This document summarizes American politics and diplomacy from the 1970s through the early 1990s. It discusses the presidencies of Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. Key events included Carter brokering peace between Israel and Egypt, Reagan's economic and foreign policy revolution, and the fall of the Soviet Union under Gorbachev.

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31: From “The Age of Limits”
to the Age of Reagan
Alan Brinkley, The Unfinished Nation, 8th Edition

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Politics and Diplomacy after
Watergate
• The Ford Custodianship
– Nixon pardoned
– Economic problems
– 1976 election

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The Election of 1976
Jimmy Carter, a former governor of Georgia, swept the South in the 1976 election and carried enough
of the industrial states of the Northeast and Midwest to win a narrow victory over President Gerald R.
Ford. His showing indicated the importance to the Democratic Party of having a candidate capable of
attracting support in the South, which was becoming increasingly Republican by the 1970s.

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Politics and Diplomacy after
Watergate (Continued)
• The Trials of Jimmy Carter
– Soaring inflation
– Second oil crisis
– “Malaise” speech
• Human Rights and National Interests
– Panama Canal treaties
– Camp David accords

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Signing the Camp David Accords
Jimmy Carter experienced many frustrations during his presidency, but his successful efforts in
1978 to negotiate a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt were undoubtedly his finest hour.
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin join Carter here in
the East Room of the White House in March 1979 to sign the accords.
© D.B. Owen/Black Star

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Politics and Diplomacy after
Watergate (Continued, 2)
• The Year of the Hostages
– Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
– Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

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The Rise of the New Conservative
Movement
• The Sunbelt and Its Politics
– Growing opposition to government regulation
– Sagebrush rebellion

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Growth of the Sunbelt, 1970–1990
One of the most important demographic changes of the last decades of the twentieth century was
the shift of population out of traditional population centers in the Northeast and Midwest and
toward the states of the so-called Sunbelt—most notably the Southwest and the Pacific Coast.

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The Rise of the Conservative
Movement (Continued)
• Religious Revivalism
– Surging evangelicalism
– Christian Coalition
• The Emergence of the New Right
– Barry Goldwater
– Ronald Reagan

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The Rise of the New Conservative
Movement (Continued, 2)
• The Tax Revolt
– Proposition 13
• The Campaign of 1980
– Challenge from Kennedy
– 1980 election

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The Election of 1980
Although Ronald Reagan won only slightly more than half of the popular vote in the
1980 presidential election, his electoral majority was overwhelming—a reflection to
a large degree of the deep unpopularity of President Jimmy Carter in 1980.

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The “Reagan Revolution”
• The Reagan Coalition
– Free-market conservatives
– Neoconservatives
• Reagan in the White House
– Reagan’s personal appeal
– Limited involvement in day-to-day operations

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Ronald and Nancy Reagan
The president and the first lady greet guests at a White House social event. Nancy Reagan was
committed to making the White House, and her husband's presidency, seem more glamorous
than those of most recent administrations. But she also played an important, if usually quiet,
policy role in the administration.
Photo by Dirck Halstead/© Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

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The “Reagan Revolution” (Continued)
• “Supply-Side” Economics
– Reaganomics
– Tax cuts
– Deregulation
– Economic recession and recovery
• The Fiscal Crisis
– Record budget deficits

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The “Reagan Revolution” (Continued, 2)
• Reagan and the World
– Strategic Defense Initiative
– Reagan Doctrine
– Reagan reelected
– Geraldine Ferraro

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America and the Waning of
the Cold War
– Mikhail Gorbachev
• The Fall of the Soviet Union
– Glasnost and perestroika
– Tiananmen Square
– Collapse of the USSR

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The Fall of the Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall is widely considered to have “fallen” on November 9, 1989. Starting on that date
and in the days and weeks that followed, people used sledgehammers and picks to tear down the
wall, often keeping the broken pieces as souvenirs of this symbolic conclusion of the Cold War.
© DIZ München GmbH/Alamy

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America and the Waning of the
Cold War (Continued)
• The Fading of the Reagan Revolution
– Savings and loan crisis
– Iran-Contra scandal

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The Election of 1988
Democrats had high hopes going into the election of 1988, but Vice President
George H. W. Bush won a decisive victory over Michael Dukakis, who did only
slightly better than Walter Mondale had done four years earlier.

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America and the Waning of the
Cold War (Continued, 2)
• The Presidency of George H. W. Bush
– Election of 1988
– Arms reduction
– 1990 recession
• The Gulf War
– Saddam Hussein

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America and the Waning of the
Cold War (Continued, 3)
• The Election of 1992
– Ross Perot
– Clinton elected

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The Election of 1992
For the first time since 1976, a Democrat captured the White House. And although the third-
party candidacy of Ross Perot deprived Bill Clinton of an absolute majority, he nevertheless
defeated George Bush by a decisive margin in both the popular and electoral votes.

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Consider the Source
• Ronald Reagan on the Role of Government

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The Unfinished Nation, 8th Edition
Next: Chapter 32
The Age of Globalization