Chapter 31-32

Ford Admin

Ford Admin

• Nixon pardoned by Ford: caused fall in Ford’s popularity

• Ford’s diplomatic successes: met w/ soviet premier Brezhnev and signed an accord for de-escalation of the nuclear arms race: precursor to Salt II

• barely won nomination for 1976 presidential election - ran against Washington Outsider democrat Jimmy Carter (lost)

Economy during Carter Admin

• plagued by stagflation: long gas lines

• pushed many welfare and tax reforms but congress passed none of them

• highest interest rates in history to try to curb inflation

• OPEC increase rates again

• Carter gives unpopular “malaise” speech saying that Americans’ dependency on oil was badf

Carter Domestic Policy

• expanded the federal bureaucracy by enlarging the cabinet: creation of Departments of Energy and Education

• approved environmental protection measures such as a “super fund” to clean up chemical pollution

• largely ineffective in domestic policy

Carter Foreign Policy

• human rights at the center of foreign policy

  • criticized suppression of dissent in the Soviet Union

  • withdrew economic aid from countries that violated human rights

  • established the Office of Human Rights in the State Department

• Carter signed a treaty that turned over control of the Panama Canal to Panama - US retained the right to send ships through in wartime

• Pulls out of Salt II when Soviets invaded Afghanistan

  • canceled American participation in the 1980 summer Olympics in Moscow

Camp David Accords

• Carter successfully brokered a “framework for peace” between Israel and Egypt

• Egypt recognized Israel and Israel returned the Sinai peninsula to Egypt

• greatest diplomatic achievement

Iran Hostage Crisis

• The Shah of Iran’s gov was overthrown by fundamentalist Muslim leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini

• Carter admin admitted The Shah into the US for medical treatments

• Iranian fundamentalists seized the US Embassy in Tehran and took 52 American hostages, demanding that the Shah be returned to Iran for punishment

• US refused the demand: Carter suspended arms sales to Iran, froze Iranian assets in American banks, and threatened to deport Iranian students

• failed military rescue: Delta Force, Operation Eagle Claw

• big failure of carter admin: reinforced him as an ineffective pres

The Rise of the New Right

• “The New Right”: platform and coalition

  • southerners against the pace of desegregation

  • weakening unions

  • less government regulation in favor of individualism and self reliance

  • hard line against communism

• Religious Right: Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Billy Graham: want abortion ban, death penalty for certain crimes, and allowance of school prayer

Election of 1980

• Carter + Walter Mondale = Democratic

• John Anderson and Patrick Lucey = Independent

• Ronald Reagan + George Bush = Republican

• Reagan Wins

Reaganomics

• Reagan and his Chief adviser, James A Baker III set new government priorities 1) cut federal taxes 2) cut social welfare spending 3) get rid of the regulatory bureaucracy

• vast increase in defense spending - sec of Defense Caspar Weinberger advocated for an end to the Detente

• “supply-side economics”: increase investment in productive enterprises

• took advantage of republican control of the Senate and his personal popularity following a failed assassination attempt, Regan won congressional approval for the Economic Recovery Tax Act (ERTA, reduced income tax rates

Balancing the Budget

• Reagan’s Budget Director David Stockman hoped to match reduction in tax revenue w/ cutback in expenditures

• medicare and social security was too popular to cut, so they cut programs for food stamps, unemployment compensation, and welfare assistance

Deregulation

• EPA relaxed many environmental laws

• Civil Rights Division of the DOJ relaxed enforcement of civil rights laws …

Abandoning of Detente

• Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) - “Star Wars” = militarization of space, satellites would use lasers to shoot down USSR nuclear missals removing mutually assured destruction

• US uses idea of SDI as leverage to force USSR to a Nuclear Freeze

• Reagan Doctrine: support opponents of communism - a lot of intervention in S. America: School of the Americas

Beirut Bombing

• bombing that killed 241 marines

• caused US to pull out of lebanon

• showed increase in terrorism

Gorbachev Policies

• Mikhail Gorbachev becomes Gen. Sec of Communist Party - wanted to reform economy, improve tech, and end Afghanistan War

• meets w/ Reagan in 1985

• 1987: intermediate range missiles removed from Europe

• 1988: soviet troops leave Afghanistan, Reagan replaces hardline advisers w/ those who favor detente (Frank Carlucci as Sec. Def)

The Fall of the Soviet Union

• Gorbachev weakened the USSR’s grip on satellite states

• dissolution of the USSR: by the end of August the republics of the SU declared independence

• on Dec 25th Gorbachev stepped down

• Boris Yeltsin takes over and the following day (12/26/91) the USSR dissolved

Iran-Contra Affair

• illegal and unconstitutional arms for hostage deal with iran: violated the Boland Amendment

• profits were diverted to the Contras, counter-revolutionaries in Nicaragua, to support their attempt to overthrow the leftist regime of the Sandinistas

• seemed to be idea of Marine Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North

• Reagan: “I don’t remember” - Teflon Presidency

• NSA Director Robert McFarland and Defense Sec Caspar Whinberger were arrests but pardoned by George H.W. Bush, CIA director William Casey never indicted

Election of 1988

• George H.W. Bush and VP Dan Quayle defeat democrat Michael Dukakis and Lloyd Bentsen

• Bush’s Campaign: attacked Dukakis for being a liberal - Willie Horten/Furlough Program promoted by Dukakis in massachusetts (criminal gets to go home for a week and one dude comitt crimes, bush uses this against Dukakis)

• Bush: “read my lips, no new taxes”

Bush Presidency

• reduced arms w/ USSR

• Gramm-Rudman Act: mandated automatic budget cuts and tax hikes if budget wasn’t balanced by 1991

  • breaks campaign promise of “no new taxes”

The First Gulf War

• after Iraq invades Kuwait, G. H. W Bush creates an international coalition to invade Iraq

• The US and the Coalition crushed Iraqi forces but did not remove Saddam Hussein

• US and UN involvement angered many in the region - increasing anti-us movement

• UN passed resolution 687: economic sanctions on Iraq until it had submitted to unfettered weapons inspections, destroyed all biological and chemical weapons, and unconditionally agreed to not develop nuclear capabilities

The Election of 1992

• Bill Clinton: focused on economy

• George H.W Bush: incumbent republican

• Ross Perot: 3rd party candidate

• Clinton won: democrats controlled both houses

The Clinton Presidency

• George Bush signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) shortly before leaving office; created a free-trade zone among Canada, the US, and Mexico

• in 1993, Clinton secured 5-year budget package that would reduce the federal deficit by $500 billion

• Clinton’s fiscal policies were paying down the federal debt at a rate of $156 billion a year by the end of his second term

  • effects of the Gramm-Rudman act and reduced military spending

The republican resurgence

• in the ‘94 midterm election, Republicans gained control of both houses

• “contract w/ America”: constitutional amendments to balance the budget, term limits, tax cuts, reduction in welfare and other entitlement programs, anti-crime initiatives and cut backs in federal regulation (Newt Gingrich)

• Clinton co-opts republican positions by moving to center politically - wins 1996 election against Republican candidate Bob Dole (Clinton = popular cause economy strengthened during his first term)

• Republicans still controlled most state govs as well as congress - clinton had to work w/ republicans

Clinton’s Impeachment

• clinton’s attempts at bipartisanship fell apart w/ Monica Lewinsky scandal

• Dec 20, 1998, House of Reps narrowly approved articles of impeachment against Clinton one for perjury and one for obstruction of justice

• Clinton’s approval rate remained high throughout senate trial; Americans approve of his presidency even if they disapproved of his morality

• was not convicted/removed from office

A Continued Rise in Terrorism

• 1993: World Trade Center Bombing: 5 islamic extremists use truck bomb to try to bring down the towers; fails

• Apr 19, 1994: Oklahoma City Bombing

• 2000: suicide attack on USS cole: responsibility claimed by Al Qaeda/Osama Bin Laden

Clinton Foreign Policy

• 1994 Clinton admin brings together Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yasir Arafat to sign an agreement allowing limited Palestinian self rule

• brokered peace accord when Bosnian Serbs form breakaway state and begin ethnic cleansing

  • NATO led peacekeeping force w/ 20,000 US troops, ends fighting

• March 1999: new crisis in Kosovo; Clinton intervenes to protect Albanians from Serbians; NATO restores temporary order

The Contested Election of 2000

• George W. Bush (rep) ran against democratic Gore

• Bush admin priorities: cut taxes, expand entitlements, federalized education, please the religious right, and expand america’s global power

• Florida = center of election controversy (hanging chads on butterfly ballots) some floridians mistakenly vote for Patrick Buchanan (conservative reform party candidate) - Bush won the state dubiously by 537 votes

• Florida sec of state Katherine Harris declares Bush winner and halts recount; Florida Supreme Court orders recount to proceed

• Supreme Court overrules Florida State Supreme Court and calls the election for George Bush in a highly controversial 5 to 4, 14th amendment decision in Bush v. Gore

The Bush Agenda

• 2001 No Child Left Behind Act: increases federal funding and control of public education, emphasizing disadvantaged students

• 2001 Economic Growth Tax Relief Act slashes tax rates, extends earned income tax credit (EITC) for poor (affected about 8% of Americans in 2004), and phases out estate tax by 2010 (a tax affecting <2% Americans)

• 2003 further tax cuts; Bush’s tax cuts exceed Ronald Reagan’s

9/11

• Al Qaeda terrorists hijack 4 commercial planes, fly 2 into world Trade Center in NY, 1 into pentagon, and 1 intended for white house crashes in Pennsylvania

• Osama Bin Laden: saudi born extremist claims responsibility

• Sep 14: Pres Bush visits ground zero in NY giving speech which unites nation; Bush proclaims “war on terror“

post 9/11 policies

• Bush says terror is too big to handle w/ law enforcement, usage of wartime policy and domestic surveillance

• USA PATRIOT ACT: passed w/ no hearings; the majority of congressmen did not even read act

  • monitor citizens

  • curtail civil rights of many

• policy of “pre-emptive war” part of a neo-conservative policy

• decreased threshold for military action from “imminent threat” to merely states that are dangerous

Bush Doctrine

• preemptive strikes

• Sec of Defense Donald Rumsfeld calls policy “anticipatory self-defense

• 2002 State of the Union Address, Bush calls N. Korea, Iran, and Iraq part of an “Axis of Evil” (coined by speechwriter David Frum)

Invasion of Iraq

• USA invades Iraq in March 2003 in search of “weapons of mass destruction” (UN Res 687)

• USA’s major ally = UK, PM Tony Blair works closely w/ Bush

• “coalition of the willing” (countries that supported the invasion) are few, relations w/ France and Germany straining

• “Shock and Awe bombing” : troops take Baghdad within 3 weeks; Saddam Hussein captured 9 months later (Uday and Qusaym his sons, killed Jul 22)

• may 1: Bush flies onto USS Abraham Lincoln and declares victory "(“Mission Accomplished”) - The mission was not, in fact, accomplished

The Election of 2004

• post 9/11: Bush looks invincible w/ approval rating of about 80%

• Democrats face the issue of criticizing war w/o looking unpatriotic

• Senator John Kerry, vietnam vet, was chosen as Democratic candidate, John Edwards, southern dem chosen as VP

• Bush beats Kerry, w/ Ohio being the key state (gay marriage issue helped Bush carry state)

Downfall of Bush Admin

• 2004: campaign pres Bush sees declining support b/c of Iraq

• by 2006” Shiites and Sunnis in Iraq were racing to dominate while USA tried to mediate and create stable gov; civil war erupts

• “weapons of mass destruction” not found

• Pres Bush approval rating drops (even in his base!)

  • housing crisis

  • Christian conservatives mad abt his silence on gay marriage

  • conservative republicans mad abt his immigration policy that favored guest worker program and easing residency and citizenship requirement

  • fiscal conservatives criticized increased spending and national debt

Recovering from Stagflation

• new business practices - cut labor costs to be more competitive starting in the 80s

• technology industries grew super fast

• economic growth every quarter

The Digital Revolution

• development of the PC

• first microprocessor introduced in 1971 by Intel

• first personal computer in 1977 by Apple

• ICM and Microsoft work together to develop the first personal PC

• by 2013, 2 billion computers around the world

The Internet

• World Wide Web

• developed by Tim Berners-Lee

• Dot Com Era: Late 9os early 2000

Genetics

• Human Genome Project: Avery, Maclead, and McCarty involved in discovery of the many uses of DNA

• used for diagnosing diseases, solving crime, etc.

Population Trends

• dropping birth rates

• largest immigrant groups: Latin America and Asia

African Americans in the Post-Civil Rights Era

• economic progress for African Americans: 50% in middle class by early 2000s

• the “underclass” - many still lived below the poverty line

• LA riots after the Rodney King verdict: multiracial class riot against economic and racial inequality

• UCs: prop 209, vote to end affirmative action

Globalization

• refers to the process of interaction and integration of people worldwide

environmentalism movement

• increasing global temps and acidity of ocean: climate change

• regulation (environmentalist liberals) vs. deregulation (pro business conservatives)

• Sierra Club

• EPA strengthens enforcement of clean air laws

• 1987: US and 33 other nations sign Montreal Protocol which bans ozone-depleting CFCs

HIV Epidemic

• HIV spreads from Africa to US in 70s

• AIDS kills more than korean and vietnam wars combined - gov does nothing, labeling it as a “gay virus”

• HIV deaths decline by 30% between 95-99; b/c of education, research, and funding

Election of 2008

• following onset of the 2008 financial crisis

  • housing crisis due to sub-prime mortgages

  • global recession

• John McCain (republican) v. Barack Obama (democrat) - Obama wins

The Obama Presidency

• stimulus package: to stimulate economy during recession

• Affordable Care Act: “Obama Care”

• killing of Osama Bin Laden

• wins re-election in 2012

• failure to close GITMO

• begins withdrawal of troops in Iraq

rise of political gridlock

• Tea Party: created to oppose Obama policies - strict constructionists of the constitution

• political gridlock: obstructionist politics continue

• congress becomes less effective, leads to increase in executive actions

Obergefell v. Hodges

• overturns Defense of Marriage Act

• allows gay marriage