A Crisis in Confidence 1968-1980

1
A Crisis in Confidence1968-1980
A Crisis in Confidence 1968-1980 (The Me Decade)
2
Chapter Introduction
This chapter will explain a crisis in confidence
in America. It will focus on how Nixon and the
Watergate scandal changed peoples perceptions of
government, the economic troubles of the Ford and
Carter years, and the foreign policy challenges
of the 1970s.

• Section 1 Nixon and the Watergate Scandal
• Section 2 The Ford and Carter Years
• Section 3 Foreign Policy Troubles

3
Nixon's Domestic Policy and Fall
4
Objectives

• Describe Richard Nixons attitude toward big
  government.
• Analyze Nixons southern strategy.
• Explain the Watergate incident and its
  consequences.

5
Terms and People

• silent majority - voters Nixon sought to reach,
  who did not demonstrate but rather worked and
  served quietly in Middle America
• stagflation - the dual conditions of a stagnating
  economy and inflation
• Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
  (OPEC) - group of countries which sell oil to
  other nations and cooperate to regulate the price
  and supply of oil
• southern strategy - a plan to make the Republican
  Party a powerful force in the South by attracting
  the votes of blue-collar workers and southern
  whites

6
Terms and People (continued)

• affirmative action - a policy that gives special
  consideration to women and minorities in order to
  make up for past discrimination
• Watergate - the scandal that began with a
  burglary of Democratic Party headquarters and led
  to Nixons resignation
• executive privilege - the principle that the
  President has the right to keep certain
  information confidential

7
What events led to Richard Nixons resignation as
President in 1974?
President Nixon won reelection in a landslide in
1972. Due to the Watergate scandal, however, he
left office in disgrace two years later. The
event changed Americans attitudes toward
government in a way that is still felt today.
8
He did it by working to appeal to the silent
majority, or those he called Middle Americans.
Nixon made a dramatic political comeback in 1968
when he won the presidency.
9
Nixon actually expanded the federal
governmentwhile he was in office.
Nixon tried to give power back to the state
governments but . . .
10
The economy was unstable during Nixons
presidency.
Stagflation was the combination of a recession
and inflation.
Oil prices went up due to an embargo issued by
OPEC.
11
Nixon criticized the court-ordered busing of
children to schools outside their
neighborhoods. Nevertheless, Nixons civil
rights initiatives included affirmative action.
12
In the election of 1972, Nixon used a new
southern strategy.
Nixons strategy succeeded and he was reelected
in a landslide.
13
Watergate Scandal

• On June 17, 1972, five men were arrested after
  breaking into the headquarters of the Democratic
  National Committee located in the Watergate Hotel
  in Washington, D.C. The burglars were not
  ordinary thieves. They carried wiretaps to
  install on telephones. They carried cameras to
  photograph documents. Four of the five criminals
  were anti-Castro Cubans who had been previously
  hired by the CIA. The fifth was James McCord, the
  security adviser for Nixon's campaign staff known
  as the Committee to Re-Elect the President, or
  CREEP. Although the incident failed to make the
  front pages of the major newspapers, it would
  soon become the most notorious political scandal
  in American history.

14
Watergate Scandal

• In the heated climate of the late 1960s and early
  1970s, President Nixon believed strongly that a
  war was being fought between "us" and "them." To
  Nixon, "us" meant the conservative, middle- and
  working-class, church-going Americans, who
  believed the United States was in danger of
  crumbling. "Them" meant the young, defiant, free
  love, antiwar, liberal counterculture figures who
  sought to transform American values.
• President Nixon's letter of resignation (above)
  is addressed to the Secretary of State who at
  the time was Henry Kissinger in keeping with a
  law passed by Congress in 1792. When Kissinger
  initialed the document at 1135 a.m., Nixon's
  resignation became official.
• Nixon would stop at nothing to win this war of
  hearts and minds, even if it meant breaking the
  law.

15
Watergate Scandal

• In 1971, a White House group known as the
  "Plumbers" was established to eliminate
  administration leaks to the press. Their first
  target was Daniel Ellsberg who had worked on the
  Pentagon Papers, a highly critical study of
  America's Vietnam policy. Ellsberg leaked the
  Pentagon Papers intended to be used internally
  by the government to the New York Times. The
  Plumbers vandalized the office of Ellsberg's
  psychiatrist, hoping to find discrediting
  information on Ellsberg to release to the public.

16
Watergate Scandal

• Later that year, Attorney General John Mitchell
  resigned to head CREEP. The campaign raised
  millions of dollars in illegal contributions and
  laundered several hundred thousand for plumbing
  activities. A White House adviser named G. Gordon
  Liddy suggested that the Democratic headquarters
  be bugged and that other funds should be used to
  bribe, threaten, or smear Nixon's opponents.
  After the arrest of the burglars, Nixon suggested
  the payments of hush money to avoid a connection
  between Watergate and the White House. He
  suggested that the FBI cease any investigation of
  the break-in. He recommended that staffers
  perjure themselves if subpoenaed in court.

17
Watergate Scandal

• The Watergate cover-up was initially successful.
  Despite a headline story in The Washington Post
  by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein suggesting
  White House involvement, Nixon went on to win 49
  of 50 states in the November 1972 Presidential
  election against George McGovern.
• When the burglars were tried in January 1973,
  James McCord admitted in a letter that members of
  the Nixon Administration ordered the Watergate
  break-in. A Senate committee was appointed to
  investigate, and Nixon succumbed to public
  pressure and appointed Special Prosecutor
  Archibald Cox to scrutinize the matter.

18
Watergate Scandal

• Complicitous in the cover-up, many high-level
  White House officials resigned including Nixon's
  Chief of Staff, Bob Haldeman, and his Adviser on
  Domestic Affairs, John Ehrlichman. In an
  unrelated case, Vice-President Spiro Agnew
  resigned facing charges of bribery and tax
  evasion. Nixon's own personal counsel, John Dean,
  agreed to cooperate with the Senate and testified
  about Nixon's involvement in the cover-up. In a
  televised speech, Nixon assuredly told the
  American public "I am not a crook." It seemed
  like a matter of Nixon's word against Dean's
  until a low-level aide told the committee that
  Nixon had been in the practice of taping every
  conversation held in the Oval Office.

19
Watergate Scandal

• Nixon flatly refused to submit the tapes to the
  committee. When Archibald Cox demanded the
  surrender of the tapes, Nixon had him fired.
  Public outcry pressed Nixon to agree to release
  typewritten transcripts of his tapes, but
  Americans were not satisfied. The tape
  transcripts further damaged Nixon. On the tapes
  he swore like a sailor and behaved like a bully.
  Then there was the matter of 17 crucial minutes
  missing from one of the tapes.
• Finally, in U.S. v. Nixon, the Supreme Court
  declared that executive privilege did not apply
  in this case, and Nixon was ordered to give the
  evidence to the Congress.

20
Watergate Scandal

• By this time, the House Judiciary Committee had
  already drawn up articles of impeachment, and
  Nixon knew he did not have the votes in the
  Senate to save his Presidency.
• On August 8, 1974, Nixon resigned the office,
  becoming the first President to do so. His
  successor, Gerald Ford, promptly awarded Nixon a
  full pardon for any crimes he may have committed
  while in office. The press and the public cried
  foul, but Ford defended his decision by insisting
  the nation was better served by ending the long,
  national nightmare.
• During his years in office, Nixon had brought a
  controversial end to the Vietnam War, opened
  communication with Red China, watched NASA put
  astronauts on the moon, and presided over a
  healing period in American history in the early
  1970s. Despite these many accomplishments,
  Watergate's shadow occludes Nixon's legacy.

21
Despite Nixons strong victory, the seeds of his
downfall were planted during a break-in of the
Democratic Party headquarters in 1972.
The Watergate scandal, as it came to be called,
changed everything.
22
Nixon denied any wrongdoing.
It was revealed that Nixon had been secretly
taping conversations in the Oval Office.
23
Nixon refused to turn over the tapes, citing
executive privilege.
The Supreme Court ordered him to turn them over.
24
The tapes proved Nixons involvement, so a House
committee voted to impeach him.
As a result, Nixon decided to resign in August of
1974, the first and only President ever to do so.
25
Nixon and Watergate
26
The Election of 1968

• Richard Nixon only narrowly won the 1968
  election, but the combined total of popular votes
  for Nixon and Wallace indicated a shift to the
  right in American politics.
• The 1960's began as an era of optimism and
  possibility and ended in disunity and distrust.
• The Vietnam war and a series of assassinations
  and crises eroded public trust in government and
  produced a backlash against liberal movements and
  the Democratic party.

27
The Election of 1968

• Nixon campaigned as a champion of the "silent
  majority," the hardworking Americans who paid
  taxes, did not demonstrate, and desired a
  restoration of "law and order.
• He vowed to restore respect for the rule of law,
  reconstitute the stature of America, dispose of
  ineffectual social programs, and provide strong
  leadership to end the turmoil of the 1960's.

28
Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers

• Daniel Ellsberg was an employee of the Defense
  Department who leaked a classified assessment of
  the Vietnam War in 1971.
• The 7,000 page document came to be known as the
  Pentagon Papers.
• They cast doubt on the justification for entry
  into the war and revealed that senior government
  officials had serious misgivings about the war.
• When the New York Times and Washington Post began
  to publish the Pentagon Papers, the Nixon
  Administration sued them.
• The Supreme Court ruled that the papers could
  continue to publish the documents.

29
The White House Plumbers

• After the release of the Pentagon Papers, the
  White House created a unit to ensure internal
  security.
• This unit was called the Plumbers because they
  stopped leaks.
• In 1971 they burglarized the office of Daniel
  Ellsbergs psychiatrist, seeking material to
  discredit him.
• It was later revealed that Nixons domestic
  advisor John Ehrlichman knew of and approved the
  plan.

Howard Hunt
G. Gordon Liddy
James McCord
Chuck Colson
30
The Watergate Break-in

• When initial polls showed Nixon in the Election
  of 1972 in a close race, the Plumbers turned
  their activities to political espionage.
• On 17 June 1972, 5 men were arrested while
  attempting to bug the headquarters of the
  Democratic Party inside the Watergate building in
  Washington D.C.
• One of the men arrested, James McCord, was the
  head of security for the Republican Party.
• The Nixon campaign denied any involvement.

31
Woodward, Bernstein and the Washington Post

• Watergate came to public attention largely
  through the work of Bob Woodward and Carl
  Bernstein, investigative reporters from the
  Washington Post.
• Despite enormous political pressure, Post editor
  Ben Bradlee, publisher Katherine Graham, Woodward
  and Bernstein, aided by an enigmatic source
  nicknamed Deep Throat kept the story in the
  public consciousness until Nixons resignation.

32
Watergate Enters the Nixon Campaign

• The break-in was eventually tied to the Nixon
  reelection campaign through a 25,000 check from
  a Republican donor that was laundered through a
  Mexican bank and deposited in the account of
  Watergate burglar Bernard Barker.
• Later it was discovered that Former Attorney
  General John Mitchell, head of Nixons Committee
  to Re-Elect the President, (CREEP) controlled a
  secret fund for political espionage.
• Mitchell would later go to prison for his role in
  the scandal

33
The Election of 1972

• Despite the growing stain of Watergate, which had
  not yet reached the President, Nixon won by the
  largest margin in history to that point.

34
The Watergate Investigations Judge John Sirica

• Watergate came to be investigated by a Special
  Prosecutor, a Senate committee, and by the judge
  in the original break-in case.
• Judge Sirica refused to believe that the burglars
  had acted alone.
• In March 1973, defendant James W. McCord sent a
  letter to Sirica confirming that it was a
  conspiracy.
• Siricas investigation transformed Watergate from
  the story of a third-rate burglary to a scandal
  reaching the highest points in government.

35
Senate Investigation and the Oval Office Tapes

• The Senate began hearings into Watergate in May
  1973.
• The hearings were televised in their entirety.
• They focused on when the President knew of the
  break-in.
• In June 1973, former White House legal counsel
  John Dean delivered devastating testimony that
  implicated Nixon from the earliest days of
  Watergate.

36
Senate Investigation and the Oval Office Tapes

• The Administration was eager to discredit Dean
  and his testimony so it began to release factual
  challenges to his account.
• When former White House aide Alexander
  Butterfield was asked about the source of the
  White House information, he revealed the
  existence of an automatic taping system that
  Nixon had secretly installed in the Oval Office.
• These tapes would become the focus of the
  investigation.

37
The Saturday Night Massacre

• The Administration reached an agreement with the
  Senate Watergate Committee that its Chairman
  would be allowed to listen to tapes and provide a
  transcript to the Committee and to Special
  Prosecutor Archibald Cox.
• The deal broke down when Cox refused to accept
  the transcripts in place of the tapes.
• Since the Special Prosecutor is an employee of
  the Justice Department, Nixon ordered Attorney
  General Elliot Richardson to fire Cox.

Archibald Cox
38
The Saturday Night Massacre

• When Richardson refused, he was fired.
• Nixon ordered Deputy Attorney General William D.
  Ruckelshaus to fire Cox .
• When he refused, he was fired.
• Nixon then ordered Solicitor General Robert Bork
  (who was later nominated for the Supreme Court by
  Reagan) to fire Cox and he complied.
• The Washington Post reported on the Saturday
  Night Massacre.

Robert Bork
39
The Smoking Gun Tapes

• When the Supreme Court forced Nixon to surrender
  the tapes.
• Nixon was implicated from the earliest days of
  the cover-up
• authorizing the payment of hush money
• attempting to use the CIA to interfere with the
  FBI investigation.
• One tape has an 18 ½ minute gap.
• Nixons secretary Rosemary Woods demonstrated how
  she could have inadvertently erased the tape, but
  no one bought it.
• The smoking gun tapes, were released in August
  1974, just after the House Judiciary Committee
  approved Articles of Impeachment against Nixon.

40
Nixon Resigns

• On 27 July 1974, the House Judiciary Committee
  approved Articles of Impeachment against Nixon.
• The House was to vote on the matter soon.
• Nixon conceded that impeachment in the House was
  likely, but he believed that the Senate vote to
  remove him would fail.
• On 5 August 1974, when the smoking gun tape
  became public, a delegation from the Republican
  National Committee told Nixon that he would not
  survive the vote in the Senate Trial vote.
• On 9 August 1974, Richard Nixon became the first
  American president to resign.

41
Aftermath
Ford announcing the pardon

• More than 30 government officials went to prison
  for their role in Watergate.
• Richard Nixon was not one of them.
• In September 1974, President Gerald Ford gave
  Nixon a full pardon.
• Woodward and Bernstein won the Pulitzer Prize.
• They collaborated on 2 books, All the Presidents
  Men and The Final Days.
• In 1976 All the Presidents Men was adapted into
  an Oscar winning film.
• The identity of Deep Throat was kept secret until
  W. Mark Felt unmasked himself in 2005.

42
Nixons farewell departure August 9, 1974
43

• Watergate had a lasting impact on the country.

• It shook the publics confidence in its
  government.
• It showed that the system of checks and balances
  worked. Not even the President was above the law.

44
Post-Watergate Government Reforms

• Federal Election Campaign Act Amendments (1974)
• Freedom of Information Act Amendments (1974)
• Government in the Sunshine Act (1976)
• Ethics in Government Actof 1978

45
Ford and Carter Domestic Policy
46
Objectives

• Evaluate the presidency of Gerald Ford.
• Assess the domestic policies of Jimmy Carter.
• Analyze how American society changed in the
  1970s.

47
Terms and People

• Gerald Ford - became President in 1974 after
  Nixons resignation
• pardon - officially give forgiveness
• Jimmy Carter - a former governor of Georgia who
  was elected President in 1976
• Christian fundamentalist - a person who believes
  in a strict, literal interpretation of the Bible
  as the foundation of the Christian faith

48
Terms and People (continued)

• amnesty - political pardon
• televangelist - minister who preached on
  television

49
What accounted for the changes in American
attitudes during the 1970s?
Compared to the turbulent 1960s, the 1970s
appeared uneventful. However, the 1970s brought
many social, economic, and cultural changes. Many
felt those changes put America on the wrong track.
50

• The Ford Interlude
• Nixon's vice president, Gerald Ford (appointed to
  replace Agnew), was an unpretentious man who had
  spent most of his public life in Congress. His
  first priority was to restore trust in the
  government. However, feeling it necessary to head
  off the spectacle of a possible prosecution of
  Nixon, he issued a blanket pardon to his
  predecessor. Although it was perhaps necessary,
  the move was nonetheless unpopular.
• In public policy, Ford followed the course Nixon
  had set. Economic problems remained serious, as
  inflation and unemployment continued to rise.
  Ford first tried to reassure the public, much as
  Herbert Hoover had done in 1929. When that
  failed, he imposed measures to curb inflation,
  which sent unemployment above 8 percent. A tax
  cut, coupled with higher unemployment benefits,
  helped a bit but the economy remained weak.

51
Vice President Gerald Ford became President after
Nixons resignation in 1974. He faced the worst
economic problems that America had experienced
since the Great Depression.
Although Ford worked hard to solve the countrys
problems, his Whip Inflation Now (WIN) program
did not succeed. As unemployment grew, his
popularity declined rapidly.
52
The struggling economy and frustrations over
Gerald Fords pardon of Nixon led to Jimmy
Carters win in the 1976 presidential election.
Carter cast himself as an outsider and had the
support of Christian fundamentalists. He
presented himself as a citizens President with
no ties to professional politicians, which
appealed to many voters after the Watergate
scandal.
53

• The Carter Years
• Jimmy Carter, former Democratic governor of
  Georgia, won the presidency in 1976. Portraying
  himself during the campaign as an outsider to
  Washington politics, he promised a fresh approach
  to governing, but his lack of experience at the
  national level complicated his tenure from the
  start. A naval officer and engineer by training,
  he often appeared to be a technocrat, when
  Americans wanted someone more visionary to lead
  them through troubled times.
• In economic affairs, Carter at first permitted a
  policy of deficit spending. Inflation rose to 10
  percent a year when the Federal Reserve Board,
  responsible for setting monetary policy,
  increased the money supply to cover deficits.
  Carter responded by cutting the budget, but cuts
  affected social programs at the heart of
  Democratic domestic policy. In mid-1979, anger in
  the financial community practically forced him to
  appoint Paul Volcker as chairman of the Federal
  Reserve. Volcker was an "inflation hawk" who
  increased interest rates in an attempt to halt
  price increases, at the cost of negative
  consequences for the economy.

54

• Carter also faced criticism for his failure to
  secure passage of an effective energy policy. He
  presented a comprehensive program, aimed at
  reducing dependence on foreign oil, that he
  called the "moral equivalent of war." Opponents
  thwarted it in Congress.
• Though Carter called himself a populist, his
  political priorities were never wholly clear. He
  endorsed government's protective role, but then
  began the process of deregulation, the removal of
  governmental controls in economic life. Arguing
  that some restrictions over the course of the
  past century limited competition and increased
  consumer costs, he favored decontrol in the oil,
  airline, railroad, and trucking industries.
• Carter's political efforts failed to gain either
  public or congressional support. By the end of
  his term, his disapproval rating reached 77
  percent, and Americans began to look toward the
  Republican Party again.

55
Crises and Carters inexperience reduced the
effectiveness of his presidency.

• As he had no close allies in Washington, his
  legislation rarely passed in Congress without
  changes.
• Carter grappled with the energy crisis and
  inflation.
• He granted amnesty to Americans who had evaded
  the draft during the Vietnam War. This was highly
  unpopular with many Americans.

56
The Sunbelt gained more political influence.
The nations demographics changed due to
immigration and Americans moving south and west.
57
Life in America changed in other ways

• There was more premarital sex, more drug use, and
  a higher divorce rate.
• The 1970s gained the nickname the me decade as
  people focused on themselves.

58
One of the most popular television shows of the
1970s was All in the Family. The characters
debated hot-button social issues. The show
signaled a move away from nostalgia and escapism.
59
A resurgence of fundamental Christianity occurred
as a response to the shift in values.

• Televangelists reached millions.
• Religious conservatives formed alliances with
  political conservatives.

60

• Something was terribly wrong in America in the
  1970s.
• The United States was supposed to be a
  superpower, yet American forces proved powerless
  to stop a tiny guerrilla force in Vietnam.
  Support for Israel in the Middle East led to a
  rash of terrorism against American citizens
  traveling abroad, as well a punitive oil embargo
  that stifled the economy and forced American
  motorists to wait hours for their next tank of
  gasoline.
• A hostile new government in Iran held fifty-two
  American citizens hostage before the eyes of the
  incredulous world. The détente with the Soviet
  Union of the Nixon years dissolved into bitter
  animosity when a second arms control agreement
  failed in the Senate and a Soviet army of
  invasion marched into Afghanistan. The United
  States military juggernaut seemed to have reached
  its limits.

61

• At home, the news was no better. The worst
  political scandal in United States history forced
  a president to resign before facing certain
  impeachment. Months of investigation turned into
  years of untangling a web of government deceit.
  Details of illegal, unethical, and immoral acts
  by members of the White House staff covered the
  nation's newspapers. Upon resignation, the
  president was granted a full and complete pardon.
  Many Americans wondered what happened to justice
  and accountability.
• The booming economy sputtered to a halt.
  Inflation approached 20 and unemployment neared
  10 a combination previously thought to be
  impossible. Crime rates rose as tales of the
  decaying inner cities fell on deaf ears. A
  nuclear disaster of unspeakable proportions was
  barely averted at the Three Mile Island fission
  plant in Pennsylvania..

62

• Many Americans coped with the current ailments by
  turning inward. Outlandish fashion and outrageous
  fads such as streaking, mood rings, and pet rocks
  became common. Younger Americans finished their
  workweeks and sought escape in discotheques.
  Controversy surrounding "decaying morality"
  surfaced with regard to increased drug use,
  sexual promiscuity, and a rising divorce rate. As
  a result, a powerful religious movement turned
  political in the hopes of changing directions
  toward a more innocent time.
• The United States celebrated its bicentennial
  anniversary in 1976 without the expected
  accompanying optimism. Instead, while many
  reflected on the past laurels of American
  success, an overarching question was on the minds
  of the American people what had gone wrong?

63
Ford and Carter Foreign Policy
64
Objectives

• Compare the policies of Gerald Ford and Jimmy
  Carter toward the Soviet Union.
• Discuss changing U.S. foreign policy in the
  developing world.
• Identify the successes and failures of Carters
  foreign policy in the Middle East.

65
Terms and People

• Helsinki Accords - a document that put the
  nations of Europe on record in favor of human
  rights, endorsed by the United States and the
  Soviet Union in a 1975 meeting
• human rights - the basic rights that every human
  being is entitled to have
• Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT II) - an
  agreement between the United States and Soviet
  Union to limit nuclear arms production
• boat people - people who fled communist-controlled
  Vietnam on boats, looking for refuge in
  Southeast Asia, the United States, and Canada

66
Terms and People (continued)

• sanctions - penalties
• developing world - the poor nations of Asia,
  Africa, and Latin America
• Camp David Accords - agreements that provided the
  framework for a peace treaty between Egypt and
  Israel
• Ayatollah Khomeini - a fundamentalist Islamic
  cleric who took power in Iran when the Shah fled
  in 1979

67
What were the goals of American foreign policy
during the Ford and Carter years, and how
successful were Fords and Carters policies?
The Vietnam War caused many Americans to question
the direction of the nations foreign
policy. Debates about détente, human rights, and
which regimes deserved American support became
part of the national conversation.
68

• In foreign policy, Ford adopted Nixon's strategy
  of detente. Perhaps its major manifestation was
  the Helsinki Accords of 1975, in which the United
  States and Western European nations effectively
  recognized Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe in
  return for Soviet affirmation of human rights.
  The agreement had little immediate significance,
  but over the long run may have made maintenance
  of the Soviet empire more difficult. Western
  nations effectively used periodic "Helsinki
  review meetings" to call attention to various
  abuses of human rights by Communist regimes of
  the Eastern bloc.

69
Gerald Ford continued Nixons policies of détente
with the Soviet Union after he took office in
1974.
The United States continued disarmament talks
with the Soviets that led to SALT II.
Ford also endorsed the Helsinki Accords, a
document that put major nations on record in
support of human rights.
70
The United States sought to put the Vietnam War
in the past.
South Vietnam fell to the communists. Many of the
refugees who took to the sea, or boat people,
eventually found refuge in the United States and
Canada.
71
Early in his presidency, Jimmy Carter continued
Nixons and Fords policies toward the Soviet
Union.
In June 1979, Carter signed the SALT II arms
control treaty despite opposition from many
Americans who believed it jeopardized U.S.
security. The Senate held heated debates about
whether to vote for the treaty, which angered the
Soviet Union.
Despite the signed treaty, the Soviet Union
invaded Afghanistan to support its communist
government. Carter withdrew SALT II from Congress
and imposed sanctions on the Soviets.
72
Jimmy Carter changed the course of American
foreign policy by declaring that it would be
guided by a concern for human rights.
Carters beliefs about human rights changed the
way that the U.S. dealt with countries in the
developing world. The U.S. stopped sending money
to countries that ignored their citizens rights,
such as Nicaragua.
Carter also decided to return the Panama Canal
Zone to Panama by 1999. Although some Americans
feared that this would weaken national security,
the Canal Zone treaties were ratified in 1978,
and Panama now has full control of the canal.
73

• Carter's greatest foreign policy accomplishment
  was the negotiation of a peace settlement between
  Egypt, under President Anwar al-Sadat, and
  Israel, under Prime Minister Menachem Begin.
  Acting as both mediator and participant, he
  persuaded the two leaders to end a 30-year state
  of war. The subsequent peace treaty was signed at
  the White House in March 1979.

74
Carter helped to negotiate a peace agreement
between Egypt and Israel known as the Camp David
Accords.
Egypt became the first Arab nation to officially
recognize the nation of Israel.
75

• 1978 Camp David Accords
• Peace agreement between Egypt and Israel

76

• After protracted and often emotional debate,
  Carter also secured Senate ratification of
  treaties ceding the Panama Canal to Panama by the
  year 2000. Going a step farther than Nixon, he
  extended formal diplomatic recognition to the
  People's Republic of China.
• But Carter enjoyed less success with the Soviet
  Union. Though he assumed office with detente at
  high tide and declared that the United States had
  escaped its "inordinate fear of Communism," his
  insistence that "our commitment to human rights
  must be absolute" antagonized the Soviet
  government. A SALT II agreement further limiting
  nuclear stockpiles was signed, but not ratified
  by the U.S. Senate, many of whose members felt
  the treaty was unbalanced. The 1979 Soviet
  invasion of Afghanistan killed the treaty and
  triggered a Carter defense build-up that paved
  the way for the huge expenditures of the 1980s.
• Carter's most serious foreign policy challenge
  came in Iran. After an Islamic fundamentalist
  revolution led by Shiite Muslim leader Ayatollah
  Ruhollah Khomeini replaced a corrupt but friendly
  regime, Carter admitted the deposed shah to the
  United States for medical treatment. Angry
  Iranian militants, supported by the Islamic
  regime, seized the American embassy in Tehran and
  held 53 American hostages for more than a year.
  The long-running hostage crisis dominated the
  final year of his presidency and greatly damaged
  his chances for re-election.

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In Iran, fundamentalist Islamic clerics led by
Ayatollah Khomeini seized power.
Radical students took over the U.S. Embassy and
held 66 Americans hostage.
President Carter failed to win all of the
hostages releaseevidence to some that his
foreign policy was not tough enough.
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After the Iranian government took 52 Americans
hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979,
President Carter mounted a rescue effort that
ended in tragedy. Eight American pilots
participating in "Operation Eagle Claw" lost
their lives when two aircraft collided.

• April 198100FaFailed Rescue attemp
• Failure on the desert floor
• Aborted U.S. hostage rescue attempt April 1980

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The hostage crisis showed that the Soviet Union
was no longer the only threat to America.
Conflicts in the Middle East threatened to become
the greatest foreign policy challenge for the
United States.
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Chapter Summary
Section 1 Nixon and the Watergate Scandal
Richard Nixon was reelected in 1972 by a
landslide due in part to his southern strategy.
The Watergate scandal caused him to resign the
office in disgrace two years later and changed
how Americans felt about their government.
Section 2 The Ford and Carter Years
During the Ford and Carter years, Americans dealt
with a struggling economy as many of the social
and cultural changes begun in the 1960s took
hold. Some felt the nation had gone off the right
track as peoples values and lifestyles changed.
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Chapter Summary (continued)
Section 3 Foreign Policy Troubles
During the Ford administration, Nixons foreign
policies were continued. Carter put more emphasis
on human rights in his dealings with the
developing world. When radicals in Iran took 66
American hostages, the United States realized
that the Middle East might be a bigger threat
than the Soviet Union.