United States

Bush became the first Republican president since the 1950s to enjoy a majority in both houses of Congress. Among the initial domestic challenges that faced the Bush administration were a weakening national economy and an energy crisis in California. Bush, who had campaigned as a “compassionate conservative,” promoted traditionally conservative policies in domestic affairs, the centrepiece of which was a $1.35 trillion tax-cut bill he signed into law in June 2001. That month, however, Republican Sen. Jim Jeffords became an independent, giving the Democrats control of the Senate. Subsequently Bush encountered strong congressional resistance to some of his initiatives, such as an educational voucher program that would provide subsidies to parents who send their children to private schools, the creation of a nuclear missile defense system, and federal funding for selected social programs of religious groups. In foreign affairs, the administration attempted to liberalize U.S. immigration policy with regard to Mexico, with which it struck closer ties. But it faced sharp criticism from China for its outspoken support of Taiwan and from Europe and elsewhere for its abandonment of the Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 treaty aimed at reducing the emission of greenhouse gases, and for its declared intention to withdraw from the 1972 Treaty on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems (it formally withdrew from the treaty in 2002).

Bush, George W.George W. Bush at a campaign rally in Melbourne, Florida, 2000.Paul J. Richards—AFP/Getty Images

U.S. President George W. Bush in Sarasota, Florida, being notified of multiple terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.Doug Mills/AP

Smoke and flames erupting from the twin towers of New York City's World Trade Center after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001; both towers subsequently collapsed.Chao Soi Cheong/APThe greatest challenge of Bush’s first year in office came on the heels of a massive terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, in which hijacked commercial airliners were employed as suicide bombs. Two of the four hijacked planes leveled the twin towers of the World Trade Center and collapsed or damaged many of the surrounding buildings in New York City, another destroyed a large section of the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C., and still another crashed in the southern Pennsylvania countryside. Some 3,000 people were killed in this, the worst act of terrorism in U.S. history (see September 11 attacks). Bush responded with a call for a global war on terrorism. Identifying exiled Saudi millionaire and terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden as the primary suspect in the acts, Bush built an international coalition against bin Laden (who later claimed responsibility for the attacks) and his network, al-Qaeda (“the Base”), and the Taliban government of Afghanistan, which had harboured bin Laden and his followers. On October 7 the United States launched aerial attacks against Afghanistan; by the end of the year the Taliban and bin Laden’s forces were routed or forced into hiding, and the Bush administration was negotiating with Afghanistan’s many factions in an attempt to establish a stable regime there.

In 2002 the U.S. economy worsened, as consumer confidence and the stock market continued to fall and corporate scandals dominated the headlines. Nevertheless, Bush remained popular, and he led the Republican Party to majorities in both the House and Senate in the midterm elections of 2002.

Despite the economic difficulties, foreign affairs continued to dominate the Bush administration’s agenda. In 2002 Bush focused world attention on Iraq, accusing Saddam Hussein’s government of having ties to al-Qaeda and of continuing to possess and develop weapons of mass destruction, contrary to UN mandates. In November Bush’s secretary of state, Colin Powell, engineered a UN Security Council resolution authorizing the return of weapons inspectors to Iraq. Soon thereafter Bush declared that Iraq was in breach of the new resolution for its failure to cooperate fully with the inspectors. In mid-March, declaring that diplomacy was at an end, he issued an ultimatum giving Saddam 48 hours to leave Iraq or face removal by force (though he indicated that, even if Saddam chose to leave, U.S.-led military forces would enter the country to search for weapons of mass destruction and to stabilize the new government). On March 20 (local time), following Saddam’s public refusal to leave, the United States and allied forces launched an attack on Iraq, called Operation Iraqi Freedom.