The Stalemated
Seventies
(1968-1980)
Megan McGill
Sources of Stagnation
• The US economy stagnated in the 70’s after enjoying large
growth in the 50’s and 60’s
• The vast amount of money spent on the Vietnam War and
the Great Society sans tax increases led to rampant
inflation
• The US fell behind Japan and Germany in advancing
production methods and venues leading to Japan and
Germany taking over industries that the US had once ruled
• The belief that a rich society could use money to achieve
social justice got the boot when the Vietnam War and state
of the economy ended the confidence bore from WWII
Nixon “Vietnamizes” the War
• Tensions over race and Vietnam prompted Richard Nixon, when inaugurated on
January 20, 1969, to urge America to cool it and cooperate
• Nixon was awesome with foreign affairs. He implemented Vietnamization to pull
540,000 troops from S. Vietnam
• This would allow the S. Vietnamese and later Asia to fight their own war(s) without
American bloodshed with the Nixon Doctrine
• Nixon tried to appeal to the silent majority who he assumed supported the war and
condemned those for peace
• Already present opposition to the war was heightened with the My Lai Massacre in
which innocent women and children had been murdered by US troops.
Cambodianizing the
Vietnam War
• Nixon sent troops to Cambodia
without Congress’s approval on April
29, 1970 to stop North Vietnam and
the Viet Cong from using it. Troops
were withdrawn 2 months later after
riots at Kent State University. Whole
incident split those for war and peace
respectively even more
• Congress tried to control Nixon by
getting rid of the Gulf of Tonkin blank
check.
• New York Times published the
Pentagon Papers exposing JFK and
LBJ’s mistakes and secrets in office
Nixon’s Détente with Beijing
(Peking) and Moscow
• China and Soviet Union were fighting over how to
interpret Marxism
• Nixon went to China in Feb. 1972 where US-China
relations were bettered and US agreed to be less
involved in Taiwan’s independence
• Nixon went to Moscow in May 1972 where the
arms race was slowed with the anti-ballistic missile
treaty and Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
• Détente (relaxed tension) was a result of these
visits and helped “de-ice” the Cold War
A New Team on the
Supreme Bench
• Chief Justice Earl Warren’s Supreme Court rulings showed genuine
concern for the individual regardless
• Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) didn’t let a state prohibit contraceptives
• Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) ALL criminals entitled to legal counsel
• Escobedo (1964) and Miranda (1966) accused had right to remain silent and
bore the Miranda warning
• Engel v. Vitale (1962) and School District of Abington Township v. Schempp
(1963) public schools couldn’t require Bible reading or prayer
• Nixon replaced Warren with conservative Warren E. Burger and
added 4 conservatives to the bench that ironically legalized abortion
Nixon on the Home Front
• Nixon was for expanding welfare programs like increasing the reach of Food
Stamps, Medicaid, and Aid to Families with Dependent Children, added the
Supplemental Security Income, and increased Social Security with inflation
leading to more inflation.
• Nixon’s Philadelphia Plan of 1969 made many employers hire a certain number
of minority employees
• The Environmental Protection Agency was made to help nature and Earth Day
was created to raise awareness for the environment
• Workers and consumers were helped with greater federal government
involvement
• To combat inflation, Nixon created a 90 day wage freeze and took the nation
off the gold standard
• Nixon used his southern strategy to get a majority in 1972 with things like
conservative justices and defending civil rights low key
The Nixon Landslide of
1972
• Nixon promised as a candidate for POTUS that he wanted to end the
war and achieve peace, but in spring 1972 he bombed North Vietnam
after an invasion of the DMZ
• South Dakota Senator George McGovern was the Democratic
nomination for ending the war 90 days, but alienated the working class
and had a psychiatric patient for VP
• Nixon pointed out how he cut down the troop numbers in Vietnam
largely and Dr. Kissinger spread false news of near peace right before
election
• Nixon won by a landslide
• North Vietnam was forced into asking for a cease-fire on Jan. 23, 1973
after 2 weeks of bombing from US. The US was so involved still though
so this was more like a retreat
The Secret Bombing of Cambodia
and the War Powers Act
• In 1973, it was revealed that the US Air Force had been
bombing Cambodia for 14 months previous to the
announced invasion while publicly maintaining Cambodian
neutrality.
• Nixon kept on bombing Cambodia after the Vietnam ceasefire in Jan. 1973 and vetoed all attempts to stop him, which
completely ruined Cambodia
• Congress passed the War Powers Act in Nov. 1973 over
Nixon’s veto which made the POTUS report committing
troops to foreign conflicts to Congress within 48 hours
resulting in “New Isolationism”
• Draft ended Jan. 1973
The Arab Oil Embargo
and the Energy Crisis
• In Oct. 1973, Syrians and Egyptians attacked Israel. Kissinger
went to Moscow to stop the Soviets from supporting Syria
and Egypt. America aided Israel with war materials. All led to
shaky cease-fire in the Yom Kippur War.
• OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries)
punished the US and other Israeli supporters with an oil
embargo
• The resulting energy crisis led to speed limit of 55 mph,
Alaska oil pipeline, and coal/nuclear power in US
• Embargo lifted in 1974 and price of oil quadrupled and the
International Energy Agency was created to fight back
against the OPEC
Watergate and the
Unmaking of a President
•
June 17, 1972 - 5 members of CREEP were arrested for
breaking in and trying to bug the Democrat’s headquarters
which was a “dirty trick” of Nixon’s
•
In October, VP Agnew was forced to resign for taking bribes
from MD contractors. Gerald Ford took his place.
•
At televised Senate hearings, Nixon denied previous
knowledge about Watergate
•
Everyone found out about tapes of Nixon’s conversations in
the Oval Office. Nixon refused to hand over the tapes leading
to the Saturday Night Massacre (fired his special prosecutor
for Watergate, attorney general, and deputy attorney general)
•
Nixon finally let all tapes be revealed including the “smoking
gun” tape that ousted that Nixon used the CIA to hold back an
FBI inquiry after Watergate
•
Nixon resigned on August 8, 1974 because he knew he would
be impeached
Examining the Evidence: The
“Smoking Gun” Tape…
• Due to the technological advances of the time,
Nixon’s strange need to document his presidency
and the intensive investigation of Watergate all led
to Nixon being ousted.
• Nixon tried to deflect an FBI investigation for
Watergate by telling the CIA director that the CIA
was at stake
• 1 tape wiped away 18 months of lies making Nixon
resign as president
The First Unelected
President
• Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon which led
to suspicion
• In July 1975, Ford and other leaders met
in Helsinki, Finland to create several
accords of which legitimized the Soviet
Poland boundaries and allowed for
more trades of people and information
between East and West.
• Restrictions on US-USSR trade,
American public disapproval of
Moscow, and unrewarding détente led
to its end even though West Germans
really wanted it.
Defeat in Vietnam
• In 1975, Ford pleaded sending more weapons to Vietnam,
but his along with the South Vietnamese got the boot
• After the last US troops left on April 29, 1975 around
500,000 South Vietnamese escaped to America
• America lost faith in its military and its economic strength
due to the devastating results of the war that America
didn’t even win ($118 billion/56,000 dead/300,000
wounded)
Feminist Victories and
Defeats
• The antiwar movement had died out, but the movement for women’s equality
was still going strong
• In 1972, Title IX was passed which stopped sex discrimination in federally funded
programs. This created girls’ sports and helped pro-girls’ sports in the 80’s and
90’s
• The Equal Rights Amendment didn’t quite cut it as a law when first tried. It
basically put in the Constitution that you can’t discriminate based on sex
• The Supreme Court ruled against sex discrimination and Roe v. Wade made
abortion legal
• Nixon vetoed a nationwide public day care cause he thought that the family
would be weakened as a result. Antifeminists blamed high divorce rates on
feminists. Catholic church began advocating pro-life.
• Phyllis Schlafly was a jerk cause she stopped the ERA from being passed.
The Seventies in Black
and White
• In Milliken v. Bradley (1974) the Supreme Court didn’t
require crossing school district lines for integration,
solidifying suburban schools and disadvantaged urban
schools
• White people were all worked up about employers
looking to hire more diversely
• Allan Bakke, a white man, claimed he wasn’t accepted in
med school cause he was white. The Supreme Court made
the Univ. of CA to admit him
• Native Americans captured Alcatraz and Wounded Knee,
SD and in United States v. Wheeler, Nat. Am.s were given
“unique and limited” sovereignty
The Bicentennial
Campaign
• Election of 1976
• Republican nomination – Ford
• Democratic nomination – James Earl (“Jimmy”) Carter
who wished to purge Washington of the lies and
corruption prior to
• Carter won much thanks to his African American
supporters
• Carter did well at first creating the Department of Energy
and was still popular after pardoning race riots
• Isolated himself against DC establishment
Carter’s Humanitarian
Diplomacy
• Carter was very big on human rights
as shown by his work for oppressed
blacks in Rhodesia and South Africa
• Carter got Israel to give up
conquered territory and Egypt to
respect Israel’s borders at a summit
conference at Camp David
• Helped US-China relations go back to
being really good
• Proposed giving up the Panama
Canal by 2000
• USSR began rearming
Economic and Energy
Woes
• At the start of the Carter administration, prices and inflation went
up and the US went in debt big time on oil payments which
showed Americans that they now needed to rely on foreign trade
• The deficit drove lenders to increase interests and put small
businesses against the wall
• Carter found the problem to be linked with oil, but nobody was
ready to conserve after 1973s long lines at the pump
• Iranian revolt led to the stoppage of Iranian oil and the OPEC
jacking the price up even more
• Carter gave his malaise speech July 15, 1979 in which he scolded
America for being too materialistic. Brought in his GA advisors
closer after he fired 4 cabinet secretaries.
Foreign Affairs and the
Iranian Imbroglio
• In June 1979, Carter and USSR leader Leonid Brezhnev met to
sign the SALT II agreements which would cut down the types
of weapons Soviet Union and America could have
• November 4, 1979 Muslim militants took all in the Teheran US
Embassy hostage demanding the shah
• USSR invaded Afghanistan in late December 1979
• Carter embargoed grain and high-tech machinery. SALT II was
killed in the Senate.
• Iranian hostage situation – marked also with anti-USA
demonstrations in Iran, a bold rescue mission was sent to
save the captured Americans but all 8 rescuers died in a plane
crash
Makers of America: The
Vietnamese
• The towns of Westminster and Fountain Valley, CA
are “Little Saigons” where Vietnamese culture
thrives
• Vietnamese first started coming to the US in the
1960s being wives and children of US Servicemen
• Many came in the 70’s and thereafter to escape
Communism
• These immigrants, much to their disliking, were
assimilated in camps or with boarding families in
Iowa, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York,
Washington, and California.
• When they got the opportunity, they moved
around San Francisco, LA, and Dallas to preserve
their culture
Makers of America: The
Feminists
• First-wave feminism was much
inspired by abolition
• Second-wave feminism was much
inspired by the civil rights movement
of the 1960s
• Second-wave feminism had a very
radical wing to it of advocates not
afraid to challenge gender roles
• Second-wave feminists had differing
views on many subjects such as
pornography and gender equality
but most agreed on pro-choice and
that gender discrimination needed
to be fought with legislation
Themes and Cause/Effect
• Economic- the 70’s experienced a stagnant economy much
unlike that of the 50’s and 60’s which was marked by great
economic growth. This was due to deteriorating machinery,
more women and teens in the workforce , and regulations
as well as inflation due to war spending and oil price
increases
Cause: More women and teens entered the workforce,
machinery was deteriorating, regulations, increases in oil
price and inflation from the war hurt the American economy
Effect: Americans lost the confidence they had gained from
post-WWII times and no longer saw themselves as a rich
society that could achieve social justice through monetary
means
Themes and Cause/Effect
• Social- The second-wave feminism was a strong movement in the
70’s much unlike the antiwar movement that had died out.
Feminists, though diverse in stances on certain issues, all fought
to rid America of sex discrimination and looked to liberate their
bodies going along with the sexual revolution that started in the
60’s by advocating for pro-choice.
Cause: Feminists found strength in numbers and passion as inspired
by the civil rights movement of the 60’s. They advocated to put an
end to sex discrimination and for pro-choice
Effect: This led to legislation’s passing such as Title IX which fought
against sex discrimination even in athletics and Roe v. Wade which
gave women the choice whether or not to have an abortion. Though
women still fight for equal rights today with the same issues, these
great strides before us have brought us where we are now
Themes and Cause/Effect
• Political- The United State’s relations with both the Soviet Union
and China were not so swell so when the two latter powers were
fighting over how to interpret Marxism, Nixon (who was
awesome with foreign affairs) took full advantage of the situation
to ease tensions and better relations with them. Détente marked
how this mission went.
Cause: Nixon wished to fix relations with the Soviet Union and China
while they were at odds so he visited them both in 1972 to meet face
to face.
Effect: Tensions were relaxed between the US and China/Soviet
Union because the US agreed to be less involved in Taiwan’s
independence and the arms race between the US and Soviet Union
was slowed by the anti-ballistic missile treaty and Strategic Arms
Limitation Talks
The 70’s was like a box of
chocolates???
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmnSMlA
stMc