The 1968 Election

• Nixon’s campaign strategy to win the 1968 and 1972 elections was to appeal to the “silent majority”

• The “great majority of Americans, the forgotten Americans, the non-shouters, the non-demonstrators”

• Tried to appeal to middle class whites who were angered by the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War, and resentment towards the expanding federal government.

• After he was in office however he faced a Democratic majority Congress who kept his conservative policies in check.

Sources of Stagnation

• During the long post-World War II economic boom (from about 1950 to 1970), family incomes increased dramatically, but after 1970 “real,” or inflation-adjusted, incomes stagnated. Prosperity in the late 1990s led to a slight upward trend, though adjusted median family income began to decline in the early years of the twenty-first century.

Median Family Income, 1970–2001

During Richard Nixon’s presidency, Americans experienced the first serious inflation since the immediate post-World War II years. The inflationary surge grew to tidal-wave proportions by the late 1970s, when the consumer price index rose at an annual rate of more than 10 percent.

The Nixon Wave

Nixon’s Détente with Beijing (Peking) and Moscow

• Kissinger tries to negotiate secret peace agreement in Vietnam; sets up China meeting

• Nixon visits China– U.S. sells grain to Soviets– SALT I reduction in arms

(agreement eventually ignored)

– Détente

• Nixon still against Communism– See this in involvement in

Latin America

Chile was an example of the “Nixon Doctrine” in practice.

Pinochet and Allende

•Allende, a Socialist, ran for president of Chile in 1970.

• Nixon and Kissinger feared an alliance with Cuba and a “domino effect” in South America.

•Nixon sent in the CIA to prevent Allende from taking office; initially the operation was a failure, but eventually the CIA supported General Pinochet to seize power, who took office and murdered Allende in 1973.

•Even though Pinochet led an oppressive government that jailed, tortured, and murdered his opponents, his anti-communism stand ensured normal relations with Chile.

Pinochet

Allende & Fidel Castro, Communist dictator of

Cuba

A New Team on the Supreme Bench

William Rehnquist,

1971

Warren Burger,

1969

Lewis Powell, 1971

The Environment

• Rachel Carson wrote “Silent Spring (1962)– Launches modern

environmental movement

– Effects of DDT

• Clean Air Act (1970)• Endangered Species

Act (1973)• Earth Day begins

Nixon on the Home Front

• Great Society Programs Grow– More $ for Medicare,

Medicaid, AFDC– SSI created; helps old,

blind, & disabled– SS automatically

increases with inflation• Controversial Philadelphia

Plan• Griggs v. Duke Power

(1971)• Affirmative Action leads to

reverse discrimination• Strays away from civil

rights to gain southern support

The Nixon Landslide of 1972

Presidential Election of 1972 (with electoral vote by state)

Nixon buried McGovern in this election, but when his administration soon thereafter began to sink in a swamp of scandals, bumper stickers appeared in Boston proclaiming, “Don’t blame me, I’m from Massachusetts.”

The Secret Bombing of Cambodia and the War Powers

Act• Pentagon Papers reveal

American secrets in Vietnam

• Bombings in Cambodia revealed

• Widens the “credibility gap”

• Nixon attempts to help non-communists

• Pol Pot responsible for killing 2 million people

• War Powers Act passed to limit powers of the President

• The Nixon Administration attempted to prevent the New York Times and Washington Post from publishing materials stolen by Daniel Ellsberg as part of a classified Defense Department study regarding the history of United States activities in Vietnam.

• The President argued that prior restraint was necessary to protect national security. This case was decided together with United States v. Washington Post Co.

• The Court reasoned that since publication would not cause an inevitable, direct, and immediate event imperiling the safety of American forces, prior restraint was unjustified.

“Pentagon Papers” 1971

New York Times v. United States

Watergate office complex where the Democratic National Committee headquarters were located.

A security guard noticed an exit door had been taped to keep the latch open. He removed the tape but on his second round found

that it had been retaped and called the police.

Halderman, Chief of Staff

Ehrlichman, Assistant to the

President for Domestic

Affairs

Dean, Counsel to the President

Ruckelshaus, Deputy Attorney

General

The Watergate break-in and cover-up led to the resignation of several members of the

government.

Pictured: Front Row: Donald Rumsfeld, Sec. of Transportation John Volpe, Sec. of Commerce Peter Peterson, Sec. of Defense Melvin Laird, Richard M. Nixon, Sec. of State William Rogers, Sec. of the Interior Rogers C.B.

Morton, Sec. of HEW Elliot Richardson, Director of OMB Casper Weinberger Back Row: Robert Finch, Sec. of HUD George Romney, Sec.

of Agriculture Earl Butz, Sec. of the Treasury George Shultz, Vice President Spiro Agnew, Attorney General Richard Kleindienst, Sec. of

Labor James Hodgson, Ambassador at large David Kennedy, Ambassador to the UN George Bush.

Mitchell= 19 months in jail, Halderman= prison time, Dean= prison for cover-up, Liddy= longer than most in jail since he refused to testify, Ehrlichman= 18 months

Best Known For:

• Pardoning President Nixon thus preventing a trial

• Economic policies that triggered the worst recession in 40 years

• Last American troops & advisors leaving South Vietnam

• Signing the Helsinki Accords (attempt at establishing cooperation between Eastern & Western Europe)

The First Unelected President

15

In 1975 South Vietnam fell to communist forces and was reunited with North Vietnam after 20 years of war. Laos

and Cambodia also became communist countries that same year.

April 30, 1975

Last helicopter evacuation of U.S. Embassy in Saigon

Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge, killed two million Cambodians. He

was deposed in 1978 when the Vietnamese invaded.

A satirical view of where responsibility for the Vietnam debacle should be laid.

Passing the Buck

Feminist Victories and Defeats

Schlafly traveled the country promoting her “STOP ERA” campaign. She argued that ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment would undermine the American family by violating “the right of a wife to be supported by her husband,” requiring women to serve in combat, and legalizing

Anti-Feminist Phyllis Schlafly

The 1970s in Black and White

• Miliken v. Bradley– Cannot force

students across district lines

• Regents of U.C. Berkeley v. Bakke (1978)– Reverse

discrimination

The Bicentennial Campaign and

the Carter victory• Years of turmoil in

America means…we need to party!

• Bicentennial celebration!• Ford tries to get elected

on his own• Democrats choose Jimmy

Carter– Washington outsider– Repbulican party too closely

tied to negativity of Watergate

– Carter wins 297 to 240• Congress also goes

“Democrat”• Carter’s appeal is short

lived

The Carter presidency was a troubled time in America, and while Jimmy Carter was widely perceived as a good man striving to deal with myriad problems facing the nation, he was not perceived as being particularly capable or decisive.

President Carter

• Anwar Sadat of Egypt (left) and Menachem Begin of Israel (right) join U.S. president Jimmy Carter in confirming the historic accord that brought hopes of peace to the war-torn Middle East.

Celebrating the Camp David Agreement, September 1978

21

•On September 7, 1977, President Jimmy Carter and Panama signed two treaties.

•The United States agreed to turn the canal over to Panama on December 31, 1999.

Many Americans who looked back reverently to Theodore Roosevelt’s “Rough Rider” diplomacy were outraged at the Panama “giveaway.” But the Carter administration, looking to the future, argued persuasively that relinquishing control of the canal would be healthy for U.S.-Latin American relations.

Panama Canal

The Arab Oil Embargo and the Energy Crisis

• Arab nations lose Six-Day war to Israel

• Egypt & Syria attack• U.S. aides Israel;

angers Arab nations• Oil Embargo in 1973

– Alaska pipeline flow changed

– 55 MPH speed limit– VW Bug– Calls for coal and

nuclear power– Proves U.S. addicted

to oil

More Problems for Carter

• Economy tanking– Inflation rose by 13%– Price of oil skyrocketed– Interest rates very high

• Problems in the Middle East– 1979 Shah of Iran ousted by Islamic fundamentalists– New Muslim government took over oil fields– Oil production goes down, OPEC raises prices– Camp David

• Consults Energy experts• Scolds America for being materialistic and dependent on oil• No real solutions

Foreign Affairs and the

Iranian Imbroglio

• SALT II – agreement to limit nuclear weapons with Soviet Union

• Senate reluctant to ratify

• Iranian Hostage Crisis• At the same time, the

Soviet Union invades Afghanistan

Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan

• The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979 presented the Carter Administration with a clear threat to U.S. interests

Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan

Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan

Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan

1970s Major Themes1. Explain the idea of affirmative action and discuss the successes and failures of the

use of this idea to solve the problems of discrimination and inequality in American society.

2. Explain the objectives of détente, and discuss how successful Nixon and Kissinger were in achieving those objectives.

3. Explain the causes and results of the Watergate scandal and discuss the significance of President Nixon being driven from office.

4. Explain the reasons that led to stagnation and inflation hitting the U.S. economy.5. Discuss how the growth of the environmental movement challenged traditional

assumptions.6. Explain the foreign policy objectives of the Carter administration, and discuss how

successful President Carter was in achieving those objectives. 7. Examine the Iranian hostage crisis and explain the impact of the crisis on the

Carter presidency. 8. Discuss how and why Jimmy Carter’s presidency fell short of its initial promise.

What were Carter’s most significant accomplishments? What were his shortcomings?

9. Discuss the increasing opportunities for young women in 1970s America and explain how family life changed as a result of increased female employment.

10. Analyze how various Americans, especially males, reacted to the challenges presented by feminism and changes in gender relations.