American history from 1988 to 2004

And this is Steve Ember with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States.. Today, we continue telling about the administration of Presi[r]

George H.W Bush's Presidency Saw End of Cold War Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.) This is Mary Tillotson And this is Steve Ember with THE MAKING OF A NATION a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States Today, we continue telling about the administration of President George Herbert Walker Bush He was elected the forty-first president of the United States in 1988 The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union ended under the administration of President George Bush This very tense period had lasted more than forty years The invention of weapons that could kill millions of people at one time increased worldwide fears during this period The world was changing greatly however, during the late 1980s The Soviet Union was dying On November ninth, 1989, East Germany opened the Berlin Wall for the first time since it had been built This wall had divided Communist East Germany from the West since 1961 Citizens and soldiers soon began tearing it down The fall of the Berlin Wall ended much of the fear and tension between democratic nations and the Soviet Union Tensions continued to ease as Communist rule in most of the former Soviet countries ended by the early 1990s Fifteen republics had belonged to the Soviet Union By the end of 1991, most had declared their independence President Bush recognized all the former Soviet republics They became a very loosely formed coalition called the Commonwealth of Independent States Countries that had considered the United States the enemy, now looked to it to lead the way to peace As the Soviet Union was dying, President Bush repeatedly negotiated with Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev In the spring of 1990, for example, their meeting in the United States resulted in an important agreement It called for each side to destroy most of its chemical weapons The two men also agreed to improve trade and economic relations The American and Soviet presidents met in July, 1991, in Moscow There, the two leaders signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, called START ONE This treaty called for both the Soviet Union and the United States to reduce their supply of long-range nuclear bombs and missiles Each promised to decrease its supply by about one-third over seven years START ONE became the first agreement between the two powers that ordered cuts in supplies of existing nuclear weapons In September 1991, President Bush said the United States would remove most of its shortrange nuclear weapons from service He also said the United States would destroy many of these weapons The next month, the Soviet nations announced the same actions On December twenty-fifth, Mikhail Gorbachev officially resigned as Soviet president The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ended As president of Russia, Boris Yeltsin became the most important leader of the former Soviet Republics President Bush and President Yeltsin signed another arms treaty in January, 1993 This START TWO agreement provided for reducing long-range nuclear weapons to half the number planned for START ONE Cuts were to be made over seven years George Bush ordered American forces into battle two times during his administration These conflicts were not linked to disputes with Communist governments In December 1989, he sent troops to Panama The goal was to oust the dictator, General Manuel Antonio Noriega Noriega had refused to honor election results that showed another candidate had been elected president of Panama The United States also wanted Noriega on illegal drug charges In addition, President Bush said he sent troops in to protect thirty fivethousand Americans living in the Central American nation American soldiers easily defeated Noriega’s forces He was taken to the United States for trial The United States then supported the presidency of Guillermo Endara, who had officially won the presidential election in Panama In August 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait The United States and other nations were receiving much of their oil from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia The United Nations declared a resolution clearly threatening war on Iraq unless it withdrew from Kuwait by January fifteenth, 1991 But Iraq failed to obey President Bush succeeded in forming a coalition with thirty-eight other countries against Iraq The coalition wanted to free Kuwait and protect Saudi Arabia from invasion by Iraq President Bush sent hundreds of thousands of American troops into the effort The Persian Gulf War began in Iraq on January seventeenth, 1991 At first, the coalition bombed Iraqi targets in Iraq and Kuwait The bombing destroyed or damaged many important centers On February twenty-sixth, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein ordered his troops to leave Kuwait The order came too late The Iraqis were surrounded Major ground attacks on Iraq and Kuwait defeated Saddam Hussein’s forces in a little more than four days Only about three hundred-seventy coalition troops died in the Persian Gulf War Some military experts say as many as one hundred-thousand Iraqi fighters may have been killed in the fighting Others say far fewer Iraqi soldiers died However, thousands of civilians were thought to have died in Iraq and Kuwait Kuwait suffered severe damage But it was free After the war Saddam Hussein still controlled his country Years later, some Americans continued to criticize the Bush Administration for not trying to oust the Iraqi leader They believed President Bush should have urged that coalition forces try to capture the Iraqi capital, Baghdad After the war ended, Kurdish people in northern Iraq fought to oust the Iraqi leader So did Shi-ite Muslims in southern Iraq These groups suffered crushing defeat The defeated Kurds fled to Iran, Turkey, and the northern Iraqi mountains Thousands of Kurds died or suffered from war injuries, disease, and starvation In April, President Bush ordered American troops to work with other coalition nations to give humanitarian aid to the refugees The troops established refugee camps for the Kurds As time passed, Iraqi soldiers and aircraft continued to attack Kurds in the north and Shi-ite Muslims in the south Coalition forces led by the United States established safety areas in northern and southern Iraq Years later, these “no fly” areas still restricted Iraqi military air activity President Bush also ordered American military troops to join other troops in Somalia By late 1992, lack of rain and continuing civil war had caused widespread suffering there Opposing armed ethnic groups were keeping Somalis from receiving food and other aid supplies American soldiers helped in the effort to get aid to the starving people The North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA, was signed in late 1992 It called for the United States and Mexico to remove taxes and other trade barriers Mexico and Canada agreed to take similar action NAFTA became effective in 1994, after George Bush had left office Some people feared that NAFTA would hurt millions of workers Others praised President Bush for supporting the agreement By the third year of his four-year term, President Bush’s international activities had made him an extremely popular president It seemed he would be easily re-elected in 1992 Historians often say, however, that political situations can change quickly That is what happened to America’s forty-first president Economic problems and other issues inside the United States began to seriously damage the great popularity of George Herbert Walker Bush This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by George Grow This is Mary Tillotson And this is Steve Ember Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States A 'Man From Hope' Is Elected to the White House in 1992 Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.) This is Mary Tillotson And this is Steve Ember with THE MAKING OF A NATION a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States Today, we begin telling about Bill Clinton, America's forty-second president He led the United States for eight years He acted on many important issues that affected the United States and other countries President Clinton also had to defend himself against accusations of dishonesty and sexual wrongdoing In 1991, many Americans felt happier and more secure than they had in years Worries about nuclear war had eased The United States had led a coalition of allies to victory in the Persian Gulf War In a little more than four days, the coalition freed Kuwait from invaders from Iraq and deeply damaged the Iraqi military Republican President George Bush had won huge popularity after successfully leading the war effort Most political experts believed President Bush would easily be re-elected in 1992 President Bush’s popularity fell, however, as many people lost their jobs Unemployment climbed to its highest rate since 1984 Economic growth slowed to recession levels The federal government was deeply in debt after years of borrowing to pay for its programs The opposition Democratic Party correctly believed it had a good chance to elect a president in 1992 It placed its hopes for winning the White House on Arkansas Governor William Jefferson Clinton The future president was born William Jefferson Blythe on August 19, 1946, in Hope, Arkansas His parents were William Jefferson Blythe and Virginia Blythe Bill’s father was a traveling salesman His father had died in a car accident three months before Bill was born At age two, Bill was sent to live with his grandparents while his mother studied to become a nurse Bill’s mother married Roger Clinton when Bill was four years old The family moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1953 Bill officially changed his name to William Jefferson Clinton at age 15 Bill Clinton’s new father, Roger Clinton, drank too much alcohol Bill’s life at home was unpleasant at times However, he did well in school and liked it very much He also developed a strong early interest in politics He competed for many offices while in high school In 1963, Bill Clinton met President John F Kennedy Bill was visiting Washington, D.C as a delegate for a citizenship training program President Kennedy provided the young Bill Clinton with a strong example of leadership Bill continued his education at Georgetown University in Washington He graduated in 1968 Excellence in his studies won him a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oxford University in Oxford, England He spent two years there before entering Yale University Law School in New Haven, Connecticut At Yale, Bill fell in love with another Yale law student Hillary Rodham of Park Ridge, Illinois shared his deep interest in politics and public service They were married in October of 1975 Their daughter Chelsea was born in 1980 Bill Clinton returned to Arkansas after completing law school He soon entered politics as a Democrat, narrowly losing an election for Congress Later, Arkansas citizens elected him attorney general the top law official for the state In 1978, he became the Democratic Party candidate for governor He easily defeated his Republican opponent He was the youngest man ever elected governor of Arkansas While Bill Clinton was governor, the federal government operated a holding center for Cuban refugees in Arkansas Rioting among these Cubans hurt his chances for re-election Governor Clinton’s opponent said he should have done more to get the government to hold the Cubans someplace else Mr Clinton also supported unpopular new taxes Bill Clinton was defeated in his effort to be re-elected governor of Arkansas in 1980 He deeply regretted this loss He promised himself he would again be governor Bill Clinton gained his goal in the election two years later He continued to serve as governor of Arkansas until 1992 Education in Arkansas improved under the leadership of Governor Clinton Many more students graduated from Arkansas high schools The number of students entering college also rose The state began requiring examinations for teachers It also increased their pay Mr Clinton started health centers in public schools And he expanded Head Start programs to help prepare poor children to begin school While governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton also served in national organizations for governors and Democratic Party leaders He became well known as a moderate Democrat In 1991, William Jefferson Clinton announced he would compete for the Democratic nomination for president Former Massachusetts Senator Paul Tsongas and former California Governor Edmund Brown, Junior were his main opponents for the nomination However, Paul Tsongas later suspended his campaign for lack of money Mr Clinton won a big lead over Mr Brown in state nominating elections Democrats met for their national nominating convention in New York City in July, 1992 They named Bill Clinton as their candidate for president He chose Senator Al Gore of Tennessee to be his vice president in the election The Republican Party nominated President Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle for a second term Texas businessman Ross Perot competed as an independent His vice presidential candidate was a former top Navy officer, James Stockdale President Bush talked about his foreign policy successes during the campaign He said he would cut taxes He said Bill Clinton would raise taxes Many Americans, however, remembered that President Bush had raised taxes after promising not to this Bill Clinton criticized President Bush mostly about important domestic issues in the United States He said the president had failed to deal with the slow economy and high unemployment President Bush answered that the Democrats controlled Congress He said the Democrats defeated most of his domestic proposals Ross Perot criticized both Republican President Bush and Democratic candidate Clinton Mr Perot said neither man considered the importance of the huge federal debt Bill Clinton and Al Gore won the 1992 presidential election They received about forty fivemillion votes President Bush and Mr Quayle had about thirty-nine million votes About 18 million people voted for Mr Perot and Mr Stockdale Bill Clinton became America’s forty-second president on January twentieth, 1993 At age forty-six, he was the third youngest person ever elected president At his swearing-in ceremony, the new president said there was no longer division between foreign and domestic issues Listen to these words from President Bill Clinton’s swearing-inspeech: BILL CLINTON: "The world economy, the world environment, the world AIDS crisis, the world’s arms race they affect us all Today, as an old order passes, the new world is more free but less stable Communism’s collapse has called forth old animosities and new dangers Clearly America must continue to lead the world we did so much to make.” Even as President Clinton took office, critics were accusing him of wrongdoing There were questions about sexual relationships outside his marriage Other accusations involved an investment he and Mrs Clinton had made years before In 1978 they had bought land in Arkansas to sell for holiday homes President Clinton denied any dishonorable actions But the criticism and suspicion of America’s forty-second president continued This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by George Grow This is Steve Ember And this is Mary Tillotson Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States Bill Clinton Begins His First Term in 1993 Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.) This is Mary Tillotson And this is Steve Ember with THE MAKING OF A NATION a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States Today, we continue telling about Bill Clinton, America's forty-second president Bill Clinton began his first term as president of the United States in January of 1993 During his terms in office, he appointed more women and minority members to serve in government than any earlier president Mr Clinton became the first Democratic president in twenty-five years to name associate justices to the United States Supreme Court He chose Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer to serve on America’s highest court Ms Ginsburg was only the second woman named to the court Members of President Clinton’s own Democratic Party controlled Congress for the first two years of his presidency Still, Congress failed to consider a major administration proposal The plan was meant to reform the health care system to provide health care for all Americans Bill Clinton had promised during his presidential campaign to help more Americans receive health care A committee led by his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, proposed the new administration plan But Congress did not act on the proposal Lawmakers decided it was too costly and too difficult to administer Congress did pass some Clinton legislation during his first term For example, legislators enacted his proposal to fight crime This measure included a crime prevention program and increased law enforcement It also provided money for building more prisons Lawmakers also passed Mr Clinton’s budgets for 1993 and 1994 The budgets reduced federal spending President Clinton’s relations with Congress became more difficult after the 1994 midterm elections Voters throughout the country elected the first majority Republican Congress in forty years Republicans controlled both the Senate and the House of Representatives The Republican-led Congress passed measures to reform social welfare in America Mr Clinton also wanted to reform America’s aid system But he stopped Congress from cutting what he believed was too much money for some programs These included help for education, poor people and old people needing medical care The economy had slowed to recession level during the administration of President George Bush Under Mr Clinton the economy grew slowly at first Then it recovered more quickly Business earnings grew New jobs were created The economic crisis was ended Mr Clinton had to deal with terrorism against the United States very early in his presidency On February twenty-sixth, 1993, Islamic terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York City They placed explosives in a car parked under the building The huge explosion killed six people More than one thousand others were injured Repair of the damaged building cost millions of dollars The government later captured and tried the bombers Terrorism again struck the United States in 1995 On April nineteenth, a dissident American former soldier placed explosives that destroyed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma One hundred sixty-eight people died in the bombing It was the most serious incident of terrorism on home territory in United States history The bomber, Timothy McVeigh, was captured soon after the explosion Another former soldier also was seized later in connection with the bombing Many Americans praised Mr Clinton for the way he led the nation after this tragedy President Bill Clinton also had to deal with a number of foreign relations crises For example, President Bush had sent American troops to Somalia in 1992 The troops were taking food to thousands of starving Somalis The people were suffering because of lack of rain and a civil war Fighting among ethnic groups was preventing the people from receiving food and other aid supplies Then the United Nations took control of the aid efforts President Clinton made American soldiers part of the UN force In 1993, 18 American soldiers were killed in Mogadishu They died in a battle with supporters of a local group leader Mr Clinton ordered American troops to leave Somalia after Congress demanded their withdrawal American foreign policy was more successful in other areas For example, President Clinton helped return the first democratically elected leader of Haiti to office In 1991, military officers in Haiti had ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide The new rulers established a military dictatorship Thousands of Haitian refugees tried to flee to the United States by boat In 1994, President Clinton threatened to use military force against the dictators if they did not let President Aristide return to power The dictators surrendered power Mr Aristide again became president of Haiti Some of Mr Clinton’s most important foreign policy decisions involved the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina, formerly a republic of Yugoslavia A civil war began in BosniaHerzegovina in 1992 Bosnian Serb rebels were trying to oust the mainly Muslim government The United Nations sent peacekeepers to Bosnia Mr Clinton ordered the United States Air Force to aid Bosnian Muslims under attack and try to stop Serb aggression In late 1995, Mr Clinton helped organize a meeting of the warring sides in the Bosnian civil war They signed a peace plan that included a cease-fire The plan called for NATO troops to help guard the cease-fire The president sent American troops to aid in this effort Mr Clinton gained one of the major foreign policy goals of his first administration in November of 1993 Congress approved NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement The agreement called for ending most import taxes among the United States, Canada and Mexico This was to be done over the next 15 years The agreement also called for ending restrictions on the flow of goods, services and investment among the three countries President Clinton had another trade policy success the following year Congress expanded GATT, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade The expansion permitted cuts in import taxes on thousands of products They included electronics, wood products and metals While Mr Clinton led the nation, he also had to defend his past In the late 1970s, Mr and Mrs Clinton had invested in the Whitewater Development Corporation in Arkansas By the time Bill Clinton became president, others involved with this company were in legal trouble Critics said President Clinton also had acted illegally One accuser was a former judge in Little Rock, Arkansas He owned a savings and loan company that received federal money This man said Bill Clinton had secretly pressured him to make illegal loans to help the Whitewater company President Clinton denied the accusation Some people suspected that Hillary Rodham Clinton was responsible for wrongdoing years earlier when she working as a lawyer in Little Rock, Arkansas In January, 1994, Mr Clinton asked Attorney General Janet Reno to appoint a lawyer to lead an independent investigation of the Clintons’ activities She named Robert Fiske, a Republican But critics charged that Mr Fiske was too friendly to the Clinton Administration In August, three federal judges replaced him with lawyer Kenneth Starr, also a Republican Some Americans expressed anger at the president about the Whitewater case Others dismissed the accusations as political attacks Opinion studies in spring and summer of 1996 showed that many Americans would vote to re-elect their president in November They said they wanted Bill Clinton to serve as president for four more years This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by George Grow This is Steve Ember And this is Mary Tillotson Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States Bill Clinton Wins Re-election in 1996 Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.) This is Mary Tillotson And this is Shirley Griffith with THE MAKING OF A NATION a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States Today, we tell about the second administration of Bill Clinton, America's forty-second president He was elected in 1992 and re-elected four years later The first term in office for President Bill Clinton was coming to an end in the summer of 1996 His record was like that of many other American presidents in the past He had gained some successes with Congress and in foreign policy He also had suffered some failures This president, however, had a personal concern that other presidents had not had Investigations were continuing into possible wrongdoing by Mr and Mrs Clinton The main accusations were connected to their financial activities in Arkansas during the 1980s Americans, however, seemed far more interested in the nation’s economy It had improved during Mr Clinton’s first term in office Americans were getting jobs They were spending money Investing in the stock market traditionally had been an activity mainly for rich people Now many other people were buying stocks, too Opinion studies showed that Bill Clinton was a popular president The Democratic Party met in Chicago, Illinois for its nominating convention in August of 1996 Mr Clinton and Vice President Al Gore were nominated as the party’s candidates without opposition The Republican Party held its nominating convention in San Diego, California that summer It chose former Senator Robert Dole of Kansas to compete for president Senator Dole had resigned from the Senate to compete for the nomination Former Congressman and Cabinet official Jack Kemp of New York received the nomination for vice president Senator Dole was a hero during World War Two Later he served four terms in the House of Representatives from Kansas He was elected to the Senate in 1968 and re-elected four more times Businessman Ross Perot had competed in the presidential election four years earlier as an independent He again declared himself a candidate of the Reform Party During the campaign, President Clinton pointed to his successes during his first term They included an improved economy, increased wages for low-paid workers and gun control measures Mr Dole criticized President Clinton for spending too much federal money President Clinton answered that he had stopped Congress from cutting too much money from programs like Medicare That is the government program that helps pay the medical expenses of older people President Clinton and Vice President Gore won the election They received almost fortyseven-and-one-half-million votes Senator Dole and Mr Kemp received about thirty-nine million votes Ross Perot received about eight million votes President Clinton was the first Democratic president to be re-elected to a second term since Franklin Roosevelt in 1936 Bill Clinton began his second term as president of the United States on January twentieth, 1997 On that day, President Clinton gave the last inaugural speech of an American president in the twentieth century He said, “We must keep our old democracy forever young.” Mr Clinton also spoke of racial separation in the nation He said it had been a continued terrible problem in American history He urged that America become one unified nation CLINTON: “The divide of race has been America’s constant curse And each new wave of immigrants gives new targets to old prejudices Prejudice and contempt, cloaked in the pretense of religious or political conviction are no different.” Mr Clinton continued to appoint women and minority members to important jobs In 1996 he nominated the first woman ever to serve as secretary of state Madeleine Albright had served as the United States permanent representative to the United Nations during Mr Clinton’s first administration Later, Mr Clinton named Bill Richardson as the permanent representative to the United Nations Mr Richardson is Hispanic Norman Mineta became the first Asian-American appointed to the Cabinet The president named Mr Mineta secretary of commerce The Republican Party had kept control of both houses of Congress as a result of the ninety ninety-six elections This Republican Congress and the Democratic president had different ideas about the budget In 1997 they reached a compromise They agreed to a plan to end the deficit by 2002 But the nation did not have to wait until then The economy in 1998 was so strong that the government had seventy thousand-million dollars more than its budget This was the first federal budget surplus since 1969 Foreign relations took much of President’s Clinton time during his second term He visited China in 1998 He urged Chinese leaders to permit more democracy in their country In August of that year, bombs placed by terrorists destroyed the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania Hundreds of people were killed American intelligence experts blamed the attacks on Osama bin Laden, a Saudi businessman and suspected terrorist President Clinton ordered missile strikes against camps in Afghanistan suspected of being under Mr bin Laden’s command American missiles also destroyed a factory in Sudan The factory had been suspected of producing nerve gas for terrorists However, the factory owner said his company produced medicines The United States later freed property and money of the factory owner that it had seized Later in 1998, President Clinton ordered American forces to launch missile strikes against military and industrial centers in Iraq United Nations officials feared the centers contained or could produce nuclear, chemical or biological weapons The U-N had ordered Iraq to cooperate with inspectors searching for weapons But Iraq refused to cooperate The next year, Mr Clinton deployed American aircraft and missiles as part of a NATO military campaign against Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic NATO was trying to stop attacks against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, a province of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia Yugoslav military leaders agreed to withdraw their troops NATO stopped the bombing and sent an international peacekeeping force to Kosovo The United States sent seven thousand troops to the force In October of 1998, Israeli and Palestinian leaders signed a document of understanding at the White House The Wye Memorandum developed from nine days of negotiations at the Wye River Plantation in eastern Maryland It called for Israeli forces to withdraw from some West Bank areas Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and special diplomat Dennis Ross traveled often to the Middle East They tried to help Israel and the Palestinians continue their peace efforts In 2001, Mr Clinton tried to get Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to sign a peace agreement Mr Clinton met with the two men for many hours in the Washington area Reports said they came close to a settlement But the negotiations ended without an agreement Violence increased soon afterward Palestinians declared a new uprising against Israel One of President Clinton’s major actions during his second term was helping establish permanent normal trade relations with China Congress passed a bill enacting this in 2000 The president said the measure would help democracy grow in China He also said it would help create jobs in the United States Mr Clinton supported expansion of NATO as well as more free trade He also worked for a worldwide campaign against the trade of illegal drugs Historians say President Bill Clinton will be remembered for reaching out to the international community But he will also be remembered for being charged and tried for wrongdoing by Congress We will tell about that next week This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by George Grow This is Mary Tillotson And this is Shirley Griffith Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States How Bill Clinton Became the Second President Ever to Be Impeached Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.) This is Mary Tillotson And this is Steve Ember with THE MAKING OF A NATION a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States Today, we continue telling about America's forty-second president, Bill Clinton He became only the second American president to be charged and tried for wrongdoing by Congress For years, critics of Bill Clinton had accused him of financial wrongdoing before he became president Some critics also accused his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton The Clintons denied any dishonest actions However, unconfirmed reports repeatedly said that they were involved in illegal business activities in Arkansas during the 1980s In January of 1994, the president asked Attorney General Janet Reno to appoint an independent lawyer to lead an investigation Ms Reno named a Republican lawyer However, some people said this man was too friendly to the Clinton administration He was replaced by Kenneth Starr, also a Republican Congress also investigated the president during his two terms in office For example, the Senate Judiciary Committee began an investigation in 1995 The majority of Judiciary Committee members reported that the evidence did not show Mr Clinton responsible for a crime But the majority belonged to his political party, the Democrats Suspicion of the president continued The main cause of the suspicion developed from a financial investment made years earlier Bill and Hillary Clinton had bought land in Arkansas in 1978 The Clintons formed the Whitewater Development Corporation with Susan and James McDougal The goal was to sell holiday homes on a river However, the company did poorly James McDougal also owned a loan company Hillary Clinton, a lawyer, did legal work for this company The company failed during the 1980s James McDougal and Susan McDougal were found guilty of wrongdoing in connection with the loan company Bill and Hillary Clinton’s business connection to the McDougals in the Whitewater Company helped make the Clintons targets of suspicion A former judge also became linked to legal questions about the Whitewater Corporation David Hale owned a savings and loan company that received public money In 1996, Mr Hale said Bill Clinton had pressured him to loan money to Susan McDougal about eleven years earlier The Whitewater Development Corporation received some of that money Mr Clinton was governor of Arkansas at the time So such an action would have been illegal Bill Clinton denied the accusation Investigators asked Mrs Clinton several times for records of her legal work for James McDougal during the 1980s Officials wanted to know how much time she had spent on legal advice for his loan company She said she could not find the records Then, in January of 1996, the records appeared in the White House Mrs Clinton could not explain their presence Bill and Hillary Clinton continued to deny wrongdoing Some Americans did not believe them Others, however, said Kenneth Starr was wasting millions of dollars on his investigation They said Mr Starr was acting against the president for political reasons Media reports said Mr Starr had offered shorter prison sentences to David Hale and others involved with Whitewater if they cooperated with his investigation Defenders of the president said this meant these people had good reason to lie Investigators said such offers are common Other media reports said David Hale had received large amounts of money from a conservative organization that had strongly criticized Mr Clinton The president was threatened with removal from office after a sexual relationship with a young woman became public It started when a former Arkansas state employee named Paula Corbin Jones took legal action against President Clinton in 1994 She charged that he had asked her for sex while he was governor of Arkansas A federal judge dismissed her case for lack of evidence But Mrs Jones appealed the case Her lawyers wanted to prove that Mr Clinton had had sex with several female workers They suspected these included a young woman, Monica Lewinsky, who had worked as a White House assistant They believed Ms Lewinsky had sexual relations with President Clinton between 1995 and 1997 Kenneth Starr was still investigating the Whitewater case early in 1998 He received permission to include Ms Lewinsky in his investigation A former friend of Ms Lewinsky had given Mr Starr tape recordings of her telephone calls with the young woman On the recordings, Monica Lewinsky talked about her relationship with the president Earlier, Ms Lewinsky and Mr Clinton had separately answered questions from lawyers representing Paula Jones Both Mr Clinton and Mizz Lewinsky denied having a sexual relationship In January of 1998, Mr Clinton also denied publicly that he had a sexual relationship with Mizz Lewinsky Six months later, Mr Clinton agreed to answer questions before a federal investigating jury He told the grand jury about his relationship with Ms Lewinsky This meant he had lied during earlier official questioning That night, the president admitted on national television that he had had a relationship with Monica Lewinsky that was wrong He told the nation his actions were a personal failure But he denied trying to get her to lie about the relationship Kenneth Starr sent his final report to the House of Representatives The report suggested that Mr Clinton may have committed impeachable crimes in trying to hide his relationship with the young woman In December, the House of Representatives impeached President William Jefferson Clinton This meant the Senate would hold a trial and decide if he was guilty If found guilty, Mr Clinton would be removed from office, as required by the Constitution Only one other president had ever been impeached In 1868, the House of Representatives had brought charges against President Andrew Johnson The Senate had failed by one vote to remove him from office The House of Representatives approved two charges against President Clinton to send to the Senate One charge accused him of lying during the official investigation of his relationship with Mizz Lewinsky The other accused him of trying to hide evidence Mr Clinton still had two years left to serve as president Opinion studies showed the American public wanted him to finish his term Two-thirds of the people asked said they opposed removing him from office The Senate decided Mr Clinton’s future in February of 1999 The one hundred senators held a trial to consider the charges and decide if Mr Clinton should be removed from office The trial required sixty-seven votes for a judgment of guilt on each charge The Senators voted Mr Clinton not guilty on one charge They evenly divided their votes on the other charge Bill Clinton remained president of the United States But the forty-second president had hoped to be remembered for his leadership and the progress made during his administration Instead, many people said he will be remembered for the charges against him In October, 1999, Kenneth Starr resigned as the independent investigator An assistant, Robert Ray, completed a final report on the Whitewater investigation He issued his report in September, 2000 No charges were brought against the Clintons The report said there was not enough evidence to prove any wrongdoing by President or Mrs Clinton Political experts disagree about what place in history William Jefferson Clinton will occupy But the experts agree that Mr Clinton’s influence on the United States will be debated for many years to come This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by George Grow This is Steve Ember And this is Mary Tillotson Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States How Science and Technology Helped Shape '90s Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.) This is Sarah Long And this is Doug Johnson with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States Today, we tell about life in the United States during the 1990s Many experts describe the 1990s as one of the best periods in United States history During almost all that time, America was at peace The frightening and costly military competition with the Soviet Union had ended The threat of a nuclear attack seemed greatly reduced, if not gone Military officials said America’s defenses were strong The economy improved from poor to very good Inflation was low So was unemployment Production was high Scientists and engineers made major progress in medicine and technology The Internet computer system created a new world of communications America grew by almost thirty-three million people during the 1990s This is the most the United States has ever grown during a ten-year period Some minority groups are growing faster than the white population For the first time in seventy years, one in ten Americans was born in another country During the past ten years, there was a huge increase in immigrants from Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia More than two hundred eighty million people lived in the United States by the end of the twentieth century This population was getting older, however, and needing more costly health care And, America had other problems in the 1990s Some people feared crime in the streets People were shot and killed in offices and schools Divisions grew between rich people and poor people Racial tensions remained high In 1999, Congress impeached the president of the United States President Clinton was accused of lying to courts about a sexual relationship with a young woman who worked in the White House Bill Clinton was found not guilty Still, the trial and the events leading to it caused deep concern among some Americans American families changed in the 1990s More people ended their marriages The rate of these divorces increased So did the percentage of children living with only one parent Children in such families were more likely to be poor or get into trouble Many American children did not live with their parents at all The number of children living with grandparents increased greatly Test scores and national studies during the 1990s showed that many public school students were not learning as they should The nation needed more and better teachers Racial divisions in America were a continuing and serious problem In 1991, an AfricanAmerican man named Rodney King was fleeing from police in Los Angeles, California The police had chased his speeding car for miles before stopping him They say he reacted violently when they tried to seize him Police officers beat and kicked Mr King as he lay on the ground A man who lived nearby filmed the beating with a video camera He took the video to a local television station Soon people all over the country were watching the police repeatedly striking Rodney King The four white police officers were arrested for their actions They were tried outside Los Angeles at their request A jury in a nearby wealthy, conservative community found them not guilty Within a short time, angry African-Americans began rioting on the streets of Los Angeles The unrest lasted three days Fifty-five people died in the violence More than 2,000 others were injured One thousand buildings lay in ruins Another major court trial divided black people and white people O.J Simpson had been a football hero and an actor In 1994, Simpson was accused of killing his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and a male friend of hers Simpson is African-American Nicole Brown Simpson was white Many legal experts believed the case against him was strong Still, the mainly African-American jury judged him not guilty Later, a mainly white jury found him guilty in a civil damage case Studies showed that white people believed Mr Simpson had killed his former wife and her friend Black people thought he was not guilty During the 1990s, scientists worked to map the position of all the genes in the human body Research on this human genome map progressed slowly at first Then it speeded up The goal was to help scientists study human health and disease The discovery was expected to change the way some diseases are treated Since 1980, doctors had made important progress in treating diseases like cancer, AIDS and Parkinson’s disease But they still could not cure them They hoped treatments developed from knowledge of human genes would help Computer technology also had progressed greatly in the 1980s During the next ten years computers became even more important in American life People depended on computers both at work and at home They used the Internet to send electronic messages, get information and buy all kinds of products They completed and sent their income tax forms They read newspapers and books They even listened to music Americans continued to attend classical music concerts and operas However, many more people enjoyed popular music One popular music form was called rap Rap music is spoken quickly rather than sung to the music of recorded rhythms Some rap songs suggest violent actions Others contain sexual suggestions that many people found offensive But rap music was very popular with many young people So was a form of rock music called grunge During the 1990s, Americans watched traditional television programs as well as new kinds of shows Millions of people liked weekly dramas like "ER" that takes place in a busy hospital emergency room A program called “Law and Order” tells about the work of police officers, lawyers and judges "NYPD Blue" shows the work of police officers in New York City A show called “Seinfeld” also told about life in New York City But this program was very funny “Seinfeld” was the most popular television show of the decade Another funny and popular show was the animated series called "The Simpsons." Cable television programs also grew in popularity One of the most popular was MTV It showed music videos and other programs for young people At the movies, Americans saw popular films like “Titanic.” It told about the sinking of the famous passenger ship on its first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in 1912 Two young people are shown falling in love during this tragic event Another popular film was “Jurassic Park.” It brought ancient, frightening dinosaurs to life As usual, Americans enjoyed sports Public interest in baseball decreased sharply, however, after a players’ strike in 1994 The strike cancelled the championship World Series games that year In 1998, interest in baseball increased when two great players competed to hit the most home runs Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire helped restore the popularity of baseball In basketball, experts say Michael Jordan became the best player in history He led the Chicago Bulls team to win many championships As the 1990s ended, some experts worried about computers making the change to the year 2000 They feared that computer failures might cause serious problems for everyday life But midnight of December thirty-first passed with only a few incidents of computer trouble Millions of people celebrated the beginning of a new century and another one thousand years Life in the 1990s had been good for many Americans They hoped for even better days to come This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by George Grow This is Sarah Long And this is Doug Johnson Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States Supreme Court Ruling Decides the 2000 Presidential Election Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.) This is Sarah Long And this is Bob Doughty with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States Today, we tell about the presidential election of 2000 It was an event that few Americans would soon forget In the year 2000, the United States was preparing to elect a new president Bill Clinton would finish his second term as president in January, 2001 The Constitution prevented him from competing for a third term This meant Mr Clinton’s Democratic Party needed to choose a new candidate for president The Democratic Party nominated Vice President Al Gore Mr Gore had served almost eight years as vice president under President Clinton Mr Gore chose Senator Joseph Lieberman of the state of Connecticut to compete for vice president Mr Lieberman was first elected to the United States Senate in 1988 He was the first Jewish person ever nominated for one of America’s top positions Al Gore was born in Washington, D.C in 1948 His father was a United States senator from the state of Tennessee Young Al Gore grew up in Washington and in Carthage, Tennessee, where his family had a farm Al Gore studied government at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts He graduated in 1969 His father opposed American involvement in the war in Vietnam But Al joined the Army during the war He spent about six months of his service as a reporter in Vietnam Back in civilian life, Mr Gore again worked as a reporter Later he studied religion and then law He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1976 He became known for supporting nuclear arms control and protecting the environment Mr Gore was elected to the United States Senate in 1984 He was re-elected six years later He tried and failed to become the Democratic candidate for president in 1988 Four years later, Bill Clinton won the Democratic presidential nomination Mr Clinton chose Mr Gore as his vice presidential candidate As vice president, Al Gore was praised for his work on the environment, technology and foreign relations The Republican Party nominated a son of former President George Bush They chose Governor George W Bush of Texas as their candidate for president Richard Cheney, a former secretary of defense, was chosen to compete for vice president George W Bush was born in the state of Texas in 1946 He is the oldest child of former President Bush The younger Mr Bush is often called “W” because his name is so similar to that of his father George W Bush grew up in the Texas cities of Midland and Houston He graduated from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut He studied business as a graduate student at Harvard University George W Bush was a pilot in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War Later he worked in the oil and gas industry In 1988, Mr Bush worked on his father’s successful campaign for president Later, George W Bush was one of the owners of the Texas Rangers, a professional baseball team He was elected governor of Texas in 1994 He was re-elected four years later by a large majority At Governor Bush’s urging, Texas legislators enacted measures to improve public schools However, critics charged that public education in Texas was still very poor And they said the state’s criminal justice policies supported by Mr Bush were too severe For example, Texas executes more criminals than any other state Presidential candidates Gore and Bush disagreed on most major issues For example, Al Gore said women should have the right to end unwanted pregnancies He supported gun control and restrictions on tobacco sales He supported higher wages for the lowest paid workers Governor Bush opposed him on these issues Governor Bush supported a plan to provide public money for students to attend private schools And he supported investing taxes on government retirement money in private retirement plans Mr Gore opposed these measures Several other candidates also ran for president in the November seventh election They represented small political parties For example, activist Ralph Nader was the candidate of the Green Party He criticized large corporations for having too much influence in America Conservative Patrick Buchanan ran as the Reform Party candidate Opinion studies showed that the race between the Republican and Democratic candidates was extremely close On November 7, 2000, more than one hundred million people voted for either Mr Gore or Mr Bush In this popular vote, Al Gore received more votes than George W Bush The final vote would show that Mr Gore received about five hundred forty thousand more votes than Mr Bush But that alone did not make Mr Gore president of the United States Americans not vote directly for their presidents They vote for electors to represent them in the Electoral College The Electoral College then elects the president Each state has at least three electors The states with the most population have the most electors and the most electoral votes In general, the candidate with the most votes in a state wins that state’s electoral votes There are five hundred thirty-eight electors in the electoral college To become president, a candidate must win two hundred-seventy electoral votes Neither Mr Gore nor Mr Bush had received that many electoral votes No winner was declared because of the situation in the state of Florida Florida had enough electoral votes to make either candidate the winner The big southern state counted almost six million votes on November seventh Mr Bush had slightly more votes than Mr Gore But the election was still not over Florida State law calls for a recount when the difference in votes between two candidates is less than one-half of one percent of the votes This meant Florida had to count the votes again State recounts normally involve the governor But the Florida governor said he would not be involved That is because Governor Jeb Bush is a brother of George W Bush The election in Florida involved several problems Some voting machines counted the votes incorrectly Some African Americans said election workers prevented them from voting And, many supporters of Mr Gore in one area believed they had voted for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan by mistake The names of Mr Buchanan and Al Gore were next to one another on the ballot Democrats charged that the ballot design was illegal But Republicans say Democratic officials never objected Almost three weeks after the election, Florida declared Mr Bush the winner of the state’s twenty-five electoral votes Florida election officials said Mr Bush won the popular vote in Florida by five hundred-thirty-seven votes That total was out of six million ballots But the election was still not over Mr Gore and supporters in Florida protested the results They asked the courts to reconsider because of what they called the many voting problems The Florida Supreme Court ordered the disputed ballots counted again This could have given Florida’s electoral votes to Mr Gore The votes could have made him president Bush campaign officials quickly appealed to the United States Supreme Court A majority of the high court justices declared the Florida court ruling unconstitutional They said Florida law did not explain how officials should judge the ballots They ruled that the disputed ballots should not be re-counted The Supreme Court justices said not enough time remained to settle the problem before the Electoral College held its required meeting On December 18, 2000, Electoral College members met in each state capital They made the election official George W Bush became the 43rd president of the United States This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jerilyn Watson It was produced by George Grow This is Sarah Long And this is Bob Doughty Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States After Attacks of 9/11, Bush Launches 'War on Terror' Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.) Correction attached This is Barbara Klein And this is Steve Ember with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States Today, we tell about the first term in office of President George W Bush Mr Bush dealt with the most deadly terrorist attack against the United States in history George W Bush became the nation's forty-third president on January twentieth, 2001 He and his vice president, Dick Cheney, were sworn in on the steps of the Capitol building George Bush's father, George Herbert Walker Bush, had served as the forty-first president The inauguration marked only the second time in American history that the son of a former president also became president More than two hundred years ago, John Adams was elected the second president of the United States His son, John Quincy Adams, later served as the sixth president George W Bush had been in office for fewer than eight months when the most important event of his first term took place on September eleventh, 2001 Americans call the event Nine-Eleven On that morning, 19 Islamic extremists hijacked four American passenger airplanes The planes were flying from the East Coast to California The hijackers were from Middle Eastern countries Each group included a trained pilot American Airlines Flight Eleven had left Boston, Massachusetts, when three terrorists seized control of the plane Shortly before nine o’clock in the morning, they crashed the plane into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City Another group seized United Airlines Flight One Seventy-Five and crashed it into the World Trade Center's South Tower a few minutes later The two giant skyscrapers stood in the heart of America's financial center The planes exploded in fireballs that sent clouds of smoke pouring from the skyscrapers Wreckage and ashes flew into the air On that morning, each tower held between five thousand and seven thousand people Thousands of people were able to escape from the buildings The South Tower of the World Trade Center fell shortly before ten o'clock The North Tower collapsed about thirty minutes later Within an hour the ruins of the two buildings were being called Ground Zero Other hijackers on United Airlines Flight Seventy-Seven crashed the plane into the Pentagon, the Department of Defense headquarters near Washington, D.C The plane exploded against a wall of the huge five-sided building where more than twenty thousand people worked The hijackers also seized United Airlines Flight Ninety-Three Some passengers found out about the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington through cell phone calls to their families Several passengers and crew members tried to retake control of the plane It crashed near the small town of Shanksville, Pennsylvania Investigators later said the hijackers probably planned to attack the Capitol building or the White House in Washington The terrorist attacks on Nine-Eleven were the most deadly in American history Almost three thousand people died Most of the victims worked in the World Trade Center They included many citizens of other countries The victims also included three hundred forty-three New York City firefighters and twenty-three city police officers They died trying to save others Search and rescue operations began immediately Hundreds of rescue workers recovered people and bodies from the wreckage Aid was organized for victims and their families President Bush stood in the wreckage of the World Trade Center and promised that the attacks would be answered It took workers eight months to complete the cleanup of Ground Zero Every day, thousands of people visited the area to see where the attack took place and to honor those who died there Near Washington, D.C., people left flowers and messages near the heavily damaged wall of the Defense Department headquarters One hundred eighty-four military service members and civilians died there New York City changed forever on that day The attack destroyed a major part of the financial center of the city It had a huge economic effect on the United States and world markets The New York Stock Exchange was closed until September seventeenth When it reopened, American stocks lost more than one trillion dollars in value for the week For days after the attacks, most planes stopped flying When normal flights began again, many people were too afraid to travel by air The airline and travel industries suffered Thousands of hotel workers and others lost their jobs Many other businesses suffered as well When people started flying again, they found it much more difficult because of increased security at airports People across America experienced great shock, fear, sadness and loss They could not understand why anyone would attack innocent Americans They also felt a renewed love for their country They put American flags on their houses, cars and businesses President Bush said Osama bin Laden and terrorists linked to his al-Qaida group plotted and carried out the attacks on Nine-Eleven On September twentieth, the president declared a War on Terror The goals were to find and punish Osama bin Laden and to use economic and military actions to prevent the spread of terrorism PRESIDENT BUSH: "Our war on terror begins with al-Qaida, but it does not end there It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated." American officials said the Taleban administration in Afghanistan was sheltering Osama bin Laden They said al-Qaida terrorists operated a training camp in Afghanistan under Taleban protection President Bush demanded that the Taleban close the training camp and surrender Osama bin Laden The Taleban refused American and British airplanes launched attacks against the Taleban in Afghanistan on October seventh The goals were to oust the Taleban, capture Osama bin Laden and destroy al-Qaida The bombers struck in and around the Afghan capital, Kabul Ethnic tribal groups of the Afghan Northern Alliance then led a ground attack By November the Taleban began to collapse in several provinces Taleban forces fled Kabul and the city of Kandahar The military offensive defeated the Taleban and ousted them from power It also captured a number of Taleban fighters and al-Qaida terrorists But the war in Afghanistan was not over And the leader of al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden, had not been captured Some enemy fighters seized in Afghanistan were sent to a United States Navy detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba The United States government did not identify them as prisoners of war Instead, the detainees were called "unlawful enemy combatants." As such, they lacked some of the rights provided by an international treaty on conditions for war prisoners The United States government also detained hundreds of foreign citizens Most of these people had violated immigration laws No terrorism charges were brought against them Human rights activists and some legal experts protested the treatment of the prisoners The activists said holding people in secret without trial violated the United States Constitution In October, Congress passed the U.S.A Patriot Act It provided the government with more power to get information about suspected terrorists in this country Critics said the legislation invaded citizens' rights to privacy Civil liberties groups charged that it gave law enforcement and other agencies too much power After Nine-Eleven, government agencies were criticized for not cooperating to gather intelligence that might have prevented the terrorist attacks In 2002, a new Department of Homeland Security was created to strengthen defenses against terrorism Twenty-two agencies were combined into a new department of about two hundred thousand employees The Department of Homeland Security was one of the major changes brought about by the attacks of Nine Eleven Many Americans believed the attacks had changed their lives, their country, and the world, forever This program, THE MAKING OF A NATION, was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Jill Moss This is Barbara Klein And this is Steve Ember Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States Correction: The plane that hit the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, was American Airlines Flight 77, not United Flight 77, as stated in this program How Bush's War on Terror Led to Iraq Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.) This is Faith Lapidus And this is Steve Ember with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English Program about the history of the United States George W Bush became president in January 2001 Today we tell about the invasion of Iraq that began in March, 2003 Islamic terrorists of the al-Qaida group attacked the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2001 After the attacks, the Bush administration supported the policy of preventive war to end threats to its national security Many of President Bush's top advisers had long supported an invasion of Iraq As early as that October, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld suggested that military action against Iraq was possible Government officials charged that Iraq was linked to terrorist groups like al-Qaida They noted that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had used chemical weapons and said he was trying to develop biological and nuclear weapons President Bush gave his yearly State of the Union report to Congress in January 2002 He said some nations support terrorist organizations He said the United States would not wait to be attacked by such groups Instead, it would strike first at the countries that sheltered them The president especially noted three nations as supporters of terror He said North Korea, Iran and Iraq threatened the United States PRESIDENT BUSH: “States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger They could provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their hatred." Iraq had been defeated in the Persian Gulf War of 1991 The United Nations ordered Iraq to destroy all development and supply centers for nuclear, biological and chemical weapons The U.N had sent teams of weapons inspectors to make sure Iraq was following orders But since 1998, Iraq had refused to permit U.N weapons inspection teams into the country President Bush and his administration believed Iraq was making or hiding weapons of mass destruction, known as WMDs He said if the United Nations failed to force Iraq to disarm, the United States might launch a military attack against the country Mr Bush began making his case to the international community for an invasion of Iraq in a speech to the U.N Security Council in September, 2002 Then the president asked Congress to pass a resolution giving him power to use military force against Iraq Congress approved the resolution in October In November, Iraq agreed to permit the U.N weapons inspectors to return After more investigation, the leader of the inspection team reported to the U.N in February, 2003 He said the team had found no evidence of WMDs He also said Iraq was not cooperating with efforts to find out if suspected weapons had been destroyed and if weapons programs had been ended In January, 2003, President Bush used his State of the Union speech to strengthen his case against Iraq He said British intelligence reported that Saddam Hussein had tried to buy uranium from Africa Uranium can be used to make nuclear weapons But several months later, the White House said the intelligence was false The president wanted the U.N to approve military force against Iraq Britain and Spain also supported military force They asked the Security Council to pass a resolution approving military action against Iraq But some important members of the 15-member Security Council opposed such action They included Germany, France and Russia They said inspections should be increased They said use of force should be used only as a last choice The United States withdrew the resolution The United States and Britain decided to invade Iraq without U.N support Most Americans supported the decision But there was widespread international opposition In February, millions of people around the world took part in anti-war protests in hundreds of cities Some people argued that the United States would be violating international law by invading a nation that was not an immediate threat Mr Bush said the war was being launched to prevent Saddam from supplying weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups that might attack the United States or other countries He also argued that Saddam was an evil dictator who had ordered the killing of thousands of people and should be removed from power On March seventeenth, Mr Bush told Saddam Hussein and his sons to leave Iraq or face military action Saddam rejected the demand U.N inspection teams left Iraq four days before the American-led invasion, even though they had requested more time to complete their job Many international leaders, including U.N Secretary-General Kofi Annan, criticized the war They said the weapons inspectors should have been given more time On March twentieth, Iraqi time, air strikes by the United States and Britain began the effort called "Operation Iraqi Freedom.” The United States said the war was meant to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, end Saddam Hussein's support for terrorism and free the Iraqi people A number of other countries joined the war effort The coalition quickly defeated the Iraqi military On April ninth, United States forces took control of Baghdad In a dramatic event on that day, Iraqis and American forces destroyed a large statue of Saddam Hussein in the capital The allies controlled all major Iraqi cities Saddam Hussein had disappeared into hiding Another dramatic event took place on May first President Bush landed in a plane onto the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln Then he declared victory PRESIDENT BUSH: "Thank you all very much Admiral Kelly, Captain Card, officers and sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln, my fellow Americans… Major combat operations in Iraq have ended In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.” The government in Baghdad had fallen But a deepening conflict in Iraq lay ahead American troops and an American inspection team searched Iraq for WMDs But none were found That led to accusations against President Bush Critics of the war said the United States and Britain provided false evidence about Iraqi weapons programs and links to terrorists They said Mr Bush accepted false or misleading intelligence because he wanted to invade Iraq More severe critics said he knowingly used false intelligence The United States turned its attention to rebuilding Iraq and establishing a new Iraqi government The Coalition Provisional Authority was created as a temporary government in Iraq President Bush replaced a general with State Department official Paul Bremer as head of the Authority The United States remained in control of Iraq until a temporary Iraqi government could be formed But establishing normal life in Iraq proved difficult People rioted and stole things from government buildings, museums, banks and military storage centers In many places there was little or no electric power, running water or waste removal The Coalition Provisional Authority dismissed the Iraqi army and the government Those people now had no jobs The presence of foreigners in their country angered many Iraqis Some denounced what they called the occupation force Militants attacked coalition troops They also attacked Iraqis and international organizations seen as cooperating with American forces In some areas, longtime religious differences between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims became armed disputes The invasion of Iraq was the most widely and closely reported war in military history At the start of the war, as many as seven hundred reporters and photographers were living and traveling with the troops Also, for the first time in history, troops on the front lines were able to provide direct reporting through Web logs, or blogs, they posted on the Internet In December, 2003, United States forces captured Saddam Hussein hiding on a farm near Tikrit Iraqi officials said he would be tried for crimes against the Iraqi people But the declaration of an end to "major combat operations" and the capture of Saddam did not mean that peace would soon return to Iraq This program, THE MAKING OF A NATION, was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Jill Moss This is Faith Lapidus And this is Steve Ember Join us again next week when we will tell about other major policies during President Bush's first term in office You can find our series about the history of the United States on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com The 43rd President's First Four Years, Revisited Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.) Correction attached This is Faith Lapidus And this is Steve Ember with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States Today we tell about some important policy decisions during the first term of President George W Bush Republican George W Bush defeated his Democratic Party opponent, Al Gore, in the presidential election of 2000 The election results were extremely close Mr Gore disputed them Five suspense-filled weeks passed as several courts considered the voting issues Finally, a decision by the United States Supreme Court effectively settled the election George W Bush was to be president Mr Bush gave his inaugural speech in January 2001 to a politically divided nation He called on Americans to care for and respect others PRESIDENT BUSH: "Today we affirm a new commitment to live out our nation's promise through civility, courage, compassion and character America, at its best, matches a commitment to principle with a concern for civility A civil society demands from each of us good will and respect, fair dealing and forgiveness." During his election campaign, Mr Bush had promised he would help social aid organizations linked to religious groups He established the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives soon after his inauguration Its goal was to help social agencies fight problems like homelessness and illegal drug use Critics argued that this would violate the separation of church and state required by the United States Constitution But Mr Bush said the agencies would provide shelter and food and not religious holy books President Bush took several actions on the environment during his first term In March 2001, he withdrew the United States from the Kyoto Protocol Many nations had signed the treaty in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan This treaty developed from earlier international efforts to control climate change The Kyoto Protocol restricted the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that nations could release into the atmosphere The limitation was placed to reduce global warming, the increase in the average temperature of Earth's surface More than one hundred nations have approved the treaty But Mr Bush said the agreement was unfair He noted that China and India were not required to limit release of greenhouse gases The president believed the Kyoto Protocol requirements would harm American industry and the economy Critics said Mr Bush's decision meant more damage to the environment They also said it set a bad example for the world Another environmental issue concerned exploring for oil and gas The president supported a measure for drilling in a protected wildlife area in the state of Alaska He said getting the resources from the state would reduce American dependence on foreign oil Opponents disagreed They said the measure would destroy wildlife in some of America's most beautiful natural surroundings Congress did not approve the measure One of Mr Bush's major goals was improving America's public schools In January 2002, he signed a law called the No Child Left Behind Act PRESIDENT BUSH: “And we owe the children of America a good education And today begins a new era, a new time in public education in our country As of this hour, America’s schools will be on a new path of reform, and a new path of results.” The law increased the role of the federal government in guaranteeing quality public education for all children in the United States It had several goals: To help poor and minority students improve their performance To provide choices for parents with students in low-performing schools And to increase money for schools in low-income areas The law required all students in grades three through eight to be tested every year in reading and mathematics It held schools responsible for the progress of their students Some educators praised No Child Left Behind But many educators criticized the law They said teachers had to spend too much time preparing students for the tests They also said the law permitted students to leave failing schools instead of finding ways to improve those schools Critics also said not enough federal money was provided for the program Another major piece of legislation dealt with health care for senior citizens President Bush wanted to extend Medicare, the nation's health care plan for people sixty-five and older In 2003 he signed a law to help forty million older Americans buy medicines ordered by their doctors The program was expected to cost four hundred billion dollars It provided billions of dollars to private health insurance companies Supporters of the law said it would lead to better private insurance coverage for senior citizens Opponents said it would help health insurance and drug companies the most and might lead to the end of the Medicare system American law lets presidents decide some issues without Congressional action Mr Bush announced such an executive decision about scientific research He decided to permit federal financing for research that uses existing groups of cells created from human embryos It was the first time federal money would be used for such stem cell research Stem cells can grow into many different kinds of cells For example, they can become cells of the heart, nerves or brain Scientists say such cells might in the future be used to treat diseases like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and juvenile diabetes Mr Bush limited use of the cells, however He said taxpayers' money could finance the research only if the embryos had already been destroyed The president said more than sixty groups of these cells were available for research However, some scientists said these stem cells were in poor condition and could not be used for research One of Mr Bush's major goals was reducing taxes for Americans In 2001, he signed a bill calling for more than one trillion dollars in tax reductions These cuts were to become effective over time The president said the economy would improve if people had more money to spend Democrats said big reductions would harm the economy instead of helping it In 2003, Congress passed compromise tax measures They called for three hundred fifty billion dollars in tax reductions That was less than half of what the president had proposed Most reductions went to investors in the stock market, individual taxpayers, couples and businesses The rest was to help the states In 2002, President Bush signed a law that increased punishments for dishonesty in business The new law also established an independent group to oversee the accounting industry That is the industry that investigates the financial records of companies The action came after several major businesses failed For example, the Enron Corporation, once the leading American energy company, failed in 2001 It was one of the largest corporate bankruptcy claims in American history Some Enron investors lost all their money in the failure Retired employees lost monthly payments they needed to live on Some top officials in the company had used dishonest accounting methods to hide financial problems from investors A federal grand jury in Houston, Texas, brought charges against former Enron chairman and chief executive officer Kenneth Lay and other officers The collapse of Enron was followed by a series of other corporate failures involving dishonest accounting methods For example, the international communications company WorldCom Incorporated also went bankrupt The government charged several company officials with wrongdoing November 2, 2004 was Election Day The public would vote on whether to support President Bush for another term in office Four years earlier, George W Bush had been elected in one of the closest elections in history Now he would have another chance to test his popularity with the American people This program, THE MAKING OF A NATION, was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Jill Moss This is Steve Ember And this is Faith Lapidus Join us again next week when we tell about the presidential election of 2004 You can find our series about the history of the United States on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com Correction: President Bush did not withdraw the United States from the Kyoto Protocol, as stated in this program; he rejected it The U.S signed the treaty in 1998, but it was never sent to the Senate for approval (The Senate had gone on record by a 95-0 vote in 1997 to warn that it opposed terms like those in the treaty.) How Foreign Policy Shaped the 2004 Presidential Race Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.) This is Faith Lapidus And this is Steve Ember with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States Today, we tell about the presidential election of 2004 Every four years, American political parties nominate their candidates for president and vice president In the summer of 2004, Republican Party delegates chose George W Bush and Dick Cheney for a second four years in office During President Bush's first term, Islamic terrorists attacked the United States Almost three thousand people died in strikes against New York City and Washington, D.C., on September eleventh, 2001 President Bush declared a war on terror and led the nation into wars in Afghanistan and Iraq After the terrorist attacks, Mr Bush enjoyed record popularity Public opinion studies showed that almost ninety percent of the American public approved of the way the president was doing his job But this rating decreased over time One public opinion study organization said the president’s average approval rating for 2004 was fifty percent Before a presidential election, candidates compete in state nominating meetings and elections The person winning the most votes in these caucuses and primaries traditionally wins the party’s nomination for president In 2003, ten people were campaigning for the Democratic Party presidential nomination Among the candidates was John Kerry, a senator from Massachusetts Another was Howard Dean, a doctor and former governor of the state of Vermont Another was John Edwards, a lawyer and first-term senator from North Carolina Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut also was running Senator Lieberman had been the vice presidential candidate in the election of 2000 Another senator and a former senator were also seeking the nomination So were two representatives in Congress, a former general and an African American civil rights activist Former Vice President Al Gore was not among the candidates He had lost the extremely close, disputed election of 2000 to George W Bush Mr Gore said he would not be a candidate in 2004 Many people thought Howard Dean would win the Democratic nomination Doctor Dean actively opposed the war in Iraq He won praise for the way he raised money for his campaign Supporters gave him millions of dollars in small gifts through the Internet Then came the Iowa caucuses, the first step in the presidential nominating process, in January of 2004 John Kerry won with a strong thirty-eight percent of the state's delegates Senator Edwards finished second with thirty-two percent Doctor Dean finished third with only 18% Senator Kerry continued to gain support in the state primary elections Several candidates withdrew from the campaign, including Howard Dean Senator Edwards withdrew in early March He did so after Senator Kerry won victories in nine state caucuses and primary elections that were held on the same day, called Super Tuesday John Kerry named John Edwards as his choice for vice president Senator Kerry officially received the Democratic Party nomination for president at the party's convention in Boston, Massachusetts The combination balanced the Democratic ticket in several ways Senator Kerry was considered a liberal He came from the Northeast Senator Edwards was considered more moderate He came from the South Senator Kerry was Roman Catholic Senator Edwards was Protestant John Kerry was born in Colorado in 1943 Like Mr Bush, he graduated from Yale University He joined the United States Navy Mr Kerry was wounded and won honors for his service in the Vietnam War He criticized the war after leaving the military John Kerry graduated from the Boston College law school in 1976 He became a lawyer for the Massachusetts state government Then he served two years as lieutenant governor of the state He was first elected to the Senate in 1984 His wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, is head of a family foundation that gives money to important causes The presidential candidates debated three times on national television They campaigned hard across the country Foreign policy was the major issue during the campaign Mr Bush centered his campaign on national security He said he was the best candidate to keep America safe from terrorists He said Americans could trust him to be strong against terrorism He presented himself as a decisive leader He charged that Senator Kerry had changed positions on issues and would be unsure in the face of danger In 2002, Mr Kerry had voted to give President Bush the power to use force against Iraq But the senator now criticized the way the Iraqi conflict was being fought By the fall of 2004, more than 1,000 Americans had died in Iraq since the war started in March, 2003 Thousands of Iraqi civilians had also been killed Mr Kerry talked about the war in Iraq: JOHN KERRY: “You’ve got to be able to look in the eyes of families and say to those parents, ‘I tried to everything in my power to prevent the loss of your son and daughter.’ I don’t believe the United States did that." Senator Kerry said his goal for the United States was "stronger at home, respected in the world." He believed that the United States had lost respect from many of its allies because of Mr Bush's foreign policy in Iraq President Bush defended American actions in Iraq He said the war was needed to fight terrorism The President also expressed great satisfaction that Iraqis were free of a cruel dictator Mr Kerry said the United States should be recovering faster from a weak economy The economy had slowed before George W Bush became president It got worse after the terrorist attacks in 2001 Mr Kerry denounced the growth of the national debt under Mr Bush’s leadership President Bush praised his administration’s actions in difficult economic times: PRESIDENT BUSH: “Six months prior to my arrival, the stock market started to go down And it was one of the largest declines in our history And then we had a recession and we got attacked, which cost us one million jobs But we acted I led the Congress We passed tax relief And now this economy is growing We added one point nine million new jobs over the last thirteen months.” President Bush proposed a plan for young workers to place some of the taxes on their pay in private retirement accounts John Kerry opposed this idea Mr Bush opposed most operations to end unwanted pregnancies Mr Kerry supported a woman’s right to have an abortion His position disagreed with the Roman Catholic religion's position on this issue Early in the election campaign, an organization known as Swift Boat Veterans for Truth was established to oppose John Kerry's candidacy The group was led by a veteran who, like Mr Kerry, fought in the Vietnam War The group argued that Mr Kerry was unfit to serve as president because of some statements he made about his military service and his past activism in the anti-Vietnam war movement The group even questioned the combat medals awarded to Mr Kerry Other Vietnam veterans, including several who had served with Mr Kerry, denounced the charges against him as completely false Many people believed the accusations and the Kerry campaign's delay in answering them had an important effect on the results of the election Americans voted on November 2, 2004 As in the election of 2000, there were questions about voting problems during and after the election The vote was especially close in the state of Ohio Kerry supporters said there were problems with voting machines They also said many people were illegally prevented from voting The state had enough electoral votes to decide the winner of the presidential election But the day after the election, Senator Kerry decided not to dispute Mr Bush's win in Ohio The final results showed that President Bush won about fifty-one percent of the national popular vote to about forty-eight percent for John Kerry George W Bush would serve four more years as president of the United States This program, THE MAKING OF A NATION, was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Jill Moss This is Steve Ember And this is Faith Lapidus Listen again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States You can find our series about American history on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com Opening the American West: Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.) This is Steve Ember And this is Shirley Griffith, with the VOA Special English program, Explorations Today we continue our story of Lewis and Clark Their exploration in the early 1800s led to the opening of the American West Last week we told how President Thomas Jefferson suggested the trip to his private secretary Meriwether Lewis The president said Lewis and a group of men should travel northwest up the Missouri River as far as possible and then continue west to the Pacific Ocean The explorers were to report about the land, people, animals and plants they found Lewis asked his friend William Clark to join the group Clark accepted and the two men agreed to act as equal leaders of the group they named the Corps of Discovery Their trip began on May fourteenth, 1804 It was one hundred sixty-four days into the trip Lewis and Clark had traveled about 2,420 kilometers when they were stopped by the cold winter weather They named their winter home Fort Mandan Mandan was the name of an Indian tribe that lived nearby At Fort Mandan, Lewis and Clark met French Canadian hunter Toussaint Charbonneau He was living with the Indians He asked to join the Corps of Discovery He also asked if his Indian wife could come too Her name was Sacagawea She was pregnant Lewis and Clark agreed to let them join their group for two reasons The first was that Charbonneau spoke several Indian languages The second concerned Sacagawea She came from the Shoshoni tribe that lived near the Rocky Mountains in the far West She had been captured as a young girl by another Indian tribe Lewis and Clark knew that no Indian war group ever traveled with women They knew that Sacagawea's presence with them would show Indians that the Corps of Discovery did not want to fight Sacagawea gave birth to her son, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, on February eleventh, 1805 The baby, too, would make the long trip to the Pacific Ocean He was the youngest member of the Corps of Discovery In early April, the Corps of Discovery prepared to travel west The smaller group of soldiers that had aided them during their trip to Fort Mandan prepared to return south to Saint Louis The soldiers took the larger of the three boats the group had used to follow the Missouri River They also took Lewis and Clark's first maps, animals, plants and reports to President Jefferson These reports provided much detail about the land and what was on it For example, Lewis used more than one thousand words to tell about one bird Today, visitors to President Jefferson's home in the southeastern state of Virginia can see many things collected by Lewis and Clark Animal heads and weapons made by the Mandan Indian tribe are among them (((MUSIC BRIDGE))) The Corps of Discovery again moved up the Missouri River as soon as the warm weather of spring began to return Lewis wrote of seeing thousands of animals: American bison, deer, huge elk and very fast antelope Lewis saw thousands of animals all feeding together Lewis and Clark soon decided to leave behind important information, plants and things collected from Indians They were having problems carrying everything they were gathering They also decided to leave extra food behind They did this by digging a deep hole and burying everything to protect it from animals They would this again and again on their way west They would collect everything on their return trip The explorers soon reached an area where a series of waterfalls blocked passage on the river This area is near the modern city of Great Falls, Montana Here, the Corps of Discovery pulled the boats from the water and took them over land to the river They carried the boats almost thirty kilometers To make the trip easier, they made wooden wheels for their boats Later they buried the wheels with more food and things they had collected On July twenty-fifth, 1805, Meriwether Lewis and two other men saw a small river that was flowing to the west All rivers before had flowed east or southeast Lewis correctly guessed he had reached the line that divides the North American continent Rain falling to the west of the imaginary line becomes rivers that flow to the Pacific Ocean Rain that falls to the east of the line forms rivers that flow to the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico Meriwether Lewis became the first American to cross this continental line At that point, Lewis could tell from the huge mountains he saw ahead that they would find no waterway across the continent A lot of the trip would have to be over land Meriwether Lewis met two Shoshoni Indian women in this same area About sixty men from the tribe quickly arrived riding horses They were dressed and painted for war It was something that few white men ever saw a Shoshoni war party prepared to fight Lewis made peace signs There was no trouble Two days later, Clark arrived with the main group The Corps of Discovery met with the Indians At the meeting, Sacagawea began to cry as she looked at the Shoshoni chief, Cameahwait Cameahwait was her brother She had not seen him since she was kidnapped many years before Lewis and Clark could communicate with the Shoshoni Indians But it was not easy Sacagawea would listen to the Shoshoni She would then speak to her husband, Charbonneau, in the Hidatsa language He would speak in French to a soldier in the group, Francis Labiche, who then spoke in English to Lewis It took a long time, but it worked The Corps of Discovery decided to leave the boats and continue west on horses Sacagawea helped Lewis and Clark trade for horses She also helped them find an Indian guide to lead them His name was Toby It was already the month of September when they reached the high mountains It was also extremely cold The explorers began to suffer from a severe lack of food They were forced to kill and eat several of their horses In October they found the huge Columbia River High winds and rain slowed the group's progress On November seventh, they reached the Pacific Ocean Clark recorded that five hundred fifty-four days had passed since they left their camp at Wood River near Saint Louis They had traveled six thousand six hundred forty-eight kilometers For several days the Corps of Discovery camped in an area that is now the extreme southern part of the state of Washington But the hunting was poor Indians told them the hunting would be better across the Columbia River Lewis and Clark decided to hold a vote and let the Corps of Discovery decide The Corps of Discovery voted to move south across the river into what is now the state of Oregon William Clark's black slave York and the Indian guide Sacagawea were included in the vote History experts say this was the first free, democratic election west of the Rocky Mountains And they say it was the first time in American history that a black slave and a woman voted in a free election The explorers quickly built a camp of wooden buildings on the Columbia River They would stay there during the winter months between 1805 and 1806 They named the buildings Fort Clatsop "Clatsop" was the name of a nearby group of friendly Indians The area of Fort Clatsop is very near the present city of Astoria, Oregon Visitors to that area today can walk through a copy of Fort Clatsop that was built in 1955 The group stayed at Fort Clatsop for four months It rained all but twelve days During the long winter months, the explorers hunted and preserved food They used animal skins to make new clothes and shoes They also studied the Indians, fish, animals and lands near the area of the fort Clark made extremely good maps of the area Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and the other members of the Corps of Discovery were prepared for their return trip to Saint Louis That will be our story next time You have been listening to the Special English program, Explorations This is Steve Ember And this is Shirley Griffith Our program today was written and produced by Paul Thompson Join us again next week on the Voice of America as we finish our story of Lewis and Clark and the land they explored The Lewis and Clark Exploration: One of the Most Important Events in American History Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.) This is Steve Ember And this is Shirley Griffith, with the VOA Special English program Explorations Today we finish the story of Lewis and Clark and the land they explored in the American Northwest We also tell about plans to celebrate the two hundredth anniversary of their exploration We have told how Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led a group of men and one woman across the American Northwest The group was known as the Corps of Discovery They began their trip on May fourteenth, 1804, in Saint Louis, near the central part of the country It was more than one year before they reached the Pacific coast near the Columbia River They had traveled by river, horse and foot more than six thousand six hundred kilometers President Thomas Jefferson asked Lewis to lead an exploration of the northwestern part of the country He wanted Lewis to learn as much about the land, people, animals and plants as he could Jefferson asked that Lewis write about the progress of his group each day Lewis and Clark kept very careful records Often, Lewis would use more than one thousand words to tell about an animal or a bird Both men drew maps and pictures of what they saw The Corps of Discovery reached the Pacific Ocean near the present city of Astoria, Oregon The group suffered a lot during that winter It was not very cold, but it was always wet It rained almost every day during the winter months between 1805 and 1806 Lewis wrote that everything got wet and stayed wet Many of the men became sick The men had little to except hunt for food They also made new clothing from animal skins for the return home William Clark organized most of the hunting during the long winter months At the same time, he worked on his second map The map showed where the group had been since it left the area that now is the north central state of North Dakota It showed their travels all the way from there to Fort Clatsop on the West Coast Clark drew a correct picture of the American West for the first time Meriwether Lewis stayed inside Fort Clatsop and wrote, day after day, of the things they found He wrote information about one hundred different animals they had seen Of these, eleven birds, two fish, and eleven mammals had not been recorded before He also wrote about plants and trees He had never seen many of these before Neither had modern science known about them He tried to make his reports scientific Modern scientists say his information is still good They say he was extremely careful and provided valuable information for the time Experts say Lewis wrote more like a scientist of today than one of his own century On March twenty-third, 1806, the explorers left Fort Clatsop and started back up the Columbia River Progress was slow as the Corps of Discovery climbed higher toward the mountains They traded with Indians for horses In the month of May they stayed with a tribe called the Nez Perce The Nez Perce said it would not be possible for the explorers to cross the mountains then The snow was still too deep Lewis did not agree The group went forward They found the Nez Perce were right The snow was several meters deep They were forced to stop and return down the mountain The Nez Perce agreed to provide guides to take them through the mountains The Corps of Discovery finally crossed the mountains in the last days of June Lewis divided the Corps of Discovery when they left the mountains He wanted three different groups to go three different ways to learn more about the land Lewis and his group soon found Indians They were members of the Piegan tribe, part of the Blackfeet, a war-like group At first the Indians were friendly Then, one tried to take a gun from one of the men A fight began Two Indians were killed It was the only time during the trip that any fighting took place between native Americans and the Corps of Discovery The fight forced Lewis's group to leave the area very quickly The three groups met again in August of 1806 Traveling on the rivers was easier that in the beginning of their trip The explorers now were going in the same direction as the current They were in a hurry to get home They had been away for two years and five months Each minute they traveled brought them closer to their homes, their families and friends On September third, they saw several men traveling on the river They learned that President Jefferson had been re-elected and was still president of the United States A few days later, one member of the group asked Lewis and Clark if he could remain behind He wanted to go with a group of fur traders that was returning to the area of the Yellowstone River His name was John Colter Colter returned up the river and into the wild land Later Colter became the first American to see the Yellowstone Valley, which became the first national park, Yellowstone He also became famous as one of the first mountain men in American history to open the way to the Rocky Mountains The Corps of Discovery reached Saint Louis on September twenty-third, 1806 They had very little food or supplies left, but they were back Large celebrations were held in the small town Lewis and Clark learned that most people believed they were dead Lewis immediately wrote a long report to President Jefferson and placed it in the mail A few days later President Jefferson knew they had arrived home safely and their trip had been a great success Experts today say the Lewis and Clark trip was one of the most important events in American history They also agree that no two men could have done a better job or been more successful Meriwether Lewis and William Clark added greatly to the knowledge of the American Northwest Clark's maps provided information about huge areas that had been unknown Lewis discovered and told about one hundred seventy-eight new plants, most of them from the far West He also found one hundred twenty-two different kinds of animals that had been recorded There was also one great failure, however Lewis and Clark were not able to find a way to reach the Pacific Ocean using rivers There was no northwest passage that could be used by boats The Lewis and Clark expedition was also a political success It helped the United States make a legal claim to a huge amount of land that had been bought by President Jefferson from France The United States bought the land just as the Corps of Discovery began its trip This land is now the middle part of the United States It was called the Louisiana Territory President Jefferson wanted the future United States to include this land, and all other land between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans Now it is two hundred years since the Corps of Discovery made its historic trip The United States has many plans to celebrate Some celebrations will continue until the year 2006 Committees in the cities, towns and states that Lewis and Clark passed through are planning the anniversary celebrations The National Park Service is also preparing special events New books have been published, newspaper stories written and television programs produced about Lewis and Clark And the public is once again discovering the writings of the two men who led the Corps of Discovery Critics say the word pictures that Lewis created are as clear today as when they were written Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were the first educated white Americans to travel across the land that would become the United States They wrote about things the American public had never seen before They saw Native Americans before the Indians were influenced by other cultures Their success had a lasting influence They showed Americans it was possible to travel across the country and settle in the far West Lewis and Clark's exploration was the beginning of the American campaign to settle that far away, wild land This program was written and produced by Paul Thompson This is Shirley Griffith And this is Steve Ember Join us again next week at this time for another Explorations program, in Special English, here on the Voice of America The Tuskegee Airmen: First AfricanAmericans Trained As Fighter Pilots Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.) I’m Steve Ember And I’m Barbara Klein with Explorations in VOA Special English Today, we tell about the Tuskegee Airmen who served in World War Two They were the first group of AfricanAmericans ever trained as fighter pilots It was July second, 1943 It was foggy near the ground But the sky was clear The airplanes flew upward, over the Mediterranean Sea The water was calm and very blue The planes were part of the United States Army Air Forces, the Ninety-Ninth Pursuit Squadron They were responsible for guarding bomber airplanes flying to Italy The pilots tested their guns When they were satisfied that their weapons were in firing condition, they flew the planes into position to guard the bombers The bombers began to unload their cargo at the target area Clouds of smoke rose from the explosions on the ground A group of enemy fighter planes immediately appeared The pilots of the Ninety-Ninth attacked them In the battle that followed, Lieutenant Charles Hall shot down a German plane It was the first time a pilot from the Ninety-Ninth defeated an enemy aircraft He was the first African-American fighter pilot in the United States armed forces to shoot down an enemy plane Charles Hall and the other pilots of the Ninety-Ninth Pursuit Squadron had come a long way from Tuskegee, Alabama to fight for their country during World War Two In 1940, African-Americans made up about one and one-half percent of the United States army and navy But they were not permitted to join the Army Air Forces and fly planes They had begun campaigning for the right to be accepted into military pilot training during World War One In 1917, African-Americans who requested acceptance into military pilot training were told that black air groups were not being formed at the time Civil rights leaders denounced the belief expressed by many white people that black people could not fight In 1931, Walter White and Robert Moton requested that the War Department accept blacks in the Army Air Corps for pilot training Mr White was an official of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a civil rights organization Mr Moton was president of a respected college for black students, the Tuskegee Institute The War Department refused It said the Air Corps chose men with technical experience The department also said that blacks were not interested in flying And it said that so many educated white men wanted to enter the Air Corps that many of them had to be refused acceptance The War Department’s refusal led many to feel that blacks would only be guaranteed acceptance into the Air Corps through legislation by Congress Black leaders used the United States’ preparation for entry into World War Two to pressure Congress They criticized the unfair treatment of African-Americans in the armed services In 1939, Congress approved a bill guaranteeing blacks the right to be trained as military air pilots It was proposed that a pilot training camp for blacks be established in Tuskegee, Alabama Black leaders praised the signs of change within the military Yet they continued to work against the military policy of racial separation The War Department answered these critics by making plans to form several new black fighting groups It also promoted a black colonel, Benjamin O Davis, Senior, to Brigadier General And the War Department appointed a black judge, William Hastie, as civilian aide on AfricanAmerican affairs Judge Hastie was the head of Howard University Law School in Washington, D.C Judge Hastie first opposed the establishment of a flight training school in Tuskegee He wanted blacks to be trained along with whites, not separated from them The Air Corps said there was no space in other programs And it said establishing a school at Tuskegee would be the fastest way to start the training So Judge Hastie withdrew his formal opposition, although he was not satisfied with the plan Fred Patterson was the president of the Tuskegee Institute He also objected to separate training of black pilots He said it was necessary to denounce forced racial separation But he finally accepted the program at Tuskegee He recognized that blacks would be trained separately from whites any place in the United States He saw Tuskegee as a beginning At least blacks would now become military pilots The Civilian Pilot Training Program at Tuskegee trained black pilots for difficult and dangerous flying The first group of African-Americans completed the training as fighter pilots in March, 1942 General Davis’s son, Benjamin O Davis, Junior, was among the first graduates Blacks finally had won the right to fly with the Army Air Corps, now known as the Army Air Forces After the war, the Army Air Forces would become the United States Air Force Many of the men trained at Tuskegee served in Europe with the Ninety-Ninth Pursuit Squadron It was organized in October, 1942 Its commander was Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin O Davis, Junior The Ninety-Ninth was sent to the Mediterranean area in April, 1943 The pilots gained fighting experience flying over Sicily and Italy In June of that year, the fighter pilots successfully attacked the Sicilian island of Pantelleria It was the first time air power alone completely destroyed all enemy resistance The Tuskegee Airmen took part in the most famous battles in Italy These included the battles over the Monte Cassino monastery between Rome and Naples and the invasions of Salerno and Anzio At Anzio, in the first months of 1944, the pilots of the Ninety-Ninth shot down 18 enemy airplanes Later, in July, they shot down thirty-six enemy planes Their record led the Army Air Forces to decide to use more black pilots in the war In September, 1943, Colonel Davis became commander of the Three Hundred Thirty-Second Fighter Group The Ninety-Ninth Squadron became a part of that group Four hundred fifty black pilots were in the group They flew more than 15,500 flights in Europe The Tuskegee Airmen guarded bomber airplanes They destroyed more than one hundred enemy airplanes in the air, including German fighter planes And two of the Tuskegee Airmen each shot down four enemy planes Nine hundred ninety-six black pilots were trained at Tuskegee Airfield before World War Two ended For black Americans during World War Two, the Tuskegee Airmen represented both honor and inequality Members of the group received almost one thousand military awards during the war Yet their separation from white troops was a powerful sign of the military’s racial policy History experts say the Tuskegee airmen proved that black men could fly military airplanes in highly successful combat operations And the group’s success helped end the separate racial policy of the American military In 1948, President Harry Truman ordered the armed forces to provide equal treatment for black servicemen The next year, the Air Force announced that black and white airmen no longer would be separated In civilian life, many of the Tuskegee airmen became lawyers, doctors, judges, congressmen and mayors Their fighting spirit had helped them survive battles and unequal treatment At home, their spirit helped lead the way to civil rights progress in the United States In March, 2007, the United States Congress honored the Tuskegee Airmen at a ceremony in Washington, D.C The group received the country's highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal President Bush spoke to the surviving airmen and their families He praised their bravery to fight in the face of the unequal treatment they suffered at home Retired Army general and former Secretary of State Colin Powell also spoke to the group He thanked them for leading the way to equal racial treatment in the United States He said the Tuskegee Airmen showed America that there was nothing a black person could not This program was written by Nancy Steinbach It was produced by Mario Ritter I'm Steve Ember And I'm Barbara Klein You can read and listen to this program on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English Lessons Learned From the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.) I’m Steve Ember And I’m Faith Lapidus with Explorations in VOA Special English Sixty years ago, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Today we tell about those two events that ended World War Two Earlier this month, tens of thousands of people in Japan and around the world marked the sixtieth anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki The United States dropped an atomic bomb on the southern Japanese city of Hiroshima on August sixth, 1945 More than seventy thousand people died as a result of the world’s first use of an atomic weapon Three days later, a second bomb dropped on the city of Nagasaki killed an estimated eighty thousand civilians Tens of thousands of Japanese died later from radiation poisoning and other atomic-related diseases To honor victims of the attacks, more than fifty thousand people gathered in Hiroshima on August sixth Japanese officials and foreign diplomats also attended the early morning ceremony All mourners lowered their heads for a moment of silence at the exact moment of the Hiroshima bombing The mayor of Hiroshima, Tadatoshi Akiba, called on the United Nations to take steps to put an end to nuclear weapons He criticized the countries with such weapons as threatening human survival A similar ceremony was held in Nagasaki on August ninth At both events, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi promised to keep Japan free of nuclear weapons The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki led to the end of World War Two Japan informed the Allied Powers that it would surrender on August fourteenth, 1945 One day later, Emperor Hirohito officially announced the surrender on Japanese national radio Sixty years after the atomic bombings, historians are still debating if they were necessary to end the war At the time, fierce fighting in the Pacific continued and United States President Harry Truman was considering an invasion of Japan Some historians argue that millions of Japanese and American troops would have died in such an invasion Retired history professor Robert James Maddox wrote the book “Weapons for Victory: The Hiroshima Decision.” He says America’s use of the atomic bomb was never in question Instead, President Truman had to decide when the bomb would be dropped Other historians, however, question the morality of the decision Kai Bird wrote a book about American scientist J Robert Oppenheimer, who is considered the father of the atomic bomb He says even Mr Oppenheimer questioned the morality of the decision to use the bomb Some critics believe that Japan was about to surrender when President Truman decided to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki They say the real reason for the bombings was to send a message about America’s military strength to the Soviet Union Historians say war survivors in Asia remain angry over Japan’s fierce occupation during World War Two For almost four years, Japanese forces occupied much of Asia, from China to the Pacific islands Experts say Japanese soldiers killed many Asians unnecessarily Soldiers also sexually attacked many Asian women or used others as sex slaves Japan argued that its occupation was necessary to regain control of Asia from European and American governments Brian Farrell is a historian at the National University of Singapore He told VOA reporter Heda Bayron that many survivors are still angry at Japan In addition, Mr Farrell says Japan’s apparent lack of caring about its past cruelty has hurt its relations with other Asian nations On August second, the Japanese parliament passed a resolution expressing deep regret for the suffering that Japan caused during the war Prime Minister Koizumi released a similar statement on August fifteenth, the official day of Japan’s surrender The statement said Japan caused great damage and pain to the people of Asia through its colonization and aggression The statement expressed deep sadness and heartfelt apology Other recent issues have harmed Japanese ties with Asian nations Earlier this year, Japan approved new schoolbooks for history classes Critics say the books not correctly describe the nation’s actions during World War Two Tensions have also increased over visits by Japanese officials to the Yasukuni memorial in Tokyo The memorial honors Japanese soldiers who died during military service Critics say the memorial includes convicted war criminals After the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings in 1945, Japan became a strong anti-nuclear nation The attacks created a common feeling of opposition against atomic weapons Since 1956, it has been national policy not to have, manufacture or permit nuclear weapons in Japan However, the country has a successful nuclear energy industry And lawmakers are starting to question whether Japan should create a nuclear defense system Kazuhiro Haraguchi is a Parliament member from the opposition Democratic Party He told VOA reporter Steve Herman that North Korea’s nuclear ability may soon force Japan to create its own nuclear weapons The world came very close to a nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 For several days, the United States Navy blocked Cuba after discovering the Soviet Union had been shipping nuclear missiles to the country The crisis led to the 1968 Nuclear NonProliferation Treaty Today, about one hundred ninety countries have signed the international agreement In exchange for giving up nuclear weapons, they have promised to work toward nuclear disarmament They also have agreed not to pass nuclear weapons to countries that not have them And they have agreed to share nuclear technology for peaceful energy purposes only Today, seven nations in the world are known to have nuclear weapons Russia, China, India, Pakistan, France, Britain and the United States Most experts believe that Israel and North Korea also have nuclear weapons Many of these nations have reduced their nuclear weapons They include the United States, Russia, Britain and France China is working to modernize its weapons program Libya has ended its program to develop nuclear weapons The International Atomic Energy Agency has taken apart Iraq’s program But some experts question whether the world is any safer In 2002, North Korea expelled inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency It has since admitted that it has a small number of nuclear weapons Talks among six nations urging North Korea to end its nuclear program have produced little progress The situation in Iran is also tense Earlier this month, Iran refused to honor international demands that it halt its nuclear program Iran restarted uranium-processing activities at its Isfahan nuclear center The International Atomic Energy Agency has called on Iran to suspend its nuclear activities If it fails to so, the IAEA could report Iran to the United Nations Security Council, which could order restrictions against the country Western nations suspect Iran is secretly trying to build nuclear weapons But Iran says it wants nuclear technology only to produce electricity Some experts say the most frightening situation does not involve nations with nuclear weapons They say it involves terrorists with nuclear material Experts say terrorists could create a so-called “dirty bomb” with small amounts of radioactive and explosive material A more dangerous situation would involve a terrorist bomb fueled with a small amount of plutonium or highly enriched uranium This kind of weapon loaded into a small truck or boat could destroy a city and kill large numbers of people Such an event could be like a second Hiroshima or Nagasaki These two Japanese cities have been largely rebuilt today But the lessons learned from their destruction sixty years ago remain J Robert Oppenheimer may have described atomic weapons best He called them a great danger, but also the world’s greatest hope for lasting peace Only time will tell if he was right This program was written by Jill Moss It was produced by Mario Ritter I’m Faith Lapidus And I’m Steve Ember Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English From Horses to Tractors, Changes in U.S Agriculture Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.) I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT Over the years, new technologies have changed farming Change in a general direction is a trend Yet people often recognize trends only when they consider the past Today, we look back at some trends in American agriculture We begin with the change from animal power to mechanical power Our information comes from the National Agricultural Statistics Service, part of the Agriculture Department In 1920, America had more than twenty-five million horses and mules Most were used for farm work Around the same time, a competitor began to appear in large numbers Tractors could turn soil, pull loads and speed harvests and they could it better More tractors meant fewer horses and mules By the 1960s, the numbers of these work animals settled to where they remain today That is about one-tenth the levels in 1920 Yet even the demand for tractors had its limits Tractors reached their highest numbers around 1982 Their numbers have been slowly decreasing Experts say farmers can more with less now because of new technologies So, tractors replaced horses and mules As a result, farmers no longer needed to raise crops to feed work animals Oats have long been food for horses and mules In 1954, American farmers planted over sixteen million hectares of oats By two thousand, that was down to less than one million hectares So what did the farmers with the extra land? More and more farmers began to plant a new crop around the same time that the tractor became popular It was the soybean The soybean is one of the oldest plants harvested Yet it was not planted widely in the United States until the 1920s By the year two thousand, close to thirty million hectares were planted with soybeans It is the nation's most important crop for high-protein animal feed and for vegetable oil In fact, soybeans are the second most valuable crop grown by American farmers after corn Much of the soybean production goes to exports Next week, learn about other trends that have affected productivity on American farms And we will discuss future directions for change This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by Mario Ritter Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com I'm Gwen Outen More From Less: America’s Highly Productive Farms Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.) I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT At one time, the United States was a nation of farmers In 1900, about 39% of Americans or thirty million people lived on farms A similar percentage of the labor force earned a living by working on farms By 1990, fewer than two percent of the population lived or worked on farms There were also fewer farms In 1940, there were more than six million farms in America Today there are fewer than two million While the number of farms decreased, the size of the remaining farms increased The average farm today is about 200 hectares In 1900, it was 60 As the United States became an industrial nation, its farms changed not only in size, but in their business plans In the past, farmers raised many different crops or animals For example, in 1900, almost all farms raised chickens More than 75% of farms raised pigs and milk cows In 1997, however, only about six percent of farms raised these animals The trend in American farming has been to specialize Farmers put their efforts into intensively raising only a few things New technology has helped create specialized systems that produce more using less labor Two examples of this are milk and corn Since 1924, American milk production has grown almost 100% But the number of milk cows has decreased by half Cows today produce more than four times more milk than their ancestors eighty years ago The same is true for corn Improved kinds of corn produce about 4.7 times more corn per hectare than 100 years ago Economists call producing more with less an increase in productivity The Department of Agriculture uses a measure called an index to show how productivity changes It says America’s agricultural productivity increased by more than 100% between 1950 and 1996 Over the same period, prices of agricultural goods fell by more than 50% So, the trend toward increased productivity has meant lower prices Many farmers have answered by increasing the size of their specialized operations Information in this report comes from the National Agricultural Statistics Service This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by Mario Ritter I'm Gwen Outen Yukon Gold Rush: Thousands Went to Western Canada to Find It Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.) This is Faith Lapidus And this is Richard Rael with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS Today we begin the first of two programs about the discovery of gold Huge amounts of gold Enough gold to make a person extremely rich Our story begins in an area called the Klondike in the Yukon Territory of western Canada The discovery took place on a warm August day in eighteen ninety-six George Carmack and his two Indian friends, Skookum Jim Mason and Dawson Charlie, were working near the edge of a small river in western Canada's Yukon Territory The area was just across the border from Alaska, which was owned by the United States The men were using large steel pans to search for gold They placed dirt and rocks in a pan and then filled it about half way with water Slowly, they moved the water around in the pan until most of the dirt and water washed away This left only very small rocks This method was a very good way to find small amounts of gold The three men had often worked like this in an effort to find gold But they had never been very successful The three men moved along the small river as they worked History does not say which of the three found gold first But it does say that all three began to find large amounts In eighteen ninety-six, gold was selling for about sixteen dollars for twenty-eight grams The three men knew they were rich after just a few days They also knew they must go to the government office and claim the land They had to keep their discovery a secret until they had a legal claim to the land where they had found the gold George Carmack, Skookum Jim Mason and Dawson Charlie were the first men to discover a great amount of gold in the Klondike Before that August day, others had found gold, but never in huge amounts The three men had found one of the largest amounts of gold ever discovered lying on the surface of the Earth The news of this discovery could not be kept secret very long Other people quickly traveled to the area of the great Klondike River where the three had made the discovery Some also found huge amounts of gold, enough to make them extremely rich On July sixteenth, eighteen ninety-seven, the ship Excelsior came into the American port of San Francisco, California It carried the first men who had found gold in the Klondike The next day, the ship Portland landed in Seattle, Washington It too carried men who had found gold in the Yukon Clarence Berry was one of these men He was a fruit farmer from California He came off the ship Excelsior in San Francisco with one hundred thirty thousand dollars worth of gold Niles Anderson came off the ship Portland with one hundred twelve thousand dollars in gold They were only two men among more than one hundred who left the ships with huge amounts of money Photographs taken when the ships landed show thousands of people meeting the two ships Newspapers printed long stories about the discovery of gold and the rich men who had just returned from the Yukon The news quickly traveled around the world that gold had been discovered To understand the excitement it caused, you must understand the value of that much money at the time In eighteen ninety-seven, a man with a good job working in New York City was paid about ten dollars each week To earn the one hundred thirty thousand dollars that Clarence Berry took off the ship, that man would have had to work for two hundred fifty years! People all over the world became excited about the possibility of finding gold Newspaper stories said it was easy to find the gold It was just lying on the ground All you had to was go to Alaska, and then to the Klondike area of the Yukon Territory of Canada and collect your gold The possibility of finding gold caused thousands of people to make plans to travel to Alaska and then to the Klondike area of the Yukon American and Canadian experts say between twenty and thirty thousand people may have traveled to the gold fields These people were called "stampeders." The word "stampede" means a mass movement of frightened animals In eighteen ninety-seven, the word came to mean the huge groups of people running or stampeding to Alaska and the Klondike The people wanted a chance to become rich The United States was suffering a great economic depression It had begun in the southern United States as early as eighteen ninety By eighteen ninety-seven, thousands of people were out of work Men who had no jobs decided to use all the money they had left to go to Alaska Many believed that it would be worth taking a chance to become extremely rich Newspapers and magazines began writing stories about traveling to Alaska Books told what a person would need to be successful at finding gold Other books explained sure methods of finding gold Many of these books told people what they wanted to hear that finding gold in the Yukon was easy Most of the people who wrote the books had no idea at all where the Canadian Yukon Territory was Many did not know anything about the American territory of Alaska The people who wrote the books had no idea what was involved They were only interested in selling books Many of the people who would travel to the gold fields had no idea what they would face They did not know about the extremely cold weather that could kill Most did not know they would face extremely hard work and terrible living conditions This was not true of the Canadian government The Canadian government knew how hard it was to live in the western part of the country The Canadian government quickly approved a law that said each person must bring enough supplies to last for one year This was about nine hundred kilograms of supplies Each person would have to bring food, tools, clothing, and everything else they needed for one year The reason for this was very simple There were no stores in the Yukon There was no place to buy food The nearest port was more than one thousand kilometers away from where the gold discovery had been made There were no railroads At first, there were no roads that would permit a horse and wagon The stampeders would have to walk all the way, and transport the supplies by themselves The price of these supplies quickly increased In eighteen ninety-seven, a travel company in the middle western American city of Chicago, Illinois listed the prices of what it cost to travel to Alaska A ticket to ride the train from Chicago to Seattle, Washington was fifty-one dollars and fifty cents The company said a ticket on a ship from Seattle to Skagway, Alaska was thirty-five dollars Companies across the United States offered to sell all the supplies a gold seeker would need to take to the Klondike Newspapers and magazines printed long lists of the supplies a stampeder would need The price for these goods was often extremely high The trains and the ships would carry these supplies for an additional price A young man who had the money to buy the supplies and the necessary tickets to travel to Alaska usually landed at the little port of Skagway The first shipload of several hundred gold seekers landed at Skagway on July twenty-sixth, eighteen ninety-seven Many ships quickly followed The little town of Skagway soon had thousands of people looking for a place to live, food to eat and directions to where they could find gold The stampeders were in a hurry They wanted to quickly travel to the area where they could find gold Many wanted to buy the rest of the supplies they would need before they began the trip into Canada These supplies became extremely valuable Prices increased even more Violence and a lack of a police department soon caused problems People fought over supplies The gold seekers quickly learned that life in Alaska would be extremely difficult And they soon learned they still had more than one thousand kilometers to travel They learned they would have to carry their supplies over high mountains Then they would need to build a boat to travel on the Yukon River They learned the last part of their trip would be the hardest of all That trip and what the thousands of gold seekers found will be our story next week This program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Mario Ritter This is Faith Lapidus And this is Richard Rael Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America Yukon Gold Rush: Newspapers Said It Was Easy to Get Rich Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.) This is Bob Doughty And this is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS Today we tell the second part of our story about the discovery of gold in the area of Canada called the Yukon We tell about the thousands of people who traveled to Alaska and on to Canada hoping that they would become rich Last week, we told how three men discovered huge amounts of gold near the Yukon River in northwestern Canada Their discovery started a rush of people traveling to the American territory of Alaska and across the border to Canada History experts believe that between twenty and thirty thousand people traveled to the area Newspapers printed stories that said it was easy to become rich All you had to was pick up the gold from the ground Books and magazines told how to travel to the area and the best method of finding gold However, most of this information was false It was not easy to find gold It was extremely hard work under very difficult conditions The first ship carrying the gold seekers arrived in the port town of Skagway, Alaska, on July twenty-sixth, eighteen ninety-seven These people were very lucky It was summer and the weather was warm However, they found few places to live in Skagway Most people had to make temporary houses out of cloth Skagway was a very small port town It had very few stores And everything was very costly Skagway also had a crime problem One of the chief criminals was a man named Jefferson Randolph Smith He was better known as "Soapy" Smith He did his best to take money from men who were on their way to seek gold One method he used seems funny, now Soapy Smith had signs printed that said a person could send a telegram for five dollars Many people paid the money to send telegrams to their families back home to say they had arrived safely in Skagway But they did not know that the telegraph office wires only went into the nearby forest It was not a real telegraph office It was a lie Soapy Smith used to take money from people who passed through Skagway Most of the gold seekers wanted to quickly travel to the area where gold had been discovered However, the Canadian government required that each person had to bring enough supplies to last for one year if they wanted to cross the border into Canada This was about nine hundred kilograms of supplies Each person had to bring food, tools, clothing, and everything else needed for one year There were no stores in the Yukon There was no place to buy food People who brought their supplies with them on the ship were lucky Others had to buy their supplies in Skagway They had to pay extremely high prices for everything they needed When they had gathered all the supplies, the gold seekers then faced the extremely hard trip into Canada Their first problem was crossing over a huge mountain They could cross the mountain in one of two places the White Pass and the Chilkoot Pass Each gold seeker began by moving his supplies to the bottom of the mountain Their progress to the mountain was painfully slow A man named Fred Dewey wrote to friends back home that it took him two weeks just to move his supplies from Skagway to the mountain His wrote that his body hurt because of the extremely hard work Then the gold seekers had to move their supplies up the mountain Some men made as many as thirty trips before they had all of their supplies at the top But others looked at the mountain and gave up They sold their supplies and went back to Skagway At the top of the mountain was the United States border with Canada Canadian officials weighed the supplies of each man If the supplies did not weigh enough, the men were sent back They were not permitted to cross into Canada A gold seeker who had successfully traveled up the mountain still faced the most difficult and dangerous part of the trip Both trails up the mountain ended near Lake Bennett in British Columbia From there it was almost nine hundred kilometers by boat down the Yukon River to the town of Dawson were gold had been discovered But there was no boat service Each person or small group had to build their own boat They cut down many trees to build the boats Within a few months, some forests in the area were gone The summer quickly passed and winter began The gold seekers were still building their boats The Yukon River turned to ice Winter in this area was extremely cold The temperature often dropped to sixty degrees below zero Celsius The cold could kill an unprotected person in just a few minutes American writer Jack London was among the gold seekers He became famous for writing about his experiences in Alaska and Canada He wrote a short story that perhaps best explains the terrible conditions gold seekers faced It is called "The White Silence." In the story, Mr London explained how the extreme cold made the world seem dead It caused strange thoughts He said the cold and silence of this frozen world seemed to increase a man's fear of death This cruel cold could make a man afraid of his own voice The story also tells what could happen to a person who had an accident There were not many doctors in the gold fields A seriously injured person could only expect to die Jack London's many stories truthfully explained just how hard it was to be a gold seeker in eighteen ninetyseven By the end of winter, the area around Lake Bennett was a huge temporary town of more than ten thousand people They were all waiting for the ice to melt so they could continue on to the gold fields On May twenty-eighth, eighteen ninety-eight, the Yukon River could again hold boats The ice was melting That day, more than seven thousand boats began the trip to Dawson Many of these gold seekers did not survive the trip on the Yukon River All of the boats had to pass through an area called the White Horse Rapids The water there was fast and dangerous Many boats turned over Many of the gold seekers died At last, the remaining gold seekers reached the city of Dawson Dawson had been a small village before the discovery of gold It became a big city within a short time Stores and hotels were quickly built The price of everything increased One man named Miller brought a cow to Dawson He sold the milk for thirty dollars for a little less than four liters For the rest of his life he was known as "Cow Miller." He did not get rich seeking gold But he made a great deal of money selling milk Many people did the same thing They bought supplies in the United States and moved them to Dawson Then they sold everything at extremely high prices The gold seekers quickly learned that most of the valuable areas of land had already been claimed by others Many gave up and went home Some gold seekers searched in other areas Others went to work for people who had found gold Experts say about four thousand people became rich during the great Klondike gold rush Groups of men formed large companies and began buying land in the area The large companies used huge machines to dig for gold One of these companies continued to make a profit digging gold until nineteen sixty-six History records say that in only four years the area around Dawson produced more than fifty-one million dollars in gold This would be worth more than one thousand million dollars today The great Yukon gold rush was over by the end of eighteen ninety-nine As many of the gold seekers began to leave, news spread of another huge discovery of gold Gold had been found in Nome, Alaska Thousands of people rushed to Nome Gold was later discovered in another part of Alaska in nineteen-oh-two Today, people visiting the area of the great Klondike gold rush can still find very small amounts of gold The amount of gold is not much But it is enough to feel the excitement of those gold seekers more than one hundred years ago This program was written by Paul Thompson It was produced by Mario Ritter This is Phoebe Zimmermann And this is Bob Doughty Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America <= Back [ Program 244 ] Next => President Lincoln's Cottage (In Washington) Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.) Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English I'm Steve Ember And I'm Barbara Klein This week on our program, we take you to President Lincoln's Cottage in Washington Our story begins on the evening of Wednesday, September 17, 1862 The Civil War between the Union North and Confederate South is in its second year The first major battle on Northern territory has just been fought that day a hundred kilometers from Washington Union troops defeated a rebel invasion in the Battle of Antietam in the state of Maryland In all, more than 20,000 soldiers were killed or wounded September 17, 1862, becomes the single bloodiest day in American military history President Abraham Lincoln is fighting to keep the Southern states of the Confederacy from leaving the Union But from his office in the White House, he must also attend to his other duties as president of the United States In summertime, which can get very hot in Washington, President Lincoln used a country house It was about five kilometers from the White House Each morning and evening, Lincoln rode between the two houses on horseback, unguarded Buildings would give way to farmland as he rode north out of the city In about 30 minutes, he would arrive at the grounds of the Soldiers' Home Just inside the gate was a large house used by the president and his family This house was on much higher ground than the White House, so the wind kept it cooler It was also quiet a place to think On this day we imagine Lincoln climbing the stairs to his study on the second floor He places his tall black hat on his desk and opens a large window He feels cooler already He lights two lamps and sits down at the desk An important document that he has been writing, and rewriting, waits for him He began working on it soon after he became president in 1861 Lincoln has been thinking long and hard to develop his ideas and capture them in words What he is writing sounds like it was written by a lawyer He was, after all, a lawyer in Illinois before he became president But this is different It involves the war, the ownership of human beings and the future of the divided nation He knows that some people will support it, some will reject it and some will say it changes nothing It will free the slaves, but only in areas where Lincoln has no power Slavery was legal in the Confederate States of America the South But it was also legal in several neighboring states that remained loyal to the Union Many Americans wanted Lincoln to free all the slaves Lincoln opposed slavery But he needed the continued loyalty of those border states, like Maryland and Kentucky, or risk losing the Civil War The sixteenth president looks again at what he has written Lincoln feels that what he is doing will give the war effort new meaning He feels that in time it will lead to the end of slavery in the United States On this day, September seventeenth, he has finished his second draft of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation Soon he will share it with his cabinet Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary version five days later, on September 22, 1862 It declared that slaves would be free anywhere that was still in rebellion on January 1, 1863 The final version of the Emancipation Proclamation came on January 1st, declaring: " all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free " The document would become one of the most important in American history The Emancipation Proclamation is in the National Archives in Washington, and it can be seen online at archives.gov Lincoln was right that it would not be very popular But he was also right that it would be the first step toward ending slavery in the United States The proclamation also welcomed freed slaves to serve in the Union Army and Navy By the end of the war, more than 200,000 blacks had joined the armed services The Civil War lasted from 1861 to 1865 Troops were stationed at the Soldiers' Home to protect President Lincoln during the war At first he did not welcome them He did not think he needed their protection But he began to enjoy talking to them In fact, much of what historians know about the president's time at the house is from stories told by those soldiers One soldier told of guarding the president's house on a day when Lincoln was sitting on the porch with his young son Tad They were playing a game of checkers The president asked the solder to put down his rifle and join them The young soldier was confused He was supposed to guard the president, not play a game But the president was also commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy The soldier decided he could not refuse the request He spent the afternoon playing checkers with the president Not far from the house was a military hospital The president would sometimes watch the wagons arriving with soldiers wounded in the war He would sometimes talk with the soldiers The man with the long, sad face wanted to hear news about the battles they had been fighting He said it helped him understand their experiences Today the house at the Soldiers' Home is known as President Lincoln's Cottage But Lincoln was not the first president to use it That was James Buchanan, the president just before him Later, presidents Rutherford Hayes and Chester Arthur also used it A Washington banker named George Washington Riggs built the house in 1842 In 1851, he sold the house and the land around it to the federal government The government later expanded the house and used the land to build the Soldiers' Home for veterans Today it is called the Armed Forces Retirement Home More than 1,000 retired service members live there The location of President Lincoln's Cottage has not changed since Lincoln's day But the city of Washington has The house is now within the city limits Historians have compared it to the modern presidential retreat in the mountains of Maryland They call it a kind of 19th century Camp David The 34 room house opened to the public in February of 2008 after 15 million dollars in work The National Trust for Historic Preservation has restored the building so it looks as it did when Lincoln and his family lived there For example, workers removed more than 20 layers of paint from one room The paint hid the wooden walls of what was Lincoln's library Visitors can see lines left by bookshelves on the walls Guides tell visitors that Lincoln lived at the house for one-fourth of his time as president He and his family would go to the house in June or early July and stay until early November They did this in 1862, (18)62 and (18)64 Records show that one year, White House workers moved 19 wagonloads of belongings to the house These included toys, clothing and furniture One night in 1864, President Lincoln survived an assassination attempt He was alone, returning on horseback from Washington Someone shot at him It happened near the house His tall hat flew off and soldiers found it on the ground with a bullet hole through it He was not injured After that, the War Department increased his protection But it was not enough to save his life Records show that he visited his country house for the last time on April 13, 1865 The next day, John Wilkes Booth, an actor and supporter of the defeated Confederacy, shot President Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver I'm Steve Ember And I'm Barbara Klein Internet users can learn more about President Lincoln's Cottage at lincolncottage.org For a link, and for transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs, go to voaspecialenglish.com We hope you can join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English Petroleum: A Short History, Part Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.) This is the VOA Special English Economics Report With oil around one hundred dollars a barrel, this may be a good time for a short history of petroleum Petroleum has been important since ancient times The Greek historian Herodotus told of its use in the form of pitch for building and road making in the ancient city of Babylon in present-day Iraq In Latin, the name means "rock oil." Petroleum is a fossil fuel The liquid comes from the remains of plants and animals that died millions of years ago These remains were buried deep below levels of rock over time and under great pressure This geological process created complex molecules of hydrogen and carbon Oil can also contain other elements Crude oil, or unprocessed petroleum, is called sour when it contains a lot of sulfur, an impurity Sour crude requires more refining than sweet crude, which is low in sulfur and, as a result, often more valuable The modern history of oil started in the middle of the eighteen hundreds At that time, a method was found to make kerosene fuel from petroleum This kind of fuel became popular for heating and lighting Edwin Drake drilled the first oil well in the United States in eighteen fifty-nine near Titusville, Pennsylvania In the early eighteen sixties, John D Rockefeller entered the oil business Rockefeller and his partners understood the power of controlling all levels of production By eighteen seventy, Rockefeller and his partners formed the Standard Oil Company Standard Oil and other companies that it owned performed every level of production from drilling to refining to transporting and selling But in its efforts to grow, Standard Oil was strongly criticized for crushing smaller competitors Finally, in nineteen eleven, the United States Supreme Court ruled that Standard Oil was misusing its powerful market position The ruling divided Standard Oil into thirty-four independent companies Today, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and Chevron are some of the companies whose roots go back to the breakup of Standard Oil They are among the largest publicly traded companies in the world And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter Our history of petroleum continues next week That includes a look at the history of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, better known as OPEC Transcripts and MP3 archives of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com I'm Steve Ember Petroleum: A Short History, Part Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.) This is the VOA Special English Economics Report When we think of oil, the part of the world that comes to mind first may be the Middle East But petroleum development takes place worldwide Nigeria, for example, is the largest oil producer in Africa and the eleventh largest producer in the world Russia is the world's second largest exporter of oil and the top exporter of natural gas But the country that produces and exports more oil than any other is Saudi Arabia The Saudis hold one-fourth of the world's proven oil reserves Last year, Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf countries produced about twenty-eight percent of the world's oil supply The United States Energy Department says they also held fifty-five percent of known reserves The other Gulf producers are Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates Iran has ten percent of the world's proven oil reserves Iraq is also estimated to have a large supply of oil, and unexplored areas may hold much more In nineteen sixty Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela formed the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries Today OPEC has twelve members The newest is Angola which joined this year High oil prices have brought new attention to OPEC Its members produce about forty percent of the world's oil But two of the world's top three oil exporters, Russia and Norway, are not OPEC members Its influence may have reached a high point during the oil crisis connected to the nineteen seventy-three Arab-Israeli war Arab oil producers boycotted the United States, western Europe and Japan because of their support for Israel Since then, new discoveries and increased production in areas including countries of the former Soviet Union have provided more oil National oil companies are estimated to control about eighty percent of the world's oil supply In recent years, rising oil prices have led more governments to act, either directly or indirectly, to take control of their oil industries President Hugo Chavez has moved to nationalize oil operations in Venezuela And in Russia, a series of actions resulted in state-owned Rosneft gaining control of reserves held by Yukos Yukos was Russia's largest private company, until the government said it owed billions of dollars in taxes and jailed its founder, Russia's richest man And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter Our report last week on the history of oil can be found at voaspecialenglish.com I'm Faith Lapidus Correction: OPEC has 13 members, not 12 as reported, based on information from its Web site Ecuador, which left the group 15 years ago, rejoined in November The Gettysburg Address Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.) It is one of the most important, and most beautiful, speeches ever given in the English language I'm Steve Ember with Bob Doughty President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is our report this week on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA We begin in the summer of eighteen-sixty-three in Gettysburg, a little town in the state of Pennsylvania Gettysburg was a small farming and market town back then On July first, second and third, two huge armies clashed in Gettysburg They fought in one of the most important battles of the American Civil War Because of that battle, the little market town of Gettysburg became an extremely important part of American history General Robert E Lee led the Southern army of the Confederate states into Pennsylvania He went into the North in hopes of winning a major victory a victory that might help the Confederate cause Southern states, where slavery was legal, were trying to form their own country They wanted the right to govern themselves Northern states did not want to let them leave the Union General George Gordon Mead's Union Army was following the Confederates The two armies met at Gettysburg in the fierce heat of summer in July of eighteen-sixty-three Little Round Top, Cemetery Ridge, the Devil's Den, Pickett's Charge American history books are filled with the names of places in and around Gettysburg where the soldiers fought These are places where thousands of men died defending the idea of a United States of America General Lee and the Confederate Army lost the great battle They were forced to return to the South Many more battles would be fought during the Civil War Some were just as terrible as the one at Gettysburg Yet few are remembered so well Gettysburg was the largest battle ever fought on the North American continent And it was the subject of a speech given five months later by the president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln On November second of eighteen-sixty-three, David Wills of Gettysburg wrote a letter to President Abraham Lincoln In the letter, Wills explained that the bodies of soldiers killed in the great battle had been moved to a special area and buried He invited President Lincoln to attend ceremonies to honor the soldiers who had died defending the Union Wills also explained that the main speaker that day would be Mr Edward Everett He was the most famous speaker in the United States at that time President Lincoln accepted the invitation History experts say he may have done this for several reasons President Lincoln may have decided that it was a good time to honor all those who had given their lives in the Civil War He may also have seen the ceremony as a chance to say how important the war was To him, it was important not just to save the union of states, but also to establish freedom and equality under the law President Lincoln worked on the speech for some time He wrote it himself, on White House paper He arrived in Gettysburg by train the day before the ceremony David Wills had invited the president to stay the night in his home President Lincoln, Edward Everett and David Wills left the house for the new burial place the next morning For a few moments, let us imagine that this is November nineteenth, eighteensixty-three The weather is cool There are clouds in the sky It is almost noon We have arrived at the new Gettysburg cemetery Fifteen-thousand people have come to hear Edward Everett and Abraham Lincoln For almost two hours, President Lincoln has been listening to the speech by Edward Everett The great speaker's voice is powerful He speaks of ancient burial ceremonies He tells how the young soldiers who had died here should be honored At last, Everett finishes Moments later a man stands and announces: "Ladies and gentlemen, his excellency the president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln." The president leaves his chair and walks slowly forward The huge crowd becomes silent Abraham Lincoln begins to speak Listen now to the words read by Shep O'Neal (GETTYSBURG ADDRESS) Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure We are met on a great battlefield of that war We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live It is altogether fitting and proper that we should this But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate we can not consecrate we can not hallow this ground The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth Political opponents of Abraham Lincoln immediately criticized the speech But there was nothing unusual about that Edward Everett, the great speaker, knew the critics were wrong He knew he had heard a speech that expressed difficult thoughts and ideas clearly and simply Everett also recognized the power and the beauty of Lincoln's words Later he wrote to the president He said Lincoln had said in two minutes what he had tried to say in two hours Newspapers throughout the United States quickly printed the presidential speech again and again Edward Everett asked President Lincoln if he could have a copy of the speech The president wrote a copy and sent it to him The Everett copy is one of five known copies that Lincoln wrote by hand Today, two of those copies belong to the Library of Congress One of them may be the copy that President Lincoln used when he gave the speech in Gettysburg President Lincoln also made a copy for a soldier named Colonel Alexander Bliss This copy hangs on a wall in the White House in the bedroom that was used by President Lincoln The copy that Lincoln sent to Edward Everett is in the Illinois State Historical Library in Springfield A historian named George Bancroft also asked the president for a copy That document now belongs to Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York President Lincoln wrote all five of these documents The meaning of the speech is the same in each However, some words are different The version with the words most often used is the one made for Colonel Bliss that hangs in the White House The speech is also carved into the stone walls of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D-C Almost everyone who visits the memorial stands before the huge statue of Abraham Lincoln and reads the speech Several years ago, the Library of Congress began a project to translate President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address into other languages Versions in twenty-nine languages are on the Internet These include Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Russian, Slovak, Spanish and Turkish The address of the Web site is www.loc.gov That is the the Library of Congress Click on "Exhibitions," then go down to the link for the Gettysburg Address There is also a link from the Special English Web site: www.voaspecialenglish.com Our program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Caty Weaver I'm Steve Ember And I'm Bob Doughty Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, a program in Special English on the Voice of America The History of Transportation in the United States: Ships, Trains, Cars and Planes Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.) Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English I'm Shirley Griffith And I'm Faith Lapidus This week, travel back in time to explore the history of transportation in the United States In 1800, Americans elected Thomas Jefferson as their third president Jefferson had a wish He wanted to discover a waterway that crossed from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific He wanted to build a system of trade that connected people throughout the country At that time the United States did not stretch all the way across the continent Jefferson proposed that a group of explorers travel across North America in search of such a waterway Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led the exploration west from 1803 to 1806 They discovered that the Rocky Mountains divided the land They also found no coast-tocoast waterway So Jefferson decided that a different transportation system would best connect American communities This system involved roads, rivers and railroads It also included the digging of waterways By the middle of the 1800s, dirt roads had been built in parts of the nation The use of river steamboats increased Boats also traveled along man-made canals which strengthened local economies The American railroad system began Many people did not believe train technology would work In time, railroads became the most popular form of land transportation in the United States In 19th-century American culture, railroads were more than just a way to travel Trains also found their way into the works of writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Walt Whitman In 1876, the United States celebrated its 100th birthday By now, there were new ways to move people and goods between farms, towns and cities The flow of business changed Lives improved Within those first 100 years, transportation links had helped form a new national economy (MUSIC: "I've Been Working on the Railroad") Workers finished the first coast-to-coast railroad in 1869 Towns and cities could develop farther away from major waterways and the coasts But, to develop economically, many small communities had to build links to the railroads Railroads helped many industries, including agriculture Farmers had a new way to send wheat and grain to ports From there, ships could carry the goods around the world Trains had special container cars with ice to keep meat, milk and other goods cold for long distances on their way to market People could now get fresh fruits and vegetables throughout the year Locally grown crops could be sold nationally Farmers often hired immigrant workers from Asia and Mexico to plant, harvest and pack these foods By the early 1900s, American cities had grown So, too, had public transportation The electric streetcar became a common form of transportation These trolleys ran on metal tracks built into streets Soon, however, people began to drive their own cars Nelson Jackson and his friend, Sewall Crocker, were honored as the first to cross the United States in an automobile Their trip in 1903 lasted 63 days And it was difficult Mainly that was because few good roads for driving existed But the two men, and their dog Bud, also had trouble with their car and with the weather Yet, they proved that long-distance travel across the United States was possible The trip also helped fuel interest in the American automobile industry By 1930, more than half the families in America owned an automobile For many, a car became a need, not simply an expensive toy To deal with the changes, lawmakers had to pass new traffic laws and rebuild roads Cars also needed businesses to service them Gas stations, tire stores and repair centers began to appear Many people took to the road for personal travel or to find work The open highway came to represent independence and freedom During the nineteen-twenties and thirties, the most traveled road in the United States was Route 66 It stretched from Chicago, Illinois, to the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica, California It was considered the "people's highway." The writer John Steinbeck called Route 66 the "Mother Road" in his book "The Grapes of Wrath." Hundreds of thousands of people traveled this Mother Road during the Great Depression of the 1930s They came from the middle of the country They moved West in search of work and a better life In 1946, Nat King Cole came out with this song, called "Route 66." (MUSIC: "Route 66") World War Two ended in 1945 Soldiers came home and started families Businesses started to move out to the edges of cities where suburbs were developing Most families in these growing communities had cars, bicycles or motorcycles to get around Buses also became popular The movement of businesses and people away from city centers led to the economic weakening of many downtown areas City leaders reacted with transportation projects designed to support downtown development Underground train systems also became popular in the 1950s Some people had enough money to ride on the newest form of transportation: the airplane But for most automobile drivers, long-distance travel remained somewhat difficult There was no state-to-state highway system In 1956 Congress passed a law called the Federal-Aid Highway Act Engineers designed a 65,000 kilometer system of roads They designed highways to reach every city with a population over 100,000 The major work on the Interstate Highway System was completed around 1990 It cost more than $100,000,000,000 It has done more than simply make a trip to see family in another state easier It has also led to the rise of the container trucking industry (MUSIC: "Truckin") The American transportation system started with horses and boats It now includes everything from container trucks to airplanes to motorcycles Yet, in some ways, the system has been a victim of its own success Many places struggle with traffic problems as more and more cars fill the roads And a lot of people not just drive cars anymore They drive big sport utility vehicles and minivans and personal trucks For others, hybrid cars are the answer Hybrids use both gas and electricity They save fuel and reduce pollution But pollution is not the only environmental concern with transportation Ease of travel means development can spread farther and farther And that means the loss of natural areas Yet, every day, Americans depend on their transportation system to keep them, and the largest economy in the world, on the move The National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C has a transportation exhibition that explores the connection to the economic, social and cultural development of the United States And you can experience it all on the Internet at americanhistory-dot-s-i-dote-d-u Again, the address is americanhistory-dot-s-i-dot-e-d-u (americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/exhibition) Our program was written by Jill Moss and produced by Caty Weaver I'm Faith Lapidus And I'm Shirley Griffith Join us again next week for the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA Words and Their Stories: Voices From 9-11 Tell Story of Fast-Moving Events Or download MP3 (Right-click or option-click and save link) Now, the VOA Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES Today, we tell the story of the 9-11 attacks through some of the words spoken that morning ten years ago A newly released document includes recordings of air traffic controllers, military pilots and others reacting to the fast-moving events On September eleventh, two thousand one, nineteen al-Qaida members hijacked four passenger planes in the eastern United States They crashed two of them into the World Trade Center in New York City, destroying the Twin Towers A third plane hit the Pentagon, the Defense Department headquarters outside Washington The fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania The document is known as an "audio monograph." It begins with normal radio calls shortly after eight o'clock American Airlines Flight 11 had just left Boston for Los Angeles with ninety-two people AA11: "Boston Center, good morning, American 11 with you passing through one niner zero for two three zero." CONTROLLER: "American 11, Boston Center, roger, climb, maintain level two eight zero." Soon radio contact is lost A flight attendant on the plane, Betty Ong, called a company office to report the hijacking A woman at that office then calls the airline's emergency line NIDIA GONZALEZ: "So far, what I’ve gotten, the number five flight attendant’s been stabbed, but she seems to be breathing The number one seems to be stabbed pretty badly and she’s lying down on the floor, they don’t know whether she is conscious or not The other flight attendants are in the back, um, and that’s as far as I know It seems like the passengers in coach might not be aware of what’s going on right now." At eighty twenty-four, the voice of hijacker Mohamed Atta was heard over the radio MOHAMED ATTA: "Nobody move Everything will be OK If you try to make any moves you will injure yourself and the airplane Just stay quiet." At eight fifty, controllers in New York received a call from another plane UKNOWN PILOT: "Anybody know what that smoke is in lower Manhattan?" NEW YORK CENTER: "I’m sorry, say again." UKNOWN PILOT: "Lot of smoke in lower Manhattan." NEW YORK CENTER: "A lot of smoke in lower Manhattan?" UKNOWN PILOT: "Coming out of the, ah, top of the World Trade Center building, a major fire." Air traffic controllers had already informed the military about the hijacking CONTROLLER: "We have, ah, a problem here, we have a hijacked aircraft headed towards New, New York and we need you guys to, we need someone to scramble some F-16s or something up there to help us out." MILITARY OFFICIAL: "Is, is this real world or exercise?" CONTROLLER: "No, this is not an exercise, not a test." An order to launch fighter jets came as Flight 11 was hitting the North Tower At the same time, another plane United Flight 175 was being hijacked It struck the South Tower At nine thirty-eight, American Airlines Flight 77 hit the Pentagon A military transport plane reported the crash TRANSPORT PLANE: "Roger, we’re climbing to three thousand, sir, and it looks like that aircraft has impacted the west side of the Pentagon." CONTROLLER: "All right Thank you." The fourth plane, United Flight 93, crashed just after ten near Shanskville, Pennsylvania Passengers had rebelled against the hijackers, who had turned the plane toward Washington At ten thirty-two came this message for military officials MALE VOICE: "You need to read this Region commander has declared that we can shoot down tracks if they are not responding to our, uh, directions." By then it was too late The 9-11 attacks killed nearly three thousand people The complete audio monograph is on the Rutgers Law Review website You can find a link to the site at voaspecialenglish.com WORDS AND THEIR STORIES was written by Avi Arditti I'm Faith Lapidus