Letter From America By Alistair Cooke: The Clinton Years (1993-1996)

A blazing New England fall offers relief from the violence and disaster of the television news and Congress passes the 'Brady Bill' for gun control.

President Clinton's struggle to balance the demands of foreign and domestic policy, war in Bosnia and Somalia, free trade and healthcare in an complex post-Soviet world.

The problem of US gun ownership, why the constitution doesn't actually guarantee a right to bear arms and the increased likelihood of a 'Brady Bill' for gun control.

The Senate Committee considering the social effect of television violence, the history of concerns about the influence of immorality in the media and its ramifications today.

A study examining the effect of Mozart on intelligence and how people affected by aphasia offer revelations about the way in which the brain deals with words.

Alistair Cooke examines some of the foreign policy issues that the Clinton administration has found itself involved in, less than a year into his presidency.

The progress of a major health reform bill, the extensive involvement of Hilary Clinton and ex-ambassador George F Kennan's opinions on US foreign policy in Russia and Somalia.

The Miss America Pageant, the progress of feminism in the US, 25 years of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique and the problem of sexual harassment.

Florida stops all tourism advertising after the deaths of 9 foreign visitors in 1992, Alistair Cooke considers the scale of the threat and the amplifying effect of television.

The replacement of American unity with old world identities in immigrant communities old and new and the decision to re-route New York's jets for the sake of a tennis match.

The history of Labor Day and why hundreds of thousands of pupils in Chicago and New York won't go back to school after their summer holiday.

The real reason the Russians never vetoed US military action in Korea and the media's interest in political holidays are examined, as Alistair Cooke answers listeners' letters.

The meaning attached to the time presidents spend on vacation, recreation and playing sport in light of the Clinton family's holiday in Martha's Vineyard.

Controversy over public art funding in the US, the struggles of the National Endowment for the Arts and the history of attempts to protect the public from obscenity.

Examining an unseasonably hot San Francisco summer and why America's weather, drowning Missouri and parching Georgia, is in the wrong place and refusing to budge.

The death of General Matthew Ridgeway, his rise to prominence during US intervention in Korea, his stance on nuclear weapons and the nature of 'good war'.

How will President Clinton pay for his Mississippi flood relief package in a time of austerity? How Reganism and Thatcherism are still powerful forces in policy making.

President Clinton's planned replacement of Raymond Sites with Admiral William Crowe as ambassador to London and the sometimes dubious history of US diplomatic appointments.

The activities of the 1992 G8 summit in Tokyo and the ways in which governments through history have dealt with the problem of unemployment.

Tennis player Goran Ivaniševic's demand to be recognised as Croatian, the escalating failure of US foreign policy in Bosnia and a puzzling missile attack on Baghdad.