The Stalemated Seventies

Economy of the 1970’s

• 70’s have no economic boom like 50’s and 60’s.

• Children could have a standard of living less than their parents

• Period of Stagflation- economy is experiencing a recession and inflation at the same time

Roots of stagnation • Combination of factors

– 1.Teens and Womens working- less likely to take full time jobs, thus not developing job skills

– 2.Adjusting to new safety and environmental regulations

– 3.Shifting to service economy

– 4. Rise in oil prices

– 5. Vietnam

– 6. Biggest cause- LBJ’s deficit spending- Fighting V war and Great Society- never raised taxes

• Cost of living tripled in 12 years after Nixon’s inauguration

Roots of stagnation

• US businesses STRONG during post WWII, no incentive to modernize plans

• German and Japan, rebuild with modern technology- not beginning to dominate cars, steel, and electronic industries

Nixon and Nam

• Has to quell at the domestic issues with war

• Vietnamization- withdraw US troops, let S. Vietnam fight their own war (with the financial backing and training of US)

Nixon and Nam

• Part of Nixon Doctrine- US will honor existing commitments, but in the future Asians and others will have to fight their own wars without large bodies of US ground troops

Nixon and Nam

• Doves = immediate withdrawal of troops

• Hawks = support war- also known as Silent majority

• Dove protests pick up in late 69

• Nixon appeals to silent majority- protestors = bums

America and Nam• 1970- war becomes longest conflict

in US history

• 40,000 killed

• 250,000 wounded

• Very unpopular war

• Draft policies exclude college students- and those with critical skills

• Results in – least privileged Americans fighting war

• Troops and casualties were disproportionately black.

• Racial conflicts among soldiers

• Drug use is on the rise

• Rumors of “fragging”

Domestic Discontent with war

• 1968- My Lai Massacre- US troops murder innocent and children at My Lai village

• US finds out in 1970• 1970- Nixon picks up

bombing campaign on neighboring Cambodia (without consulting congress)

Domestic Discontent with war

• College protests Cambodia bombing

• Kent State University Massacre- 4 protesters are killed by national guard

• Jackson State College in MS- two students killed

Domestic Discontent with war• Cambodia only lasts 2 months• African American’s upset with

“whitey’s war”• Congress

– 1. Repeals Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

– 2.Reduced draft cards

– 3.shortened period of draftability

– 4. 26 amendment- suffrage at 18

• All done to try to pacify protestors, little success

• 1971 Pentagon Papers are leaked- shows mishaps of JFK and LBJ, and the US provoking the N. Vietnam attack at Gulf of Tonkin

Nixon and Détente

• China and Russia at odds over interpretations of Marxism

• Nixon, with aid of national security advisor Henry Kissinger, want to use this to their advantage

• 1972- Nixon shocks the world by visiting China

• Wants to “normalize” relationship, and start one China policy

Nixon and Détente • Nixon visits Moscow (72)• Russia needs food, worried

about China US relationship, ready for change

• Detente-= relaxed tensions • 1. US will send wheat, corn

to Russia for three years.• 2. Reducing arms race

– Anti-ballistic missile treaty (ABM)

– Serious of nuclear arms reduction talks- SALT- strategic arms limitations treaty

Nixon and Détente

• ABM forbade elaborate defensive systems, US develops MIRVs- multiple independently targeted reentry vehicles- designed to overcome any defense by saturating it with rockets

• USSR does the same• Arms race still going

Nixon still hates commies

• Outspoken hatred for Chile’s president Salvador Allende

• Embargo on Chile, CIA sent undermine legitimacy

• Chile army attacks Allende (everybody knows US was involved)

• Show support for General Augusto Pinochet

The Supreme Court

• Nixon hates chief Justice Warren and judicial activism

• Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) struck down a state law that banned the use of contraceptives, even by married couples, but creating a “right to privacy.”

• Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) said that all criminals were entitled to legal counsel, even if they were too poor to afford it.

• Escobedo (1964) and Miranda (1966) were two cases in which the Supreme Court ruled that the accused could remain silent.

• Engel v. Vitale (1962) and School District of Abington Township vs. Schempp (1963) were two cases that led to the Court ruling against required prayers and having the Bible in public schools, basing the judgment on the First Amendment, which was argued separated church and state.

The Supreme Court

• Nixon wants to place more conservative on the bench

• Earl Warren retires

• Warren E Burger takes over

• Nixon has total of 4 appointed supreme court judges

• But judges to push conservative agenda, in some cases more liberal (Roe vs. Wade)

Nixon and the Home front • Nixon also expanded Great Society programs by increasing

appropriations for Medicare and Medicaid, as well as Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), and created the Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which gave benefits to the indigent, aged, blind, and disabled, and he raised Social Security.

• 1972- legislation that makes social security increase with cost of living- helps contribute to huge inflation

Philadelphia Plan • Required construction-trade unions working

on the federal payroll to establish “goals and timetables” for Black employees

• Big change to affirmative action• LBJ- it was used to protect individuals, now

changes to give certain groups privileges • This plan changed “affirmative action” to

mean preferable treatment on groups (minorities), not individuals, and the Supreme Court’s decision on Griggs v. Duke Power Co. (1971) supported this.

• Some complain of reverse discrimination

EPA

• Environmental Protection Agency created in 1970

• Influence by Silent Spring- Rachel Carson 1962- exposes poisonous effects of pesticides

• 4-22 1970 first celebration of earth day

• 1970 Clean Air Act• 1973- Endangered Species

Act

Nixon and home front

• Federal regulation of workers and consumers increased

• Occupational Safety and Health Administration(OSHA)

• Consumer Product Safety Commission

• EPA, OSHA, CPSC increase federal control over business

Nixon and the home front

• 1971- wage and price freeze for 90 days, to stop inflation

• Takes US off the gold standard, devaluates the dollar

• Southern strategy- appoint conservative supreme court justices, soft pedaling civil rights, and opposing school busing to achieve racial balance

Election of 1972 • North Vietnam making an

impressive charge• Democrats select George

McGovern- pull troops out in 90 days, but appeals to all minorities and looses some of core democratic voters, liberal approach (plus VP had undergone psychiatric care)

• Reps- Nixon had done well in bring troop levels down

• 12 days before election, Kissinger announced that “peace is at hand” with Nam

Peace?

• Nixon picks up bombing, to force N. Vietnam back to conference table

• Treaty of Paris- 1973- cease fire

• Nixon- “Peace with honor”• N. Vietnam still occupied

30% of S. Vietnam• The “peace” was actually a

disguise for American retreat

Cambodia • 1973- US is shocked when they

discover secret bombing of Cambodia

• After cease fire- Nixon ups bombing, vetoes congresses’ efforts to stop him

• War Powers Act -1) required the president to report all commitments of U.S. troops to Congress within 48 hours and and (2) setting a 60 day limit on those activities.

• Part of “New Isolationism” = mood of caution and self restraint in foreign affairs

Oil Embargo and NRG Crisis • Yom Kippur War- Egypt

and Syria try to regain lands lost in Six Day War

• US supports and saves Israel

• OPEC announces oil Embargo on US for support of Israel, then cut oil production

• Gas embargo causes US recession, then spreads to UK and France

Oil Embargo and NRG Crisis

• Congress reaction– 1. Oil pipeline in Alaska

– 2. National speed limit of 55

• 5 moths of the “blackmail” embargo demonstrates the end of cheap NRG

• OPEC lifts embargo, and quadrupled crude oil prices

Watergate and Nixon Scandals • On June 17, 1972, five men

working for the Republican Committee for the Re-election of the President (CREEP) were caught breaking into the Watergate Hotel (Democratic headqtrs) and planting some bugs in the room.

• Dirty tricks- forge documents to discredit democrats, use the IRS to harass people on White House “enemy list”, burglarizing office of Pentagon Paper leaker, use FBI and CIA to cover tracks

Watergate and Nixon Scandals

• Vice president Spiro Agnew forced to resign for taking bribes from Maryland contractors

• Gerald Ford becomes new VP

Watergate and Nixon Scandals• Select Senate committee televised

Watergate affair• Public finds out that tapes contain

white house conversations, Nixon denies involvement, won’t hand over the tape because of his “executive privilege”

• Saturday Night Massacre- in which Archibald Cox, special prosecutor of the case who had issued a subpoena of the tapes, was fired and the attorney general and deputy general resigned because they didn’t want to fire Cox.

Watergate and Nixon Scandals

• 1974- Nixon realizes “relevant portions of tapes”

• Then supreme court rules Nixon can’t withhold evidence

• Smoking gun tape- Nixon giving orders to use CIA to hold back an FBI inquiry

Watergate and Nixon Scandals

• Articles of impeachment are drawn up- obstruction of justice, abuse of presidential powers, contempt of congress

• Reps see “writing on the wall”- tell Nixon no way he can survive impeachment

1st un-elected President • 1st man to be president without being elected• Illegitimacy hung over head• LBJ- Jerry lacks brainpower, can’t walk and

chew gum at the same time.• Ford pardon’s Nixon, Democrats are pissed

(Buddy Deal) • Ford continues with Détente

– Helsinki Accords which recognized Soviet boundaries, guaranteed human rights, and eased the U.S.—Soviet situation.

• West Germans love it• Critics- détente was making the U.S. lose

grain and technology while gaining nothing from the Soviets.

Defeat in Vietnam

• North Vietnam crushes the South, after congress wouldn’t allow more aid to the South

• Fall of Saigon happens fast, remaining Americans have to flee fast

Vietnam and its legacy

• Cost- 118 Billion• 56,000 dead• 300,000 wounded• US lost world wide

respect• US self confidence is

hurt

Feminist Victories and Defeats • During the 1970s, the feminist

movement became energized and took a decidedly aggressive tone.

• 1972- Title IX prohibited sex discrimination in any federally funded education program (big in female sports)

• Supreme Court aids feminism movement

• Roe v. Wade case legalized abortion, arguing that ending a pregnancy was protected under a right to privacy.

Feminist Victories and Defeats• Even more ambitious was the ERA

(Equal Rights Amendment) to the Constitution.

• 1972- Nixon vetoed proposal to set up nationwide day care, because it would weaken the family

• Anti feminists blame divorce rate on feminists, churches start movements to oppose abortion

• Conservative ultra anti feminists- Phyllis Schlafly- said ERA would deprive a woman’s right to be a wife and It would require women to serve in combat.

• 1982- ERA dies, 3 states short of success

70’s Black and White • 1974 Milliken v. Bradley

case, the Supreme Court ruled that desegregation plans could not require students to move across school-district lines.

• This reinforced the “white flight” to the suburbs that pitted the poorest whites and blacks against each other, often with explosively violent results.

70’s Black and White• Affirmative Action- whites still screaming

reverse discrimination • In the Bakke case of 1978, the Supreme Court

ruled 5 to 4 that Allan Bakke (a white applicant claiming reverse discrimination) should be admitted to U.C.—Davis med school. The decision was ambiguous saying (1) admission preference based on any race was not allowed, but conversely that (2) race could be factored into the admission policy.

• The Supreme Court’s only black justice, Thurgood Marshall, warned that the denial of racial preferences might sweep away the progress gained by the civil rights movement.

Native Americans in the 70’s• Get inspiration from civil

rights movement• Focus- assert status of

separate semi-sovereign peoples

• Capture Alcatraz in 1970, Wounded Knee in 1972

• US v. Wheeler- Native tribes possessed a “unique and limited” sovereignty, subject to will of Congress, but not individual states

Election of 1976

• Bicentennial • Reps- Gerald Ford• Demos- Jimmy Carter• JC almost running against

memory of Watergate, rather than Ford –

• JC- “I’ll never lie to you” • 97% of African Americans

vote for JC

Election of 1976

• Carter wins• Democratic majority in

both houses• Creates new cabinet- Dept.

of NRG • Pardons ten thousand

Vietnam draft dodgers• Popularity was high early

on, but campaigned as an outside, usually rubbed congress the wrong way

Carter the Humanitarian

• “Human Rights” dominated Carter’s foreign policy- Rhodesia and South Africa

• Camp David Accords- Biggest Success- Anwar Sadat (Egypt) and Menachem Begin(Israel)

• Israel agreed to withdraw from territory gained in the 1967 war, while Egypt would respect Israel’s territories.

Carter the Humanitarian• Resumes diplomatic

relations with China at 3 year interruption

• Pushes through treaties that give Panama Canal back to Panamanians

• Despite these successes cold war still hangs over US head

• Cubans, supported by USSR, appeared in Angola, Ethiopia, and other areas in Africa

JC and the Economy• Inherits Ford’s recession,

inflation rate at 13% in1980• Americans would learn that they

could no longer hide behind their ocean moats and live happily insulated from foreign affairs

• Carter diagnosed America’s problems as stemming primarily from the nation’s costly dependence on foreign oil

The US and Iran

• CIA placed Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi gets overthrown in 1979

• Muslim fundamentalists resent Reza’s attempt to Westernize Iran

• Iran’s oil production is stalled during rebellion, OPEC hike up crude oil prices – another gas crisis

Malaise Speech

• Chides US citizens for falling into a “moral and spiritual crisis” and being too concerned with “material goods”

• Then, a few days later, he fired four cabinet secretaries and tightened the circle around his Georgian advisors even more tightly.

Carter and foreign affairs • 1979- Leonid Brezhnev

and Carter meet to discuss SALT II

• Senate won’t ratify the treaty

• Nov 4, 79- Iranian militants take over US embassy in Iran, takes all as hostages

• Rebels want the US to ship back the former Shah for trial

• Dec 1979- Soviets invade Afghanistan(next to Iran)

• Carter embargos USSR, called for boycott of Olympic games in Moscow

• Carter says US will us any means necessary, including force to protect Persian Gulf

• Carter admits to being fooled by the Soviets and SALT II

• Soviets busy in “Russia’s Vietnam”

Carter and foreign affairs

Iranian Hostage Crisis • Kills US moral- nightly

news broadcasts show anti-American mobs in Iran

• Economic sanctions applied, US is waiting for a stable government

• US plans rescue mission, fails mainly due to weather, two helicopters crash into each other

• US now looks helpless and incompetent

• 444 days