Saturday Night Fever: 1970’s

Slippery Dick Having won the presidency by a narrow margin, Nixon moved towards the center on many issues. Nixon administration creates a host of new federal agencies including the EPA, OSHA, and NTSB. The Nixon administration spends tremendous amounts of money on social service and environmental initiatives.

Nixon and Welfare Perhaps the proposal that startled the most people was Nixon’s proposal for a Family Assistance Program that would have replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children with a guaranteed annual income, but it failed in Congress.

Nixon and Race To consolidate support in the white South, Nixon nominated conservative jurists with records of support for segregation to the Supreme Court. Both were rejected by the Senate. Nixon also pursued affirmative action programs to upgrade minority emloyment. It was bitterly opposed by the trade unions of skilled workers.

Welcome to Good Burger Warren Burger was expected to lead the justices in a conservative direction but surprised many of his colleagues with left-leaning rulings. Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg busing was used as a tool to achieve desegregation. Busing is bitterly resisted in many Northern cities such as Boston and Detroit. San Antonio v. Rodriguez: Court ruled that Constitution did not require equality of school funding.

Home of the Good Burger Many whites came to view affirmative action as a form of reverse discrimination. In Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, the Court ruled that fixed quotas were unconstitutional but that race could be used as one factor among many in college admission decisions.

Détente Conservatives viewed Nixon’s foreign policy as dangerously soft on communism. Nixon and Kissinger continued their predecessors policy of attempting to undermine governments deemed dangerous to American strategic or economic interests (ex: Chile). In his relation with the major communist powers, Nixon altered Cold War policies, visiting China in 1972 and going to Moscow. He signed treaties associated with SALT and helped innauguarte a mild thaw in Cold War tensions.

Vietnam Nixon ran for president in 1968 declaring he had a plan to end the war. Antiwar protests climaxed in School shootings associated with the antiwar movement at Kent State and Jackson State University. Public support for the war was also waning thanks in part to events like the My Lai Massacre. The Paris Peace Agreement made possible the final withdrawal of American troops in 1973.

Manufacturing During the 1970’s, the long period of postwar economic expansion and consumer prosperity came to an end and was succeeded by slow growth and high inflation. In 1971, for the first time in the 20 th century the US experienced a merchandise trade defecit. Nixon takes the US off the gold standard. The United States experienced two oil shocks in the 1970’s. By 1973 the US imported one-third of its oil. America experienced stagflation as production remained the same, but prices increased.

Sun Belt to Rust Belt Faced with declining profits and rising overseas competition, corporations eliminated well-paid manufacturing jobs. Effects on industrial cities was devastating, while the growth of the Sun belt was dramatic. In some manufacturing centers, political and economic leaders welcomed the opportunity to remake their cities as finance, information, and entertainment hubs. Always a junior party in the Dem. Coalition, the labor movement found itself forced on the defensive.

Ford as President Among his first acts as president, Ford pardoned Nixon. In domestic policy, Ford’s presidency lacked significant accomplishment. In foreign policy, Ford was somewhat more successful: The Helsinki Accords were signed in 1975.

Hubert Horatio Hornblower—I Mean Humphrey!!! Carter ran for president as an outsider, making a virtue of the fact that he had never held federal office. Carter had more in common with Progressives of the early twentieth century than with more recent liberals.

Carter and Stagflation Carter viewed inflation, not unemployment, as the country’s main economic problem. Carter also believed that expanded use of nuclear energy could help reduce dependence on imported oil. Three Mile Island deepens the American malaise.

Human Rights Under Carter, promoting human rights became a centerpiece of American history for the first time. Human rights organizations like Amnesty International and the International League for Human Rights shaped Carter’s thinking. Carter cut off aid to the brutal military dictatorship governing Argentina. Carter insisted that foreign policy could not be seperated from questions of peace, justice, equalotiy and human rights. Carter’s emphasis on pursuing peaceful solutions to international problems and willingness to move beyond the Cold War framework yielded important results like the Camp David Accords and SALT II

Iran and Afghanistan: The Prequel The Iranian revolution marked a shift in opposition movements in the Middle East from socialism and Arab nationalism to religious fundamentalism. The president announced the Carter Doctrine in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

The Rising Tide of Right-ousness The rise of religious fundamentalism during the 1970s expanded conservatism’s popular base. Evangelical Christians had become more and more alienated from a culture that seemed to them to trivialize religion and promote immorality. Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority

The Ghost of Alice Paul The ERA aroused unexpected protest from those who claimed it would discredit the role of wife and homemaker. To its supporters, the amendment offered a guarantee of women’s freedom in the public sphere. to its foes, freedom for women still resided in the divinely appointed roles of wife and mother.

Abortion Pro-life advocates believe that life begins at conception and abortion is nothing less than murder. Pro-choice advocates believe that a woman’s right to control her body includes the right to a safe, legal abortion. the abortion issue draws a bitter, sometimes violent line through American politics.

The election of 1980 Reagan appealed skillfully to the white backlash, emphasizing states’ rights Riding a wave of dissatisfaction with the country’s condition, Reagan swept into the White House. Jimmy Carter’s reputation improved after he left the White House.

Regan Revolution An excellent public speaker, his optimism and affability appealed to large numbers of Americans. Reagan made conservatism seem progressive. Reagan reshaped the nation’s agenda and political language more effectively than any other president since Franklin Roosevelt.

Reganomics Economic freedom for Reagan meant curtailing the power of unions, dismantling regulations, and radically reducing taxes. Reagan’s tax cuts marked a sharp retreat from the principle of progressivity. Supply-side economics assumed that cutting taxes would inspire Americans at all income levels to work harder, since they would keep more of the money they earned.

Regan and Labor Reagan’s firing of air traffic controllers inspired many private employers to launch antiunion offensives. Reaganomics, as critics dubbed the administration’s policies, initially produced the most severe recession since the 1930s. Reagan’s policies, rising stock prices, and deindustrialization resulted in a considerable rise in economic inequality. Deindustrialization and the decline of the labor movement had a particularly devastating impact on minority workers. When the national unemployment rate reached 8.9 percent at the end of 1981, the figure for blacks exceeded 20 percent.

The Re-Gilded Age In retrospect, the 1980s, like the 1890s, would be widely remembered as a decade of misplaced values. Taxpayers footed the bill for some of the consequences. Ex: Savings and Loan (S&L) scandal During Reagan’s presidency, the national debt trippled to $2.7 trillion.

The Cold War In foreign policy, Reagan breathed new life into the rhetorical division of the world into a free West and unfree East. He proposed an entirely new strategy, the Strategic Defense Initiative. Reagan came into office determined to overturn the Vietnam syndrome. Reagan generally relied on military aid rather than on American troops to pursue his foreign policy objectives.

Iran-Contra and Gorbachev Reagan denied knowledge of the illegal proceedings, but the Iran-Contra affair undermined confidence that he controlled his own administration. In his second term, Reagan softened his anticommunist rhetoric and established good relations with Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev. Glasnost and perestroika