Who are the presidents since 1970?

Answer 1

Well, Richard Nixon was President in 1970, having been inaugurated in January 1969. He oversaw the US withdrawal from Vietnam, was in office during the Apollo moon landings and restored American relations with China, but was embroiled in the Watergate Scandal from 1972 which forced him to resign in August '74.

He was succeeded by his Vice-President Gerald Ford, who was never elected in his own right, serving as a 'caretaker' President from '74 to '76 before losing the 1976 election to Jimmy Carter. Carter lost the '79 election to Ronald Reagan, who served his maximum two terms in office before his Vice-President George Bush Snr. won the elections of 1988.

Bush was in office during the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, the first Gulf War and the end of the Soviet Union, but was blamed for mishandling the economic recession of the early 1990s, losing the 1992 election to Democrat Bill Clinton, who had won the support of many moderate Republicans by moving his party to the Right and dropping opposition to the death penalty.

Clinton was in office for most of the 1990s, presiding over the expansion of NATO to embrace former Eastern Bloc countries and employing Madleine Albright as the first female Secretary of State, although his second term in office was dogged by lewd revelations of an affair he had with young White House aide Monica Lewinski.

He was succeeded in office by George W. Bush, eldest son of George Bush Snr., although this was a controversial win caused by the trial of a new 'punch-card' system of voting which some claimed enabled Bush to cheat his way to victory. George W. Bush has gone down in history as one of the USA's most hated, unpopular Presidents- the former Governor of Texas, he over-used the death penalty there, and was in office during the World Trade Center terrorist attacks of 11th September 2001, which resulted in him launching the Iraq War (even although there was no evidence that Iraq was behind the attacks). This war saw much human rights violations by US troops in Iraq, and created a huge anti-American backlash around the world, even from some of the USA's closest allies such as Britain.

Ashamed and embarrassed of their nation's growing reputation as a global bully, the US public elected Barack Obama to office in November 2008, the first coloured man ever to become US President.

SO, it's been:

1970 - '74 Richard Nixon (Republican)

1974 - '77 Gerald Ford (Republican)

1977 - '81 Jimmy Carter (Democrat)

1981 - '89 Ronald Reagan (Republican)

1989 - '93 George Bush Snr. (Republican)

1993 - 2001 Bill Clinton (Democrat)

2001- '08 George W. Bush (Republican

2008 - present Barack Obama (Democrat)