Today, we tell about the second administration of Bill Clinton, America's forty-second president. He was elected in nineteen ninety-two and re-elected four years later. The first term in office for President Bill Clinton was coming to an end in the summer of nineteen ninety-six. 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 Mister and Missus Clinton. The main accusations were connected to their financial activities in Arkansas during the nineteen eighties. Americans, however, seemed far more interested in the nation's economy. It had improved during Mister 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 nineteen ninety-six. Mister 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.
今天，我们为您讲述美国第四十二任总统比尔·克林顿第二次任期的故事。1992年，比尔·克林顿当选为美国总统，四年后他再次当选。在1996年夏天，克林顿总统的第一个任期结束。他的政绩与过去许多美国总统相似。他在国会和外交政策上取得了一些成功，也经历过一些失败。然而，和其他总统不同的是，这位总统因为个人问题而备受关注。对克林顿夫妇的不当行为的调查仍在继续。他们被指控参与20世纪80年代的阿肯色州的不正当的财务活动。然而，美国人似乎对国家经济更感兴趣。在克林顿的第一个任期内，经济有所改善，美国人找到了工作，有钱消费了。从传统意义上来说，投资股市主要是富人干的事。现在很多人都在买股票。民意调查显示比尔·克林顿广受欢迎。1996年8月，民主党在伊利诺斯州的芝加哥召开总统提名大会。克林顿和副总统阿尔·戈尔提名为该党的候选人全票通过。那年夏天，共和党在加州圣地亚哥举行了总统提名大会。共和党选择了堪萨斯州的前参议员罗伯特·多尔。多尔从参议院辞职参加提名竞选。
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 nineteen sixty-eight 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. Mister 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 forty-seven-and-one-half-million votes. Senator Dole and Mister 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 nineteen thirty-six.
前国会议员和内阁官员杰克·肯普获得副总统提名。多尔参议员是第二次世界大战期间的英雄。后来，他在堪萨斯州的众议院任职四届。1968年，他被选入参议院，并四次连任。四年前，商人罗斯·佩罗以独立身份参加了总统选举。他再次成为改革党的候选人。竞选期间，克林顿总统指出了他在第一个任期内取得的成功，经济得到改善、低薪工人工资提高以及枪支管制措施的颁布。多尔先生批评克林顿总统消耗了太多的联邦资金。克林顿总统回答说，他已经阻止国会削减医疗保险等项目的大部分资金。医疗保险项目旨在帮助老年人支付医疗费用。克林顿总统和副总统戈尔赢得了选举。他们获得了近4750万张选票。多尔参议员和肯普先生获得了大约3900万张选票。罗斯·佩罗获得了大约800万张选票。克林顿总统是继富兰克林·罗斯福之后首位连任的民主党总统。
建国史话
Bill Clinton began his second term as president of the United States on January twentieth, nineteen ninety-seven. 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."Mister 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."Mister Clinton continued to appoint women and minority members to important jobs. In nineteen ninety-six 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 Mister Clinton's first administration. Later, Mister Clinton named Bill Richardson as the permanent representative to the United Nations. Mister Richardson is Hispanic. Norman Mineta became the first Asian-American appointed to the Cabinet. The president named Mister 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 nineteen ninety-seven they reached a compromise. They agreed to a plan to end the deficit by two thousand-two. But the nation did not have to wait until then.
1997年1月20日，比尔·克林顿开始了他的第二个总统任期。那天，克林顿总统发表了20世纪最后一届美国总统就职演说。他说：“我们必须使我们的民主永葆青春。”克林顿先生还谈到了美国的种族隔离问题。他说，种族隔离在美国历史上一直是个烫手山芋。他敦促美国实现统一。“长期以来，种族问题一直困扰着美国，每次移民潮都会对旧偏见带来冲击。带着宗教或政治面具的偏见和轻蔑也都是一丘之貉。”克林顿继续任命女性和少数族裔担任重要职务。1996年，克林顿首次提名女性担任国务卿。马德琳·奥尔布赖特曾在克林顿的第一届政府中担任美国常驻联合国代表。后来，克林顿先生任命比尔·理查森为常驻联合国代表。理查森先生是西班牙人，诺曼·米尼塔成为首位进入内阁的亚裔美国人。总统任命米内塔先生为商务部长。在1996年的选举中，共和党控制了国会两院。共和党国会和民主党总统对预算的看法截然不同。1997年，他们达成了妥协。他们同意了在2002年前结束财政赤字的计划。但是美国并不需要等到那个时候。
The economy in nineteen ninety-eight was so strong that the government had seventy thousand-million dollars more than its budget. This was the first federal budget surplus since nineteen sixty-nine. Foreign relations took much of President's Clinton time during his second term. He visited China in nineteen ninety-eight. 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 Mister 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 nineteen ninety-eight, 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.
1998年，经济势头强劲，收入比预算多了700亿美元。这是自1969年以来，第一次产生联邦预算盈余。克林顿总统在第二个任期内花费了很多时间在外交关系上。1998年，克林顿总统访问了中国， 他敦促中国领导人在国内实现更多的民主。同年8月，恐怖分子放置的炸弹摧毁了美国驻肯尼亚和坦桑尼亚大使馆。数百人丧生。美国情报专家将此次袭击归咎于沙特商人奥萨马·本·拉登，拉登被怀疑是恐怖分子。克林顿总统下令对怀疑受本拉登控制的阿富汗营地实施导弹袭击，还摧毁了苏丹的一家工厂。这家工厂曾被怀疑为恐怖分子神经毒气的生产地。然而，工厂老板说公司生产的是药品。美国后来释放了没收的工厂厂主的财产和金钱。1998年，克林顿总统下令美军对伊拉克的军事和工业中心发动导弹袭击。联合国官员担心这些中心容纳或可能制造核武器、化学武器或生物武器。联合国已经命令伊拉克配合核查人员寻找武器，但是伊拉克拒绝合作。
The next year, Mister 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 nineteen ninety-eight, 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.
第二年，克林顿先生加入北约军事战斗，部署了美国的飞机和导弹对抗南斯拉夫总统斯洛博丹·米洛舍维奇。北约正试图阻止对科索沃阿尔巴尼亚族人的袭击，科索沃是南斯拉夫塞尔维亚共和国的一个省。南斯拉夫军事领导人同意撤军。北约停止了轰炸，并向科索沃派遣了国际维和部队。美国派遣了7千名士兵。1998年10月，以色列和巴勒斯坦领导人在白宫签署了一份谅解文件。怀河备忘录是在马里兰州东部的怀依河种植园进行九天的谈判达成的，它呼吁以色列军队从约旦河西岸地区撤出。美国国务卿奥尔布赖特和特别外交官罗斯经常访问中东。他们试图帮助以色列和巴勒斯坦维护和平。
In two thousand-one, Mister Clinton tried to get Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to sign a peace
agreement. Mister 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 two thousand. The president said the measure would help democracy grow in China. He also said it would help create jobs in the United States. Mister 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.
2001年，克林顿先生试图让巴勒斯坦领导人亚西尔·阿拉法特和以色列总理埃胡德·巴拉克签署和平协议。克林顿在华盛顿地区和两人会面了好几个小时。有报道称，他们快要达成和解。但协议没有达成，暴力事件随之增加。巴勒斯坦人宣布对以色列发动新的叛乱。克林顿总统在第二任期内的主要行动之一是与中国建立永久正常的贸易关系。2000年，国会通过了一项法案。奥巴马总统表示，这项措施将有助于中国民主的发展。他还表示，这将有助于增加美国的就业机会。克林顿先生支持北约扩张以及更多的自由贸易。他还反对世界范围内的非法毒品贸易。历史学家说，比尔·克林顿总统因向国际社会伸出援手而被人们铭记。但人们也会记住他被国会指控有不正当行为。我们下周接着为您讲述。
来源：可可英语
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