William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III; August 19, 1946)[1] is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States (1993–2001). Before that, he was Governor of the state of Arkansas. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation.[2] His wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, has served as the United States Secretary of State since January 21, 2009, and was Senator from New York from 2001 to 2009. Both Clintons received Juris Doctor (J.D.) degrees from Yale Law School. Clinton has been described as a New Democrat.[3] Some of his policies, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and welfare reform, have been attributed to a centrist Third Way philosophy of governance, while on other issues his stance was left of center.[4][5][6] Clinton presided over the continuation of the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history (which began two years before Clinton took office).[7][8][9] The Congressional Budget Office reported a budget surplus in 2000, the last full year of Clinton's presidency.[10] After a failed attempt at health care reform, Republicans won control of the House of Representatives in 1994, for the first time in forty years.[11] Two years later, in 1996, Clinton was re-elected and became the first member of the Democratic Party since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win a second full term as president.[12] Later he was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with a scandal involving a White House intern, but was subsequently acquitted by the U.S. Senate and served his complete term of office.[13][14] Clinton left office with the highest end-of-office approval rating of any U.S. president since World War II.[15] Since then, he has been involved in public speaking and humanitarian work. Based on his philanthropic worldview,[16] Clinton created the William J. Clinton Foundation to promote and address international causes such as treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS and global warming. In 2004, he released his autobiography My Life, and was involved in his wife Hillary's 2008 presidential campaign and subsequently in that of President Barack Obama. In 2009, he was named United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti.[17] In the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Clinton teamed with George W. Bush to form the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. Contents [hide] 1 Early life and career 2 College and law school years 3 Political career 1978–1992 3.1 Governor of Arkansas 3.2 Democratic presidential primaries of 1988 4 1992 presidential campaign 5 Presidency, 1993–2001 5.1 First term, 1993–1997 5.1.1 Travelgate controversy 5.1.2 White House FBI files controversy 5.1.3 Death penalty 5.1.4 Assassination attempt 5.2 Second term, 1997–2001 5.2.1 Lewinsky scandal 5.2.1.1 Impeachment and trial in the Senate 5.2.1.2 Law license suspension 5.2.2 Military and foreign events 5.2.3 Whitewater controversy 5.3 Attempted capture of Osama bin Laden 5.4 Troopergate 5.5 Pardons and campaign finance 5.6 Judicial appointments 6 Public opinion 7 Public image 7.1 Sexual misconduct allegations 8 Post-presidential career 8.1 Activities up until 2008 campaign 8.2 2008 presidential election 8.3 After 2008 election 8.4 Post-presidential health concerns 9 Honors and accolades 10 References 11 Further reading 11.1 Primary sources 11.2 Popular books 11.3 Academic studies 12 External links Early life and career William Jefferson Blythe, III, in 1950 at age four Bill Clinton boyhood home in Hope, Arkansas Clinton attended the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., receiving a degree in 1968, during which he ran for President of the Student Council.Bill Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe, III, at Julia Chester Hospital in Hope, Arkansas.[18][19] His father, William Jefferson Blythe, Jr., was a traveling salesman who died in an automobile accident three months before Bill was born.[1] Following Bill's birth, to study nursing, his mother Virginia Dell Cassidy (1923–1994), traveled to New Orleans, leaving Bill in Hope with grandparents, Eldridge and Edith Cassidy, who owned and operated a small grocery store.[19] At a time when the Southern United States was racially segregated, Bill's grandparents sold goods on credit to people of all races.[19] In 1950, Bill's mother returned from nursing school and shortly thereafter married Roger Clinton, who, together with his brother, owned an automobile
dealership in Hot Springs, Arkansas.[19] The family moved to Hot Springs in 1950. Although he assumed use of his stepfather's surname, it was not until Billy (as he was known then) turned fourteen that he formally adopted the surname Clinton as a gesture toward his stepfather.[19] Clinton says he remembers his stepfather as a gambler and an alcoholic who regularly abused his mother and half-brother Roger Clinton, Jr., to the point where he intervened multiple times with the threat of violence to protect them.[19][20] In Hot Springs, Clinton attended St. John's Catholic Elementary School, Ramble Elementary School, and Hot Springs High School – where he was an active student leader, avid reader, and musician.[19] Fellow students included the late watercolorist and sculptor, Tonya Bailey. He was in the chorus and played the tenor saxophone, winning first chair in the state band's saxophone section. He briefly considered dedicating his life to music, but as he noted in his autobiography My Life: "Sometime in my sixteenth year, I decided I wanted to be in public life as an elected official. I loved music and thought I could be very good, but I knew I would never be John Coltrane or Stan Getz. I was interested in medicine and thought I could be a fine doctor, but I knew I would never be Michael DeBakey. But I knew I could be great in public service."[19] In 1963, two influential moments in Clinton's life contributed to his decision to become a public figure. One was his visit as a Boys Nation senator to the White House to meet President John F. Kennedy.[19][20] The other was listening to Martin Luther King's 1963 I Have a Dream speech. He also memorized Dr. King's speech.[21] College and law school yearsWith the aid of scholarships, Clinton attended the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., receiving a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service (B.S.) degree in 1968. He spent the summer of 1967, the summer before his senior year, interning for Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright.[19] While in college, he became a brother of Alpha Phi Omega and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Clinton was also a member of the Order of DeMolay, a youth group affiliated with Freemasonry, but he never became a Freemason.[22] He is a member of Kappa Kappa Psi's National Honorary Band Fraternity, Inc.[23] Upon graduation, he won a Rhodes Scholarship to University College, Oxford where he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics, though because he had switched programs and had left early for Yale University, he did not obtain a degree there.[20][24] He developed an interest in rugby union, playing at Oxford[25] and later for the Little Rock Rugby club in Arkansas. While at Oxford he also participated in Vietnam War protests, including organizing an October 1969 Moratorium event.[19] In later life, he admitted smoking cannabis at the university, but famously said that he "never inhaled".[19][20] Clinton's political opponents charge that to avoid being drafted into the Vietnam War during his college years, he used the political influence of a U.S. Senator, who employed him as an aide.[26] Col. Eugene Holmes, an Army officer who was involved in Clinton's case, issued a notarized statement during the 1992 presidential campaign: "...I was informed by the draft board that it was of interest to Senator Fullbright's office that Bill Clinton, a Rhodes Scholar, should be admitted to the ROTC program... I believe that he purposely deceived me, using the possibility of joining the ROTC as a ploy to work with the draft board to delay his induction and get a new draft classification."[27][28] Clinton did not join the ROTC program, but the temporary ROTC status prevented him from being drafted. This was legal, but it became a source of criticism from conservatives and some Vietnam veterans during the 1992 national campaign.[29][30][31]
