Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter Notes

Proposition 13 

• By the 1970s, inflation was going through in California, which hurt middle- and lower-class homeowners a lot. Their taxes rose at the same time. 

• The United Organization of Taxpayers (UOT) collected 1.25 million signatures to place Proposition 13 on the ballot. It’s a California ballot measure passed in 1978 that limits property tax increases. 

• People who opposed Proposition 13 warned that lost revenue would lead to school closures, job losses, and reduced police and fire protection. 

• Over the next 4 years, 12 states passed similar resolutions to Proposition 13, while many legislatures cut public spending and taxes. 

• In Massachusetts, voters reduced local property taxes and prevented future increase of more than 2.5%, no matter how much inflation and the population affected it. 

• The only state that supported George McGovern in 1972 voted narrowly for Ronald Reagan in 1980. 

The Diverse Evangelical World 

• A faltering economy, increasing wages, and a resistance to paying taxes did not cause the conservative rebellion. 

• During the 1960s, Protestant churches struggled over how their religious beliefs should work with civil rights, the Vietnam War, issues of sex and gender, and more-liberated lifestyles. 

• Many worshipers moved from long-established denominations to evangelical churches. By 1980, 36% of Americans said they were “born again.” 

• The Southern Baptists and Assemblies of God attracted large national memberships. Their real focus was local. 

• Evangelical tradition encouraged proselytizing by the faithful. Most evangelicals expected Christ returning to bring with him some true believers. 

• These shared beliefs put evangelicals at odds with modern society. They imposed a strict personal morality. 

Pat Robertson 

• Many preachers advocated a “prosperity theology” that encouraged economic success. They used the media to spread the word. 

• Pat Robertson is the son of a Virginia politician. He used cable and satellite broadcasts to expand the Christian Broadcast Network. 

• Robertson’s 700 Club brought in millions of viewers and inspired Jim Bakker to launch Praise the Lord Club. 

• Most Christian shows like 700 Club had gospel singing, fervent preaching, faith healing, and speaking in tongues. 

Pope John Paul II 

• American Catholics faced decisions about the lines between religion and politics. 

• In the 1960s, Vatican II, a social activist movement, had arisen out of the church council. 

• Catholic conservatives found support for their views when John Paul II took over as Pope. He reined in the modern trends that existed in Vatican II. 

• The American church faced a crisis where fewer young men and women chose to be priests and nuns. 

• Though conservative Catholics and Protestant evangelicals were wary, they share certain views. 

• Both groups wanted the government to provide federal aid to parochial schools and Fundamentalist academies. 

• Pope John Paul said that all life begins at contraception and that abortion is murder of the unborn. 

Conservatives and Roe v. Wade 

• Since many evangelicals believed that an apocalypse would be imminent, they saw little reason to reform society before the 1970s. 

• Several Supreme Court decisions struck conservatives as an attack on their faith. 

• Conservatives believed that abortion was “the slaughter of the innocents.” 

• Many evangelicals became politically active. They expanded their agendas once the debates over abortion and prayer in schools brought them into politics. 

• Falwell joined Tim LaHaye in a campaign to repeal a gay rights ordinance in Miami. 

• LaHaye and his wife formed the Concerned Women of America, which by the 1980s gained more members than the National Organization for Women. 

Archie Bunker 

• Hollywood movies have pushed the boundaries of acceptable content. By the 1970s, television began to introduce more controversial and politicized programming. 

• In 1971, Norman Lear introduced All in the Family, whose main character, Archie Bunker, had backlash against liberal values. Archie treats his wife as a servant. 

• While millions watched Lear’s show, both left and right attacked it. Many conservatives who shared Archie’s values found the language offensive. 

Saturday Night Fever 

• The popular disco movie Saturday Night Fever relieved people’s alienation for All in the Family. 

• Saturday Night Fever explores the world of Tony Manero, who holds a dead-end job as a hardware store clerk during the day but at night turns into a disco king. 

• The glitter of disco offers Tony a world in which he can be a somebody. In the end, however, he rejects his family, friends, and roots for a future in Manhattan. 

• Tony embraces the notion that those with talent and dreams can escape the past and reinvent themselves. 

• Saturday Night Fever seemed to have glamorized youth culture but also offer audiences fantasy. 

• Fearful that the Moral Majority’s pressure would leave TV producers to censor themselves, the creator of Archie Bunker formed People for the American Way. It campaigned for diversity and tolerance. 

War Powers Resolution 

• In the wake of Watergate and the Vietnam War, Congress was determined to place limits on a presidency that seemed to grow too imperial. 

• The War Powers Resolution required that the president consult Congress before committing troops to the battlefield, report within 2 days of acting, and withdraw troops after 60 days unless Congress votes to keep them. 

• Congressional hearings revealed that the CIA had violated its charter forbidding it to spy on Americans at home. 

• The CIA had tried to assassinate foreign leaders in Cuba, Congo, South Vietnam, and the Dominican Republic. 

• The FBI used illegal means to infiltrate and disrupt domestic things. 

Influence on Kissinger 

• Gerald Ford relied on Henry Kissinger’s guidance in foreign policy. Kissinger saw himself as a realist who offended idealists on the left and right. 

• During the final years of Nixon’s administration, Kissinger followed the maxim by ordering the CIA to finance a coup in Chile. 

• The coup overthrew Salvador Allende Gossens. Allende died and a brutal military regime took over. 

Energy and the Middle East 

• Kissinger looked to manage an energy crisis brought to a head by events in the Middle East. 

• The US and its allies depended on Middle Eastern oil and if the pipelines were full, low oil prices discouraged conservation or the use of alternative energy. 

• 13 nations made up the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Among the 13 nations were several Arab countries and Iran. 

• On Yom Kippur, troops from Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel. Several members of OPEC supported Egypt and Syria by imposing a boycott on oil exports. 

• The boycott lasted from October 1973 to March 1974. It staggered the Western nations and Japan. The price of oil froze from under $2 a barrel to over $12 by 1976. 

• Inflation rose to 14%. Due to rising oil prices, people had to wait in lines for hours to get gas. 

• In October 1975, NYC announced it was near bankruptcy and asked Gerald Ford to provide aid. 

• Gerald Ford initially refused, but after political pressure, he gave NYC a loan. 

• Kissinger mediated the conflict between Israel and the Arab states. Eventually, Israel agreed to withdraw from the west bank and to disengage from Syrian troops along the Golan Heights. 

• Congress addressed the energy crisis by ordering electric utilities to switch to coal. Congress also ordered the auto industry to improve the efficiency of its cars. 

Limits Across the Globe 

• The US not only dealt with the energy crisis, but the US also faced competition from industries in Europe and in the Pacific Rim. 

• Lower wages in these areas convinced many American manufacturers to move high-wage jobs overseas. 

• Both Ford and Kissinger hoped to use détente with the USSR to ease America's economic burdens. The Soviet economy was stagnating. 

• In 1975, both the USSR and the US signed a second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT II). It was built from SALT II and aimed to limit the number of nuclear weapons each country could have. 

• Conservative Republicans strongly opposed SALT II because they believed it was concessions to an untrustworthy enemy. They believed détente would make the US weak. 

Jimmy Carter: Restoring the Faith 

• In the escalating war between the liberals and the conservatives, Jimmy Carter didn’t fit into either side. He was more in the middle. 

• Jimmy Carter was a former navy man and nuclear engineer. He was a peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia. He served as Georgia’s governor. 

• When Carter began campaigning, only 2% of Americans knew who he was. He used his outsider status to his advantage by being honest and open to Washington. 

• Ford had to fight off a challenge from his party’s right wing, led by Ronald Reagan. He grew up as a New Deal Democrat who opposed high income taxes and communism. He eventually joined the Republican Party. 

• Ford was able to defeat Reagan at the Republican convention by controlling the nomination process. 

• In the election Carter managed to win by a slim margin. He vowed to bring simplicity and directness to politics. 

Carter’s Agenda 

• Carter brought to his office a mastery of detail, disciplined work habits, and plans to address the energy crisis, economic stagnation, the financial woes facing cities in the US, and foreign policy issues. 

• The one thing he and his advisors didn’t decide was how to set priorities. 

• Almost at once Carter asked Congress to get rid of 19 expensive pork-barrel water projects because he considered them financially wasteful and environmentally destructive. 

• Carter was forced to restore the projects because Congress threatened to bury his other legislative proposals. 

Energy and the Environment 

• The president had to address 2 issues: the environment and skyrocketing energy prices. These issues were in constant tension since satisfying energy needs meant using natural resources, which needed to be protected. 

• Carter made progress on fixing the issues. He strengthened the EPA and the clean air and water regulations the EPA enforced. 

• He created a Superfund that could spend $1 billion a year to clean up hazardous waste sites. 

• Problems arose when environmental and energy policies mixed in with each other. 

• The new harsh winter drove energy prices even higher and pushed Carter to create a new comprehensive energy policy. 

• His preferred strategy for increasing fuel supplies was conservation. Americans were consuming more energy in 1977 than they had been before the OPEC oil boycott. 

• The energy industry lobbied to prevent conservation. They wanted to increase the supply of energy by deregulating the prices of natural gas and oil. 

• Carter’s National Energy Program aimed to reduce US dependance on foreign oil and promote energy conservation. It was comprehensive, but it was also complicated. 

• Solar tax credits encouraged alternative energy. 

• Few areas of public policy were more subjective to the pressure of special interests. 

• After 18 months of debate, Congress managed to approve deregulation, some energy-conservation tax credits, and a Department of Energy. 

• Environmentalists and energy producers debated over climate change and nuclear energy. A 1977 report warned that fossil fuel consumption raised the possibility that the world would face catastrophic warming. 

• Scientists and energy companies weren’t ready to recommend policies that would regulate greenhouse gases. 

Three Mile Island 

• Some utilities favored nuclear power because nuclear fission didn’t emit carbon dioxide. 

• There wasn’t a permanent solution to disposing of radioactive waste that was a by-product of nuclear power. 

• In March 1979, a plume of radioactive steam spewed from an overheated nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island, found in Pennsylvania. Local authorities evacuated around 100,000 residents. 

• While existing nuclear power plants continued to be used, no new ones would be built for a long time. 

The Sagging Economy 

• During the 1970s, wages stagnated, unemployment rose, and inflation rose. This was a result of rising energy costs, falling industrial productivity, and foreign competition. 

• Carter initially proposed stimulating the economy with a series of tax rebates. He did so with the approval of progressive politicians by finding new funding for federal programs. 

• Carter’s fiscal conservatism offset these attempts. He canceled his proposed tax rebates due to the large deficit from the Nixon and Ford administrations. 

Foreign Policy: Principled or Pragmatic? 

• In foreign policy, Jimmy Carter had to choose between conservative and liberal impulses and choose between being practical and being idealistic. 

• Just like Nixon and Kissinger, Carter knew that the US didn’t have the strength or resources to rule a postcolonial world. Unlike his conservative critics, he saw the threat of Soviet strength of skepticism. 

Human Rights 

• Carter insisted that the US should take a moral posture by prioritizing human rights. He spoke out publicly and reduced foreign aid to some dictatorships. 

• Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Argentinian Nobel Peace Prize winner, claimed that he owed his life to Carter’s policies. Hundreds of other journalists benefited as well. 

Panama Canal Treaties 

• Carter eased decades of animosity against Yankee imperialism by negotiating a treaty to turn over to Panama control of the Canal Zone. 

• For many conservatives, his initiatives proved more that American power was declining. 

• For conservatives, they were ready to see how Jimmy Carter would do when negotiating with the Soviet Union. 

• Carter hoped to continue the policy of détente that was scorned for so long by the right wing. 

• Leonid Brezhnev accepted Carter’s requests to negotiate, since the USSR was struggling with an economy saddled by inefficient industries and obligations to poor countries. 

• At Vienna in 1979, Carter and Brezhnev followed through on the strategic arms limitation agreement set by Ford. 

• SALT II was flawed because neither side would agree to scrap major weapon systems. 

The Middle East: Hope and Hostages 

• Throughout the Cold War, instability in the Middle East threatened to set off a larger conflict. 

• Dictators in Iran, Egypt, Syria, and Iraq viewed with monarchies in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, and the UAE. 

• Vast inequality between oil-rich sheiks and impoverished peasants and nomadic tribes existed. 

• American policy for the Middle East was pulled in 2 different directions. 

• On one hand, the US wanted to ensure the free flow of Middle Eastern oil to the industrial world. On the other hand, it was committed to the survival of Israel. 

• The energy crises of the 1970s heightened the tensions between the goals of the US, as did Israel’s decisions to refuse Palestine to set up homes in the West Bank. 

• Egyptian president Anwar Sadat traveled to Israel to meet Israeli president Menachem Begin. 

Camp David Accords 

• For 13 days, Carter watched 2 people (Sadat and Begin) argue. Each feared the consequence of giving the other side too much. 

• Sadat would recognize Israel, and Israel would return the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt. Begin would not yield to having Palestine have land in the West Bank and Gaza. 

• Begin and Sadat shared the Nobel Peace Prize for their courageous diplomacy, but it could have gone to Carter because he brokered the peace. 

Iranian Revolution 

• Among the turmoil of the Middle East, the Shah of Iran had long seemed a stabilizing force. 

• In the autumn of 1978, Shi’ite fundamentalists rebelled against the Shah’s dictatorship. They found the presence of tens of thousands of non-Muslim American military advisors. 

• When the Shah’s regime fell in February 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini proved an Islamic republic. 

• Later in 1979, the US admitted the Shah to an American hospital for medical treatment. Several hundred Iranian students stormed the US Embassy in Tehran and took 53 Americans hostage. 

• The US couldn’t free the hostages, even though this act violated all conventions of Western diplomacy. 

Soviets Invade Afghanistan 

• At first, American policymakers were worried that the Soviet Union would take advantage of the new Khomeini regime. 

• The truth was that the Soviets feared that Islamic fundamentalists would spread unrest among the Muslim populations living within Soviet borders. 

• In December 1979, the USSR invaded Afghanistan, where Islamic rebels toppled a pro-Soviet regime. Carter condemned the invasion, but there was nothing he could do to stop it. 

Hyperinflation 

• The continuing problem of energy dependence and economic instability interacted to create a political crisis. 

• The turbulence in the Middle East set off another round of OPEC increasing the prices of oil. It drove inflation up to 14% and some interest rates to around 20%. 

• Chrysler Corporation was close to bankruptcy and was saved by a federally guaranteed loan. 

• With polls giving Carter a negative rating of 77%, he moved to the right. He accelerated the development of new classes of nuclear weapons. 

• Whereas the CIA had overthrown an Iranian government in 1953, an airborne mission launched in April 1980 to rescue the hostages ended in disaster. 8 marines died when 2 helicopters and a plane collided in a desert. 

• Cyrus Vance, Carter’s secretary of state, resigned in protest. 

• The administration’s mistakes hurt them a lot. The obstacles to projecting American power internationally were not a result of Carter’s mismanagement. 

• The Vietnam War proved the clear limits of what US forces could do. Gas prices went up so much from an energy crisis that existed for a while. Problems in the Middle East were also intractable. 

• In 1980, Ronald Reagan was elected as president. 

REFLECTION: The Ford and Carter administrations both faced grave economic and foreign policy crises. Ford relied on Henry Kissinger for foreign policy guidance and engaged in détente with the USSR as he dealt with the energy crisis and inflation. His administration was marked by economic troubles, including 14% inflation, and an oil crisis due to the Middle Eastern wars. Jimmy Carter, the outsider from Washington, ascended to presidency on the ticket of portraying himself as a moral figure. His energy conservation, environmental, and human rights policies marked his regime, but he failed to contain competing interests. Carter brokered the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, a mammoth diplomatic triumph. But his time in the presidency was consumed by the Iranian Revolution and the hostage crisis and the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Inflation and energy crises continued to plague the economy and engendered mass discontent. Eventually, Carter's bad luck contributed to the emergence of Ronald Reagan in 1980.