Transcript Age_of_Limits

THE AGE OF LIMITS
The Nixon Administration
Foreign Policy
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Henry Kissinger – National Security Advisor,
Secretary of State
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Realpolitik
“I…am not at all sure I could have done what I’ve
done with him with another president….I don’t
know many leaders who would entrust to their
aide the task of negotiating with the North
Vietnamese, informing only a tiny group of
people of the initiative.” – Kissinger, 1972
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Détente
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SALT I Treaty – five year agreement to limit # of
intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarinelaunched missiles to 1972 levels.
Nixon’s visit to China
Yom Kippur War
“The End of the Age of Aquarius” –
NY Times article, 1970
“It got very ugly very fast… There were ripoffs,
violence….people living on the street with no
place to stay.”
“ We were together at the level of peace and
freedom and love…. We fell apart over who
would cook and wash the dishes and pay the
bills.”
The Nixon years….
America goes conservative
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NEW FEDERALISM
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Goal to decrease size and influence
of federal government
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dismantle Great Society programs
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ex: abolished Office of Economic
Opportunity
Revenue Sharing – state and local gov.
can do what they want with fed. Money
“I’ve always thought this
country could run itself
domestically without a
president.” – Nixon
Compromising and Conflicting with
the Legislative branch
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Both House and Senate still Democrat Majority
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Without fanfare, Nixon supports –
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Increased social security
Medicare ( health care for elderly) and Medicaid (health care for poor)
payments
Food stamps made more accessible
Nixon Halts Programs with Impoundment (withholding
necessary funds)
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$15 billion impounded affecting more than 100 federal programs
Supreme Court declared unconstitutional and funds released
Restoring Order
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Quieting the left-wing
FBI infiltrates and illegally
wiretaps individuals and
organizations such as Black
Panthers and Students for a
Democratic Society
 CIA compiles documents on
American dissidents
 Internal Revenue service audits
tax returns of anti-war and civil
rights activists
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VP Spiro T. Agnew
goes on public
speaking tour:
Called liberal media
“an effete corps of
impudent snobs,” and
“nattering nabobs of
negativism.”
Election of 1972
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Southern strategy – win over disgruntled democrats
and Wallace supporters
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Tried to delay desegregation plans for schools in SC and
MI, NAACP responds with law suit and Nixon must
abide Brown v. Board “with all deliberate speed”
Nixon opposes extending Voting Rights Act of 1965,
Congress voted to extend
Went on TV to urge Congress to halt practice of busing
to integrate schools
“There are those who want instant integration and those who
want segregation forever. I believe we need to have a middle
course between those two extremes.” - Nixon
Busing Crisis
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Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Ed. –
School districts may bus students to other schools
to end perpetual patterns of all-white and all-black
schools
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Protests erupt in Detroit and Boston
“I’m not against any individual child. I
am not a racist, no matter what those
high-and-mighty suburban liberals
with their picket signs say. I just won’t
have my children bused to
some…slum school, and I don’t want
children from God knows where
coming over here.”
South Boston Mother
Stagnant Economy
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STAGLAFTION – high
unemployment and inflation
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New workers (baby boomers and
women)
Tons of deficit spending under LBJ
Oil Crisis – OPEC (Organization
of Pretroleum Exporting
Countries) cuts oil sales to U.S. fall
1973 to March 1974.
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When OPEC resumed, prices had
tripled
Confronting the Economy
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Nixon tries to cut budget and raise taxes –
Congress says no.
Nixon urges interest rates be raised to reduce
money in circulation – drives U.S. into mild
recession
August 1971, Nixon froze wages and business
prices for 90 days – short term fix for inflation
WATERGATE = Nixon administration’s attempt
to cover up a burglary at the Democratic
National Committee headquarters
 Imperial Presidency: Executive = most powerful
branch
“A president must not be one of the crowd…. People don’t
want him to be down there saying, ‘Look, I’m the same
as you.’” – Nixon
The Aftermath…
Disillusionment,
cynicism, and lack
of faith in executive
branch
 Nixon resigns 1974,
Gerald R. Ford
becomes pres.
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“I really believe they were on a personal crusade
to bring down the president,”
– Nixon’s deputy press secretary
“We tried to do our job and, in fact, if you look
at it, our coverage was pretty conservative.”
- Woodward
Ford and the
Economy
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Program of massive
citizen action –
Americans called on to
cut back on their use of
oil, gas, and energy
W/o incentives, not very
productive…
Jimmy Carter
Energy Crisis
“ The energy crisis has not yet overwhelmed
us, but it will if we do not act quickly.
It is a problem…likely to get
progressively worse through the rest of
this century…. Our decision about
energy will test the character of the
American people and the ability of the
president and the Congress to govern
this nation. This difficult effort will be
the “more equivalent of war,” except
that we will be uniting in our efforts to
build and not to destroy.”
National Energy Act
• tax on gas-guzzling cars
• removed price controls on
oil and natural gas
•Extended tax credits for
the development of
alternative energy supplies
The Effects of Inflation
1970
1980
Cost of a Bicycle:
$43.95
$93.99
Gasoline Price per
Gallon
$0.36
$1.19
Monthly food costs
for family of 4
$42.90
$93.80
Middle East
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Camp David Accords, 1979 - 13
days of intense negotiations
between Egyptian president and
Israeli Primer Minister
Iran Hostage Crisis, Nov. 4 1979
– Revolutionaries upset that U.S.
allowed the deposed Sha of Iran to
enter U.S., they seized U.S. embassy
in Tehran and took 52 Americans
hostage.
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Hostages released January 20, 1981
Ending Detente
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June 1979, Carter and Soviet premier Leonid
Brezhnev meet to sign SALT II – did not
reduce, but limited future production –
Congress not happy about it
December 1979, Soviets invade Afghanistan –
Carter is furious and refuses to help SALT II
pass Congress.
Environmentalism
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Rachel Carson – Silent
Spring, 1962 – book about
dangers of pesticides
Earth Day – first one held
April 22, 1970
Environmental Protection
Agency – Nixon consolidated
15 pollution programs in to one
org. that exists today.
Reagan and the New Right
Conservative Coalition,
televangelists, and the
Moral Majority
“Our nation’s internal problems
are the direct result of her
spiritual condition…. Right
living must be established as
an American way of life….
Now is the time to begin
calling America back to God,
back to the bible, back to
morality!”
– The Reverend Jerry Falwell
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Reaganomics
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Supply-side economics
– large tax cuts to
increase private
investments, which in
turn were intended to
increase the nation’s
supply of goods and
services.