WI: Bill Clinton As A Cold War President

Bill Clinton was the first president who was totally absent from the Cold War. He began and embodied the Pax Americana 1990s; our interwar grace period between nuclear annihilation and the war on terror. The Cold War was in recent memory, but felt like a hundred years away by 1993. Bearing with the scenario, assume the Soviet Union did not collapse and Clinton was still elected president in 1992, and handwave criticism of that prospect if you have any.

What if Clinton were a Cold War president?
 
Bill Clinton was the first president who was totally absent from the Cold War. He began and embodied the Pax Americana 1990s; our interwar grace period between nuclear annihilation and the war on terror. The Cold War was in recent memory, but felt like a hundred years away by 1993. Bearing with the scenario, assume the Soviet Union did not collapse and Clinton was still elected president in 1992, and handwave criticism of that prospect if you have any.

What if Clinton were a Cold War president?

Unless Clinton had to deal with someone like Putin in the 1990s, I don't see things being much different. The Soviet Union was on its way to collapsing by the time Reagan got in there in 81, If the USSR doesn't collapse in 1991, I don't see it going that much longer, no later than 96 or 97.

You'd need a PoD that is no later than 1979 for the Soviet Union to survive further into the 1990s.

Plus, if the Cold War is still going during the '92 election, that increases Bush 41's chances of getting re elected, especially if shit really hits the fan.
 
I'm reminded of Zhirinovsky's Russia, a continued Cold War.

Like you said, Bill Clinton embodied Pax Americana, and without the fall of the Soviet Union, there is no Pax Americana, at least not like OTL. So who's to say he's still President? In Zhirinovsky's Russia, John Kerrey becomes President instead. Here, it's entirely possible George Bush wins re-election if foreign policy is a big national focus. So I wouldn't even necessarily assume he WOULD be Pres.
 
I believe that Clinton, would rely heavily on Vice President, Al Gore due to his foreign policy experience.

And if the Soviet collapse happens in his first term, then it depends on his handling of the situation that depends on his future, however I doubt he would seek a second term.

After all he was a Peace President, who wanted to concentrate on rebuilding America for the working man, not spending more money on a war that was getting colder and colder.

You might actually see Al Gore succeeding Clinton winning 1996 and maybe even 2000.
 
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