[APUSH 2] 70's and 80's Vocabulary

Gerald Ford

took over for and pardoned President Richard Nixon in 1974

• Wasn’t supposed to be VP, but he had a lot of integrity

• Pardons Nixon because he said that Nixon had suffered far more than the average man

  • Doesn’t win reelection in 1976 due to this belief

• Ford screwed up his debates against Jimmy Carter, claiming that Poland wasn’t under Soviet Control

Whip Inflation Now (WIN)

Ford’s ineffective plan to stop inflation through conservation

• Ford asks Americans to ride a bike to work, plant gardens, etc. to get people to spend less money

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

Middle-East cartel that controls much of the world’s oil supply

• A lot more oil was used in the 70s, as oil was used in the production of plastic

• As the US kept trying to get the lowest price for oil from various Middle Eastern countries, they banded together and refused to sell oil unless it was at a higher price

• When the price of oil goes up, the price of everything goes up, leading to inflation in the 70s

• Solar panels and alternative renewable energy sources started to come out in the 70s

Stagflation

economic condition where prices rise and wages stay the same

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

federal agency created by Nixon to stop pollution

Energy Crisis

refers to the oil shortages of the 70s caused by OPEC

• Gas needed to be rationed as cars were extremely inefficient when using oil in the 70s

• In today’s money, gas was $7-8 per gallon

• Carter says to turn down the heat in your home and wear a sweater

Leonid Brezhnev

leader of the Soviet Union in the 70s and early 80s

• Brezhnev presides over the USSR for 20 years

• USSR prospers during this time due to the Vietnam War as the US was weakened when fighting the war

• Known for his gigantic eyebrows

SALT/START

nuclear disarmament treaties signed by the US and USSR in the 70s and early 80s

• SALT stands for Strategic Arms Limitation Talks

• START stands for Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty

Camp David Accords

peace treaty between Israel and Egypt mediated by President Carter who won the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize

• Israel established in 1947 and has on-off religious war with Egypt

• Religious wars are faith-based, which makes them last an extremely long time because no one gives up

• Jimmy Carter was the 3rd President to win the Nobel Peace Prize for the Camp David Accords

  • 1 - Teddy Roosevelt won it for the Treaty of Portsmouth

  • 2 - Woodrow Wilson won it for the Treaty of Versailles

  • 4 - Barack Obama won it for the hell of it

• Camp David = Carter’s Presidential Retreat

Anwar Sadat

president of Egypt that was murdered by his own people for the Camp David Accords

• Assassinated at an army parade by his own military

Afghanistan

middle-eastern country invaded by the Soviet Union in 1979 that turns into the Russian “Vietnam”

• Afghanistan consists mainly of mountains & desert

• Carter bans US Athletes from attending the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, which leads the Soviets to only send in 1 team for the Winter Olympics

Iran Hostage Crisis (1979)

when Iran took over the US Embassy, held American hostages, and Carter failed to rescue them

• Shah (King) of Iran isn’t a Communist, but was horrible to his people

  • US supports him because he wasn’t a Communist

• The Shah escapes to the US once the people revolt and Iran’s government asks for him back

• US doesn’t turn him in because they were allied before, and this would leave a bad image on the US if they “betray” the Shah

• Iran takes hostages, and if America traded in the Shah for their hostages, this would lead to more countries taking American hostages to get what they wanted

  • If America went to war

• Carter decides to lead an extremely unsuccessful rescue mission and leads helicopters into Iran, as intelligence is bad and the helicopters end up crashing

  • Iran now has access to American military technology due to the helicopters

• Carter ends up paying billions of dollars to Iran instead, and the hostages are released upon Reagan’s inauguration

Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

proposed constitutional amendment that would make women equal under federal law that was defeated by southern women’s groups

• Phyllis Schafly: “Women have babies and men provide support. If you don’t like the way we’re made you’ve got to take it up with God.”

  • She believed that women were superior to men because women’s bodies had the ability to create life, not men

  • Believed that if women’s paychecks were raised, men’s paychecks would go down

  • This would lead to women needing to provide for the house

25th Amendment

sets up presidential succession and disability and changes the line of succession

• President, Vice President, Speaker of the House, Head of the Senate (longest-serving senator), Secretary of State, Defense, Treasury, etc.

• If the president is mentally disabled, the vice president can claim that the president is incapacitated

26th Amendment

dropped the voting age from 21 to 18

• Happened as a result of the Vietnam War

Moral Majority

conservative religious group started by Jerry Falwell that voted on social issues and helped start the “New Right”

• 3 Big Ideas: Education, Abortion, Gay Rights

“Malaise”

refers to a 1979 speech by Jimmy Carter where he said America was suffering “a crisis of confidence”

• Iran-Hostage Crisis, Energy Crisis, Stagflation, and USSR-Afghanistan invasion are all going on

Ronald Reagan

won the election of 1980, and was the first conservative president in a generation (since Hoover)

• His first campaign slogan was “Make America Great Again”

• Wants Soviet Assured Destruction

Reaganomics

also known as “supply-side economics,” which says the best way to increase tax revenue is to cut taxes

Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)

Reagan’s plan to eliminate the Soviet’s first strike capability

• MAD turns into SAD and Reagan wants to put a satellite into space to shoot down any nukes that the Soviets want to shoot at the US, and the Soviets don’t like this

• Soviets question if the US will be able to build this

• SDI was nicknamed “Star Wars” due to its ambitious, futuristic nature

Iran-Contra Affair

worst scandal of the Reagan administration where he traded arms for hostages

• Nicaragua is going under a civil war between drug dealers & Communists

• Reagan wants to give money to the Nicaraguan drug dealers, and Congress says no

  • Congress is afraid of another Vietnam situation

• Reagan calls up Iran as they’re engaged in a war with Iraq, asking for weapons in exchange for a couple of hostages and money to fund the Nicaraguan drug dealers

  • This wasn’t legal for Reagan to do

• Oliver North is put on trial in Congress, as he was “authorized” to do everything he did, and Reagan eventually goes on TV and admits that he was wrong to do this

  • Reagan’s approval rating goes up after he admits his guilt

Mikhail Gorbachev

last leader of the Soviet Union

• The US and USSR were building nukes, and since the USSR can’t

• Perestroika: opening of the Soviet economy (gives people freedom)

• As the USSR allows some freedom, the USSR falls apart as the people want more freedom

  • Begins due to the collapse of the Berlin Wall

“Velvet” Revolutions

refers to the mostly peaceful revolutions in the late 80s and early 90s that brought down Soviet Communism

• Reagan told Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall, as Reagan believed in American supremacy

• This movement passes through Poland and Ukraine, and eventually into the USSR, leading to its downfall, and the USSR’s name being changed back into Russia