Chapter 37 Vocab

stagflation

stagflation

Term referring to the simultaneous occurrence of low employment growth and high inflation in the national economy. The phenomenon characterized the economic troubles of the 1970s and posed both an intellectual challenge to economists and a policymaking challenge to government officials.

Watergate

Series of scandals that resulted in President Richard Nixon’s resignation in August 1974 amid calls for his impeachment. The episode sprang from a failed burglary attempt at Democratic party headquarters in Washington’s Watergate Hotel during the 1972 election.

“smoking gun” tape

Recording made in the Oval Office in June 1972 that proved conclusively that Nixon knew about the Watergate break-in and endeavored to cover it up. Led to a complete breakdown in congressional support for Nixon after the Supreme Court ordered he hand the tape to investigators.

Helskini Accords

A cluster of diplomatic agreements signed by thirty-five participating countries in Helsinki, Finland, in 1975. The accords recognized Soviet territorial claims concerning Poland and other Eastern European countries; in exchange, the Soviet Union affirmed the legitimacy of some human rights. The accords were hailed as a significant milestone in détente during the Cold War.

Title IX

An amendment to an education bill signed by President Nixon in 1972. It read: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” Title IX facilitated women’s access to educational facilities at all levels, conspicuously including college athletic programs.

Equal Rights Amendment

An amendment that declared full constitutional equality for women. Although it passed both houses of Congress in 1972, a concerted grassroots campaign by antifeminists led by Phyllis Schlafly persuaded enough state legislatures to vote against ratification. The amendment failed to become part of the Constitution.

Roe v. Wade

Landmark Supreme Court decision that forbade states from barring abortion by citing a woman’s constitutional right to privacy. Seen as a victory for feminism and civil liberties by some, the decision provoked a strong counterreaction by opponents to abortion, galvanizing the pro-life movement.

Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988

Signed into law by President Reagan on October 17, 1988, the act created a legal apparatus for regulating Indian gaming, which had become a prominent part of many tribal economies.

New Right

Term for a loose network of conservative political activists and organizations that emerged in the 1970s and 1980s. More populist in tone than previous generations of conservatives, the New Right emphasized hot-button cultural issues like abortion, busing, and prayer in school. They also espoused a nationalist foreign policy outlook that rejected détente and international treaties.

Camp David

Presidential retreat in Maryland, constructed by the New Deal’s WPA, and dubbed “Shangri-La” by Franklin Roosevelt, re-named “Camp David” by President Eisenhower in honor of his father and grandson. It was the site where President Jimmy Carter brokered a series of agreements between Israel and Egypt in 1978, by which Israel agreed to return some of the territory obtained during the 1967 war, Egypt agreed to honor Israel’s borders, and both hostile powers pledged to sign a peace treaty within three months. The Camp David Accords were seen as a diplomatic triumph in President Carter’s otherwise underwhelming term.

Malaise Speech

National address by Jimmy Carter in July 1979 in which he chided American materialism and urged a communal spirit in the face of economic hardships. Although Carter intended the speech to improve both public morale and his standing as a leader, it had the opposite effect and was widely perceived as a political disaster for the embattled president.

SALT II

Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty agreement between Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and American president Jimmy Carter. Despite an accord to limit weapons between the two leaders, the agreement was ultimately scuttled in the U.S. Senate following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

Iranian Hostage Crisis

The 444 days, from November 1979 to January 1981, in which American embassy workers were held captive by Iranian revolutionaries. The Iranian Revolution began in January 1979 when young Muslim Fundamentalists overthrew the oppressive regime of the American-backed shah, forcing him into exile. Deeming the United States “the Great Satan,” these revolutionaries triggered an energy crisis by cutting off Iranian oil. The hostage crisis began when revolutionaries stormed the American embassy, demanding that the United States return the shah to Iran for trial. The episode was marked by botched diplomacy and a failed rescue attempt by the Carter administration. After permanently damaging relations between the two countries, the crisis ended with the hostages’ release the day Ronald Reagan became president, January 20, 1981.

Gerald “Jerry” Ford

(1913-2006) Thirty-eighth president of the United States, 1974-1977. A long-serving congressman from Michigan, Ford was appointed vice president when Spiro Agnew resigned in the fall of 1973. He succeeded to the presidency upon Nixon’s resignation in August 1974 and focused his brief administration on containing inflation and reviving public faith in the presidency. Ford was defeated narrowly by Jimmy Carter in 1976.

Phyllis Schlafly

(1924–) A grassroots conservative and antifeminist leader in postwar American politics. Schlafly wrote a best-selling campaign book for the 1964 Barry Goldwater campaign and, a decade later, led the successful mobilization against the Equal Rights Amendment through her organization STOP ERA.

James Earl (“Jimmy") Carter, Jr.

(1924-) Thirty-ninth president of the United States, 1977-1981. A peanut farmer and former governor of Georgia, he defeated Gerald Ford in 1976. As president, he arranged the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel in 1978 but saw his foreign-policy legacy tarnished by the Iranian Revolution and hostage crisis in 1979. Domestically, he tried to rally the American spirit in the face of economic decline but was unable to stop the rapid increase in inflation. After leaving the presidency, he achieved widespread respect as an elder statesman and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

Milton Friedman

(1912-2006) A Nobel Prize-winning economist who helped to spearhead the public revival of pro-free-market thought in the later twentieth century. His neoclassical critique of Keynesian economics made him one of the most influential practitioners in his field. His popular writings on markets, democracy, and the dangers of big government, meanwhile, made him an intellectual giant of American conservatism.

Robin Morgan

(1941–) A founder of second-wave feminism and proponent of radical feminist thought and politics. Morgan was active in civil rights and antiwar movements in the 1960s prior to founding many radical feminist activist groups, health networks, and foundations.

Leonid Brezhnev

(1906-1982) General secretary of the Communist party and premier of the Soviet Union from 1964, when he ousted Khrushchev, to his death in 1982. Brezhnev engaged in détente with American presidents Nixon, Ford, and Carter and in both series of SALT negotiations. He also led the Soviet Union during its initial foray into Afghanistan in 1979.