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Gerald Ford
House Minority Leader who took on the role of president after Richard Nixon resigned from office.
He pardoned Nixon on all crimes that he might of committed in office, but was also thought by most Americans to be an honest and amiable man.
Under his presidency, the SALT II was drafted which further limited arms between Soviets and Americans.
Jimmy Carter
The democratic president elected in 1976 who beat the previous president, Gerald Ford.
He was thought by many to have no real goals as president and was unable to pass the majority of his reform legislation.
He tried devoting his presidency to solving the energy crisis and issues of the economy.
His greatest accomplishment was creating a peace agreement between Egypt and Israel.
Camp David Accords
A peace treaty created by President Carter and others that would ease tensions between the countries of Israel and Egypt.
Ayatollah Khomeini
The religious leader of Iran that took over Iranian government from the Shah of Iran who was appointed by the United States.
Sunbelt
A group of southeastern and southwestern states that were starting to have an enormous population.
Most people in these states had very conservative views.
Evangelicalism
The basis of beliefs for all Christian groups that included that a person would be reborn through direct communication with God.
This belief established a massive amount of "born-again" Christians at the time
Moral Majority
A group composed of religious conservatives that supported primarily conservative Republicans opposed to abortion, communism and liberalism.
They were a very large and important part of the presidential elections.
The New Right
A large and diverse group of Americans that started gaining power after the defeat of Republican Barry Goldwater in 1964.
Many contributors of Goldwater's campaign began to form a coalition of conservative fund raising organizations and communications.
This made this group much better funded than the liberals.
Ronald Reagan
A conservative republican who gained the vote of many members of the New Right which helped him win the 1980 election against former president Carter.
This man's election also caused the hostages in Iran to be released and sent back to the United States.
This president was extremely capitalist and was backed by extremely wealthy conservatives who helped his campaign.
He was well liked because of his ability to speak eloquently and diplomatically, but often showed ignorance about many political conflicts.
Proposition 13
A very successful tax revolt conducted by the citizens of California that created a rollback in property tax rates.
This revolt was conducted mostly by members of the New Right.
Supply-Side Economics
The more formal term for President Reagan's economic experiment.
This experiment involved providing tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations in order to encourage new investments.
This would reduce government revenue and government expenses, as well as put money back into the economy.
Reaganomics
The economic policies of President Reagan that were associated especially with the reduction of taxes and the promotion of unrestricted participation in the stock market.
This would in theory reduce the federal government's revenue and expenses making the federal government smaller.
Specifically this word is used by the average American citizen.
Deregulation
During Reagan's presidency, many agencies and associations started easing up on their nationwide enforcements.
The EPA stopped enforcing many environmental regulations.
The Civil Rights Division eased enforcement of Civil Rights Laws.
Car regulations were basically nonexistent at the time.
All of these reductions in government funded programs were made to ensure economic revival.
Entitlement
Programs like Medicare and Medicaid that every citizen of the United States was applicable for.
These programs contributed to a large scale increase in national debt because the programs were becoming too costly.
Nancy Reagan
First Lady that was extremely conservative and helped change her husband's political views from extremely liberal to extremely conservative.
Evil Empire
Ronald Reagan's description of the Soviet Union because of his hate for communism and his belief that the Soviets violated human rights with their government.
Strategic Defense Initiative
A military program created by President Reagan that tried providing Americans with protection from nuclear war and missiles through the use of satellites and lasers in space.
Soviets completely disapproved of the act and said that any other arms limitation agreement would have to start with the destruction of this program.
Nuclear Freeze Movement
An increasingly popular belief of Americans that there needed to be a stop to the creation, testing, and use of nuclear weapons between the Soviet Union and The United States.
Reagan Doctrine
President Reagan's foreign policy that stated that the United States would need to fight communism and support opponents of communism anywhere in the world.
This created new American activism in third world countries.
Grenada
A small Caribbean nation where a communist regime was showing signs of forging a relationship with Moscow.
Americans saw this and under the Reagan Doctrine, American troops were sent into the country to help get rid of the communist supporters.
Muammar al-Quaddafi
The leader of Libya who was seen by Americans as an extremely dangerous person who would exploit his nation's people as well as other nation's through the use of terrorism.
Walter Mondale
Former Vice President that ran as the democratic nominee for president in the election of 1984.
He won the democratic nomination despite the strong support of other democratic candidates like Jesse Jackson and Gary Hart.
He selected his vice presidential candidate to be Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman nominee for vice president.
Jesse Jackson
An influential speaker that drew support from many minorities as well as the poor.
He ran as the democratic candidate for president in 1984, but was beat by another democrat, Walter Mondale, for the primary election.
Geraldine Ferraro
A New York politician that was chosen by Democrat Walter Mondale to become the vice presidential nominee for the democrats in the election of 1984.
She was the first female candidate ever chosen for the vice presidency.
Mikhail Gorbachev
Soviet leader that is responsible for dismantling many repressive systems in the communist Soviet Union.
He also tried to introduce capitalism and private ownership of land into the Soviet Union.
However, he is most well known for greatly reducing communist forces throughout the world which led to a large decrease in the Soviet Union's political power and created many new countries within the Soviet Union.
This Soviet leader was greatly committed to improving relations with American President Ronald Reagan and the United States.
Bill Clinton
Democratic president who won the election of 1992 against former Republican president George Bush and Independent Ross Perot.
He is mainly thought to have won due to Bush's declining popularity caused by the worsening recession during his presidency.
Invasion of Kuwait
Iraqi soldiers led by Saddam Hussein quickly took over the oil rich country of Kuwait in order to increase their oil supplies.
This created almost unanimous world opposition to Iraq and a coalition of troops created by the United Nations started war with Iraq in order to restore Kuwait to an independent nation.
Iran-Contra Scandal
President Reagan and his administration sold large amounts of weapons and funded money to the Iranian government in order for Iran to release American hostages.
Some of this money was also given to Nicaraguan anarchists to topple the existing government of Nicaragua.
When this news was found out by the public, Reagan's image suffered greatly.
George Bush
Republican president that was elected in 1988 after beating Democrat Michael Dukakis.
He was not extremely popular with Americans, but convinced the public that Dukakis supported many unpopular liberal campaigns.
This made him have a substantial victory over Dukakis.
His foreign policy was quite successful in alleviating tensions with the Soviets.
His domestic policies contradicted each other with the goals of reducing federal deficit, but promising no new taxes.
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