Transcript The 1970`s - Spokane Public Schools

The 1970’s
Détente With China and Russia
• A time of relaxed tensions between the U.S. and these
countries.
• What came out of it was major treaties.
– We sold $750 million worth of wheat, corn and other cereals to
the Soviet Union
• The most significant being SALT (Strategic Arms
Limitation Talks)
– Agreements were reached in 1972 (SALT I) during the Nixon
administration to put limitations on antiballistic missile systems
and in 1979 (SALT II) during the Carter administration. But SALT
II was not approved by the Senate partly as a protest against the
1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In 1982 the Reagan
administration abandoned SALT and began a new series of
negotiations called START (Strategic Arms Reduction Talks),
which led to agreements in arms reductions.
Watergate
The Background
• Series of political scandals involving President Richard
M. Nixon and his administration, resulting in Nixon's
resignation in 1974.
• On June 17, 1972, five men were arrested for breaking
into the Democratic National Headquarters at the
Watergate apartment and office complex in Washington,
D.C. The intruders, who had been hired by the
Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP), were
found guilty of conspiracy and burglary.
• Nixon steadily maintained he had no prior knowledge of
the break-in and denied any White House connection.
• Investigative reporting by Bob Woodward and Carl
Bernstein of the Washington Post and testimony during
the trial of the burglars led to televised Senate hearings
headed by Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina.
The Tapes
• When Ervin learned of the existence of secret tapes of
conversations in the president's Oval Office, he
demanded that they be released. Nixon refused,
claiming executive privilege.
• Special prosecutor Archibald Cox petitioned the U.S.
Court of Appeals, asking it to order Nixon to release the
tapes to Judge John J. Sirica.
• Cox was fired by Solicitor General Robert Bork in the
"Saturday Night Massacre."
• On June 24, 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court voted
unanimously in United States v. Nixon that Nixon had to
turn over the tapes to the new special prosecutor, Leon
Jaworski.
• The House Judiciary Committee, headed by Peter
Rodino, began Impeachment proceedings against Nixon
on three charges, including obstruction of justice.
The Takedown
• Crucial evidence on the Watergate tapes proved
that the president not only had known about the
cover-up of the illegal actions but had ordered it.
• When the Judiciary Committee voted to
recommend impeachment to the full House,
Nixon decided to resign from office.
• On August 8, 1974, he announced in a televised
address his resignation.
• Gerald Ford was sworn in as the new president
the following day.
• On September 8, 1974, President Ford
pardoned Nixon for any crimes he may have
committed in the Watergate affair.
War Powers Act
• Passed in November of 1973 over Nixon’s veto
• It required the president to report to Congress
within forty-eight hours after committing troops to
a foreign conflict or “substantial” enlarging
American combat units in a foreign country.
• Such a limited authorization would have to end
within 60 days unless Congress extended it for
30 more days.
Arab Oil Embargo
• On October 17, 1973, the Organization of Arab Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) declared an embargo on the
shipment of oil to those countries that had supported Israel
in its conflict with Egypt.
• Oil consumption in the United States had more than doubled
between 1950 and 1974.
• With approximately 6 percent of the world's population, the
U.S. was consuming 33 percent of the world's energy.
• The retail price of a gallon of gasoline rose from a national
average of 38.5 cents in May 1973 to 55.1 cents in June
1974.
• With the onset of the embargo, U.S. imports of oil from the
Arab countries dropped from 1.2 million barrels a day to a
mere 19,000 barrels.
• Daily consumption dropped by 6.1 percent from September
to February, and by the summer of 1974, by 7 percent.
The Effects
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The U.S. government response to the embargo was quick, but of limited
effectiveness.
A national speed limit of 55 miles per hour was imposed to help reduce
consumption. (This, incidentally, caused traffic fatalities to drop by 23
percent between 1973 and 1974.)
President Richard M. Nixon named William Simon as an official "energy
czar," and in 1977 a cabinet-level Department of Energy was created.
Some long-term effects of the embargo are still being felt. Public suspicion
of the oil companies, who were thought to be profiteering or even working in
collusion with OPEC, continues unabated (seven of the fifteen top Fortune
500 companies in 1974 were oil companies, with total assets of over $100
billion).
But the initial moves toward more efficient automobiles and alternate
sources of energy ended as oil prices fell and memory of gasoline lines
faded.
Ultimately, little of substance changed. Americans continue to use energy in
amounts far out of proportion to their numbers, automakers continue to
oppose legislation that would force them to increase the efficiency of cars,
and the United States continues to respond to any threat to the supply of oil
as a threat to national security.
Iranian Hostage Crisis
The Background
• The Iran hostage crisis began November 4, 1979, when a mob of
Iranians seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking a large group of
employees hostage.
• Eleven months earlier, a revolution led by the Islamic fundamentalist
Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini had overthrown Mohammad Reza
Pahlavi, the shah of Iran.
• Relations between the two countries had been strained since that
time, as Iran's new leaders denounced the United States for its
longtime support of the shah.
• When the exiled shah entered the United States in October for
medical care, many Iranians feared a repetition of the U.S.-assisted
coup that had put the shah on the throne in 1953. The hostage
taking followed.
• Nineteen hostages were released within a few weeks; the remaining
fifty-two were held for 444 days.
• When it became clear that the Iranian government was not going to
resolve the problem, President Jimmy Carter moved to freeze
Iranian assets, both in the United States and abroad.
The Resolution
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Diplomatic efforts were launched through the United Nations and various
private intermediaries, but by March 1980 it had become clear that none of
the rival political groups in Iran was willing to risk the unpopularity of letting
the hostages go.
This impasse led Carter to order a rescue effort by helicopter, but three of
the eight helicopters failed before reaching Tehran, and the mission had to
be aborted. Eight men died in the operation.
News of the failure aggravated the American public's mounting frustration
over the crisis, providing a focus for broader criticism of Carter's
administration (sharpened by the fact that this was an election year) as well
as more general distress over America's waning ability to control world
events.
These issues undoubtedly contributed to Carter's defeat by Ronald Reagan
in November.
Nevertheless, by then a new Iranian government had been formed, and
serious negotiations began soon after, with Algeria as mediator.
The United States agreed to unfreeze most Iranian assets in exchange for
the hostages.
Finally, on January 20, 1981—only a few hours after Carter left office—all
fifty-two hostages were released and landed safely in West Germany.