Truman honored the 22nd Amendment and did not seek a third term for office, though he was exempt from the amendment. Therefore, the Democrats selected Adlai Stevenson from Illinois to challenge Dwight David Eisenhower of the Republicans, whose slogan was, “I like Ike” (since his nickname was Ike). Ike’s platform was to end the Korean War, battle communism, and fight corruption. He won 55% of the popular vote in 1952.
Ike’s goals became modern Republicanism. He wanted to slow federal growth by cutting spending, lowering taxes, and balancing the budget. Cutting spending led to three recessions in 8 years, and balancing the budget failed. He wanted to limit Presidential power. He wanted to raise the legislative and judicial branches. He favored big business by wanting to privatize the New Deal agencies, but he failed. He raised Social Security benefits and the minimum wage.
In 1957 the US suffered a major embarrassment when the USSR launched Sputnik as the first satellite into space. This was after a long fight with communism under Senator Joseph McCarthy, a Republican from Wisconsin.
McCarthyism targeted 205 people accused of disloyalty under the Federal Employee Loyalty Program in 1950. They worked in the State Department and were called communists. Joseph McCarthy accused George C. Marshall of conspiring against the US because he allowed China to turn communist. In April, 1954, McCarthy accused the Army of harboring communists. Televised hearings led to a change of opinion against died in 1957.
Eisenhower had challenges overseas to contend with after ending the Korean conflict. The biggest challenge was in Indochina (present-day Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam), a French colony taken by the Japanese in WWII. Vietnam sought independence under the Viet Minh as a political party to create the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945. The US sent money to France for reconstruction after WWII so it could use its own resources to fight the war in Vietnam. The US had hoped to contain communism, and by 1954 the US paid for 75% of the Vietnam War. Vietnam defeated France at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954 in northern Vietnam, beginning the domino theory, a philosophy that a communist Vietnam would result in all of Southeast Asia turning communist.
An international conference in Geneva divided Vietnam at the 17th parallel North with Minh controlling North Vietnam as a communist nation and anti-communists holding South Vietnam, supported by US military aid.
Meanwhile, the youth of the US felt misunderstood by their parents and rejected their parents’ values. There was a religious revival in the US led by Billy Graham. Hollywood capitalized on this new perception with the movie Rebel without a Cause (1955) with James Dean. J.D. Salinger wrote The Catcher in the Rye (1951) to oppose the conformist attitudes of the time.
As far as the economy was concerned, the postwar economy jumped from $212 billion in 1945 to $504 billion in 1960. The per capita income (the average income per person) rose from $1526 to $2788. Real purchasing power (what a person could actually buy) rose 22%. The US became the world’s richest nation.
Corporations dominated industry with companies such as Ford, GM, Chrysler, GE, and Westinghouse. Some of these became diversified conglomerates (they owned companies in various industries to stay healthy in an economic slowdown). McDonald’s started as a franchise in 1954 under Ray Kroc, leading to Burger King and KFC. These franchises led to many low-paying jobs with one parent company supporting thousands of small outlets.
Technology also changed as nuclear power plants crept up. Computers were invented in the 1940’s followed by transistors in 1947, leading to computers shrinking in size. These also led to faster computations from hours to minutes. “Debugging” was born when someone found a moth on a relay switch. TV was invented in the 1930’s and by 1953 two-thirds of all households owned one. American Bandstand, Howdy Doody Time, and I Love Lucy became classic shows. Ads were sold to companies to show their products. By 1956 the US became service oriented (white collar jobs), AFL and CIO merged in 1955. The baby boom generation soared as people gained more leisure. Suburbs boomed as William J. Levitt built houses cheaply, such as at Levittown.
The GI Bill of 1944 gave vets low-interest mortgages to aid in suburban growth. The Interstate Highway Act of 1956 gave $26 billion to build an interstate highway system across the US, which ultimately reached 40,000 miles.
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The 1950’s and 1960’s became a crucial period in American history for civil rights. Oliver Brown sued the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, in 1951 to allow his daughter Linda to attend an all white school. Thurgood Marshall defended the family. The United States Supreme Court ruled on May 17, 1954, in a 9-0 decision that “separate facilities are inherently unequal”, overturning Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). In 1957 US troops stood guard outside Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, to let 9 African-American students go to school there as a result of this ruling.
The Civil Rights Movement skyrocketed after the Montgomery Bus Boycott. In December, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat for a white man and was duly arrested. Martin Luther King, Jr., led the boycott that followed from then until 1956, after bus segregation was declared unconstitutional. This demonstrated that silent, nonviolent protests were powerful.
Meanwhile, Ike ran for reelection in 1956 with running mate Richard Millhouse Nixon against Adlai Stevenson. Ike won 58% of the popular vote. The US practiced containment in Latin America for the next four years (1957-1961) to protect our interests and investments in 12 nations. In 1954 the US established the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) to overthrow the rebel leader of Guatemala and replace with someone sympathetic to the US, convincing the USSR that the US was responsible for the Cold War. In 1959 Cuba Fidel Castro overthrew a regime with the aid of the US, but he announced that he was communist in 1960, ending diplomatic ties with the US and aligning with the USSR. Despite these setbacks, the US economy continued to grow.
In 1960 Nixon ran for election in his own right against Democrat John Fitzgerald Kennedy and his running mate Lyndon Baines Johnson. JFK was a Senator and a Representative from Massachusetts. He was 43 years old at the time of the election, the youngest person ever elected to office, and he was the only Roman Catholic elected. He won 303 electoral votes and 120,000 more popular votes than Nixon. JFK campaigned for economic success. Nixon, however, won only 219 electoral votes. The first televised Presidential debates helped JFK win because Nixon refused to wear makeup in front of the camera. JFK was not a majority President because he failed to win more than 50% of the popular vote.
JFK called his economic program the New Frontier. He wanted to work closely with businesses to end the recession of 1960-1961. The stock market crashed in 1962 because of suspicions from business. To create more economic spending, he proposed a $13.5 billion tax cut from 1963 until 1966, but it failed.
He waged a battle against poverty to help the poor by stimulating the economy, but he had no clear measure. It was under JFK that Alan Shepard became the first American in space on May 5, 1961, leading JFK to propose that he wanted to land a man on the moon by the end of the decade. This led to an increase in funding for NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration).
The Civil rights Movement proceeded at an amazing speed during the 1960’s. Sit-ins at restaurants led to 1000’s of arrests and slow change in the South. Freedom rides began in Washington,. DC, and continued to Jackson, Mississippi, before they reached New Orleans (the planned stop). These were meant to encourage desegregation of terminals on interstate highways, but they resulted in violence and federal protection of the buses. Colleges and universities were forced to integrate by the US military. Marches of protest helped to advance the movement as marchers were beaten for no reason.
All these events led to JFK proposing a Civil Rights Bill in 1961 to prohibit segregation in public places, ban discrimination whenever federal funds were involved, and call for school integration. In August, 1963, the March on Washington saw 250,000 people come to call for equality; King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, launching him to the forefront of the movement.
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JFK was in office during some of this country’s most important crises. The first of these was concerning Vietnam. The Geneva Conference saw the US, England, France, the USSR, China, Laos, Cambodia, Ho Chi Minh, and the Vietnamese emperor Bao Dai divide Vietnam. Ngo Dinh Diem was chosen as the South Vietnam Prime Minister. JFK increased the number of US military advisors from 675 to 16,000 by 1963. Meanwhile, Diem built a corrupt government with US support and used money to build up the military. The US later encouraged his overthrow, which happened in November, 1963 when he was assassinated.
JFK established the Peace Corps to help developing countries, especially in Latin America. However, problems arose in Cuba as a result of Castro establishing a communist government. First of all, Cuba was located 90 miles off Florida’s coast and had communism established under a dictatorship. On April 17, 1961, CIA trained Cuban exiles were sent to the Bay of Pigs in Guatemala for an invasion of Cuba, but it became a disaster. Cuba’s air power was not destroyed. The US lost prestige because we were viewed as a bully to Cuba. Then in October, 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred. The USSR aided Cuba after the Bay of Pigs, so the US made spy sweeps of Cuba by air. One such sweep discovered nuclear missiles on Cuban soil sent from the USSR. JFK armed military equipment with nuclear weapons and the US military was put on standby for an invasion of Cuba. JFK warned the USSR on TV to withdraw the missiles or risk war with the US. He also announced quarantine (blockade) around Cuba. The USSR demanded the quarantine to end, removal of US nuclear missiles from Turkey, and noninterference in Cuba. The US accepted all the terms, except the removal of missiles from Turkey. The US and USSR established a “hot line” between the two nations to discuss any future heated tragedies. In addition, the two nations signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty (1963), banning above ground nuclear testing.
The third hot bed at this time was in Berlin. JFK and Nikita Khrushchev were involved. Back in 1945 Germany was split into east and west between the US and the USSR. The Berlin Airlift of 1948 had been successful. However, in July, 1961, JFK was ousted by Khrushchev at a summit so he asked Congress to increase defense spending, the size of the military, and $200 million to build fallout shelters. The USSR built the Berlin Wall in 1961 to prevent the people of East Berlin from escaping to West Berlin and safety. The wall fell in 1989.
JFK seemed on his way to possibly receiving the Democratic nomination for the election of 1964 when tragedy struck. On November 22, 1963, while riding in an open car in Dallas, Texas, JFK was assassinated. The Warren Commission was convened to determine the facts about the assassination. It concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman on that day, despite Oswald’s own murder on live TV while switching prisons by Jack Ruby on November 24, 1963. At Jackie Onassis’ request, the findings were sealed for 100 years.
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JFK’s assassination was a dangerous sign of the turmoil that still lay ahead for the next fifteen years or so in the US. LBJ assumed the office of the Presidency in November, 1963, and selected Hubert Humphrey as his Vice-President. The 25th Amendment was ratified to demand that a Vice-President always sit in office to allow for the continuity of the government during the Cold War and after. The amendment, ratified in 1967, spelled out the line of Presidential succession. LBJ finished JFK’s term and ran for election in his own right in 1964, winning in a landslide thanks in large part to his proposal of the “Great Society”. This plan called for a tax cut so that spending could be reduced. The GNP rose up to 9.5% by 1966, and unemployment fell. He also declared a war on poverty, resulting in the passage of the Economic Opportunity Act (1964). This act sought to end poverty. He also established the Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) to send volunteers to poor neighborhoods to fight poverty. He saw himself as the FDR of the 1960’s generation, and the “Great Society” was his New Deal. In 1965 he established Medicare/Medicaid. Medicare provided health coverage for people over 65 years old while Medicaid provided health coverage for poor Americans. Families would receive financial aid for education based on the number of children in the family. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was established in 1965 to control rents. The National Endowment for the Arts was created for artists, the National Endowment for the Humanities was created for scholars, and PBS (Public Broadcasting System) was created in 1965 to air such shows. The Immigration Act of 1965 increased the quota for immigrants.
LBJ’s presidency was an important era for the Supreme Court. It was known as the Warren Court at this time because Earl Warren was the Chief Justice. It decided many important cases during this period. In 1963 Gideon v. Wainwright guaranteed a court appointed lawyer for poor suspects. Escobedo v. Illinois (1964) required an attorney present at all interrogations. Miranda v. Arizona (1966) said that a suspect had to be informed of his rights at the time of his arrest; therefore, a police officer is required to read the Miranda rights off the Miranda card. Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) told doctors that married couples should be made aware of contraceptive devices as a right to privacy issue. Baker v. Carr (1962) said that gerrymandering had to be done on a “1 person, 1 vote” basis, not unfairly. Engle v. Vitale (1962) declared that prayer in public school was unconstitutional.
The 1960’s were a time of many social movements. The first such movement was the Civil Rights Movement. The House of Representatives passed the Civil Rights Bill, but 5 Senators filibustered it, so the Senate voted for cloture (two-thirds voted to end the debate on the bill). The Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned discrimination in all public places and gave the Justice Department the right to act in school segregation cases as well as voting rights cases. It also provided for Equal Opportunity for companies with more than 25 employees. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 guaranteed that African-Americans would be allowed to vote. These measures to a rise of power for more radical leaders like Malcolm X.
The Women’s Movement started with the National Organization of Women (NOW) to push for equal opportunities for women.
Latin American and Asian American movements sought equal opportunity under Cesar Chavez and Japanese American descendants from those who had been interned in WWII.
The Native American Movement sought the preservation of reservations, the restoration of lands, and fair and equal treatment.
The Environmental Movement gained steam with Silent Spring (1962) by biologist Rachel Carson, who addressed the dangers of DDT. This led to the move to curb pollution of nuclear power plants. As a result of this movement, the first Earth Day was proclaimed in 1970, followed by the Water Quality Improvement Act (1970), the Clean Air Act (1970), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970.
The Consumer Movement targeted the dangers of goods. Led by Ralph Nader and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, it led to the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act (1966) and the Wholesome Meat Act (1967).
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The 1960’s were a time of turmoil, stemming from foreign policy, which was despised by LBJ. The first issue was with Panama, who asked the US for a revision of the treaty that would give them control of the Panama Canal, but the US refused, leading to violence. The second issue was with the Dominican Republic, which was invaded by 22,000 US marines in 1965 when rebels threatened American lives. The US defeated the rebels, but maintained the repressive government there.
The biggest foreign policy problem faced by LBJ – the one that cost him the next election – was Vietnam. Both JFK and Ngo Dinh Diem were assassinated, and the South Vietnamese government was collapsing. Communist guerillas in that country called the Viet Cong took over South Vietnamese land aided by Ho Chi Minh. LBJ had campaigned in 1964 as a peacemaker and to keep the US out of Vietnam. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was passed by Congress with 2 dissenters in 1964. US boats in the Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of North Vietnam had been attacked by North Vietnamese forces. The resolution stated that US boats had to defend themselves from attack. This was not an official declaration of war. However, after the election of 1964 war was escalated with more money and forces. The Viet Cong attacked the US at Pleiku in South Vietnam, causing LBJ to send 543,000 troops there by 1968. The US was now there to support a dictatorial government against North Vietnam.
On January 30, 1968, during the New Year of Tet, North Vietnam launched the Tet Offensive, which lasted 3 weeks. It was a major North Vietnamese offensive that failed. It had targeted dozens of large cities simultaneously, including Saigon in South Vietnam where the American embassy was attacked. This demonstrated that North Vietnam was strong, and it changed American opinion against the war because of all the television reports that were aired.
The Vietnam War turned brutal, as the North Vietnamese resorted to guerrilla warfare by using children to fight, women to spy, and no clear distinction between foe and friend. The chemicals napalm and Agent Orange were used to clear away the brush so that the army could see the enemy better. My Lai Massacre (March, 1968) in South Vietnam saw 100 civilians murdered by the US because they were suspected Viet Cong operatives. This turned popular opinion against the war also. There was no clearer indication of the changing American view than protests on college campuses in response to the Pentagon Papers, a top secret set of papers released by The New York Times showing hidden secrets of US involvement in Vietnam. The anti-war climate was fueled by anti-war songs, such as The Times They Are A-Changin’ by Bob Dylan in 1963. College campuses became focal points of protests as students began dodging the draft in 1968 by leaving the US to protest or by becoming conscientious objectors (refusing to go based on moral grounds).
As if the clash over Vietnam was not bad enough, 1968 became the year of political assassinations. Five years after the President was assassinated, Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated on April 4, 1968, outside his motel room trying to gather support for the war on poverty, leading to riots across the US. Robert Kennedy – brother of JFK – jumped into the Democratic primary in March, 1968. He gained support on March 31, 1968, when LBJ ordered a reduction in Vietnam and announced that he would not seek reelection that year. Kennedy attacked LBJ for an immoral war instead of handling domestic problems. Kennedy won the California primary in 1968 but was assassinated that same day by Sirhan Sirhan after his victory speech.
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As a result of Robert Kennedy’s assassination in 1968, LBJ’s Vice-President Hubert Humphrey was selected by the Democrats to challenge Republican Richard Millhouse Nixon for the election. George C. Wallace, governor of Alabama, also ran in the election. The Democrats had several weak candidates and violence erupted outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago as Humphrey was nominated. Despite that, Nixon narrowly won the election. Nixon chose Spiro Agnew as his Vice-President and several other key people as his advisors, including Henry A. Kissinger as part of his National Security Council from 1969 to 1973 and Secretary of State from 1973 to 1974. Kissinger was responsible for the foreign policy picture. H. R. Haldeman was Nixon’s chief of staff who ensured his privacy. John Ehrlichman was Nixon’s chief domestic advisor responsible for the domestic picture. John Mitchell was Nixon’s attorney general and top aide.
Nixon’s domestic policy focused primarily on the economy and the Civil Rights Movement. There was a deficit as a result of the Vietnam War, high inflation, and large unemployment. At first, Nixon tried to cut spending to battle these woes, but he then switched to increased deficit spending. Inflation, however, still climbed. While all this happened, Israel waged war against Egypt and Syria; the US supported Israel. As a result, OPEC (Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries) set an embargo on oil to the US. Prices soared in all areas, causing a recession. Spending dropped as unemployment reached 9%. To help combat this, Nixon proposed but did not receive the Family Assistance Plan, requiring families to have a basic minimum income and to register for job training. Nixon lashed out at protests, especially after the tragic riots at Kent state University with the National Guard in 1970, made famous by Neil Young’s Four Dead in Ohio.
The Civil Rights Movement was hurting after the death of its major force. Desegregation was slowed down. Busing of African-American students to white schools to force the end of desegregation was stopped. Four conservatives were appointed to the Supreme Court, including Warren Burger as Chief Justice and William H. Rehnquist (future Chief Justice).
The major foreign policy issue remained Vietnam. The counterculture (those who rejected conventional customs) rose. Hippies changed their dress and hairstyles/beards. They self-consciously rejected the norms. This led to the sexual revolution, and psychedelic drugs (which cause the brain to behave abnormally, leading to hallucinations and widespread drug use, especially LSD and marijuana, ultimately killing Janis Joplin in 1970, Jim Morrison in 1970, and Jimi Hendrix in 1970). Music was influenced by the Beatles, who opposed the war and favored drugs, as well as by hard-drinking Joplin and the wild Rolling Stones. This counterculture met in Woodstock in August, 1969, which was seen as an immoral response to problems.
Nixon ultimately was able to end the Vietnam War. The key to his election was that he claimed to have a secret plan to end the war, but none existed. Instead, he began the process of Vietnamization (removing US troops and replacing them with South Vietnamese troops). By 1972 there were only 39,000 US troops in Vietnam, and opposition dropped. Nixon wanted to win Vietnam, so he began bombing raids in Laos and Cambodia as well as North Vietnam secretly in hopes of ending attacks from there. This led to a civil war in Cambodia and new protests at Kent State University. In January, 1973, a ceasefire was signed between the US and North Vietnam, but a civil war continued there until the spring of 1975. The US evacuated Saigon by helicopter on April 29, 1975, and Saigon fell to North Vietnam the next day. There were 58,000 US dead and 300,000 US wounded, with more for Vietnam. It had cost $150 billion to fight the war. The Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial was erected in Washington, DC, in 1980. It’s a large “V” structure with two black marble slabs by Maya Ying Lin, followed by a Vietnam Women’s Memorial in 1993.
Under Nixon, the US and USSR practiced a policy of détente (easing of tensions) to capitalize in the unfought battle between the USSR and China. Trade restrictions with China were loosened, leading to Nixon’s visit in February, 1972, with Mao Zedong. As part of détente, the US and USSR attended the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) to prevent overkill (the destruction of the world many times over), leading to the SALT I Treaty in 1972. This stipulated that Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) would be kept at the 1972 level for 5 years. It also restricted the development and deployment of defensive antiballistic missile systems.
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Nixon was reelected in 1972 with running mate Spiro Agnew against Democrat Edmund Muskie, Senator from Maine. Nixon had formed the Committee to Reelect the President (CREEP), led by John Mitchell. It was responsible for collecting as many funds as possible before they had to report it to the finance campaign committee. CREEP tried to tap phones at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate apartment complex in Washington, DC. Five men were arrested, and the money they were paid with was money that had been given to them by CREEP. Nixon had no previous knowledge of this plan, but he later tried to cover up the incident. Mitchell and others had committed perjury to protect Nixon. Despite this, Nixon won 47 million popular votes and 520 electoral votes before the public discovered anything about Watergate. Nixon’s second term was to span 1973 until 1977. It came as no surprise that early in 1973, Nixon vetoed the War Powers Act, which cut down the President’s power in wartime by having the President seek permission from Congress about troop deployment after explaining the reason for such deployment as a response to the Vietnam War. Congress overrode the veto.
It was after this that the Watergate scandal broke. All those people arrested were either found guilty or pleaded guilty. The Senate investigated further by order of a federal judge by a Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities (May, 1973). Nixon fired Haldeman and Ehrlichman in April, 1973, to distance himself from the scandal. During publicly televised hearings, it was discovered that tapes in the White House were used to record the Presidency. The Justice Department appointed Archibald Cox as a special prosecutor whop demanded the tapes. Cox and some others were fired while some resigned on the night of October 20, 1973. Leon Jaworski was then appointed special prosecutor who now demanded the tapes. Nixon submitted edited transcripts of the tapes, angering the public. Vice-President Spiro Agnew resigned shortly thereafter, activating the 25th Amendment for the first time. There was no Vice-President until December, 1973, so Nixon tried to stay in office until a Vice-President could be selected. The House Judiciary Committee began drawing up charges against Nixon in July, 1974, despite his claims of executive privilege for not submitting the tapes. On August 5, 1974, the tapes were released, and on August 8, 1974, Nixon announced his resignation. He resigned on August 9, 1974. Gerald Ford, who became Vice-President under the 25th Amendment, assumed the office of the Presidency without being elected, activating the 25th Amendment a second time. He pardoned Nixon almost immediately taking the oath of office. This ended all investigations, and it angered the public.
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Gerald R. Ford was the only President who was never elected. He served with Nelson Rockefeller of New York as his Vice-President from 1974 until 1977.Ford pardoned Nixon because it was “a time for communication, conciliation, compromise, and cooperation”. Domestically, he wanted the nation to recover from Watergate. The economy had stalled for the first time since the Great Depression. Inflation had hit 11%. Unemployment stood at 5.3% in 1974 and 9% in 1975. Interest rates rose and stocks fell. Ford tried to restore public confidence by pushing higher savings as well as vegetable gardens. Taxes were greatly cut, but the deficit increased. He vetoed bills for a consumer protection agency, education funds, and health care funds, but most of these were overridden.
He named Henry A. Kissinger as Secretary of State. Relations with China improved, and Vietnam officially ended. Congress used the War Powers Act to keep the US out of unrest in Angola and Turkey. The SALT II Treaty began with the USSR. In 1975 the Helsinki Accords in Finland saw 35 nations agree to work economically and promote human rights. The US tried to establish ties with new African nations at this time. In 1976 the US celebrated its bicentennial.
In 1976 Ford ran for President with Nelson Rockefeller against Democrat Jimmy Carter and his running mate Walter Mondale. Carter championed himself as an outsider of Washington, DC, which helped seal his victory. Carter appointed more women and minorities than any President before him. The cornerstone of his foreign policy was human rights.
In the Middle East Kissinger’s shuttle diplomacy (flying back and forth among nations) failed so Carter took a front seat in the process. Anwar el-Sadat of Egypt and Menachim Begin of Israel tried to talk peace but could not compromise so Carter met with both of them at Camp David in September, 1978. The Camp David Accords were signed in 1979, whereby Egypt recognized Israel as a nation, and Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt.
The Panama Canal was returned to Panama in 1999 because the US decreased its presence there to keep peace with Latin America; this decrease started under Carter. The US agreed not to intervene militarily in Latin America. In January, 1979, the US and China started diplomatic ties because China wanted to modernize and the US wanted more trade. New African nations were recognized by the US and ties were established with them only because the US promised not to intervene there.
The SALT II Treaty was signed in Vienna in June, 1979. The USSR invaded Afghanistan in December, 1979, though, nullifying SALT II and détente. Little did we know that this action would doom the US years later.
The US supported Shah Pahlavi as he modernized Iran despite his oppressive government because Iran gave us oil. A revolution broke out in 1979, forcing the shah to flee. Ayatollah Khomeini took over the government, and Americans were taken hostage for 444 days (until January 20, 1981). Ties with Iran ended, and all money from Iran in the US was frozen. There was an attempted rescue mission of the hostages in 1979, but it failed because the helicopters crashed in route as they ran out of fuel near Iran.
Carter’s domestic policy focused on the suffering economy. To stimulate the economy, deficit spending was increased. The Federal Reserve System increased the money supply, raising inflation to about 10%. Carter then cut spending, slowing down the economy. Businesses failed, and unemployment rose. The US depended heavily on oil, but some people felt that the US should not. Oil prices rose from 1973 so Carter established the Department of Energy to combat rising energy prices. He urged Americans to use less energy. The National Energy Act encouraged research into alternative energy sources, such as nuclear energy. However, it was offset by the Three Mile Island incident near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in March, 1979. There was a failure in the coolant system, resulting in partial meltdown due to the high temperatures from the nuclear reactor. Some radiation leaked. Therefore, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (which was in charge of nuclear energy) was reorganized. Carter gave amnesty (pardon) to all Vietnam draft dodgers.
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In the election of 1980 Carter ran for reelection against a little known but charismatic governor of California named Ronald Reagan. Reagan chose George Herbert Walker Bush, who finished second to him in the primary as his running mate. In a debate with Carter on TV, Reagan looked squarely into the TV camera and said, “A recession is when my neighbor loses his job, a depression is when I lose my job, and recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his job.” The American people loved it, and elected Reagan overwhelmingly. Reagan won 51% of the popular vote because of the economic situation and the hostages in Iran. Carter won 41% of the popular vote. As soon as Reagan took the oath of office, the hostages were released.
Reagan started his own form of conservative politics. Reagan began politically as a Democrat supporting the New Deal, but later opposed big government. In those days, only New Deal opponents opposed big government. Ike had supported some New Deal programs, like Social Security. Representative Barry Goldwater in 1964 called for huge defense spending to fight communism. The Great Society of Lyndon Johnson called for a fight against poverty. Nixon supported a welfare state. The counterculture of the 1960’s, Roe v. Wade (1973), feminism, and affirmative action all influenced Reagan and his policies.
Reagan began a conservative revolution known as Reaganomics. This focused on the supply side of economics and not the demand side. He cut taxes so that businesses would have more money to hire more people to produce more goods to collect more money. Profits would then trickle down to the rest of society in a trickle down effect. This form of thinking was once called “voodoo economics”. Taxes were cut in 1981 by 5%, 10% in 1982, 10% in 1983, and the tax law was reformed in 1986 to make it easier to file taxes. This was followed by deregulation in all areas of the economy. Government spending on all programs was cut back, but a recession occurred in 1981-1982. The defense budget was built up versus the “Evil Empire” (the USSR) and for nuclear weapons. The US spent $1.5 trillion from 1981 to 1985 on defense ($500,000 per minute). The budget soared as money went towards new weapons and ways to guard against nuclear attack, especially the SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative), or “Star Wars”, designed to destroy Soviet missiles from space.
As far as foreign policy was concerned, the US and USSR were on edge due to the huge buildup in the US. In Beirut, Lebanon in October, 1982, 241 US marines were killed by terrorists, leading to the US leaving Lebanon. El Salvador used US aid to suppress communist guerrillas. Grenada saw the US overthrow a new communist government in October, 1983, to try to help people forget the disaster in Lebanon. Meanwhile, the deficit soared from $221 billion in 1986 to $3.1 trillion in 1990. Although Reagan was a very popular President, he was almost assassinated in 1981.
In 1984 Reagan was reelected along with George Bush against Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro of the Democrats. Reagan took 59% of the popular vote – the most by any President since Washington –, accounting for 54 million votes – the most in history, and 534 electoral votes across 49 states – the most in history. Mondale won only 20 million popular votes and 3 electoral votes.
During Reagan’s second term (1985-1989), there was a return to patriotism as Los Angeles hosted the 1984 Olympic Summer Games. The Statue of Liberty celebrated its centennial in 1986, and the Constitution celebrated its bicentennial in 1987. Tragedy also struck in January, 1986, when the shuttle Challenger exploded on take-off.
Domestically, the gap between rich and poor widened. Civil rights were hurt with the push to end affirmative action. However, there was a very strong push to end segregation. The women’s movement pushed forward tremendously after the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. It remains a strong source of debate. The Equal Rights Amendment failed in the 1980’s. AIDS spread rapidly during the 1980’s. Reagan appointed Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia, and Anthony Kennedy to the Supreme Court. The S & L scandal broke out in the 1980’s when savings and loan banks, which made home mortgage loans to people, were deregulated, leading to bank failures as officials pocketed money. Tax money had to account for FDIC payments to people who lost money in the scandal.
On the foreign policy front, the US trained contras (rebels) to fight the government of Nicaragua, which violated our neutrality there. Congress discovered this in 1984 and ended funding. Officials then took money from the sale of arms to Iran to pay the contras. The US had sold arms to Iran to ensure the release of the hostages. This connection was discovered in 1986, resulting in the Iran-Contra Affair. Colonel Oliver North was dismissed since he was in charge of the operation.
Mikhail Gorbachev took control of the USSR in 1985 until 1991. He established glasnost (political openness) and perestroika (economic restructuring). This led to Reagan and Gorbachev forming a close friendship. They signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 1987, calling for the dismantling of 2500 USSR and US missiles in Europe.
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In 1988 George Herbert Walker Bush of the Republicans together with Dan Quayle challenged Michael Dukakis (Democratic governor of Massachusetts) for the presidency, and they easily won. The election had a small turnout, and Bush had promised, “No new taxes”.
The foreign policy dealt with the constantly changing face of Eastern Europe at the time. Poland had a free election in 1989, and they elected Lech Walesa. Czechoslovakia elected Vaclav Havel in 1989. The rest of Eastern Europe soon followed with democratic elections. The Berlin Wall opened in 1989, followed by Germany’s reunification in 1990. The USSR fell in 1991 and was replaced by the Commonwealth of Independent States. Boris Yeltsin was elected President of Russia, and he signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Bush to dramatically reduce long-range nuclear weapons. The cold war ended in 1991.
In August, 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait. The US and 28 other nations waged war with Iraq in Operation Desert Storm in January, 1991. The war ended 42 days later with 240 dead and 1000’s of Iraqis dead.
Domestically, Clarence Thomas was nominated to the Supreme Court as was David Souter. A recession set in in 1991 with 7% unemployment, and taxes were raised to fight the recession.
In the election of 1992, Democrat Bill Clinton with running mate Al Gore defeated George Bush and Dan Quayle. In 1996 Clinton won reelection against Bob Dole and Jack Kemp. Clinton’s campaign slogan in 1992 was, “It’s the economy, stupid!” He won 43% of the popular vote and 357 electoral votes while Bush won 38% of the popular vote and 160 electoral votes and Independent Ross Perot won 19% of the popular vote and 0 electoral votes. Bush lost because of the failing economy while Perot ran to set the economy straight. There were higher taxes on gas, higher Social security benefits, and higher income under Clinton. The proposed health care reform failed as the Democratic Congress rejected his plan to provide health care for all. The midterm elections of 1994 saw Republicans take control of both houses of Congress for the first time since the 1950’s. Newt Gingrich (Speaker of the House) offered a “Contract with America” to reduce the role of the government. There were major changes in the first 100 days of the new session, but they failed to balance the budget or eliminate Cabinet departments as promised. The Senate and Clinton did not accept many bills anyway. The argument over the budget between Congress and Clinton closed the government for several weeks.
In 1996 Clinton pushed for a higher minimum wage and a balanced budget while Bob Dole pushed for a balanced budget and a 15% tax cut and Perot pushed for a balanced budget and campaign reforms as a member of the Reform Party. Clinton won 49% of the popular vote and 379 electoral votes while Dole won 41% of the popular vote and 159 electoral votes and Perot won 8% of the popular vote and 0 electoral votes. This campaign was smeared with tremendous mudslinging as Dole attacked “Filegate”, the shredding of FBI files on Representatives as well as Clinton’s character and his relationship with women. Clinton countered with proof of action to improve life. The Republicans maintained control of Congress.
Clinton’s second term focused on health care reform, education reform, and taxation reform. Clinton pushed for a balanced budget and saw the first surplus since the 1960’s. He expanded free trade with NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) in 1994 among the US, Mexico, and Canada. It was similar to the European Union and was the first trade agreement between developed and developing countries. There was a huge debate over it. Russia received $2.5 billion in aid from the US, but their economy still faltered. War with Chechnya erupted in 1994, killing 1000’s. Eastern Europe held free elections, but elected former communists as their economies faltered. In the 1990’s economic sanctions (trade restrictions) were placed on South Africa to force the end of apartheid. Nelson Mandela and F. W. de Klerk were responsible for this. Elections in 1994 yielded the African National Congress (ANC) and Mandela into government. Yassir Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin agreed to recognize each other and allow each other to exist. A treaty between Israel and Jordan made peace between those two nations. Syria and Israel also began talks for peace. However, Rabin was assassinated in 1995, and the peace process unraveled until war erupted between Israel and the PLO in 2001. Meanwhile, Haiti saw elections in 1991 and the overthrow of their dictatorship in 1994 by the US. Ireland tried to work out peace between Protestants and Catholics. War erupted in Bosnia in 1991 when Slovenia and Croatia declared independence from Serbia and Slobodan Milosevic. Independence was also declared by groups in Bosnia, leading Serbia to attack. Serbia practiced “ethnic cleansing” in Sarajevo, its capital. NATO bombed Bosnia in 1995, forcing peace talks and an American presence that still exists. US troops were removed from Somalia in 1993 when its civil war resulted in American deaths. The US stood by Rwanda in 1994 as civil war broke out and genocide resulted in a mass exodus of more than a million people. Trading blocs appeared like the European Union (EU), joining 12 nations together with a Parliament and a common currency in the mid-1990’s. Clinton was impeached in 1998 but was found not guilty and acquitted.
In the election of 2000 George W. Bush with Dick Cheney ran against Al Gore and won. He received 271 electoral votes and 49.9% of the popular vote while Gore received 267 electoral votes and 51.1% of the popular vote. Florida was the key to the election and raised the whole question about the need for the Electoral College. Recounts in Florida ended when the Supreme Court ended it in mid-December, 2000. The House of Representatives became Democratically controlled while the Senate was split evenly between Democrats and Republicans. Bush put together the most diverse Cabinet in history. He granted a tax cut to all Americans.
The war on terrorism began on September 11, 2001, when Al Qaeda attacked American buildings on American soil. The war focused primarily on Afghanistan and the Taliban, who harbored Osama Bin Laden’s group, Iraq and its relationship with terrorists, the Washington, DC, sniper who attacked innocent people without cause, and North Korea and its wild antics.
The mid-term elections of 2002 saw both houses of Congress controlled by Republicans, marking the first time that a Republican President had a Republican Congress.
The war with Iraq was fought officially from March 19, until May 11, 2003. The UN passed resolutions to force Iraq to reveal its nuclear facilities to UN inspectors, but they accomplished nothing. The UN Security Council was divided over what further action to take against Iraq. The US built up troops along several fronts to invade Iraq. On March 17, 2003, Iraq was given an ultimatum for Saddam Hussein and his sons to leave Iraq or the US would invade because they were suspected of funding terrorism. They ignored it, so the US invaded. The Battle of Al Faw was fought with the US and Britain against Iraq, the Battle of Nasiriyah was fought between the US and Iraq as was the Battle of Baghdad, the Battle of Kirkut was fought between the US and the Kurds against Iraq, and the Ramallah oil fields were burned by Iraq so that the enemy could not use it. The consequences of the war could still be seen today as terrorists ambush our troops and opinion of the war drops. Iraq was reconstructed after the war and is still being reconstructed.
A recession struck the economy as a result of 9/11. It soon disappeared.
In 2004 Bush defeated John Kerry and John Edwards for the presidency, but his popularity was short lived as the Iraqi Civil War began dropping his popularity numbers. The mid-term elections of 2006 saw a backlash against Republicans. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld resigned and was re[placed by Robert Gates, who said that the US was losing the war in Iraq. The question of a change in policy for Iraq and the war on terror is currently being debated.
