It's About Coalitions Not Purity, Part Twenty-Eight

Foreign policy and military actions during Clinton's two terms were important, as always, but they were also highly complex, making them beyond the scope of these articles. I'm just going to barely touch on some subjects which should be familiar to some degree with most readers, but there is plenty of information available elsewhere for those subjects of interest to you. The point isn't for me to do an entire detailed history, but to provide a general background as to what went on during the various administrations, while occasionally providing somewhat more detail, and to see how they or opponents formed or maintained coalitions.
  
During Clinton's two terms he deployed troops to Somalia, where there were American casualties, and the bodies of dead American troops were dragged through the streets there, an incident which brought the withdrawal of U.S. forces.* In the Balkans, the fall of communism had brought ethnic conflict to the region, as, very generally speaking, some ethnic groups (Croats, Slovenes, Bosnians) desired independence from the weakened Yugoslavia, while the Yugoslav government, dominated by Serbs, tried to retain the other regions under its control.** The U.S. military, along with NATO forces, primarily provided air units. In the late 1990s, the Albanian population, centered in the Kosovo region of Yugoslavia, wanted independence from Yugoslav, and thus Serbian, control. Long time animosities grew into armed conflict, and the United Nations and NATO wanted intervention to protect the civilian population (mainly Albanian) and its increasing number of refugees from the Yugoslav military and the exposure of the refugees to the elements. Eventually NATO authorized bombing attacks on Yugoslavia and these attacks were under the overall command of U.S. General Wesley Clark. Further, the end of the Gulf War provided for containment and monitoring of Saddam Hussein and Iraq, and U.S. forces were still deployed in the region to assist in that mission, and indeed, some Iraqi installations were bombed during Clinton's time in office due to violations of the agreement which ended the war. 

The deployment of U.S. troops (and troops from other nations), primarily to Saudi Arabia for the war against Saddam Hussein under President Bush (Sr.), had stirred some Muslim extremists to retaliate for violation of what they considered to be religious lands of Islam and for interference in the affairs of Muslim countries, although other reasons also certainly existed, primarily U.S. support for Israel. Shortly after Bill Clinton took office, the World Trade Center in New York City was bombed by Muslim extremists, killing several people and injuring hundreds. Osama bin Laden, the leader of the terrorist organization Al Qaeda, had established himself in Sudan, but he later was forced to leave, and he went to Pakistan. Bin Laden "declared war" on the United States and plans were formulated to attack various U.S. installations both inside the U.S. and elsewhere, culminating in simultaneous attacks on U.S. embassies in East Africa, killing a dozen Americans and 200-300 Africans, and injuring hundreds more. This brought the FBI to place bin Laden on its list of most wanted and the President ordered missiles fired at targets in Afghanistan and Sudan; the latter missile strike was supposedly based upon erroneous intelligence information and destroyed a prescription drug maker's building, although the U.S. has maintained to this day that the building was used to produce chemical weapons. Further, a truck loaded with explosives was detonated outside a complex with American military personnel in Saudi Arabia killing 19 Americans and wounding a couple of hundred more. Then just before the 2000 election, a terrorist attack occurred on the destroyer USS Cole while it refueled in Yemen, killing 17 sailors and wounding dozens more. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility, with bin Laden calling for more such attacks.

Next, "Sex Scandal and Impeachment"

*  There was a civil war in Somalia and the U.N. and the U.S. tried to provide aid to the suffering population.

** The Balkans has long been a hotbed for conflict, with the "South Slav" (Yugoslav) areas being in the forefront of such conflict. That area had several "ethnic/nationalist" groups, often, but not always, divided over religion, as generally, Serbs, Macedonians and Montenegrins were Orthodox, Croats and Slovenes were Roman Catholic, and Bosnians were Muslim. Add in other groups living in the area, Greeks, Bulgarians, Albanians, and Germans, and you can see the potential for conflict. Much of the region was dominated by the Turks for quite some time, thus the Muslim affiliation (an overall minority, but with a majority in certain areas) of part of the population. The (Austro-German) Habsburg family had controlled other parts of the region, and indeed, ethnic tensions there were the immediate cause of the outbreak of World War One (notice I said "immediate cause," not the only cause), as the heir to the Habsburg family, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, along with his wife, were assassinated in Sarajevo in 1914. During World War Two, the Germans and Italians occupied the area, but found it difficult, if not impossible, to control, which led to the rise of Marshal Tito and his eventual postwar rule. During the war, however, there was almost always an air of civil war, and many an atrocity was committed by one group against the other, and that's not counting anything done by the Germans or the Italians. 

WORD HISTORY:
Race-This is the noun for "group of people of common heritage," and that was the meaning until more recent times, when it became more specifically about skin color. If you read some old history books, authors often referred to a particular group as a "race," a term more commonly replaced today by "tribe" (or ethnic group), as in, "The Angles and Saxons were Germanic tribes that founded England," as it would sound odd to us today to call the Angles and Saxons races. You might think the history of this word is an easy one, but its origin is very much in question; so, rather than trace it forward from ancient times, I'm going to go backwards in its history. English borrowed the word in the late 1400s or very early 1500s from French "razza," which seems to have also been spelled "race," by some, and meant "group of people of common heritage, breed (used for animals)." This was derived from Italian "razza," with the same general meanings. The original English word for "race," in the general sense "people," was "theode," and the derived "theodisc," which also referred to language, and which is the ancestor of both "Deutsch" ("German") and "Dutch." Now things get sticky on "race," as no one really is certain where Italian got the word "razza." Attempts to connect it to Arabic and Hebrew (both "Semitic" languages^) seem tempting, but improbable. Connections to Germanic are "possible," as Lombardic, an old Germanic dialect, had "raiza," which meant "line," the implication being "bloodline," and the Lombards did conquer and settle in northern Italy in the mid 500s A.D., giving their name to the northern Italian region "Lombardia," but even if correct, where Germanic got the term is unknown. Whatever the case, the word spread to other European languages, including English relatives German, which has "Rasse," Low German Saxon, which has "Raass," and Dutch "race."

^ Semitic is a branch of the Afro-Asiatic family of languages. Besides Arabic and Hebrew, Semitic also includes, for example, Syriac and Aramaic. 

Allied Commanders of World War Two/Eisenhower, Part Four/Final

"Dwight D. Eisenhower" Part 4/Final

It was at Eisenhower's headquarters in Reims, France that Colonel-General Alfred Jodl* signed the surrender on behalf of the German Armed Forces on May 7, 1945. With the end of the war, Eisenhower undertook providing assistance to the German population in the American Occupation Zone, which stretched from west central Germany (Hessen) into much of the southern part of the country (Bavaria and part of Baden-Württemberg), with headquarters in Frankfurt-am-Main. The beginning of what came to be called the "Cold War" brought the Western Allies into potential conflict with the Soviet Union, and Germany became the center of this potential conflict; thus, the western nations determined to make the Germans in the western occupation zones part and parcel of the defensive measures against the Soviets and their satellite allies (in this case, mainly Poland and Czechoslovakia). Later, Eisenhower was named Chief of Staff of the Army, became president of Columbia University, and was the commander of NATO.**

Both major American political parties courted Eisenhower to run for president in 1948, but he did not get involved. In 1952, however, "Ike" defeated Senator Robert Taft for the Republican nomination, and he went on to win a landslide victory against Democrat (then Illinois Governor) Adlai Stevenson. A rematch in 1956 produced the same Eisenhower landslide. In 1952, Eisenhower chose (then Senator) Richard Nixon as his vice presidential running mate, although shortly thereafter a controversy erupted about a special fund maintained on Nixon's behalf.*** Eisenhower had heart troubles (he was a heavy smoker), and Nixon served ably in his stead during periods of illness by the president, including a heart attack.

Eisenhower was confronted by a number of problems during his two terms as president: the Korean War, where Eisenhower was able to get an armistice,**** tensions of the Cold War,***** including the crushing of a revolt in Communist-governed Hungary, and the desegregation of American schools, where Eisenhower, a supporter of civil rights, sent in the U.S. military to back up the desegregation of a schools in Arkansas. Eisenhower also promoted the interstate highway system in America, a system still very much with us today. As with many former Republican presidents, in my opinion, it is likely the moderate Eisenhower would be an Independent today, and maybe even vote Democratic at times, especially in these more recent times of rightwing extremes in the Republican Party. Eisenhower died of congestive hear failure in 1969. While not a great speaker, Eisenhower's presidency has been reassessed to the upside by many historians. Ike loved golf, and just to show how images can stick in some minds, a late friend of mine (from my father's generation), and a Republican, once told me, "The only thing I remember about Eisenhower was he was always on the golf course on the news." The obvious implication is that Eisenhower didn't do anything as president, but that is unfair.


* For info on Jodl, see my article: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/10/german-military-leadersnazi-erajodl.html

** NATO stands for "North Atlantic Treaty Organization," and it really came into existence in 1949 as a military alliance by nations in western Europe and North America to counter any threat by the Soviet Union or its allies against member nations, as the treaty considered an attack on any one nation to be an attack on all members. The organization still exists, although the Soviet Union is now defunct, and the alliance's role has changed to protect an increasing number of member nations against attack or threats, and to act in common interest.

*** Nixon was a senator from California and a group of his supporters collected money to "promote" him during his time in the Senate. The money was to be used to pay for hotels, public appearances of a totally political nature, and political mailings during Nixon's first term in the Senate. Questions arose as to how the money was actually being used, and who was donating to the fund. Fairly or unfairly, Americans can be very suspicious of special funds and politicians, and after Eisenhower chose Nixon for his running mate, accusations came that Nixon was financially benefiting from the fund. The story became a hot topic, and there were rumors Eisenhower would "dump Nixon" from the ticket. Nixon made a televised speech where he defended himself, saying that he and his family were of modest means, and that he had not gotten money from the fund to enrich his lifestyle. In the best remembered part of the speech, Nixon said he had gotten a little dog as a gift, called "Checkers," and that no matter how much his opponents railed against him, he would not give the dog back. He asked viewers to contact Republican leaders about whether he should stay on the ticket with Eisenhower. The outcome from the public was overwhelmingly in Nixon's favor, giving Eisenhower little choice but to continue with Nixon.

**** Eisenhower personally went to Korea and toured the area. The death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin (the backer of China and North Korea) presented an opening for serious negotiations which ended with a divided Korea, but the end to the open warfare and to the mounting casualties.

***** The "Cold War" was the term used for the tensions between the Communist dominated parts of the world, primarily in eastern Europe, and what were either basically free nations, or nations whose leaders were opposed to communism. The came about as the opposite of a "hot" war, where bombs and fire were regularly exchanged.

WORD HISTORY:
Steer-This is the noun meaning "young male ox, young bull." The origins of this word are uncertain, although many believe it is Indo European, and that it may be related to "stand," in the sense of "strength," but that is speculation. Old Germanic had "steuraz," meaning "bull, ox," and this gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "steor," with the same meaning. German has "Stier," some Low German has "stiar," Dutch has "stier," Swedish has "tjur," Danish has "tyr" (notice the absence of the beginning "s" in these two North Germanic languages). "Apparently," Frisian, Norwegian and Icelandic no longer use a form of the word.