3. Realpolitik
Détente: reduction in Cold War tensions
China: Feb 1972 – met Mao Zedong in China
USSR: Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT I)
4. 1973: US aid to Israel during the Yom Kippur War prompted OPEC Oil
Embargo by Arab states; massive oil shortages; Congress imposes
national 55 mph speed limit
• Oil embargo prices rise
• + decline of factories/rise of service jobs and foreign competition
9% unemployment
Economic stagnation + inflation = Stagflation
5. Election of 1972 – Nixon paranoid about losing vs. George McGovern
Southern Strategy: to attract Southern Dems (Wallace supporters) Nixon
appealed to “silent majority” who opposed the 1960s counterculture
6. Nixon wins every state except Mass! Factors: Foreign policy success
(China and USSR visits) and George McGovern very liberal
7. Nixon Scandals
Illegal FBI wiretaps of “enemies list” (protest leaders and “radicals”)
June 1972: Men hired by Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP)
broke into the Democratic National Campaign Headquarters at
Watergate Hotel and Office Complex in D.C.
FBI Associate Director Mark Felt, aka “Deep Throat”, led Washington Post
reporters Woodward and Bernstein to investigate Senate hearings
8. Nixon refused to turn over
recordings of Oval Office
conversations to Congress
claiming Executive Privilege
US v Nixon public shock over
Nixon’s profanity and crudeness
and missing 18 minutes
Also, Vice President Spiro
Agnew resigned for accepting
bribes when Maryland
governor appointment of
Gerald Ford as VP
9. Resignation
House voted impeachment for:
1. Obstruction of justice
2. Abuse of power
3. Contempt of Congress
August 9, 1974: Nixon resigned;
Ford = first unelected president
11. Ford Domestic Policy
Nixon Pardon: end “national
nightmare” intense criticism
Carter campaign button, 1976
12. WIN Buttons (Whip Inflation Now): worst recession in 40 years
• Americans asked to cut back on oil but no incentives
• Voluntary wage/price freezes
• No Immediate Miracles
• FAILED
14. Election of 1976
Carter won by getting 287-241 electoral votes and 97% of the
African American vote
15. Carter Domestic Policy
Malaise Speech, July 15, 1979:
“In a nation that was proud of hard
work, strong families, close-knit
communities, and our faith in God,
too many of us now tend to worship
self-indulgence and consumption.
Human identity is no longer defined
by what one does, but by what one
owns … I'm asking you for your
good and for your nation's security
to take no unnecessary trips, to use
carpools or public transportation
whenever you can, to park your car
one extra day per week, to obey
the speed limit, and to set your
thermostats to save fuel…”
17. Camp David Accords (1979):
Between Anwar Sadat of Egypt and
Menachem Begin of Israel
18. Iran Hostage Crisis (1979):
1953: CIA and British MI6 overthrew democracy in
favor of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
1979: Shah traveled to US; Islamic Fundamentalist
Ayatollah Khomeini led Islamic revolution
52 Americans hostages held in U.S. embassy by
radical Islamic students
Iranian Hostage Crisis: held for 444 days; release
coincided with Reagan inauguration
19. Cold War: Carter tried to continue
détente but:
1. SALT II not approved by Senate
2. 1979: Soviet Union invasion of
Afghanistan
3. US boycott of 1980 Moscow
Olympics
4. US grain embargo of USSR
20. Rise of Conservatism
1970s: rightward shift in American politics
New Right Coalition: business leaders, middle-class voters,
disaffected Democrats, and fundamentalist Christians
Reaction against:
• Stagflation economic conservatism
• Civil rights advances political conservatism
• Breakdown of traditional family religious fundamentalism
25. Supply-side (Trickle-down) economics,
or Reaganomics:
lower taxes
businesses investments to improve productivity
increased supply and lower cost of goods
lower consumer prices
more spending and economic stimulus
“It sounds like Voodoo economics.”
– George H.W. Bush
26. 1) Cut social welfare spending on
school lunch programs, nursing
homes, disability payments, etc.
2) 25% tax cut for the rich
3) increased defense spending (by
adding to national debt)
4) Deregulation of banking,
airlines, and telecommunications;
mining, forestry, oil drilling
increased
5) Break power of labor unions
(air traffic controller strike)
32. Reagan Foreign Policy
• USSR = “evil empire”
• Reagan Doctrine – from containment
to rollback
• Massive defense spending
• Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)
• Added $2.5 Trillion to National Debt
33. Iran-Contra Affair
• Nicaragua, 1979: Sandanistas (socialists)
overthrew corrupt US-supported dictator;
then won free election
• 1981: Reagan authorizes CIA to fund and
train Contras (right-wing anti-
Sandanistas)
• 1983: Congress cut funding to Contras in
Boland Amendment
• 1985-1986: Reagan Admin secretly sold
missiles to Iran, used profits to fund
Contras
• “Teflon President”, Bush pardons all
35. After Soviet withdrawal in 1989, the Mujahideen:
• became the Taliban
• established harsh Islamic Shariah law,
• supported Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda terror network,
• were overthrown by 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11
36. Improved U.S.-Soviet Relations:
1985: Mikhail Gorbachev introduced major reforms
in Soviet Union
• Glasnost - end political repression
• Perestroika - intro free markets in Soviet Union
1987: Reagan and Gorbachev sign INF Agreement
39. “And I'm the one who will not
raise taxes… And the
Congress will push me to raise
taxes and I'll say no. And
they'll push, and I'll say no,
and they'll push again, and I'll
say, to them, ‘Read my lips:
NO NEW TAXES.’”
42. Bush Foreign Policy/Challenges
April 1989, Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China: 100,000 pro-
democracy students demonstrate against Communist Party rule
June 4, 1989: PLA tanks crush demonstration; 10,000 killed?
43. Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, 1989:
August 1989, Poland:
Pro-democracy Solidarity party won first free
election since WWII
October 1989:
Communist Party rule ended in Hungary; ends in
all other Eastern European nations by 1991
44. November 9, 1989: Fall of the Berlin Wall
October 1990: Germany reunited
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.
53. Breakup of Soviet Union:
April 1991: Georgia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
declared independence
August 1991: failed coup attempt to remove
Gorbachev by Communist Party hardliners
December 8, 1991: Soviet Union dissolved
54. End of Cold War:
1991: Bush and Gorbachev signed START I (Strategic Arms Reduction
Treaty) nuclear warheads to under 10,000; removed 80% of world’s
nuclear weapons
55. End of Cold War:
1993: Bush and Yeltsin sign START II nuclear warheads to under
3,000
56. End of Cold War:
2010: Obama and Medvedev signed New START cut missile
launchers by 50% and reduced to 1550 nuclear warheads