programs. In seeking reelection in 1996, Clinton claimed a number of achievements, among them a deficit-reduction plan, a college-loan payback plan, the Family and Medical Leave Act, an anticrime bill, and a welfare reform bill that ended federal guarantees and shifted the responsibility for these services to the states. His domestic record showed that he had cut the deficit in half, had expanded earned-income credit for the working poor, and had significantly reduced the number of government workers. During his first term Clinton succeeded in appointing two members to the U.S. Supreme Court. Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer, both highly respected federal judges, were the first appointments to the high court made by a Democratic president in 25 years. In the first years of his administration, Clinton experienced many of his greatest difficulties in the foreign policy realm. Indeed, issues involving Bosnia, Haiti, the former Soviet Union, Somalia, Cuba, North Korea, and Iraq seemed intractable, but his inexperience in foreign affairs showed when he appeared unable to establish a consistent U.S. position on these daunting problems. In response to a wave of Cuban refugees seeking entry into the United States in 1994, Clinton reversed the U.S. policy of giving asylum to those seeking to escape Fidel Castro's regime but worked out an agreement with the Cuban government to allow more refugees into the country. In August 1995 Clinton vetoed legislation to lift the Bosnian arms embargo. Nevertheless, Clinton succeeded in some of his foreign policy efforts. Under threat of an imminent invasion, Haiti's military junta agreed to relinquish power in favor of the democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. U.S. troops entered Haiti to keep the peace. A major conflict with North Korea was eased with an agreement offering North Korea assistance with its civilian nuclear program in return for the relinquishment of plutonium-prod...
