The Stalemated Seventies
1968-1980
Vietnam, Nixon, and Gerald Ford
Chapter 40
Richard Nixon and the 70s
Economic Boom of
1950s and 60s had
been depleted by the
Great Society and
Vietnam War of
Lyndon Johnson
 Richard Nixon wins
the presidency in
1968 and 1972.

Nixon’s Plan to End Vietnam


Vietnamization – Richard
Nixon’s plan to withdraw the
540,000 U.S. troops in South
Vietnam over an extended
period.
Nixon Doctrine proclaimed
United States would honor its
existing defense commitments
but in the future, Asians and
others would have to fight
their own wars without the
support of large numbers of
American troops.
Nixon Widens The War
April 29, 1970 ordered American
forces to join with the
South Vietnamese in
attacking neutral
Cambodia
 Nixon withdrew US
troops from Cambodia
on June 29, 1970.

Youth Protest Vietnam War
In 1971, the 26th
Amendment was
passed, lowering the
voting age to 18.
 In the spring of 1971,
mass rallies and
marches erupted
again all over the
country as antiwar
sentiment grew.

Detente
Nixon believed
Chinese-Russian
hostility provided US
opportunity to push
for peace in Vietnam
 1972 – Nixon Visits
China

Nixon Visits China
Paved the way for
better relations
between Washington
and Beijing.
 1969 – Henry
Kissinger began to
meet with North
Vietnamese in Paris
secretly.

Nixon Visits Russia
May 1972 – Richard
Nixon Visits Moscow!
 Détente – relaxed
relationship with
USSR and China
 The Great Deal of
1972 – plan for US to
sell $750 million of
wheat, corn, and
cereal
 Nikita Kruschev and
Nixon

S.A.L.T.
Strategic Arms
Limitation Talks
 froze the numbers of
long-range nuclear
missiles for 5 years
 Détente – peaceful
time between US and
USSR
 May 26, 1972 –
Moscow, Russia

The Supreme Court

Earl Warren – 1953 –
becomes Chief Justice

Griswold v.
Connecticut (1965)
Gideon v. Wainwright



(1963)
Escobedo (1964) and
Miranda (1966)
President Nixon set
Warren E. Burger to
replace the retiring
Earl Warren in 1969.
Election of 1972
George McGovern (D)
 Richard Nixon (R)
 McGovern
campaigned on
leaving Vietnam in 90
days
 Nixon wins in
landslide

Bombing North Vietnam to the
Peace Table

Nixon ordered a two-week bombing of
North Vietnam in an attempt to force the
North Vietnamese to the conference table

January 23, 1973 - cease-fire agreement
really an American retreat…
Watergate
Washington, D.C.
Hotel
 June 17, 1972 - 5
men working for the
Nixon Re-Election
Committee were
caught breaking into
the Watergate Hotel
and bugging rooms.
 Great Scandal !!

Spiro Agnew
Conversations
involving the
Watergate scandal
were discovered on
tape
 Nixon quickly refused
to hand them over
 1973 – V.P. Spiro
Agnew was forced to
resign over tax
evasion

Nixon Fires Staff


October 20, 1973
“Saturday Night
Massacre” - Archibald
Cox, prosecutor of
Watergate scandal case
who had issued a
subpoena of the tapes,
was fired.
Both the A.G. and Dept.
A.G. resigned because
they, themselves did not
want to fire Cox.
Nixon Resigns
August 8, 1974 –
Nixon finally releases
all tapes
 These last 3 tapes
held the damning
evidence
 August 8, 1974 –
Richard M. Nixon
resigns

Cambodia


1973 - Cambodia was
taken over by the dictator
Pol Pot - later committed
genocide of over 2 million
people over a span of a
few years.
War Powers Act –
required the president to
report all commitments of
U.S. troops within 48 hrs.
Arab Oil Embargo and the
Energy Crisis
Arab nations imposed
an oil embargo after
Israel’s Six-Day War
 Speed Limit: 55mph
 1974 – Alaska Oil
Pipeline approved
 OPEC removed
embargo in 1974 but
quadrupled the price

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
Gerald Ford
The Un-Elected
President
 August 8, 1974 –
becomes president
after resignation
 Popularity sank when
he issued Nixon full
pardon
 July 1975 – signed
Helsinki Treaty
relaxing relations with
USSR even more

Loss In Vietnam
1975 – North Vietnam
invades South
Vietnam
 Ford requested aid
but Congress refused
 South Vietnam fell
quickly
 April 29, 1975 – US
troops were
evacuated

Vietnam
Estimated cost to America was $188 billion
 56,000 dead and 300,000 wounded
 Lost face in the eyes of foreigners, lost
self-esteem, lost confidence in military
power, and lost much of the economic
strength that had made possible global
leadership after WWII.

Election of 1976





Jimmy Carter (D)
Gerald Ford (R)
Carter defeats Ford
promising never to lie
to the public
1978 – Carter gets
$18 B tax cut through
Congress
Economy cont. to
crumble
Carter and Peace
Sept. 17, 1978 President Anwar
Sadat (Egypt) and
P.M. Menachem Begin
(Israel) - signed
peace accords at
Camp David
 Israel gave up
territory gains from
1967

Carter and the Late 70s
Inflation ’79 – 13%
 Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini takes over Iran –
fundamentalist Muslim
 SALT II – Senate refused
to ratify
 Nov. 4, 1979 – Muslims
take embassy workers in
Iran hostage

Boycott ‘80
December 27, 1979 Soviet Union invaded
Afghanistan
 Soviet Union’s own
Vietnam
 Carter - embargo on
the USSR and
boycotted the
Olympics in Moscow
