A Crisis in Confidence1968-1980

A Crisis in Confidence1968-1980

(The Me Decade)

This chapter will explain a crisis in confidence in America. It will focus on how Nixon and the Watergate scandal changed people’s perceptions of government, the economic troubles of the Ford and Carter years, and the foreign policy challenges of the 1970s.

Chapter Introduction

• Section 1: Nixon and the Watergate Scandal

• Section 2: The Ford and Carter Years

• Section 3: Foreign Policy Troubles

Nixon's Domestic Policy and Fall

• Describe Richard Nixon’s attitude toward “big” government.

• Analyze Nixon’s southern strategy.

• Explain the Watergate incident and its consequences.

Objectives

Terms and People

• silent majority − voters Nixon sought to reach, who did not demonstrate but rather worked and served quietly in “Middle America”

• stagflation − the dual conditions of a stagnating economy and inflation

• Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) − group of countries which sell oil to other nations and cooperate to regulate the price and supply of oil

• southern strategy − a plan to make the Republican Party a powerful force in the South by attracting the votes of blue-collar workers and southern whites

Terms and People (continued)

• affirmative action − a policy that gives special consideration to women and minorities in order to make up for past discrimination

• Watergate − the scandal that began with a burglary of Democratic Party headquarters and led to Nixon’s resignation

• executive privilege − the principle that the President has the right to keep certain information confidential

President Nixon won reelection in a landslide in 1972.

Due to the Watergate scandal, however, he left office in disgrace two years later. The event changed Americans’ attitudes toward government in a way that is still felt today.

What events led to Richard Nixon’s resignation as President in 1974?

He did it by working to appeal to the silent majority, or those he called Middle Americans.

Nixon made a dramatic political comeback in 1968 when he won the presidency.

Nixon tried to give power back to the state governments but . . .

Nixon actually expanded the federal governmentwhile he was in office.

Stagflation was the combination of a recession and inflation.

The economy was unstable during Nixon’s presidency.

Oil prices went up due to an embargo issued by OPEC.

Nixon criticized the court-ordered busing of children to schools outside their neighborhoods.

Nevertheless, Nixon’s civil rights initiatives included affirmative action.

Nixon’s strategy succeeded and he was reelected in a landslide.

In the election of 1972, Nixon used a new southern strategy.

• On June 17, 1972, five men were arrested after breaking into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee located in the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. The burglars were not ordinary thieves. They carried wiretaps to install on telephones. They carried cameras to photograph documents. Four of the five criminals were anti-Castro Cubans who had been previously hired by the CIA. The fifth was James McCord, the security adviser for Nixon's campaign staff known as the Committee to Re-Elect the President, or CREEP. Although the incident failed to make the front pages of the major newspapers, it would soon become the most notorious political scandal in American history.

Watergate Scandal

Watergate Scandal• In the heated climate of the late 1960s and early 1970s,

President Nixon believed strongly that a war was being fought between "us" and "them." To Nixon, "us" meant the conservative, middle- and working-class, church-going Americans, who believed the United States was in danger of crumbling. "Them" meant the young, defiant, free love, antiwar, liberal counterculture figures who sought to transform American values.

•President Nixon's letter of resignation (above) is addressed to the Secretary of State — who at the time was Henry Kissinger — in keeping with a law passed by Congress in 1792. When Kissinger initialed the document at 11:35 a.m., Nixon's resignation became official.

• Nixon would stop at nothing to win this war of hearts and minds, even if it meant breaking the law.

Watergate Scandal• In 1971, a White House group known as the

"Plumbers" was established to eliminate administration leaks to the press. Their first target was Daniel Ellsberg who had worked on the Pentagon Papers, a highly critical study of America's Vietnam policy. Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers — intended to be used internally by the government — to the New York Times. The Plumbers vandalized the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist, hoping to find discrediting information on Ellsberg to release to the public.

Watergate Scandal• Later that year, Attorney General John Mitchell

resigned to head CREEP. The campaign raised millions of dollars in illegal contributions and laundered several hundred thousand for plumbing activities. A White House adviser named G. Gordon Liddy suggested that the Democratic headquarters be bugged and that other funds should be used to bribe, threaten, or smear Nixon's opponents. After the arrest of the burglars, Nixon suggested the payments of hush money to avoid a connection between Watergate and the White House. He suggested that the FBI cease any investigation of the break-in. He recommended that staffers perjure themselves if subpoenaed in court.

Watergate Scandal• The Watergate cover-up was initially successful.

Despite a headline story in The Washington Post by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein suggesting White House involvement, Nixon went on to win 49 of 50 states in the November 1972 Presidential election against George McGovern.

• When the burglars were tried in January 1973, James McCord admitted in a letter that members of the Nixon Administration ordered the Watergate break-in. A Senate committee was appointed to investigate, and Nixon succumbed to public pressure and appointed Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox to scrutinize the matter.

Watergate Scandal• Complicitous in the cover-up, many high-level White

House officials resigned including Nixon's Chief of Staff, Bob Haldeman, and his Adviser on Domestic Affairs, John Ehrlichman. In an unrelated case, Vice-President Spiro Agnew resigned facing charges of bribery and tax evasion. Nixon's own personal counsel, John Dean, agreed to cooperate with the Senate and testified about Nixon's involvement in the cover-up. In a televised speech, Nixon assuredly told the American public "I am not a crook." It seemed like a matter of Nixon's word against Dean's until a low-level aide told the committee that Nixon had been in the practice of taping every conversation held in the Oval Office.

Watergate Scandal• Nixon flatly refused to submit the tapes to the

committee. When Archibald Cox demanded the surrender of the tapes, Nixon had him fired. Public outcry pressed Nixon to agree to release typewritten transcripts of his tapes, but Americans were not satisfied. The tape transcripts further damaged Nixon. On the tapes he swore like a sailor and behaved like a bully. Then there was the matter of 17 crucial minutes missing from one of the tapes.

• Finally, in U.S. v. Nixon, the Supreme Court declared that executive privilege did not apply in this case, and Nixon was ordered to give the evidence to the Congress.

Watergate Scandal• By this time, the House Judiciary Committee had already drawn

up articles of impeachment, and Nixon knew he did not have the votes in the Senate to save his Presidency.

• On August 8, 1974, Nixon resigned the office, becoming the first President to do so. His successor, Gerald Ford, promptly awarded Nixon a full pardon for any crimes he may have committed while in office. The press and the public cried foul, but Ford defended his decision by insisting the nation was better served by ending the long, national nightmare.

• During his years in office, Nixon had brought a controversial end to the Vietnam War, opened communication with Red China, watched NASA put astronauts on the moon, and presided over a healing period in American history in the early 1970s. Despite these many accomplishments, Watergate's shadow occludes Nixon's legacy.

Despite Nixon’s strong victory, the seeds of his downfall were planted during a break-in of the Democratic Party headquarters in 1972.

The Watergate scandal, as it came to be called, changed everything.

Nixon denied any wrongdoing.

Two Washington Post reporters investigated.

It was revealed that Nixon had been secretly taping conversations in the Oval Office.

Nixon refused to turn over the tapes, citing executive privilege.

The Supreme Court ordered him to turn them over.

The tapes proved Nixon’s involvement, so a House committee voted to impeach him.

As a result, Nixon decided to resign in August of 1974, the first and only President ever to do so.

Nixon and

Watergate

The Election of 1968

• Richard Nixon only narrowly won the 1968 election, but the combined total of popular votes for Nixon and Wallace indicated a shift to the right in American politics.

• The 1960's began as an era of optimism and possibility and ended in disunity and distrust.

• The Vietnam war and a series of assassinations and crises eroded public trust in government and produced a backlash against liberal movements and the Democratic party.

The Election of 1968

• Nixon campaigned as a champion of the "silent majority," the hardworking Americans who paid taxes, did not demonstrate, and desired a restoration of "law and order.”

• He vowed to restore respect for the rule of law, reconstitute the stature of America, dispose of ineffectual social programs, and provide strong leadership to end the turmoil of the 1960's.

Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers

• Daniel Ellsberg was an employee of the Defense Department who leaked a classified assessment of the Vietnam War in 1971.

• The 7,000 page document came to be known as the Pentagon Papers.

• They cast doubt on the justification for entry into the war and revealed that senior government officials had serious misgivings about the war.

• When the New York Times and Washington Post began to publish the Pentagon Papers, the Nixon Administration sued them.

• The Supreme Court ruled that the papers could continue to publish the documents.

The White House Plumbers

• After the release of the Pentagon Papers, the White House created a unit to ensure internal security.

• This unit was called the Plumbers because they stopped leaks.

• In 1971 they burglarized the office of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist, seeking material to discredit him.

• It was later revealed that Nixon’s domestic advisor John Ehrlichman knew of and approved the plan.

Howard Hunt G. Gordon Liddy

James McCord Chuck Colson

The Watergate Break-in

• When initial polls showed Nixon in the Election of 1972 in a close race, the Plumbers turned their activities to political espionage.

• On 17 June 1972, 5 men were arrested while attempting to bug the headquarters of the Democratic Party inside the Watergate building in Washington D.C.

• One of the men arrested, James McCord, was the head of security for the Republican Party.

• The Nixon campaign denied any involvement.

Woodward, Bernstein and the Washington Post

• Watergate came to public attention largely through the work of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, investigative reporters from the Washington Post.

• Despite enormous political pressure, Post editor Ben Bradlee, publisher Katherine Graham, Woodward and Bernstein, aided by an enigmatic source nicknamed “Deep Throat” kept the story in the public consciousness until Nixon’s resignation.

Watergate Enters the Nixon Campaign

• The break-in was eventually tied to the Nixon reelection campaign through a $25,000 check from a Republican donor that was laundered through a Mexican bank and deposited in the account of Watergate burglar Bernard Barker.

• Later it was discovered that Former

Attorney General John Mitchell, head of Nixon’s “Committee to Re-Elect the President,” (CREEP) controlled a secret fund for political espionage.

• Mitchell would later go to prison for his role in the scandal

The Election of 1972

• Despite the growing stain of Watergate, which had not yet reached the President, Nixon won by the largest margin in history to that point.

The Watergate Investigations: Judge John Sirica

• Watergate came to be investigated by a Special Prosecutor, a Senate committee, and by the judge in the original break-in case.

• Judge Sirica refused to believe that the burglars had acted alone.

• In March 1973, defendant James W. McCord sent a letter to Sirica confirming that it was a conspiracy.

• Sirica’s investigation transformed Watergate from the story of a “third-rate burglary” to a scandal reaching the highest points in government.

Senate Investigation and the Oval Office Tapes

• The Senate began hearings into Watergate in May 1973.

• The hearings were televised in their entirety.

• They focused on when the President knew of the break-in.

• In June 1973, former White House legal counsel John Dean delivered devastating testimony that implicated Nixon from the earliest days of Watergate.

Senate Investigation and the Oval Office Tapes

• The Administration was eager to discredit Dean and his testimony so it began to release factual challenges to his account.

• When former White House aide Alexander Butterfield was asked about the source of the White House information, he revealed the existence of an automatic taping system that Nixon had secretly installed in the Oval Office.

• These tapes would become the focus of the investigation.

The Saturday Night Massacre

• The Administration reached an agreement with the Senate Watergate Committee that its Chairman would be allowed to listen to tapes and provide a transcript to the Committee and to Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox.

• The deal broke down when Cox refused to accept the transcripts in place of the tapes.

• Since the Special Prosecutor is an employee of the Justice Department, Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Cox.

Archibald Cox

The Saturday Night Massacre

• When Richardson refused, he was fired. • Nixon ordered Deputy Attorney General

William D. Ruckelshaus to fire Cox .• When he refused, he was fired. • Nixon then ordered Solicitor General

Robert Bork (who was later nominated for the Supreme Court by Reagan) to fire Cox and he complied.

• The Washington Post reported on the “Saturday Night Massacre.”

Robert Bork

The Smoking Gun Tapes

• When the Supreme Court forced Nixon to surrender the tapes.

• Nixon was implicated from the earliest days of the cover-up:– authorizing the payment of hush money– attempting to use the CIA to interfere with the FBI

investigation.• One tape has an 18 ½ minute gap. • Nixon’s secretary Rosemary Woods

demonstrated how she could have inadvertently erased the tape, but no one bought it.

• “The smoking gun tapes,” were released in August 1974, just after the House Judiciary Committee approved Articles of Impeachment against Nixon.

Nixon Resigns

• On 27 July 1974, the House Judiciary Committee approved Articles of Impeachment against Nixon.

• The House was to vote on the matter soon. • Nixon conceded that impeachment in the

House was likely, but he believed that the Senate vote to remove him would fail.

• On 5 August 1974, when the “smoking gun tape” became public, a delegation from the Republican National Committee told Nixon that he would not survive the vote in the Senate Trial vote.

• On 9 August 1974, Richard Nixon became the first American president to resign.

Aftermath

• More than 30 government officials went to prison for their role in Watergate.

• Richard Nixon was not one of them. • In September 1974, President Gerald Ford gave Nixon a full pardon. • Woodward and Bernstein won the Pulitzer Prize. • They collaborated on 2 books, All the President’s Men and The Final

Days. • In 1976 All the President’s Men was adapted into an Oscar winning

film.• The identity of Deep Throat was kept secret until W. Mark Felt

unmasked himself in 2005.

Ford announcing the pardon

Nixon’s farewell departure August 9, 1974

•Watergate had a lasting impact on the country.

• It shook the public’s confidence in its government.

• It showed that the system of checks and balances worked. Not even the President was above the law.

• Federal Election Campaign Act Amendments (1974)

• Freedom of Information Act Amendments (1974)

• Government in the Sunshine Act (1976)

• Ethics in Government Actof 1978

Post-Watergate Government Reforms:

Ford and Carter Domestic Policy

• Evaluate the presidency of Gerald Ford.

• Assess the domestic policies of Jimmy Carter.

• Analyze how American society changed in the 1970s.

Objectives

Terms and People

• Gerald Ford − became President in 1974 after Nixon’s resignation

• pardon − officially give forgiveness

• Jimmy Carter − a former governor of Georgia who was elected President in 1976

• Christian fundamentalist − a person who believes in a strict, literal interpretation of the Bible as the foundation of the Christian faith

Terms and People (continued)

• amnesty − political pardon

• televangelist − minister who preached on television

Compared to the turbulent 1960s, the 1970s appeared uneventful.

However, the 1970s brought many social, economic, and cultural changes. Many felt those changes put America on the wrong track.

What accounted for the changes in American attitudes during the 1970s?

The Ford Interlude•Nixon's vice president, Gerald Ford (appointed to replace Agnew), was an unpretentious man who had spent most of his public life in Congress. His first priority was to restore trust in the government. However, feeling it necessary to head off the spectacle of a possible prosecution of Nixon, he issued a blanket pardon to his predecessor. Although it was perhaps necessary, the move was nonetheless unpopular. •In public policy, Ford followed the course Nixon had set. Economic problems remained serious, as inflation and unemployment continued to rise. Ford first tried to reassure the public, much as Herbert Hoover had done in 1929. When that failed, he imposed measures to curb inflation, which sent unemployment above 8 percent. A tax cut, coupled with higher unemployment benefits, helped a bit but the economy remained weak.

Although Ford worked hard to solve the country’s problems, his Whip Inflation Now (WIN) program did not succeed. As unemployment grew, his popularity declined rapidly.

Vice President Gerald Ford became President after Nixon’s resignation in 1974. He faced the worst economic problems that America had experienced since the Great Depression.

Carter cast himself as an outsider and had the support of Christian fundamentalists.

He presented himself as a “citizens’ President” with no ties to professional politicians, which appealed to many voters after the Watergate scandal.

The struggling economy and frustrations over Gerald Ford’s pardon of Nixon led to Jimmy Carter’s win in the 1976 presidential election.

The Carter Years•Jimmy Carter, former Democratic governor of Georgia, won the presidency in 1976. Portraying himself during the campaign as an outsider to Washington politics, he promised a fresh approach to governing, but his lack of experience at the national level complicated his tenure from the start. A naval officer and engineer by training, he often appeared to be a technocrat, when Americans wanted someone more visionary to lead them through troubled times.•In economic affairs, Carter at first permitted a policy of deficit spending. Inflation rose to 10 percent a year when the Federal Reserve Board, responsible for setting monetary policy, increased the money supply to cover deficits. Carter responded by cutting the budget, but cuts affected social programs at the heart of Democratic domestic policy. In mid-1979, anger in the financial community practically forced him to appoint Paul Volcker as chairman of the Federal Reserve. Volcker was an "inflation hawk" who increased interest rates in an attempt to halt price increases, at the cost of negative consequences for the economy.

• Carter also faced criticism for his failure to secure passage of an effective energy policy. He presented a comprehensive program, aimed at reducing dependence on foreign oil, that he called the "moral equivalent of war." Opponents thwarted it in Congress.

• Though Carter called himself a populist, his political priorities were never wholly clear. He endorsed government's protective role, but then began the process of deregulation, the removal of governmental controls in economic life. Arguing that some restrictions over the course of the past century limited competition and increased consumer costs, he favored decontrol in the oil, airline, railroad, and trucking industries.

• Carter's political efforts failed to gain either public or congressional support. By the end of his term, his disapproval rating reached 77 percent, and Americans began to look toward the Republican Party again.

• As he had no close allies in Washington, his legislation rarely passed in Congress without changes.

• Carter grappled with the energy crisis and inflation.

• He granted amnesty to Americans who had evaded the draft during the Vietnam War. This was highly unpopular with many Americans.

Crises and Carter’s inexperience reduced the effectiveness of his presidency.

The Sunbelt gained more political influence.

The nation’s demographics changed due to immigration and Americans moving south and west.

Life in America changed in other ways:

• There was more premarital sex, more drug use, and a higher divorce rate.

• The 1970s gained the nickname the “me decade” as people focused on themselves.

One of the most popular television shows of the 1970s was All in the Family.

The characters debated hot-button social issues. The show signaled a move away from nostalgia and escapism.

A resurgence of fundamental Christianity occurred as a response to the shift in values.

• Televangelists reached millions.

• Religious conservatives formed alliances with political conservatives.

• Something was terribly wrong in America in the 1970s.• The United States was supposed to be a superpower, yet

American forces proved powerless to stop a tiny guerrilla force in Vietnam. Support for Israel in the Middle East led to a rash of terrorism against American citizens traveling abroad, as well a punitive oil embargo that stifled the economy and forced American motorists to wait hours for their next tank of gasoline.

• A hostile new government in Iran held fifty-two American citizens hostage before the eyes of the incredulous world. The détente with the Soviet Union of the Nixon years dissolved into bitter animosity when a second arms control agreement failed in the Senate and a Soviet army of invasion marched into Afghanistan. The United States military juggernaut seemed to have reached its limits.

• At home, the news was no better. The worst political scandal in United States history forced a president to resign before facing certain impeachment. Months of investigation turned into years of untangling a web of government deceit. Details of illegal, unethical, and immoral acts by members of the White House staff covered the nation's newspapers. Upon resignation, the president was granted a full and complete pardon. Many Americans wondered what happened to justice and accountability.

• The booming economy sputtered to a halt. Inflation approached 20% and unemployment neared 10% — a combination previously thought to be impossible. Crime rates rose as tales of the decaying inner cities fell on deaf ears. A nuclear disaster of unspeakable proportions was barely averted at the Three Mile Island fission plant in Pennsylvania..

• Many Americans coped with the current ailments by turning inward. Outlandish fashion and outrageous fads such as streaking, mood rings, and pet rocks became common. Younger Americans finished their workweeks and sought escape in discotheques. Controversy surrounding "decaying morality" surfaced with regard to increased drug use, sexual promiscuity, and a rising divorce rate. As a result, a powerful religious movement turned political in the hopes of changing directions toward a more innocent time.

• The United States celebrated its bicentennial anniversary in 1976 without the expected accompanying optimism. Instead, while many reflected on the past laurels of American success, an overarching question was on the minds of the American people: what had gone wrong?

Ford and Carter Foreign Policy

• Compare the policies of Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter toward the Soviet Union.

• Discuss changing U.S. foreign policy in the developing world.

• Identify the successes and failures of Carter’s foreign policy in the Middle East.

Objectives

Terms and People

• Helsinki Accords − a document that put the nations of Europe on record in favor of human rights, endorsed by the United States and the Soviet Union in a 1975 meeting

• human rights − the basic rights that every human being is entitled to have

• Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT II) − an agreement between the United States and Soviet Union to limit nuclear arms production

• boat people − people who fled communist-controlled Vietnam on boats, looking for refuge in Southeast Asia, the United States, and Canada

Terms and People (continued)

• sanctions − penalties

• developing world − the poor nations of Asia, Africa, and Latin America

• Camp David Accords − agreements that provided the framework for a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel

• Ayatollah Khomeini − a fundamentalist Islamic cleric who took power in Iran when the Shah fled in 1979

The Vietnam War caused many Americans to question the direction of the nation’s foreign policy.

Debates about détente, human rights, and which regimes deserved American support became part of the national conversation.

What were the goals of American foreign policy during the Ford and Carter years, and how successful were Ford’s and Carter’s policies?

• In foreign policy, Ford adopted Nixon's strategy of detente. Perhaps its major manifestation was the Helsinki Accords of 1975, in which the United States and Western European nations effectively recognized Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe in return for Soviet affirmation of human rights. The agreement had little immediate significance, but over the long run may have made maintenance of the Soviet empire more difficult. Western nations effectively used periodic "Helsinki review meetings" to call attention to various abuses of human rights by Communist regimes of the Eastern bloc.

Gerald Ford continued Nixon’s policies of détente with the Soviet Union after he took office in 1974.

The United States continued disarmament talks with the Soviets that led to SALT II.

Ford also endorsed the Helsinki Accords, a document that put major nations on record in support of human rights.

South Vietnam fell to the communists. Many of the refugees who took to the sea, or boat people, eventually found refuge in the United States and Canada.

The United States sought to put the Vietnam War in the past.

Early in his presidency, Jimmy Carter continued Nixon’s and Ford’s policies toward the Soviet Union.

In June 1979, Carter signed the SALT II arms control treaty despite opposition from many Americans who believed it jeopardized U.S. security. The Senate held heated debates about whether to vote for the treaty, which angered the Soviet Union.

Despite the signed treaty, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan to support its communist government. Carter withdrew SALT II from Congress and imposed sanctions on the Soviets.

Jimmy Carter changed the course of American foreign policy by declaring that it would be guided by a concern for human rights.

Carter’s beliefs about human rights changed the way that the U.S. dealt with countries in the developing world. The U.S. stopped sending money to countries that ignored their citizens’ rights, such as Nicaragua.

Carter also decided to return the Panama Canal Zone to Panama by 1999. Although some Americans feared that this would weaken national security, the Canal Zone treaties were ratified in 1978, and Panama now has full control of the canal.

• Carter's greatest foreign policy accomplishment was the negotiation of a peace settlement between Egypt, under President Anwar al-Sadat, and Israel, under Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Acting as both mediator and participant, he persuaded the two leaders to end a 30-year state of war. The subsequent peace treaty was signed at the White House in March 1979.

Carter helped to negotiate a peace agreement between Egypt and Israel known as the Camp David Accords.

Egypt became the first Arab nation to officially recognize the nation of Israel.

1978 Camp David Accords

Peace agreement between Egypt and Israel

• After protracted and often emotional debate, Carter also secured Senate ratification of treaties ceding the Panama Canal to Panama by the year 2000. Going a step farther than Nixon, he extended formal diplomatic recognition to the People's Republic of China.

• But Carter enjoyed less success with the Soviet Union. Though he assumed office with detente at high tide and declared that the United States had escaped its "inordinate fear of Communism," his insistence that "our commitment to human rights must be absolute" antagonized the Soviet government. A SALT II agreement further limiting nuclear stockpiles was signed, but not ratified by the U.S. Senate, many of whose members felt the treaty was unbalanced. The 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan killed the treaty and triggered a Carter defense build-up that paved the way for the huge expenditures of the 1980s.

• Carter's most serious foreign policy challenge came in Iran. After an Islamic fundamentalist revolution led by Shiite Muslim leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini replaced a corrupt but friendly regime, Carter admitted the deposed shah to the United States for medical treatment. Angry Iranian militants, supported by the Islamic regime, seized the American embassy in Tehran and held 53 American hostages for more than a year. The long-running hostage crisis dominated the final year of his presidency and greatly damaged his chances for re-election.

In Iran, fundamentalist Islamic clerics led by Ayatollah Khomeini seized power.

Radical students took over the U.S. Embassy and held 66 Americans hostage.

President Carter failed to win all of the hostages’ release—evidence to some that his foreign policy was not tough enough.

April 198100FaFailed Rescue attemp

Failure on the desert floor:

Aborted U.S. hostage rescue attempt April 1980

After the Iranian government took 52 Americans hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979, President Carter mounted a rescue effort that ended in tragedy. Eight American pilots participating in "Operation Eagle Claw" lost their lives when two aircraft collided.

The hostage crisis showed that the Soviet Union was no longer the only threat to America.

Conflicts in the Middle East threatened to become the greatest foreign policy challenge for the United States.

Chapter Summary

Section 1: Nixon and the Watergate Scandal

Richard Nixon was reelected in 1972 by a landslide due in part to his southern strategy. The Watergate scandal caused him to resign the office in disgrace two years later and changed how Americans felt about their government.

Section 2: The Ford and Carter Years

During the Ford and Carter years, Americans dealt with a struggling economy as many of the social and cultural changes begun in the 1960s took hold. Some felt the nation had gone off the right track as people’s values and lifestyles changed.

Chapter Summary (continued)

Section 3: Foreign Policy Troubles

During the Ford administration, Nixon’s foreign policies were continued. Carter put more emphasis on human rights in his dealings with the developing world. When radicals in Iran took 66 American hostages, the United States realized that the Middle East might be a bigger threat than the Soviet Union.