The 1970s saw the continuation of social movements from the 1960s fighting for equality for women, gays and lesbians, African Americans and other marginalized groups. However, the decade also saw the rise of political conservatism in response. The Watergate scandal eroded trust in the federal government after the Nixon administration's cover up of the 1972 break in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters was revealed. Culturally, the decade saw the rise of blockbuster films, popular television shows that addressed social issues, and the growth of disco and stadium rock music. Emerging technologies like home computers and digital storage were introduced.

1. T H E 7 0 ’ S
How it was impacted by the 60’s
Instructor – Lucy Beam Hoffman

2. T H E 7 0 ’ S – A
C O N T I N U A T I O N O F
T H E 6 0 ’ S
• The 1970s were, in some ways, a continuation of the 1960s. Women, gays
and lesbians, African Americans, Native Americans and other marginalized
people continued their fight for equality, and many Americans joined the
protest against the ongoing war in Vietnam.
• In other ways, however, the decade was a repudiation of the 1960s.
of the 1960s.
• A “New Right” mobilized in defense of political conservatism and traditional
family roles, though the behavior of President Richard Nixon—and the
ensuing Watergate Scandal—undermined many people’s faith in the
federal government.
• By the end of the decade, these divisions and disappointments had set a
tone for public life that many would argue is still with us today.

3. T H E H I S T O R Y O F C R E E P A N D
I T S R O L E I N T H E
W A T E R G A T E S C A N D A L
• A forceful presidential campaign therefore seemed essential to the
president and some of his key advisers.
• Their aggressive tactics included what turned out to be illegal
espionage. In May 1972, as evidence would later show, members of
Nixon’s Committee to Re-Elect the President (known derisively as
CREEP) broke into the Democratic National Committee’s Watergate
headquarters, stole copies of top-secret documents and bugged the
office’s phones.
• CREEP was the unofficial abbreviation derisively applied to
the Committee for the Re-Election of the President, a
fundraising organization within the administration of
President Richard Nixon. Officially abbreviated to CRP, the
committee was first organized in late 1970 and opened its
Washington, D.C. office in the spring of 1971.
• Besides its infamous role in the 1972 Watergate scandal, the
CRP was found to have employed money laundering and
illegal slush funds in its re-election activities on behalf of
President Nixon.

4. K E Y M E M B E R S O F C R E E P
• During the investigation of the Watergate break-in, it was shown that the CRP had illegally used
$500,000 in campaign funds to pay the legal expenses of the five Watergate burglars in return for their
promise to protect President Nixon, initially by remaining silent, and by giving false testimony in
court—committing perjury—after their eventual indictment.
• Some key members of CREEP (CRP) included:
•John N. Mitchell - Campaign Director
•Jeb Stuart Magruder - Deputy Campaign Manager
•Maurice Stans - Finance Chairman
•Kenneth H. Dahlberg - Midwest Finance Chairman
•Fred LaRue - Political Operative
•Donald Segretti - Political Operative
•James W. McCord - Security Coordinator
•E. Howard Hunt - Campaign Consultant
•G. Gordon Liddy - Campaign Member and Finance Counsel

5. T H E T O P M E N O F C R E E P
John N. Mitchell
Jeb Stuart Magruder
E Howard Hunt
G. Gordon Liddy

6. W A T E R G A T E
The Watergate scandal began early in the morning of June
17, 1972, when several burglars were arrested in the office
of the Democratic National Committee, located in the
Watergate complex of buildings in Washington, D.C.
• This was no ordinary robbery: The prowlers were
connected to President Richard Nixon’s reelection
campaign, and they had been caught wiretapping phones
and stealing documents.
• Nixon took aggressive steps to cover up the crimes, but
when Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and
Carl Bernstein revealed his role in the conspiracy, Nixon
resigned on August 9, 1974.
• The Watergate scandal changed American politics
forever, leading many Americans to question their leaders
and think more critically about the presidency.

7. W O O D W A R D A N D
B E R N S T E I N
• The wiretaps failed to work properly, however, so on
June 17 a group of five burglars returned to the
Watergate building.
• As the prowlers were preparing to break into the
office with a new microphone, a security guard
noticed someone had taped over several of the
building’s door locks.
• The guard called the police, who arrived just in time
to catch them red-handed.

8. W AT E R G AT E
• It was not immediately clear that the burglars were connected to the president, though suspicions were raised when
detectives found copies of the reelection committee’s White House phone number among the burglars’ belongings.
• In August, Nixon gave a speech in which he swore that his White House staff was not involved in the break-in. Most voters
believed him, and in November 1972 the president was reelected in a landslide victory.
• Richard Nixon - "I'm not a crook" – YouTube
• By that time, a growing handful of people—including Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, trial judge
John J. Sirica and members of a Senate investigating committee—had begun to suspect that there was a larger scheme
afoot. At the same time, some of the conspirators began to crack under the pressure of the cover-up. Anonymous
whistleblower “Deep Throat” provided key information to Woodward and Bernstein.

9. W AT E R G AT E
B U R G L A R S
• The burglars were indicted by a Grand Jury
on September 15, as were:
• G. Gordon Liddy – from Washington,
counsel to the Finance Committee to Re-
elect the President, a former FBI agent,
former Treasury official, and former
member of the White House staff. During
the investigation, Liddy refused to answer
questions and was fired from his job.
E Howard Hunt Jr. – from Washington, a
former White House consultant and CIA
employee. Hunt was a writer of espionage
novels and had worked on declassifying the
Pentagon Papers.

10. • The energy crisis of the 1970s also drove many Americans to reject the clunky, gas-guzzling autos that Detroit continued to
produce.
• Starting in 1974, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) required now-familiar Fuel Economy Labels on new cars, which
gave consumers estimated mile-per-gallon ratings for city and highway driving.
• Soon, car shoppers turned to the fuel-efficient, compact cars produced by European and, in particular, Japanese automakers.
This gave carmakers like Toyota and Nissan an inroad into the vast U.S. car market—a market they would one day dominate.
Cars in the 70’s

11. M O V I E S A N D T V S H O W S O F T H E 7 0 ’ S
• In this "New Hollywood" environment, innovative directors such as Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, Mike
Nichols, Elaine May, Barbara Kopple, Francis Ford Coppola and others took advantage of their newfound freedom to
create celebrated and important films including Harlan County, USA; Network; The French Connection; Mean
Streets; The Godfather; Chinatown and All the President’s Men.

12. M A S S M A R K E T I N G I N F I L M S
• Though such films were acclaimed by critics, the popular appeal of some paled beside the blockbusters that also emerged in
the 1970s.
• Mass marketing and computer-generated special effects created worldwide fan bases for feel-good movies like Star Wars,
Jaws, Rocky, Saturday Night Fever and a genre known as “disaster films,” including The Poseidon Adventure and The

13. T E L E V I S I O N A L S O F O U N D A N A U D I E N C E F O R
T O P I C A L S H O W S
• In addition to popular fare like Happy Days, Eight Is Enough and prime-time soap operas such as Dallas, television also found an audience for topical shows
that addressed the social and political issues of the decade—a trend that would continue as the emergence of cable television and VCRs threatened once-
dominant broadcast networks.
• All In the Family, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Roots and M*A*S*H didn’t shy away from once-taboo subjects like homosexuality, slavery, women’s rights and
racism. And in 1975, NBC launched one of the most popular and long-lasting comedies in television history, Saturday Night Live.
• M*A*S*H - Potter meets Klinger – YouTube
• I Told You To Stifle! | All In The Family - YouTube

14. W O M E N ’ S R I G H T S
• During the 1970s, many groups of Americans continued to fight for
expanded social and political rights. In 1972, after years of
campaigning by feminists, Congress approved the Equal Rights
Amendment (ERA) to the Constitution, which reads: “Equality of
rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United
States or by any state on account of sex.”
• It seemed that the Amendment would pass easily: 22 of the
necessary 38 states ratified it right away, and the remaining states
seemed close behind. However, the ERA alarmed conservative
activists, fearing it would undermine traditional gender roles. These
activists mobilized against the ERA and managed to defeat it. In
1977, Indiana became the 35th—and last—state to ratify the ERA.
• Disappointments like these encouraged many women’s

15. G AY L I B E R AT I O N
• Following the Stonewall Riots of 1969, the gay rights movement continued to build momentum and began to wield
considerable political power. One year after Stonewall, New York City hosted America’s first gay pride parade.
• In 1978, Harvey Milk was elected mayor of San Francisco, becoming the first openly gay man elected to office in
California. And in 1979, more than 100,000 people took part in the first National March on Washington for Lesbian and
Gay Rights.
Harvey Milk
Flashback: Harvey Milk Assassinated In San Francisco | NBC News - YouTube

16. A N T I W A R M O V E M E N T
Even though few people continued to support America’s
involvement in the Vietnam War, President Nixon feared that
a retreat would make the United States look weak. As a result,
instead of ending the war, Nixon and his aides devised ways to
make it more palatable, such as limiting the military draft and shifting the burden of combat onto South Vietnamese soldiers.
• This policy seemed to work at the beginning of Nixon’s term in office, but after the U.S. invasion of Cambodia in 1970, hundreds of thousands of protestors
clogged city streets and shut down college campuses.
• At an antiwar rally on May 4, 1970, National Guardsmen shot and killed four students at Kent State University in Ohio in what came to be known as the Kent State
Shooting. Ten days later, police officers killed two Black student protestors at Mississippi’s Jackson State University.
• Members of Congress tried to limit the president’s war power by revoking the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution authorizing the use of military force in Southeast Asia, but
Nixon simply ignored them. Even after The New York Times published the Pentagon Papers in 1971, which called the government’s justifications for war into
question, the bloody and inconclusive conflict continued. American troops did not leave the region until 1973.

17. P E N TA G O N PA P E R S
• The Pentagon Papers revealed that the Harry S.
Truman administration gave military aid to France in its
colonial war against the communist-led Viet Minh, thus
directly involving the United States in Vietnam;
• That in 1954 Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower decided to
prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam and to
undermine the new communist regime of North Vietnam;
• That Pres. John F. Kennedy transformed the policy of
“limited-risk gamble” that he had inherited into a policy of
“broad commitment”;
• that Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson intensified covert warfare
against North Vietnam and began planning to wage overt
war in 1964, a full year before the depth of U.S.
involvement was publicly revealed;
• and that Johnson ordered the bombing of North Vietnam
in 1965 despite the judgment of the U.S.
intelligence community that it would not cause the North
Vietnamese to cease their support of the Viet
Cong insurgency in South Vietnam.

18. J I M M Y C A R T E R
• In the 1976 election, former Georgia governor and peanut farmer Jimmy Carter ran as a dark-horse Democratic political
outsider and defeated Ford.
• The same year saw a burst of patriotic pride as the United States celebrated its bicentennial, 200 years after the signing of the
Declaration of Independence.
• Carter’s presidency, which started with a vigorous reformer’s agenda, was eventually brought down by the energy crisis,
inflation, the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the subsequent Iran Hostage Crisis. Despite a number of successes—the Camp
David Accords; creating the departments of Education and Energy—Carter would lose his bid for reelection to conservative
Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980.

19. E M E R G I N G T E C H N O L O G Y
• Though the popularity of personal computers and the internet was still a distant dream, much of the modern technology we now take
for granted was invented in the 1970s.
• The popular video game Pong, for example, arrived in 1972, with controls and graphics that now seem laughably primitive. And
the first ATM was introduced to Americans in September 1969. By 1971, ATMs were able to perform multiple functions, such as
providing account balances and dispensing cash, and within the decade the machines would be common worldwide.
Pong is a table tennis–
themed twitch arcade sports video game,
featuring simple two-dimensional graphics,
manufactured by Atari and originally released
in 1972. It was one of the earliest arcade video
games

20. F I R S T C O M P U T E R S F R O M R A D I O S H A C K

21. D I G I T A L M E M O R Y
• Digital memory storage was revolutionized during the 1970s when the floppy disc shrunk in size to a 5-1/4” format.
Portable calculators and wristwatches were also radically redesigned in 1970, when the first light-emitting diode (LED)
products were introduced to consumers.
• Apple Computer Company came into existence in 1976, and the Apple II was released one year later. Through much of
the 1970s, listening to music required an extensive (and expensive) home stereo system, but when Sony released the
Walkman in 1979, it introduced the idea of portable personal music, a previously unheard-of concept.

22. F A S H I O N I N T H E 1 9 7 0 S
• Models like Jane Birkin and Jerry Hall (who famously
dated Rolling Stones front man Mick Jagger)
epitomized ‘70s style. Bell bottom pants, flowing maxi
dresses, ponchos, leisure suits, frayed jeans and earth
tones dominated 1970s fashion.
• Tie-dye inspired by the 1960s “hippie” style continued
to be worn, while patchwork, flame stitch and plaid
fabrics—usually made from synthetic materials like
nylon and polyester—gained popularity. In
1974, Diane von Furstenberg debuted her famous
wrap dress, embodying the modern working woman’s
desire for both comfort and style.
Other fashion designers began mass-marketing clothing lines to
moderately affluent shoppers, ushering in an era of designer clothes.
Halston, Gucci, Pierre Cardin, Yves Saint Laurent and others soon
became household names to middle-class consumers.

23. M U S I C A N D C U LT U R E
• By the time the iconic band the Beatles broke up in 1970, many people had turned to other aspects of pop culture—
easy to do in such a trend-laden, mass-media decade. They listened to 8-track and cassette tapes of solo artists like
Dolly Parton, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, David Bowie, Olivia Newton-John and Marvin Gaye.

24. T H E B E AT L E S
N E W S O N G
• ‘Now and Then, I Miss You’: The
Love Story at the Heart of the Last
Beatles Son
• The Beatles - Now And Then (Official
Music Video) - YouTube

25. T H E D I S C O C R A Z E
• The disco craze rose with the sounds of
Abba, the Bee Gees and Donna Summer,
until the disco era crashed unceremoniously
in a “disco sucks” backlash.
• Radio stations increasingly turned away from
predictable Top 40 music formats to more
specialized programming, such as album-
oriented rock, or AOR.

26. S T A D I U M - F I L L I N G R O C K B A N D S
• Soon, stadium-filling rock bands like the Rolling Stones, Van Halen, Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, Bruce Springsteen,
Pink Floyd and Queen, with frontman Freddie Mercury, dominated the airwaves and ushered in an era of blockbuster
concert tours.
• But partly as a reaction to glossy, mass-marketed music, a punk-music culture emerged in Great Britain, the United
States and elsewhere during the 1970s. Punk bands like the Sex Pistols, the Ramones, the Stooges with Iggy Pop and
others channeled rage into loud, energetic music, with outrageous clothes and hairstyles to match.

27. S P O R T S I N T H E 1 9 7 0 S
• At the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany, U.S. swimmer Mark Spitz dominated the games by bringing home seven
gold medals.
• But the events were marred when Palestinian terrorists stormed the Olympic Village, killing two Israeli athletes and
taking nine others hostage. In a shootout later at the Munich airport, all nine hostages, five terrorists and one
policeman were killed.

28. M O R E S P O R T S
• Throughout the decade, heavyweight Muhammad Ali dominated boxing in much the same way that Jack Nicklaus
dominated golf and the Pittsburgh Steelers dominated the NFL, winning the Super Bowl in 1975, 1976, 1979 (and
1980).
• The 1970s were also a memorable era for horse racing, as the Triple Crown was taken three times: in 1973
by Secretariat, in 1977 by Seattle Slew and again in 1978 by Affirmed.

29. ‘ B A T T L E O F T H E S E X E S ’ : W H E N B I L L I E B E A T
B O B B Y
• “I thought it would set us back 50 years if I didn’t win that match,” she said later. “It would ruin the women’s tour and
affect all women’s self-esteem.” For his part, Riggs told reporters that King simply “played too well.” The two eventually
became friends, and even spoke a few days before Riggs died of prostate cancer in 1995.

30. T H E B AT T L E O F T H E S E X E S
• Either way, the “Battle of the Sexes” turned King into arguably the first superstar female athlete in the United States.
After receiving her $100,000 check from boxer George Foreman, one of the many celebrities on hand at the
Astrodome, King landed a string of endorsements for such products as Adidas sneakers, Wilson tennis rackets,
Colgate toothpaste and Sunbeam hair curlers.

31. E N E R G Y C R I S I S ( 1 9 7 0 ’ S )
By the early 1970s, American oil consumption—in the form of gasoline and other products—was rising even as domestic oil
production was declining, leading to an increasing dependence on oil imported from abroad.
Despite this, Americans worried little about a dwindling supply or a spike in prices and were encouraged in this attitude by
policymakers in Washington, who believed that Arab oil exporters couldn’t afford to lose the revenue from the U.S. market. These
assumptions were demolished in 1973, when an oil embargo imposed by members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting
Countries (OAPEC) led to fuel shortages and sky-high prices throughout much of the decade.

32. Y O M K I P P U R W A R
The Yom Kippur War 1973
1. began Saturday, October 6
2. ended Thursday, October 25
1. Result: Israeli tactical victory · Location: Banks of the Suez Canal, Golan Heights
• 1973 Yom Kippur War: Background
• Israel’s stunning victory in the Six-Day War of 1967 left the Jewish nation in control of territory four times its previous
size. Egypt lost the 23,500-square-mile Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip, Jordan lost the West Bank and
East Jerusalem, and Syria lost the strategic Golan Heights.

33. O A P E C
• In response, members of the Organization of Arab
Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) reduced their
petroleum production and proclaimed an embargo on
oil shipments to the United States and the
Netherlands, the main supporters of Israel.
• Though the Yom Kippur War ended in late October, the
embargo and limitations on oil production continued,
sparking an international energy crisis.
• As it turned out, Washington’s earlier assumption that
an oil boycott for political reasons would hurt the
Persian Gulf financially turned out to be wrong, as the
increased price per barrel of oil more than made up for
the reduced production.

34. Y O M K I P P U R W A R :
O C T O B E R 1 9 7 3
• When the fourth Arab-Israeli war began on October 6,
1973, many of Israel’s soldiers were away from their
posts observing Yom Kippur (or Day of Atonement), and
the Arab armies made impressive advances with their up-
to-date Soviet weaponry.
• Iraqi forces soon joined the war, and Syria received
support from Jordan.
• After several days, Israel was fully mobilized, and the
Israel Defense Forces began beating back the Arab gains
at a heavy cost to soldiers and equipment. A U.S. airlift of
arms aided Israel’s cause, but President Richard
Nixon (1913-94) delayed the emergency military aid for a
week as a tacit signal of U.S. sympathy for Egypt.
• On October 25, an Egyptian-Israeli cease-fire was
secured by the United Nations.

35. E N E R G Y C R I S I S : E F F E C T S
I N T H E U N I T E D S T A T E S A N D
A B R O A D
During the three frenzied months after the embargo was
announced, the price of oil shot from $3 per barrel to $12.
• After decades of abundant supply and growing consumption,
Americans now faced price hikes and fuel shortages, causing
lines to form at gasoline stations around the country.
• Local, state and national leaders called for measures to
conserve energy, asking gas stations to close on Sundays
and homeowners to refrain from putting up holiday lights on
their houses.
• In addition to causing major problems in the lives of
consumers, the energy crisis was a huge blow to the
American automotive industry, which had for decades turned
out bigger and bigger cars and would now be outpaced by
Japanese manufacturers producing smaller and more fuel-
efficient models.

36. 6 0 ’ S C A R S V S 7 0 ’ S C A R S
The muscle car craze can trace its roots all
the way back to the immediate post-World
War II years, when consumers began
clamoring for bigger, faster and more
powerful cars. The movement picked up
momentum in the 1950s, but it was the 1964
introduction of the Pontiac Tempest
GTOOpens a new window that really
ignited the muscle car craze.
Not to be outdone, the early 1970s also saw the release of
some of the most revered muscle cars of all time.
• Technological innovations led to cars that were in some
ways superior to their earlier counterparts, and evolving
tastes and more sophisticated production led to more
refined designs for many popular car models.
• The horsepower craze also reached its zenith at the
turn of the decade, producing some of the most
venerable, high-powered engines ever squeezed into
an American production vehicle.

37. E N E R G Y C R I S I S :
L A S T I N G I M P A C T
• The oil embargo was lifted in March 1974, but oil prices remained high, and the
effects of the energy crisis lingered throughout the decade.
• In addition to price controls and gasoline rationing, a national speed limit was
imposed, and daylight-saving time was adopted year-round for the period of
for the period of 1974-75.
• Environmentalism reached new heights during the crisis and became a
motivating force behind policymaking in Washington.
• Various acts of legislation during the 1970s sought to redefine America’s
relationship to fossil fuels and other sources of energy, from the Emergency
Petroleum Allocation Act (passed by Congress in November 1973, at the height
of the oil panic) to the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 and the
creation of the Department of Energy in 1977.

38. L I S T O F 1 9 7 0 ' S M A J O R N E W S E V E N T S I N H I S T O R Y
1. 1970 The first jumbo-jet, the Boeing 747, makes its debut commercial flight from New York to London.
2. 1971 The U.S. voting age is lowered from 21 to 18 years old when the 26th amendment is ratified.
3. 1972 The Watergate Scandal begins when White House operatives are caught burglarizing the Democratic National Committee
4. 1973 The United States Supreme Court declares that abortion is a constitutional right in the landmark decision on the Roe v.
Wade
5. 1974 U.S. President Richard Nixon resigns from office after being implicated in the Watergate Scandal.
6. 1975 The movie "Jaws" opens in theaters and is one of the first block-buster films.
7. 1976 Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak create the Apple Computer Company.
8. 1977 MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) Scanner is first tested.
9. 1978 The computer video game Space Invaders is released.
10.1979 The Three Mile Island nuclear incident occurs in Pennsylvania.

39. T H E T H R E E M I L E I S L A N D
N U C L E A R I N C I D E N T
O C C U R S I N
P E N N S Y L V A N I A
• At 4 a.m. on March 28, 1979, one of the
worst accidents in the history of the U.S.
nuclear power industry begins when a
pressure valve in the Unit-2 reactor at Three
Mile Island fails to close.
• Cooling water, contaminated with radiation,
drained from the open valve into adjoining
buildings, and the core began to dangerously
overheat.

40. I N F L AT I O N I N T H E 7 0 ’ S
• The Seventies saw massive inflation worldwide much of it caused by the Oil Crisis in the Middle East, the 1970s also
saw Digital Technology is seen for the first time in consumer products including the first calculator, as technology
advanced the range and function of home appliances improved, The Vietnam War ends, and the Cold War gets
Colder.
Datsun 210 $3,869
Dodge Colt $4,785
Warm Leather Lined Boots $39.99
Car 8 Track Stereo Tape Player $38.99
CB Radio $147
Medium Eggs 25 cents per dozen
Miracle Whip $1.09
King Size Bean Bag Chair $19.99
Porcelain Kitchen Sink $9.88
Quartz Alarm Clock $12.97