Transcript Nixon and the Watergate Scandal

A
Crisis
in
A Crisis in Confidence
Confidence
1968-1980
1968-1980
(The Me Decade)
Chapter Introduction
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.
• 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
Objectives
•
Describe Richard Nixon’s attitude toward
“big” government.
•
Analyze Nixon’s southern strategy.
•
Explain the Watergate incident and its
consequences.
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
What events led to Richard Nixon’s
resignation as President in 1974?
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.
Nixon made a
dramatic political
comeback in 1968
when he won the
presidency.
He did it by working
to appeal to the
silent majority, or
those he called
Middle Americans.
Nixon tried to give
power back to the
state governments
but . . .
Nixon actually
expanded the
federal
government
while he was in
office.
The economy was unstable during Nixon’s
presidency.
Stagflation was the
combination of a recession
and inflation.
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.
In the election of 1972,
Nixon used a new
southern strategy.
Nixon’s strategy
succeeded and
he was reelected
in a landslide.
Watergate Scandal
• 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
• 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, VicePresident 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 lowlevel 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
Howard Hunt
James McCord
G. Gordon Liddy
Chuck Colson
• 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.
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 “thirdrate 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
Archibald Cox
• 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.
The Saturday Night Massacre
Robert Bork
• 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.”
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
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Ford announcing the pardon
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.
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.
Post-Watergate Government Reforms:
•
Federal Election Campaign Act
Amendments (1974)
•
Freedom of Information Act
Amendments (1974)
•
Government in the Sunshine Act (1976)
•
Ethics in Government Act
of 1978
Ford and Carter Domestic Policy
Objectives
•
Evaluate the presidency of Gerald Ford.
•
Assess the domestic policies of Jimmy Carter.
•
Analyze how American society changed in the
1970s.
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
What accounted for the changes in
American attitudes during the 1970s?
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.
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.
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.
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.
The struggling economy and frustrations over Gerald
Ford’s pardon of Nixon led to Jimmy Carter’s win in
the 1976 presidential election.
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 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.
Crises and Carter’s inexperience reduced the
effectiveness of his presidency.
•
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.
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
Objectives
•
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.
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 communistcontrolled 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
What were the goals of American foreign
policy during the Ford and Carter years,
and how successful were Ford’s and
Carter’s policies?
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.
•
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.
The United States sought to put the Vietnam
War in the past.
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.
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.
After the Iranian government took 52 Americans hostage at the U.S. Emba
April 198100FaFailed Rescue attemp
Failure on the desert floor:
Aborted U.S. hostage rescue attempt April 1980
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.