William Jefferson Clinton

Bill Clinton won the Democratic presidential nomination in 1992 and went on to win the presidential election that November, defeating the Republican incumbent, George Bush, and independent candidate Ross Perot.

In 1993 Clinton obtained narrow Congressional approval of legislation designed to reduce the federal government's continuing large budget deficits through a combination of increased taxes on the wealthy and modest cuts in government programs. Later that year he won Congressional approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which created a free-trade zone between the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

Clinton's major foreign-policy ventures included a successful effort in September-October 1994 to reinstate Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who had been ousted by the military in 1991, and a commitment of U.S. forces to a peacekeeping initiative in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In the Congressional elections of November 1994, the Democrats lost control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives to the Republican Party for the first time since 1954. Clinton subsequently sought to accommodate some of the Republican agenda - offering a more aggressive deficit reduction plan - while opposing Republican efforts to slow the growth of government spending on social programs. He was reelected in 1996, defeating Republican challenger Bob Dole and Reform party candidate Ross Perot.