Kent Chronicles
March 2013
The Late 1970s
Bicentennial Events – (1976)
What do you remember?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Panama Canal Treaty- Torrijos-Carter Treaties (September 7, 1977) Agreements that the United
States would be responsible for the Panama Canal until 1999, then Panama would assume full control
over the canal operations.
Camp David Peace Accords-(September, 1978)
Who?
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Major Problems
__________________________________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
An Accord
10:15pm September 17, 1978- The three men sit down in the White House to sign the agreement. It is a
huge accomplishment. Egypt becomes the first Arab nation to recognize the state of Israel and Israel
ceded control of the Sinai to Egypt. The precedent was set for peace that would be followed by Jordan
years later. However, there still is not peace in the region. Part of the trouble stems from the vague
wording of the Camp David Accord when it comes to the Palestinian questions; part stems from the
inherent difficulty of the situation as a whole.
Websites
http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/documents/campdavid/accords.phtml - The Accords in their
entirety.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/cdtoc.html - A pretty good site that has a day by day
diary of the Camp David Accords
Recognition of China- (January 1, 1979) United States finally recognizes the legitimacy of the
People’s Republic of China. This was controversial in some circles which wanted to maintain that the
government on Taiwan (The Republic of China) was the sole legitimate government of China. Possession
being 9/10ths of the law, and since the main land China was totally controlled by the communist
People’s Republic of China, recognition was going to happen. At the same time as the United States was
seriously pursuing recognition, China’s leader, Deng Xiaoping, was pursuing reforms within the Chinese
economy that would incorporate some aspects of market economy within a communist structure.
Three Mile Island – (March 28-April 1,
1979)
Nuclear power was seen as a possible
alternative to traditional sources of power like
oil. Particularly as a second oil crisis began in
the early 1979 as a response to the Iranian
Revolution, nuclear power looked awesome.
Then the events at Three Mile Island shook
American faith in the atom.
Location________________________________
First problem occurred on March 28th, 1979 and
it was officially considered under control on
April 1.
A problem occurred when a minor electrical or
mechanical failure happened in a pump that
moved water into the nuclear reactor. That
caused an increase in pressure and an
emergency value to opened, but failed to close
again. This created some misleading readings
and the actions that should have solved the
problem exacerbated the situation.
Even though there was a partial meltdown of
the reactor core, the containment building held
almost all the radioactive material. In theory,
only a small release of radioactive gas was
released from the reactor, such that there was a
negligible increase in radioactive particles.
Problems at Three Miles Island
The company did not do a good job conveying the information that they knew. They also did not have
a good PR person who was prepared to handle the fearful and insistent questions that the media and
the government asked.
The government did not have good lines of communication with each other and with the nuclear
reactor causing misinformation to run rampant over the three day crisis. Additionally, the evacuation
plans for the area were confused and in some cases contradictory. Because of all the confusion on all
governmental levels, the order to evacuate the area around the reactor caused more panic than was
necessary. Initially there were whispers about the need to evacuate but the governor of Pennsylvania
first stated that there was no need to leave but then reversed the decision to suggest that pregnant
women and young children leave. The abrupt change caused many to assume the worst.
The media did not have anyone who actually knew what in the world was going on. In some cases, the
media overstated the situation and added to the uncertainty. (I know this is shocking and never
happens!)
The overall outcome of the Three Mile Island crisis was two-fold. According to government reporting,
the amount of material released barely pushed the levels of radioactive particles above the ambient
levels for the area. On the nuclear power end, the level of fear about the consequences of disaster
caused a major rethinking of the role that nuclear power would play in the American Energy economy.
America learned that disasters were possible here and more people started to ask much harder
questions of both the government and the companies that ran power plants. Many plans to build new
nuclear plants were cancelled, and no new plants have been started in the US since 1978. The world’s
fascination with nuclear power ended in 1986 after the Chernobyl meltdown.
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/3mile-isle.html - Good, simple overview of
the events from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
http://www.threemileisland.org/index.html - Excellent site by Dickinson that is a trove of information
with interviews and other primary source documents.
Iranian Hostage Crisis – (November 4, 1979- January 21, 1981)
Prime Minister who was deposed in 1953 __________________________________________________
Leader who was propped up by United States _______________________________________________
Religious figure who symbolized anti-Western resistance ______________________________________
New Years 1977, President Carter spent New Year’s eve in Tehran and praised the Shah for being an
“island of stability” in the troubled Middle East. A year later, the Shah was forced to flee from an Islamic
Revolution that swept an Islamic group into power, among them Khomeini. Khomeini was an outspoken
anti-western cleric; he had dubbed the United State “The Great Satan.” However, relations between the
United States and Iran were reasonably okay for the first few months of the revolution, as the political
factions inside Iran consolidated power. Khomeini even helped the United States in February 1979
when students stormed the American embassy and took hostages. Khomeini quickly got the mob to
give up the prisoners.
Things changed in November of 1979 when another mob of students stormed the American
embassy in Tehran and this time Khomeini backed the act. Khomeini used prestige the hostage situation
gave him as a potent weapon against a more moderate faction within Iran; he cemented his power
when it became clear that the United States would not immediately react. Carter did his best to
negotiate, but it was to no avail. He also ordered the freezing of Iranian assets in the US, an embargo of
Iran’s oil (not that they were selling much), and economic sanctions were placed.
On April 24, 1980, Carter did order a military operation, Eagle Claw, to get the hostages out. It
was a complicated mission, complicated further by a nasty sand storm that played havoc with the
helicopters, three broke down and a forth crashed into a refueling tanker after the mission had already
been aborted. It was a dismal failure and eight servicemen died.
By September 1980, the situation in Iran had started to change somewhat. The Shah died in
July. There were signs that there would be a war with Iraq and Iran needed spare parts for its American
made military equipment. Also, the Iranian economy was hamstrung by the American embargo and that
had made things more difficult for the new regime than they had anticipated. Several rounds of
negotiations failed before the hostages were released on inauguration day 1981, just minutes after
Reagan was sworn into office.
Soviet Union invades Afghanistan-(1979-1989) Russia had been
“You fool! You fell victim to one
interested in the affairs of Afghanistan for a long time, dating back to
of the classic blunders – The most
the 19th century, and the Soviet Union maintained that interest. In
famous of which is, ‘Never get
1978, a pro-Soviet government gained power in Afghanistan but
involved in a land war in Asia!’”
struggled to maintain its influence. In response to requests for aid, the
Soviet Union slowly ratcheted up their commitment, from a few
Vizzini
helicopters and a body guard detachment up to the entire 40th Army
(1,800 tanks, 80,000 soldiers, and 2,000 armored fighting vehicles) in December, 1979.
Initially, the Soviet Army easily swept into Afghanistan’s cities to gain control in a very short time. Then,
the battle changed as small groups led by local warlords, the famed mujahideen, launched the type of
guerilla war that was impossible to deal with effectively. The key to the fighting was that the
mujahideen had no centralized command and groups usually worked independent of each other in
separate areas of operation. Even if the Soviet army could wipe out one group another would move into
the vacated territory. Additionally, different mujahideen groups were back by different foreign entities.
The United States sent aid in the form of grain, weapons, and money; many European nations did the
same. The People’s Republic of China trained some mujahideen and provided weapons for the fight.
Arab nations, in particular Saudi Arabia, funneled money along with providing a pool of Muslim fighters
motivated to fight against the Soviet atheists. Finally, Pakistan was a hospitable base of operations and
a safe haven to train. It quickly became a mess and a massive sink on Soviet resources and moral.
When Mikhail Gorbachev became General Secretary in 1985, he tried to get the Soviet Army out of
Afghanistan first by transferring fighting responsibly to the local government, and then withdrawing half
the Army in 1988 and the other half in 1989.