The United States in the 197 0s

1. The United States in the 1970s You have two tasks. Top section – 5ws each event. Bottom section explain why each of these events would lead Americans to lose confidence in their country.

2. Watergate Scandal Watergate is a general term for a series of political scandals during the presidency of Richard Nixon that began with five men being arrested after breaking and entering into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate hotel complex in Washington, D.C. on June 17, 1972. The scandal reached to the top levels of American government, and the attempted cover-up of the break-in ultimately led to Nixon's dramatic resignation on August 9, 1974. Investigations revealed that this burglary was just one of many illegal activities authorized and carried out by Nixon's staff and those loyal to him. They also revealed the immense scope of crimes and abuses, which included election-campaign fraud, political espionage and sabotage, illegal break-ins, improper tax audits, illegal wiretapping on a massive scale, and a secret fund to pay those who conducted these operations. This secret fund was also used as hush money to buy silence of the seven men who were charged for the June 17 break-in. President Nixon tried to cover up the break-in. After enduring two years of mounting evidence against the President, which included former staff members testifying against them in a Senate investigation, it was revealed that Nixon had a tape recording system in his offices and that he had recorded many conversations. Recordings from these tapes revealed that he had obstructed justice and attempted to cover up the break-in. These taped became known as the Smoking Gun. After a series of court battles, the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled in the United States v. Nixon the President must hand over the tapes; he ultimately complied. With certainty of an impeachment in the House of Representatives and of a conviction in the Senate, Nixon resigned ten days later, becoming the only U.S. President to have resigned from office. Watergate Hotel Complex

3. Economy The 1970s were perhaps the worst decade of American economic performance since the 1930’s. Economic growth rates were considerably lower than previous decades. As a result, the 1970s stood out from the period after 1945. The high standing enjoyed by the American economy gradually became worse by years of heavy government spending (particularly the Great Society campaign) and funding for the Vietnam war. The oil shocks of 1973 and 1979 added to the existing problems and caused high inflation throughout much of the world for the rest of the decade. Soaring oil prices made most American businesses raise their prices too. From 1970, the average inflation rate hit about 6 percent, and reached 13.3 percent by 1979. This meant that an item that cost $1,000 at the beginning of the year would cost $1,133 by the end of that year. This period is also known for "stagflation", an event in which inflation and unemployment steadily increased. By the time of 1980, the ‘misery index’ ( the unemployment rate + the inflation rate) had reached an all-time high of 21.98 percent. Oil crisis Economically, the seventies were marked by the energy crisis which peaked in 1973 and 1979 After the first oil shock in 1973, gasoline was rationed in many countries. In the U.S., customers with a license plate ending in an odd number were only allowed to buy gasoline on odd-numbered days, while even-numbered plate-holders could only purchase gasoline on even-numbered days.

4. American Society • The continuing rise of inner-city poverty and crime rates, the Watergate scandal, defeatism in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, stagflation, the hardships of economic recession, the oil shocks of 1973 and 1979, and the Iran Hostage Crisis of 1979, were just some of the several problems that plagued America in the 1970s. As the economy slipped, the use of recreational drugs increased and mistrust in the American government among working class workers grew. • In the 1970s: • divorce rates increased, with up to one in two marriages ending in divorce. • female-headed households caused by these divorces increased, • which forces single women to work to support their families. There were increasing numbers of women working, both to support their families and try to make up for their family's declining standard of living. • There was believed to be an increase in poor behaviour among children. • Drug-use throughout all levels of society increased. • Crime and violent crime rates increased. • Millions of high-paying factory jobs were lost and replaced by low-paying service jobs. • There were increasing numbers of women and children in poverty. • The real income of American workers fell on average two percent a year each year from 1973 to 1981. • As a result of many of these changes, many Americans were losing their faith in the American Dream, their society, their government, and their future. Many asked why their government didn't try to do something about what many saw as the decline of the American culture, society, and economy. Didn't the government care about the needs of the American people? Published in 1970

5. Defeat in Vietnam The majority of Americans, it appeared, neither wanted to talk or think about their nation's longest war, the only war the United States had ever lost. In the early 1980s there was a renewed interest in the war as a flood of work on the conflict, especially concerning its lessons and legacies. Much of it, focussed on the damage done to American attitudes by the Vietnam ordeal. One piece of work by George R. Kennan stated that it was "the most disastrous of all America's undertakings over the whole two hundred years of its history." Initially, the humiliating defeat caused a loss of pride and self-confidence in a people that liked to think of the United States as invincible. So did the economic woes then afflicting the United States, which many blamed on the $167 billion spent on the war. In the main, as never before, Americans after the Vietnam War neither respected nor trusted politicians or the military. Another consensus also gradually emerged. At first, rather than giving returning veterans of the war welcoming parades, Americans seemed to shun, if not abuse, the 2 million-plus Americans who went to Vietnam. For the 1.6 million who served in combat, the 300,000 physically wounded, the many more who bore psychological scars, the 2,387 listed as "missing in action," and the more than 58,000 who died, virtually nothing was done to aid them or their loved ones who needed assistance in adjusting. Not until after the 1982 dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., did American culture acknowledge their sacrifice and suffering, and concede that most had been good soldiers in a bad war. Although most veterans did succeed in making the transition to ordinary civilian life, many did not. More Vietnam veterans committed suicide after the war than had died in it. Even more--perhaps three-quarters of a million--became part of the lost army of the homeless. And the nearly 700,000 draftees, many of them poor, badly educated, and non-white, who had received less than honourable discharges, depriving them of educational and medical benefits, found it especially difficult to get and keep jobs, to maintain family relationships, and to stay out of jail. Although a majority of Americans came to view dysfunctional veterans as needing support and medical attention rather than moral condemnation.