Very Modern History of America
When the Vietnam War ended, the US entered a new era which was yet to be shaped so clearly.
It came in 1991 when the Persian Gulf War started and the Soviet Union collapsed. But at the beginning of this new era, US voters intriguingly opted for a new type of leader Mr. Clinton rather than conventional elite politician Mr. H.W. Bush.
At the time, namely after the Persian Gulf War and the Cold War, CIA regarded Japan as the most grave virtual enemy. Japanese economy was then threatening the American hegemony in the global industry, including the fields of electronics and automobiles. Among many, Sony, Toyota, Panasonic, and Honda became ubiquitous in the American market. It was the early stage of introduction of high-tech applications into almost all the sectors in the society, And this high technology meant advanced electronics symbolized by chips with high integration of functions. The era of PCs, the Internet, and cellular phones was approaching. American voters instinctively felt that the very conventional elite politician Mr. H.W. Bush could not well cope with the high-tech war against Japan, though he had been a US Navy pilot who had directly exchanged fire with the Imperial Navy of Japan but got unfortunately shot down near Iwojima during WWII. They opted for the young and high-tech oriented Mr. Clinton and Mr. Gore who didn't even join the Vietnam War like one of sons of Mr. H.W. Bush.
In 1990's, what America was engaged in under the Clinton Administration was not the War on Terror but the High-Tech War and the Money War against Japan. So, the Clinton Administration heavily protected American high-tech businesses and computer companies, including Microsoft and Intel, as well as Wall Street companies against Japan. As time went by, Japan went into a decade-long recession after the burst of its bubble economy around 1990, facing a challenge of economic globalization symbolized by economic growth of China. Finally the US looked like securing its position as the economic super-power. No Japanese OS became the standard for operating systems used in personal computers worldwide. No Japanese CPUs became the standard for hardware architecture of personal computers worldwide. No Japanese telecommunications protocols became the standard for global public data-communications links but the Internet did as it had been invented by DOD. And, through the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, the Japanese yen couldn't be the key currency in East Asia, as the US Government was strongly reluctant to support the idea. In one way or another, the Clinton Administration thought that they won Japan getting into a decade-long deflation. The US economy was at the top and the summit at the end of the 20th century; the US elites virtually declared that America was now the sole super-power in the world, as they beat the Japanese challenge eventually.
Yet, the 9/11 Terror blew off their paradigm. A new enemy emerged who was not a pacifist like the Japanese at all.
But, interestingly, American voters had already elected Mr. W. Bush as their president, though technically Mr. Gore must have won the 2000 Presidential Election, especially in Florida. Before the 9/11 Terror Osama bin Laden reportedly masterminded, American voters opted for plain intelligence of Mr. W. Bush rather than sophisticated intellectual level of Mr. Gore. Americans came to feel the gap unreasonably expanding between sophisticated intellectual elites of America, who were getting so arrogant, and plain Americans, including those who felt being left as the digital divide was expanding.
President W. Bush had connection with the bin Ladens, a very rich owner of a Saudi Arabian construction company, through his business careers, but it did't hurt his honor. President W. Bush mobilized US troops for the War in Iraq based on speculative evidences about Iraqi association with Islamic terrorists and Osama bin Laden's group and about Iraq's possession of mass destruction weapons (probably because there had been reportedly an assassination attempt of his father Mr. H.W. Bush by the Iraqi Government after the Persian Gulf War). But it did't hurt his honor, either. But, under the Bush Administration, the very ugly aspects of the American money industry were exposed, beginning with ENRON and culminating in Lehman Brothers. The 2008 financial crisis was taken by many experts as an event bringing serious consequences at the level of the 1929 Great Depression.
Interestingly, there was a Senator from Chicago in 2005. He was against the War on Terror President Mr. W. Bush started and wrote a book about himself who had the European-American mother and the modern-African father. Accordingly, he became one of major candidates for the 2008 Presidential Election, though Mrs. Clinton was believed to become the first female American President in 2009. But, the subprime loan mortgage problem was being intensified all through 2008. Some voters came to look for a presidential candidate who had had no connection with the 2000 stock boom fueled by Wall Street under the Clinton Administration. Others felt so betrayed by President Mr. W. Bush and Republican politicians as it became clear that Saddam Hussein's Iraq had no weapons for mass destruction existence of which Mr. W. Bush had claimed before the invasion of Iraq in the early spring of 2003. Hence, Mr. Obama became the Democratic candidate for the presidency. Then finally, Lehman Brother went bankrupt in September 2008 as a shocking precedent for a subsequent series of crashes of big American corporations, including GM. Everybody came to turn to Mr. Obama as the impact of this 2008 Financial Crisis was so huge and the disenchantment with the War on Terror was so grave. What rich European Americans, including President Mr. W. Bush, had built on the shining hill looked like all getting collapsed and crumbled. American voters determinedly chose Mr. Obama who overwhelmingly became the honorable first African American President of the US in 2009.
Yet, no one was sure whether President Mr. Obama would serve the nation from the White House for eight years as well as whether he could take on Osama bin Laden eventually in early May of 2011...
(to be continued...)
Appendix I.
Appendix II.
*** *** *** ***
Mar 1:28 And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee.
Mar 1:29 And forthwith, when they were come out of the synagogue, they entered into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.
Mar 1:30 But Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever, and anon they tell him of her.
Mar 1:31 And he came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up; and immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them.
