Chapter 24: an Age of Limits
Chapter 24: An Age of Limits
Section 1: The Nixon Administration
Richard M. Nixon- entered office in 1969 and focused on a more conservative America
New Federalism- Nixon’s idea to distribute a portion of federal power to the state and local government
Revenue Sharing- distribution of federal money to state and local governments with few or no restrictions on how to spend it
By 1972- the Revenue-sharing bill, known as the State and Local Fiscal Assistance Act became law
Family Assistance Plan (FAP)- a welfare-reform proposal approved by the House in 1970 but defeated by the Senate that would have guaranteed an income to welfare recipients who agreed to undergo job training and to accept work.
It would go to families of 4 and they would earn up to 4,000 dollars a year in supplemental income or unemployed who would then undergo job training (excluding mothers of preschool children)
Nixon supported some programs to increase federal spending and others he tried to get rid of!
Supported Dismantled
Social SecurityJob Corp training program
MedicareHousing and urban development
MedicaidImpoundment (withdrawing funds
From federal programs to halt them)
-federal courts eventually released the funds finding it unconstitutional
Nixon had promised the nation two things when he took office:
1) to battle the liberal elements of society 2) to end the war in Vietnam
- Nixon tried to accomplish “law and order” but did it illegally using the FBI and CIA to wiretape leftwing individuals and Democratic office buildings (Watergate office) and Nixon even used the Internal Revenue Service to audit the tax returns of antiwar and civil rights activists.
Southern Strategy- Nixon tried to appeal to the Southern conservative Democrats to win the 1972 Election by passing federal desegregation policies and a liberal Supreme Court. He also promised to name a Southerner to the Supreme Court
Nixon slowed desegretation because he did not feel the society was ready to fully integrate. Nixon also opposed integrated bussing and publicly spoke about it. Nixon also tried to move in a more conservative supreme court in 1969 and replaced four justices. Although the Supreme court ruled in favor of racially integrated schools through bussing.
Stagflation-high inflation and high unemployment due to deficit spending, international trade, and flood of new workers (women and baby boomers).
OPEC Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries- oil producing countries of the Middle East where American received their oil including Israel, Egypt, and Syria,
When a war broke out among the Middle Eastern countries US aided Israel and the Arab countries cut off oil supplies. Increase in Oil prices worsened inflation.
Nixon tried to raise taxes and cut the budget, increase interest rates, and ended with price and wage controls by 1971.
Realpolitik- “political realism” meaning foreign policy should be based solely on consideration of power, not ideals or moral principles.
Henry Kissinger, Nixon’s advisor for national security, felt Realpolitik was a good philosophy and the US needed to confront powerful nations with negotiations and sometimes military engagement.
Détente- policy aimed at easing cold war tensions by
Nixon visited China to ease tensions and opened the door of economic and diplomatic relations. Nixon also traveled to Moscow (1stUS president to visit). Nixon and Brezhnev signed the SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) I Treaty- a five year agreement that limited the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and submarine-launched missiles to 1972 levels.
These foreign policy triumphs with China and the Soviet Union helped reelect Nixon as president in 1972.
Section 2: Watergate: Nixon’s Downfall
The Watergate Scandal- Nixon’s administration and attempt to cover up a burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office and apartment complex in WashingtonDC.
Nixon’s chief advisors
K.R. Haldeman- White House Chief of Staff
John Erilchman- Chief Domestic adviser
John Mitchell- Attorney General
John W Dean III- Presidential Council
On June 17th 2:30 AM, a guard at Watergate caught five men breaking into the campaign headquarters of the DNC. The burglars planned to photograph documents outlining Democratic Party Strategy and to place wiretaps or bugs in the office telephone.
The groups leader James McCord, former CIA agent was the security coordinator for a group known as the Committee to Reelect the President. John Mitchell was also an accomplice who resigned as Nixon’s attorney general and ran Nixon’s reelection campaign.
The cover up quickly began and workers shredded all incriminating document in Haldeman’s office. The White house and Nixon asked the CIA to urge the FBI to stop its investigations into the burglary on the grounds of National Security in addition the CPR passed out nearly $450,000 to the Watergate burglars to buy their silence after they were indicted in September of 1972.
Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein kept on the Watergate scandal throughout the 1972 campaign through articles in the Washington Post. Reporter’s uncovered information that linked many members of administration to the burglary.
1973-trial of Watergate burglars began, judge John Sirica made it clear he believed the men did not act alone and just days before the burglars were sentenced James McCord sent a letter to Sirica that he said he lied under oath and hinted that powerful members of Nixon’s administration had been involved in the break in.
Nixon, upon hearing the news, acted by firing counsel John Dean, Richard Kliendienst, and said he did not attempt to cover it up and hired Elliot Richardson to investigate Watergate. By May 1973 the senate began its own investigation by Samuel James Ervin and he called Nixon’s administration to give their testimony.
John Dean delivered the first testimony against Nixon stating they had several meetings about the deceit.
Alexander Butterfly revealed that Nixon had videos that showed he knew about the scandal and when he knew about the scandal.
Saturday Night Massacre- a name given to the resignation of the US attorney general and the firing of his deputy in October 1973, after they refused to carry out president Nixon’s order to fire the special prosecutor investigating the Watergate affair.
The Entire White House is under siege and Vice President Sprio Agnew resigned after it was revealed he accepted bribes from Maryland engineering firms as governor of Maryland. President Nixon nominated House Minority leader General R Ford as his new vice-president and congress quickly affirmed.
In spring of 1974 Nixon told a television audience that he was releasing 1,254 pages of edited transcripts of the Whitehouse about Watergate. His offerings failed and Nixon refused to release unedited versions of the tapes. The Supreme Court stated that President Nixon must release the tapes and on July 27th the committee approved three articles of impeachment charging the president with obstructions of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of congress for refusing to obey a congressional subpoena to release the tapes.
Nixon released the tapes and there were mysterious gaps that his secretary accidentally erased part of the conservations between H R Haldeman and Nixon.
Just days before the House voted on Nixon’s impeachment and Nixon resigned and within a short time General Ford was sworn in as the 38th president. Impeachment is the process of accusing a public official of a wrong doing. Nixon stated that some of his judgments “were wrong.”
After Watergate, some 25 members of Nixon’s administration were convicted and served prison terms. After Watergate the American public and media opened a general suspicion about public officials that still exists today. Watergate remains the scandal and investigative story against which all others are measured.
Section 3: The Ford and Carter Years
Gerald R Ford- 38th president who urged America to put the Watergate scandal behind them. “I am a Ford not a Lincoln” stating when he pardoned Nixon and lost public support
Ford attempted to fight inflation but continued to butt heads with the democratic congress. Ford vetoed more than 50 pieces of legislation
Helsinki Accords- a series of agreements that promised greater cooperation between the nations of Eastern and Western Europe which is known as Fords greatest presidential accomplishments.
1975 South Vietnam surrendered to north and Cambodia seized the US merchant Ship Mayaguez in the Gulf of Siam. Ford send a massive military force to save the 39 men while loosing 41. The public was upset knowing 41 died to save 39.
Jimmy Carter- Democratic nominee and former peanut farmer and governor of Georgia. “I will never tell a lie.” And Carter won by a narrow margin bringing a down to earth style to Washington.
Carter, attempting to help the country’s economic crisis, urged the country to cut back on oil consumption.
National Energy Act- This act placed a tax on gas guzzling cars, removed price controls on oil and natural gas and extended tax credits for the development of alternative energy.
Carter appointed Andrew Young as US ambassador to the United Nations, Young was the first African American to hold that position. Carter also appointed 28 African Americans, 29 Women, and 14 Latinos to the Judicial branch alone.
Many did feel that Carter focused on energy rather than civil rights.
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke- stated that the University of Calfornia’s affirmative action policies of the medical school were unconstitutional.
Human Rights- the rights and freedoms such as those named in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights to which all people are entitled.
Carter strongly believed in these rights and cut off military aid to Argentina and Brazilcountries that imprisoned or tortured thousands of their own citizens.
US Panama Canal relations were better after Panama ratified treaties of the nation and gave back ownership of the Panama Canal.
Carter insistence on human rights broke down relations between the Soviet Union. They attempted to sign SALT II- which limited strategic weapons and nuclear-missile launchers that each side could produce. The SALT II agreement met opposition in the Senate but when the Soviet Union invaded the neighboring country of Afghanistan Carter refused to fight and SALT II treaty died.
Camp David Accords- first signed peace agreement with an Arab Country, Isreal agreed to withdraw from the Sinai Peninsula, which it had seized from Egypt during the Six day War in 1967. Egypt, in turn, formally recognized Israel’s right to exist.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini- Muslim Religious leader who led rebels in overthrowing the shah and establishing a religious stated based on strict obedience to the Qur’an (sacred book of Islam). Carter let the shah come to the US to receive cancer treatment and this infuriated the revolutionaries of Iran. They seized the US embassy in Iran and took 52 American hostages until Carter would send back shah. These Americans remained hostages for over a year and were released shortly after Regan took presidential office.
Section 4: Environmental Activism
Rachel Carson- “Silent Spring” growing use of pesticides and how they poisoned food.
½ million copies sold and the nation was aware of the environmental affects on humans
Earth Day- April 22, 1970, 10,000 schools and 2,000 colleges hosted some type of environmental-awareness activity and spotlighted such problems as pollution, growth and toxic waste, and the earth’s dwindling resources.
Environmentalists- someone who takes an active role in the protection of the environment
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)- consolidation of 15 existing federal pollution programs in which this new agency was given power to set and enforce pollution standards
1970- Clean Air Act of 1963 (air standards)
Endagered Species Act
Alaska Pipeline developed 1968- Nixon passed the Alaska native Claims settlement Act which gave acres of land to the state’s native tribes for conservations and tribal use
And in 1978 56 million acres were set aside in Alaska for national Monuments and 1980 1.4 million acres of protected areas.
Three Mile Island- a plant where on of the nuclear reactors malfunctioned where the reactor overheated after its cooling system failed. Many feared that radiation might escape and spread over the region. Two days later a low level radiation actually did escape and officals evacuated some residents while some fled on their own.
April 9th Nuclear Regulatory commission, the federal agency that monitors the nuclear power industry, announced that the immediate danger was over.
Many movies were created to make the public aware of Nuclear energy because the government refused to close Nuclear power plants.