nixon to carter

Election of 1968

• Hubret Humphrey (D) and National Convention riots in Chicago

• George Wallace (american independent Party)

• Richard Nixon ( R)

  • “Law in order” campaign

• Nixon and the “Imperial presidency”

  • Doesn’t considered majority (only by 43%)

  • First imperialist president

  • Act w/o consulting congress

    • Act in secrecy to deceive congress

Nixon’s Foreign Policy

• Influence of Sec. of State Henry Kissinger

• Detente- deliberate reduction of Cold War tensions

  • Be more friendly with China or etc(communist country)

  • Went to china(first president to do so after they became communist)

    • Meeting with Mao and “playing the China card” (Feb. 1972)- trade and cultural exchange(recognized of communist china as china-1979)

  • Meeting with Brezhnev (May 1972)- leader of USSR

    • The USSR (Brezhnev wanna “play” with US) → make him want to talk to Nixon - now have a trade relationship with the soviet

  • Strat. Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT L)- 1972

    • Signed the first nuclear treaty(freeze on missile production)

    • US + USSR

• “Peace with honor” in Vietnam

  • Nixon Doctrine - only money NOT people in SE asia

  • Vietnamization- Replace American troops with well-trained South Vietnamese military and re-equip South Vietnam with modern weapons for own defense

  • Bombing of Cambodia (1969-70)

Nixon’s Domestic Policy

• First moon landing by Nei; Armstrong (1969)

• New Federalism- reduce the role of the federal gov.(conservative idea)

  • Gradually restore and transfer power to the states and away from the federal gov.

  • Revenue sharing- give states 30 billion dollars to spend as they wish

• 26th Amendment- established a nationally standardized minimum age of 18 for participation in state and local elections- vietnam(mad bc they got into war and couldn’t vote) -alcohol drinking can be 18 now

Nixon’s Domestic Policy

• Environmental policies

  • Inspired by Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (1962)

  • Creation of Environmental Protection Agency (1970) to protect human health and the environment

  • Clean Air Act (1970)

  • Clean Water Act (1970)

  • Clean Water Act (1972)

  • Endangered Species Act (1973)

• Desegregation busing

  • “White flight” from urban areas in early 1970s

    • Issue of that the white people needed to go to the crappy schools

    • KKK shot his dog and um something else(person who ruled this law to follow through)

  • 1971- Supreme Court affirmed that busing was a permissible means of achieving racial balance in schools

  • Controversy- necessary to achieve equality in education OR too descriptive/expensive/ ineffective?

  • Bussing in Richmond

Election of 1972

• George McGovern (D)- anti-war and anti-establishment (too radical)

• George Wallace(runs again but got shot and couldn’t run)

• Nixon’s “Silent Majority”- WWII veterans, Midwest, South, blue, collar, suburbia, rural American

  • Southern strat. - reduce pressure for school desegregation and restricted federal efforts on behalf of Af-AM

  • 61%- majority now

Congress- most are democratic(can’t pass much laws)

Why did Nixon win in 72

• Foreign policy success

• George wallace out of race

• McGovern is a weeny

FDR(owning the south- democratic) → to the south flip to republican

Nixon’s Second Team(1972- 74)

War power Act (1973)- congress don’t like nixon so he needs to do one of these in order to go boots on the ground

• President orders troops into combat only by: congressional declaration of war, statutory authorization, national emergency of attack on American interests

• President notifies Congress within 48 hours of commitment

• Armed forces authorized for 60 days and 30-day withdrawal period (if no congressional reauthorization)

Conflict in the Middle East

• American involvement in the Yom Kippur War (1973)- Oct 6

  • Syria of Egypt(arab) attach israel

  • Regain lands lost in the 6-day war 1967

• OPEC oil embargo (1973) - organization of petroleum exporting countries

  • Nixon gives Israel 2 billion dollar in support → Israel wins → arab ates the US

  • Arab revenges (economically)

  • They created an embargo of oil(price of oil by 4x)

    • Economically negatively 

    • American→ buying Japanese cars( smaller and more efficient)

      • Lost 250 K jobs
        
        

NIxon’s Second Term

• Watergate Scandal

  • White House Plumbers- ex CIA(plug the leaks of the pentagon papers)

  • They discredit Nixon’s enemies list

  • They use gov. Agencies like the IRS to get info. On them

• Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP)

• Break - in at Democratic National Headquarters at Watergate Hotel (June 1972)

  • Try to bug the place to listen on what they will plan to do next\

  • They broken and entered(go to police)

  • 7 of them got arrest(mall cop got them all)

    • Nixon did or didn’t know(not relevant)

    • Nixon tried to stop the FBI investigation and tried to bribe them

• Trial(Jan 1973)- Nixon got re-elected but the ex-cia went on trial

  • They said they bribed them and told them to lie under oath

• Senate investigation (may 1973)- TV

  • The lawyer sold them out and said that nixon had some knowledge and because nixon tapes every conservation in oval office\

  • Senate wants the tapes

  • He refuse because of executive privilege(want he says doesn’t work and doesn’t applied → not a rule)

• Saturday Night Massacre (Oct. 1973)

  • Tells the Attorney general to fire the prosecutor of Nixon (fire who is going against them)

    • The first AG quits, 2nd AG quits, and 3rd tried to do it

• SIDENOTE: resignation of VP Spiro Agnew; Nixon appointed Gerald Ford to replace him(first unelected vice president)

• U.S. v. Nixon (1974) - executive privilege is not absolute to withhold evidence in a criminal trial

  • Turned in the tapes but 21 minutes were erased

    • But the stuff about the case isn’t erased so like the 21 minutes that are erased is remained a mysteries and that it should be worse than that

House → impeached

1. Obstruction of Justice

2. Abuse of Power 

• Before he was impeached

  • He resigned in office  (aug. 1974)

Ford Administration (1974-77)

• Pardon of Nixon

  • “I pardon Nixon for any and all crimes he committed as president” (anything he did is all cleaned and gone)

  • Ford said “would be worse for the country to go through a months long trial on TV”

• WIN (whip inflation now)

  • Drives a public relation campaign(treats it as a war)

    • Ration in food, gas, turn down thermos

    • Plant garden

    • Everyone drive 55

• Failure of US policy in Asia

  • Fall of Saigon (1975)

  • Rise of Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and start genocide

VI Election of 1976(been a country for 200 years)

CARTER

• Governor of Georgia

• Former peanut farmers

• Former naval nuclear officer

• Washington “outsider”

• Born again christian(taught sunday schools)

Carter’s Domestic Policy

• Economic issues

  • 2nd energy crisis (1979)

    • Oil embargo

  • Inflation → 13% →2.5(today)

  • Mortgage rates → 20 → 7%

• First time since WW2 standard of living decreased

• Stagflation - slow business growth + price inflation + high unemployment

Environmental Issues

• Alaska Lands Act (1980)

• Disaster at Love Canal in Niagara Falls, NY (1979)

  • 1920s the Jo’s Hooker chemical co. put all chemical waste into Love Canal

  • In 1953 cover with dirt → sells it for a dollar into the city

  • 1938- kids got chemical burns back from the playground

  • Superfumes to clean up

  • Nuclear meltdown at Three Mile Island, PA (1979)

    • Clean up took 1979-1993) cost 1 billion dollar

Carter’s Foreign Policy

• He wanted to be known as the peacemaker

• Humanitarian diplomacy

  • Panama Canal Treaties (1977) to return canal zone of Panama in 1999

  • First american president to visit sub-Saharan Africa (1978) and vocal critic of white minority rule in Rhodesia and South Africa

• Recognizes china -1979- opened diplomatic relations- china UN sec council

• Cut aid to Argentina and Chile in wake of human rights violations(first presidents did that)

• Appoint Andrew Young, first African American UN ambassador

Camp David Accords (1979)

• Anwar Safat of Egypt 

• Menachem Begin of Israel

• Not a formal peace agreement, but framework for Egyptian-Israeli peace

Results:
1) egypt is the first to arab to recognize israel

2) israel gives sinai peninsula back to egypt

3)egypt allows israel to use suez canal

4)gave freedom to the palestinians living in gaza and the west bank

Issues(came afterwards):

1. Israel continued to build settlements in gaza and the west banks

2. Other arabs states rejected the accords

3. Sadat was assassinated in 1981

Carter’s Foreign Policy

• SALT II negotiations (1979)- congress doesn’t want and won’t ratify

• Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1979)

  • End of detente

  • US response:

    • SALT II withdrawn from senate consideration

    • US boycott of 1080 Olympics in Moscow

    • US halted key exports to the USSR, including grain and high technology

    • US supported the anti-soviet mujahideen (Afghan guerilla fighters)

• Iran hostage Crisis (Nov. 1979)

  • Islamic Rev deposed the Shah of Iran (pro-US; had been put in power by CIA during operation AJAX)

  • Rev led by islamic fundamentalist supreme leader ayatollah khomeini

  • US embassy stormed by Iranian forces

    • 55 american hostages for 444 days

    • Operation eagle claw (1980)

  • Hostages released hours after Regan inaugurated