creasingly large crowds in arenas, Etheridge per-
formed at smaller venues composed of dedicated
fans.
Etheridge also became a general celebrity. Her
personal life received frequent exposure in the
press. In 1993, Etheridge was reported to be living
with Julie Cypher, the ex-wife of actor Lou Diamond
Phillips. During Etheridge and Cypher’s relation-
ship, which ended in 2000, Cypher bore the couple
two children, whose biological father was revealed
to be the singer David Crosby. Etheridge’s 1999 al-
bum,Breakdown, did not do well, but by this time
Etheridge had made a permanent contribution to
American music.
Impact If the 1990’s came into full swing politically
with the inauguration of Bill Clinton, Etheridge’s
coming out as lesbian represented the full emer-
gence of the 1990’s cultural mentality. In this de-
cade, alternative sexualities received greater visibil-
ity in the public sphere than ever before, a major
cultural shift from the 1980’s.
Further Reading
Etheridge, Melissa, with Laura Morton.The Truth
Is...MyLife in Love and Music.New York: Villard
Books, 2001.
Nickson, Chris.Melissa Etheridge. New York: St. Mar-
tin’s Griffin, 1997.
Nicholas Birns
See also Clinton, Bill; DeGeneres, Ellen; Homo-
sexuality and gay rights; Internet; Lang, K. D.;MTV
Unplugged; Music.
Europe and North America
Definition Diplomatic and economic relations
between European states and the United States
and Canada
Relations between North America and Europe in the 1990’s
witnessed the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the fall of
communism in Eastern Europe as well as new political and
economic strains with Western Europe. Subsequent wars in
the Balkans brought about North American militar y in-
volvement.
The early years of the 1990’s marked the dissolution
of communist governments in Eastern Europe and
the demise of the Soviet Union—the end of the Cold
War. Both Washington and Ottawa, of course, wel-
comed and encouraged these events. In February,
1990, when Václav Havel, the anticommunist presi-
dent of Czechoslovakia (which split into the Czech
Republic and Slovakia in 1993), addressed the U.S.
Congress, he received rousing applause as he stated
that the course to democracy in his country and
the entire region was irreversible. Congress also
cheered his statement that “the salvation of this hu-
man world lies nowhere else than in the human
heart”—rather than in the material world, accord-
ing to the Marxist view.
The crisis in the Soviet Union caused by the fail-
ure of the 1991 coup to eliminate Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev brought about the dissolution
of the Soviet Union into its constituent republics,
starting with the Baltic states. U.S. president George
H. W. Bush’s hesitation to recognize this despite the
fact that Washington had never recognized the Bal-
tic states’ incorporation into the Soviet Union in
1940 brought about significant embarrassment. The
United States was engaged in the Gulf War at the
time, and Bush did not want to embarrass Gorba-
chev. Thousands of Lithuanians sent umbrellas to
the White House, symbolizing Neville Chamber-
lain’s fruitless appeasement of Adolf Hitler at Mu-
nich in 1938.
The policies of the Bush and the Clinton adminis-
trations coincided in several goals for the Continent.
Bush looked for a democratic, united, free, and
peaceful Europe. In practice he intended to trans-
form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO), strengthen the Continent, deal with Rus-
sia, and secure the Balkans. In September, 1990,
Bush met with Gorbachev in Finland to discuss the
Middle East. Bush welcomed Soviet involvement in
Iraq and the Israeli-Arab conflict. The arms treaty
between NATO and the Warsaw Pact led to parity in
weapons, requiring the Soviet Union to destroy tens
of thousands of tanks, armored vehicles, artillery
pieces, and aircraft. President Bill Clinton also
hoped to engage Russia as a partner, to reduce arma-
ments, and to transform the country into a democ-
racy, both politically and economically. In the Bal-
kans, Russia helped deal with Belgrade, and Russian
soldiers served with Americans in the Bosnia and
Kosovo conflicts.Moving Toward a New Europe In 1990, British
prime minister Margaret Thatcher visited the316 Europe and North America The Nineties in America