Gerald Ford became President after Nixon resigned due to the Watergate scandal. Ford pardoned Nixon to help the country move past Watergate. He also signed laws increasing campaign finance regulations and government ethics oversight. Jimmy Carter focused on the energy crisis and reducing US dependence on foreign oil through conservation and the National Energy Act. Carter advanced human rights both domestically by appointing more minorities and women, and internationally by cutting aid to rights-abusing countries. He helped broker the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt. The 1970s also saw environmental concerns rise with events like the publication of Silent Spring and the creation of the EPA. The Three Mile Island incident highlighted issues with nuclear energy safety.

1. Gerald
Ford- 38th
President

2. Impact of the Watergate
• More than 30 government officials
went to prison for their role in the
Watergate
• There was public distrust of the
government
• prompted the several new laws that
limited the power of the executive
branch
– 1.The Federal Campaign Act –
limited campaign contributions
– 2.The Ethics in Government Act -.
Required financial disclosure by
high government officials on all
three branches of government.
• It proved that no one is above the law.
• Showed that the separation of the
three branches worked

3. “I’m a Ford, Not a Lincoln
• Pardoned Nixon to
move the country
beyond Watergate
• Offered Amnesty
(general pardon
for offenses) to
people who
dodged draft
during Vietnam
War

4. Helsinki Accord
• Ford followed the easing of Cold War
– Pushed negotiation with China and Soviet
• Series of
agreements that
promised greater
cooperation
between nations (35
nations signed)

5. Jimmy Carter- 39th

6. Carter considered the energy
crisis the most important issue
facing the nation. A large part of
the problem, the president
believed, was America’s reliance
on imported oil.
Carter urged his fellow
Americans to cut their
consumption of oil and gas.
Out of the battle came the
National Energy Act. The act
placed a tax on gas-guzzling
cars, removed price controls on
oil and natural gas produced in
the United States, and extended
tax credits for the development
of alternative energy. With the
help of the act, as well as voluntary
conservation measures

7. His administration included more African Americans and women than any
before it. In 1977, the president appointed civil rights leader Andrew Young
as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Young was the first African
American to hold that post. To the judicial branch alone, Carter appointed 28
African Americans, 29 women (including 6 African Americans), and 14
Latinos.

8. Advancing Human Rights Foreign Policy
• President Carter cut off military
aid to Argentina and Brazil,
countries that had good relations
with the United States but had
imprisoned or tortured thousands
of their own citizens.
• Carter established
the Bureau of
Human Rights in the
State Department.
• 2002 won Nobel Peace
Prize for his lifelong
commitment to human
rights

9. Camp David Accords
• Carter helped forged
peace between Israel
(Menachem Begin) and
Egypt (Anwar-el-Sadat)
• First signed peace with an Arab
country
• Israel agreed to
withdraw from Sinai
Peninsula
• Egypt recognized Israel
as an official nation

10. Soviet-Afghanistan War
-1979• Afghanistan, an Islamic
country, run by a
Communist, pro-Soviet
government
• Muslim rebel rose to
overthrow government
• Soviet afraid of Muslim
take over- invaded
Afghanistan
• Rebels used guerrilla
tactics and knowledge
of terrain
• US support by boycott
of 1980 Olympics;
embargo sales
• Soviet withdraw 1989

11. • Revolution broke out in
Iran
• Rebels replaced Shah
(Mohammed Reza Pahlavi)
with Ayatollah Ruholla
Khomeini
• Established state based on
strict rules of Qu’ran
(Islam)
• US allowed Shah to enter
due to medical illness
Iran Hostage Crisis 1979

12. • The act
angered rebels
and seized US
embassy
taking 52 US
hostage
• Hostages was
finally released
1981

13. Environmental Concerns
• Rachel Carson
published Silent Spring
• Warned against use
of pesticides
• Danger to poisoning
food and killing
animals
• Earth Day (April 22)
– more than 10,000
schools and 2,000
colleges hosted some
type of environmental-
awareness activity on
problems such as
pollution, the growth of
toxic waste, and the
earth’s dwindling
resources.

14. Environmental Protection Agency
• consolidated 15
existing federal
pollution programs
• power to set and
enforce pollution
standards, to conduct
environmental
research, and to assist
state and local
governments in
pollution control.

15. Three Mile Island
• America realized the drawbacks to its heavy dependence on foreign oil for energy, nuclear
power seemed to many to be an attractive alternative.
• Opponents of nuclear energy warned the public against the industry’s growth. They contended
that nuclear plants, and the wastes they produced, were potentially dangerous to humans and
their environment.
• The reactor overheated
after its cooling system
failed, and fear quickly
arose that radiation might
escape and spread over
the region.
• low-level radiation
actually did escape from
the crippled reactor.
Officials evacuated some
residents, while others
fled on their own.

17. Chernobyl
1986

25. Global distribution of radioactive