What a mess
Ford as President
• He urged people to wear "WIN" buttons.
• Pardons Nixon
Vietnam is lost!
• On the morning of April 30,1975, Communist forces captured the
presidential palace in Saigon, ending the war
• North Vietnam united both North and South Vietnam on July 2,
1976 to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
• On January 21,1977, President Jimmy Carter pardoned
nearly all Vietnam War draft evaders.
• Read about the Mayaguez
Election of 1976
• R-Ford
• Dem-Jimmy Carter
– I’ll never lie!
– due to his support from the south, labor, blacks and
white ethnics
– Hurt the Republican party
Jimmy Carter
• "competent and compassionate“
• But look at the stuff
– High inflation
– Rising energy costs
“Born Again Christian”
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Founded the Departments of Energy and Education
Human rights activist
But Congress viewed him as a newcomer.
Had not paid his dues
• “Ask President Carter," the first presidential phone-in radio
broadcast
No more dependency on OPEC
• Free the nation from dependency on foreign oil
– by encouraging alternate energy sources
– deregulating domestic oil pricing
Foreign affairs
• Panama Canal Treaty
– one-vote victory in the Senate
– provided for the return of the canal to Panama in the
year 2000.
Camp David Accords
13 days
September 5-17,1978
• Both leaders converged on Camp David
• Carter’s relentless drive to achieve peace and his reluctance to
allow the two men to leave without reaching an agreement are
what played the decisive role in the success of the talks.
• Numerous times both the Egyptian and Israeli leaders wanted to
scrap negotiations
The Camp David Accords
• Israel returning the Sinai Peninsula
– its oil wells & strategic location
– dismantling Israeli Settlements
– removing the Jewish population of the area
• Egypt
– recognizing Israel's right to exist and pledging not to attack it
again.
• The provisions made for the Palestinians were less clear
and interpreted differently by everyone
• Egypt was rewarded with billions of dollars in yearly aid
from the USA
Peace in that region
• President Jimmy Carter
– 2002 Nobel Peace Prize
We recognize China
• Full diplomatic relations on January 1, 1979
• U.S. will sever formal relations with Taiwan
• Read about Three Mile Island
“Domestic summit"
• Camp David
– to address the energy crisis
– figure out how to rescue his presidency from record low
approval ratings
“Crisis of confidence”
• Nationally televised address
– calls a "crisis of confidence" in America
– Called by critics his “Malaise Speech”
• Asks for the resignation of his entire Cabinet
– Gets 5 out
Shah has cancer
• In early 1979, conditions in Iran had started to deteriorate.
• Various factions were fighting to oust the Shah of Iran from power.
• Shah of Iran was allowed to come to USA for Medical treatments
The Ayatollah Khomeini
• Religious leader and dictator of Iran
• Instituted a strict regime of Islamic law
– ordering women to wear veils
– suspending the criminal justice system in favor of religious
courts
Hostages in Iran
• Group of student radicals overran the U.S. embassy
• Took 90 hostages, with Khomeini's support
– in retaliation for the U.S. agreeing to shelter the Shah.
• Placed a freeze on all Iranian assets
• President Carter severed diplomatic relations with Iran
Yellow ribbons were everywhere
Operation Eagle Claw
• Top-secret mission to free the hostages
– Helicopter developed engine trouble in a staging area of the
Iranian desert.
– Eight Americans were killed as two planes collided during their
withdrawal
Operation Eagle Claw
SALT II
• Curtail the manufacture of strategic nuclear weapons
• Limiting the number of delivery vehicles (launchers and
bombers) to 2,400 on each side, to be reduced to 2,250 by
the end of 1981
SALT II
Russia invades Afghanistan?
• Christmas of 1979
• Soldiers invade Kabal
Country was already in the grip of a civil
war
• Prime minister Hazifullah Amin
– Tried to sweep aside Muslim tradition within the nation
– more western slant to Afghanistan
• Afghans were outraged
Russian involvement
• Amin was shot by the Russians and he was replaced by
Babrak Kamal
• Depended entirely on the Russian military support to keep
him in power.
• support and resistance grew
• Response
– the USSR sent troops to occupy Afghanistan in 1979.
• During the mid-eighties the government forces
– (the backing of around 118,000 Soviet troops)
• held the major cities and roads
• Could not dislodge the rebel armed militant Muslim group
in the countryside
How do we react?
• Carter asked the Senate to delay consideration of the
treaty
– (the treaty was never ratified)
• Embargo on grain and tech equipment
• Boycott of the Summer Olympics in Moscow
Election of 1980
• Dem
– Jimmy Carter
– Teddy Kennedy
• (Chappaquiddick)
• Republican
– Ronald Reagan
What about the hostages?
• Reagan– Iran was a little scared of him.
• Carter
– Worked on their release
• BUT...
• The Shah had died in Egypt
• Iran was entering a war with Iraq
– Needed frozen assets in USA
– Guns from USA
Election of 1980
Ronald Reagan is sworn in
• As soon as he said “so help me God”, the plane carrying the
hostages took off from Iran.
• 444 days of captivity
Heroes all!