APUSH Unit 9

What was Ronald Reagan’s nickname? What was the name for his economic policy and how was it conservative? What happened with things like airports/mental health? How did Republicans believe this would stimulate the economy? What did critics argue? What happened to the economy and how was it related to Cold War? What happened with the space shuttle?

“The Great Communicator”

Reaganomics- “supply-side” economics (trickle down) to fight stagflation

• Tax cuts for rich and business incentives

• Deregulation (laissez-faire) of private sector like airlines, mental health (massive homelessness as a result)

• Reduced government spending on welfare and domestic programs

• Republicans believed this would = job creation, raise incomes, lower inflation

• Critics argued it perpetuated income inequality by favoring corporations and neglecting poor

Stock market dropped by a third (more money than 1929) in 1987 = recession. Promised balanced budget but national deficit higher than all presidents before combined due to military spending for cold war + decreased tax revenue

Conservative domestic policy

• White middle class ideal

• 1986 Challenger space shuttle explosion and famous speech by Reagan

What is HIV/AIDS and how did it become an epidemic in the 1980s? How was there widespread panic and discrimination? What did the religious right believe? What did the ACT UP activist group fight for? How did it change public health and stigma?

In the 1980s, acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), became epidemic in the US

Initially prevalent among gay men and drug users = mislabeled “gay” disease

• Culture of widespread panic, stigma, and discrimination against LGBTQ+ community

• Some in the religious right blamed gay men for sinning

• Lack of a government response to thousands dead = LGBTQ+ advocacy group: ACT UP, which fought for better funding for research/medical advances

As disease spread beyond gay community, it promoted better visibility and forced advancements in public health/sexual health. By the 1900s, AIDS was no longer a death sentence

What was the immigration reform and control act and how was it Reagan’s compromise to achieve votes? How did it offer amnesty and also foster discriminatory hiring practices?

To appeal to the growing Latino voters in the Sun Belt while also appealing to the conservative New Right, Reagan passed the first majorly aw to address unauthorized immigration in 1986

• Legalized 3 million undocumented aliens. People who lived in the US since before 1982 now had a pathway to amnesty and legal status

• Introduced employer sanctions against hiring new undocumented immigrants

Compromise to limit undocumented immigration while addressing existing population. Led to discriminatory hiring based on appearance

What was Republican Bush’s Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)? How was it like the Civil Rights Act of 1964? How did it change public participation and infrastructure?

Despite conservative opposition, Republican George H.W. Bush passed landmark act in 1990 to ban discrimination in hiring and public spaces on the basis of disability, like the Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Mandated reasonable accommodations, extending legal protections/accessibility to 40 million Americans to ensure equal opportunity

• Forced modifications to infrastructure and increased workforce/public participation

What was ‘Star Wars” or the SDI? How did it shift US policy to defense? How did it help end the Cold War? What was START and how was it different from SALT? Why did the Soviet Union initially reject it? How did it START contribute to end of Cold War?

Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)- “Star Wars” (critics deemed it science fiction)

• Reagan’s plan for a high-tech satellite-based defense system over US with lasers to shoot down nuclear missiles

• shifted US policy from mutually assured destruction to deterrence-based defense

• Billions were poured into research (never happened)

Accelerated end of Cold War by forcing Soviets into technological arms race they couldn’t afford and neutralizing their nuclear arsenal

Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START)

• Whereas SALT in the 1970s tried to slow expansion of nuclear arsenals, START worked to actively reduce the existing number of nuclear missiles

• Soviet Union rejected arms control in 1983 due to perceived American nuclear hegemony in Europe, but talks resumed in 1985 and START I was signed in 1991 = beginning of end of Cold war

What was the invasion of Grenada about? What was the previous 1983 coup about and how did America justify intervention in the Caribbean? How did they want to avoid a repeat of Iran? What government was installed and how did this help Reagan?

In 1983, US Marines invaded Grenada with 6 other Caribbean governments.

After a 1983 coup overthrew the leftist, Soviet/Cuban-supported government, the US intervened to protect Americans from a potentially more radical regime

• Fearing expansion of communist influence in the Caribbean and a repeat of Iran Hostage Crisis, US justified intervention by protecting American medical students in Grenada from political turmoil

• Installed pro-American government with democratic elections

• Success boosted domestic morale after Vietnam and drew support for Reagan (roll-back of communism)

How did Reagan respond to authoritarianism and apartheid in South Africa? What is apartheid? What was the divestment movement in the US? What was the 1986 Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act that was passed about? What is the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)? How was the US against it?

Reagan allowed authoritarian regimes, like the one in South Africa, as long as they were anticommunist = even though white-minority government practiced apartheid (institutionalized legal racial segregation and white supremacy in South Africa), Reagan backed it

Anti-apartheid activism in US grew, esp on college campuses. Divestment movement pushed for removal of investments in South African companies

1986 Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act passed by Congress over Reagan’s veto

• Banned new investments, loans, and trade with South Africa

Palestine Liberation Organization

• Founded in 1964, PLO was primary movement fighting for Palestinian sovereignty/nationalism

• Used violence, if needed, for independence from Israel

• For many years, PLO was seen as a terrorist group by the US, as it challenged American foreign policy

• Internationally recognized as representative of Palestinians

What was the Iran/Contra affair scandal? What did Reagan’s national security advisor, McFarlane, negotiate with the enemy, Iran? What did National Security Council Oliver North do in Nicaragua that disobeyed Congressional authority in the Boland Amendment? How was this publicized and how did it hurt public opinion?

Iran/Contra Affair- Reagan’s major political scandal during the mid-1980s

• Reagan’s national security advisor, McFarlane, secretly negotiated an illegal arms-for-hostage deal with Iran, a terrorist enemy, to free hostages in Lebanon

• Then, national security council colonel Oliver North illicitly funneled profits to the anticommunist Nicaraguan Contras = direct violation of Congress’s Boland Amendment that banned direct aid to Contra rebels

• Congress helped high-profile televised hearings that exposed scandal and indicted high-ranked officials. Eroded public trust in government and executive overreach

Who was Gorbachev and how did he transform the Soviet Union? Why could the Soviet Union no longer keep up? What was glasnost and perestroika?

Gorbachev- final soviet union premier. Introduced sweeping reforms in mid-1980s that helped end Cold War and collapse Soviet Union

• Dismantled Soviet command economy and totalitarian control = reducing tensions with US

• Declining Soviet economy could no longer keep up with arms race

Glasnost (openness) - political freedom

• Democratic elections

• Freedom of speech/press

• reduced censorship

Perestroika (restructuring)- economic freedom

• Reduced centrally planned economy by allowing limited market and private ownership to modernize nation

What was George H.W. Bush’s campaign promise? How did he follow reaganomics? What happened with the Cold War under his administration? Why did he invade Panama? What were GATT and NAFTA and WTO?

Election of 1988- “Read my lips, no new taxes”

• Capital gains tax cuts for rich (stock profits, bonuses, etc.)

• Fall of Berlin Wall (1989) and end of cold war when USSR fell in 1991 (fully done in 1993)

• Invasion of Panama- military invasion to capture and incarcerate President of Panama (Manuel Noriega) in war on drugs

• GATT and NAFTA (first free trade agreements. Lose jobs?) WTO- world trade organization (less barriers to global free trade)

What happened at Tiananmen Square while Soviet communism was collapsing? What did university students advocate for and what was China’s ruler, Deng Xiaoping’s, response? How did Bush deal with relations with China, a major trading partner, that committed this offense?

While Soviet communism was collapsing, the Chinese communist party maintained strict control

In may 1989, 200,000 Chinese university students and citizens held pro-democracy, pro-American protests in capital’s massive Tiananmen Square to advocate for political/economic reforms, freedom of speech, and end to corruption

China's ruler, Deng Xiaoping, used martial law and military force to crush demonstration and kill thousands of peaceful protesters

President Bush temporarily banned trading weapons/goods with China due to widespread international condemnation. However, since China was a major trading partner, US soon resumed normal trade

What was the Persian Gulf War I, who was it against, what was Desert Shield and Desert Storm, what happened after the war ended, and how was his promise unfulfilled?

Persian Gulf War I

Bush helped organize dozens of countries to oppose Iraq’s (Saddam Hussein) takeover of Kuwait

• Desert Shield- build up of coalition forces in Saudi Arabia

• Desert Storm - actual invasion of Iraq

War ended in month- Iraq left Kuwait, Saddam Hussein stayed in power

Raised taxes for war = no re-election

What was the political stalemate from the contract with America and how was it related to Congress and President Clinton? What did they not compromise on?

1994- Republicans created contract with America (promised to cut taxes, prevent gov expansion/welfare, stop immigrants, have tariffs etc.) NEVER compromised with Democrats. Successful strategy led to Republican control of Congress

• No compromise between President Clinton/Republican-controlled Congress = 1st government shut down in a long time

What was the impeachment of Bill Clinton about, what was his famous quote, and was he guilty? How did Republicans argue that he should be convicted (2 reasons) and how did Democrats respond?

Sexual scandal involving white house intern Monica Lewinsky during gov shut down (I did not have sexual relations with that woman)

• Clinton WAS impeached for lying under oath about sex life but NOT found guilty

• Clinton had been required to testify in sexual harassment lawsuits before = Republicans argued Clinton’s behavior fit pattern of unethical behavior and perjury IS a crime

• Democrats argued it was a politically motivated impeachment

What was strange about the Election of 2000 between Bush and Al Gore? What was the Supreme Court case about?

Republican George W. Bush vs Al Gore (Democrat)

• Al Gore won popular vote but Bush won electoral vote

• Electoral vote came down to disputed vote counts in Florida

  • Multiple recounts: Supreme Court stepped in with Bush V. Gore to stop recount (Bush sued Gore and ended recount = bush won)

Who attacked the US on 9/11 and what war was declared on the US? What were the results? What were 4 motivations for the attack (US in middle east and 2 cultural)? What were results in the US in terms of 3 changes to security agencies, war, treatment of terrorists/spies, and treatment of American citizens?

Deadliest terrorist attack to date. US attacked by Al Qaeda (Osama Bin Laden declared fatwa/holy war/jihad against US)

• Results: Destruction of world trade center/parts of Pentagon, loss of 4 civilian airliners, 2977 killed

• Motivations: US support of Israel, presence of US troops in Saudi Arabia (holy land), US support of gov who allegedly fought against Islam, US cultural hegemony that went against fundamentalist Islam

Lasting effects in US

• Security over privacy- Homeland Security/TSA, Patriot Act (legalized spying on civilians and listening in on suspected calls), gov work with technology to track potential threats (National security agency- NSA)

• War in Afghanistan + Iraq

• Black sites, unmarked prisons, enhanced interrogation techniques (torture). Guantanamo Bay as prison for suspected terrorists

  • Gov and societal suppression of Middle Eastern Americans

Significance of Election of 2008? Why did Obama win over Bush’s tactics with regard to 9/11?

Barack Obama - 1st African American president

Symbol of hope for racial change and shift from Bush’s international duality (You are either with us or you’re with the terrorists). Obama represented consensus-building

What started the Great Recession of 2008 (what did banks loan and sell and to who?) What markets crashed? What was the government response?

Booming housing market = assumed house prices would continue to increase = banks loaned high interest subprime mortgage loans to people with bad credit. Sold bad house loans as “stock” package = stock market/real estate markets both crashed when housing bubble burst and housing prices decreased

• Millions unemployed, houses foreclosed, businesses closed

• Stagflation

• “Banks are too big to fail” = gov gave money to help banks, not the needy low-income citizens