Transcript Period 9: The Reagan Years

Period 9: The Reagan Years
Day 66
End of the 1970s
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Malaise: a vague sense of mental/moral ill-being
 Mid-1970s, US suffered from collective malaise
OPEC enacts an embargo, oil prices skyrocket
Nixon cuts gov’t spending, wage and price controls
Ford enacts WIN (Whip Inflation Now)—propaganda campaign
 Defeated by Carter, 1976 election
1972 IRA kills thousands of Eng/Irish citizens to be recognized (want
independent homeland); Palestinian terrorists kill 11 Israeli athletes
at 1972 Olympics in Munich
1978 Camp David Agreement (Israel and Egypt, brokered by Carter)
1979 Iran Hostage Crisis (Carter helpless)-444 days
1979 Marxist rev in Nicaragua, Soviet Union invades Afghanistan
1980 US boycotts Olympic Games held in Moscow
The New Right
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Combo of Christian religious leaders, conservative business
leaders
 Claim environmental/labor regulation undermined
competitiveness of America
 “Christian Right”—1/4+ adults identify as “born again”
Christians
 Criticize Liberal Media for corrupting America’s youth
 Chided courts for taking religion out of public schools
 Abortion and “Family Rights”
 Moral Majority
Televangelism: Robertson (CBN) and Jim Bakker (PTL Club)
 Solicit funds, largest viewing audience on TV
Radicals: American Nazi Party, KKK outraged at ‘moral
decline’
Morning in America
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Conservative Reagan: promised to oppose abortion rights
and promote family values, comforting
 Republicans and “Reagan Democrats” unite, elect in 1980
Landslide: 489 to Carter’s 49 electoral votes
 Lowest voter turnout in Presidential election history
Reagan = Great Communicator (great smile, 69 yrs)
 Within hours of inauguration, Iran released US hostages
 John Hinckley shoots Reagan within 2 months, did not kill
him
 “I hope you’re all Republicans” Reagan says to doctors!
Teflon President (no scandal can stick to him, he had little
control over staff, did not understand much policy)
1984 re-elected over Democrat w/ 1st woman VP
Reaganomics
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30% tax cut for 1st 3 years of presidency at upper
income levels
 Supply-Side or Trickle-Down economics
 Tax relief for rich means more money they can
invest
 Spending will stimulate economy, create new jobs
 Deep recession in ‘81 and ‘82
 Economy stabilizes in 1983
Defense Spending increases
 Strategic Defense Initiative: Reagan proposed spacebased missile defense system (critics nicknames
“Star Wars”)
Reagan did not attack popular Social Security/Medicare
 Debt triples to 3 TRILLION DOLLARS
Foreign and Domestic Entanglements
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Mikhail Gorbachev becomes USSR premier (1985)
 Reagan and Gorbachev agree to Intermediate Nuclear Forces
treaty (1987), eliminated entire class of nuclear weapons
Reagan Doctrine: pledged to support “Freedom Fighters”
opposing communism around globe
 Funds and CIA training given to El Salvador
 US funds to Mujahedeen Rebels fighting Soviets in Afghanistan
Oct 1983, 239 marines killed by Lebanon suicide bomber
 Syrian, Libyan, Iranian gov’t suspected for training terror groups
 US planes retaliate, April 1986 (bombing of Libya)
Iran-Contra Affair: 1986 domestic scandal, Reagan admin. funded
Nicaraguan rebels against Congressional orders
Life in the 1980s
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Cable TV—ESPN, MTV, Nickelodeon, CNN
 Madonna (Material girl) and Michael Jackson could convey image
VCR allows Americans to record TV shows/movies
Personal Computer (Apple)
Silicon Valley, CA
 Home to firms that made computer processors
 Hearth of US technological economy
Yuppies (Young Urban Professions) replace hippies
 Ray-ban glasses, Polo, BMWs, health and fitness clubs
Recreational drugs of the 70’s found to be addictive
 Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” to drugs program
Sexual/drug revolution outcome: AIDS spreads
The End of the Cold War
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Mikhail Gorbachev was a reformer
Glasnost: openness, greater Soviet acceptance of western ideas and
goods
Perestroika: initiative that allowed limited market incentives to
Soviet citizens (more capitalistic)
Poland elects noncommunist gov’t to legislature
 Gorbachev does not send tanks or anything
 Dominos…East Euro communist dictatorships fall
1989 Berlin Wall torn down
Gorbachev overthrown by Yeltsin, loses power
 No one wins cold war, US spends trillions of $$
 Thousands of US lives lost in Korea and Vietnam wars
On a sheet of paper, answer the following
essay prompt:
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“Landslide presidential victories do not ensure continued
political effectiveness or legislative success.” Assess the
validity of this statement by comparing TWO of the
following presidential administrations.
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Franklin Roosevelt (1936)
Lyndon Johnson (1964)
Richard Nixon (1972)
Ronal Reagan (1984)