The Stalemated Seventies
Economy of the 1970’s
• 70’s have no economic
boom like 50’s and 60’s.
• Children could have a
standard of living less than
their parents
• Period of Stagflationeconomy is experiencing a
recession and inflation at
the same time
Roots of stagnation
• Combination of factors
– 1.Teens and Womens workingless likely to take full time jobs,
thus not developing job skills
– 2.Adjusting to new safety and
environmental regulations
– 3.Shifting to service economy
– 4. Rise in oil prices
– 5. Vietnam
– 6. Biggest cause- LBJ’s deficit
spending- Fighting V war and
Great Society- never raised taxes
• Cost of living tripled in 12
years after Nixon’s
inauguration
Roots of stagnation
• US businesses
STRONG during post
WWII, no incentive to
modernize plans
• German and Japan,
rebuild with modern
technology- not
beginning to dominate
cars, steel, and
electronic industries
Nixon and Nam
• Has to quell at the
domestic issues with
war
• Vietnamizationwithdraw US troops,
let S. Vietnam fight
their own war (with
the financial backing
and training of US)
Nixon and Nam
• Part of Nixon
Doctrine- US will
honor existing
commitments, but in
the future Asians and
others will have to
fight their own wars
without large bodies of
US ground troops
Nixon and Nam
• Doves = immediate
withdrawal of troops
• Hawks = support war- also
known as Silent majority
• Dove protests pick up in
late 69
• Nixon appeals to silent
majority- protestors = bums
America and Nam
• 1970- war becomes longest conflict
in US history
• 40,000 killed
• 250,000 wounded
• Very unpopular war
• Draft policies exclude college
students- and those with critical
skills
• Results in – least privileged
Americans fighting war
• Troops and casualties were
disproportionately black.
• Racial conflicts among soldiers
• Drug use is on the rise
• Rumors of “fragging”
Domestic Discontent with war
• 1968- My Lai MassacreUS troops murder
innocent and children at
My Lai village
• US finds out in 1970
• 1970- Nixon picks up
bombing campaign on
neighboring Cambodia
(without consulting
congress)
Domestic Discontent with war
• College protests
Cambodia bombing
• Kent State University
Massacre- 4 protesters
are killed by national
guard
• Jackson State College
in MS- two students
killed
Domestic Discontent with war
• Cambodia only lasts 2 months
• African American’s upset with
“whitey’s war”
• Congress
–
–
–
–
1. Repeals Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
2.Reduced draft cards
3.shortened period of draftability
4. 26 amendment- suffrage at 18
• All done to try to pacify protestors,
little success
• 1971 Pentagon Papers are leakedshows mishaps of JFK and LBJ, and
the US provoking the N. Vietnam
attack at Gulf of Tonkin
Nixon and Détente
• China and Russia at odds over
interpretations of Marxism
• Nixon, with aid of national
security advisor Henry
Kissinger, want to use this to
their advantage
• 1972- Nixon shocks the world
by visiting China
• Wants to “normalize”
relationship, and start one China
policy
Nixon and Détente
• Nixon visits Moscow (72)
• Russia needs food, worried
about China US
relationship, ready for
change
• Detente-= relaxed tensions
• 1. US will send wheat, corn
to Russia for three years.
• 2. Reducing arms race
– Anti-ballistic missile treaty
(ABM)
– Serious of nuclear arms
reduction talks- SALTstrategic arms limitations
treaty
Nixon and Détente
• ABM forbade elaborate
defensive systems, US
develops MIRVs- multiple
independently targeted
reentry vehicles- designed
to overcome any defense
by saturating it with rockets
• USSR does the same
• Arms race still going
Nixon still hates commies
• Outspoken hatred for
Chile’s president Salvador
Allende
• Embargo on Chile, CIA
sent undermine legitimacy
• Chile army attacks Allende
(everybody knows US was
involved)
• Show support for General
Augusto Pinochet
The Supreme Court
• Escobedo (1964) and Miranda
(1966) were two cases in which
• Nixon hates chief Justice
the Supreme Court ruled that
Warren and judicial activism
the accused could remain silent.
• Griswold v. Connecticut
• Engel v. Vitale (1962) and
(1965) struck down a state law
School District of Abington
that banned the use of
Township vs. Schempp (1963)
contraceptives, even by
were two cases that led to the
married couples, but creating a Court ruling against required
“right to privacy.”
prayers and having the Bible in
• Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) public schools, basing the
said that all criminals were
judgment on the First
entitled to legal counsel, even Amendment, which was argued
if they were too poor to afford separated church and state.
it.
The Supreme Court
• Nixon wants to place more
conservative on the bench
• Earl Warren retires
• Warren E Burger takes over
• Nixon has total of 4 appointed
supreme court judges
• But judges to push conservative
agenda, in some cases more
liberal (Roe vs. Wade)
Nixon and the Home front
• Nixon also expanded Great Society programs by increasing
appropriations for Medicare and Medicaid, as well as Aid
to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), and created
the Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which gave
benefits to the indigent, aged, blind, and disabled, and he
raised Social Security.
• 1972- legislation that makes social security increase with
cost of living- helps contribute to huge inflation
Philadelphia Plan
• Required construction-trade unions working
on the federal payroll to establish “goals
and timetables” for Black employees
• Big change to affirmative action
• LBJ- it was used to protect individuals, now
changes to give certain groups privileges
• This plan changed “affirmative action” to
mean preferable treatment on groups
(minorities), not individuals, and the
Supreme Court’s decision on Griggs v.
Duke Power Co. (1971) supported this.
• Some complain of reverse discrimination
EPA
• Environmental Protection
Agency created in 1970
• Influence by Silent SpringRachel Carson 1962exposes poisonous effects
of pesticides
• 4-22 1970 first celebration
of earth day
• 1970 Clean Air Act
• 1973- Endangered Species
Act
Nixon and home front
• Federal regulation of
workers and consumers
increased
• Occupational Safety and
Health
Administration(OSHA)
• Consumer Product Safety
Commission
• EPA, OSHA, CPSC
increase federal control
over business
Nixon and the home front
• 1971- wage and price
freeze for 90 days, to
stop inflation
• Takes US off the gold
standard, devaluates
the dollar
• Southern strategyappoint conservative
supreme court justices,
soft pedaling civil
rights, and opposing
school busing to
achieve racial balance
Election of 1972
• North Vietnam making an
impressive charge
• Democrats select George
McGovern- pull troops out
in 90 days, but appeals to all
minorities and looses some
of core democratic voters,
liberal approach (plus VP
had undergone psychiatric
care)
• Reps- Nixon had done well
in bring troop levels down
• 12 days before election,
Kissinger announced that
“peace is at hand” with Nam
Peace?
• Nixon picks up bombing,
to force N. Vietnam back to
conference table
• Treaty of Paris- 1973cease fire
• Nixon- “Peace with honor”
• N. Vietnam still occupied
30% of S. Vietnam
• The “peace” was actually a
disguise for American
retreat
Cambodia
• 1973- US is shocked when they
discover secret bombing of
Cambodia
• After cease fire- Nixon ups
bombing, vetoes congresses’ efforts
to stop him
• War Powers Act -1) required the
president to report all commitments
of U.S. troops to Congress within
48 hours and and (2) setting a 60
day limit on those activities.
• Part of “New Isolationism” = mood
of caution and self restraint in
foreign affairs
Oil Embargo and NRG Crisis
• Yom Kippur War- Egypt
and Syria try to regain
lands lost in Six Day War
• US supports and saves
Israel
• OPEC announces oil
Embargo on US for support
of Israel, then cut oil
production
• Gas embargo causes US
recession, then spreads to
UK and France
Oil Embargo and NRG Crisis
• Congress reaction
– 1. Oil pipeline in Alaska
– 2. National speed limit of 55
• 5 moths of the “blackmail”
embargo demonstrates the
end of cheap NRG
• OPEC lifts embargo, and
quadrupled crude oil prices
Watergate and Nixon Scandals
• On June 17, 1972, five men
working for the Republican
Committee for the Reelection of the President
(CREEP) were caught
breaking into the Watergate
Hotel (Democratic headqtrs)
and planting some bugs in the
room.
• Dirty tricks- forge documents
to discredit democrats, use
the IRS to harass people on
White House “enemy list”,
burglarizing office of
Pentagon Paper leaker, use
FBI and CIA to cover tracks
Watergate and Nixon Scandals
• Vice president Spiro
Agnew forced to
resign for taking
bribes from Maryland
contractors
• Gerald Ford becomes
new VP
Watergate and Nixon Scandals
• Select Senate committee televised
Watergate affair
• Public finds out that tapes contain
white house conversations, Nixon
denies involvement, won’t hand
over the tape because of his
“executive privilege”
• Saturday Night Massacre- in
which Archibald Cox, special
prosecutor of the case who had
issued a subpoena of the tapes,
was fired and the attorney general
and deputy general resigned
because they didn’t want to fire
Cox.
Watergate and Nixon Scandals
• 1974- Nixon realizes
“relevant portions of
tapes”
• Then supreme court
rules Nixon can’t
withhold evidence
• Smoking gun tapeNixon giving orders to
use CIA to hold back
an FBI inquiry
Watergate and Nixon Scandals
• Articles of
impeachment are
drawn up- obstruction
of justice, abuse of
presidential powers,
contempt of congress
• Reps see “writing on
the wall”- tell Nixon
no way he can survive
impeachment
st
1
un-elected President
• 1st man to be president without being elected
• Illegitimacy hung over head
• LBJ- Jerry lacks brainpower, can’t walk and
chew gum at the same time.
• Ford pardon’s Nixon, Democrats are pissed
(Buddy Deal)
• Ford continues with Détente
– Helsinki Accords which recognized Soviet
boundaries, guaranteed human rights, and eased
the U.S.—Soviet situation.
• West Germans love it
• Critics- détente was making the U.S. lose
grain and technology while gaining nothing
from the Soviets.
Defeat in Vietnam
• North Vietnam crushes
the South, after
congress wouldn’t
allow more aid to the
South
• Fall of Saigon happens
fast, remaining
Americans have to flee
fast
Vietnam and its legacy
•
•
•
•
Cost- 118 Billion
56,000 dead
300,000 wounded
US lost world wide
respect
• US self confidence is
hurt
Feminist Victories and Defeats
• During the 1970s, the feminist
movement became energized
and took a decidedly
aggressive tone.
• 1972- Title IX prohibited sex
discrimination in any
federally funded education
program (big in female sports)
• Supreme Court aids feminism
movement
• Roe v. Wade case legalized
abortion, arguing that ending
a pregnancy was protected
under a right to privacy.
Feminist Victories and Defeats
• Even more ambitious was the ERA
(Equal Rights Amendment) to the
Constitution.
• 1972- Nixon vetoed proposal to set up
nationwide day care, because it would
weaken the family
• Anti feminists blame divorce rate on
feminists, churches start movements to
oppose abortion
• Conservative ultra anti feminists- Phyllis
Schlafly- said ERA would deprive a
woman’s right to be a wife and It would
require women to serve in combat.
• 1982- ERA dies, 3 states short of success
70’s Black and White
• 1974 Milliken v. Bradley
case, the Supreme Court
ruled that desegregation
plans could not require
students to move across
school-district lines.
• This reinforced the “white
flight” to the suburbs that
pitted the poorest whites
and blacks against each
other, often with
explosively violent results.
70’s Black and White
• Affirmative Action- whites still screaming
reverse discrimination
• In the Bakke case of 1978, the Supreme Court
ruled 5 to 4 that Allan Bakke (a white applicant
claiming reverse discrimination) should be
admitted to U.C.—Davis med school. The
decision was ambiguous saying (1) admission
preference based on any race was not allowed,
but conversely that (2) race could be factored
into the admission policy.
• The Supreme Court’s only black justice,
Thurgood Marshall, warned that the denial of
racial preferences might sweep away the
progress gained by the civil rights movement.
Native Americans in the 70’s
• Get inspiration from civil
rights movement
• Focus- assert status of
separate semi-sovereign
peoples
• Capture Alcatraz in 1970,
Wounded Knee in 1972
• US v. Wheeler- Native
tribes possessed a “unique
and limited” sovereignty,
subject to will of Congress,
but not individual states
Election of 1976
•
•
•
•
Bicentennial
Reps- Gerald Ford
Demos- Jimmy Carter
JC almost running against
memory of Watergate,
rather than Ford –
• JC- “I’ll never lie to you”
• 97% of African Americans
vote for JC
Election of 1976
• Carter wins
• Democratic majority in
both houses
• Creates new cabinet- Dept.
of NRG
• Pardons ten thousand
Vietnam draft dodgers
• Popularity was high early
on, but campaigned as an
outside, usually rubbed
congress the wrong way
Carter the Humanitarian
• “Human Rights” dominated
Carter’s foreign policyRhodesia and South Africa
• Camp David AccordsBiggest Success- Anwar
Sadat (Egypt) and
Menachem Begin(Israel)
• Israel agreed to withdraw
from territory gained in the
1967 war, while Egypt
would respect Israel’s
territories.
Carter the Humanitarian
• Resumes diplomatic
relations with China at 3
year interruption
• Pushes through treaties that
give Panama Canal back to
Panamanians
• Despite these successes
cold war still hangs over
US head
• Cubans, supported by
USSR, appeared in Angola,
Ethiopia, and other areas in
Africa
JC and the Economy
• Inherits Ford’s recession, inflation
rate at 13% in1980
• Americans would learn that they
could no longer hide behind their
ocean moats and live happily
insulated from foreign affairs
• Carter diagnosed America’s
problems as stemming primarily
from the nation’s costly
dependence on foreign oil
The US and Iran
• CIA placed Shah
Mohammed Reza Pahlevi
gets overthrown in 1979
• Muslim fundamentalists
resent Reza’s attempt to
Westernize Iran
• Iran’s oil production is
stalled during rebellion,
OPEC hike up crude oil
prices – another gas crisis
Malaise Speech
• Chides US citizens for
falling into a “moral and
spiritual crisis” and being
too concerned with
“material goods”
• Then, a few days later, he
fired four cabinet
secretaries and tightened
the circle around his
Georgian advisors even
more tightly.
Carter and foreign affairs
• 1979- Leonid Brezhnev
and Carter meet to discuss
SALT II
• Senate won’t ratify the
treaty
• Nov 4, 79- Iranian militants
take over US embassy in
Iran, takes all as hostages
• Rebels want the US to ship
back the former Shah for
trial
Carter and foreign affairs
• Dec 1979- Soviets invade
Afghanistan(next to Iran)
• Carter embargos USSR,
called for boycott of
Olympic games in Moscow
• Carter says US will us any
means necessary, including
force to protect Persian
Gulf
• Carter admits to being
fooled by the Soviets and
SALT II
• Soviets busy in “Russia’s
Vietnam”
Iranian Hostage Crisis
• Kills US moral- nightly
news broadcasts show antiAmerican mobs in Iran
• Economic sanctions
applied, US is waiting for a
stable government
• US plans rescue mission,
fails mainly due to weather,
two helicopters crash into
each other
• US now looks helpless and
incompetent
• 444 days