ch 39 outline

Ch 39

Sources of Stagnation

-->Following the economic boom in America during the 1950s and 1960s, the economy of the 1970s was declining

---> Former President Lyndon B. Johnson's lavish spending on the Vietnam War and on his Great Society also depleted the U.S. Treasury, giving citizens too much money and creating too great a demand for too few products

Nixon "Vietnamizes" the War

--->President Nixon brought to the White House his broad knowledge and thoughtful expertise in foreign affairs.  He applied himself to putting America's foreign-policy in order

---> President Nixon's announced policy, called "Vietnamization," was to withdraw the 540,000 U.S. troops in South Vietnam over an extended period

--->The Nixon Doctrine proclaimed that the United States would honor its existing defense commitments but in the future, Asians and others would have to fight their own wars without the support of large numbers of American troops

--->On November 3, 1969, Nixon delivered a televised speech to the "silent majority," who presumably supported the war

Cambodianizing the Vietnam War

---> On April 29, 1970, President Nixon widened the war when he ordered American forces to join with the South Vietnamese in cleaning out the enemy in officially neutral Cambodia

---> Nixon withdrew the troops from Cambodia on June 29, 1970, although the bitterness between the "hawks" and the "doves" increased

--->In 1971, the 26^th Amendment was passed, lowering the voting age to 18.

Nixon's Détente with Beijing (Peking) and Moscow

--->The two great communist powers, the Soviet Union and China, were clashing bitterly over their rival interpretations of Marxism

--->Dr. Henry A. Kissinger reinforced Nixon's thinking

---> In 1969, Kissinger had begun meeting secretly with North Vietnamese officials in Paris to negotiate an end to the war in Vietnam

--->In 1972, Nixon made a visit to China and paved the way for improved relations between the United States and Beijing

---> In May 1972, Nixon traveled to Moscow, which was ready to deal

--->great grain deal of 1972 was a 3-year arrangement by which the United States agreed to sell the Soviets at least $750 million worth of wheat, corn, and other cereals

---> The first major achievement, an anti-ballistic missile (AMB) treaty, limited the U.S. and the Soviet Union to two clusters of defensive missiles

--->SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks), froze the numbers of long-range nuclear missiles for 5 years

A New Team on the Supreme Bench

--->Earl Warren was appointed as a Justice to the Supreme Court, making many controversial rulings-

Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) struck down a state law that banned the use of contraceptives, even by married couples, creating a "right to privacy

--->Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) ruled that all criminals were entitled to legal counsel, even if they were unable to afford it

--->Escobedo (1964) and Miranda (1966) ruled that those who were arrested had to the "right to remain silent"

--->Engel v. Vitale (1962) and School District of Abington Township vs. Schempp (1963) led to the Supreme Court ruling against required prayers and having the Bible in public schools, basing the judgment on the First Amendment, which separated church and state

--->Reynolds vs. Sims (1964) ruled that the state legislatures would be required to be reapportioned according to population

---->In an attempt to end the liberal rulings, President Nixon set Warren E. Burger to replace the retiring Earl Warren in 1969

Nixon on the Home Front

--->Nixon expanded the Great Society programs by increasing funding for Medicare, Medicaid, and Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC)

--->created the Supplemental Security Income (SSI), giving benefits to the poor aged, blind, and disabled

--->Nixon's Philadelphia Plan of 1969 required construction-trade unions working on the federal pay roll to establish "goals and timetables" for black employees

---> This plan changed the definition of "affirmative action" to include preferable treatment on groups, not individuals

---> the Supreme Court's ruling on Griggs v. Duke Power Co. (1971) upheld this

--->The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OHSA) were created

--->In 1962, Rachel Carson boosted the environmental movement with her book Silent Spring, which exposed the disastrous effects of pesticides

---> By 1950, Los Angeles had an Air Pollution Control Office

--->Clean Air Act of 1970 and the Endangered Species Act of 1973 both aimed at protecting and preserving the environment

The Nixon Landslide of 1972

--->spring of 1972, the North Vietnamese burst through the demilitarized zone separating the two Vietnams

--->Senator George McGovern won the 1972 Democratic nomination

----> President Nixon, though, won the election of 1972 in a landslide

Bombing North Vietnam to the Peace Table

--->Nixon launched the heaviest assault of the war when he ordered a two-week bombing of North Vietnam in an attempt to force the North Vietnamese to the conference table

--->January 23, 1973, North Vietnamese negotiators agreed to a cease-fire agreement

Watergate Woes

--->On June 17, 1972, five men working for the Republican Committee for the Re-election of the President were caught breaking into the Watergate Hotel and bugging rooms

--->John Dean III testified of all the corruption, illegal activities, and scandal.

The Great Tape Controversy

--->In 1973, Vice President Spiro Agnew was forced to resign due to tax evasion.  In accordance with the newly-passed 25^th Amendment (1967), Nixon submitted to Congress, for approval as the new vice president, Gerald Ford

--->On October 20, 1973 ("Saturday Night Massacre"), Archibald Cox, the prosecutor of the Watergate scandal case who had issued a subpoena of the tapes, was fired

The Secret Bombing of Cambodia and the War Powers Act

--->Despite federal assurances to the American public that Cambodia's neutrality was being respected, it was discovered that secret bombing raids on North Vietnamese forces in Cambodia had taken place since March of 1969; this caused the public to question trust of the government

---> Nixon ended the bombing in June 1973

--->In November 1973, Congress passed the War Powers Act, requiring the president to report all commitments of U.S. troops to foreign exchanges within 48 hours

The Arab Oil Embargo and the Energy Crisis

--->Following U.S. support of Israel during Israel's war against Syria and Egypt to regain territory lost during the Six-Day War, the Arab nations imposed an oil embargo, strictly limiting oil in the United States

---> A speed limit of 55 MPH was imposed, the oil pipeline in Alaska was approved in 1974 despite environmentalists' cries, and other forms of energy were researched

--->OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) lifted the embargo in 1974, yet it then quadrupled the price of oil

The Unmaking of a President

--->On July 24, 1974, the Supreme Court ruled that President Nixon had to submit all tapes to Congress

--->On August 5, 1974, Nixon released the three tapes that held the most damaging information-the same three tapes that had been "missing"

---> On August 8 Nixon resigned, realizing that he would be convicted if impeached, and with resignation, he could at least keep the privileges of a president.

The First Unelected President

Gerald Ford became the first unelected president; his name had been submitted by Nixon as a vice-presidential candidate

--->In July 1975, Ford signed the Helsinki accords, which recognized Soviet boundaries and helped to ease tensions between the two nations

Defeat in Vietnam

--->Early in 1975, the North Vietnamese made their full invasion of South Vietnam

--->The last of Americans were evacuated on April 29, 1975

--->The United States had fought the North Vietnamese to a standstill and had then withdrawn its troops in 1973, leaving the South Vietnamese to fight their own war.  The estimated cost to America was $188 billion, with 56,000 dead and 300,000 wounded

The Bicentennial Campaign and the Carter Victory

--->In the election of 1976, Democrat Jimmy Carter beat Republican Gerald Ford to win the presidency

--->In 1978, President Carter convinced Congress to pass an $18 billion tax cut

Carter's Humanitarian Diplomacy

-->Carter championed for human rights, and in Rhodesia (known today as Zimbabwe) and South Africa, he championed for black rights

--->On September 17, 1978, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel signed peace accords at Camp David

--->President Carter pledged to return the Panama Canal to Panama by the year 2000 and resume full diplomatic relations with China in 1979

Carter Tackles the Ailing Economy

--->Inflation had been steadily rising, and by 1979, it was at 13%

Carter's Energy Woes

--->In 1979, Iran's shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi, who had been installed by America in 1953 and had ruled Iran as a dictator, was overthrown and succeeded by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini

--->In July 1979, Carter retreated to Camp David and met with hundreds of advisors to contemplate a solution to America's problems

---> On July 15, 1979, Carter chastised the American people for their obsession of material woes ("If it's cold, turn down the thermostat and put on a sweater."), stunning the nation

Foreign Affairs and the Iranian Imbroglio

--->In 1979, Carter signed the SALT II agreements with Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev, but the U.S. senate refused to ratify it

--->On November 4, 1979, a group of anti-American Muslim militants stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took hostages, demanding that the U.S. return the exiled shah who had arrived in the U.S. two weeks earlier for cancer treatments

--->On December 27, 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, which ended up turning into the Soviet Union's own Vietnam

---> "Rapid Deployment Force" that could quickly respond to crises anywhere in the world

The Iranian Hostage Humiliation

--->Carter first tried economic sanctions to force the release of the hostages, but this failed

--->tried a commando rescue mission, but that had to be aborted

--->The stalemate hostage situation dragged on for most of Carter's term, and the hostages were never released until January 20, 1981-the inauguration day of Ronald Reagan