1970’s The
Stagnant
Seventies
Presidency of
Richard Nixon
1968 a very violent year
• MLK and RFK assassinated
1968 Election
• George Wallace leaves Democratic
Party and creates a 3rd party
• LBJ announces that will not re-run
• Nixon wins the Presidency
– Appeal to the “silent majority”
Escalation of Vietnam
Nixon “Vietnamizes” the War
• Vietnamization:
– Gradually withdrawing US troops from Vietnam
– Transitioning the military burden to the South
Vietnamese
• “Using weapons, training, and advice”
• Nixon Doctrine:
– US would honor current commitments, but in the future, Asian
countries would defend themselves without American troops
• Doves:
– Those that favor peace
• “Silent Majority”:
– Nixon’s belief that most Americans supported the war, but were not
vocal
• My Lai Massacre 1968:
– Killing of Vietnamese women and children
Cambodianizing the Vietnam War
• April 29, 1970:
– Nixon ordered the US begin attacking Cambodia, a neighboring,
neutral country
– The Cambodia bombings led directly to……
• Kent State Protests:
– Student protests
– 4 students died, many more injured
• The Cambodia Bombings made many Americans question
the government
• Senate repealed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
• Pentagon Papers:
– Revealed mistakes and deception of JFK and LBJ regarding
Vietnam
The Secret Bombing of Cambodia and
the War Powers Act
• March 1969 – May 1970:
– US secretly bombed Cambodia 3,500 times
– During that time, US pledged it was respecting Cambodia’s
neutrality
– Americans question the government
• War Powers Act:
– Essentially, it reversed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
– Drastically reduced the war-time powers of the president
• President must report to Congress within 48 hours of sending
troops to a conflict
• Must limit combat to 60 days unless Congress extended it to 90
Scandals around Vietnam
• Pentagon Papers, 1971
•Dept of Defense document on US
political-military involvement in Vietnam
45-67,
released by Daniel Ellsberg to public
published in the NY Times
Demonstrated that the Johnson
Administration "systematically lied, not
only to the public but also to Congress”.
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Led to the War Powers Act, 1973
•Passed over President Nixon's veto
•increases congressional control over the
executive branch in foreign policy matters
military actions short of formally declared war
prohibited the President from engaging in
military actions ≥ 60 days, unless Congress voted
approval
•
•
Legacy of Vietnam at home
Soldiers get a poor
welcome home
Loss of confidence
Legacy of
Vietnam
25th Amendment (18 yr
olds can now vote)
War Powers Act
Counter-Culture/Hippie Movement
• Generation Gap
many hippies indulged in behavior intended to
shock older Americans (nudity, profanity, etc.)
many engaged in promiscuous sexual behavior
and drugs
• Woodstock Festival 1969
Gathering in NY state of 400,000 youth
Flower children
Folk and rock music
iconic event of counter-culture movement
Pivotal moment in pop culture history
Video link to song: Bob Dylan's The Times They are a Chaingin'
Boomers/hippies
•Grew up in times of
prosperity
•Embraced activism
•Distrust for Tradition and
Authority
•Listened to Rock n Roll
•OK with premarital sex
Parents of Boomers/hippies
•Lived frugally
•Lived through hard economic
times
•Valued loyalty and authority,
respect for their elders
•Listened to same music
•Against premarital sex
New Left
• Coalition of younger members of the
Democratic party and radical student groups.
Believed in
– participatory democracy
– free speech
– civil rights
– racial brotherhood
– opposed the war in Vietnam.
Kent State Tragedy, 1970
• Student protest over President Nixon's
bombing of Cambodia in 1970
• ended in tragedy when several were killed by
National Guardsmen trying to break up their
protests.
Rebirth
• Charles Reich, The Greening of America, 1970
-predicted a coming revolution with no
violence.
-offers an interpretation of how the U.S. went
wrong
-predicts a rebirth of human values through a
"new" generation.
Nixon and the Imperial Presidency
Nixon's Domestic Policies
•
Notable Legislation or Presidential Action
o
Increased spending on certain Great society Programs:
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Food Stamps
Medicaid
Aid to Families of with Dependent Children (AFDC)
Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
Automatic Social Security cost of living increases
• New definition of affirmative action:
•Privileges for certain groups (minorities)
o
Nixon and the Environmental
o
o
o
Protection Agency (EPA), 1970
Clean Air Act, 1970 (inspired by The Silent Spring)
Endangered Species Act, 1973
Federal vs. State Powers under
Nixon
o
“New Federalism”
o
o
o
Nixon's policy of giving the states greater
responsibility for controlling welfare and other
government programs
5 yr plan - $30 billion to states
"Revenue Sharing"
1972 - A Nixon program that returned federal funds to
the states to use as they saw fit.
The Economy under Nixon
• Stagflation
A term used to describe the economy during Nixon's presidency
because business was not growing and inflation was rising out of control
Possible explanations for inflation:
• Rise of women & youth in workforce (less skilled)
• Cost of compliance (new environmental & health safety standards)
• Lack of investment in new technology
• Shift from manufacturing to service oriented economy
• Nixon’s reaction to inflation : 90 day wage and price freeze
• The Dollar & the Gold Standard
• Nixon took the U.S. off the gold standard and devalued the dollar (to
improve trade balance)
The Arab Embargo and the Energy
Crisis
•
American support of the Israelis in the 6 Day and Yom
Kippur Wars (1967 & 1973) brought a huge cost
•Syria and Egypt attacked Israel
•US provided $2 billion in aid to Israel
o
Arab nations responded with an oil embargo (19731974)
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Oil shortages
Nixon Responses
• Alaskan pipeline
• National speed limit
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Highlighted American dependence (weakness) on foreign oil
• Oil and gas prices increase
Sources of Stagnation
• Reasons for economic downturn:
• High cost of Vietnam War
• Rising oil prices
• Inflation
• High funding for Great Society
The Nixon Landslide of 1972:
• Spring of 1972:
– North Vietnam crossed the DMZ
– US responded with bombings on North Vietnamese cities
• Election of 1972:
– George McGovern (D) promised to end war in 90 days
– Nixon wins in a landslide
• Cease-fire in Vietnam on January 23, 1973
– Nixon claimed he achieved “Peace with Honor”
Nixon’s Legacy –
Détente with Beijing and Moscow
• Most known for improving relations with China
and the USSR
• February 21, 1972:
– Nixon visits China
– Improvement in relations between China and US
• Détente:
– Easing of Cold War tensions
• Anti-ballistic missile treaty
• Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT):
– Limited the number of long-range nuclear weapons
Watergate and the Unmaking of a
President
• June 17, 1972:
– 5 men broke into Democratic headquarters in Watergate
• CREEP – Committee to Re-Elect the President
• VP Agnew:
– Resigned over taking bribes
• Led to the appointment of Gerald Ford
• Nixon secretly recorded most Oval Office Conversations
• “Saturday Night Massacre”
– Nixon fired a special prosecutor, Attorney General, and deputy
Attorney General
• Nixon claimed right of “Executive Privilege”
– Supreme Court stated he could not withhold evidence and tapes
• House drew up impeachment charges, Nixon resigned
Disgraced Presidency
• Watergate Investigations revealed
•Nixon assisted in the cover up
•Ordered CIA to aid in cover up
•Lied about any knowledge of break-in
•“Hush money” paid to those who were caught
•Refusal to cooperate with the judicial branch to provide White
House Tapes
• Nixon forced to resign
The First Unelected President
• Pardon of Nixon:
– Many Americans were upset, some believed there was a “deal”
– Hurt Ford’s re-election chances in 1976
• Helsinki Accords:
– Improved relations between Western nations and Communist
nations
– Example of détente
Defeat in Vietnam
• US withdrew troops in 1973
• $118 billion cost
• 56,000 deaths, 300,000 wounded
Aftermath of Watergate
• Nation had survived a constitutional crisis
• proved that impeachment machinery forged by
Founding Fathers could work when public opinion
overwhelmingly demanded that it be implemented
• Executive power held in check by system of checks and
balances (executive/legislative/judicial branches)
Ford Presidency 1974-1977
• No public mandate
• Ford became VP under Nixon after
VP Spiro Agnew resigned (bribery)
• Not elected Vice President or
President by the Electoral College
(25th Amendment, 1967)
• Pardoned Nixon after his
resignation
• Growing inflation and recession
under his tenure
The Bicentennial Campaign and the
Carter Victory
• Jimmy Carter:
– Campaigned as a Washington “outsider”
– Pardoned draft dodgers from the Vietnam War
Carter’s Humanitarian Diplomacy
• Camp David Accords:
– September, 1978
– Peace agreement between Israel (Begin) and Egypt (Sadat)
• Panama Canal:
– US promised to return the canal to Panama by 2000
Economic and Energy Woes
• Inflation increased rapidly
• Problems in Iran:
– US backed Shah Pahlevi (CIA helped install him in 1953)
– Shah was overthrown in 1979, has cancer; US provides
treatment
Foreign Affairs and the Iranian Imbroglio
• Iranian Revolution
o Overthrown Iranian leader was allowed into the US
 Iran cut off all oil to the US
•
Great Satan
• Iranian Hostage Crisis (November, 1979)
o Iranian students stormed the American embassy and
took hostages (held for 444 days)
 Attempted rescue failed, killed 8 soldiers
• Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
– December 27, 1979:
– US boycotted Olympic games in Moscow
– The war is seen as the Soviet’s Vietnam
Trouble and More Trouble for
Jimmy Carter (1977-1981)
• Economic Problems
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Double digit inflation (uncontrollable spiral)
Stagflation = Stagnant Business activity +
continued unemployment + Inflation
Tried to combat unemployment and economic
weakness with government spending
• Wage and price guidelines – little success
• Deregulation of industry (continued postCarter)
Reading Assignments
• Unfinished Nation, Chapter 32: Crisis of
Authority pp. 842-859/866-875
• Youth Culture
• Mobilization of Minorities
• Environmentalism
• Nixon: Politics & Economics
• Election 1972 – Troubled Economy
• Watergate
• Link to Chapter 40 on wikispace