American History: A Survey
Chapter 33: The “Age of Limits”
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
Growth of the Sun Belt
(Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi,
Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California)
Causes
Consequences
 WWII economic activity
 Increase in population/housing
relocated laborers, stimulated
poor South and undeveloped
West Coast
 Warm winters and airconditioning due to electrical
grid developments, cheap land
 Tourism, Bracero Program,
increase in immigration, weak
labor laws, high-tech industries
 Northern states (Rust Belt) in
economic depression in 1970s
(population decline in Rust Belt)
 1970s: NV, CA, FL, AZ = fastest
growing states
 Shift in congressional
representation (CA, TX, FL)
 The West: more ethnic diversity
 Political balance and wealth
shifts to the South
 Nationally, a shift to more
conservative social policies
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
From Rust Belt to Sun Belt
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
President Ford Pardons Nixon
Gerald Ford had been selected,
not elected vice president,
following Spiro Agnew’s
resignation in disgrace.
As president, Gerald Ford
pardoned Nixon because he
thought it was the right thing to
do, saying a pardon would
allow the country to move
forward.
Ford understood the political
costs of his decision, but he was
willing to accept them.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
End of the Vietnam War, 1975
Technicalities aside, America
had lost more than a war. It
had lost face in the eyes of
foreigners, lost its own selfesteem, lost confidence in its
military prowess, and lost
much of the economic muscle
that had made possible its
global leadership since World
War II.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
President Jimmy Carter (1977-1980)
Jimmy Carter won the 1976
election by presenting himself as a
Washington outsider.
But as an outsider, he repeatedly
rubbed Congress the wrong way,
especially by failing to consult
adequately with the leaders.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
President Jimmy Carter’s
Shift in Foreign Policy
 In the late 1970s President Carter initiated a shift in the
U.S. approach to foreign policy. In an attempt to rebuild
America’s image, he infused morality and human rights
into his policies. To Carter, U.S. support of anticommunist
totalitarian governments had serious limitations.
Conservatives deeply opposed this approach, believing it
would ultimately weaken U.S. power and influence
worldwide. However, Carter proved to be inconsistent in
his application of human rights to foreign policy: his
greatest success came in the Middle East, when he
negotiated a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. But
he turned a blind eye to El Salvador, preferring right-wing
death squads to another leftist government in the region.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
President Jimmy Carter’s
Humanitarian Diplomacy
 As a committed Christian, President Carter displayed from
the outset an overriding concern for “human rights” as
the guiding principle of his foreign policy.
 Camp David Accords: (1978) Israel agreed in principle to
withdraw from territory conquered in the 1967 war, and
Egypt in return promised to respect Israel’s borders. Both
parties pledged themselves to sign a formal peace treaty
within three months.
 Carter also successfully pushed through two treaties to
turn over the Panama Canal to the Panamanians. (The
U.S. gave up control of the canal on December 31, 1999).
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
President Jimmy Carter
 Carter’s “malaise speech” in 1979 chided his fellow
citizens for falling into a “moral and spiritual crisis” and
for being too concerned with “material goods.”
 The Iranian hostage crisis was Carter’s – and America’s –
bed of nails. Carter first tried to apply economic sanctions
and the pressure of world public opinion against the
Iranians, while waiting for the emergence of a stable
government with which to negotiate. Carter ordered a
daring rescue mission, but two of the aircraft collided,
killing eight of the would-be rescuers.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
President Jimmy Carter
 The Carter administration struck many Americans as
bungling and befuddled.
 Disaffection with Carter’s apparent ineptitude ran deep
even in his own Democratic party, where an “ABC”
(Anybody but Carter) movement gathered steam for the
1980 election.
 Galloping inflation, sky-high interest rates, and a faltering
economy also put the incumbent president on the
defensive. Carter’s spotty record in office was no defense
against Ronald Reagan’s popular appeal.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
President Jimmy Carter
 An unusually intelligent, articulate, and well-meaning
president, he had been hampered by his lack of
managerial talent and had been badly buffeted by events
beyond his control, such as the soaring price of oil,
runaway inflation, and the galling insult of the hostages
still held in Iran.
 Though unsuccessful in the White House, Carter earned
much admiration in later years for his humanitarian and
human rights activities. He received the Nobel Peace
Prize in 2002.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
President Ronald Reagan (1981-1988)
One major factor contributing to
Ronald Reagan’s defeat of President
Carter in the election of 1980 was
the hostage crisis in Iran.
The Iranians released the hostages
on Reagan’s Inauguration Day,
January 20, 1981, after 444 days of
captivity.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
The Reagan Revolution
 Assembling a conservative cabinet of “the best and the
rightest,” Reagan took dead aim at what he regarded as
the bloated federal budget. “Government is not the
solution to our problem, government is the problem.”
 The New Right, a coalition of various conservative groups,
also helped elect Reagan. Reagan reshaped the judiciary
into a more conservative mold. He made three
appointments to the Supreme Court: Sandra Day
O’Connor, Antonin Scalia, and Anthony Kennedy.
Conservatives now controlled the nation’s agenda.
 A failed assassination attempt in March 1981 brought an
outpouring of sympathy and support.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
Sandra Day O’Connor
Sandra Day O’Connor is the
first woman to be appointed
as a Supreme Court justice.
But the Supreme Court was
not bent to the right as far as
some conservatives would
have liked. O’Connor and
Kennedy became swing votes
in cases involving the hotbutton issues of affirmative
action, abortion, and the
right to privacy.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
Supply-Side Economics (or “Reaganomics”)
Supply-side economics
predicted that cutting
1.
taxes would put more
money into the hands of
businesses and
investors.
Key Goals
Reduce federal tax rates
for businesses and the
wealthy
2. Reduce corporate tax rates
The idea was that this
money would “trickle
down” to everyone else.
3. Promote economic growth
by deregulating
businesses
Reagan also embarked
on a major program of
deregulation.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
Supply-side economics
 Supply-side economics advisers assured Reagan that the
combination of budgetary discipline and tax reduction
would stimulate new investment, boost productivity,
foster dramatic economic growth, and eventually even
reduce the federal budget.
 But for the first time in the twentieth century, income
gaps widened between the richest and the poorest
Americans. The poor got poorer and the very rich grew
fabulously richer, while middle-class incomes largely
stagnated.
 Ironically, the conservative Reagan plunged the
government into a red-ink bath of deficit spending that
made the New Deal look downright stingy.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
Supply-side economics
(or “Reaganomics”)
 Reagan’s supply-side theories didn’t pan out in practice;
fare from reducing the deficits the country experienced
under Carter, Reagan’s tax cuts – combined with the
record defense spending and the growth of other
programs – produced deficits that dwarfed Carter’s.
 From 1920 until 1970 the United States had been the
world’s largest creditor; by the 1980s it was the world’s
largest debtor.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
Supply-Side Economics
(or “Reaganomics”)
David Stockman, who persuaded Reagan to adopt
his “supply-side” theory, acknowledged that when he
ran the numbers of his “supply-side” plan through the
computers at the Office of Management and Budget in
1981, they projected that the federal deficit would be
$82 billion in 1982 and $116 billion in 1984, both
unacceptable figures at the time. Rather than adjust his
ideology and plan, Stockman reprogrammed the OMB
computer to get the results he needed to persuade
Reagan and Congress to accept his proposed budget.
- Dangerous Business: The Risks of Globalization for America (2008)
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
Events of the Reagan’s 1st Term
 The S&L Scandal: Because of the extent of the fraud, waste, and
incompetence, the savings and loan (S & L) scandal cost
American taxpayers billions of dollars.
 Many congressmen had received favors from S&L lobbies to
support an easing of federal restrictions.
 Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative: (or SDI, popularly known
as Star Wars) Reagan renewed the Cold War with the Soviet
Union. Reagan’s defense expansion was the best thing to
happen to American arms makers since the big buildup of the
1950s (the one that prompted Eisenhower’s warning against the
military-industrial-complex). The official in charge of
coordinating efforts among private contractors told a reporter:
“There will be many, many Manhattan Projects in this.”
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
President Ronald Reagan’s
Foreign Policy Approach
 If Carter intended to infuse foreign affairs with morality,
President Reagan represented the alternative view. In
Reagan’s view, the Carter administration had failed to
protect the nation’s self-interests, its prestige, and the
morale of its people.
 For Reagan the enemy of the United States was still the
“evil empire,” the Soviet Union. It was the Soviet Union,
not political repression and poverty, that was behind the
instability in the Third World. With this view in mind,
Reagan did not hesitate to intervene in all parts of the
world when he believed it was in the best interests of the
United States to do so.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
Events of the Reagan’s 1st Term
 President Reagan was obliged to send American troops to
Lebanon in 1983 as part of an international peacekeeping
force, but their presence did not bring peace. A suicide
bomber crashed an explosives-laden truck into a United
States Marine barracks on October 23, 1983, killing more
than two hundred marines. The events in Lebanon
revealed a weakness in Reagan’s objective of making the
United States the world’s policeman.
 Reagan sent military “advisers” to prop up the proAmerican government of El Salvador.
 In 1983 he dispatched an invasion force to the island of
Grenada, where a military coup had brought Marxists to
power.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON
Election of 1984
 Reagan defeated Walter Mondale (Carter’s vice president)
in the 1984 election by a landslide.
 Mondale made history by naming as his vice-presidential
running mate Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro of New
York. The was the first woman ever to appear on a majorparty presidential ticket.
APUSH: MR. ROLOFSON