Unit 9 APUSH

The Great Society

President Lyndon Johnson’s vision of social, economic, and cultural progress in the United States. Besides poverty and race, he outlined three broad areas in need of reform: education, the environment, and cities.

Elementary & Secondary School Act (1965)

Toward this end, the Elementary and Secondary School Act (1965) was the most far-reaching federal law ever passed. It provided federal funds directly to public schools to improve their quality.

Model Cities Program (1966)

he Model Cities program (1966) set up the Department of Housing and Urban Affairs, which coordinated efforts at urban planning and rebuilding neighborhoods in decaying cities.

Economic Opportunity Act (1964)

Through this measure, Johnson wanted to offer the poor “a hand up, not a handout.” Among its major components, the law provided job training, food stamps, rent supplements, redevelopment of depressed rural areas, remedial education (later to include the preschool program Head Start), a domestic Peace Corps called Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), and a Community Action Program that empowered the poor to shape policies affecting their own communities. Between 1965 and 1968, expenditures targeted for the poor doubled, from $6 billion to $12 billion. The antipoverty program helped reduce the proportion of poor people from 20 percent in 1963 to 13 percent five years later, and it helped reduce the rate of black poverty from 40 percent to 20 percent during this same period.

Head Start

A government-funded program that is designed to provide children from low-income families the opportunity to acquire the skills and experiences important for school success

War on Poverty

The War on Poverty is a set of initiatives and programs launched in the 1960s aimed at reducing poverty and addressing the needs of economically disadvantaged Americans. Rooted in President Lyndon B. Johnson's vision of a Great Society, this initiative sought to promote economic opportunity, improve access to education, and enhance social welfare through government support and community programs.

5 Must Know Facts For Your Next Test

1. The War on Poverty was officially launched in 1964 as part of President Johnson's Great Society agenda, focusing on comprehensive approaches to tackling poverty.

2. Programs like Medicare and Medicaid were introduced under the War on Poverty, providing healthcare support for the elderly and low-income individuals.

3. The initiative aimed to address not just financial poverty but also issues like education, employment, and housing, recognizing their interconnectedness.

4. The War on Poverty faced criticism for its effectiveness, with some arguing it did not significantly reduce poverty levels despite its extensive funding and resources.

5. By the early 1970s, the War on Poverty had led to a significant expansion of the social safety net in the United States, including a focus on civil rights and equality.

Medicare

subsidized health care for the elderly and the poor by creating

Medicaid

subsidized health care for the elderly and the poor by creating

Young Americans for Freedom

A group of young conservatives from college campuses formed in 1960 in Sharon, Connecticut. The group favored free market principles, states’ rights, and anticommunism. In addition, the conservative revival, like the New Left, found fertile recruiting ground on college campuses. In October 1960 some ninety young conservatives met at William Buckley’s estate in Sharon, Connecticut to draw up a manifesto of their beliefs. “In this time of moral and political crisis,” the framers of the Sharon Statement declared, “the foremost among the transcendent values is the individual’s use of his God-given free will, whence derives his right to be free from the restrictions of arbitrary force.” Based on this essential principle, the manifesto affirmed the conservative doctrines of states’ rights, the free market, and anticommunism. Participants at the conference formed the Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), which six months later boasted 27,000 members. In 1962 the YAF filled Madison Square Garden to listen to a speech by the politician who most excited them: Republican senator Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona

John F. Kennedy

Elected democratic president in 1960, the forty-three-year-old Kennedy brought good looks, charm, a beautiful wife, and young children to the White House. Kennedy pledged a New Frontier to battle “tyranny, poverty, disease, and war,” but lacking strong majorities in Congress, he contented himself with making small gains on the New Deal’s foundation. Congress expanded unemployment benefits, increased the minimum wage, extended Social Security benefits, and raised appropriations for public housing, but Kennedy’s caution disappointed many liberals. Tragically, Kennedy was assassinated on November 22

Lee Harvy Oswald

Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 by Lee Harvey Oswald as Kennedy and his wife rode in an open motorcade in Dallas, Texas during an early campaign event. Days later, Oswald was shot to death by nightclub owner Jack Ruby. The assassination shocked the nation. Millions of grieving Americans watched the elaborate televised funeral modeled after President Lincoln’s funeral proceedings. In death, Kennedy achieved immense popularity, yet his legislative agenda remained unfulfilled.

Lyndon B. Johnson

For newly inaugurated President Lyndon Johnson, a product of modest upbringing in rural Texas, urban and rural poverty were issues that required action. Awareness of social and economic inequality had increased with the publication of The Other America (1962) in which socialist author Michael Harrington exposed the invisibility of the poor in America. In an address at the University of Michigan on May 22, 1964, President Johnson sketched out his dream for the Great Society, one that “rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time. But that is just the beginning.” Tried to copy FDR

William F. Buckley

Conservative religious activists who built grassroots organizations to combat liberalism joined forces with political and intellectual conservatives such as William F. Buckley, the founder of the National Review, an influential journal of conservative ideas. The Reverend Billy Joe Hargis’s Christian Crusade and Dr. Frederick Charles Schwartz’s Christian Anti-Communist Crusade, both formed in the early 1950s, promoted conspiracy theories about how the eastern liberal establishment intended to sell the country out to the Communists by supporting the United Nations, foreign aid, Social Security, and civil rights. The John Birch Society packaged these ideas in periodicals and radio broadcasts throughout the country and urged readers and listeners to remain vigilant to attacks against their freedom

Barry Goldwater

Whatever the shortcomings, Johnson campaigned on his antipoverty and civil rights record in his bid to recapture the White House in 1964. His Republican opponent, Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, personified the conservative right wing of the Republican Party. The Arizona senator condemned big government, supported states’ rights, and accused liberals of not waging the Cold War forcefully enough. His aggressive conservatism appealed to his grassroots base in small-town America, especially in southern California, the Southwest, and the South. His tough rhetoric, however, scared off moderate Republicans, resulting on election day in a landslide for Johnson as well as considerable Democratic majorities in Congress. Goldwater’s book The Conscience of a Conservative(1960) attacked New Deal liberalism and advocated abolishing Social Security; dismantling the Tennessee Valley Authority, the government-owned public power utility; and eliminating the progressive income tax. His firm belief in states’ rights put him on record against the ruling in Brown v. Board of Education and prompted him to vote against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, positions that won him increasing support from conservative white southerners. However, Goldwater’s advocacy of small government did not prevent him from supporting increased military spending to halt the spread of communism. The senator may have anticipated growing concerns about government excess, but his defeat in a landslide to Lyndon Johnson in the 1964 presidential election indicated that most voters perceived Goldwater’s brand of conservatism as too extreme.

Earl Warren

Earl Warren was the 14th Chief Justice of the United States (1953-1969), presiding over a period of significant constitutional law changes, particularly in areas like race relations and individual rights, known as the Warren Court. 

Key aspects of Earl Warren's impact in APUSH:

• The Warren Court:

  Warren's leadership shaped the Supreme Court into a liberal defender of people's rights. 

• Brown v. Board of Education (1954):

  The court unanimously ruled that "separate but equal" was unconstitutional, overturning the Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) decision and paving the way for desegregation. 

• Expansion of Individual Rights:

  The Warren Court expanded the rights of the accused, including the right to counsel (Gideon v. Wainwright, 1963) and the right to remain silent (Miranda v. Arizona, 1966). 

• Other Landmark Decisions:

  The court also addressed issues like prayer in public schools (Engel v. Vitale, 1962), the right to privacy (Griswold v. Connecticut, 1965), and the principle of "one man, one vote" regarding congressional districts. 

• Impact on Civil Rights:

  The Warren Court's decisions played a crucial role in the Civil Rights Movement, challenging segregation and expanding the rights of minorities

• The Warren Court era refers to the period during which Earl Warren served as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1953 to 1969. This era is noted for its landmark decisions that expanded civil rights, civil liberties, and judicial power, significantly impacting the legal landscape and the Civil Rights Movement.

  5 Must Know Facts For Your Next Test

  1. The Warren Court is famous for its progressive rulings that advanced the rights of individuals, including landmark cases related to racial desegregation and voting rights.

  2. One of the most significant rulings during this era was Brown v. Board of Education, which played a crucial role in dismantling segregation in schools across America.

  3. The Warren Court's decisions often reflected a commitment to the principle of equal protection under the law, challenging previous legal precedents that upheld segregation and discrimination.

  4. Judicial activism characterized the Warren Court, as it often took bold stances on controversial social issues, influencing public policy and advancing the civil rights agenda.

  5. Earl Warren's leadership style fostered a collaborative environment among justices, leading to unanimous or near-unanimous decisions that strengthened the court's authority and public trust.

Silent Majority

Nixon geared his campaign message to the “silent majority” of voters — what one political analyst characterized as “the unyoung, the unpoor, and unblack.” This conservative message appealed to many Americans who were fed up with domestic uprisings and war abroad.

 Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA)

In 1972 the federal government increased its responsibility for protecting the health and safety of American workers through the creation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Detente

An easing of tense relations with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. This process moved unevenly through the 1970s and early 1980s but accelerated when the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the mid-1980s

Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I)

1972 agreement between the United States and Soviet Union to curtail nuclear arms production during the Cold War. The pact froze for five years the number of antiballistic missiles (ABMs), intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), and submarine-based missiles that each nation could deploy. The closer relations between China and the United States worried the USSR. Although both were Communist nations, the Soviet Union and China had pursued their own ideological and national interests. To check growing Chinese influence with the United States, Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev invited President Nixon to Moscow in May 1972, the first time an American president had visited the Soviet Union since the end of World War II. The main topic of discussion concerned arms control, and with the Soviet Union eager to make a deal in the aftermath of Nixon’s trip to China, the two sides worked out the historic Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I), the first treaty to curtail nuclear arms production during the Cold War. The pact froze the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-based missiles for five years and restricted the number of antiballistic missiles that each nation could deploy.

realpolitik

Foreign policy based on practical economic and strategic needs of the U.S. rather than any ideological or human rights goals. Nixon and Kissinger pursued a realpolitik foreign policy, which prioritized American economic and strategic interests over fostering democracy or human rights. In Chile, the United States overthrew the democratically elected socialist president Salvador Allende after he nationalized U.S. properties, resulting in nearly two decades of dictatorial rule in that country. Under Nixon’s leadership, the United States also supported repressive regimes in Nicaragua, South Africa, the Philippines, and Iran.

 Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

Organization formed by oil-producing countries to control the price and supply of oil on the global market. U.S. involvement in the struggle between Israel and its Arab enemies exacerbated economic troubles at home. In October 1973, during the midst of the Yom Kippur War, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) imposed an oil embargo on the United States as punishment for its support of Israel. As a result of the embargo, the price of oil skyrocketed. The effect of high oil prices rippled through the economy, leading to increased inflation and unemployment. The crisis lasted until May 1974, when OPEC lifted its embargo following six months of diplomacy by Kissinger.

watergate

In the early hours of June 17, 1972, five men broke into Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate apartment complex in Washington, D.C. What appeared initially as a routine robbery turned into the most infamous political scandal of the twentieth century. It was eventually revealed that the break-in had been authorized by the Committee for the Re-Election of the President in an attempt to steal documents from the Democrats.

President Nixon may not have known in advance the details of the break-in, but he did authorize a cover-up of his administration’s involvement. Nixon ordered his chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman, to get the CIA and FBI to back off from a thorough investigation of the incident. To silence the burglars at their trials, the president promised them $400,000 and hinted at a presidential pardon after their conviction.

Nixon embarked on the cover-up to protect himself from revelations of his administration’s other illegal activities. Several of the Watergate burglars belonged to a secret band of operatives known as “the plumbers,” which had been formed in 1971 and authorized by the president to find and plug up unwelcome information leaks from government officials. On their first secret operation, the plumbers broke into the office of military analyst Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist to look for embarrassing personal information with which to discredit Ellsberg, who had leaked the Pentagon Papers (see Module 8-7). The president had other unsavory matters to hide. In an effort to contain leaks about the administration’s secret bombing of Cambodia in 1969, the White House had illegally wiretapped its own officials and members of the press.

Watergate did not become a major scandal until after the election. The trial judge forced one of the burglars to reveal the men’s backers. This revelation led two Washington Post reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, to investigate the link between the administration and the plumbers. With the help of Mark Felt, a top FBI official whose identity long remained secret and whom the reporters called “Deep Throat,” Woodward and Bernstein succeeded in exposing the true nature of the crime. The Senate created a special committee in February 1973 to investigate the scandal. White House counsel John Dean, whom Nixon had fired, testified about discussing the cover-up with the president and his closest advisers. His testimony proved accurate after the committee learned that Nixon had secretly taped all Oval Office conversations. When the president refused to release the tapes to a special prosecutor, the Supreme Court ruled against him.

With Nixon’s cover-up revealed, and impeachment and conviction likely, Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974. The scandal took a great toll on the administration: Attorney General John Mitchell and Nixon’s closest advisers, H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, resigned, and twenty-five government officials went to jail. Watergate also damaged the office of the president, leaving Americans wary and distrustful.

Scandal and cover-up that forced the resignation of Richard Nixon in 1974. The scandal revolved around a break-in at Democratic Party headquarters in 1972 and subsequent efforts to conceal the administration’s involvement in the break-in.

Deindustrialization

Decline of industrial activity in a specific town, region, or nation. In the U.S. it led to significant drops in union membership and population shifts across the country as people moved in search of new types of economic opportunity.

stagflation

Period of economic instability in the 1970s as the rising cost of living occurred in conjunction with an increase in unemployment.

 National Energy Act (1978)

Legislation signed into law by President Jimmy Carter in 1978, which set gas emissions standards for automobiles and provided incentives for installing alternative energy systems, such as wind and solar power. President Carter tried his best to find a solution. To reduce dependency on foreign oil, in 1977 Carter devised a plan for energy self-sufficiency, which he called the “moral equivalent of war.” Critics called the proposal weak and gave it a mocking acronym, “MEOW”. A more substantial accomplishment came on August 4, 1977, when Carter signed into law the creation of the Department of Energy, with responsibilities covering research, development, and conservation of energy. In 1978, he backed the National Energy Act, which set gas emission standards for automobiles and provided incentives for installing alternate energy systems, such as solar and wind power, in homes and public buildings. He also supported congressional legislation to spend $14 billion for public sector jobs as well as to cut taxes by $34 billion, which reduced unemployment but only temporarily.

SALT ll

1979 strategic arms limitation treaty agreed on by President Jimmy Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. After the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, Carter persuaded the Senate not to ratify the treaty. The president’s pursuit of détente, or the easing of tensions, with the Soviet Union was less successful. In 1978 the Carter administration extended full diplomatic recognition to China. After the fall of China to the Communists in 1949, the United States had supported Taiwan, an island off the coast of China, as an outpost of democracy against mainland China. In abandoning Taiwan by recognizing China, Carter sought to drive a greater wedge between China and the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, Carter did not give up on cooperation with the Soviets. In June 1979 Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed SALT II, a new strategic arms limitation treaty. Six months later, however, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan to bolster its pro-Communist Afghan regime. President Carter viewed this action as a violation of international law and a threat to Middle East oil supplies, and he therefore persuaded the Senate to drop consideration of SALT II. In addition, Carter obtained from Congress a 5 percent increase in military spending, reduced grain sales to the USSR, and led a boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow.

 Camp David Accords (1978)

1978 peace accord between Israel and Egypt facilitated by the mediation of President Jimmy Carter. Before President Carter attempted to restrain the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, he did have some notable diplomatic successes. Five years after the 1973 Yom Kippur War, with relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors in a deadlock, Carter invited the leaders of Israel and Egypt to the United States. Following two weeks of discussions in September 1978 at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland, Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian president Anwar Sadat reached an agreement on a “framework for peace.” For the first time in its history, Egypt would extend diplomatic recognition to Israel in exchange for Israel’s agreement to return the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt, which Israel had captured and occupied since 1967. Carter facilitated Sadat’s acceptance of the Camp David accords by promising to extend foreign aid to Egypt. The treaty, however, left unresolved controversial issues between Israelis and Arabs concerning the establishment of a Palestinian state and control of Jerusalem.

 Richard Nixon

It was against this backdrop of global unrest that Richard Nixon ran for president against the Democratic nominee Hubert H. Humphrey and the independent candidate, George C. Wallace, the segregationist governor of Alabama and a popular archconservative. To outflank Wallace on the right, Nixon declared himself the “law and order” candidate, a phrase that became a code for reining in black militancy. To win southern supporters, he pledged to ease up on enforcing federal civil rights legislation and oppose forced busing to achieve racial integration in schools. He criticized antiwar protesters and promised to end the Vietnam War with honor. Seeking to portray the Democrats as the party of social and cultural radicalism, Nixon geared his campaign message to the “silent majority” of voters — what one political analyst characterized as “the unyoung, the unpoor, and unblack.” This conservative message appealed to many Americans who were fed up with domestic uprisings and war abroad.

Although Nixon won 301 electoral votes, 110 more than Humphrey, none of the three candidates received a majority of the popular vote. Yet Nixon and Wallace together garnered about 57 percent of the popular vote, a dramatic shift to the right compared with Lyndon Johnson’s landslide victory just four years earlier. The New Left had given way to an assortment of old and new conservatives, overwhelmingly white, who were determined to contain, if not roll back, the Great Society.

Nixon also applied a pragmatic approach to racial issues. In general, he supported “benign neglect” concerning the issue of race and rejected new legislative attempts to use busing to promote school desegregation. In this way, Nixon courted southern conservatives in an attempt to deter George Wallace from mounting another third-party challenge in 1972. Still, Nixon moved back to the political center with efforts that furthered civil rights. Expanding affirmative action programs begun under the Johnson administration, he adopted plans that required construction companies and unions to recruit minority workers according to their percentage in the local labor force. His support of affirmative action was part of a broader approach to encourage “black capitalism,” a concept designed to convince African Americans to seek opportunity within the free-enterprise system rather than through government handouts. Moreover, in 1970 Nixon signed the extension of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, thereby renewing the law that had provided suffrage to the majority of African Americans in the South. The law also lowered the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen for national elections. Support for the measure reflected the impact of the Vietnam War: If young men could fight at eighteen, then they should be able to vote at eighteen. In 1971 the Twenty-sixth Amendment was ratified to lower the voting age for state and local elections as well.

George Wallace

Ran against Nixon. Independent. Ran again as democrat. Attempted assassination = paralyzed and out of the running. Third party candidate in the 1968 election; vocally pro-segregation and pro-war, he ran on the American Independent ticket, garnering an impressive 46 electoral votes by appealing to voters' fears and resentments.

Henry Kissenger

Secretary of State with Nixon. Nixon and Kissinger’s greatest triumph came in easing tensions with the country’s Cold War adversaries, a policy known as détente. In part to gain leverage against North Vietnam during the peace negotiations and exploit fissures between the USSR and China, Kissinger engaged in secret maneuvering to prepare the way for Nixon to visit mainland China in 1972. After blocking the People’s Republic of China’s admission to the United Nations for twenty-two years, the United States announced that it would no longer oppose China’s entry to the world organization. This cautious renewal of relations with China opened up possibilities of mutually beneficial trade between the two countries.

Woodward and Bernstein

Watergate did not become a major scandal until after the election. The trial judge forced one of the burglars to reveal the men’s backers. This revelation led two Washington Post reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, to investigate the link between the administration and the plumbers. With the help of Mark Felt, a top FBI official whose identity long remained secret and whom the reporters called “Deep Throat,” Woodward and Bernstein succeeded in exposing the true nature of the crime.

Gerald Ford

Vice President Gerald Ford served out Nixon’s remaining term. The Republican representative from Michigan had replaced Vice President Spiro Agnew after Agnew resigned in 1973 following charges that he had taken illegal kickbacks while governor of Maryland. Ford chose Nelson A. Rockefeller, the moderate Republican governor of New York, as his vice president; thus, neither man had been elected to the office he now held. President Ford’s most controversial and defining act took place shortly after he entered the White House. Explaining to the country that he wanted to quickly end the “national nightmare” stemming from Watergate, Ford pardoned Nixon for any criminal offenses he might have committed as president. Rather than healing the nation’s wounds, this preemptive pardon polarized Americans and cost Ford considerable political capital. Ford also wrestled with a troubled economy as Americans once again experienced rising prices and high unemployment.

Jimmy Carter

Despite his political shortcomings, Gerald Ford received the Republican presidential nomination in 1976 and ran against James Earl (Jimmy) Carter, a little-known former governor of Georgia, who used his “outsider” status to his advantage. Shaping his campaign with Watergate in mind, Carter stressed personal character over economic issues. As a moderate, post-segregationist governor of Georgia, Carter won the support of the family of Martin Luther King Jr. and other black leaders. Carter needed all the help he could get and eked out a narrow victory.

The greatest challenge Carter faced once in office was a faltering economy. In many other respects Carter embraced conservative principles. Believing in fiscal restraint, he rejected liberal proposals for national health insurance and more expansive employment programs. Instead, he signed into law bills deregulating the airline, banking, trucking, and railroad industries, measures that appealed to conservative proponents of free market economics.

In the area of foreign policy Carter departed from Nixon. Whereas Nixon was a realist who considered the U.S. role in world affairs as an exercise in power politics, Carter was an idealist who made human rights a cornerstone of his foreign policy. Unlike previous presidents who had supported dictatorial governments as long as they were anti-Communist, Carter intended to hold such regimes to a higher moral standard. Thus the Carter administration cut off military and economic aid to repressive regimes in Argentina, Uruguay, and Ethiopia. Still, Carter was not entirely consistent in his application of moral standards to diplomacy. Important U.S. allies around the world such as the Philippines, South Korea, and South Africa were hardly models of democracy, but national security concerns kept the president from severing ties with them.

Title IX

Title IX of this law prohibited colleges and universities that received federal funds from discriminating on the basis of sex, leading to substantial advances in women’s athletics.

 Combahee River Collective

In 1974 a group of black feminists, led by author Barbara Smith, organized the Combahee River Collective and proclaimed: “We … often find it difficult to separate race from class from sex oppression because in our lives they are most often experienced simultaneously.”

 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Federal agency established by Richard Nixon in 1971 to regulate activities that resulted in pollution or other environmental degradation.

This new environmental movement not only focused on open spaces and national parks but also sought to publicize urban environmental problems. By 1970, 53 percent of Americans considered air and water pollution to be one of the top issues facing the country, up from only 17 percent five years earlier. Responding to this shift in public opinion, in 1971 President Nixon established the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and signed the Clean Air Act, which regulated auto emissions.

Not everyone embraced environmentalism. As the EPA toughened emission standards, automobile manufacturers complained that the regulations forced them to raise prices and hurt an industry that was already feeling the threat of foreign competition, especially from Japan. Workers were also affected, as declining sales forced companies to lay off employees. Similarly, passage of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 pitted timber companies in the Northwest against environmentalists. The new law prevented the federal government from funding any projects that threatened the habitat of animals at risk of extinction.

Clean Act Act (1971)

in 1971 President Nixon established the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and signed the Clean Air Act, which regulated auto emissions.

EPA Superfund

Niagara falls women saw high illness and birth defects and found out they were living on a toxic waste sight. In 1980 President Carter and Congress responded by passing the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (known as the EPA’s Superfund) to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances. Further inquiries showed that the presence of such poisonous waste dumps disproportionately affected minorities and the poor. Critics called the placement of these waste locations near African American and other minority communities “environmental racism” and launched a movement for environmental justice.

Three Mile Island

The most dangerous threat came in March 1979 at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. A broken valve at the plant leaked coolant and threatened the meltdown of the reactor’s nuclear core. As officials quickly evacuated residents from the surrounding area, employees at the plant narrowly averted catastrophe by fixing the problem before an explosion occurred. Grassroots activists protested and raised public awareness against the construction of additional nuclear power facilities.

New Right

The conservative coalition of old and new conservatives, as well as disaffected Democrats. Benefited from the Neoconservatives

Neoconservatives

Disillusioned liberals who condemned the Great Society programs they had originally supported. Neoconservatives were particularly concerned about affirmative action programs, the domination of campus discourse by New Left radicals, and left-wing criticism of the use of American military and economic might to advance U.S. interests overseas. Intellectuals such as Irving Kristol, Norman Podhoretz, and Nathan Glazer reversed course and condemned the Great Society programs that they had originally supported. They believed that federal policies, such as affirmative action, had aggravated rather than improved the problems government planners intended to solve. They considered the New Left’s opposition to the Vietnam War and its disapproval of foreign intervention a threat to national security.

Christian Right

A coalition of evangelical Christians and Catholics that supported traditional values, laissez-faire economics, and an uncompromising anti-communist foreign policy. They joined forces with political conservatives.

Perhaps the greatest spark igniting the New Right came from religious and social conservatives, mainly evangelical Christians and Catholics. Evangelicals considered themselves to have been “born again” — having experienced Jesus Christ’s saving presence inside of them. By the end of the 1970s, evangelical Christians numbered around 50 million, about a quarter of the population. As evangelicals became politically active, a Christian Right emerged that opposed abortion, gay rights, and sex education; criticized Supreme Court rulings banning prayer in the public schools; rejected Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution in favor of divine creationism; supported the traditional role of women as mothers and homemakers; and backed a hardline, anti-Communist stand against the Soviet Union. Certainly not all evangelical Christians, such as President Carter, held all of these beliefs. Still, conservative Christians believed that the liberals and radicals of the 1960s had spread the secular creed of individual rights and personal fulfillment at the expense of established Christian values.

Moral Majority

In 1979 Falwell founded the Moral Majority, an organization that backed political candidates who supported a “family values” social agenda. Within two years of its creation, the Moral Majority counted four million members who were eager to organize in support of New Right politicians.

Phyllis Schlafly

a conservative activist, founded the Stop ERA organization to prevent the creation of a “unisex society.” Despite the inroads made by feminists, traditional notions of femininity appealed to many women and to male-dominated legislatures.

Rachel Carson

Another outgrowth of 1960s liberal activism that flourished in the 1970s was the effort to clean up and preserve the environment. The publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring in 1962 had renewed awareness of what Progressive Era reformers called conservation. Carson expanded the concept of conservation to include ecology, which addressed the relationships of human beings and other organisms to their environments. By exploring these connections, she offered a revealing look at the devastating effects of pesticides on birds and fish, as well as on the human food chain and water supply.

Jerry Falwell

Since the 1950s, Billy Graham, a charismatic Southern Baptist evangelist from North Carolina, had used television to conduct nationwide crusades. Television became an even greater instrument in the hands of New Right Christian preachers in the 1970s and 1980s. The Reverend Pat Robertson of Virginia founded the Christian Broadcasting Network, and ministers such as Jerry Falwell used the airwaves to great effect. What distinguished Falwell and Robertson from earlier evangelists like Graham was their fusion of religion and electoral politics. In 1979 Falwell founded the Moral Majority, an organization that backed political candidates who supported a “family values” social agenda. Within two years of its creation, the Moral Majority counted four million members who were eager to organize in support of New Right politicians. The New Right also lined up advocacy groups such as the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation to generate and promote conservative ideals. The alliance of economic, intellectual, and religious conservatives offered a formidable challenge to liberalism.

Reaganomics

Ronald Reagan’s economic policies based on the theories of supply-side economists and centered on tax cuts and cuts to domestic programs. The president’s strategy, known as Reaganomics, reflected the ideas of both conservative Republicans and supply-side economists, who argued that tax cuts and industry deregulation would raise incomes and lower unemployment, thereby promoting economic growth.

Supply-side economics

Economic theory that tax cuts and industry deregulation raise wages and lower unemployment, thereby promoting economic growth. According to supply-side economics, deregulation of industry and low taxes on corporations would fuel economic expansion for businesses, which would ultimately lead to more jobs and higher wages.

Economic Recovery Tax Act (1981)

Act signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 that slashed income and estate taxes, especially on those in the highest income brackets.

Air Traffic Controllers Strike (1981)

1981 strike by air traffic controllers for better working conditions and pay. President Reagan responded by firing employees who did not return to work within 48 hours. The Reagan administration also challenged labor unions. During the air traffic controllers strike in 1981, the president fired the strikers who refused to return to work, and in their place he hired new controllers. Reagan’s anti-union actions both reflected and encouraged a decline in union membership throughout the 1980s, with union membership falling to 16 percent, its lowest level since the New Deal. Without union protection, wages failed to keep up with inflation, further increasing the gap between rich and poor.

Immigration Reform & Control Act (1986)

Law signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, which extended amnesty to undocumented immigrants in the United States for a specified period and allowed them to obtain legal status. At the same time, the law penalized employers who hired undocumented workers.

As happened during previous immigration waves, many Americans whose ancestors had immigrated to the United States generations earlier expressed hostility toward the new immigrants. Some members in the New Right provoked traditional fears that immigrants took away jobs and depressed wages, and questioned whether these culturally diverse people could assimilate into American society, while other conservatives argued that immigration was a hallmark of American history and provided a dedicated and inexpensive workforce for the economy. In 1986 the Reagan administration departed from many of his conservative anti-immigrant supporters and, with bipartisan congressional support, fashioned a compromise that extended amnesty to undocumented aliens residing in the United States for a specified period and allowed them to acquire legal status. At the same time, the Immigration Reform and Control Act penalized employers who hired new undocumented workers. The measure allowed Reagan and the Republicans to appeal to Latino voters in the Sun Belt states while convincing the New Right that the administration intended to halt further undocumented immigration.

Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI - Star Wars)

Policy first announced by Ronald Reagan in 1983 proposing a missile defense system that would use satellite lasers to protect the United States from military attack by shooting down enemy missiles. The initiative was never completed.

The president also sought to develop new weapons to be deployed in outer space. He proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), which in theory would use sky-based lasers to shoot down enemy missiles. Critics dubbed this program “Star Wars.” The SDI was never carried out, though the government spent $17 billion on research.

Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START)

Negotiations between the Reagan administration and the Soviet Union that began in 1982 under the principle of “zero option,” which called for the USSR to dismantle all its intermediate-range missiles. The Soviets ultimately rejected these terms, believing they promoted the idea of American nuclear superiority.

Reagan was unyielding in his initial dealings with the Soviet Union, and negotiations between the superpowers moved slowly and unevenly. The Reagan administration’s initial “zero option” proposal called for the Soviets to dismantle all of their intermediate-range missiles in exchange for the United States agreeing to refrain from deploying any new medium-range missiles. The administration presented this option merely for show, expecting the Soviets to reject it. However, in 1982, after the Soviets accepted the principle of “zero option,” Reagan sent negotiators to begin Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START). Influenced by antinuclear protests in Europe, which had a great impact on European governments, the Americans proposed shelving the deployment of 572 Pershing II and cruise missiles in Europe in return for the Soviets’ dismantling of Eastern European–based intermediate-range ballistic missiles that were targeted at Western Europe. The Soviets viewed this offer as perpetuating American nuclear superiority and rejected it.

Boland Amendment

1982 act of Congress prohibiting direct aid to the Nicaraguan Contra forces.

In the late 1970s Nicaraguan revolutionaries, known as the National Liberation Front or Sandinistas, overthrew the tyrannical government of General Anastasio Somoza, a brutal dictator. President Jimmy Carter, who had originally supported Somoza’s overthrow, halted all aid to Nicaragua in 1980 after the Sandinistas began nationalizing foreign companies and drawing closer to Cuba. Under Reagan, Secretary of State Shultz suggested a U.S. invasion of Nicaragua, reflecting the administration’s belief that the revolution in Nicaragua had been sponsored by Moscow. Instead Reagan adopted a more indirect approach. In 1982 he authorized the CIA to train approximately two thousand guerrilla forces outside the country, known as Contras (Counterrevolutionaries), to overthrow the Sandinista government. The group consisted of pro-Somoza reactionaries as well as anti-Marxist democrats who blew up bridges and oil dumps, burned crops, and killed civilians. In 1982 Congress, unwilling to support such actions, passed the Boland Amendment, which prohibited direct aid to the Contras. In the face of congressional opposition, Reagan and his advisers came up with a plan that would secretly fund the efforts of the Contras. The CIA and the National Security Council (NSC) raised money from anti-Communist leaders abroad and wealthy conservatives at home. This effort, called “Project Democracy,” raised millions of dollars and by 1985 the number of Contra troops had swelled from 10,000 to 20,000. In violation of federal law, CIA director William Casey also authorized his agency to continue training the Contras in assassination techniques and other methods of subversion.

Invasion of Grenada

A U.S. invasion that installed a pro-American government after a 1983 coup toppled the Caribbean island’s leftist, Soviet-supported government.

In addition to providing financial support for pro-American governments in Central America, on October 25, 1983, the United States sent 7,000 marines to invade the Caribbean island of Grenada. After a coup toppled the leftist government of Maurice Bishop, who had received Cuban and Soviet aid, the United States stepped in, ostensibly to protect American medical school students in Grenada from political instability following the coup. A pro-American government was installed. The invasion of Grenada boosted Reagan’s popularity.

Apartheid

Legal and institutionalized system of discrimination and segregation based on race in South Africa from 1948 until 1994.

Reagan’s firm stance against communism extended around the world, and his administration supported repressive governments in the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Reagan’s ambassador to the United Nations, Jeane Kirkpatrick, explained this foreign policy strategy as one that distinguished between non-Communist “authoritarian” nations, which were acceptable, and Communist “totalitarian” regimes, which were not. The South African government was an example of an acceptable authoritarianism, even though it practiced apartheid (white supremacy and racial separation). The fact that the South African Communist Party had joined the fight against apartheid led the Reagan administration to support the white-minority, anti-Communist government. In response, some protesters across the United States and the world spoke out against South Africa’s government and campaigned for divestment of public and corporate funds from South African companies. After years of pressure from the divestment movement on college campuses and elsewhere, in 1986 Congress passed the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act. President Reagan vetoed it, but Congress overrode the president’s veto.

Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act (1986)

1986 act prohibiting new trade and investment in South Africa because of apartheid. President Reagan vetoed the act but Congress overrode his veto.

Terrorism

The use of violence to inspire fear in service of achieving a political goal.

Two days before the Grenada invasion in 1983, the U.S. military suffered a grievous blow halfway around the world. In the tiny country of Lebanon, wedged between Syrian occupation on its northern border and the Palestine Liberation Organization’s fight against Israel to the south, a civil war raged between Christians and Muslims. Reagan believed that stability in the region was in America’s national interest. With this in mind, in 1982 the Reagan administration sent 800 marines, as part of a multilateral force that included French and Italian troops, to keep the peace. On October 23, 1983, a suicide bomber drove a truck into a marine barracks, killing 241 soldiers. Reagan withdrew the remaining troops.

The removal of troops did not end threats to Americans in the Middle East. Terrorism, the attempt by non-state actors to foster political change by spreading fear through violence, had become an ever-present danger, especially since the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979–1980.

Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO)

Organization founded in 1964 with the goal of achieving independence from Israel, through armed force if necessary. For many years the PLO was considered a terrorist organization by the U.S.

In 1985, 17 American citizens were killed in terrorist assaults, and 154 were injured. In June 1985, Shi’ite Muslim extremists hijacked a TWA airliner in Athens with 39 Americans on board and flew it to Beirut. That same year, commandos of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) hijacked the Italian ocean liner Achille Lauro, which was cruising from Egypt to Israel. One of the 450 passengers, the wheelchair-bound, elderly Jewish American Leon Klinghoffer, was murdered and thrown overboard. After three days, Egyptian authorities negotiated an end to the terrorist hijacking.

In response to the 1985 PLO cruise ship attack, the Reagan administration retaliated against the North African country of Libya. Its military leader, Muammar al-Qaddafi, supported the Palestinian cause and provided sanctuary for terrorists. The Reagan administration had placed a trade embargo on Libya, and Secretary of State Shultz remarked: “We have to put Qaddafi in a box and close the lid.” In 1986, after the bombing of a nightclub in West Berlin killed two American servicemen and injured 230, the Reagan administration held Qaddafi responsible. In late April the United States retaliated by sending planes to bomb the Libyan capital of Tripoli. Following the bombing, Qaddafi took a much lower profile against the United States. Reagan had demonstrated his nation’s military might despite the retreat from Lebanon

Iran-Contra Affair

Reagan administration scandal involving the funneling of funds from an illegal arms-for-hostages deal with Iran to the Nicaraguan Contras in the mid-1980s.

In the meantime, the situation in Lebanon remained critical as the strife caused by civil war led to the seizing of American hostages. By mid-1984, seven Americans in Lebanon had been kidnapped by Shi’ite Muslims financed by Iran. Since 1980, Iran, a Shi’ite nation, had been engaged in a protracted war with Iraq, which was ruled by military leader Saddam Hussein and his Sunni Muslim party, the chief rival to the Shi’ites. With relations between the United States and Iran having deteriorated in the aftermath of the 1979 coup, the Reagan administration backed Iraq in this war. The fate of the hostages in Lebanon, however, motivated Reagan to make a deal with Iran. In late 1985 Reagan’s national security adviser, Robert McFarlane, negotiated secretly with an Iranian intermediary for the United States to sell antitank missiles to Iran in exchange for the Shi’ite government using its influence to induce the Muslim kidnappers to release the hostages.

Had the matter ended there, the secret deal might never have come to light. However, NSC aide Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North developed a plan to transfer the proceeds from the arms-for-hostages deal to fund the Contras in Nicaragua and circumvent the Boland Amendment, which prohibited direct aid to the rebels.

In 1986 information about the Iran-Contra affair came to light. In the summer of 1987, televised Senate hearings exposed much of the tangled, covert dealings with Iran. In 1988 a special federal prosecutor indicted NSC adviser Vice Admiral John Poindexter (who had replaced McFarlane), North, and several others on charges ranging from perjury to conspiracy to obstruction of justice. Reagan took responsibility for the transfer of funds to the Contras, but he managed to weather the political crisis. His successor, George H. W. Bush, ultimately pardoned many of those involved in the scandal.

Nuclear Freeze Movement

1980s protests calling for an end to the testing, production, and deployment of missiles and aircraft designed primarily to deliver nuclear weapons.

These activities were part of a larger nuclear freeze movement that began in 1980. Its proponents called for a “mutual freeze on the testing, production, and deployment of nuclear weapons and of missiles and aircraft designed primarily to deliver nuclear weapons.” Grassroots activists also held town meetings throughout the United States to mobilize ordinary citizens to speak out against nuclear proliferation. In 1982 some 750,000 people rallied in New York City’s Central Park to support a nuclear freeze resolution presented at the United Nations. Despite opposition from the United States and its NATO allies, measures favoring the freeze passed in the UN General Assembly. In the 1982 elections, peace groups placed nonbinding, nuclear freeze referenda on local ballots, which passed with wide majorities. The nuclear freeze movement’s momentum carried over to Congress, where the House of Representatives narrowly rejected an “immediate freeze” by only two votes.

Glasnost

Policy of political “openness” initiated by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s. Under glasnost, the Soviet Union extended democratic elections, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press.

Perestroika

Policy of economic “restructuring” initiated by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev hoped that by reducing state control he could revive the Soviet economy.

Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty (1987)

1987 treaty between the U.S. and the Soviet Union that required the destruction of existing intermediate-range missiles and mandated on-site inspections to ensure both countries continued to adhere to the treaty terms.

The changes that Gorbachev brought to the internal affairs of the Soviet Union carried over to the international arena. From 1986 to 1988, the Soviet leader negotiated in person with the American president, something that had not happened during Reagan’s first term. In 1986 at a summit in Reykjavik, Iceland, the two leaders agreed to cut the number of strategic nuclear missiles in half. In 1987 the two sides negotiated an Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty, which provided for the destruction of existing intermediate-range missiles and on-site inspections to ensure compliance. The height of détente came in December 1987, when Gorbachev traveled to the United States to take part in the treaty-signing ceremony. Reagan no longer referred to the USSR as “the evil empire,” and Gorbachev impressed Americans with his personal charm and by demonstrating the media savvy associated with American politicians. The following year, Reagan flew to the Soviet Union and hugged Gorbachev at the tomb of the founder of the USSR, Vladimir Lenin. He later told reporters, “They’ve changed,” referring to the once and not-so-distant “evil empire.” Citizens of the two adversarial nations breathed a collective sigh of relief; at long last, the icy terrain of the Cold War appeared to be melting.

Ronald Reagan

The former movie actor had transformed himself from a New Deal Democrat into a conservative Republican politician when he ran for governor of California in 1966. As governor, he implemented conservative ideas of free enterprise and small government and denounced Johnson’s Great Society for threatening private property and individual liberty. His support for conservative economic and social issues carried him to the presidency.

Throughout his two terms, President Reagan’s policies aligned with the New Right’s social agenda. Conservatives blamed political liberalism for what they saw as a decline in family values. Their solution was a renewed focus on conservative Christian principles. In addition to trying to remove evolution and sex education from the classroom and bring in prayer, the New Right stepped up its opposition to abortion and imposed limits on reproductive rights. The Reagan administration required family planning agencies seeking federal funding to notify parents of children under age eighteen before dispensing birth control, ceased financial aid to international organizations supporting abortion, and provided funds to promote sexual abstinence. Despite these efforts, conservatives could not convince the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. However, they did see the Equal Rights Amendment go down to defeat in 1982 when it failed to get the required two-thirds approval from the states.

Walter Mondale

Reagan’s landslide reelection over Democratic candidate Walter Mondale in 1984 sealed the national political transition from liberalism to conservatism. Voters responded overwhelmingly to the improving economy, Reagan’s defense of traditional social values, and his boundless optimism about America’s future. Despite the landslide, the election was notable for the nomination of Representative Geraldine Ferraro of New York as Mondale’s Democratic running mate, the first woman to run on a major party ticket for national office.

Sandinistas

Also known as the National Liberation Front, Nicaraguan revolutionaries of the 1970s who overthrew the dictator Anastasio Somoza with the support of the USSR. As a result, the U.S. supported the overthrow of the Sandinista government.

Contras

Nicaraguan counterrevolutionaries, trained by the United States CIA, who fought to overthrow the new Sandinista government in Nicaragua during the 1980s.

Mikhail Gorbachev

In the mid-1980s, powerful changes were sweeping through the Soviet Union, which also helped bring the Cold War to a close. In September 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became general secretary of the Communist Party and head of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev introduced a program of economic and political reform. Through glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring), the Soviet leader hoped to reduce massive state control over the declining economy and to extend democratic elections and freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Gorbachev understood that the success of his reforms depended on reducing Cold War tensions with the United States and slowing the arms escalation that was bankrupting the Soviet economy. Gorbachev’s glasnost brought the popular American musical performer Billy Joel to the Soviet Union in August 1987, staging the first rock concert in the country. In July 1989, Gorbachev further broke from the past and announced that the Soviet Union would respect the national sovereignty of all the nations in the Warsaw Pact, which the Soviet Union had controlled since the late 1940s. Gorbachev’s proclamation spurred the end of communism throughout Eastern Europe within the next year. Mostly peaceful reinstatement of governments except for Romania. Gorbachev also brought an end to the costly nine-year Soviet-Afghan War. When the Soviets withdrew their last troops on February 15, 1989, they left Afghanistan in shambles. One million Afghans had perished, and another 5 million fled the country for Pakistan and Iran, resulting in the political destabilization of Afghanistan. Although an advocate of economic reform and political openness, Gorbachev remained a Communist and was committed to preserving the USSR. Before Gorbachev left office, he completed one last agreement with the United States to curb nuclear arms. In mid-1991, just before conspirators staged their abortive coup, Gorbachev met with President Bush, who had traveled to Moscow to sign a strategic arms reduction treaty. Under this pact, each side agreed to reduce its bombers and missiles by one-third and to trim its conventional military forces. This accord led to a second strategic arms reduction treaty (START II), signed in 1993. Gorbachev’s successor, Boris Yeltsin, met with Bush in January 1993, and the two agreed to destroy their countries’ stockpile of multiple-warhead intercontinental missiles within a decade.

AIDS

Immune disorder that reached epidemic proportions in the United States in the 1980s, especially among gay men and drug users.

Social conservatives also felt threatened by more tolerant views of homosexuality. The gay rights movement, which began in the 1960s, strengthened during the 1970s as thousands of gay men and lesbians made known their sexual orientation, fought discrimination, and expressed pride in their sexual identity. Then, in the early 1980s, physicians traced an outbreak of a deadly illness among gay men to a virus that attacked the immune system (human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV), making it vulnerable to infections that were usually fatal. This disease, called acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), was transmitted through bodily fluids during sexual intercourse, through blood transfusions, and by intravenous drug use. Scientists could not explain why the disease initially showed up among gay men in the United States; however, some members of the religious right believed that AIDS was a plague visited on sexual deviants by an angry God. As the epidemic spread beyond the gay community, gay rights organizers and their heterosexual allies raised research money and public awareness. By the early 1990s, medical advances had begun to extend the lives of AIDS patients and manage the disease.

Globalization also highlighted health problems such as the AIDS epidemic. By the outset of the twenty-first century, approximately 33.2 million people worldwide suffered from the disease, though the number of new cases diagnosed annually had dropped to 2.5 million from more than 5 million a few years earlier. Africa remained the continent with the largest number of AIDS patients and the center of the epidemic. Increased education and the development of more effective pharmaceuticals to treat the illness reduced cases and prolonged the lives of those affected by the disease. Though treatments were more widely available in prosperous countries like the United States, agencies such as the United Nations and the World Health Organization, together with nongovernmental groups such as Partners in Health, were instrumental in offering relief in developing countries.

Taliban

Group of Sunni Muslim fundamentalists that ruled Afghanistan in the mid-1990s. The Taliban established a strict theocracy and became the base of al-Qaeda, a Sunni Muslim terrorist organization. Following a civil war, the Taliban, a group of Sunni Muslim fundamentalists, came to power in the mid-1990s and established a theocratic regime that, among other things, strictly regulated what women could wear in public and denied them educational and professional opportunities. The Taliban also provided sanctuary for many of the mujahideen rebels who had fought against the Soviets, including Osama bin Laden, who would use the country as a base for his al-Qaeda organization to promote terrorism against the United States.

al-Qaeda

Terrorist organization led by Osama Bin Laden, created in 1988. Al-Qaeda is a loosely organized radical religious fundamentalist organization, which opposes westernization and orchestrated the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Globalization

The extension of economic, political, and cultural relationships among nations, through commerce, migration, and communication. With the end of the Cold War, cooperation replaced economic and political rivalry between capitalist and Communist nations in a new era of globalization — the extension of economic, political, and cultural interconnections among nations, through commerce, migration, and communication. In 1976 the major industrialized democracies had formed the Group of Seven (G7). Consisting of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, West Germany, Italy, Japan, and Canada, the G7 nations met annually to discuss common problems related to issues of global concern, such as trade, health, energy, the environment, and economic and social development. After the fall of communism, Russia joined the organization, which became known as G8. This group of countries represented only 14 percent of the globe’s population but produced 60 percent of the world’s economic output.

Globalization also affected popular culture and media. In the 1990s reality shows, many of which originated in Europe, became a staple of American television. At the same time, American programs were shown as reruns all over the world.

Globalization had some negative consequences as well. Organized labor in particular suffered a severe blow. By 2004 union membership in the United States had dropped to 12.5 percent of the industrial workforce. Fewer and fewer consumer goods bore the label “Made in America,” as multinational companies shifted manufacturing jobs to low-wage workers in developing countries. Many of these foreign workers earned more than the prevailing wages in their countries, but by Western standards their pay was extremely low. There were few or no regulations governing working conditions or the use of child labor, and many foreign factories resembled the sweatshops of early-twentieth-century America. Not surprisingly, workers in the United States could not compete in this market. Furthermore, China, which by 2007 had become a prime source for American manufacturing, failed to regulate the quality of its products closely. Chinese-made toys, including the popular Thomas the Train, showed up in U.S. stores with excessive lead paint and had to be returned before endangering millions of children.

Perhaps the biggest downside to globalization was the danger it posed to the world’s environment. As poorer nations sought to take advantage of the West’s appetite for low-cost consumer goods, they industrialized rapidly, with little concern for the excessive pollution that accompanied their efforts. The desire for wood products and the expansion of large-scale farming eliminated one-third of Brazil’s rain forests. The health of indigenous people suffered wherever globalization-related manufacturing appeared. In Taiwan and China, chemical byproducts of factories and farms turned rivers into polluted sources of drinking water and killed the rivers’ fish and plants.

Multinational Corporation

Globalization was accompanied by the extraordinary growth of multinational (or transnational) corporations — companies that operate production facilities or deliver services in more than one country. Between 1970 and 2000, the number of such firms soared from 7,000 to well over 60,000. By 2000 the 500 largest corporations in the world generated more than $11 trillion in revenues, owned more than $33 trillion in assets, and employed 35.5 million people. American companies left their cultural and social imprint on the rest of the world. Walmart greeted shoppers in more than 1,200 stores outside the United States, and McDonald’s changed global eating habits with its more than 1,000 fast-food restaurants worldwide. As American firms penetrated other countries with their products, foreign companies changed the economic landscape of the United States. For instance, by the twenty-first century Japanese automobiles, led by Toyota and Honda, captured a major share of the American market, surpassing Ford and General Motors, once the hallmark of the country’s superior manufacturing and salesmanship.

Greenhouse Gases

The older industrialized nations added their share to the environmental damage. Besides using nuclear power, Americans consumed electricity and gas produced overwhelmingly from coal and petroleum. The burning of fossil fuels by cars and factories released greenhouse gases, raising the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans and contributing to the phenomenon known as global warming or climate change. Most scientists believe that global warming has led to the melting of the polar ice caps and threatens human and animal survival on the planet.

Global Warming/ Climate Change

Also known as climate change, the long-term rise in the temperature of the atmosphere and oceans that threatens life on earth.

Kyoto Protocols (1998)

1998 agreement amongst many nations to curtail greenhouse gas emissions and thus curb global warming. The U.S. Senate refused to ratify it. However, after the industrialized nations of the world signed the Kyoto Protocol in 1998 to curtail greenhouse-gas emissions, the U.S. Senate refused to ratify it. Critics of the agreement maintained that it did not address the newly emerging industrial countries that polluted heavily and thus was unfair to the United States.

Tiananmen Square (1989)

Location of 1989 protests by Chinese university students who wanted political and economic reforms. China’s leader, Deng Xiaoping, dispatched the military to break up the protests, killing thousands. Events in China showed the limitations of American military might. In May 1989 university students in Beijing and other major cities in China held large-scale protests to demand political and economic reforms in the country. Some 200,000 demonstrators consisting of students, intellectuals, and workers gathered in the capital city’s huge Tiananmen Square, where they constructed a papier-mâché figure resembling the Statue of Liberty and sang songs borrowed from the African American civil rights movement. Deng Xiaoping, Mao Zedong’s successor, cracked down on the demonstrations by declaring martial law and dispatching the army to disperse the protesters. Peaceful activists were mowed down by machine guns and stampeded by tanks. In response, President Bush issued a temporary ban on sales of weapons and nonmilitary items to China. When outrage over the Tiananmen Square massacre subsided, normal trade relations resumed.

Operation Just Cause (1989)

The U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989, after Manuel Noriega rejected the results of a democratic election and claimed he was the “maximum leader” of Panama. After the United States tried unsuccessfully to bring about an internal coup against Noriega, in 1989 the Panamanian leader proclaimed a “state of war” between the United States and his country. On December 28, 1989, President Bush launched Operation Just Cause, sending some 27,000 marines to invade Panama. The Bush administration justified the invasion as necessary to protect the Panama Canal and the lives of American citizens, as well as to halt the drug traffic promoted by Noriega. In reality, the main purpose of the mission was to overthrow and capture the Panamanian dictator. In Operation Just Cause, the United States easily defeated a much weaker enemy. The U.S. government installed a new regime, and the marines captured Noriega and sent him back to Florida to stand trial on the drug charges. In 1992 he was found guilty and sent to prison.

Operation Desert Storm (1991)

Code name of the 1991 allied air and ground military offensive that pushed Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.

The Bush administration deployed much more military force in Iraq. Maintaining a steady flow of oil from the Persian Gulf was vital to U.S. strategic interests. During the prolonged Iraq-Iran War in the 1980s, the Reagan administration had taken steps to ensure that neither side emerged too powerful. Though the administration had orchestrated the arms-for-hostages deal with Iran, it had also courted the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. U.S. support for Hussein ended in 1990, after Iraq sent 100,000 troops to invade the small oil-producing nation of Kuwait, on the southern border of Iraq.

President Bush responded by warning the Iraqis that their invasion “will not stand.” Hussein needed to revitalize the Iraqi economy, which was devastated after a decade of war with Iran. Bush feared that the Iraqi dictator would also attempt to overrun Kuwait’s neighbor Saudi Arabia, an American ally, thereby giving Iraq control of half of the world’s oil supply. Bush was also concerned that an emboldened Saddam Hussein would then upset the delicate balance of power in the Middle East and pose a threat to Israel by supporting the Palestinians. The Iraqis were rumored to be quickly developing nuclear weapons, which Hussein could use against Israel.

Rather than act unilaterally, President Bush organized a multilateral coalition against Iraqi aggression. Secretary of State James Baker persuaded the United Nations to adopt a resolution calling for Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait and imposing economic sanctions. Thirty-eight nations, including the Arab countries of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Kuwait, contributed 160,000 troops, roughly 24 percent of the 700,000 allied forces that were deployed in Saudi Arabia in preparation for an invasion if Iraq did not comply.

With military forces stationed in Saudi Arabia, Bush gave Hussein a deadline of January 15, 1991 to withdraw from Kuwait or else risk attack. However, the president faced serious opposition at home against waging a war. Demonstrations occurred throughout the nation, and most Americans supported the continued implementation of economic sanctions, which were already causing serious hardships for the Iraqi people. In the face of widespread opposition, the president requested congressional authorization for military operations against Iraq. After long debate, Congress narrowly approved Bush’s request.

Saddam Hussein let the deadline pass. On January 16, Operation Desert Storm began when the United States launched air attacks on Baghdad and other key targets in Iraq. After a month of bombing, Hussein still refused to capitulate, so a ground offensive was launched on February 24, 1991. More than 500,000 allied troops moved into Kuwait and easily drove Iraqi forces out of that nation; they then moved into southern Iraq. Although Hussein had confidently promised that the U.S.-led military assault would encounter the “mother of all battles,” the vastly outmatched Iraqi army, worn out from its ten-year war with Iran, was quickly defeated. Desperate for help, Hussein ordered the firing of Scud missiles on Israel to provoke it into war, which he hoped would drive a wedge between the United States and its Arab allies. Despite sustaining some casualties, Israel refrained from retaliation. The ground war ended within one hundred hours, and Iraq surrendered. An estimated 100,000 Iraqis died; by contrast, 136 Americans perished.

George H.W. Bush (41)

Bush also affirmed his own opposition to abortion and support for gun rights and the death penalty. Signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, extending a range of protections. In 1990 the president signed the Clean Air Act, which reduced emissions from automobiles and power plants. However, in 1992 Bush opposed international efforts to limit carbon dioxide emissions, greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.

Boris Yeltsin

Boris Yeltsin, his former protégé, led the non-Communist forces that wanted Gorbachev to move more quickly in adopting capitalism; on the other side, hard-line generals in the Soviet army disapproved of Gorbachev’s reforms and his cooperation with the United States. On August 18, 1991, a group of hard-core conspirators staged a coup against Gorbachev, placed him under house arrest, and surrounded the parliament building with troops. Yeltsin, the president of the Russian Republic, rallied fellow legislators and Muscovites against the plotters and brought the uprising to a peaceful end. Several months later, in early December, Yeltsin and the leaders of the independent republics of Belarus and Ukraine formed the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), consisting of the Russian Federation and eleven of fifteen former Soviet states. Shortly after, the CIS removed the hammer and sickle, the symbol of communism, from its flag. Under these circumstances, on December 25, 1991, Gorbachev resigned. The next day, the Soviet legislative body passed a resolution dissolving the USSR. With the Soviet Union dismantled, Yeltsin, as head of the Russian Federation and the CIS, expanded the democratic and free market reforms initiated by Gorbachev

Saddam Hussein

With the war over quickly, President Bush resisted pressure to march to Baghdad and overthrow Saddam Hussein. Bush’s stated goal had been to liberate Kuwait; he did not wish to fight a war in the heart of Iraq. The administration believed that such an expedition would involve house-to-house, urban guerrilla warfare. Marching on Baghdad would also entail battling against Hussein’s elite Republican Guard, not the weaker conscripts who had put up little resistance in Kuwait. Bush’s Arab allies opposed expanding the war, and the president did not want to risk losing their support. Finally, getting rid of Hussein might make matters worse by leaving Iran and its Muslim fundamentalist rulers the dominant power in the region.

Operation Desert Storm succeeded because of its limited military objectives. President Bush and his advisers understood that the United States had triumphed because it had pieced together a genuine coalition of nations, including Arab ones, to coordinate diplomatic and military action. Military leaders had a clear and defined mission — the liberation of Kuwait — as well as adequate troops and supplies. When they carried out their purpose, the war was over. However, American withdrawal later allowed Saddam Hussein to slaughter thousands of Iraqi rebels, including Kurds and Shi’ites, to whom Bush had promised support. In effect, the Bush administration had applied the Cold War policy of limited containment in dealing with Hussein.

This successful U.S. military intervention in the Middle East provided President Bush an opportunity to address other explosive issues in the region. Following the end of the Iraq war, Bush set in motion the peace process that brought the Israelis and Palestinians together to sign a 1993 agreement providing for eventual Palestinian self-government in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. In doing so, the United States for the first time officially recognized Yasser Arafat, the head of the PLO, whom both the Israelis and the Americans had previously labeled a terrorist.

In several areas of the globe, the move toward democracy that had begun in the late 1980s proceeded peacefully into the 1990s. The oppressive, racist system of apartheid fell in South Africa, and antiapartheid activist Nelson Mandela was released after twenty-seven years in prison to become president of the country in 1994. In 1990 Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet stepped down as president of Chile and ceded control to a democratically elected candidate. That same year, the pro-Communist Sandinista government lost at the polls in Nicaragua, and in 1992 the ruling regime in El Salvador signed a peace accord with the rebels.

Despite his successes abroad, Bush’s popularity plunged at home. After the president dispatched American troops and defeated Iraqi military forces in Kuwait in 1991, his approval rating stood at a whopping 89 percent. In sharp contrast, Bush’s poll numbers plummeted to 34 percent in 1992. This precipitous decline resulted mainly from the fact that the economy continued to sag.

Bush ran for reelection against Governor William Jefferson (Bill) Clinton of Arkansas. Learning from the mistakes of Michael Dukakis as well as the successes of Reagan, Clinton ran as a centrist Democrat who promised to reduce the federal deficit by raising taxes on the wealthy and who supported conservative social policies such as the death penalty, tough measures against crime, and welfare reform. Though he did pledge to extend health care and opposed discrimination against homosexuals, Clinton relied on his mainstream southern Democratic credentials to deflect any claims that he was a liberal. Bush also faced a challenge from the independent candidate Ross Perot, a wealthy self-made businessman from Texas, whose campaign against rising government deficits won 19 percent of the popular vote, mostly at Bush’s expense. In turn, Clinton defeated the incumbent by a two-to-one electoral margin.

Family and Medical Leave Act (1993)

Clinton also approved the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act, which allowed parents to take up to twelve weeks of unpaid leave to care for newborn children without risk of losing their jobs.

1993 act protecting individuals’ right to take up to twelve weeks of unpaid leave for medical reasons or parenthood without risk of losing their jobs.

Brady Bill (1993)

1993 act establishing a five-day waiting period and background check for gun buyers.

Clinton tried to appeal to voters across the political spectrum on other issues. He signed a tough anticrime law that funded the recruitment of an additional 100,000 police officers to patrol city streets, while supporting gun control legislation. Although the prison population had been on the rise before the 1990s, Clinton’s anticrime bill accelerated the rate of incarceration. Critics of the bill believed it had a disproportionately negative effect on African Americans and Latinos. Despite opposition from the National Rifle Association, in 1993 Clinton signed the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (popularly known as the Brady Bill), which imposed a five-day waiting period to check the background of gun buyers and, in 1994, a Federal Assault Weapons Ban, which prohibited the production and use of semi-automatic weapons by civilians.

Federal Assault Weapons Ban (1994)

1994 ban prohibiting the manufacturing and use of semi-automatic firearms in the United States. The law was allowed to expire in 2004.

European Union

Founded in 1993, a coalition of European nations that engage in free trade and investment with member nations. The EU introduced a common currency, the euro, in 1999.

To further expand the nation’s economy, Clinton embraced the economic regional cooperation of Europe. In 1993 western European nations formed the European Union (EU), which encouraged free trade and investment among member nations. In 1999 the EU introduced a common currency, the euro, which twenty-three nations have now adopted. Clinton encouraged the formation of similar economic partnerships in North America.

North American Free Trade Agreement (1993)

Free trade agreement approved in 1993 by the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

In 1993, together with the governments of Mexico and Canada, the U.S. Congress ratified the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The agreement removed tariffs and other obstacles to commerce and investment among the three countries to encourage trade. NAFTA produced noteworthy gains: Between 1994 and 2004, trade among NAFTA nations increased by nearly 130 percent. Although Mexico saw a significant drop in poverty rates and a rise in real income, NAFTA harmed workers in the United States to a certain extent. From 1994 to 2007, net manufacturing jobs dropped by 3,654,000 as U.S. companies outsourced their production to Mexico, taking advantage of its low wage and benefits structure. However, many more manufacturing jobs were lost to automation.

World Trade Organization

Organization created in 1995 to promote free trade between its 150 member nations.

Clinton also actively promoted globalization through the World Trade Organization (WTO). Created in 1995, the WTO consists of more than 150 nations and seeks “to ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably, and freely as possible.” The policies of the WTO generally benefited wealthier nations, such as the United States. From 1978 to 2000, the value of U.S. exports and imports jumped from 17 percent to 25 percent of the gross domestic product.

Whitewater

A real estate scandal involving investments made by the Clintons while Bill Clinton was governor of Arkansas. A special prosecutor was appointed in 1994 to investigate allegations of criminal misconduct.

Despite his free-trade economic policies, conservatives were fiercely opposed to Clinton on several fronts, including the effort to reform health care. Many conservatives also opposed Clinton’s liberal positions on issues such as feminism, abortion, affirmative action, and secularism. Opponents called attention to his and his wife’s pre-presidential dealings in a controversial real estate development project known as Whitewater, which prompted the appointment in 1994 of a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of misconduct.

Contract with America

A document that called for reduced welfare spending, lower taxes, term limits for lawmakers, and a constitutional amendment for a balanced budget. In preparation for the 1994 midterm congressional elections, Republicans, led by Representative Newt Gingrich, drew up this proposal.

Facing conservative criticism, the president and the Democratic Party fared poorly in the 1994 congressional elections, losing control of both houses of Congress for the first time since 1952. Republicans, led by House Minority Leader Newt Gingrich of Georgia, championed the Contract with America. This document embraced conservative principles, including a constitutional amendment for a balanced budget, reduced welfare spending, lower taxes, and term limits for lawmakers. The election also underscored the increasing electoral influence of white evangelical Christians, who voted in large numbers for Republican candidates.

Personal Responsibility & Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (1996)

1996 act reforming the welfare system in the United States. The law required adults on the welfare rolls to find work within two years or lose their welfare benefits.

In the wake of this defeat, Clinton shifted rightward and championed welfare reform. In 1996 he signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. It replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children provision of the Social Security law, the basis for welfare in the United States since the New Deal, with a new measure that required adult welfare recipients to find work within two years or lose the benefits provided to families earning less than $7,700 annually. The law also placed a lifetime limit of five years on these federal benefits.

Defense of Marriage Act (1996)

1996 act denying married same-sex couples the federal benefits granted to heterosexual married couples. DOMA was ruled unconstitutional in 2013.

Also in 1996, the president approved the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which denied married same-sex couples the federal benefits granted to heterosexual married couples, including Social Security survivor’s benefits.

Ethnic Cleansing

Ridding an area of a particular ethnic minority to achieve ethnic uniformity. In the civil war between Serbs and Croatians in Bosnia from 1992 to 1995, the Serbian military attempted to eliminate the Croatian population through murder, rape, and expulsion.

In adopting such positions as welfare reform, Clinton angered many of his liberal supporters but ensured his reelection in 1996. Running against Republican senator Robert Dole of Kansas and the independent candidate Ross Perot, Clinton captured 49 percent of the popular vote and 379 electoral votes. Dole received 41 percent of the vote, and Perot came in a distant third.

During his two terms in office, Clinton faced numerous foreign policy challenges, though these challenges did not result from customary military aggression by one nation against another; rather, the greatest threats came from the implosion of national governments into factionalism and genocide, as well as the dangers posed by Islamic extremists. For example, Clinton faced a long-simmering conflict in the former Communist nation of Yugoslavia. In 1989 Yugoslavia splintered when the predominantly Roman Catholic states of Slovenia and Croatia declared their independence from the largely Russian Orthodox Serbian population in Yugoslavia. In 1992 the mainly Muslim territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina also broke away, despite protests by its substantial Serbian population. As a result, a civil war erupted between Serb and Croatian minorities and the Muslim-dominated Bosnian government. Supported by Slobodan Milošević, the leader of the neighboring province of Serbia, Bosnian Serbs wrested control of large parts of the region and slaughtered tens of thousands of Muslims through what they euphemistically called ethnic cleansing. In 1995 Clinton sponsored NATO bombing raids against the Serbs, dispatched 20,000 American troops as part of a multilateral peacekeeping force, and brokered a peace agreement. In 1999 renewed conflict erupted when Milošević’s Serbian government attacked the province of Kosovo to eliminate its Albanian Muslim residents. Clinton and NATO initiated air strikes against the Serbs and placed troops on the ground, actions that preserved Kosovo’s independence. Clinton also began to expand NATO into Eastern Europe during his presidency, eventually incorporating the Baltic states and nations like Poland and Hungary into the alliance.

Bombing of USS Cole

The United States faced an even graver danger from Islamic extremists intent on waging a religious struggle (jihad) against their perceived enemies and establishing a transnational Muslim government, or caliphate. The United States’ close relationship with Israel placed it high on the list of terrorist targets, along with pro-American Muslim governments in Egypt, Pakistan, and Indonesia. In 1993 Islamic militants orchestrated the bombing of the World Trade Center’s underground garage, killing six people and injuring more than one thousand. Five years later, terrorists blew up American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing hundreds and injuring thousands of local workers and residents. In retaliation, Clinton ordered air strikes against terrorist bases in Sudan and Afghanistan. However, the danger persisted. In 2000 al-Qaeda terrorists blew a gaping hole in the side of the USS Cole, a U.S. destroyer anchored in Yemen, killing seventeen American sailors.

During his second term, President Clinton faced a severe domestic challenge to his presidency that led to him being only the second impeached president in American history. Starting in 1995, Clinton had engaged in sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky, a twenty-two-year-old White House intern. Clinton denied these charges under oath and before a national television audience, but when Lewinsky testified about the details of their sexual encounters, the president recanted his earlier statements. After an independent prosecutor concluded that Clinton had committed perjury and obstructed justice, the House voted to impeach the president on December 19, 1998. However, on February 12, 1999, the Senate failed to muster the necessary two-thirds vote to convict Clinton on the impeachment charges.

Clinton’s second term also saw economic prosperity. In 1998, the unemployment rate fell to 4.3 percent, the lowest level since the early 1970s. The rate of home ownership reached a record-setting 66 percent. As the “misery index” — a compilation of unemployment and inflation — fell, the gross domestic product grew by more than $250 billion. In 1999 the stock market’s Dow Jones average reached a historic high of 10,000 points. That same year the president signed into law a measure that freed banks to merge commercial, investment, and insurance services, prohibited since 1933 under the Glass-Steagall Act, allowing them to undertake profitable but sometimes risky ventures. The Clinton administration boasted that its economic policies had succeeded in canceling the budget deficit, yielding a surplus for the fiscal year 2000. This boom, however, did not affect everyone equally. African Americans and Latinos lagged behind whites economically, and the gap between rich and poor widened as the wealthiest 13,000 American families earned as much income as the poorest 20 million.

Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton served five terms as Democratic governor of his home state of Arkansas. As governor, Clinton supported equal opportunity, improved education, and economic development. After defeating President George H. W. Bush in 1992, Clinton entered the White House as the first Democrat to serve as president since Jimmy Carter.

In 1993, Clinton sought to reverse Reagan-Bush policies. He persuaded Congress to raise taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations, while his administration reduced defense spending following the end of the Cold War. Taken together, these measures stimulated an economic growth of 4 percent annually, established over 22 million jobs, lowered the national debt, and created a budget surplus. Clinton further departed from his Republican predecessors by signing executive orders expanding federal assistance for legal abortion.

The president had less success opening the military to gays and lesbians, though many already served secretly. His policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell” permitted homosexuals to serve in the armed forces so long as they kept their sexual orientation a secret, a compromise that failed to end discrimination. The Clinton administration’s most stinging defeat came when Congress did not pass universal medical coverage, a proposal guided by his wife, Hillary Clinton.

Newt Gingrich

Republicans, led by House Minority Leader Newt Gingrich of Georgia, championed the Contract with America.

Slobodan Milosevic

In 1992 the mainly Muslim territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina also broke away, despite protests by its substantial Serbian population. As a result, a civil war erupted between Serb and Croatian minorities and the Muslim-dominated Bosnian government. Supported by Slobodan Milošević, the leader of the neighboring province of Serbia, Bosnian Serbs wrested control of large parts of the region and slaughtered tens of thousands of Muslims through what they euphemistically called ethnic cleansing.

No Child Left Behind (2001)

2001 legislation that aimed to raise national standards in education in underprivileged areas.

Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act (2003)

Also known as the Medicare Modernization Act, a 2003 act that dramatically expanded Medicare benefits and reduced costs associated with prescriptions.