Righting a Nation Adrift

America in the 1970’s and 1980’s

APUSH D-DAY!!!!!

• Smell the cake, blow out the candles!!!!– You may experience a brain fart, but that is ok!!!

• Study before school Pennington/Lunch Pennington/After school Burlison

• Study note cards (check out with me), review packet, practice exams, practice writing thesis with old AP prompts

• If you need a particular topic let me know!!!! ASAP!!!!

• Change of Location Southern Hills Baptist Church (extra credit-rosemary)

Downtown and Scandal

An Ailing Economy• Rising Energy Costs

– High Inflation• High govt. spending w/o raising taxes

– Reliance on Middle East for oil• Yom Kippur War 1973

– Egypt & Syria both attacked Israel w/ USSR weapons

– Israel w/ USA weapons» OPEC-an int’l consortium of oil-

producing nations that regulates the $ and # of oil

» OPEC oil embargo on US (12%) for 5 months

– Nixon: 55 MPH, 68 Degrees, 10% less air travel, creates Dept. of Energy (1977)

– Nixon persuaded Israel to withdraw/oil flowed again…

– Recession of 1970’s• Stagflation• Decline in Big Three Automakers• Decline in Steel• Jobs from the Rust Belt went to the Sun Belt

or overseas• US economy shifted from a manufacturing

base to service & high tech– Steve Jobs-Apple/Bill Gates-Microsoft

Downtown and Scandal

• Frustration at Home

– Election of 1968-wins by slim margin/focus on reelection-C.R.E.E.P.

– Nixon as Moderate• Fiscal conservative who accepted

popular welfare programs like Social Security and Medicare.

• “Silent Majority” southerners and northern white blue collar and suburbanite Democrats

I want those southern states and I want a landslide!!!!

Mobilize C.R.E.E.P. and the Plumbers!!!!

Downtown and Scandal

– Liberal– DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS:

FORCED LIB. LEG. TO HIS DESK

– ECONOMIC POLICIES: STAGFLATION REQUIRED NIXON TO SUPPORT KEYNESIAN ECONOMIC POLICIES (deficit spending)

– Occupational Safety and Health Administration

– Conservative– OPPOSED FORCED

INTEGRATION IN PUBLIC FACILITIES

– OPPOSED BUSSING TO INTEGRATE SCHOOLS

– SWUNG SUPREME COURT TO THE RIGHT BY APPOINTING 3 CONSERVATIVE JUSTICES (REHNQUIST)

Downtown and Scandal

• Watergate Scandal– Election of 1972

• Nixon (R)

• George McGovern (D)

– Break in of DNC at Watergate

– Woodward and Bernstein/Washington Post

– Deep Throat-Mysterious informant

– What did the president know and when did he know it???

• Nixon authorized FBI to cover-up the mess. Did he authorize the break in???

– Agnew’s Resigns: found guilty of accepting bribes 1st VP to resign

– Gerald Ford 1st President and V.P. w/o getting elected

– Nixon invokes executive privilege • US vs. Nixon

– Saturday Night Massacre

– Nixon Resigns

Crisis of Presidential Leadership

• A Weakened Presidency– Gerald Ford (R) VP to

President• Pardons Nixon-loss public

support for action/nation not ready to move on

– Federal Election Commission (1974)• To monitor federal

elections

– Congress set limits on campaign contributions• Reaction/Political Action

Committees (P.A.C.)

I am a Ford, not a Lincoln.

Crisis of Presidential Leadership

• Carter in the White House– First things First

• Pardons Vietnam War draft dodgers

• Creates Dept. of Education• Creates “Superfund” to clean

up pollution sites

– “Outsider”• Differed from Liberal

Democrats/Carter deregulated big businesses to stimulate economy

– Energy Crisis• Ended price control on oil,

raised tax on gas- gulzzingcars, and tax incentive for alternative fuels/failed to get higher tax on gasoline

– Result: High prices and gas shortage for consumers/record amount of profit for Exxon

• Malaise Speech -public resentment

I hope people remember that Thomas Jefferson walked to the

White House as well

Crisis of Presidential Leadership

• New Paths in Foreign Affairs– Panama Canal Treaty– Diplomatic relations with China, not

Taiwan– Soviet Union Aggression

• Invades Afghanistan (1979-1988)• Carter withdraws from S.A.L.T. II treaty-

Cut off Grain-Withdraw of Olympics in Moscow

• Sent aid to Muslim fundamentalist rebels against USSR (Osama Bin Laden)

– Camp David Accords-greatest accomplishment

• Egypt 1st Arab nation to recognize state and Israel returns Sinai- US military aid

– Iranian Hostage Crisis-worst• Iranian Revolution-overthrow of Shah

(US installed & supported)• US held hostage in US embassy-1 year• Failed Rescue (8 US dead)• Released: Carter’s work/Reagan ‘s

Reward

“President Carter and his supporters in the Congress

seem like Santa Claus. They have given the Panama Canal away, abandoned

Taiwan to the Red Chinese, and they’re negotiating a SALT II treaty that could

very well make this nation NUMBER TWO.”

Thank you very much Shah of Iran. It is a lovely tapestry of

George Washington.

Happy New Year’s to you Shah. You are an island

rock!!!!

The Rights Revolution

• Equal Rights Amendment– Feminist goals: equal pay for equal work,

ending sexual harassment, affordable daycare, and paid maternity leave

– Challenges• Negative image from press• Divisions among women

– Successes• Shelters for battered women• Rape-crisis centers• Title IV-prohibits gender discrimination in

education

– Gloria Steinem-Founder of Ms. Magazine 1972

– E.R.A• Congress passed in 1972 “equality of rights

under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the US or any State on account of sex.”

• 34 of the 38 states needed approved the measure within 3 yrs

• Anti-ERA crusade-led by Phyllis Schlafly• Failed to get three states in 1982

• Abortion Controversies– Roe v. Wade (1973) legalized abortion

during the first trimester, states second, and then prohibit during third.

– Pro-Choice (supporters of women’s choice) vs. Pro-Life (supporters of life at conception)

The Rights Revolution

• Environmentalism– Earth Day April 22, 1970

• Counterculture-organic food• Politicians-bipartisan legislation on

health issues• Conservationists-wildlife• President-JFK to Carter

– Federal controls• Asbestos removal• Airborne toxins• Auto pollution

– Debate (General vs. Blue Collar workers)– Environmental Protection Agency

• charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress

• Nixon Administration 1970– Clean Air Act 1970– Clean Water Act of 1972

– Disasters• Love Canal 1978-pollution/ miscarriages

& birth defects• Three Mile Island-Nuclear Power Plant

melt down– Demise

• President Reagan did not believe environment was in serious jeopardy

– Defunds EPA & loosens regulation

Rise of the Right

• New Conservative Coalition– Religious Right-collection of

conservative Christian groups that defended traditional values and supported right-winged political causes

– Moral Majority-Jerry Falwell• “pro-life”, “pro-family”, “pro-

morality” ,and “pro-American”• Joined other conservatives

groups and register two million new voters in 1980

– Protestants and Catholics join forces

– Propelled Ronald Reagan into the Whitehouse 1980

• Iranian hostages are released the minute that he is sworn in

Rise of the Right• Setting a New Course: Reagan

at Home– “Reaganomics” (supply-side)

• Cut taxes that would fuel economic growth, creating more and better-paying jobs that would generate enough tax revenue to offset the increase in military spending

• Trickle-down economics (Hoover)

– 1. Economic Recovery Act of 1981: cut corporate and income taxes by $747 billion over 5 years. • Favored wealthiest and therefore,

smallest class of people– 2. Omnibus Reconciliation Act of

1981: Cut Federal spending by $136 billion in 200 cultural and social programs

• Hardest hit: education, environment, health care, housing, urban aid, food stamps, alternative fuel research, and the arts

– John Hinckley shoots Pres. Reagan and Press Secretary Brady in DC

Rise of the Right– Deregulation

• Reagan appointed conservatives to positions with in the EPA, OSHA, and Consumer Product Safety Commission who weakened/abolished standards governing environmental protection, workplace safety, consumer protection with the ultimate goal of increasing efficiency and productivity of American business sector

– 1982-Severe economic recession hits: Unemployment=11% (that’s 11.5 million people!!)

• Reaganomics had created 13 million new jobs BUT over ½ of those paid at or below poverty

• There is more family income per family BUT both parents had to work to pay the bills

– National Debt and Deficit Spending Soared• Tax cuts shrank revenues and increased

military spending amounted to a $2 trillion debt by 1986

• 14% of federal budget was earmarked to pay INTEREST ON THE DEBT

• Interest rates rose as US gov. was forced to borrow money to pay debt

• What once was the world’ biggest creditor had now become the world’s largest debtor!!!

Rise of the Right– 1984-Reagan easily wins reelection over Mondale/Ferraro Ticket

• Morning in America

– Reagan announces the nation’s first trillion-dollar budget

– 1987 Oct. 19: Black Monday stock market crash: the Dow Jones Industrial Avg. falls by 508 points (23 %)

– 1988-1990 eased regulations on banking and Savings and Loan industry encouraged risky behavior that culminated in widespread S&L failures

– US govt. “bails out” S & L at a cost of $400 billion to the taxpayer

Rise of the Right

• Foreign Policy Triumphs – Reagan campaigned on idea that US

was too weak• 1981 Pentagon budget-$169 Billion

1986= $239 Billion

• Total Reagan budgets for military spending=$1.6 trillion

• Defense contracts brought prosperity to some regions/states (California/Silicon Valley)

• 1980: defense was 23% of fed. Budget and “human programs” were 28%

• 1987: defense was 22% and “human programs” 22%

– Star Wars-SDI

– Sandinistas in Nicaragua • US Aid sent to Contras/USSR Sandinistas

• Iran-Contra Scandal

– Reagan delivers the “Evil Empire” speech and heats up détente

– President orders Marines to “liberate” Grenada and oust a pro-Marxist regime

Star Wars Defense System

Rise of the Right– Beirut Bombings-1983

• Shiite Muslims blow up the US Embassy in Beirut, killing 63

• A truck bomb blows up a US Marine headquarters in Beirut, killing 231 troops

– The USSR and the communist bloc boycott the 1984 Olympic Games in LA in retaliation for the 1980 boycott by the US

– Gorbachev and Reagan meet in Washington to sign a treaty banning all short- and medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe (INF Treaty) in 1987

– Reagan visits West Berlin and demands that Gorbachev “tear down” the Berlin Wall (down in 1989)

This is what 1 Trillion Dollars looks like…