The 70s
Counterculture changes
society. Nixon, Ford and
Carter define a decade
Nixon and the election of 1968
• Nixon ran against Hubert Humphrey
(democrat) and George Wallace.
Southern Strategy:
• 1. Appoint only conservatives to the
Supreme Court.
• 2.) Pick a VP acceptable to the
south. (Spiro Agnew)
• This had the effect of slowing
desegregation during his
administration.
Nixon /Agnew
Nixon as the law and order
president
• Nixon’s interpretation of what the
people wanted in a law and order
president was to go after the
protesters.
• Earl Warren and 3 others from the
Supreme Court retired.
• Warren Burger became C. J. and the
other vacancies were filled with
conservatives.
• Capital punishment was also upheld.
Warren Burger
The New Federalism
• Nixon dismantled many
Federal programs to give
power back to state and local
agencies:
• This allowed the money to
flow to these levels (revenue
sharing),
Impounding
• Nixon felt the executive branch
should exercise more power so he
extended the practice of
impounding:
• This is where the President does
not allow funds to be released
for a program even though
Congress has approved it.
• The Supreme Court ruled this
unconstitutional.
Revamping Welfare
• The main welfare program at the
time was (AFDC) Aid to Families
with Dependent Children. Nixon
tried to replace this with the
Family Assistance Plan.
• In this way, getting a job was
encouraged. It was defeated in the
Senate.
Foreign policy
• Nixon’s administration focused
mainly on the subject of foreign
affairs.
• Nixon chose former Harvard
professor Henry Kissinger as his
national security adviser.
• Nixon and Kissinger put their foreign
policy in place and attempted
friendlier relations with the
Soviet Union and China.
Détente’
• Nixon was anti-Communist.
• Nixon felt the “multipolar” world
would need a different approach.
• Kissinger, Nixon created the
approach of détente, or relaxation
of tensions between the United
States and its two major
Communist rivals—the Soviet
Union and China.
Nixon goes to China
• To ease tensions with China,
Nixon lifted trade and travel
restrictions and withdrew the
Seventh Fleet from defending
Taiwan.
• In February 1972, Nixon
took a historic trip to China,
where both leaders agreed
to better relations between
the nations.
Russia wants us too
• Soviet Union suggested an AmericanSoviet summit, or high-level
diplomatic meeting, in May 1972.
• Nixon became the first president to
visit the Soviet Union.
• The countries signed the first Strategic
Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I) to
limit nuclear arms.
• The countries agreed to increase trade
and the exchange of scientific
information.
Watergate
• A. The Watergate scandal began
as the Nixon administration
attempted to cover up its
involvement in the break-in at
the (DNC) headquarters
• B. Richard Nixon had become
defensive, secretive, and resentful of
his critics.
• C. In an effort to win re-election,
Nixon and his team looked for ways
to gain an edge anyway they could.
• D. One of the burglars, James McCord, was
an ex-CIA official and a member of the
Committee for the Re-election of the
President (CRP). As the questions about the
break-ins began, the cover-up started.
Although it is thought that Nixon did
not order the break-in, it is believed
that he did order the cover-up.
• E. Most Americans believed the
president when he claimed he had no
involvement in the break-in, and Nixon
won re-election in 1972.
• Deep Throat was first introduced to the public
in the 1974 book “All the President’s Men”,
written by Washington Post reporters Bob
Woodward and Carl Bernstein
• Woodward and Bernstein's stories contained
information that was remarkably similar to the
information uncovered by FBI investigators
• Woodward and Bernstein claimed this
information came from a single anonymous
informant dubbed "Deep Throat". It was later
revealed, and confirmed by Woodward and
Bernstein, that Deep Throat was FBI Deputy
Director W. Mark Felt. Woodward had
befriended Felt years earlier
Deep ThroatThroat- Mark Felt
Saturday Night Massacre
• The "Saturday Night Massacre“:
term given by political commentators
to U.S. President Richard Nixon's
executive dismissal of independent
special prosecutor Archibald Cox,
and the resignations of Attny. Gen.
Elliot Richardson and Dep. Attny.
Gen. William Ruckelshaus during the
Watergate scandal on October 20,
1973
Spiro Agnew resigns
• Fall of 1973, V.P. Spiro Agnew was
forced to resign after it was
discovered he had taken bribes
from state contractors while
governor of Maryland.
• The Republican leader of the
House of Representatives, Gerald
Ford, became the new vice
president.
The end for Nixon
• The House Judiciary Committee
voted to impeach, or officially charge
Nixon of presidential misconduct.
• On one of the tapes was found evidence
that Nixon had ordered the CIA to
stop the FBI’s investigation of the
break-in.
• On August 9, 1974, Nixon resigned,
and Gerald Ford became the 38th
president of the United States.
Nixon saying Goodbye
Gerald Ford
• Gerald Rudolph
Ford, Jr. (born Leslie
Lynch King, Jr, July 14, 1913 –
December 26, 2006) was the
38th President of the United
States,
• serving from 1974 to 1977, and
the fortieth Vice President of the
United States serving from 1973
to 1974.
• He was the first person
appointed to the vice presidency
under the terms of the 25th
Amendment,
•
Became President
upon Richard Nixon's
resignation on August
9, 1974.
Nixon gets a pardon
• On September 8, 1974,
President Gerald Ford
granted a full pardon to
Richard Nixon.
• Ford’s approval rating
plunged from 71 percent to
50 percent.
70s oil crisis
• The United states was heavily
dependent on imported oil in the
70s.
• Members of Organization of Arab
Petroleum Exporting Countries
(OPEC plus Egypt and Syria)
announced, that they would no
longer ship oil to nations that
had supported Israel in its
conflict with Syria and Egypt
• U.S. factories closed, and
workers lost their jobs. The
U.S. economy faced
stagflation—the economic
dilemma that combined
rising prices with economic
stagnation.
• Nixon focused on controlling
inflation by cutting spending
and raising taxes.
The economy worsens
• By 1975 the American economy was
in its worst recession since the Great
Depression.
• Ford attempted to revive the economy,
but his Whip Inflation Now (WIN)
plan failed.
• He tried to limit federal authority,
balance the budget, and keep taxes
low.
• He also vetoed more than 50 bills that
Congress had passed during the first two
years Ford had served there.
Helsinki Accords
• This was seen as a significant step
toward reducing Cold War tensions
• Recognized the borders of Eastern
Europe that was est. at the end of
WWII in exchange for a Soviet
promise to uphold human rights
• Soviet’s failed to uphold these basic
rights. This turned American’s off of
detente
Jimmy Carter
• James Earl
"Jimmy"
Carter, Jr.
(born October
1, 1924)
• 39th President
of the United
States from
1977 to 1981,
Olympic Boycott
• President Carter singled out the Soviet
Union as a violator of human rights
because of its practice of imprisoning
people who protested against the
government.
• Tensions deepened as the Soviet
Union invaded the Central Asian
nation of Afghanistan in December
1979.
• Carter responded with an embargo
on grain to the Soviet Union and a
boycott of the Summer Olympic
Games in Moscow.
Windfall profits tax
•In 1979-80, U.S. federal
legislation was passed that
levied a tax on oil
companies because of the
profits they earned as a
result of the sharp
increase in oil prices
brought about by the
Arab oil embargo.
Iran Hostage Crisis
• In 1979 Iran’s monarch, the Shah, was
forced to flee, and an Islamic republic
was declared.
• The religious leader Ayatollah
Khomeini ordered revolutionaries to
enter the Am. embassy in Tehran and
take 52 Americans hostage.
• The hostages would not be released
until Carter’s last day in office, some
444 days in captivity.
• Carter lost re-election to Ronald Reagan
in 1981.
Hostages
Failed rescue attempt
• President Jimmy Carter moved to freeze
Iranian assets, both in the United States
and abroad.
• No other country wanted to get involved
• Carter ordered a rescue effort by
helicopter, but three of the eight
helicopters failed before reaching Tehran,
and the mission had to be aborted.
• Eight men died in the operation.
The crash