APUSH 39, 40

Describe President Nixon’s Vietnam policies. How did the public respond to these policies?

Nixon sought not to end the war, but to win it by other means, without the further spilling of American blood. (See Vietnamization, Nixon Doctrine, silent majority definitions.)

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He withdrew the troops and “handed” the war over to the South Vietnamese.

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After the My Lai Massacre, increasingly desperate for an end to the war, Nixon ordered an attack on Cambodia (Vietnam's neighbor).

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Many Americans disliked even limited US involvement in the war and demanded a withdrawal that was prompt, complete, irreversible, and unconditional. \n \n Angry students nationwide responded to the Cambodia invasion with violent protests (like Kent State.) \n \n The Cambodian invasion deepened the bitterness in America between "hawks" and "doves," as right wing groups physically assaulted leftists. \n \n Disillusionment with the war grew amongst African Americans, who made up a disproportionate number of the war's fatalities.

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Due to this negative response, Nixon withdrew troops from Cambodia after 2 months, but continued the bombings.

How and why did President Nixon develop a policy of “detente” with China and the Soviet Union?

In 1969, the Soviet Union and China were fighting over ideologies, doing so in Asia. Nixon believed that this tension gave the US an opportunity to play the antagonists off each other and to enlist the aid of both in pressuring North Vietnam towards peace. \n

He achieved this policy by visiting both countries.

\n CONSEQUENCES: US agreed to sell the Soviet Union millions of dollars worth of grains. In addition, the US and the USSR agreed to an ABM treaty (which limited each country to 2 clusters of defensive missiles and which produced SALT); the ABM treaty was the first step towards slowing down the arms race, though there were exceptions on both sides. \n \n The detente somewhat addressed the Cold War, though Nixon remained staunchly anticommunist.

Explain the significance of Supreme Court rulings during this era.

Gideon vs. Wainwright: criminals are entitled to legal rep.

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Griswold Case: SC decision to strike down a state law that prohibited the use of contraceptives, even among married couples. The court proclaimed a "right of privacy" that would be the basis for future Court decisions, including those regarding abortion

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Miranda Case: Supreme Court case that established "Miranda Rights" - a statement of an arrested person's constitutional rights, which police officers must read during an arrest. The accused people have the right to remain silent, consult an attorney, and enjoy other protections. Created a safeguard against forced confessions and self-implication.

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Also cases relating to religion: court ruled that public schools could not require prayers or bible reading.

Describe the Watergate Scandal. What impact did this scandal have on the United States?

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. \n \n "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. The tape led to a complete break-down in Congressional support for Nixon after the Supreme Court ordered he hand the tape to investigators. \n Nixon was forced to resign because the public's wrath was overwhelming. \n \n Republicans in Congress told him that impeachment and removal were inevitable, and it would be best for him to resign.

Describe the way in which events in the Middle East impacted U.S. domestic policies.

Syrian and Egyptian attacks on Israel led to the US placing its nuclear forces on high alert, believing that the Soviets were backing the attackers and planning to fly combat troops to the Suez area. The US also gave Israel nearly $2 million in war materials. \n \n See OPEC definition. The resulting energy crisis led to Congress approving a costly Alaskan pipeline and a national speed of 55 mph to conserve fuel, as well as a mounted use of coal and nuclear power (despite the environmental threats). \n \n Rising fuel prices furthered inflation and economic troubles in the US.

Describe the long-term impact of the Vietnam War on the decade of the 1970s.

The South Vietnamese and the US lost the Vietnam War under Ford. Remaining Americans and 140,000 South Vietnamese had to be frantically evacuated from Vietnam on April 29, 1975. However, Ford did compassionately admit the South Vietnamese to the US. The loss in Vietnam led to the US losing self-esteem, confidence in its military, and some of its global economic power.

Describe the issues of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1970s

\-desegregating schools was still a major issue

\~Milliken v. Bradley ruled that desegregation plans could not require students to move across school district lines

\-See the Bakke Case

\-Native Americans powerfully used the courts and planned acts of civil disobedience

\~asserted their status as a semi-sovereign people

Describe the fight for women’s rights in teh 1970s.

\-feminist showed vitality and momentum and provoked the rethinking of gender roles

\-in 1972 congress passed an amendment prohibiting sex discrimination in any federally assisted education program

\-NOW (National Organization for Women) called for equal employment opportunity, equal pay, legalization of abortion and the passage of an equal rights amendment to the constitution

\-WEAL (Women’s Equity Action League) focused on equal opportunity for women in education, economics and employment while avoiding the topics of abortion, sexuality and the equal rights amendment

\-Women’s Movement: campaigns for reforms on issues such as reproductive rights, domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, women’s suffrage and sexual harassment/violence

\-Anti-feminists blamed feminists for rising divorce rates and believed that the ERA would threaten basic family structures

Describe the accomplishments and failures of the Carter Administration.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Carter championed the oppressed black minority in South Africa and Rhodesia/Zimbabwe. Other accomplishments include the Camp David accords, resuming full diplomatic relations with China, turning the Panama canal back over to the Panamanians. \n \n Malaise speech: National address by Jimmy Carter in July 1979 in which the President 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 standings as a leader, it had the opposite effect and was widely perceived as a political disaster for the embattled president. (FAILURE) \n \n 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. (FAILURE) \n \n Iranian Hostage Crisis + the energy crisis from Iranian revolutionaries cutting off Iranian oil to the US. The energy crisis resulted in a failing US economy. (FAILURE) \n The Cold War also heated up again under Carter, with the Soviet Union meddling in revolutionary Africa.

Vietnamization

Military strategy launched by Richard Nixon in 1969. The plan reduced the number of American combat troops in Vietnam and left more of the fighting to the South Vietnamese, who were supplied with American armor, tanks, and weaponry.

Silent Majority

Nixon Administration's term to describe generally content, law-abiding middle-class Americans who supported both the Vietnam War and America's institutions. \n As a political tool, the concept attempted to make a subtle distinction between believers in "traditional" values and the vocal minority of civil rights agitators, student protesters, counter-culturalists, and other seeming disruptors of the social fabric.

Kent State

(shooting 1970) Massacre of four college students by Ohio National Guardsmen on May 4, 1970, during a mass protest against US military bombing in neutral Cambodia. \n \n In response to Nixon's announcement that he had expanded the Vietnam War into Cambodia, college campuses across the country had exploded in violence.

26th Amendment

Passed in 1971, it lowered the voting age to 18. It pleased (but did not pacify) America's youth, who protested vocally against the Vietnam War.

Pentagon Papers

Secret U.S. government report detailing early planning and policy decisions regarding the Vietnam War under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. It was leaked to the New York Times in 1971, revealing instances of governmental secrecy, lies, and incompetence in the prosecution of the war.

Judicial Activism

Nixon's negative campaign term to refer to the SC rulings under Chief Justice Earl Warren. Warren had led the court into a series of decisions that drastically affected civil rights, sexual freedom, political representation, religion, etc. These decisions reflected deep concern for even "lowly" individuals

Rachel Carson

Marine biologist and author of the book, "Silent Spring." Her writings exposed the harmful effects of pesticides.

EPA

A governmental organization signed into law by Richard Nixon in 1970 designed to regulate pollution, emissions, and other factors that negatively influence the natural environment. The creation of the EPA marked a newfound commitment by the federal government to actively combat environmental risks and was a significant triumph for the environmentalist movement.

OSHA

Occupational Safety and Health Administration - an agency dedicated to improving work conditions, preventing work-related accidents and issuing safety standards. It gave the federal government more direct control over business operations that in years past, to the ire of many big companies.

Southern Strategy

(1972) Nixon reelection campaign strategy designed to appeal to conservative whites in the historically Democratic south; the President stressed law and order issues, appointed conservative justices, and remained noncommittal on civil rights. This strategy typified the regional split between the two parties - white Southerners became increasingly attracted to the Republican party in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement.

Phyllis Schlafly

Anti-feminist who led a concerted grassroots campaign in opposition of the Equal Rights Amendment. The campaign persuaded enough state legislatures to vote against ratification, and so the ERA failed to become part of the Constitution.

The Bakke Case

SC case in which the Court upheld the claim of a white man, Allan Bakke, that his application to medical school had been denied because the admissions program supposedly favored minority applicants. The Court said that racial factors may be taken into account in a school's overall admissions policy to assemble a diverse student body; however, preference in admission could not be given based on racial or ethnic identity alone. Thurgood Marshall, the Court's only black justice at the time, expressed concerns over how this decision would impact the progress of civil rights.

Camp David Accords

Carter invited leaders of Egypt and Israel to Camp David, where they signed these accords. Israel agreed to withdraw from territory conquered in a 1967 war and Egypt promised to respect Israel's borders. Both sides pledged themselves to sign a formal peace treaty within 3 months.

Iranian Hostage Crisis

The 444 days, from November 1979 to January 1981, in which American embassy workers were held captive by Iranian revolutionaries. The hostage crisis began when revolutionaries stormed the American embassy, demanding that the United States return the exiled shah to Iran for trial. The episode was marked by botched diplomacy and failed rescue attempts 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.

Describe the issues that motivated “new right” conservatives.

\-spearheaded by evangelical Christian groups such as the Moral Majority

\-far less agitated about economic questions than about cultural concerns (social issues)

\~denounced abortion, pornography, homosexulaity, feminism and affirmative action

\-wanted prayer in schools and tougher penalties for criminals

Describe Ronald Reagan’s philosophy toward government. Cite examples where he put this philosophy into policy.

\-sided w/ the “new right”

\-denounced activist government and failed “social engineering” of the 1960s

\~championed the “common man” against big government

\~condemned federal intervention in local affairs, favoritism for minorities and elitism of arrogant bureaucrats

\-drew on the ideas of “neoconservatives” (they championed free-market capitalism liberated from government restraints and took harsh Anti-Soviet positions for foreign policy)

\-wanted to dismantle the welfare-state and reverse the political-evolution

\-assembled a conservative congress

\-crusade for small government, less bureaucracy, free markets

\-reduce power of labor unions and government involvement in business

\-See Reaganomics/Supply-Side economics

Describe the main foreign policy issues addressed by the Reagan Administration. To what extent was he successful with these issues?

SOVIET UNION:

\-strengthened Anglo-American alliance w/fellow conservative Margaret Thatcher, prime minister of G.B.; both had muscular foreign policies towards their foes, specifically the Soviet Union

\-Reagan was VERY anti-Soviet

\~renewed the arms-race to threaten the Soviets: his theory was that since the American economy could bear this better than the Soviet Union’s, the SU would bargain and follow what Reagan wanted to avoid economic ruin

\~defense budgeting (see SDI)

\~pitching the arms contest to high technology would further force the Kremlin’s hand

\~Reagan imposed economic sanctions on Poland and the USSR when a labor union clamped martial on the country; this made relations with the SU even worse

\~The Cold War worsened under Reagan

\~by 1983 all arms-control negotiations w/Soviets were broken off

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ISRAEL:

\-Israel continued to allow new settlements to be established in the occupied territory of the Jordan River’s West bank, straining relations with the US

\-invaded Lebanon in June 1982, seeking to suppress the guerilla bases from which Palestinian fighters harassed Israel

\~Reagan was forced to send in troops to maintain peace, this didn’t work

\~suicide bomber killed over 200 American troops, Regan decided to remove troops from Lebanon

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CENTRAL AMERICA:

\-a leftist revolution (Sandinistas) deposed the long-time dictator of Nicaragua in 1979

\~Reagan got really mad and accused the Sandinistas of turning their country into a forward base for the SU

\~Reagan sent “military advisors” to prevent an uprising in El Salvador, promoting American Government

\~also sent covert aid

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CARRIBEAN:

\-Reagan displayed a high power invasion force to the island of Glenda where a military coup had killed the prime minister and brought marxists to power

\~demonstrated Reagan’s determination to assert dominance over the Caribbean, similar to Teddy Roosevelt

Describe the changes in the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev.

-See Glasnost/Perestroika

\-Gorbachev committed to radical reforms in the SU

\-to enforce the Glasnost and Perestroika plans the SU would have to shrink the size of its enormous military and move that energy to the dismal civil economy; this would also require an end to the Cold War

\-SU declared to cease deploying INFs and had a meeting with Reagan

\-by the third meeting Gorbachev and Reagan signed the INF treaty, banning all of these missiles from Europe

Describe the Iran-Contra Affair. What was the significance of this “affair”.

Definition: A scandal where the Reagan administration secretly sold arms to Iran in exchange for the release of Americans held hostage, and then used the profits from that sale to illegally support right-wing insurgents in Nicaragua, which violated a congressional ban on military aid to the Nicaraguan rebels.

\-This affair cast a dark shadow over the REagan record on foreign policy, often obscuring the his outstanding achievement in establishing a new relationship with the Soviets

\-Reagan became pictured as lazy, senile and paid little attention to details of policy

What does the American Pageant say is President' Reagan’s economic legacy?

\-His supply side economic theory promised that lower taxes would increase government revenue because they would stimulate the economy as a whole, but this tax reduction + the huge increases in military spending opened a vast “revenue hole” of $200 billion annual deficits

\-In his 8yrs in office, Reagan had added nearly $2 trillion to the national debt

\-despite this, it achieved Reagan’s goal of the containment of the welfare state

Describe the “culture wars” of the 1980s.

\-Moral Majority: an organization formed by televangelists were Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson and consisted mostly of evangelical and fundamentalist Chrsitians who interpreted the Bible literally and believed in absolute standards of right and wrong. Against abortion, feminism, and the spread of gay rights, it was representative of the more conservative feelings at the times.

\-members of the religious right were sometimes referred to as “movement conservatives”; a reflection of the radical sixties. Sometimes referred to themselves as Christians or pro-lifers.

\-Feminism movement

\-personal matters (homoseculaity, gender roles, prayer) became political issues/movements

\-abortion protests practiced acts of civil disobedience, such as blocking the entrance to abortion clinics

\-the courts took on these “cultural wars”

\-cases such as Martin v. Wilks made it more difficult to prove that an employer practiced racial discrimination in hiring and made it easier for white males to argue that they were the victims of reverse discrimination by employers who followed affirmative-action practices

\-See Roe V. Wade

Describe the successes and failures of the Bush Administration (1989-1993).

SUCCESSES:

\-end of the Cold War, as most communist government collapsed or became politically weightless (the USSR dismantled itself)

\-signed the START II accord with Russian President Boris Yeltsin which committed both powers to reduce their long-range nuclear arsenals by two-thirds within ten years

\-The Desert Storm operation, which forced Sadamn into a cease fire, liberating Kuwait.

\-see ADA

FAILURES:

\-continued to maintain normal relations with Beijing despite the Chinese communist state mobilizing its forces on protesters fighting for a democratic government

\-did very little for civil rights, threatened to veto many bills; DID pass a civil rights bill, but it was very watered down

\-employed Clarence Thomas, which was opposed by the NAACP and NOW (See Clarence Thomas Cases)

\-the economy sputtered and stalled most of his presidency, with unemployment rates at 7%. His attempted tax fix added up to a political catastrophe

Proposition 13

1978 proposition passed by California which slashed property taxes and forced painful cuts in government services; this "tax revolt" reflected the growing anti-big government, anti-welfare sentiment that Reagan capitalized on during his presidential campaign.

Reaganomics/Supply-Side Economics

1)The Reagan administration's supply-side economic policies, which included far-reaching tax reforms;although these policies led to economic recovery, they also widened the gap between rich and poor.

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2) Economic theory embraced by the Reagan administration; held that tax reductions and fiscal conservatism would stimulate new investment, boost productivity, and foster dramatic economic growth.

Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)

Reagan's proposed missile-defense system; featured orbiting battle stations in space that could fire laser beams to vaporize intercontinental missiles on liftoff; popularly known as "Star Wars", Reagan described it as an "astrodome" shield over America; scientifically impossible and astronomically expensive, the initiative was part of Reagan's plan to force the Soviets' hand.

Glasnost/Perestroika

1) Gorbachev's policy of "openness", which allowed for free speech and a measure of political liberty.

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2)Gorbachev's policy of "restructuring", which adopted many of the free-market practices of the capitalist West; aimed at reviving the Soviet economy.

Sandra Day O’Conner

First female Supreme Court justice; one of three conservative judges appointed by Reagan.

Roe V. Wade

(1973) A 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 counter-reaction by opponents to abortion, galvanizing the Pro-Life movement.

“Black Monday”

The largest one-day stock market decline in history, on October 19, 1987; followed the savings and loan crisis that brought a wave of bank closures.

Desert Storm

Land-based conflict between the US and its UN allies and Iraq; when Saddam Hussein's army invaded oil-rich Kuwait, the United Nations, led by the US, launched an attack on Iraq using ballistic missiles then followed up with this land attack; Saddam accepted a cease-fire after four days and Kuwait was liberated, although no regime change was forced and Saddam stayed in power.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

Landmark legislation passed in 1990 that prohibited discrimination against people with physical or mental disabilities; part of George H.W. Bush's pledge for a "kinder, gentler America."

Clarence Thomas (Hearings)

Conservative African American Supreme Court justice; nominated by Bush, he was strongly opposed by liberal groups because of his views on affirmative action and abortion; after his Senate hearing, it was revealed that he had been accused of sexual harassment, leading the Judiciary Committee to reopen the hearings; the televised details of the charges, made by Anita Hill, transfixed the American public.