The Road to Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions

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The Road to Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions

• The Carter Administration

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Jimmy Carter

• Political outsider and relative rookie (2 xs
  Georgia state house, 1x Gov.)
• Born Again Christian (appealed to mistrustful
  nation)
• Navy veteran (post WWII)
• Peanut Farmer

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Carter In Office

• Wins close election
• Backlash against Watergate
• Determined to be citizens president
• Walks inaugural route, dresses in common
  clothing, carries own things

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Miracle - Intro
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First Steps in Office

• Pardons draft dodgers from Nam
• Angers the Silent Majority
• Gives Chrysler federal bailout to survive oil
  crisis
• Familiar???

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The Economy Declines

• Price of oil per barrel goes from /-40 in 1976
  to /-80 in 1980
• Shortages in fuel heating oil cause factory
  business closings
• Americans freeze in homes during brutal winters
  of 1976-1978

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A Weak Disastrous Response

• Carter raises taxes, tells US to conserve
• PRICE CONTROLS!!!
• Inflation on the Rise, he raises interest rates
• US businesses hurt more unemployment
• A Nice guy outsider, hes largely ineffective

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Foreign Policy Woes

• Announces US policy will be guided by human
  rights interests
• Direct challenge to communism
• Undercuts spirit of Détente with the Soviets

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Soviets Invade Afghanistan

• Carter withdraws from SALT II, imposes sanctions
  on trade boycotts 1980 Moscow Olympics
• Communism begins new era of expansion

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US Changes Stance Towards DictatorsLoses
Influence in Central America

• Nicaragua Carter cuts US support to ruling
  Somoza family.
• Sandinista rebels overthrow the dictator, install
  far leftist govnt
• Socialism growing in Central America, Asia
  Africa, S. America

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Castro Pulls a Quick One Giggles

• Castro Carter negotiate deal to let Cuban
  political exiles leave Cuba for the US (Mariel
  Boatlift)
• Castro empties his prisons into the US
• Movie Scarface

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US Pulls Out of Panama

• Panama broke away from Columbia in US aided
  revolution in 1903 (T. Roosevelt)
• US given canal zone for its role
• Jimmy Carter negotiated to return canal to
  Panamanian control in 1999

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A Bright SpotThe Camp David Accords

• Egypt, the most powerful Arab state, had led
  attacks against US supported Israel since 1948
• Carter brokers deal, Israel gives Sinai Peninsula
  for Egyptian Peace

Anwar Sadat of Egypt, Jimmy Carter and Menachem
Begin of Israel
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Iran The Collapse Complete

• US ally, Shah of Iran, was hated by the lower
  classes
• In US for cancer treatment
• Religious exile, Ayatollah Khomeini, returned
  led a fundamentalist coup

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Iranian Coup Becomes US Crisis

• Khomeini demands US return Shah for trial (to be
  killed)
• US refuses
• US embassy stormed by enraged Iranians
• Embassy workers held for 444 days

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A Prisoner In the White House

• Carter orders Special Forces to save captives
  (Eagle Claw)
• Helicopters crash in a desert sand storm
• Ayatollah seen as victorious, US weak

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Add in the Environmental Problems
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The Malaise Speech - 1979

• Effort to rally sour American mood
• Claims we are all glum and down in the dumps, but
  could be great again
• Seen as desperate, negative defeatist
• Rallies Republicans.

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