The Ford Presidency 1974-1977

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The Ford Presidency1974-1977

• My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare
  is over.
• Gerald Ford swearing in speech August 9, 1974

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The Ford Presidency1974-1977

• Ford was an affable man
• First unelected president

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The Ford Presidency1974-1977

• A former football player at the University of
  Michigan
• Former member of the House

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The Ford Presidency1974-1977

• Ford served on the Warren Commission that
  investigated the Kennedy Assassination

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The Nixon PardonSeptember 8, 1974

• One of Fords first actions, and his most
  controversial, was to issue a full pardon to
  Richard Nixon for any crimes he might have
  committed.

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The Nixon PardonSeptember 8, 1974

• I, Gerald R. Ford, President of the United
  States, pursuant to the pardon power conferred
  upon me by Article II, Section 2, of the
  Constitutiondo grant a full, free, and absolute
  pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses
  against the United States which he, Richard
  Nixon, has committed or may have committed or
  taken part in during the period from July
  (January) 20, 1969 through August 9, 1974.

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The Ford Presidency1975

• Final U.S. evacuation of South Vietnam April
  30, 1975
• Saturday Night Live debuts with parodies of
  President Ford

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The Ford Presidency1975

• President Ford falling down the steps of Air
  Force One

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The Ford Presidency1975

• President Ford standing over a women hit by one
  of his golf shots

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The Ford Presidency1975-1976

• Congress investigated the CIA (The Church
  Committee)
• In the 1950s it administered the drug LSD on
  unsuspecting Americans to test its effects
• Assassination plots against Fidel Castro and
  other foreign leaders
• Introduction of African swine fever virus to Cuba
  in 1971 through anti-Castro rebels

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The Ford Presidency1975-1976

• Congress also investigated the FBI
• Illegal surveillance of several hundred thousand
  American citizens
• Tapped Martin Luther Kings private phone
  conversations, sent him fake letters and
  threatened him

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The Ford Presidency1975-1976

• These investigations were a product of the
  climate of mistrust created by Vietnam and
  Watergate (LBJ and Nixon)
• They led to restraints put on the FBI and CIA
  that some have argued made us vulnerable to
  terrorist attack in years to come

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The Ford Presidency1974-1977

• U.S. economy experiencing high levels of
  inflation
• Energy crisis - OPEC
• Whip Inflation Now (WIN)

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The BicentennialJuly 4, 1976
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The BicentennialJuly 4, 1976
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The Election of 1976

• Ford held off conservative Ronald Reagan for the
  Republican nomination
• The Democrats selected a Washington outsider,
  James Earl Carter the former Governor of
  Georgia Call me Jimmy
• Carter was a born-again Christian who vowed that
  he would never lie to the American people

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The Election of 1976
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The Election of 1976
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The Carter Presidency1977-1981

• Stagflation
• High levels of Unemployment AND Inflation
• Energy Crisis
• Rising gas prices
• Three-Mile Island
• Near nuclear meltdown

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The Energy Crisis of the 70s
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The Energy Crisis of the 70s
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The Carter Presidency1977-1981

• The Panama Canal Treaty
• U.S. vow to turn the Canal over to Panama in 2000
• Camp David Accords
• Carter brokers a peace agreement between Egypt
  and Israel

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Camp David Accords
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The Carter Presidency1977-1981

• Soviets invade Afghanistan Dec. 24, 1979
• Détente ends
• U.S. boycotts 1980 summer Olympics
• Osama Bin Laden
• Soviet Unions Vietnam

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The Iranian Hostage CrisisNovember 4, 1979
January 20, 1981

• After a coup in 1953, the CIA reinstalled the
  government of Reza Mohammed Pahlevi The Shah of
  Iran
• The Shah was a U.S. ally that bordered the Soviet
  Union

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The Iranian Hostage CrisisNovember 4, 1979
January 20, 1981

• Irans petrodollars ended up in the hands of the
  Shah and his allies and NOT the mass of Iranian
  people
• He brutalized political opposition (secret
  police)

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The Iranian Hostage Crisis

• The Shah sought to modernize/westernize Iran and
  this met with opposition from Islamic
  fundamentalists
• One of his leading opponents was the Ayatollah
  Khomeini

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The Iranian Hostage Crisis

• Khomeini represented Islamic fundamentalists who
  rejected the westernization of Iran
• They viewed the U.S. as the embodiment of evil
  (The Great Satan)

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The Iranian Hostage Crisis

• In 1978, the Iranian people revolted against the
  Shah (The Iranian Revolution)
• President Carter and the U.S. continued to
  support its long time ally
• The Shah was forced to leave Iran

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The Iranian Hostage Crisis

• November 4, 1979
• Iranian students in Tehran storm the U.S. embassy
  and take Americans hostage

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The Iranian Hostage Crisis

• They hold these hostages for the next 444 days
• Massive anti-U.S. protests are held in the
  streets of Tehran

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The Iranian Hostage Crisis

• The protests and President Carters inability to
  do anything about it frustrated the American
  people
• A botched rescue mission added to the frustration

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The Reagan Presidency1981-1989

• Election of 1980 (November 4, 1980)
• 1 year anniversary of the hostage crisis

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The Reagan Presidency1981-1989

• Reagan called for an America with greater
  military power
• Vowed we would not be humiliated as a superpower
• Criticized budget deficits and the progressivism
  of the 60s and 70s

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Election of 1980
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The Reagan Presidency1981-1989

• Reagan became the oldest man ever to be elected
  president at age 69
• On the day of his inauguration the hostages were
  released from Iran
• In his inaugural speech he outlined his political
  philosophy

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1st Inaugural AddressJanuary 20, 1981

• In this present crisis, government is not the
  solution to our problem government is the
  problem.
• It is my intention to curb the size and
  influence of the Federal establishment and to
  demand recognition of the distinction between the
  powers granted to the Federal Government and
  those reserved to the States or to the people.

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1st Inaugural AddressJanuary 20, 1981

• We are a nation under God, and I believe God
  intended for us to be free. It would be fitting
  and good, I think, if on each Inauguration Day in
  future years it should be declared a day of
  prayer.
• Can we solve the problems confronting us? Well,
  the answer is an unequivocal and emphatic "yes."

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The Reagan Presidency1981-1989

• The Reagan appeal
• The Great Communicator
• Upbeat, positive, patriotic in the traditional
  sense
• Survived and recovered from an assassination
  attempt, two months in office, with great speed
  and great humor

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The Reagan Presidency1981-1989

• Reaganomics
• Tax cuts
• Cut federal spending/programs
• Deregulation
• Worst economic downturn since the Depression
  (1982) followed by the longest period of economic
  prosperity (to that time), 1983-1989 (low UE and
  low inflation)

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Reagan Foreign Policy

• Staunchly ant-Communist
• Referred to the Soviet Union as the Evil Empire
• Lebanon and Grenada (1983-84)
• 220 U.S. Marines in Lebanon killed by two trucks
  lined with explosives
• Within days, the Reagan administration launched a
  successful invasion of the island nation of
  Grenada (in Caribbean)

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Grenada

• The invasion was condemned by the United Nations
  but very popular in the U.S.
• The U.S. was successfully exerting its military
  might again, in the name of freedom and democracy

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Election of 1984

• Reagan runs for re-election claiming it is
  morning again in America
• Economy back on track
• America flexing military might
• Tax cuts
• The Democrats nominate Carters VP, Senator
  Walter Mondale

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Election of 1984
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The Reagan PresidencySecond Term

• The Challenger Disaster (January 28, 1986)

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The Reagan PresidencySecond Term

• Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev
• Negotiate historic arms reduction agreements

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Iran-Contra Scandal (1987)

• Despite a congressional law (Boland Amendment)
  forbidding it, the Reagan administration was
  funneling money to anti-Communist rebels in
  Nicaragua (The Contras)
• The money came from the sale of weapons to Iran
  (at war with Iraq) in exchange for Irans help in
  the release of American hostages in Lebanon

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Iran-Contra Scandal

• Oliver North worked for the NSC and was an
  ex-Marine coordinating this activity
• He became a hero to some Americans for proudly
  proclaiming the illegal act, a neat idea

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Iran-Contra Scandal

• Throughout the process President Reagan claimed
  he had no memory of the events
• A number of Reagan administration officials were
  convicted of crimes in relation to Iran-Contra
• President Reagan was never officially implicated

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The Reagan Legacy

• The Reagan Revolution
• Conservative, anti-government
• The Religious Right
• Budget Deficits
• Widening gap between rich and poor
• Contributed to the fall of communism in the
  Soviet Union and Eastern Europe

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The Reagan Legacy

• Restore a sense of pride in country that was lost
  after Vietnam and Watergate