided over the longest economic expansion in US history when more than 22 million jobs were created in less than eight years. But his presidency was also tainted by controversy, not least a much publicized affair with a White House intern that made international headlines. Clinton left office in 2001, but is still very much in the public eye. So, what were his greatest achievements as president, and how is history remembering him?
Click through and find out more about Bill Clinton's life and legacy.
President Clinton broke the mold by appointing women and minorities to significant government posts throughout his administration. Notable among these was Janet Reno as Attorney General, Donna Shalala as Secretary of Health and Human Services, Madeleine Albright as the first female Secretary of State, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg as the second woman justice on the United States Supreme Court.
Bill Clinton's first term in office was marked by several key achievements. These included the passage by Congress of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which created a free-trade zone for the United States, Canada, and Mexico. He also signed the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, which entitles eligible employees of covered employers to take unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons.
Clinton's presidency was not without controversy. Paula Jones, another former Arkansas state employee, sued him for harassment in 1994. The case was settled in 1998. The so-called "Whitewater scandal" resurfaced, which centered around the 1992 investigation into the real estate investments of Bill and Hillary Clinton and two of their associates. By early 1995, the president's approval rating had fallen to as low as 40%.
On September 13, 1993, President Bill Clinton stood between Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin after the signing of the Oslo Accords, a peace deal that was supposed to bring about Palestinian self-determination, in the form of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. The photograph came to define the initiative, but behind the scenes there was tension.
He is the son of William Jefferson Blythe Jr. and Virginia Dell Cassidy. His father died in an automobile accident three months before Clinton was born. After his mother remarried, he assumed the name of his stepfather, Roger Clinton Sr., formally adopting the name when he was 15.
Two events occurred in 1963 that influenced his decision to become a public figure. The first was his visit as a Boys Nation senator to the White House to meet President John F. Kennedy.
Bill Clinton married fellow law graduate and attorney Hilary Rodham in 1975. She would thereafter play an active role in her husband's political career.
William Jefferson Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946, in Hope, Arkansas.
It was in the US capital that Clinton enrolled at Georgetown University in 1965, graduating in 1968 with a degree in international affairs.
Controversy again caught up with Clinton when in 1998 it was revealed that the president had been in a personal relationship with a White House intern named Monica Lewinsky.
The bombshell revelation made national and international headlines. Clinton denied any impropriety, but after a House inquiry the president was impeached on December 19, 1998.
Virginia and Roger Clinton Sr. had a son, Roger Clinton Jr.—Clinton's half-brother. Bill Clinton later described his stepfather as a gambler and an alcoholic who regularly abused his mother and Roger.
Clinton demonstrated an interest in law while at school in Hot Springs, Arkansas. It was also during his school years that he learned to play the saxophone.
The other was watching Martin Luther King Jr. on television deliver his famous "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington, D.C.
Clinton then won a Rhodes Scholarship to University College, Oxford, where he read for a Bachelor of Philosophy in politics. His time in England meant he received an educational draft deferment for the first year of his studies, thus avoiding deployment to Vietnam. He was later offered an opportunity to study at Yale Law School and left early to return to the United States, and so he did not receive a degree from Oxford.
After graduating from Yale in 1973, Clinton returned to his roots and became a law professor at the University of Arkansas. But he still nurtured political ambitions.
Undeterred by an unsuccessful run for the House of Representatives in 1974, Clinton was elected Arkansas Attorney General in 1976.
Two years later, Clinton won the governorship. At 32 years old, he was the youngest governor in the country at the time and the second youngest governor in the history of Arkansas.
It was while at Yale that Clinton met his future wife, Hilary Rodham. In 1972, he moved to Texas with Rodham to take up a temporary position helping to coordinate George McGovern's campaign for the 1972 United States presidential election.
Bill Clinton served two terms as governor of Arkansas: 1979–1981 and 1983–1992. A daughter, Chelsea, was born in February 1980.
Having earned a reputation as a popular, pragmatic, and centrist Democrat, Clinton declared his candidacy for president while still governor of Arkansas.
But during his campaign, allegations surfaced that he'd engaged in a 12-year extramarital affair with former State of Arkansas employee Gennifer Flowers. Clinton later admitted that he and his wife were having marital problems.
Despite the revelations, Clinton won the 1992 presidential election against Republican incumbent George H. W. Bush. He was inaugurated as the 42nd President of the United States on January 20, 1993. Al Gore was sworn in as vice president.
Even before he became the 42nd President of the United States, Clinton had developed a deep interest in Russia and its difficult transformation. After taking office, he decided to make Russia a top foreign policy priority. Clinton met with the country's president, Boris Yeltsin, during a two-day summit in Vancouver, Canada, in April 1993. Clinton's Russia team looked at the future optimistically and the reform project Yeltsin had embarked upon.
Nonetheless, in 1996 Bill Clinton was reelected president. He immediately passed legislation forming the State Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) designed to cover uninsured children in families with incomes that are modest but too high to qualify for Medicaid.
By 1998, the Clinton administration was presiding over the country's longest peacetime expansion and overseeing the first balanced budget since 1969. Furthermore, the US could claim the largest budget surpluses in its history and the lowest unemployment rate in nearly 30 years.
Impeachment proceedings were based on allegations that Clinton had illegally lied about and covered up his relationship with a 22-year-old White House intern. The Senate concluded a 21-day trial on February 12, 1999, with the vote of 55 not guilty/45 guilty on the perjury charge.
The Clinton Foundation, established in 2001 and today known as the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, is a non-profit organization whose mission is to "strengthen the capacity of people in the United States and throughout the world to meet the challenges of global interdependence." To date, the Foundation has raised US$2 billion for numerous global health, environment, and sustainable growth programs and initiatives.
In 2016, he campaigned on behalf of his wife Hilary during her bid to secure the White House. She lost the election to Donald Trump.
Bill Clinton's presidency is perhaps best remembered for the unprecedented economic boom experienced in America during his time in office. His tireless efforts to mediate peace between Israel and the Palestinians and his policy toward gays in the military have also left an indelible mark on his legacy. But the Monica Lewinsky scandal undoubtedly tainted his White House incumbency. The former president is pictured in 2013 receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama.
The William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum in Little Rock, Arkansas, serves as a depository for President Bill Clinton's papers, gifts, artifacts, and other official materials.
Sources: (The White House) (Miller Center) (National Archives Foundation) (National Security Archive) (Clinton Foundation)
Bill Clinton: his life and legacy
A profile of the 42nd President of the United States
CELEBRITY Politics
Bill Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States. During his two terms in office, Clinton presided over the longest economic expansion in US history when more than 22 million jobs were created in less than eight years. But his presidency was also tainted by controversy, not least a much publicized affair with a White House intern that made international headlines. Clinton left office in 2001, but is still very much in the public eye. So, what were his greatest achievements as president, and how is history remembering him?
Click through and find out more about Bill Clinton's life and legacy.