Section+Four

II. A World in Transition

A. The End of the Cold War?

1. Ever since 1961, the Berlin Wall has been up to prevent the German people from fleeing East.

2. Soviets were dominating most of Eastern Europe, they never gave anyone a chance to defend themselves, people who protested were shut down before they could even get their point across.

3. Solidarity was slowly taking over in Poland, Lech Walesa was the founder of this movement and was eventually chosen to become the president of Poland.

4. On November 9, 1989, the East Germans announced the opening of the Berlin Wall, hundreds of Germans ran to cross the wall, and were very excited that the wall had finally been open.

5. The spread to end communism did not stop in Czechoslovakia the communist government was forced to resign; in Rumania Nicole Ceausescu had protesters shot, pro-democracy demonstrations continued and Ceausescu fled, he was eventually caught and he got executed when found.

6. Americans were very excited about the change in Eastern Europe many people believed that things were getting better and wanted to use the money from the arms race to help these countries, but Bush was skeptical about getting involved and wanted to keep up the strong national defense.

B. New Directions in Latin America

1. Bush wanted to take a less militant approach than Reagan when dealing with Nicaragua, instead Bush wanted to work out a bipartisan agreement with Congress.

2. In 1990, Nicaragua held elections many thought Daniel Ortega and his Sandinista Party would win but when the results were revealed Violeta Chamorro won the election.

3. However them winning the election did not stop Ortega's brother from gaining control over the military, by the end on 1990 Chamorro continued to lose control on his power, and further relations with the U.S and Nicaragua began to fall apart.

4. Meanwhile in Panama, Manuel Noriega was considered to be a friend to the U.S, but he was also greatly involved with drug smuggling.

5. Noriega was then indicted, but became defiant, he declared a state of emergency and openly corrupted Panama's elections, drugs were continuing to be brought to Panama, Bush grew tried of Noriega's actions and sent American military forces to Panama to capture Noreiga.

C. Unrest in China

1. The Chinese watched as the communists governments were overthrown and wanted to change their government as well but, the Chinese government wanted things to stay as they were.

2. Many people began to protest against the government but the government sent army tanks to take down the protest, many were either killed or arrested in the process.

3. Bush was dissatisfied with results of this, but refused to take any strong actions toward them, he said the U.S could influence Chinese behavior by keeping dipolmatic channels open.

D. A Policy Toward South Africa

1. In South Africa democracy began to slowly spread, but apartheid was an issue that the Reagan administration wanted to avoid because it would hurt the black majority by destroying jobs, so they came up with "constructive engagement" and American officials kept public criticism to the South African government to a minimum.

2. But on the other side, some members of congress tried to pursue economic sanctions to prevent trade with the South African government, so they would end apartheid.

3. In September of 1989, South Africa elected a new president, F. W. De Klek, he wanted to end apartheid just as much as few members of congress did, to do so he freed Nelson Mandela, a man who was held in prison for 27 years due to apartheid; the two men eventually met up with Bush i the U.S to discuss change.

4. America was asked many questions about what they thought needed to be done, like keeping the sanctions in place or lift them away to encourage De Klek, for the time being Bush chose to keep the sanctions in place.

E. War Clouds in the Middle East

1. The Middle East was on the rise to ending terrorism, but Saddam Hussein rebuilt his military in preparation f a new war, he had his troops invade Kuwait, one of the richest oil-producing countries in the Middle East.

2. The Persian Gulf, was one of the most reliable sources for oil on the Western part of the world that if Hussein were able to conquer Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, then it would be possible for him to take over the Persian Gulf.

3. Bush did not want this to go into place, so he had a meeting with the U.N to overthrow Hussein, and discontinue trade with the country, many other countries, including the Soviet Union, agreed, in response to this threat, Hussein captured many Americans and threatened to kill them if this were to take place.

F. Fugitives in a Desert Drama

1. In Kuwait Iraqi tanks arrived to take any foreigners, except women and children, as hostages, they robbed stores, hospitals, and businesses taking anything of value to get shipped to Iraq, there were Americans there as well and many decided to go into hiding rather than getting taken as hostages.

2. One man Jeff Rickert was waiting for his wife at a Kuwaiti airport, when he saw Iraqi soldiers taking hostages, when a Kuwaiti man came and told him he did not belong there he then took him to a suburban villa where he saw that this man was risking his life, next door to where Rickert was there were men getting killed by these soldiers.

3. There were many stories that were reported and told to the public, there were many survivors from this and many who did not survive.

G. War in the Persian Gulf

1. On January 15, 1991 Bush went to the U.N and decided it was time to make a deadline for the removal of the hostages, Bush sent 200,000 additional troops to Iraq to make an offensive strike, in December Hussein did not negotiate but freed some hostages including the Americans.

2. The Deadline was beginning to get closer and after 7 hours of negotiation with Secretary of State Baker and the minister of Iraq, the discussion came to an end.

3. On January 16, the U.S and other U.N nations came to Iraq to fight and end the nonsense that Hussein was giving.