(1974-1976)

A Time of Transition

A. Ford chose Nelson Rockefeller as VP (25th Amendment)

• 1. neither elected
• 2. Ford was honest, trustworthy, and had a lot of experience in Congress
  • 25 years - Michigan - H. of Rep.
  • Minority Leader of the House
• 3. Rockefeller - liberal Republican Senator - NY

B. Goals

• 1. heal the wounds of the nation
• 2. carry on Nixon's policies with the help of Kissinger

A. Nixon Pardon - 9/74

• 1. prevent tearing US apart (bitterness, division)
• 2. prevent public from learning the full truth
• 3. double standard vs. others involved
• 4. agreed to in advance? no
• 5. popularity dropped from 71% to 50% overnight

B. Vietnam Amnesty Program - 9/74

• 1. 200,000 eligible
• 2. conditional pardon offered - public service required
• 3. few accepted - no one happy

C. Relationship with Congress

• 1. Democrats grew stronger
• 2. veto was used very often (50 times in 2 1/2 years)
• 3. Fair Campaign Practices Act - limited the amount of money individuals and corporations
  • could contribute to political candidates

D. Economy - Biggest Problem

• 1. Stagflation worst since 1947 - caused by oil embargo/cartel
• 2. WIN - Whip Inflation Now - voluntary price and wage controls - failure
• 3. Congress - Pres. argued over what to do
• 4. conflict included Energy Program
• 5. Ford reduced taxes to battle unemployment
  • increased the number of working women and children instead
  • increased deficit and and inflation instead
• 6. proposed reduced federal spending
• 7. Budget deficit 1976 = $66 billion
• 8. FED - tight money policy - interest rates increased
• 9. 1975 - recession - see graph

E. Two assassination attempts - helped popularity

• 1. Squeaky Fromm
• 2. Sara J.

F. Bicentennial Celebration - helped to restore spirits somewhat

• Detente was heavily criticized for allowing Vietnam and Angola to fall to communism
• Chief Critic - Ronald Reagan

A. Vietnam

• 1. Ford requested aid
• 2. Congress said no
• 3. South Vietnam fell - war over

B. Mayaguez

• 1. Khymer Rouge defeated pro-US government
• 2. 5/75 - Communists Cambodians captured US ship and crew of 39
• 3. they agreed to release them with conditions - we sent in rescue team anyway
• 4. US marines rescued them (15 marines killed, 23 wounded)
• 5. Public supported show of force to strengthen our weak prestige

C. Helsinki Accords - 1975

• 1. US and USSR signed while many dictators refused
• 2. Human Rights agreements

• By the 1970s the family roles and responsibilities became blurred
  • role of housewife declined - number working outside the home
    • 1950 - 32%
    • 1960 - 35%
    • 1970 - 43%
    • 1979 - 50%
    • 1980 - 52%
    • 1990 - 57%
  • married mothers with young children who were working
    • 1950 - 12%
    • 1970 - 40%
    • This changed the structure of the family and affected childrearing
      • need to find childcare
      • potential harm to children?
      • who would do household chores?
  • Causes
    • economic need - inflation
      • two income families necessary just to make ends meet
    • soaring divorce rates in the 1960s and 1970s
    • declining birth rates and increased life expectancy
      • birth control
• Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique - 1963
  • isolation
  • boredom
  • lack of fulfillment

B. New Jobs, New Problems

• Kennedy's President's Commission on the Status of Women
• Equal Pay Act (1963):
  • Passed in Kennedy's administration
  • prohibited paying women less than men for equal work
    • women earn only about 60% what men do for comparable work
    • number hasn't changed much since act was passed
    • problem defining equal work
  • glass ceiling - a limit above which women could not rise withing a company
  • see also - Title Vll of the 1964 Civil Rights Act
• Types of jobs that women could get often limited in the early 60s
  • 1960 - 3% of all lawyers were women
  • 1980 - 50% of new law students were women (same pattern for doctors)
• Sexism - the idea that one sex is naturally superior to the other
  • strength
  • intelligence
  • toughness
  • women had to prove that success depends on training not biology
  • women treated like minorities even though there are more of them

C. The Women's Movement

• National Organization for Women (1966)
  • Established by Betty Friedan
  • created to pressure the government to enforce Title VII
  • it sought to attain equality of opportunity and freedom of choice for all women
    • 300 members in 1966
    • 50,000 by mid-1970s
    • roots in 1800s - similar goals
      • property rights
      • better education
      • representation in government
  • Women's liberation
  • It its extreme form, the movement rejected marriage, family, and heterosexual intercourse.
    • It encouraged women to assault male power.
    • Kate Millett's Sexual Politics (1969)
    • Shulameth Firestone's The Dialectic of Sex (1970).
  • "Consciousness raising"
    • group sessions where women shared their experiences in growing up female
  • sought equal partnership with men - sharing responsibilities
  • Results
    • day-care centers
    • women's publications
    • women's health groups
    • increasing number of women in politics
      • Ella Grasso
        • Connecticut - governor
        • 1st not to succeed husband
    • women's studies in colleges and coverage in high schools
    • removal of sexism from the language and textbooks

D. Roe v. Wade

• 1973 - women had the right to obtain an abortion during the first three months of pregnancy
  • Arguments for Roe v. Wade
    • better than bringing an unwanted child into the world
    • safer than the illegal abortions which killed 10,000 women each year
    • decision should be made by the woman not the government
  • Opponents - National Right to Life Committee
    • abortion was morally wrong
    • should be considered murder
    • government should protect the life of the unborn
• 1977 - Congress banned the use of federal funds to pay for abortions
  • limited the ability of poor women to obtain safe abortions

E. The Equal Rights Amendment

• First proposed in 1923
• Congress passed it in 1972
  • Needed 3/4 of the states to ratify it
  • 35 states ratified it by the time the time limit ran out
  • 3 short
• Goals
  • Aimed to strengthen the position of women as wage earners
  • Remove limits on women's property rights during and after marriage
• Opponents - Phyllis Schlafly
• Arguements
  • challenge traditional gender roles
  • ruin the stability of the family
  • maintained that it was unnecessary - women's rights were already protected
  • could led to women being drafted into the military
  • might abolish separate-sex bathrooms
  • might end alimony payments to divorced women

CARTER

A Time of Doubt

(1977 - 1980)

A. 1976 ELECTION

1. Republicans

• a. Gerald Ford
  • won the nomination in a close race
  • divided the party
• b. Ronald Reagan
  • supported by conservatives
  • called for an end to government regulation of businesses - laissez faire
  • called for cut in social programs
  • called for increases in defense spending - an end to detente

2. Democrats - Many candidates

• a. Jimmy Carter - won the nomination in a surprise - few had heard of him
• b. before he began the campaign against better known candidates
  • 1. Former governor of Georgia
  • 2. peanut farmer
  • 3. Navy sub commander
  • 4. interested in detail - brilliant

3. Issues - Carter not responsible for the past

• a. Watergate (pardon)
• b. Vietnam
• c. Economy

4. Carter won in a close election

• a. Campaigned as a Washington outsider
• b. born again Baptist - stressed morality and honesty
• c. vague on the issues
• d. VP = Walter Mondale
• e. Ford made a mistake in a televised debate
  • said Eastern Europe not dominated by Soviets
  • created doubt about his experience

1. Carter remained an outsider - offended many Washington (D)

• a. Carter lacked experience and did not gain it quickly enough
• b. Pork Barrel legislation attacked to reduce waste cost him support
  • changed mind = lack of leadership
• c. Democrats controlled Congress yet voted against many of Carter's ideas
• d. Carter sought to move away from the Imperial Presidency
  • 1. blue jeans and sweater in a rocking chair image
  • 2. walked to his own inauguration
  • 3. televised fireside chats

2. Carter's Domestic Advisors were also Washington outsiders

• a. They too offended Washington politicians
• b. Their inexperience kept Carter from receiving experienced advise
• c. Bert Lance - head of OMB (Office of Management and Budget)

3. Focus on Detail

• a. Carter wanted to make even the smallest decisions personally
• b. Did large amounts of reading - did not want research condensed by unelected bureaucrats
• c. This left him no time to arm twist and politic to get his ideas passed through Congress
• d. Lack of Leadership created "Crisis of confidence"
• e. Carter popularity eventually dropped below that of Nixon during Watergate (26%)
• f. Carter blamed for everything which went wrong

1.Stagflation problems continued

• a. Skyrocketing price of oil - beyond our control - biggest cause
• b. Democratic Congress passed higher budgets than the President requested
•  
• c. How do we solve Stagflation problems? - look at graph
  • If you fight one aspect other gets worse
  • As a Democrat you would expect him to focus on unemployment first

2. Unemployment focus - deficit spending

• a. Minimum Wage increased
• b. Social Security bailout
  • 1. 30 million received
  • 2. largest tax increase in US history
• c. proposed national health care - blocked
• d. 1979 - Department of Education created
• e. Public works projects to create federally funded jobs and stimulate the economy
  • job training programs
  • produced lower unemployment but higher inflation
• f. Series of tax cuts to stimulate the economy
• g. Did work however inflation skyrocketed - show graph

3. Carter reversed gears - lack of experience / poor leadership

• a. Balanced Budget - law requested and defeated by his own party
  • a. lowest deficit = $28 billion
  • b. high = $60 billion
  • c. national debt when he left office $907 billion
• b. Attempted to reduce spending by restructuring welfare - blocked
• c. Cut government spending by cutting waste
  • 1. Pork Barrel controversy
• d. Called for voluntary price and wage controls (just like Nixon and Ford)
  • 1. Businesses generally ignored voluntary price and wage guidelines
• e. 1979 - Paul Volker appointed to Fed to fight inflation - independent agency
  • 1. 1980 - FED raised interest rates to stop inflation
  • f2 Show graph
    • Inflation up from 6 to 18%
• f. Shift to a more Republican approach angered liberal Democrats

1. Airline, RR, Trucking

2. Free enterprise would provide better salaries and service

1. Carter appointments

• more blacks and women to office than any previous President

2. Affirmative Action

• a. Bakke v. California - 1978
• b. Allen Bakke - white male - sued to get into medical school
• c. claimed reverse discrimination
• d. Court split 5-4
  • 1. quotas are illegal
  • 2. race should be a factor in admissions all other things equal
• e. Many blacks believed he moved too slow on school/residential segregation
• f. Economic problems also hit blacks hard - blamed on Carter

• Notice the conflict between Carter's Energy Program and his Environmental Program
• Which was more important? Why? Carter never answered these questions.

  1. Carter declared the moral equivalent of war (MEOW)

  • a. US imported more than 50% of its oil
    • dependency
    • left us vulnerable to OPEC
    • public did not believe the problem was real - oil embargo had ended
  • b. Proposed a comprehensive package
  • c. Failed to provide the leadership to get it through Congress intact

  2. Department of Energy - created in 1977

  3. National Energy Act - 8/78 - Carter's Energy Program

  • a. Called on Americans to sacrifice
    • drive less
    • turn up thermostat in the winter
  • b. Deregulation
    • 1. would allow oil companies to make huge profits
    • 2. would increase prices and thus reduce consumption
    • 3. opposed by liberals
      • unfair profits for oil corporations
      • hurt the poor
  • c. Windfall Profits Tax - 1979
    • 1. take much of the profit from the oil companies and use it to
    • 2. research alternative fuel sources
      • a. wind power - wind farms in California - tax breaks
      • b. solar - tax breaks for solar panels on homes and insulation packages
      • c. gasohol - research to stretch oil made this available in many locations
        • Synthetic Fuels Corporation did research
        • used worldwide - pollution side effects
    • 3. coal - readily available - pollution
    • 4. nuclear - potentially dangerous yet France gets 2/3 of electricity from it
      • we increased our use of nuclear till it provide 12% of our electricity
      • stopped trend after Three Mile Island
    • 5. geothermal - researched where available
  • d. laws to make cars more energy efficient
    • 1. opposed by conservatives
  • e. Lack of leadership produced a weak compromise - MEOW

  4. Environmental Program raised the cost of alternatives to oil

  • a. Carter decided to oppose nuclear power
  • b. Carter made coal more expensive

  5. Energy Crisis of 1979 - OPEC - 60% price increases

  • a. $13 to $31 / barrel caused gas prices to skyrocket
    • $.35 - 1972 increased to above $1.00 by 1980 (high around $1.50)
    • long lines returned - Carter was right
  • b. trade deficit increased $1.5 billion to 60 billion
  • c. inflation worsened
  • d. we became more dependent on OPEC (6% increased to 30%) - more vulnerable

1. Became the first President to actually support EPA

• a. strengthened strip mining laws (reduced use of coal)
• b. proposed restrictions to prevent acid rain (reduced use of coal)
• c. created $1.6 billion EPA Superfund - chemical spills
• d. placed requirements on auto emissions
  • lowered gas mileage
  • increased use of oil
• e. Alaska National Park created - 100+ acres

2. Three Mile Island - 3/79

• a. Pennsylvania - not like Chernobyl - contained
• b. Carter increased regulation to protect environment
• c. Regulations increased cost and time to complete
• d. No new reactors approved after Carter did this - increased use of oil

H. NASA - Carter

1. NASA under Nixon/Ford reached its height

• a. Apollo - 6 missions to the moon (1969-1972)
• b. Skylab - the beginnings of a space station program - successful test - 1973-74
• c. Apollo-Soyuz - US linked with Soviets - detente - 1975

2. NASA under Carter began building the Shuttle Program

• a. no launches during Carter presidency
• b. public support declined as public became apathetic
• c. lack of successes cost NASA momentum - not Carter's fault

A. CARTER - CABINET - experienced

1. Cyrus Vance

• Secretary of State
• JFK-LBJ - experienced

2. Zbigniew Brzezinski

• National Security Adviser
• Columbia prof.

3. Andrew Young - UN ambassador

• a. SCLC - civil rights leader
• b. very popular with 3rd world - felt he was sympathetic
• c. critical of Apartheid in South Africa
  • 1. started a movement to ban US investment in South Africa
  • 2. Congress eventually went along with a partial ban
    • despite the fact that Reagan disapproved - fearing a communist takeover
• d. 1979 - resigned
  • 1. secret meeting with PLO - Yasser Arafat

1. Helsinki Accords - basis for Foreign Policy

• a. promote human rights around the world
• b. base foreign policy on what is morally right not on what benefits US
  • Idealism compared to Woodrow Wilson
• c. negotiated in the press (propaganda) instead of behind the scenes
• d. moved towards new Cold War
• e. Reagan dropped the emphasis on human rights
  • resumed support for dictators who remained strong anti-communist leaders
• f. Economic Aid increased by 20% to encourage and promote human rights

2. Detente

• a. Carter supported detente
• b. Detente became a casualty of Carter's insistence on human rights

1. Chile - 1977+

• a. Pinochet - harsh dictator - pro-US
  • came to power when Allende was assassinated
  • no democracy, but strongly anti-communist
  • high number of human rights violations
• b. Carter cut off aid when Pinochet refused to reform
• c. Same in Argentina and Uruguay

2. Panama Canal Treaty - 1978

• a. Canal = symbol of US power over LA - imperialism
• b. protests against US control had continued for years
• c. Carter decided to "correct an old wrong"
  • 1. it had lost military significance since our carriers would not fit
  • 2. multiple US fleets reduced the necessity to sail around the world
  • 3. lost some economic significance
    • since oil supertankers and supercargo ships did not fit either
• d. Our 1903 lease gave US control in perpetuity
• e. US negotiated on this treaty under LBJ and Nixon
• f. Carter completed the process signing two treaties
  • 1. Panama guaranteed permanent neutrality in the Cold War
  • 2. US was guaranteed access
  • 3. US kept right to intervene militarily to protect the Canal
  • 4. US would hand over control of Canal operations
    • and defense of the Canal in 2000
• g. Conservatives denounced (Ronald Reagan especially)
  • 1. "We bought it, we paid for it, and they can't have it"
  • 2. US show of weakness
    • a majority of US citizens agreed with RR early
    • by the end of 1978 support had shifted in favor of the treaty
  • 3. critics claimed it increased instability in Central America
    • encouraging communism
• h. 1978 - Senate ratified 68-32 - one more vote than necessary

3. Nicaragua

• a. Somoza - same pattern as above - since 1933
• b. Carter cut off aid
• c. 7/79 - overthrown by Sandinistas (communists)
• d. Daniel Ortega - new communist ruler
• e. Carter delayed most aid until Ortega held free elections - did not happen
• f. Ortega received aid from USSR and Cuba instead
• g. Carter blamed

4. Results

• a. Carter became very popular with the people of Latin America
• b. conservative Latin American governments lost respect for US
• c. Nicaragua fell to communism

1. Dissidents and Jews

• a. repression of dissidents and Jews frequently criticized by Carter in the press
  • propaganda
• b. Sakharov
• c. public criticism wrecked detente and returned US to Cold War

2. Poland

• a. Carter recognized the Polish labor union led by Lech Walesa
• b. this angered the Soviets

3. SALT II

• a. 1977 - new set of proposals by Carter slowed the process down
  •  
• b. 6/79 - Vienna - signed treaty
• c. Carter - Brezhnev
• d. provisions
  • 1. limits on long-range missiles
  • 2. limits on number of bombers
  • 3. limits on nuclear warheads
• e. Conservative opposition made ratification questionable
  • Felt that the treaty threatened our TRIAD defense system (MAD)
  • based on deterrence - prevention of nuclear war through the threat of retaliation
    • 1. land-based missiles
      • RR criticized it for allowed a freeze while the USSR was #1 in this leg of the Triad
      • felt Russians could destroy this leg
      • Carter proposed MX Missiles to solve this problem
        • underground tunnels to move missiles
        • Russians would be unable to know where they were
    • 2. submarine-based missiles
    • 3. bombers
      • Carter cancelled B-1 bomber and Neutron Bomb
        • we later built them anyway
      • weakened this leg of the Triad
• f. Never voted on for ratification - followed anyway
  • Loss of treaty hurt image of Carter's Presidency

4. Afghanistan invasion - 12/79

• a. UN condemned Soviet invasion (their Vietnam)
• b. US - economic sanctions - embargo on wheat - cost Carter farmers support
• c. US - boycott of the Moscow Olympics
  • 1. cost them $500 million in profits from tourists who canceled
  • 2. cost Carter popularity at home
• d. SALT II ratification vote blocked by Carter until USSR leaves
• e. Led to Carter Doctrine
• f. Carter asked for an increase in defense spending
  • including B-1 Bomber and Neutron Bomb
• g. This seemed to end detente and bring back the Cold War
• h. RR lifted wheat embargo - 4/81 - because it hurt American farmers
• i. Did attempt to block European sale of oil equipment to USSR
• j. LA Olympics - 1984
  • 1. USSR and allies boycotted
  • 2. US still made a profit - communists don't allow their people to travel
  • 3. symbolic only
• k. Continued to be a problem under Reagan until the Soviets withdrew
• l. US gave covert aid to Afghanistan under both Presidents - 1987 - $1 billion / year

1. China

• a. US - Chinese relations continued to improve
• b. Carter seemed to ignore human rights violations here
• c. US ended recognition of Taiwan as ruler of China
• d. We did offer them recognition as a separate nation - they rejected the offer
• e. 1/79 - US opened full diplomatic relations with PRC
• f. RR and other critics accused Carter of selling Taiwan out

2. Failed to criticize human rights violations in the Philippines

3. Failed to criticize human rights violations in South Korea

1. Camp David Accords

• a. Carter's greatest success
• b. Sadat visited Jerusalem - 11/77 - offered hope of peace
• c. 9/78 - Camp David, Maryland - two weeks of meetings
• d. Anwar el-Sadat - Egypt met with Menachem Begin - Israel
• e. Carter's Baptist style kept the two men negotiating through stormy arguments
• f. When final treaty was stalled Carter went to Middle East
• g. 3/79 - Formal peace treaty signed
  • 1. Washington D.C.
  • 2. Sadat and Begin won Nobel Peace Prize
  • 3. Israel returned Sinai peninsula to Egypt
  • 4. Egypt recognized Israel's right to exist
  • 5. They agreed to continue to discuss the occupied territories and the Palestinians
• h. Results
  • 1. Had hoped other Arab countries would follow Egypt
  • 2. They kicked Egypt out of the Arab League instead (until 5/89)
  • 3. Offered great promise, but RR failed to follow up negotiations
  • 4. US risked oil embargo and increased Soviet aid to Middle East
  • 5. US gave aid to both Egypt and Israel
  • 6. Sadat assassinated 10/81 - while RR was President
    • Hosni Mubarak replaced him - moderate
  • 7. Begin was voted out of office

2. Carter Doctrine - 1979

• a. USSR use of military in the Persian Gulf region
  • coinciding with Afghanistan invasion
  • led Carter to issue threat
• b. US would meet Soviet force with force in the Middle East region

3. Iran

• a. Failed to criticize human rights violations under the Shah in Iran
• b. Shah Reza Pahlavi returned to power by US in 1953 - CIA
  • had become increasingly unpopular
    • pro-Western modernization
    • poverty vs. military spending ($15 billion - 1974-78)
  • violence broke out in 1978
  • US continued to support him as a loyal friend
• c. 1/79 - Shah went into exile seeking medical care
  • US supported government left behind - failed - 2/79
• d. Ayatollah Khomeini - fundamentalism Muslim religious leader returned from exile
  • returned Iran to non-Western Islamic Fundamentalism
  • practiced the same type of repression that the Shah had
• e. Khomeini was hostile towards the US and USSR
  • anti- American protests swept the country
  • US temporarily shut down oil production until things calmed
• f. Carter withdrew all, but essential embassy personnel
  • considered closing embassy
  • government assured their protection
• g. 10/79 - Carter allowed the Shah to come here for cancer treatment
• h. 11/4/79 - Iranian students took US embassy in Teheran
  • 53 hostages kept 444 days
  • used for tv propaganda - for whole world to see
• i. Diplomatic efforts were tried but failed
• j. Economic sanctions - cutting off trade and freezing assets also failed
• k. 4/80 - American rescue mission failed (8 servicemen died)
  • 1. Sec. of State Vance had opposed - resigned in protest
  • 2. Carter picked Edmund Muskie to replace him
  • 3. Hurt Carter's chances for reelection
• l. Algeria acted as a middle man helped US to trade frozen assets for hostages
  • talks showed progress after Shah died - 7/80
• m. Negotiated by Carter - Iran delayed release until he was defeated as President - revenge
• n. Hostages released 1/20/81 after RR sworn in as President
• o. Reagan got credit for the release from some - Carter did all the work
• p. symbol of US inability to control the world despite being #1

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