A Level Revision Notes: US Executive - President Achievements & Failures

Franklin D Roosevelt - 1933-45:

Successes: He created a series of domestic programmes known as the New Deal. IN 1933 he set up the Federal Emergency Relief Administration which provide grants and loans to operate relief programs. He also created the Agricultural Adjustment Administration which increased the income of farmers by 50%.
His second success: In 1937 he established the national minimum wage through fair labour. Along with this he improved the living conditions for low income families and the 40 hour week. The national minimum wage was 1.5 over the hourly rate for overtime in certain jobs.
Failure: The Second World War was not a success for him, critics argue that he should have attempted to make peace with Hitler. He even dismounted reports of Jewish people dying.
His second failure: Slow economic recovery, after the Second World War there was little recovery for the economy and there was no rebuilding process after the devastation caused by the war.

Harry Truman - 1945-53:

Successes: He helped to form the UN and NATO. Although planned by Roosevelt, it was carried out by Truman. He agreed to join NATO to contain the Soviet and to build new security structures. Now it has 28 members and it remains influencer across the world.
His second success: He won mid-term elections in 1946 that everyone thought he would lose. Worries were that the Democrats would control both houses but in the end the House became Republican. One year later, he was re-elected.
Failures: He accepted proposals to not to make peace in Korea when he should have questioned the his commanding general assessment of China’s intentions in the country.
His second failure: He failed to inform his party and his cabinet what was going on in the Chinese Civil War and this led to lots of cabinet disengagement. He then responded too slowly and weakly to the Senate about his support for African civil rights following this.

Dwight D Eisenhower - 1953-61 :

Successes: His first major success was the signing of the civil rights bill which saw black Americans gain equal rights as white Americans.
His Second Success: He ended the Korea War. He persuaded the Americans to accept a negotiated peace and convince the Chinese that failure to reach the agreement would be fatal.
Failures: He failed to defuse the cold war. It seemed that he was on the verge of success when the leader of the Soviet Union met with him and agreed to the Paris Convention but then the Soviets shot down the U-2 plane and all hope of success had gone and was replaced with failure.
His second failure: He failed to denounce Senator Joseph McCarthy. He said that there would be an investigation and with it would come less damage but Eiserhower believed that to personally confront McCarthy would demean his presidency. The fact that he didn’t denounce him hurt him more.

John F Kennedy - 1961-63:

Successes: He averted nuclear war with the Soviet Union by negotiating with the leader of the Soviet Union. It was closest to nuclear war and then the leader agreed to dismantle weapons in Cuba.
His second success: He started to help the Americans in civil rights of African Americans and paved the way for civil rights to be introduced into America.
Failure 1: Not being able to pass the civil rights bills. Despite advocating for it, he could not pass the bill in Congress.
Failure 2: He got deeper involved into the Vietnam War. Despite being told not to, he still got involved and this has been regarded as the biggest failure in his presidency.

Lyndon B. Johnson - 1963-69:

1^st Success: He created the ‘Great Society’ where man went onto the moon and millions across the world saw this.
2^nd Success: He helped to create a food programme which saw thousands of American gets food stamps so they could eat a healthy meal every night. He believed that no American should do hungry and he set out to fix this.
1^st Failure: His involvement in the Vietnam War. He kept troops their against the American will. People died and they blamed him for not allowing soldiers to come home
2^nd Failure: An increase in crime. Over 1/4^th of Americans said that saw an increase in crime in their local area whilst Johnson was President. Some critics say this crime was caused by him legalising abortion and the fact that some of his policy came on becoming dependent on the Welfare state and citizens did not like this.

Richard Nixon - 1969-74:

1^st Success: Ended the Vietnam War by signing the Paris Peace Accords. Seen as a big moment for the President. Many Presidents could not stop the war and it tainted with their legacy but not Nixon.
2^nd Success: Carried on with the Apollo 11 missions and man on the moon missions, again this was seen as a big moment for people across the world.
1^st (and major) Failure: Watergate scandal. He had microphones set up in the hotel the Democrats were staying in, they were found and he denied it. He was about to get impeached but resigned before he was, he got pardoned by the next POTUS.
2^nd Failure: Nothing can and ever will be as big as a failure as Watergate.

Gerald Ford - 1974-77:

1^st Success: He helped to reduce tensions with the Soviet Union by signing the Helsinki Accords which strengthen the relationship between western nations and the communist countries of Europe.
2^nd Success: Some of his foreign policy was met well despite going through a mainly Democrat Congress.
1^st Failure: Pardoning Nixon. When he became POTUS he said the country needed to be washed of the affair, so he pardoned Nixon. Millions of Americans accused him of planning this with Nixon and wanted to see Nixon brought to justice. It remains one of his only legacies.
2^nd Failure: He faced a energy crisis and a weak economy marked by high inflation and high levels of unemployment. Critics argue that during this whole presidency he was battling with Watergate and to solve this, the country needed a new election.

Jimmy Carter - 1977-81:

1^st Success: Ended war in Israel by creating a new treaty following some bloodshed
2^nd Success: Opened diplomatic relations between the USA and China whilst breaking ties with Taiwan whilst signing a treaty with Soviet Union leader to not use arms.
1^st Failure: Struggled to combat the high amounts of economic woes including high unemployment and the energy crisis. Critics argued that he was unable to stamp his authority on the issues because he had no plan, he even went on television and spoke of how the issue being a “crisis of confident”
2^nd Failure: Hostage crisis, in November 1979 a mob of Iranian students stormed the US embassy in Tehran and took staff into hostage as protest for an Iranian Shah who was refused medical treatment. He failed to free the hostages. Following this he was defeated in the next General Election.

Ronald Reagan - 1981-89:

1^st Success: Help to destroy the Berlin Wall. After challenging the Soviet Union leader to tear it down, months later the leader actually allowed citizens to tear it down. Reagan a few weeks later went to Germany and helped destroy the last few bricks.
2^nd Success: His huge re-election. His running mate was a female – the first time in American history this had happened and they won a landslide winning 525 electoral college votes out of 538.
1^st Failure: The cold war which had started under Reagan, a panic ridden America was starting to emerge as they were scared of potentials weapons of mass destruction being fired from halfway across the world.
2^nd Failure: Reagan sent 800 marines to Lebanon as part of an international peacekeeping force after Israel invaded the nation in June 1982 but in Oct 1983 suicide bombers attacked the Marine barracks in Beirut killing 241 Americans.

George H.W Bush - 1989-93:

1^st Success: The collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war. He would be later credited with this and he improved the relationship between the USA and Soviet nations. He then met the leader of the Soviet Union and signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
2^nd Success: Military operation in Panama went well and the corrupt leader, Manuel Noriega, was overthrown who threatened the Americans who lived there and trafficking drugs to the USA. He also helped Operation Desert Storm become a success by overthrowing Saddam Hussein
1^st Failure: After promising no tax rises when he was first elected, he then raised taxes after the budget deficit. This angered Americans.
2^nd Failure: After the increase in tax, he then lost the re-election to Bill Clinton losing by a close landslide. Who won 370 electoral college votes and 43% of the popular vote.

Bill Clinton - 1993-2001:

1^st Success: 22 million jobs were available under his presidency. The most ever under a single administration and more than the last 12 years in total.
2^nd Success: An increase in the amount of Americans who bought a home. 67% of Americans now had a home whereas 4 years earlier, just 60% of Americans owned a home.
3^rd Success: Raised education standards, the number of Americans who got record high SAT scores increased whilst he built almost 2000 new schools so Americans had an increased choice in where they were going to go to school and college.
1^st Failure: Didn’t sign a bill which would make LGBTQ couples get the same rights as heterosexual couples. This was hard to pass as Congress was mainly conservative republicans but experts thought he will be able to get it through the House.
2^nd Failure: Expanded the war on drugs. Despite telling Americans that he would resolve the war on drugs, he instead expanded it when he signed a bill which would see the jail time for those who supply drugs decrease. Because of this, the amount of people in prison increased from 600,000 to around 1.2 million – just in for drugs.
3^rd Failure: Didn’t abolish the death penalty. He signed a bill which saw 60 more crimes be punishable by the death penalty whilst he was POTUS. He also signed a bill which meant that federal judges could not grant relief for those who were on the death penalty. This did speed up the process though.

George W. Bush - 2001-09:

1^st Success: The way he handled the 9/11 attacks. After such devastation across the nation, emotions were running high but Bush addressed the nation after the attack at Primetime. He went to the memorial of all those who had passed away and in a highly emotional time, he even threw the first pitch in a baseball game – seen as quite a high prestige thing. It showed Americans that although we have been attacked, the country has to move on and the Americans followed Bush after this.
2^nd Success: Going to Iraq. Although this was seen by some Americans to be a bad thing. When he called up for more troops towards the end of his tenure as POTUS, it seemed to have worked the TARP had been stopped.
3^rd Success: The capture of Sadaam Hussein. On December 13^th 2003, the former Iraqi leader was pulled out of the rathole for what seemed many Americans hated and was hanged. This was seen as justice for all the millions who wanted justice. Bush called it “freeing Iraq”
1^st Failure: In 2006 he became a lame duck as the Democrats had control in both houses. Bush himself called it a “thumpin”
2^nd Failure: Hurricane Katrina was the nail in the coffin for Bush’s presidency. After the disaster instead of going to visit the area affected and meeting local residents like he should have done, he flew over the area in his presidential plane and Americans did not like this. Popular celebrities accused Bush of not liking certain groups in America.
3^rd Failure: Towards the end of the his tenure, the economic recession started. Whilst the bank bailout meant that Bush’s presidency ended on a positive note he will forever be linked to the politics that built up to the greatest economic crash since the Great Depression.

Barack Obama - 2009-2017:

1^st Success: Obamacare aka the affordable care act. It made millions of American get affordable health care via their health insurance. It was not taken well when he first announced it but once it was passed lots of Americans liked it.
2^nd Success: The capture of Bin Laden as a huge success for Obama. A country that had ridden of 9/11 and had never recovered. Obama announced at Primetime that the attacker had been captured and millions of Americans celebrated throughout the night – America could finally move on from the 9/11 attacks.
3^rd Success: Getting elected. He was the first black African-American President. For America this was a big move – the fact that they’ve never had a female POTUS was a huge deal but for Obama his victory in 2008 was sweeter. After black people had been oppressed during his parent’s lifetime, the fact that a black man was now in charge of the free world was seen as a good thing.
1^st Failure: The war with Libya and Syria. This will be a stain on Obama’s record. Many did not like the fact that he chose to fight in the country so close to an election in hope that a victory would come soon to people to vote for him. Despite intervention, there are still Jihadist fighters in the country so Obama didn’t really do much here.
2^nd Failure: Raising taxes again. Bush also raised taxes so when Obama did it, it seemed unnecessary but in 2010 he did it anyway. In a time when the country was still recovering from the recession, it was not needed and lots of people did not like it. Some argue that it was step down from the liberal attitudes Obama had.
3^rd Failure: He had to lead a divided party. In 2009 a poll was held across the nation and 59% of the people asked thought the country was heading in the right direction but in 2017 just before Trump became President the number was flipped and many thought America had taken a step back to more conservatism than it had done in the years to Obama’s election.

Donald J. Trump - 2017-2018*

1^st Success: No broken promises. Many Presidents speak of how they’re going to improve the country when they are on the election campaign. The only problem is that they don’t back it up by actually committing to them. Donald Trump is an exception. He has done lots of things in his first year as POTUS which were not expected such as taking America out of the Iran Nuclear Deal and Paris Climate Accord.
2^nd Success: Tax cuts. 80% of Americans have seen a tax cut since he became POTUS whilst less than 5% of Americans have seen just an increase of $10 in their tax. Americans like it when tax cuts happen, and many credit him with this.
3^rd Success: Peace in Korea? Because of him trying to solve the Korea crisis, the leaders of North Korea and South Korea have met and NK have agreed to disarm the nuclear weapons they have – whether it happens or not will be substantial is how Trump’s presidency goes down.
1^st Failure: Whilst the broken promises are good thing, some do not like his stance on taking America out of the deals previous Presidents have worked so hard to join. His stance on climate change is not the favoured view whilst taking America out of the Trans-Pacific Deal was not seen as a good thing.
2^nd Failure: Repealing Obamacare. Trump has stated on the record that he does not like the bill and wants to remove it, millions of Americans do not want this.
3^rd Failure: He is President of a divided country. His election shows how divided America are. There is a clear north/south divide with some favouring him as they are forgotten and some who do not agree with him. To ensure his legacy is good, he needs to close the gap on a divided America.