The Nineties in America - Salem Press (2009)

lief for the victims of Hurricane Katrina (2005) and
the Asian tsunami (2004), AIDS research and treat-
ment, and environmental protection. He occasion-
ally cooperated and appeared with former president
George H. W. Bush in these efforts. Clinton’s public
reputation subsequently improved, but he later be-
came controversial and divisive because of some of
his remarks on behalf of his wife’s 2008 presidential
campaign and his critics’ investigation of the sources
of his greatly increased personal wealth.

Further Reading
Berman, William C.From the Center to the Edge: The Pol-
itics and Policies of the Clinton Presidency. Lanham,
Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001. Includes refer-
ences to how Clinton’s scandals affected his job
performance and relationship with Congress.
Clinton, Bill.My Life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf,

2004. Clinton’s memoirs of his presidency in-
      clude an explanation, defense, and refutation of
      several events and controversies known as Clin-
      ton’s scandals.
      Drew, Elizabeth.The Corruption of American Politics:
      What Went Wrong and Why. Woodstock, N.Y.: Over-
      look Press, 1999. A journalist’s study of the cor-
      rupting influences of campaign finance and the
      political environment during the 1990’s. In-
      cludes an explanation and analysis of the Indone-
      sian-Chinese fund-raising scandal.
      Hamilton, Nigel.Bill Clinton: An American Journey.
      New York: Random House, 2003. A detailed biog-
      raphy of the president, from his family back-
      ground to his election as president in 1992. In-
      cludes controversies about Clinton’s sexual affairs
      in Arkansas, especially the Flowers scandal, and
      draft avoidance.
      Isikoff, Michael.Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter’s Stor y.
      New York: Crown, 1999. A journalist’s account of
      his investigation of Clinton’s scandals, especially
      Whitewater, the Jones case, Troopergate, the
      Lewinsky affair, and Starr’s investigation and re-
      port to Congress. Isikoff’s sources include Starr’s
      staff.
      Morris, Dick, and Eileen McGann.Because He Could.
      New York: ReganBooks, 2004. Morris, a former
      campaign and media consultant for Clinton, re-
      views and critiquesMy Life. In particular, Morris
      contends that Clinton’s dishonesty and other char-
      acter flaws contributed to his scandals and the mis-
      leading, duplicitous content of his memoirs.

Tyrrell, R. Emmett, Jr.The Clinton Crack-Up: The Boy

President’s Life After the White House. Nashville:

Thomas Nelson, 2007. Tyrrell, a conservative edi-

tor and critic of Clinton, claims that since Clin-

ton left the White House his scandalous behav-

ior has continued. Includes a detailed analysis of

Pardongate.

Sean J. Savage

See also Campaign finance scandal; Clinton, Bill;

Clinton, Hillary Rodham; Clinton’s impeachment;

Drudge, Matt; Elections in the United States, mid-

term; Elections in the United States, 1992; Elections

in the United States, 1996; Gingrich, Newt; Gore, Al;

Lewinsky scandal; Limbaugh, Rush; Reno, Janet;

Right-wing conspiracy; Scandals; Starr Report;

Troopergate; White House attacks.

 Cloning

Definition The asexual reproduction of

organisms or fragments of DNA, producing

identical genetic duplicates of the original

specimen

The 1990’s saw dramatic advances in the development of

animal cloning by “nuclear transfer” technology, which in-

volves taking nuclear DNA from a mature individual,

placing it in a denucleated egg cell, and then implanting

the egg in the womb of a host. Research of this sort was

closely associated with technologies of genetic engineering,

which had begun to produce genetically modified animals;

cloning offered a potential means of assisting their repro-

duction. In the meantime, the cloning of DNA fragments

made a vital contribution to the emergent science of ge-

nomics.

The idea of cloning ingrained in the popular imagi-

nation had been formed long before the 1990’s by

melodramatic fiction, such as the successfully filmed

novelThe Boys from Brazil(1976), featuring multiple

clones of Adolf Hitler.An equally melodramatic hy-

pothetical use of the technology was featured in Mi-

chael Crichton’sJurassic Park(1990), made into a

film (1993) by Steven Spielberg, in which dinosaurs

are cloned from fossil deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).

Such images, featuring mature animals cloned from

cells abstracted from adult bodies, seemed plausible

because plants were easy to clone in a similar fash-

ion, by taking cuttings. At the beginning of the

The Nineties in America Cloning
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