The Late Cold War: Nixon-Bush

1. The Late Cold
War,
c. 1968-1991

2. Richard Nixon
37th POTUS
1969 – 1974
promised “law and
order” to “silent
majority”

3. Key Nixon Admin Figures:
Henry Kissinger, National Security
Adviser
Spiro Agnew, Vice President

4. Nixon Foreign Policy
“Vietnamization”  Nixon Doctrine
“ … we shall furnish military and economic assistance when requested … But we
shall look to the nation directly threatened to assume the primary responsibility of
providing the manpower for its defense.”

5. Realpolitik
Détente: reduction in Cold War tensions
China: Feb 1972 – met Mao Zedong in China
USSR: Strategic Arms Limitations Talks
(SALT I)

6. Nov. 1973: War Powers Act - secret bombing of Cambodia 
President must report to Congress within 48 hrs of military action;
Congress must approve if longer than 60 days

7. Nixon Domestic Policy
New Federalism: shift federal budgeting of social
programs to state level; “revenue sharing”
Family Assistance Plan: welfare reforms; requires
recipients to work; did not pass

8. 1973: US aid to Israel 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

9. Burger Court
1969: four judges retire; Warren Burger = Chief Justice  more
conservative court
1973: Roe v. Wade, pro-choice abortion ruling
1974: U.S. v. Nixon, Watergate scandal trial

10. 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
School desegregation/opposed busing (required by 1971 Swann v.
Charlotte)

11. Nixon wins every state except Mass! Factors: Foreign policy success
(China and USSR visits) and George McGovern very liberal

12. 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

13. White House aide reveled all Oval Office conversations recorded;
Nixon refused to turn over tapes 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

14. 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

15. Gerald Ford
38th POTUS
1974-1977

16. Ford Domestic Policy
Nixon Pardon: end “national
nightmare”  intense
criticism
Carter campaign button, 1976

17. 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

18. Ford Foreign Policy
Failure in Southeast Asia:
April, 1975: Fall of Saigon
1975-1979: Cambodian Genocide
by Khmer Rouge

19. Helsinki Accords: 35 states including USSR and US pledge to
cooperate economically, respect national boundaries, and promote
human rights

20. 1976 Bicentennial: America turns 200!

21. Jimmy Carter
39th POTUS
1977-1981
• Born Again Christian
• Georgia peanut farmer
• Washington outsider

22. Election of 1976
Carter won by getting 287-241 electoral votes and 97% of the
African American vote

23. Carter Foreign Policy
Champion of Human Rights
Scheduled return of Panama
Canal to Panama in 1999

24. Camp David Accords (1979):
Between Anwar Sadat of Egypt and
Menachem Begin of Israel

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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…”

28. Rise of Conservatism
1970s: rightward shift in American politics
Reaction against:
• Stagflation  economic conservatism
• Civil rights advances  political conservatism
• Breakdown of traditional family structure  religious
fundamentalism
New Right Coalition: business leaders, middle-class voters,
disaffected Democrats, and fundamentalist Christians

29. Cable TV Televangelists Pat Robertson and Jim Bakker drew 100
million strong weekly audiences
Jerry Falwell’s anti-abortion Moral Majority
Social agenda: anti-abortion, anti-ERA, anti-busing, anti-affirmative
action

30. Reverse Discrimination
Regents of U of CA v Bakke
(1978): colleges cannot use racial
quotas; race can only be a plus
factor

31. 1980 Election

33. Ronald
Reagan
40th POTUS
1981-1989
“The Great
Communicator
”

34. March 30, 1981: John Hinkley, Jr. shot
Reagan

35. “Reaganomics”:
1) Support for school lunch
programs, nursing
homes, disability
payments CUT
2) 25% tax cut – mainly
benefited the rich
3) increased defense
spending

36. Supply-side (Trickle-down) economics:
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

37. Deregulation of banking, airlines, and telecommunications;
mining, forestry, oil drilling increased
Did Reaganomics work?
1982: Worst recession since Depression, 17,000 business
failures, 9,000,000 unemployed … but finally began
recovering in 1983.

38. But “yuppies” (young urban
professionals) thought it worked … (at
least until 1987.)

39. Election of 1984
Jesse Jackson
placed third in
Democratic
Primaries

40. Election of 1984
Geraldine Ferraro
joined Mondale as
first female VP
candidate

42. Social Issues:
Supreme Court grows more
conservative:
William Rehnquist = Chief
Justice
Antonin Scalia and
Anthony Kennedy added
Sandra Day O’Connor
first female Supreme Court
justice

43. 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

44. Grenada, October 1983: US invasion
of Caribbean island to remove pro-
Cuban regime; first major operation
since Vietnam

45. 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

46. Support for Mujahideen in Afghanistan fighting Soviet
occupation

47. 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

48. 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

50. Election of 1988
Michael Dukakis vs. George Bush

51. “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.’”

54. George H.W.
Bush
41st POTUS
1989-1993
“Read my lips:
NO NEW
TAXES.”

55. 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?

56. 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

57. November 9, 1989: Fall of the Berlin
Wall
October 1990: Germany reunited

66. Breakup of Soviet Union:
April 1991: Georgia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania declared
independence
August 1991: Communist hardliners failed in attempt to remove
Gorbachev
December 8, 1991: Soviet Union dissolved
Mapping the fall of communism

67. 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

68. End of Cold War:
1993: Bush and Yeltsin sign START II  nuclear warheads to under
3,000

69. End of Cold War:
2010: Obama and Medvedev signed New START  cut missile
launchers by 50% and reduced to 1550 nuclear warheads

70. Invasion of Panama
December 1989: Bush sends 25,000 troops to Panama to
remove General Manuel Noriega for drug trafficking to
the U.S.

72. Persian Gulf War
August 1990:
Saddam Hussein
ordered Iraqi forces to
invade Kuwait; would
control 25% of global oil

73. Persian Gulf War
January 16, 1991: Operation
Desert Storm began with five week
air war

74. Persian Gulf War
February 23-28, 1991: 543,000 troops from 38 nations
led by Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf launched ground
attack from Saudi Arabia to liberate Kuwait

76. Bush Domestic Policies
Clarence Thomas: replacement for
Thurgood Marshall but
conservatism angered minorities;
began national conversation of
sexual harassment
Americans with Disabilities Act
(1990): “a kinder gentler America”;

77. Domestic Problems
• Iran Contra pardon
• Savings and Loan (S&L) Crisis:
Reagan banking deregulation  bank failures  $88 billion
bailout
• “No new taxes.”  Large tax increase
• 1990-92 recession  “It’s the economy, stupid.”

78. Election of 1992