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Copyright © by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
Chapter 15
US History: Civil War to the Present
Nixon’s Presidency and Watergate
The Big Idea
Richard Nixon’s policies helped ease Cold War tensions before the Watergate scandal brought down
his presidency.
Main Ideas
•Americans faced domestic challenges, including an energy and economic crisis.
•Nixon’s foreign policy led to improved relations with Communist powers.
•The Watergate scandal forced Nixon to resign.
•Gerald Ford became president upon Nixon’s resignation and faced many challenges.

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Chapter 15
Main Idea 1: Americans faced domestic challenges, including an energy and
economic crisis.
• President Nixon promised to work on behalf of Americans who supported the war.
– Called them the “Silent Majority”
– Criticized student protesters
– Did not believe Americans should leave Vietnam quickly
• New Federalism was Nixon’s new plan for government.
–Limit power of federal government
–Reflected Nixon’s conservatism, or a desire to limit the involvement of
government in citizens’ lives
–Promised to reduce welfare spending and restore law and order
–Opposed new civil rights legislation

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Chapter 15
Economic Troubles
• America was experiencing stagflation– the economic condition of combined stagnant
growth and high inflation.
– Rising prices reduced purchasing power of the U.S. dollar by more than 30
percent.
• Rising oil costs contributed to inflation.
– United States imported almost one-third of its oil from Middle Eastern
countries that belonged to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries, or OPEC.
– OPEC worked to control production and keep oil prices high.
• When the United States helped Israel in the Yom Kippur War, OPEC declared an embargo,
or ban, on oil sales to the United States.
– Oil and gas prices soared.
– Energy crises worsened an already weak economy.

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Chapter 15
Main Idea 2: Nixon’s foreign policy led to improved relations with Communist
powers.
•Nixon took a realpolitik approach to foreign policy.
– Foreign policy decisions would be based on practical American interests, not
on moral or political ideals.
– Helped bring an end to Vietnam War
•Approach was controversial.
– The United States backed harsh military governments in Latin America
because they were friendly to the United States.
•Nixon worked to widen the split between Soviet Union and China and also to improve U.S.
relations with both Communist powers.

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Chapter 15
China
•In 1972 Nixon visited China.
— Met Chinese leader Mao Zedong
— Improved U.S.-China relations
Soviet Union
•In May 1972 Nixon flew to Moscow and participated in the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
(SALT) with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.
— Talks led to a treaty limiting each country’s nuclear weapons.
— Opened a period of détente, or less hostile relations, between the United States and
the Soviet Union
— Soviets began buying grain from American farmers.
Soviet Union and China

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Chapter 15
Main Idea 3: The Watergate scandal forced Nixon to resign.
• On June 17, 1972, five men were arrested while breaking into the Democratic National
Committee’s offices at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C.
– Burglars carried camera and recording equipment.
– Police discovered link between burglars and Nixon administration.
• Nixon denied involvement in the break-in.
– Went on to landslide victory in the 1972 election
• The break-in then exploded into a massive political scandal that became known as
Watergate.

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Chapter 15
Nixon’s Resignation
•House Judiciary Committee recommended
impeachment and began the process on July
27, 1974.
•On August 8, 1974, Nixon appeared on
national television and announced resignation.
•Gerald Ford was sworn in as president on
August 9, 1974.
•Many Americans lost faith in government
officials.
The Watergate Scandal
Investigation
•Reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
investigated, found a secret contact, and
learned of illegal activities by Nixon
administration officials.
•Senate committee also investigated and
learned that Nixon made recordings of Oval
Office conversations.
•Nixon was compelled to turn over the tapes
after a ruling by the Supreme Court.
•Recordings proved Nixon had directed the
Watergate cover-up and lied about it.

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Chapter 15
Main Idea 4: Gerald Ford became president upon Nixon’s resignation and faced
many challenges.
•Vice President Gerald Ford became president when Nixon resigned.
– First modern president to hold the office without being elected to it
– Lost some public support when he granted Nixon a pardon, or freedom from
punishment
•Ford began a campaign called Whip Inflation Now (WIN).
– Encouraged people to save money and businesses to hold down wages and
prices
– Met with resistance in Congress
•In 1975, Ford and Congress began to compromise on WIN, but inflation and
unemployment remained high.

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Chapter 15
America in the 1970s
The Big Idea
Americans faced major challenges both at home and around the world in the 1970s.
Main Ideas
•American society debated key social issues during the 1970s.
•Jimmy Carter was elected president in 1976.
•Carter had successes as well as failures in foreign policy during his administration.

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Chapter 15
Main Idea 1: American society debated key social issues during the 1970s.
•The American population was changing in the 1970s.
– Most immigrants came from Latin America and Asia.
– Birth rate declined
– By 1970, Americans 65 and older became one of the fastest growing
population groups.
•America faced new challenges in finding ways to balance the views of all Americans.
– The Equal Rights Amendment caused national debate, but failed.
– 1972 law known as Title IX banned discrimination on basis of sex in federally
funded educational programs.
– In 1973 the Supreme Court legalized abortion in Roe v. Wade.

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Chapter 15
Environment
•Biologist Rachel Carson brought attention to
environmental issues such as pollution in the
1970s.
•April 22, 1970, was the first celebration of
Earth Day.
•Congress passed new laws to limit the release
of pollutants.
•The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
was established in 1970 to enforce
environmental legislation.
•Debates on balancing business and
environmental concerns
Issues of the 1970s
Affirmative Action
•Americans debated affirmative action, the
practice of giving special consideration to
nonwhites or women to make up for past
discrimination.
•Supporters argued it was needed to improve
educational and job opportunities for
minorities and women.
•Opponents insisted that any race- or gender-
based preferences were unfair.

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Chapter 15
Main Idea 2: Jimmy Carter was elected president in 1976.
• Democratic nominee Jimmy Carter defeated Republican nominee Gerald Ford in a close
1976 election.
• Carter faced many challenges.
– Economy sluggish, high unemployment and inflation
– High oil prices
– Had a difficult time convincing Congress to support his proposals
• Carter hoped to use nuclear energy to help solve energy crisis.
– Accident at Three Mile Island nuclear power plant caused new worries about
safety of nuclear energy.
– No new reactors would be built until the mid-1980s.

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Chapter 15
Main Idea 3: Carter had successes as well as failures in foreign policy during his
administration.
• Carter favored policies that promoted human rights– the basic rights and freedoms of all
people.
–Reduced U.S. aid to former allies that committed human rights violations
–Worked to pressure South African government into ending apartheid, a
system of laws requiring racial segregation
–Called for sanctions, or economic penalties, to encourage reform

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Chapter 15
Latin America and the Soviet Union
• Policy in Latin America
– In 1977 Carter signed treaties that would transfer control of Panama Canal
to Panama by the year 2000.
• Relations with the Soviet Union
– Détente broke down when Carter criticized the Soviet Union for committing
human rights abuses.
– When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, Carter broke off arms talks
and refused to allow athletes to participate in 1980 Summer Olympics in
Moscow.

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Chapter 15
The Middle East
• Carter worked to ease tensions in the Middle East.
– In 1978, he helped Egypt and Israel reach a peace agreement in the Camp
David Accords.
• In 1979, rebels overthrew the shah, or king, of Iran and established an Islamic
fundamentalist dictatorship.
• On November 4, 1979, a group of Iranian students attacked the U.S. embassy in Tehran,
the capital of Iran, and seized about 90 hostages.
– The Iran hostage crisis lasted for more than a year.
– After a failed rescue attempt in 1980, many Americans lost confidence in
Carter’s leadership.

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Chapter 15
The Reagan Presidency
The Big Idea
President Reagan enacted conservative policies at home and took a strong anti-Communist stance in
the Cold War.
Main Ideas
•President Reagan based his policies on conservative ideas.
•Reagan took a tough stand against communism in his foreign policy.

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Chapter 15
Main Idea 1: President Reagan based his policies on conservative ideas.
• Republican candidate Ronald Reagan won an easy victory over President Carter in the 1980
election.
– Asked voters, “Are you better off than when you were four years ago?”
– On the day of his inauguration, January 20, 1981, Iran finally released the
American hostages after 444 days of captivity.
• Reagan’s approach to government based on conservative ideas
– Wanted to cut taxes
– Promised to scale back the size of government
– Encouraged expansion in key industries by reducing government regulations
– Appointed conservative justices to the Supreme Court, including Sandra Day
O’Connor, the first woman to serve as a Supreme Court justice

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Chapter 15
“Reaganomics”
• Reagan’s economic policies were based on a theory called supply-side economics.
– Called for sharp tax cuts, with goal of increasing amount of money people
and businesses have to invest
– Investment would lead to economic growth and creation of new jobs
– Over time, increased economic activity would produce increased tax
revenues for government.
– Became known as “Reaganomics”
• Spending on defense increased.
– New spending outpaced the new tax revenues.
– Resulted in a deficit– the amount by which a government’s spending
exceeds its revenues.

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Chapter 15
Election of 1984
• President Reagan ran for reelection in 1984 against Democratic candidate Walter
Mondale.
– Mondale chose Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate, the first woman to
run for vice president on a major ticket.
• Reagan won a landslide victory with 59 percent of the popular vote.
– Economy was booming.

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Chapter 15
The Soviet Union
•Reagan took a tough stand against the Soviet
Union by halting arms negotiations and
expanding U.S. military.
•When Mikhail Gorbachev became the new
Soviet leader, he began a process of economic
and political reforms called perestroika.
•Reagan saw Gorbachev’s desire for change
and signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear
Forces Treaty, eliminating all medium-range
nuclear weapons in Europe.
Main Idea 2: Reagan took a hard stand against communism in his foreign policy.
Central America
•Reagan supported anti-Communist
governments in Central America and sent aid
to them as they fought civil wars.
•Congress passed Boland Amendment in 1984,
banning U.S. aid to Contras, rebels in
Nicaragua.
• Iran-Contra affair broke when it was
exposed that some U.S. officials had continued
to send aid to the Contras via illegal sale of
arms to Iran.

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Chapter 15
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