The U.S.A. – A History

1. The U.S.A. – A History

2. 1980 Presidential Election • Americans were fed up. In 1980, confidence in the American economy and government hit rock bottom. Looking for a change and the promise of a better future, voters turned to Ronald Reagan for answers.

3. The Reagan Years • Reagan’s message was clear. Government has become too big and needs to be trimmed down to size. Taxes are insanely high and need to be cut to stimulate growth and investment. Military spending should be increased to fix the degenerating state of the American war machine. Morality and character need to be reemphasized in American life. The United States is still the largest superpower in the world with the best system of government. It's time to feel good about being an American again.

4. The New Right • The New Right was a combination of Christian religious leaders, conservative business bigwigs who claimed that environmental and labor regulations were undermining the competitiveness of American firms in the global market, and fringe political groups. • The Christian Right had many faces. Fundamentalists such as Jerry Falwell believed in a literal interpretation of the Bible. Pentacostalists such as Pat Robertson claimed the Holy Spirit communicated directly with people on a regular basis.

5. The New Right • New Right leaders were highly organized and understood the potential of mass telecommunications. Pat Robertson formed the Christian Broadcasting Network to send his message. The PTL (Praise the Lord) Club led by Jim Bakker transmitted faith healing and raucous religious revival to the largest viewing audience of any daily program in the world. They built massive databases containing the names and addresses of potential financial contributors and regularly solicited funds. In 1979, Jerry Falwell formed the Moral Majority, Inc. This group and hundreds of others raised money to defeat liberal senators, representatives, and governors. They sought to control school boards on the local level to advance their conservative agenda. Ronald Reagan freely accepted contributions from the New Right on his way to the Presidency in 1980.

6. The Reagan Years • The 1980s were a decade of scandals. The Iran-Contra Scandal proved that White House officials were willing to break the law to carry out their political agenda. Religious leaders like Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggert became mired in dirty sex scandals. Moral turpitude ended the political career of Colorado Democrat Gary Hart, who might well have been president one day. A savings and loan scam fleeced American taxpayers for billions and billions of bailout dollars.

7. The Iran – Contra Affair • Cover up: Behind the Iran Contra Affair The Iran–Contra was a political scandal in the United States that came to light in November 1986. During the Reagan administration, senior U.S. figures, including President Ronald Reagan, agreed to facilitate the sale of arms to Iran, the subject of an arms embargo. At least some U.S. officials also hoped that the arms sales would secure the release of hostages and allow U.S. intelligence agencies to fund the Nicaraguan contras.

8. The Iran – Contra Affair The Iranian recipients promised to do everything in their power to achieve the release of six U.S. hostages, who were being held by the Lebanese Shia Islamist group Hezbollah, who in turn were unknowingly connected to the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution. The plan deteriorated into an arms-for-hostages scheme, in which members of the executive branch sold weapons to Iran in exchange for the release of the American hostages.Large modifications to the plan were devised by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North of the National Security Council in late 1985, in which a portion of the proceeds from the weapon sales was diverted to fund anti-Sandinista and anti-communist rebels, or Contras, in Nicaragua.

9. The Iran – Contra Affair After the weapon sales were revealed in November 1986, Reagan appeared on national television and stated that the weapons transfers had indeed occurred, but that the United States did not trade arms for hostages. Several investigations ensued, including those by the United States Congress and the three-man, Reagan-appointed Tower Commission. Neither found any evidence that President Reagan himself knew of the extent of the multiple programs. the end, fourteen administration officials were indicted, including then-Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger. Eleven convictions resulted, some of which were vacated on appeal.

10. The Iran – Contra Affair • The rest of those indicted or convicted were all pardoned in the final days of the George H. W. Bush presidency; Bush had been vice-president at the time of the affair. • The person who actually moved the money from the US to Iran and then to Nicaragua was an aide to Senator Dan Quayle (R-IN). Senator Quayle was rewarded for this by being nominated to be Vice President under George H. W. Bush.

11. Savings and Loan Scandal • The savings and loan crisis of the 1980s and 1990s (commonly referred to as the S&L crisis) was the failure of 747 savings and loan associations (S&Ls aka thrifts). A Savings and Loan is a financial institution in the United States that accepts savings deposits and makes mortgage, car and other personal loans to individual members - a cooperative venture known in the United Kingdom as a Building Society. The ultimate cost of the crisis is estimated to have totaled around $160.1 billion, about $124.6 billion of which was directly paid for by the US government via a financial bailout under the leadership of George H.W. Bush—that is, the US taxpayer provided the funding for the bailout, either directly or through charges on their savings and loan accounts and increased taxes—which contributed to the large budget deficits of the early 1990s. • The concomitant slowdown in the finance industry and the real estate market may have been a contributing cause of the 1990–1991 economic recession. Between 1986 and 1991, the number of new homes constructed per year dropped from 1.8 million to 1 million, which was at the time the lowest rate since World War II.

12. The media called it Reaganomics. • During the campaign of 1980, Ronald Reagan announced a recipe to fix the nation's economic mess. He claimed an undue tax burden, excessive government regulation, and massive social spending programs hampered growth. Reagan proposed a phased 30% tax cut for the first three years of his Presidency. The bulk of the cut would be concentrated at the upper income levels. The economic theory behind the wisdom of such a plan was called supply-side or trickle-down economics

13. Trickle Down Economics • Tax relief for the rich would enable them to spend and invest more. This new spending would stimulate the economy and create new jobs. Reagan believed that a tax cut of this nature would ultimately generate even more revenue for the federal government. The Congress was not as sure as Reagan, but they did approve a 25% cut during Reagan's first term.

14. Trickle Down Economics • The results of this plan were mixed. Initially, the Federal Reserve Board believed the tax cut would re-ignite inflation and raise interest rates. This sparked a deep recession in 1981 and 1982. The high interest rates caused the value of the dollar to rise on the international exchange market, making American goods more expensive abroad. As a result, exports decreased while imports increased. Eventually, the economy stabilized in 1983, and the remaining years of Reagan's administration showed national growth.

15. Trickle Down Economics • Economists disagreed over the achievements of Reaganomics. Tax cuts plus increased military spending would cost the federal government trillions of dollars. Reagan advocated paying for these expenses by slashing government programs. In the end, the Congress approved his tax and defense plans, but refused to make any deep cuts to the welfare state. Even Reagan himself was squeamish about attacking popular programs like Social Security and Medicare, which consume the largest percentages of taxpayer dollars. The results were skyrocketing deficits.

16. Trickle Down Economics The national debt tripled from one to three trillion dollars during the Reagan Years. The President and conservatives in Congress cried for a balanced budget amendment, but neither branch had the discipline to propose or enact a balanced budget. The growth that Americans enjoyed during the 1980s came at a huge price for the generations to follow.

17. Foreign Relations • Before he became President, he set the tone for relations with the Soviet Union by labeling the USSR an "evil empire." Around the world, communism seemed to be spreading. Soviet troops were in Afghanistan. Nicaragua was led by a Soviet-backed Sandinista government. Communist guerillas threatened to take over in neighboring El Salvador. Cuban-backed troops waged a successful insurgency in Angola. The age of détente was over.

18. US – USSR Relations • Reagan hoped to negotiate with the Soviet Union, but believed he could only achieve concessions if dealing from a position of superiority. His increase in military spending would force a similar increase on the part of the Soviet rivals. In addition to upgrading all three branches of the American strategic defense, he proposed a bold new scheme to defend the United States mainland from any incoming ballistic missiles. This Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) drew criticism from liberal Democrats who deemed it too costly and from scientists who questioned its feasibility.

19. “Star Wars” Reagan insisted that the United States was open to a "window of vulnerability" to the Soviet Union regarding nuclear defense. Massive government contracts were awarded to defense firms to upgrade the nation's military. Reagan even proposed a space-based missile defense system called the Strategic Defense Initiative. Scientists were dubious about the feasibility of a laser-guided system that could shoot down enemy missiles. Critics labeled the plan "Star Wars."

20. US – USSR Relations • When Mikhail Gorbachev assumed leadership of the USSR in 1985, proclaiming a new policy of openness, Reagan believed it was time to act. The two leaders agreed in principle to an Intermediate Nuclear Forces treaty in 1987, which for the first time eliminated an entire class of existing nuclear weapons.

21. Foreign Relations • Around the globe, Reagan was determined to vanquish the specter of Vietnam. He believed the United States could ill afford to sit passively while communism expanded aggressively. He announced the Reagan Doctrine, which pledged American support to "freedom fighters" opposing Communism any where on the globe. Funds and CIA training were awarded to the government of El Salvador to help defeat communist guerillas. After left-leaning revolutionaries took over the island of Grenada in 1983, Reagan dispatched the Marines to install a US-friendly regime. The United States gave support to the mujahedeen rebels who fought against Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

22. Foreign Relations • Another international menace was state-sponsored terrorism. In October 1983, 239 Marines were killed in Lebanon by a suicide bomber. Governments such as Syria, Libya, and Iran were suspected to training terrorist groups on their own soil. Reagan warned the nations of the world that if the United States could ever prove a link between an act of terrorism and a foreign government, there would be serious consequences.

23. Foreign Relations • When the CIA linked the bombing of a West Berlin discotheque to the government of Libya, Reagan sprung into action. U.S. planes retaliated in April 1986 by bombing Libya, including the home of its leader, Muammar el-Qaddafi.

24. End of the Cold War • When Mikhail Gorbachev assumed the reins of power in the Soviet Union in 1985, no one predicted the revolution he would bring. A dedicated reformer, Gorbachev introduced the policies of glasnost and perestroika to the USSR.

25. End of the Cold War • Glasnost, or openness, meant a greater willingness on the part of Soviet officials to allow western ideas and goods into the USSR. Perestroika was an initiative that allowed limited market incentives to Soviet citizens. • Gorbachev hoped these changes would be enough to spark the sluggish Soviet economy. Freedom, however, is addictive.

26. End of the Cold War • The unraveling of the Soviet Bloc began in Poland in June 1989. Despite previous Soviet military interventions in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Poland itself, Polish voters elected a noncommunist opposition government to their legislature. The world watched with anxious eyes, expecting Soviet tanks to roll into Poland preventing the new government from taking power.

27. End of the Cold War • Gorbachev, however, refused to act. • Like dominoes, Eastern European communist dictatorships fell one by one. By the fall of 1989, East and West Germans were tearing down the Berlin Wall with pickaxes. Communist regimes were ousted in Hungary and Czechoslovakia. On Christmas Day, the brutal Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife were summarily executed on live television. Yugoslavia threw off the yoke of communism only to dissolve quickly into a violent civil war.

28. End of the Cold War • Demands for freedom soon spread to the Soviet Union. The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania declared independence. Talks of similar sentiments were heard in Ukraine, the Caucasus, and the Central Asian states. Here Gorbachev wished to draw the line. Self-determination for Eastern Europe was one thing, but he intended to maintain the territorial integrity of the Soviet Union. In 1991, he proposed a Union Treaty, giving greater autonomy to the Soviet republics, while keeping them under central control.

29. End of the Cold War • That summer, a coup by conservative hardliners took place. Gorbachev was placed under house arrest. Meanwhile, Boris Yeltsin, the leader of the Russian Soviet Republic, demanded the arrest of the hardliners. The army and the public sided with Yeltsin, and the coup failed. Though Gorbachev was freed, he was left with little legitimacy.

30. End of the Cold War • Nationalist leaders like Yeltsin were far more popular than he could hope to become. In December 1991, Ukraine, Byelorussia, and Russia itself declared independence and the Soviet Union was dissolved. Gorbachev was a president without a country.

31. End of the Cold War • shocked nonetheless at the turn of events in the Soviet bloc. No serious discourse on any diplomatic levels in the USSR addressed the likelihood of a Soviet collapse. Republicans were quick to claim credit for winning the Cold War. They believed the military spending policies of the Reagan-Bush years forced the Soviets to the brink of economic collapse. Democrats argued that containment of communism was a bipartisan policy for 45 years begun by the Democrat Harry Truman.

32. End of the Cold War • Most Americans found it difficult to get used to the idea of no Cold War. Since 1945, Americans were born into a Cold War culture that featured McCarthyist witchhunts, backyard bomb shelters, a space race, a missile crisis, détente, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the Star Wars defense proposal. Now the enemy was beaten, but the world remained unsafe. In many ways, facing one superpower was simpler than challenging dozens of rogue states and renegade groups sponsoring global terrorism.

33. Fall of the Berlin Wall

34. Invasion of Grenada

35. Invasion of Grenada • The invasion of Grenada in late 1983 can be seen as a small part of the rivalry between the U.S. and Cuba during the Reagan years. A bloody coup in Grenada, along with a perceived threat to American students on the island provided the U.S. with an excellent excuse to eliminate a Marxist regime allied to Fidel Castro's Cuba.

36. Invasion of Grenada • The Invasion of Grenada, codenamed Operation Urgent Fury, was a 1983 U.S.-led invasion of Grenada, a Caribbean island nation with a population of just over 100,000 located 100 miles (160 km) north of Venezuela. It was triggered by a military coup which ousted a brief revolutionary government. The successful invasion led to a change of government but was controversial due to charges of American imperialism, Cold War politics, the involvement of Cuba, the unstable state of the Grenadian government, and Grenada's status as a Commonwealth realm.

37. Invasion of Grenada • The invasion was criticized by the United Kingdom, Canada and the United Nations General Assembly, which condemned it as "a flagrant violation of international law". It enjoyed broad public support in the United States as well as in some sectors in Grenada who viewed the post-coup regime as illegitimate. October 25 is a national holiday in Grenada, called Thanksgiving Day, to commemorate this event. Additionally, on 29 May 2009, the Point Salines International Airport was officially renamed in honour of the slain pre-coup leader Maurice Bishop by the Government of Grenada

38. Invasion of Grenada Students waiting to be Evacuated from St. George's School of Medicine in Grenada.

39. Change in lifestyle • American lifestyles changed dramatically during the 1980s. Cable television introduced a whole palette of new programming for the discriminating viewer. Compact discs replaced records as the most popular medium for recorded music. Banking became more convenient with the proliferation of automatic teller machines. Businesses and individuals rushed to purchase personal computers that held the promise of radically simplifying difficult tasks.

40. “JUST SAY NO” • The hedonism of the 1970s was being re-evaluated. Many drugs, which were considered recreational in the '70s, were revealed as addictive, deadly substances. As reports of celebrities entering rehabilitation centers and the horrors of drug-ridden inner cities became widely known, First Lady Nancy Reagan's message to "Just Say No" to drugs became more powerful. Regardless, newer and more dangerous substances like crack cocaine exacerbated the nation's drug problem.

41. Changes in Society • The sexual revolution was rocked by the spread of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS. This deadly disease was most commonly communicated by sexual contact and the sharing of intravenous needles. With the risks of promiscuous behavior rising to a mortal level, monogamy and "safe sex" with condoms were practiced more regularly.

42. YUPPIES • Tired of the moral and political seriousness of the activist 1960s and 1970s, the yuppies began to spend their money on themselves, often going into debt to purchase high-priced status symbols and expensive adult playthings. Rolex watches, designer fashions, trendy gourmet foods, and BMW cars came to represent the self-indulgent lifestyle of the wealthy young professionals. Snob appeal became the measuring stick for purchases. Drug use was associated with yuppies, but not the bohemian marijuana of the hippies. Rather, it was cocaine, the expensive drug of the jet set. "Whoever dies with the most toys, wins," and "Who says you can't have it all?" became the catch phrases of the day.

43. YUPPIES • The yuppies soon came to symbolize everything the media found to criticize in the 1980s. Calling the 1980s the "me" generation and the "greed decade," media pundits lambasted the yuppie swingers as they had their hippie counterparts. Books like Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City and Tom Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities and the film Wall Street chronicled the self-aggrandizing decadence of the yuppie life. In reality, the economic boom of the early 1980s contributed to rising consumption throughout middle class America, and the well-educated young elite were merely particularly well-positioned to take advantage of it.

44. YUPPIES • They had been raised with a sense of their own importance and entitlement, and they had been given jobs with salaries that reinforced that sense. Their lifestyle values were the opposite of those of their parents, the conservative children of the Great Depression. Professional life seemed merely like a step beyond college parties, and the fun was less limited. Profitably employed married couples without children were given the name dinks (double income no kids) by the press, which showed a liking for catchy acronyms. Dinks had unprecedented disposable income, and in an increasingly consumer society, it was easy to spend.

45. Gary Hart Scandal • Hart declined to run for re-election to the Senate, leaving office when his second term expired with the intent of running for president again. In January 1987, he was the clear frontrunner for the Democratic nomination in the 1988 election.

46. Gary Hart Scandal • On May 5, the Herald received a further tip that Hart had spent a night in Bimini on a yacht called the Monkey Business with a woman who was not his wife. The Herald obtained a photograph of Hart sitting on a dock wearing a Monkey Business T-shirt, with then-29-year-old model Donna Rice, sitting on his lap. The photograph was then published in the National Enquirer. On May 8, 1987, a week after the story broke, Hart dropped out of the race. At a press conference, he lashed out at the media, saying "I said that I bend, but I don't break, and believe me, I'm not broken." A Gallup Poll found that nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of the U.S. respondents it surveyed thought the media treatment of Hart was "unfair." A little over half (53 percent) responded that marital infidelity had little to do with a president's ability to govern.

47. 1984 Election Reagan was re-elected following the November 6 election in an electoral and popular vote landslide, winning 49 states. Reagan won a record 525 electoral votes total (of 538 possible), and received 58.8 percent of the popular vote. Mondale's 13 electoral college votes (from his home state of Minnesota—which he won by 0.18%—and the District of Columbia) marked the lowest total of any major Presidential candidate since Alf Landon's 1936 loss to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Mondale's defeat was also the worst for any Democratic Party candidate in U.S. history in the Electoral College, though others, including George B. McClellan, Alton Parker, James M. Cox, John W. Davis, and George McGovern, did worse in the popular vote.

48. 1984 Election Ronald Reagan Republican - California Walter Mondale Democrat - Minnesota

49. 1988 Election • The election on November 8, 1988, was a majority for Bush in the popular vote and a lopsided majority (40 states) in the Electoral College. Bush was the first man born from New England to be elected to the presidency since John F. Kennedy. • Bush performed very strongly among suburban voters, perhaps owing to his campaign themes of law and order, punctuated by his criticisms of the Massachusetts furlough program. This was a boon in several swing states. In Illinois, Bush won 69% in DuPage County and 63% out of Lake County, suburban areas which adjoin Chicago's Cook County. In Pennsylvania, Bush swept the group of suburban counties that surround Philadelphia, including Bucks, Delaware, Chester, and Montgomery. Bush also won most of the counties in Maryland, perhaps fallout from the fact that Willie Horton committed his infamous criminal acts there. New Jersey, known at the time for its many suburban voters and its moderate Republicanism, went easily for Bush. Bush also gained victory for attacking Dukakis's furlough program he had while he was Governor of Massachusetts,though Dukakis still maintained popularity in Massachusetts.

50. 1988 Election