Transcript File - Teacher Broome!

Unit 8: 1945-1980
Senor Escoba
The USSR in Eastern Europe
• Soviet Union wants a demilitarized
Germany
• Soviet Union wants a buffer zone to
its West to prevent a future Germany
attack
• Soviet Union sets up pro-Soviet Union
puppet governments in Bulgaria,
Hungary, and Romania
Growing Mistrust
• Truman wants to halt communism
• Stalin declares there can be no lasting
peace between capitalism and
communism
• George F. Kennan – US diplomat to Russia
that declares that US should have long
term firm stance against communism
• Containment – policy uniting military,
economic, and diplomatic strategies to
stop communist expansion
The Iron Curtain
• March 1946 – Churchill and Truman go to
Westminster College in Missouri
• Churchill declares that Stalin has open an
“iron curtain” over the Eastern half of
Europe
• June 1946 – Truman offers to destroy
nuclear weapons if Soviets stop trying to
make them
• Soviets reject it
• Atomic Energy Commission created to
research nuclear energy and weaponry
Truman Doctrine
• US fears Western Europe will call to
communism
• Disease, famine, & rise of communist
governments
• Greece & Turkey given $400 million to
improve to stay out of Soviet Union
• Truman Doctrine – aid to those in need
and ultimate holy war against the godless
Soviet Union
International Involvement
Harry Truman: International
Man of Mystery
• National Security Act of 1947
• Armed forces fall under a single
Department of Defense (DoD)
• National Security Council (NSC)
• Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
• European Recovery Plan – “Marshall
Plan” – direct financial support Europe
• Only Western Europe accepts
German Showdown
• Potsdam Agreement – 1945 – Divides
Germany into 4 regions (FR, GB, USA,
Soviets)
• Berlin Split into 4 as well
• Western German regions start to join
together
• Stalin stops all rail and road traffic to Berlin
from Western Germany in June 1948
• Berlin Airlift
• Blockade ends in May 1949
German Showdown
• May 1949 – Federal Republic of Germany
(West Germany) is created
• April 1949 – North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) formed from ten
Western Europe with USA & Canada
• German Democratic Republic (East
Germany) is created
• 1955 – Warsaw Pact formed with a number
of Eastern European countries and Soviet
Union
Cold War in Asia
• Gen. MacArthur in charge of post
WWII Japan
• Occupation of Japan ends in 1952
• Truman unable to stop communist
forces in China
• Mao Zedong wins
• Non communist forces flea to
Taiwan
Communist China
• People’s Republic of China (PRC)
• Red China
• Americans fear the “fall” of China
• Some claim that the US should be
more concerned with Europe
rather than Asia
Truman on Communism
• Culture at home changed by atomic
weapons
• Bunkers
• “Duck and cover”
• Nov. 1952 – Hydrogen bomb (H-bomb)
dropped in Pacific on Bikini Atoll
• 1,000 times more powerful than an
atomic weapon
• Effort to prove Truman was tough on
Truman on Communism
• National Security Paper 68 – notes
Soviet aggressive military intentions
• Recommends increase in nuclear
arsenal
• Increase CIA activity
• Advises Truman to resist communism
anywhere and everywhere
Korean War
• Post WWII – Korean peninsula split and half by US &
Soviet Union (North was pro-Soviet)
• June 25, 1950 – North Korea attacks South Korea
• Truman feels aggression must be stopped to be
firm against communism
• UN approves “police action” to preserve South
Korean border
• US & South Korean troops pushed back very far in
start of war
• US landing by Gen. MacArthur helps push back
North Korea forces
• Advances towards Chinese border…
• …and China fights back
Korean War
• Friction between Gen. MacArthur & Truman
• Truman – negotiate surrender and preserve
South Korea
• MacArthur – full blown war against China
• Limited war continues and armistice reached in
July 1953
• Effects
• Increased military spending
• Precedent of undeclared war (Truman DID
NOT ask congress)
• North & South Korea
Truman Administration at
Home (1945-1952)
• Troops from WWII come home
• Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 – “GI
Bill”
• Aimed to prevent post-war recession
• Soldiers could get preferred treatment at
jobs, unemployment benefits, and low
interest government loans
• Government payment for 4 years of college
or job training
Truman Administration at
Home (1945-1952)
• Economic boom following WWII
• Employment Act of 1946
• Prices increase as demand exceeds
supply (Truman gets rid of OPA
regulations)
• Taft-Hartley Act -1947 - barred closed
shop practices
• Republican controlled congress
Election of 1948
• Southern Democrats become the
“Dixiecrats” and form the States
Rights Party
• Leftwing Democrats and communists
form Progressive Party (the sequel)
• Truman wins!
Fair Deal
• Fair Deal – agenda from 1949
that focused on civil rights,
national health-care legislation,
and federal aid to education
• Funding reliant upon the
economy continuing to grow
(More people paying taxes)
The Second Red Scare
• Democrats are called “soft” on communism
• Federal Employee Loyalty Program – people
could be fired if associated in “subversive”
organizations
• House Un-American Activities Committee –
1947 – held hearings to expose communist
influence in average American life
• Dennis v. United States, 1951 – Congress
could censor freedom of speech if national
security called for it
McCarthyism
• Alger Hiss & Whittaker Chambers incident
• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg – found guilty
of committing espionage connected to
the Manhattan Project
• June 1953 – Both executed
• Feb. 1950 – Senator Joseph McCarthy
claims to have 200+ communists working
in the State Department
McCarthyism
• McCarthy would hold hearings and call out
people
• McCarthy would get approval from
Republican Party
• Democrats too afraid to call out McCarthy
in fear they will look like communists
• McCarran Internal Security Act – required
organizations labeled communists by
attorney general to register with Dept. of
Justice
Election of 1952
• Truman becomes too
unpopular for reelection
(Korea)
• Republicans choose
Dwight D. Eisenhower &
Richard Nixon as VP
• Democrats choose Gov.
Adlai Stevenson & John
Sparkman
• Republicans win
presidency and congress
Downfall of Joseph McCarthy
• Pres. Eisenhower hates McCarthy but
understands usefulness of anticommunism as a Republican tool
• Eisenhower would allow McCarthy to
mess himself up
• 1954 –McCarthy accuses the US Army of
harboring communists
• Army-McCarthy hearings on television
• June 1954 – McCarthy censured
Eisenhower Foreign Policy
• John Foster Dulles – Sec. of State
• Promotion of “brinksmanship” – hold out
against communism even if war was
possible
• CIA actions to have coup to overthrow
Iranian government
• Wanted an oil-rich nation ally
• Stop possible friendship with Soviet Union
• CIA involved in Philippines & Guatemala
Third World Problems
• Pres. Eisenhower supports the French in
Vietnam
• Suez Crisis
• Eisenhower Doctrine – proclamation that
the US would sent military aid and possibly
send troops to Middle East nation to stop
against “Communist aggression”
• 1959 – Fidel Castro overturns dictatorship
in Cuba
• Soviets back up Cuba
Third World Problems
• Cuba
• Nikita Khrushchev threatens use of
atomic weapons if US intervenes in
Cuba
• May 1, 1960 – U2 Spy plane shot down
over Soviet Union
• Pilot Displayed on television
• Eisenhower Legacy
• Warns of military-industrial complex
Industrial Society
•Huge defense spending (Half of
federal budget)
•Huge military-industry complex
•Officials in government want
funding to companies in their area
•More scientific advancements
become government funded
•Electricity and gasoline
consumption rapidly increase
Early “Computers”
• Early computers were
based around
government projects
• ENIAC
• Silicon Valley forms
around Stanford
University in 1950s
• Research Triangle
Park in NC
Development of Business
• Consolidation becomes common in big
industries
• Multinational companies
• Conglomerates – merging of companies
that are in unrelated industries
• Technology in farming common
• 1962 – Silent Spring – Rachel Carson
• 1956 – White-collar employees outnumber
blue-collar
Suburban America
• Installment payments common
• New models of cars come out on regular
basis
• Massed produced Levittowns in several
northeast states
• 1950s – 20 million people move to
suburbs from city
• Sunbelt – South and West grow in
population and industry rapidly
Suburban America
• Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956
• President Eisenhower impressed by
German autobahn
• Highways would supply ease of
military and civilian movement
• Funding would come from taxes on
gasoline tire, bus, and trucking
• Interstates would spur a number of
industries
Baby Boom!
• Baby-Boom Generation – those born
between 1946-1964
• Return to “normal” after war
• Economic prosperity
• Advancements in medicine
• Women move towards childcare at
home
• Education system encouraged this!
Baby-Boom!
Religion in the 50s
• Billy Graham – evangelist that promoted
religious salvation
• Many religious evangelists also promote
anticommunism sentiment
• Church attendance increased between 1945
– 1960
• Evangelical fundamentalism
• “IN GOD WE TRUST” – 1945
• “One nation under God” 1954
• http://www.treasury.gov/about/education/
Pages/in-god-we-trust.aspx
Television Culture
• 1946 – 18,000 households have a
television
• 1960 – Nine of 10 households had at
least one television
• 3 main radio networks take over
television (ABC, CBS, and NBC)
• I Love Lucy – Surprisingly controversial
Television Culture
• Transition into advertising culture on
television
• Early television promoted stereotypes
(gender and race)
• Revolutionizes the political life of
American people
• Millions now hear politicians speak
on television
Other America
• ¼ Americans lived below the poverty
line in 1950s
• “White flight” – whites leave urban
centers and move to the suburbs
• Urban slums
• Large increase in immigration to US
from Mexico
• Native American economic struggles
Early Civil Rights Movement
• Integration of professional baseball
with Jackie Robinson in 1947
• Violence in South in 1946
• President’s Committee on Civil Rights
– Late 1946 – Harry Truman organized
the committee
• To Secure These Rights
Early Civil Rights Movement
• Truman Era
• Morgan v. Virginia
• Shelley v. Kraemer
• Eisenhower Era
• Chief Justice Earl Warren
• Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka – Separate
but equal is NOT equal
• “with all deliberate speed”
• Southern Manifesto – signed by Southern
representatives in Congress going against Brown
Little Rock & Civil Rights Act ‘57
• Sept. 1957 – Little Rock Nine Incident
• Little Rock school board accepted
desegregation
• Arkansas Gov. Orval E. Faubus mobilizes
the state’s National Guard to block
action
• Pres. Eisenhower uses National guard to
enforce desegregation
• Civil Rights Act of 1957 –creates
permanent commission on civil rights
• Not much of a force
Montgomery Protests
• Dec. 1, 1955 – Rosa Parks refuses to
move to the back of the bus, in violation
of ordinance
• Arrest sparks outrage
• Montgomery Improvement Association
choose Martin Luther King as leader of
bus boycott
• Buses forced to desegregate a year later
Dr. King
• Minister
• Philosophy of civil
disobedience
• Nonviolence
• Direct action rather
than legal action
• Southern Christian
Leadership
Conference (SCLC)
New Tactics
• Sit-ins and other tactics used on a regular
basis
• Greensboro, NC lunch counter
• Often faced physical intimidation and
violence
• Freedom Riders – Spring 1961
• Organized by Congress of Racial Equality
(CORE)
• Face violence throughout their trip in the
South
New Tactics
• Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee
• Focus on nonviolent civil
disobedience
• Assist in local government action
Sputnik
• October 4, 1957 – Sputnik becomes first
artificial satellite to orbit the Earth
• US tries to launch satellite in December
and fails
• July 1958 – National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA) created
• National Defense Education Act – 1958
• Direct funding to higher education
Rock-and-Roll Culture
• New generation dressed and acted
differently (duh.)
• Rhythm and blues meet a heavy beat
and help create rock-and-roll
• Elvis Presley – “radical” form of
singing and dancing
• American Bandstand
The Beats
•Beats – group of
nonconformist writers who
went against conformity,
religion, and family values
JFK- John F. Kennedy
• John F. Kennedy
(JFK) – elected to
House of
Representatives in
1946
• Elected to Senate
in 1952
• Reelected to
Senate in 1958
Election of 1960
• Democratic candidate – John F. Kennedy
• Youth and confidence
• Republican candidate – Richard M. Nixon
• Experience and connection to Pres.
Eisenhower
• First televised debate between candidates
• Television viewers – generally agree
Kennedy won
• Radio listeners – generally agree it was a
draw
Kennedy’s Domestic Policy
• “New Frontier” campaign
• Often blocked by Republicans and Southern
Democrats
• Kennedy calls for increase defense spending
• Claims Eisenhower relied on nuclear
weapons too much
• Forms Special Forces (Green Berets)
• Space Race funding
• Cuts in corporate taxes
• 1963 – Clean Air Act
Cold War Kennedy
• April 1961 – Bay of Pigs incident
• Attempt to start revolution to
overthrow Castro
• Kennedy DOES NOT provide air
cover
• Invasion unsuccessful
• August 1961 – Berlin wall goes up
Cuban Missiles Crisis
• October 1962 – Soviet Union built bases for
intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs)
• US “quarantine” on Cuba
• Attempt to stop delivery of more missiles
• US military build up in Florida
• Oct. 25, 2014 – Khruschev promises to
move missiles as long as US pledges to
never invade Cuba
• Later deal includes US removal from
missiles in Turkey
Kennedy Assassination
• Nov. 22, 1963 – JFK assassinated in
Dallas Texas
• Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as
President
• Lee Harvey Oswald arrested
• Lee Harvey Oswald later assassinated
by Jack Ruby
Kennedy Legacy
• Many point out a mixed record with
JFK
• Expansion of presidential powers
• Questions in regards to
• List of accomplishments
• Space Race spending NOT welfare
spending
• US involvement in Vietnam
Civil Rights Movement Birmingham
• 1963 – Dr. King notes that the racial
struggle needs to be shown to the
American public as a whole
• Dr. King leads nonviolent marches, sit-ins,
and pray-ins in Birmingham Alabama
• Conflict with “Bull” Connor and
Birmingham Police
• Dr. King arrested and writes “Letter from
Birmingham Jail”
Civil Rights Movement Birmingham
• May 1963 – “Bull”
Connor uses violence
against protestors in
Birmingham
• Kennedy holds his
ground against Gov.
Wallace and forces
desegregation at Univ. of
Alabama
• Sept 1963 – Ku Klux Klan
bombing of Birmingham
church kills 4 girls
March on Washington, DC 1963
• 250,000 + march
in DC for Civil
Rights
Movement
• Martin Luther
King’s “I Have a
Dream” speech
Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Civil Rights Act of 1964 – banned racial
discrimination and segregation in public
accommodations
• Banned bias in federal funded programs
• Federal government gets power to end
segregation in schools
• Created Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC) to stop job
discrimination
• Voting was NOT addressed
Civil Rights Movement – Voting
Rights
• African Americans pushed the national
Democratic party establishment
• Civil Rights marches in Selma, Alabama
attacked
• Public outrage in support of voting
rights bill
• Voting Rights Act of 1965 – banned all
tests or device used to deny a person to
vote based on race
• Poll taxes, literacy tests, etc.
Civil Rights Reaction
• Racial rights acknowledged by
government
• Racial equality didn’t necessarily happen
• Rioting occurs in various areas of the US
• Los Angeles, CA
• Detriot, MI
• MLK assassinated in 1968
Black Power
• Growing sense that equality should be reached
through coercion
• Malcolm X
• “If ballots won’t work, bullets will.”
• Nation of Islam / Black Muslim faith – selfdiscipline, self-respect, BUT rejection of
integration
• Called for separation from white race
• Cassius Clay converts and becomes Muhammad
Ali
• Malcolm X assassinated
Black Power
• Black Panther Party of Self-Defense
founded by Huey P. Newton and
Bobby Seale
• Sponsored community centers and
school breakfast
• Paramilitary style and actions
Expansion of Equality
• Native American Activism
• Great poverty in and out of reservations
• American Indian Movement – founded in
1968
• Hispanic Americans
• Immigration Act of 1965 – Abolished the
national-origins quotas 1920s
• Cesar Estrada Chavez
• Immigration Reform and Control Act of
1986 – outlawed hiring of undocumented
immigrants AND legal status to aliens who
had lived in US for 5 years
Expansion of Equality
• Asian American Political Alliance
Kennedy to LBJ
Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ)
• Great Society “Abundance and
liberty for all. It
demands an end
to poverty and
racial injustice”
• War on Poverty
Election of 1964
• LBJ – Democrat – Great Society Plan
• Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona
• Goes against government
intervention
• Claimed no win situation in Cold
War
• Landslide LBJ victory
Election of 1964
Great Society 2: Electric
Boogaloo
• Medicare – Provide health
insurance for the aged under
social security
• Medicaid – health plan for the
poor and less fortunate
• Aid for Appalachia to help
improve living conditions
Liberalism Warren Court
•Miranda v. Arizona – police
must advise suspects of their
right to remain silence
Early Vietnam Involvement
• Truman – increased assistance for
French army fighting the Vietminh led
by Ho Chi Minh
• Domino Theory – theory that if
Vietnam fell to communism then all of
Asia would
• June 1954 – CIA puts Catholic Ngo Dinh
Diem as anticommunist leader of
South Vietnam
• National Liberation Front - Vietcong
Kennedy & Vietnam
• Kennedy would increase involvement in
the Vietnam
• US forces used napalm bomb would burn
anything needed
• Move poor farmers out of areas
• Move Vietcong out of hiding areas
• JFK – Could have choose to increase US
combat involvement
• JFK – Withdraw and seek negotiated
settlement
LBJ in Vietnam
• President Johnson escalated war
• Vietcong attempt to outlast the US rather
than simply wipeout the US
• 1964 – Johnson authorizes Pentagon to
prepare air strikes into North Vietnam
• August 1964 – Gulf of Tonkin incident
• LBJ does not admit US Navy involved in
covert raids
• Congress approves the Gulf of Tonkin
Resolution
LBJ in Vietnam
• Gulf of Tonkin Resolution changes the
war completely
• “Blank check”
• 1964 – LBJ states that he would not send
troops into Vietnam or bomb Vietnam
(For his election)
• Early 1965 – “Operation Rolling Thunder”
• Bombing into North Vietnam
• No negotiation from North Vietnam
LBJ in Vietnam
• Bombing not effective in forcing a
truce
• LBJ changes strategy in an attempt to
maximize communist casualties
• Feeling that superiority in weapons
and numbers would mean victory
• Troop increase would match that of
US
Homefront
• TV coverage
• War demonstrations
• ‘67 – Sen. Robert Kennedy and Martin
Luther King support antiwar protests
• College deferments
• 80% of those who fought in Vietnam
came from poor or working-class family
• “Hawks” – “Hell No, We Won’t Go”
• “Doves” – “America, Love It or Leave It”
Tet Offensive
• Tet Offensive – Jan. 31 of 1968
(First day of Vietnamese New
Year) Major attacks on US and
South Vietnamese forces
• Military victory – South Vietnam
does NOT fall
• Public defeat – media reports
initially report success of
Post-Tet Offensive Politics
• LBJ gets pressure from Democratic
party from Eugene McCarthy and
Robert Kennedy
• March 31, 1968 – Johnson announces
that he will NOT seek reelection
• Seeks peace negotiations
• LBJ died day of signing of Paris Peace
Accords to end war in Jan 1973
Nixon’s War
• Richard Nixon (Rep.) elected Pres.
In 1968
• Detente – Reduced tensions
between US and USSR (Soviet
Union)
• Largely based on ending the
Vietnam War
The Atrocities of War
• March 1968 – My Lai massacre of a village of
women in children in Vietnam
• “Fragging” and drug use reported by
American soldiers
• Nixon: “Peace with honor”
• 1. Vietnamization – replacing US troops
with South Vietnamese troops
• 2. Secret negotiations directly with North
Vietnam
• 3. Forced compromise with communists
End Game
• Bombing raids into Cambodia and Laos
towards “Ho Chi Minh’s Trail”
• 1970 & 1971 – US goes into Laos and
Cambodia
• Paris Peace Accords – Jan 1973
• Ends fighting but doesn’t provide
protection for South Vietnam
• Spring 1975 – Saigon (capital) and South
Vietnam fall to communism
New Left Protest & Resistance
• “New Left” Movement – supported by
Students for a Democratic Society
• Port Huron Statement
• “participatory democracy”
• Berkeley Free Speech Movement – sought to
have a voice on college campuses
• Escalation of war and Jan. 1966 end of
college deferments of Vietnam increase
protests
Protest & Resistance
• April 1968 – SDS students forcefully
take control of multiple university
buildings at Columbia University
• Violently retaken by police
• Nov. 1969 -300,000 protest and
March in Washington DC
Kent State & Jackson State
• Antiwar protests burn
ROTC building at Kent
State University in Ohio
• National Guardsmen
called into University
• Guardsmen Kill 4 and
wound 11
• Similar situation at
Jackson State in
Mississippi
Countercultural Rebellion
• “Hippies”
• Drug use increases
• Marijuana
• LSD
• Musical Revolution
• Early 1960s – Revival of
folk music
• 1964 – Beatles-mania
• Rhythm-and-blues
• Rolling Stones
• “British Invasion”
• Woodstock Festival
• Aug. 1969 in the
Catskill Mountains of
NY
• Haight District of
San Francisco &
NYC’s East Village
• Advertisers target
the youth
Sexual Revolution
•Female oral contraceptive
became available in 1960
•More open views of sexuality
•Roe v. Wade -1973 – Women
could have an abortion in the
first trimester (3 months) of
pregnancy
Rise of Feminism (Again.)
• National Organization for Women (NOW) –
1966 – group that would lobby against gender
discrimination and sexism
• Sought full participation in American society
• Feminine Mystique (1963) – voiced the
opinion that women should establish their
own personal identities as individuals
Women’s Liberation Movement
• “Women-garbage” thrown out
• Female publications
• Education Amendments Act -1972 – Title
IX- education institutions that received
federal money could not discriminate
based on sex
• Equal Rights Amendment
• NOT passed
• Phyllis Schlafly
• Colleges become coeducational
Gay Liberation &
Environmentalism
• Gay Liberation Movement
• Stonewall Incident
• Pride Parades
• Environmental Activism
• Silent Spring – 1962
• Anti-nuclear Movement
• Three Mile Island Incident
• Also know yuppies and “Me Decade”
Conservative Resurgence
• Election of 1968
• Republican – Richard Nixon
(winner)
• “Silent Majority”
• Democrat – Hubert Humphrey
• American Independent – George
Wallace
• Against upper-class and hippie
movement
Richard Nixon
• Previous VP under
Eisenhower
• Republican
• Suspicious of
Democratic Party
and…many other
things…
• Works with Dem. Party
• Creates Occupational
Safety & Health Admin
(OSHA)
• Environmental
Protection Agency
(EPA)
Apollo 11
• July 1969 – Apollo
11 lands on moon
• Watched on tv by
many
• Take that Soviets!
• BOOM. America!
Economic Struggles
• Loss of manufacturing – Jobs going
overseas
• Inflation + Recession = “Stagflation”
• Nixon inconsistent on economic policy
• Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries (OPEC) raises the price of crude
oil
• Slows American economy
Nixon’s Plumbers
• Nixon uses IRS and other Federal programs
to take on his enemies
• FBI & CIA do various illegal activities
• FBI eventually tells Nixon NO when he
wants to use electronic surveillance,
break-ins, and plant evidence
• “The Plumbers” – Nixon’s close men to stop
government leaks
• Pentagon Papers- Expose lies about
Vietnam War
• Also know: Nixon’s Southern Strategy
Detente
• Nixon goes to Henry
Kissinger as advisor
• Détente – reduced tensions
• Nixon visits China
• HUGE – US had not
previously recognized
China
• Strategic Arms Limitation
Treaty (SALT) – 5 year
limitation of nuclear
weapons
Nixon Diplomacy
• Nixon uses Kissinger to negotiate
temporary peace after Yom Kippur War
• Soviet Union not involved
• Nixon approves money to governments
that were NOT communist
• Even if they were horrible (South Africa,
Argentina, & Brazil)
• Nixon uses CIA to take down Salvador
Allende (Marxist President of Chile)
Election of 1972
• Rep. – Nixon
• Dem. – George McGovern
• Perceptions of being too radical
• Nixon creates Committee to Re-Elect the
President (CREEP)
• Secret unit that Nixon uses to commit
espionage against Dems
• CREEP members arrested at Watergate
facility in June 1972
• Nixon easily wins reelection
Watergate
• “Deep Throat” provides two Washington
Post reporters with information on CREEP &
Watergate
• Cover up!
• Special Committee On Presidential
Campaign Activities investigates Nixon
• Nixon orders Attorney General to fire
invesigator
• They refuse!
• Nixon fires them “Saturday Night
Massacre”
Watergate
• VP Agnew left office in Oct. 1973
• New VP is Gerald Ford (House Minority
Leader)
• United States vs. Nixon – 1974 – Nixon
forced to give tapes to investigation
• BUSTED!
• Nixon Resigns
• Gerald Ford becomes President
Economic Woes & Presidential
Foes
• OPEC raises crude oil prices
• Manufacturing jobs decrease
• Overseas influence
• President Gerald Ford pardons
Richard Nixon
• Pres. Ford – Whip Inflation Now
(WIN) – voluntary price controls
Jimmy Carter
• Jimmy Carter elected as Dem. In 1976
• “Washington outsider”
• Peanut farmer and former Governor
of Georgia
• Viewed as a liberal Democrat but
somewhat moderate in reforms
• Alaska Lands Act
Carter Foreign Policy
• Camp David Accords – Peace
agreement between Israel and Egypt
• Rejected by other Arab countries
• SALT II Treaty – limiting nuclear
arsenal
• Dec. 1979 invasion of Afghanistan by
Soviets
• Boycott of 1980 Olympics
Carter Foreign Policy
• Iran
• Islamic militant supporters of Ayatollah
Khomeini storm US embassy in TehranNov. 1979
• April 1980 – Failed raid to rescue hostages
• 52 Americans captive for 444 days
• Released on Jan. 20, 1981 – Day Ronald
Reagan becomes President
• Carter leaves with incredibly low approval
rating