Chapter 39

1. Chapter 39 The Stalemated 70’s 1968-1980

2. Sources of Stagnation • Increase in workforce with teenagers and women. Less likely to take full time jobs. • Declining investment in new machinery. • Government imposed safety and health standards. • Shift from production to service; productivity gains harder to measure.

3. Impact on economy • Tax dollars going to war rather than education. • Deflected scientific skill and manufacturing. • Policies of the 60’s funding the War and Great Society without increasing taxes. • War and Welfare put dollars in people’s hands without adding to supply of goods. • Too many dollars chasing too few goods.

4. Nixon Vietnamizes the War • Vietnamization withdraw 540,000 troops out of S. Vietnam over an extended period of time. • S. Vietnamese with American money would fight. “Nixon Doctrine” • Honor defense commitments but in future others would have to fight their own wars. • Doves still not happy. Massive protest in Oct. 1969 holding a moratorium.

5. Impact on Americans • Jan. 1970 longest conflict in U.S. history • Draft exempted college students and men with critical civilian skills. • African Americans made up a high share of the casualties. • Morale among soldiers dropped to ultimate lows. • Domestic disgust over revelations of the massacre of women and children at My Lai.

6. Nixon Changes the War • Nixon orders bombing of Cambodia without consulting Congress. • Attempt to stop supplies along the Ho Chi Minh trail. • Response “Outrage, Anger”; Kent State University, National Guard fired into a crowd killing 4. Jackson State 2 killed. • Nixon withdrew troops from Cambodia after 2 months. Deeper bitterness between hawks & doves. • 26th Amendment passed in 1971 (Voting age 18) • Pentagon Papers released in 1971 by the New York Times

7. Détente with China and Soviets • Road out of Vietnam through China and the Soviets. • 2 sides show hostilities based on philosophy of Marxism and borders. • Chance to play one off the other. • Nixon accepts invitation to China in 1972 arrives. Shanghai Communique-normalize relations between the 2. • Travels to Moscow in May. Soviets ready to deal, 3 years of food trade worth 750 million.

8. Détente • Agree to “ABM” treaty - Limits nation to 2 clusters of defensive missiles. • SALT- Strategic Arms Limitation Talks- aim at freezing number of long range nuclear missiles. • Still development of MIRVs (Multiple Independently Targeted Reentry Vehicles) by both sides. • Nixon opposed election of Chilean communist Salvador Allende to presidency. Embargo and CIA used to undermine his regime. • Allende died during an army attack, and Augusto Pinochet replaces him.

9. Nixon’s Court Appointments • Nixon had 4 conservative appointments out of the 9. • Yet Justices are free to think as they like once on the bench. • Burger court proved reluctant to dismantle the liberal rulings.

10. Supreme Court • 1960s- Protection of the individual over the masses. • Nixon looked to change court’s philosophy. • Several vacancies looked for people with strict interpretation of the Constitution. • Stop meddling in social and political questions. • Roe v. Wade • Supreme Court says the right to privacy created in Griswold means that women have the right to an abortion because medical decisions are private choices made between a woman and her doctor.

11. Domestic Programs • Expansion of the welfare programs. • Approved increased appropriations of the Food Stamps, Medicaid, and AFDC. • Automatic cost of living increase of Social Security when prices rose more than 3% in a year. • Philadelphia Plan- Require construction unions to establish goals and timetables for the hiring of African Americans. Soon extended to all federal contracts. • Alters the meaning of affirmative action. Conferred privileges to certain groups.

12. Domestic Programs • Created the EPA (Rachel Carson and Silent Spring example of muckraking.) Mounting concern of the environment for the past 2 decades. • Clean Air Act of 1970 and Endangered Species Act of 1973. • Creation of OSHA and CPSC to improve working conditions and consumer product safety. • Ensuing decades of reducing automobile emissions and cleaning up waterways. • Congress refuses to pay for huge irrigation projects. • Imposed 90 day wage and price freeze. Worried about rising inflation. Took U.S. off the gold standard.

13. Election of 1972 • Southern Strategy-appoint conservative judges, slow the push for civil rights, and opposing school busing to achieve racial balance. • Mattered little because foreign policy dominated the campaign. • Last election Nixon promised to end the war and win the peace. • Spring of ‘72 fighting escalated when N. Vietnamese overran the DMZ. • Nixon launched bombing attacks on strategic sites.

14. Election of 1972 • McGovern (SD) Democrat. • Promise to pull remaining troops within 90 days. Earn backing of anti war groups. • Appeal to minorities, feminists, leftists, and youth alienated traditional working class of his party. • VP Eagelton removed from ticket for having undergone psychiatric care. • Kissinger announced 12 days before election that peace is at hand. Agreement in days.

15. Aftermath of Election • Nixon landslide victory. • Why? (Young people don’t vote is one big reason) • When fighting in Vietnam escalated again, Nixon continued heavy bombing hoping to force them to the table. • Force a cease fire to save face as peace with honor. • U.S to withdraw remaining 27,000 troops and N. Vietnamese allowed to keep their 145,000 in S. Vietnam.

16. Question of Cambodia • Nixon continued bombing of Cambodia comes under fire. Secretly done. • Sworn Cambodia neutrality was being respected. • Questions about the governments honesty. • Nixon continued large scale bombing after the cease fire in order to help the Cambodian government. Vetoed Congressional efforts to stop him. • Leads to Pol Pot’s rise to power and the killing fields of Cambodia (~2 million killed)

17. War Powers Act • Congressional opposition led to the War Powers Act. Passed over veto. • Report to Congress within 48 hours after committing troops or enlarging combat units. • Have to end within 60 days or extend it for 30 more with Congressional approval.

18. Middle East eruptions • October 1973, Syria and Egypt attack Israel in an attempt to gain back lost territory from Six-Day War. • Look to restrain Soviets from aiding attackers. (Kissinger Sec. of State) • 2 Billion in war materials given to Israel to push back the attack. • Penalty: Oil embargo on U.S. for supporting Israel. Lower thermostats and speedometers, increased lines at gas stations • “Energy Crisis” Alaska pipeline, 55 speed limit.

19. Energy crisis • Heavier use of coal and nuclear power. • End era of cheap abundant oil. • Middle East would be of strategic interest. • OPEC quadrupled price for crude oil after the embargo. Adds to the inflation crisis.

20. Watergate • June 17, 1972; 5 men were arrested at the Watergate apartment-office complex. • Bungled effort to plant “bugs” in the Democratic Party headquarters. • Group was working for Republican Committee for Reelection of the President (CREEP) • One of many “dirty tricks” forging documents, IRS to harass citizens, burglarizing psychiatrists office, using FBI and CIA for coverups.

21. Watergate • Vice President Agnew forced to resign for taking bribes. • Congress invoked 25th Amendment and voted Gerald Ford in. • Senate Committee begins to conduct hearings about the Watergate affair in 73-74’. • John Dean III; former White House lawyer, accused President and other officials of trying to cover up the Watergate affair. • Discovery of a secret taping system in the oval office.

22. Watergate • House Judiciary Committee demands tapes. • Nixon agrees to give “relevant tapes” with parts missing. Claims executive privilege. • Saturday Night Massacre- fires his own special prosecutor, attorney general, and deputy attorney general. • Supreme Court unanimously rules executive privilege gave him no right to withhold evidence. (U.S. v. Nixon) • Smoking gun; tapes reveal his involvement in a cover up. • Nixon is forced to resign and Ford becomes President.

23. Gerald Ford • Ford first President not elected to office. • Pardon’s Nixon of any crimes he may have committed as President. • Doubts of his possibility for being elected. • Sought to enhance to détente with the Soviets at Helsinki, Finland. • Recognize Polish border and other E. European countries. • Exchange for more liberal exchange of people and information. Human rights

24. Small movements in Eastern Europe that were put down. • Détente starts to look like a one way street. • Moscow continues human rights violations (Jews).

25. Defeat in Vietnam • Early 1975, N. Vietnam moves forward. • Ford urged Congress for more weapons in vain. • Remaining Americans quickly evacuated by Helicopter April 29, 1975. • 140,000 S. Vietnamese also rescued for fear of backlash. Eventually 500,000 brought to the U.S. • Loss of self esteem, confidence in military, and economic muscle.

26. Feminist Victories and Defeats • Congress passes Title IX, prohibits sexual discrimination in any federal assisted educational program or activities. • Push for an Amendment called the ERA Equal Rights Amendment. • Ratified in 28 States, lost momentum, Phyllis Schlafly conservative who saw it as a negative. Fear of undermining American Family and require women to serve in combat.

27. The Seventies in Black and White • Milliken v. Bradley 1974 established you could not require students to move across school district lines. Reinforce “white flight” • Only schools forced to integrate were the inner city schools. • Affirmative Action; accusations of reverse discrimination, Allan Bakke sues for medical school on grounds of Reverse discrimination. • Native Americans used courts to assert their status as semisovereign people. United States v. Wheeler.

28. 1976 Election • Gerald Ford/Republicans. • Jimmy Carter/Democrats. • Carter wins by narrow margin. Along with majorities in both houses of Congress. • Created new Dept. of Energy. • Pardoned draft dodgers (Campaign promise) • Campaign against Washington establishment. • Critics say he isolated himself, rubbed Congress the wrong way.

29. Humanitarian Diplomacy • Concern for Human Rights. Christian values. • Camp David Agreement: 1978 between Egypt & Israel. Israel would withdraw from Sinai Penninsula and Egypt would respect Israel borders. • Formal peace treaty within three months. • Resumed full diplomatic relations with China in 1979. • Treaties to turn over the Panama Canal by 2000.

30. Economic and Energy Woes • Inflation rate rose to 13% by 1979. • Cost of imported oil put us in the red at 40 billion in 1979. • Can’t consider economic isolation ever again with our dependency on oil. • Adjust master foreign language and culture in order to prosper. • Americans living on fixed incomes saw the value of the dollar shrink.

31. Iran • Carter sees problem from dependence on oil. • Proposals for energy conservation fell on deaf ears. • Iran 1979 overthrow of the Shah. • Violent revolution by Muslim fundamentalists resented Shah’s attempts to westernize the country. • U.S. the “Great Satan” because of helping the Shah.

32. Iran’s oil stopped flowing to the U.S. and OPEC hiked price of oil again. • Americans grow discontent with administration. • Carter isolated at Camp David seeks advice from countless groups. • When returns he tells Americans they are too involved in material goods. • Fired 4 cabinet secretaries and rallied around his Georgia group.

33. SALT II talks stalled in the Senate with concern over Soviets. • Iran; Nov. 4 1979 militants storm the U.S. embassy and take people hostage. • Demand America ships back the Shah. • December Soviets invade Afghanistan; appears they are moving to control Middle East. • Carter embargo on Soviets and boycott of Olympic games in Moscow.

34. Claim to use any means necessary to protect Persian Gulf against Soviet incursions. • Iran hostage situation- economic sanctions. Waiting for a stable government to emerge. • Attempted rescue fails. Underscores U.S. futility.