Download The Domestic History of the US Since 1945

The Domestic History of the US Since 1945
Unit Overview:
After World War II the United States developed the world's strongest economy. While US leaders initially feared a return of the Great
Depression, the economy boomed. With a sound economy, cultural and social issues rose to the forefront and during this time period minorities
finally gained legal equality within the United States. The Watergate Scandal, along with the discovery that the American people had been
misled about the country's involvement in Vietnam, helped create a general distrust of government that made it difficult for politicians to find
consensus on issues of importance. The Cold War, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War had great influence on domestic policy. By the end of the
Twentieth Century social issues like minority rights, abortion, gun control, immigration, and the role of religion in society had created the greatest
cultural divide in American history since the unrest of the 1960s.
A note to IB teachers—Even though the curriculum in this unit goes up to 2004, the IB History of the Americas Exam will not test information beyond
1995.
The post-war US:
Objectives:
• Understand the US under the presidency of Harry S. Truman
• Understand the Second Red Scare.
• Understand the US in the 1950s.
Topics:
• The US under President Harry S. Truman.
• The Second Red Scare.
• The US in the 1950s.
Content Background:
The United States under the presidency of Harry S Truman
American decision-makers feared that as the country shifted from a war-time to peace-time economy the Great Depression would reappear.
Overseas, stimulating the European economy through the Marshall Plan was one answer to that fear; domestically, women were encouraged to return
to the home so that returning veterans would have jobs. The GI Bill of Rights assisted veterans in finding employment. It also helped pay for
vocational, technical and college education, and medical care—$13.5 billion was put into the economy for veteran education and training alone.
Prior to the GI Bill, higher education was a privilege reserved only for the few. Thousands of veterans took advantage of the opportunity of
government assistance to pay for their college education and higher education became available for the masses. Recently discharged veterans
were paid $20 a week for up to fifty-two weeks or until such time as they found a job (the average length was three months). The Veterans
Administration guaranteed home loans and veterans could purchase houses with no money down, stimulating a postwar housing boom.
Because of the pent-up demand for consumer goods caused by the Great Depression and war time shortages, inflation, not depression was
the result. After wartime controls were lifted off the economy in July 1946, wholesale prices rose an average of 25 percent.
Truman became president with death of FDR in April 1945. After Roosevelt, Truman at first seemed a second-rate figure. In the off-year
congressional elections of 1946 the Republicans used American anxieties about the post-war world, and Truman's ability to handle them, and
won majorities in both houses of Congress for the first time since 1930. Unfortunately for the Republicans, their program involved little more than
trying to reverse the reforms of the New Deal and voting down Truman's "Fair Deal" programs. Truman vetoed eighty Republican bills that
attacked the New Deal and sent to Congress many proposals to expanded social services. While most of his proposals were defeated by Congress
(he did get an increase in the minimum wage and he did bring ten million more people under social security), his advocacy of them ensured that
the Democratic political coalition would hold firm during the 1948 election.
One of the results of World War II was the reemergence of business influence and a corresponding decrease in popular support for labor
unions. The idea of being the "arsenal of democracy" made it hard for politicians to attack big business as they had during the New Deal. Also,
thousands of businessmen were dollar-a-year men in government during the war and they had initiated important personal contacts with politicians.
It was during World War II that the military-industrial complex began to form. The attempt to keep up with inflation caused many strikes. The
strength of organized labor exasperated many conservatives, and in 1947 Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act over President Truman's veto. The
act outlawed the "closed" (all-union) shop, made unions liable for damages that resulted from jurisdictional disputes among themselves, and
required union leaders to take a non-Communist oath. With the growth of service industries and the gradual decline of heavy industries in
the US, union membership peaked in the early 1950s, and then began a long, steady decline.
Truman was the first president to actively advocate the end of discrimination against American blacks. When Congress refused to take action on civil
rights, Truman issued an executive order that banned racial discrimination in the armed forces, in the civil service, and in companies that did business
with the federal government. The government did little to actually enforce these orders. For example, it was the Korean War, and not Truman's
order that effectively integrated the army. The first troops sent to Korea in 1950 from Japan suffered large numbers of casualties trying to stop the
North Korean advance. Combat replacements were not yet available from the United States. The only troops available were the rear echelon
troops already in Korea and Japan. Many of these soldiers were black. Integrated into white combat units out of desperation, the black soldiers, on the
whole, fought well and bravely. It was their performance and the need for troops during the Cold War that finally convinced the armed forces to
integrate. Truman's advocacy of black rights was politically astute. World War II had caused hundreds of thousands of blacks to move out of the
South, where they were disfranchised, into big cities in Northern and Western states with large numbers of electoral votes. Truman's civil rights
policies insured that the Democratic Party would continue to receive the black vote.
It seemed certain that Truman would go down to defeat in the election of 1948. "To err is Truman" became a popular joke among
Republicans. The Republicans nominated their 1944 candidate, Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York for president. The Democrats nominated
Truman. Because of his civil rights program the Southern branch of the Democratic Party bolted and nominated Strom Thurmond for President on the
States Rights or Dixiecrat Party ticket. On the far left, FDR's third term vice president, Henry A. Wallace, led a group that disapproved of Truman's
policy of Containment. They deserted the Democratic Party to form the Progressive Party. These splits, far from hurting Truman, strengthened him.
The Southern walkout insured Truman the black urban vote which more than made up for the four Southern states he lost to Thurmond. Wallace's
defection diminished the Republican charges that Truman "was soft on Communism."
Truman conducted an adroit campaign. After the party nominating conventions he called the Republican controlled Congress back into session
and challenged them to pass the Republican platform planks into law. With the Democrats stalling, and with all members eager to begin
campaigning for re-election, no important legislation was passed. Truman then put the Republicans on the defensive by campaigning against the
"do-nothing Eightieth Congress." His campaign reinforced the New Deal loyalty to the Democratic Party. Public-opinion polls forecast a sure Republican
victory (they stopped polling two weeks before the election). Life Magazine ran an issue with Dewey on the cover with the headline "our next
president." The Chicago Tribune put out an election extra announcing that "Dewey Defeats Truman." But Truman received 24.1 million
popular votes against 22 million for Dewey, and 303 electoral votes against 189. Truman won for two reasons. First, the Democratic coalition of blacks,
union members, and northern urban ethnics held. Second, the Republicans were so confident of victory that many of them did not vote. The 53
percent voter turn-out was the lowest in history up to this point. Truman's victory was a party victory, not a personal one, although the Democrats
also regained control of Congress.
The Second Red Scare
The Soviet take over of Eastern Europe, the Chinese Communist victory in China, the invasion of South Korea by the Communist North, and the
Soviet explosion of an atomic bomb in 1949 confused and frightened the American people. In addition, the Truman administration conducted a public
relations campaign designed to "scare the hell" out of the American people to get support for its Containment policies. When these factors
combined with politicians willing to take advantage of the situation for their own personal benefit, a great fear of subversion and Communism
swept the United States.
In 1947 President Truman set up a federal loyalty program. By December 1952, 6.6 million people had been checked for security—490 were
dismissed as ineligible for government employment on loyalty grounds. No cases of espionage were uncovered by the investigations. On the other
hand, several people who had worked on the development of the atomic bomb were convicted of giving information to the Soviets, and two of them,
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, were executed in 1953. In February 1950 an obscure Republican senator from Wisconsin, Joseph R. McCarthy, gave a
speech in Wheeling West Virginia. He said that he had a list of Communists in the State Department. He claimed that these Communists were
"known to the Secretary of State," and they were "still working and making policy." In other words, according to McCarthy, Secretary of State
Acheson himself, as well as other high-ranking government officials, actively assisted internal Communist subversion. McCarthy had no
such list. He never released a single name, and never found a single Communist in government.
McCarthy became powerful because he was beneficial to the Republican Party. The Democratic victory of 1948 was frustrating to the
Republicans. They had been denied the presidency since 1933 and they had thought for sure that it would be theirs in 1948—four more
years of Democratic control of the national government was almost more than they could bear. By placing the blame for the post-war
success of Communism on internal American subversion the Republicans had a dependable campaign issue against the Democrats. It was a
simple solution to a complex problem and it appealed to the American people—Communism succeed, not because American was innately
wrong or weak, but because traitors had undermined the system from within. McCarthy, with the tact support of Congressional
Republicans, made himself the personal symbol in the American fight against Communism—in other words, for a time, to attack Senator
McCarthy was to attack the "American way of life."
When two Democrat Senators who had opposed McCarthy on the floor of the Senate were defeated in the 1950 elections (their defeat was
not primarily because of their opposition to McCarthy, but people thought otherwise) Democrats feared attacking him and neither party acted to
restrain his unwarranted actions. In this sense both McCarthy and McCarthyism can be understood as products of the normal operation of
American party politics. During this period many people had their careers and lives ruined by gossip and innuendo. "Black lists" were
created in education, entertainment, business, and government. If a person's name was on the list he could not get work. Anyone who hired an
individual on the list ran the risk of being added to it. The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) called hundreds of witnesses
before it, badgering them and questioning their veracity. Throughout the country, zealous citizens anxious to protect their communities from
the taint of Communism, failed to distinguish between Communism and the traditional American right to dissent.
With election of the Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower to the presidency in 1952, McCarthy became an embarrassment to the Republican
Party. For over a year Eisenhower tried to get along with McCarthy. But McCarthy grew increasingly erratic and the televised ArmyMcCarthy hearings of April-June 1954 proved to be his downfall. By accusing the army of harboring Communists, and Eisenhower of not
being forceful enough in rooting them out, McCarthy went too far—his behavior on television turned many Americans against him and the
Senate moved to censure him. McCarthy's attacks on the army (Eisenhower had been a five-star general) also caused Eisenhower to turn
against McCarthy. If McCarthy had not attacked Eisenhower, the Republican State Department, and other Republican Senators, the Senate
probably would not have censured him by a 67 to 22 vote. McCarthy was censured for his refusal to appear before a Senate subcommittee to
answer questions and for his abuse of an army general before his own subcommittee. In other words, McCarthy was censured for breaking
the rules of the Senate— thus the Senate, like the American people, never really dealt with the real question of the Second Red Scare: civil
liberties during times of national stress. McCarthy, an alcoholic, died in 1957.
The United States during the 1950s
By 1952 most people were ready for a change after twenty years of Democratic rule. The Republicans selected Dwight D. Eisenhower as their
candidate. Ike had been the Allied Supreme Commander in Europe during World War II, he was a moderate in social and economic issues, and he was
one of the most popular men in America ("I Like Ike" was his campaign slogan). Eisenhower easily defeated his Democrat opponent Illinois
Governor Adlai E. Stevenson. His victory was a personal, not party one (he would have won if he had run as a Democrat), and the Democrats retained
control of Congress. Eisenhower was so popular that in the 1956 election, a year after suffering a serious heart attack and just a few months after
undergoing major abdominal surgery, the voters reelected him over Stevenson again by an even larger margin than in 1952. Since Eisenhower was the
first Republican president after the New Deal, his acceptance of most of the New Deal programs "legitimatized" them. They were now seen as an
integral part of the American system. Eisenhower emphasized "dynamic conservatism"—caution in financial and economic matters, but with attention
to social welfare. Under Eisenhower the St. Lawrence Seaway was built, and the Interstate Highway system was started. The Agricultural
Trade Development and Assistance Act (1954) was designed to solve two problems: help the American farmer by getting rid of surplus farm food
(which was expensive to store and which would deteriorate if stored too long); and, use the surplus food as an instrument of US foreign policy.
Under this act the government began to sell surplus food to other nations for their own currencies which would then be re-spent in the host country as
foreign aid, made outright gifts of surplus food to disadvantaged nations, and provided cheap milk for schools. In 1959 food stamps were added to the
program.
For a majority of Americans, the 1950s were an age of unprecedented prosperity although wealth was still maldistributed and the poor remained about
as numerous as they had been for years. The lowest-paid twenty percent of the population earned the same four percent of the national income that
they had during the 1920s; and the wealthiest 20 percent of the population continued to enjoy about 45 percent of the national income. What made the
difference was the vast increase in "discretionary income" (income that a family had left over after paying for all of its "necessities") that
became available after World War II. In 1950, discretionary income totaled $100 billion compared with $40 billion in 1940. The sum increased
steadily throughout the decade.
Television was the most significant social development of the 1950s. Invented in 1927, there were only 8,000 privately owned televisions in the
US in 1946. After World War II the radio networks moved into television, making more extensive programming available—by 1950 3,880,000
(9 percent) of American homes had televisions. By 1955 the number had increased to 64.5 percent of American homes, and by 1970, more American
households were equipped with a television set than had refrigerators, bathtubs, or indoor toilets. The impact of television is still unclear. It probably
caused a decline in reading, and it helped create a mass culture. Businesses discovered that they could become national enterprises because of television
advertising. During the 1960s, American towns began to look alike with the growth of chain supermarkets and national franchise companies
that drove many local owned businesses into insolvency. Television carried the events of the day directly into people's homes—the black civil
rights movement of the 1960s, for example, received a great boost when Northern whites saw on television the Southern white oppression of
blacks. The terrorists of today realize the emotional impact of television and often use it for their own benefit. Television helped increase the
power of the presidency. FDR was the first president to recognize the value of the mass media with his radio broadcast "fireside chats." As the
only nationally elected official (with the exception of the vice president) the President can get television time almost whenever he wants it.
Being able to speak directly to the people of the nation greatly increases his ability to sell his programs and ideas—an advantage his political
opponents do not have.
To many Americans of the 1950s, the essence of the good life was to escape from the cities and the country and move to the suburbs. Young
couples of the postwar period had little choice as to where they would live. The Great Depression and World War II had forced millions of
them to delay marrying (or if married, during the war the new wife often lived with her parents while her husband was in the service) and
starting a family. In 1945 and 1946, millions of couples got married and soon had children. Because of the stagnation of housing
construction during the Great Depression and the war, few homes were available. Land was much less expensive on the outskirts of cities than
downtown, and developers rushed in to build houses. The Interstate Highway System exacerbated the suburban boom. Of the one million
housing starts in 1946 and the two million in 1950 (compared with 142,000 in 1944), the vast majority were in the suburbs. The houses of
suburbia tended to be similar in design to allow for quick construction and low selling prices. By 1960, as many Americans lived in suburbs
as in large cities. The flight from the center cities left urban centers to the elderly, the poor, and racial minorities—a poor tax base—and it
segregated the suburbanites from other ages, classes, and races of people (in the 1950s, ninety-five percent of the people living in the
suburbs were white, 25-35 years in age, married couples with infant children ). Suburban life reinforced the American dependence upon the
automobile. Neighborhood shopping centers began to disappear to be replaced by the shopping mall. In 1945, there were eight automobileoriented shopping centers in the US; by 1960 there were almost 4,000.
The presidencies of Kennedy and Johnson:
Objective:
• Understand the US under the presidencies of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson
Topic:
• The US under the presidencies of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson
Content Background:
The US under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson
The election of 1960 pitted Vice President Richard M. Nixon against Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy. Nixon had made his
reputation as an anti-Communist Republican Congressman and Senator from California. Kennedy had lost in his effort to be Stevenson's vice
presidential running-mate in 1956, but he had gained national recognition in the attempt. The Democratic Senate leader, Texan Lyndon B.
Johnson, who had run second to Kennedy in the convention balloting, was Kennedy's vice presidential candidate. The election was
extremely close; Kennedy's popular majority was only 119,057 out of 68.3 million votes. Kennedy received 303 electoral votes to 219 for
Nixon (with 15 Southern votes for the segregationist candidate Harry F. Byrd of Virginia). Kennedy was the nation's first Catholic president.
His Catholicism enabled him to capture the votes of some Catholic Republicans and many Catholic Democrats, but Nixon captured even more
Democratic Protestant votes. This election foreshadowed the break-up of the New Deal Democratic coalition. White Southerners continued to move
out of the Democratic Party because of its support (as compared to the Republicans) for black rights. Nixon received almost half of the Southern
popular vote. Senator Byrd gave white Southerners an opportunity to vote against the Democrats, and most white Southerners, with Johnson on
the ticket, could not bring themselves to vote Republican yet (the party of Lincoln and the hated "Yankees"), but the time was soon coming.
Kennedy won by barely keeping the Democratic Coalition together.
Kennedy's "New Frontier" programs faced serious obstacles in Congress. The coalition of conservative Republicans and Southern Democrats
that had been blocking or diluting liberal legislation since 1938 continued to resist most of his programs. For example, Kennedy was unable to
get a school aid bill, Medicare, a civil rights bill, or a tax cut/reform bill through Congress. Kennedy was able to get the Peace Corps started, and
the 1959 Soviet launching of the Earth's first artificial satellite (Sputnik) enabled him to convince Congress to begin a enormous space research and
development program, which set the goal of passing the Soviets and sending an American to the moon by 1970—Southern conservatives were happy
to vote for the space bills since most of the space facilities were located in their region. Kennedy was able to lay the groundwork for his programs
though, and most importantly, to bring them to the public's attention. In 1964 the situation would change. Along with electing Lyndon
Johnson to the presidency a huge Democratic majority was sent to Congress, in large part because the voters wanted Kennedy's program enacted.
While on a political trip to Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963 President Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald was
captured and two days later he was murdered by Dallas night-club operator Jack Ruby in the basement of the Dallas police headquarters as he was
being moved to his arraignment. The motives behind Oswald's and Ruby's actions are not known. Oswald had been in the Soviet Union the year
before the assassination, and he had visited the Cuban embassy in Mexico City after his return to the United States. Unknown to the public,
Kennedy had ordered the CIA to make several assassination attempts on Fidel Castro. Castro was aware of the attempts though, and although Castro
has continued to deny any role in the assassination, Kennedy's assassination may have been arranged by the Cuban Communist Party. Another
theory holds that organized crime may have ordered the "hit." The Kennedys were pushing hard against the Mob (the President's brother, Robert,
was the Attorney General), and Jack Ruby was known to have Mob connections (Ruby died in jail from cancer soon after his conviction for Oswald's
murder). In any case, no solid evidence has been uncovered to prove any theories about the assassination.
After Kennedy's assassination Vice President Lyndon Johnson became president. Johnson was a product of the New Deal, and his "Great Society"
programs were basically a continuation of Roosevelt's policies. In 1937 Johnson had been elected to the House, and in 1948 he entered the Senate.
He was elected minority leader in 1953—a rare accomplishment for a freshman senator. From 1955 to 1960 he compiled a distinguished record as
Senate Majority Leader. In 1964, Johnson was elected in his own right, defeating the conservative Republican candidate Senator Barry
Goldwater overwhelmingly. Goldwater carried only five Deep South states (he had voted against the 1964 Civil Rights Act) and his home
state of Arizona. This election was the beginning of the white South moving into the Republican Party.
Unlike Kennedy, Johnson was able to get almost all the legislation he sent to Congress passed into law. There were three important reasons
for this success: 1) As Senate Minority and Majority leader Johnson knew the strengths and weakness of the members of Congress and he
was able to use this information to manipulate them; 2) there was a tremendous outpouring of sympathy for Kennedy and his programs after
his death—Johnson was not at all adverse in using his predecessor's memory to get support for his "Great Society" legislative program; and, 3)
in the 1964 election the Democratic margin in the House increased by 38 seats and in the Senate by two seats. The Southern DemocratRepublican coalition could be out-voted. Johnson's extraordinary political talents enabled him to push through a wide-ranging social program.
The 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibited discrimination in public accommodations, and the 1965 Voting Rights Acts gave blacks federal protection
in voting. Federal aid to education was greatly increased. Medicare was enacted. Federal housing projects were started, the Job Corps
trained disadvantaged youth for careers, VISTA sent volunteers into decaying inner cities and poor rural areas, and Head Start prepared poor
children for school. The Great Society increased federal spending for health, education, and social purposes from $54 billion in 1964 to
$98 billion in 1968. Johnson's programs did seem to work. In 1959, 22.4 percent of the population had been classified by the government
as "poor" with an annual income of $3,130 or less for an urban family of four; by 1969 the percentage had fallen to 12.2 percent. The
Vietnam War eventually killed the Great Society. Refusing to raise taxes, the Johnson Administration eventually had to choose between "guns
or butter," and it chose guns.
The US Civil Rights Movement:
Objective:
• Understand the civil rights movement.
Topics:
• The background of the civil rights movement.
• The nonviolent movement.
• The movement becomes militant.
• The results of the movement.
Content Background:
Background to the Movement
To understand the US civil rights movement two things must be kept in mind. First, the United States' population has always had strong
racist elements in it. Second, Americans generally believe in the creed of equality. These two contradictory factors constantly played upon
each other during the black drive for social, economic, and political equality and they account for many of the ambiguities in the white
response. As bigoted as some Americans can be, most Americans tend to respond to pleas to alleviate social injustices. Racism, homophobia,
ethnic prejudices, anti-Catholicism and anti-Semitism have significantly declined in American society since the 1960s. Presently, Indians, Asians,
African-Americans, and Hispanics have full political rights. The discrimination that still exists is societal (de facto), not legal (de jure).
The United States is not unique in its racism or more racist than other countries, but when the African-American movement for equality came about
in the late 1950s, ingrained racism would deeply affect not only the enemies of black equality, but also its friends. The Kennedy and Johnson
presidential administrations had to serve constituents that were diametrically opposed to each other. Since World War I Southern blacks had been
moving north. They tended to settle in urban industrial areas like New York, Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles that were located in key Electoral
College swing states. Thus, their votes counted heavily in national elections. For example, the black urban vote effectively counterbalanced the
white Southern vote that Truman lost to the Dixiecrats in the 1948 election. As long as the civil rights movement was confined to the South it had, in
general, Northern white support. But, as Northern blacks began to also demand equality through affirmative action and school integration, many
Northern whites began to oppose the movement. The Republican Party took advantage of this white dissatisfaction. This dissatisfaction is a significant
reason why it was able to control the presidency, with the exception of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton; from 1968 to 2003. (Carter and
Clinton are the exceptions that prove the rule. Even though they are Southerners, more Southern whites voted against them than for them. But,
enough Southern whites did vote for them to allow them to carry some Southern states with a combined black-white vote).
After Reconstruction legal segregation had been instituted in the South. The Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) upheld the
constitutionality of "separate but equal" facilities for blacks and whites. Yet, Southern black facilities were not equal. Blacks had separate
schools, water fountains, hospital and bus waiting rooms, and bathrooms (often gasoline stations did not have bathrooms for blacks, if they did, they
were usually unisex). They were not allowed to swim in public swimming pools, attend the local movie theater (or if they did they were
segregated to the balcony), or use the public library. Restaurants and motels were for whites only. While segregation was total in the South, it was
not confined to it. Las Vegas, Nevada, for example, refused to allow blacks to stay in its hotels or gamble in its casinos. Legality was the difference
between Southern and Northern segregation. If a black person tried to use a Southern public facility he had broken the law, not just a custom. In the
North segregation was preserved through segregated housing and social pressure.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), founded by, among others, W.E.B. Dubois, had been working for black
rights since the early 1900s. By the 1950s the NAACP believed the time was ripe for an all-out attack on segregation. Many blacks had gone into
World War II with the idea of a "double V for victory"—victory over the Axis and victory over segregation. The successful integration of the armed
forces during the Korean War proved that blacks and whites could work together. The Cold War made segregation an embarrassment to the national
government in its fight against Communism. This embarrassment was especially true in the fight for the "hearts and minds" of the newly
independent peoples of Sub-Saharan Africa. The movement of blacks from the South, where they were disfranchised, to the North, where they
could vote, gave them increased political power.
The NAACP challenged school segregation in the courts, and in May 1954 The Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
reversed the Plessy decision, stating "that in the field of public education, the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place." The Court was
correct in its statement that "Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." The state of Mississippi was a prime example. Although
blacks comprised over 50 percent of the school age population, in the 1960-61 school year the state spent $46 million on white education versus
$26 million for black education. Nine counties in Mississippi did not even have a black high school. As late as 1950, Mississippi employed
over 700 black teachers who had not completed high school. Ten years after the Brown decision, a black teacher in Mississippi with a
bachelor's degree made $350 a year less than a white teacher with identical credentials. Mississippi, like most Southern states, required a
literacy test to register to vote. And, as the US Civil Rights Commission reported in 1965: "The quality of education afforded Negroes has
been so poor that any test of educational skill as a prerequisite to voting would necessarily discriminate against them." In 1964, only six
percent of Mississippi's eligible blacks were registered to vote.
The Court ordered school districts to integrate with "all deliberate speed" and the first test of the order came in 1957 in Little Rock, Arkansas.
When nine black students attempted to attend the local white high school, Governor Orval Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to
prevent their enrollment. Although President Eisenhower had done nothing to enforce the Brown decision up to this point, he would not
allow a direct challenge to federal authority. After negotiations with Faubus failed, Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and
sent in troops from the 101st Airborne Division to escort the students to school. Gradually the Border States moved toward compliance, but
the Deep South states refused to obey the court order. In 1964, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina had less than one
percent of their school age blacks in school with whites. It took a 1968 Supreme Court decision before the Court finally declared that "all
deliberate speed" meant "at once."
The nonviolent movement
Using the Brown decision as a catalyst, blacks began to work actively for the right to vote in the South and the right to use public facilities.
Beginning in December 1955, under the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., blacks boycotted the Montgomery, Alabama's segregated
public bus system. When the boycott succeeded King went on to lead other attacks on segregation and, until his April 1968 assassination, he was
the movement's most influential spokesman. After the election of John Kennedy to the presidency the movement picked up momentum, and
as black discontent grew (Kennedy's rhetoric for black rights far outpaced his actions), there was a comparable increase in Southern
resistance. The Civil Rights Commission reported in 1963 that "[black] Citizens of the United States have been shot, set upon by vicious
dogs, beaten and otherwise terrorized because they sought to vote." Less dramatic than violence, but even more effective, was economic
intimidation. Since the vast majority of jobs in the South were controlled by whites it was easy for Southern racists to ensure that blacks
who attempted to register to vote or who were active in the desegregation movement lost their jobs.
Kennedy needed the support of Southern congressmen to pass his legislative agenda. Federalism, and the belief of the Kennedy administration
that the courts, not the streets, were the place to solve the nation's racial injustices, meant that blacks became more and more frustrated over
the pace of civil rights. Beginning in the early 1960s black students in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) began sitins at lunch counters trying to force integration in public accommodations. Freedom Riders attempted to end segregation in facilities
serving interstate bus passengers. A white mob destroyed a Freedom Ride bus in Alabama and beat-up Attorney General Robert Kennedy's
personal representative at the scene. When Southern officials refused to end the violence, the Kennedy administration dispatched federal
marshals to protect the Freedom Riders.
Reluctantly, the Kennedy administration had formed an alliance with the civil rights movement. Fearing that Southern white claims that some of
Martin Luther King's advisers had Communist affiliations might be true, Attorney General Robert Kennedy ordered FBI director J. Edgar
Hoover to wiretap King's telephone in 1963. At the University of Mississippi ("Ole Miss") President Kennedy sent in 400 federal marshals
and 3,000 troops to enable the school's first black student, James Meredith, to enroll over white protests. In August 1963 a quarter of a
million blacks and whites marched on Washington DC demanding black equality. At a rally at the Lincoln Memorial they were electrified by
Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. Yet, the violence continued. In June 1963, Medgar Evers, the president of the Mississippi
NAACP, was assassinated. In September 1963 an explosion in a church in Birmingham, Alabama killed four black girls. During the summer
of 1964 white Northern students joined with blacks to work for voting rights in Mississippi during the "Freedom Summer Project." One black
and two white civil rights workers were murdered during the summer and local all-white juries refused to convict the whites accused of the
crime (the federal government was able to later get convictions for civil rights violations). Early in 1965, a voter registration project in
Selma, Alabama resulted in several deaths and the beating and tear gassing of civil rights workers. The publicity of these events, especially on
television, enabled President Johnson to get Congress to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act that forbade discrimination in public
accommodations and the 1965 Voting Rights Act which ensured African-Americans the right to vote. In 1964 the 24th Amendment to the
Constitution made the poll tax illegal.
The movement becomes militant
Even though legal discrimination had ended in the United States, economic and social discrimination continued and led to divisiveness
within the civil rights movement. Five days after President Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act, blacks, enraged over police brutality
caught on television, rioted in Watts, a black neighborhood of Los Angeles. Thirty-one blacks and three whites were killed, more than 1,000
people injured, and hundreds of buildings burned and destroyed. The Watts riots introduced a new phase of the civil rights movement—
increasingly marked by belligerent confrontation, focusing on Northern cities, led by radical spokespersons, and often aimed not at
interracial cooperation but at black separatism. Many young blacks, frustrated by what they believed was a lack of true equality, turned
away from nonviolence and integration, and toward militancy and "Black Power." With legal equality assured with the passage of the Civil
Rights and Voting Rights Acts the movement began to attack the de facto discrimination of the urban North.
Malcolm X was the brilliant and charismatic leader of the Black Muslims and an important spokesperson for this new group of activists.
Born Malcolm Little, Malcolm converted to Islam and changed his surname to publicize his lost African identify in white America.
Malcolm X advocated black separatism and spoke against the "blue-eyed white devils." (During the 1990s, Islam was among America's
fastest-growing religions and had about two million African-American converts). In early 1965 Malcolm X was assassinated by rival
Nation of Islam gunmen. The very phrase "Black Power" (coined by Stokely Carmichael, one of the founders of SNCC and the Black Panther
political party), disturbed many white supporters of integration and civil rights. The term itself divided the African-American community. Some
advocates of Black Power insisted that the term meant just what it said, that blacks should have social, political, and economic power, especially
in their own neighborhoods. Other African-Americans, recollecting previous Black Nationalist movements like that of Marcus Garvey in
Harlem during the 1920s, emphasized the separate nature of African-American society. They promoted "Afro" hairstyles and dress, discarded
their names for new African ones, and demanded black studies programs in colleges and universities. Black frustration and violence reached a
peak in 1967-68. Riots in Newark, Detroit, and Los Angeles killed over 68 people and destroyed millions of dollars of property, almost all
of it in black neighborhoods. The assassination of Martin Luther King on April 4, 1968 led to even more riots, burning, and looting that
cost over forty lives. The increased militancy of the movement created a white backlash that the Republican Party took advantage of
(frustration with court ordered school integration in the North ["forced busing"] was a major cause of the backlash). In 1968 Richard
Nixon, the Republican presidential candidate, used the concern of many Americans with anti-Vietnam War protestors and African-American
violence, to represent the "Moral Majority," and win an extremely close election over Vice President Hubert Humphrey. With Nixon's victory
the civil rights movement lost its momentum and fizzled out.
The results of the movement
American women also increased their demands for equality in the 1960s. Inspired by the black civil rights movement, the anti-Vietnam War
movement, and economic factors that caused the number of working wives to increase from 30 to 40 percent during the decade, women
began to agitate for equal pay for equal work, and the removal of the "glass ceiling" that existed in most business firms. Betty Friedan's 1963
book The Feminine Mystique articulated the frustration that many women felt, and helped lead to the 1966 formation of the National
Organization for Women (NOW). As women increased their economic security, the fight over access to birth control and abortion became
major feminist issues. The poorest group in America is still single women with children.
The black civil rights movement stimulated other minority groups to seek equal civic rights and economic justice. Native Americans, long
the poorest minority in the country, formed the American Indian Movement (AIM) in 1968 and began to move more aggressively in the
courts to protect rights and money that had been promised to them in treaties with the national government. Cesar Chavez organized migrant
farm workers (most of whom were Hispanics) into the United Farm Workers Union. He organized consumer grape and lettuce boycotts, and
was able to get many farmers that used migrant workers to recognize his union.
The introduction of chemical weed killers in the early 1950s permitted the economical use of tractors and mechanical cotton pickers on
Southern plantations. Southern black hand labor was no longer needed and millions of uneducated, unskilled blacks were thrown off the
plantations and many of them moved north. At the same time that blacks were moving north, whites were moving out of the cities into the
suburbs and blacks and other minorities replaced them as the occupants of the inner cities. In the 1950s segregation still existed in the North
and the black ghetto was vertically integrated. Blacks of all classes and level of education and achievement lived there—doctors, lawyers, teachers,
entrepreneurs, persons of strong religious feeling, as well as lower-income groups. Ironically, black gains in integrating housing killed this situation. Few
in the black middle class still live in the inner city and many in the stable working class are moving out as rapidly as possible. This situation
means that there were few positive role models in the black ghetto for young African-Americans to emulate. Although the majority of blacks are doing
markedly better than they were before the civil rights movement, one-third are still below the poverty line. For a core group of two million to 3.5
million chronically poor and alienated inner city and Southern rural blacks, no improvement seems to be in sight. This group at the bottom—an
underclass—has not been reached by existing social programs. Its plight can be captured by statistics: 1) In 1950, sixteen percent of children born
to blacks and other minorities had unwed mothers; by 2000, 68.5 percent of all black infants were born to unwed mothers, compared with 22
percent of whites and 43 percent of Hispanics. 2) In September 2002, blacks had an unemployment rate of 9.6 percent, compared with 5.1 percent for
whites, and 7.4 percent for Hispanics. 3) The majority of all persons sent to prison are black; most of the victims of their crimes are black. More black
males are in prison (mostly for illegal drug activity) than are attending college. 4) The black infant mortality rate is almost twice that of whites
(19.2 deaths per 1,000 live births versus 9.7 deaths per 1,000 live births). 5) Black median family income in 2000 was $29,470 as compared to the
white medium family income of $46,305. Hispanic median family income was $33,565.
The Nixon presidency:
Objectives:
• Understand why Richard Nixon won the election of 1968.
• Understand the achievements of the Nixon presidency.
• Understand the Watergate Scandal.
Topics:
• The election of 1968.
• The Watergate scandal.
Content Background:
The election of 1968
By early 1968 the debate over the American involvement in Vietnam, black militancy, and the social issues of the day was tearing the country apart.
The February Tet offensive by the North Vietnamese seriously discredited the Johnson administration which had been claiming that the war would
soon be over with an American victory. Eugene McCarthy, a Democratic Senator from Minnesota, entered the presidential 1968 contest as an
anti-war candidate. Thousands of activists, mostly college students, went to New Hampshire, the scene of the first presidential primary, to help
McCarthy. Even though Johnson won the primary, McCarthy's vote was great enough that Johnson realized that his re-election was seriously
threatened. A few weeks later, on March 31, 1968, Johnson withdrew from the race.
With Johnson's withdrawal, Vice President Hubert Humphrey entered the race for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. He had an
immediate advantage over McCarthy since the party professionals favored him and he was supported by the labor movement and minorities, groups he
had supported throughout his political career. However, Humphrey was so closely associated with Johnson's Vietnam policy that the anti-war
movement would not accept him. With the withdrawal of Johnson, President John Kennedy's younger brother, Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New
York, also entered the race. Kennedy threatened both McCarthy and Humphrey. He wore the mantel of his martyred brother; his antiwar record
was excellent and he maintained contacts with the party professionals and labor leaders on whom Humphrey was counting. In addition, he had
strong Hispanic and black support. But, on June 6, the night he won the California Democratic primary, Kennedy was murdered by a Palestinian Arab
who resented his sympathy for Israel. The assassination demoralized the antiwar Democrats and helped lead to massive protests at the Democratic Party
convention in Chicago. The police responded violently, clubbing and arresting hundreds of antiwar demonstrators.
After Kennedy's death, Humphrey easily won the Democratic nomination and picked Senator Edmund Muskie from Maine as his running mate.
Richard M. Nixon won the Republican nomination. After his 1960 defeat to John Kennedy, Nixon had run for governor of California— he had been
badly defeated and it looked like his political career was over. Yet, he continued to work hard to firm up his support within the Republican Party. He
attended almost every local Republican function to which he was invited, no matter how small. By making himself so available to the party's
grass-root workers, Nixon built up energetic, active cadres of supporters. Nixon selected Governor Spiro T. Agnew of Maryland as the
Republican vice-presidential candidate.
George Wallace, governor of Alabama, also ran on the American Independent Party ticket. Wallace's objective was to forge an alliance of
conservatives and racists who believed that both parties were too liberal. Wallace knew that he could not win the election. His purpose was to take
just enough electoral votes from both Humphrey and Nixon to throw the election into the House of Representatives where each state had one vote
in selecting the president. Wallace hoped that if that happened, segregationist Southern Congressmen under his leadership could make a deal with
one of the presidential candidates.
The election was very close. Nixon received 31.8 million votes (43.4 percent of the total), against 31.3 million for Humphrey and 9.9 million
for Wallace. The margins were greater in the Electoral College: 301 for Nixon, 191 for Humphrey, and 46, all in the Deep South, for Wallace.
By 1972, Nixon had greatly reduced American involvement in Vietnam and his Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, had promised the American
people that "peace was at hand" in Vietnam. In addition, mainstream Americans looked favorably on the administration's opening up relations with
Communist China and reducing tensions with the Soviet Union. Inflation, which had been running as high as fourteen percent a year before his
election, had been reduced to around three percent a year. During Nixon's presidency significant environmental legislation was passed. The 1969
National Environmental Policy Act required the government to consider the impact of government programs on the environment. The
Environmental Protection Agency was created in 1971. The National Air Quality Standards Act (1970) and the Clean Water Act (1972) expanded the
federal government's regulatory powers over the environment. Finally, the Nixon presidency was seen as a stabilizing influence in society. Many
Americans were tired of the cultural conflicts of the 1960s—draft and civil rights protests, "free-love," illegal drug use, women's liberation,
hippies—the entire counter culture scene bothered many Americans and Nixon skillfully emphasized himself as the candidate of middle America.
The Democrats, on the other hand, had reorganized the system by which they selected their presidential nominating convention delegates.
They guaranteed minimum representation to minority groups, young people and women. The people who gathered at the 1972 Democratic
convention formed the youngest convention in political history and reflected the liberal values of many in their generation. They nominated South
Dakota Senator George McGovern, a leading critic of the Vietnam War, as their candidate. McGovern selected Thomas Eagleton, Senator from
Missouri, as his running mate. A couple of weeks after the convention, the press discovered that Eagleton had undergone psychiatric treatment (including
electric shock treatment for severe depression) several years earlier. At first McGovern defended Eagleton "1000%," but he soon turned on him and
forced him to drop out of the race. McGovern then had the embarrassing task of having several top Democrats turn him down when he asked
them to replace Eagleton. Finally, Sargent Shriver, JFK's brother-in-law and ex-head of the Peace Corps (and the father-in-law of California Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger), agreed to take the second place spot on the Democratic ticket, but the damage had already been done. The Republicans featured
McGovern as the "candidate of acid, amnesty [for Vietnam War draft evaders] and abortion" and Nixon won easily with 60.8 percent of the popular
vote. He carried the electoral vote of every state except Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. The Democrats did manage to keep large
pluralities in Congress.
The Watergate scandal
On June 17, 1972, early in the presidential campaign, Washington, DC police arrested five men who were trying to plant electronic listening
devices in the Democratic Party National Headquarters in the Watergate Office Complex in Washington DC. Three of the suspects had
White House contacts and were on the payroll of the Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP)—the other two were Cuban exiles who
had worked for the CIA. McGovern tried to exploit the break-in during the campaign, but Nixon diffused the issue by claiming that no one
on his staff had any knowledge of the break-in, and that it was just a "third rate burglary." Nixon may not have known about the break-in in
advance, but when he learned of it the next day he immediately order his staff to cover up the incident and to pay the burglars hush money.
After the election new and disturbing information was discovered. During the two years after the break-in, the term Watergate came to
describe a series of illegal or immoral acts involving President Nixon and his associates. Among them were:
The break-in itself and the cover-up of it.
The burglary of the office of a psychiatrist by White House employees (the Plumbers—originally organized to stop news "leaks" in the Nixon
Administration) who had treated Dr. Daniel Ellsberg, the man who had stolen secret military papers (the "Pentagon Papers") about the US
involvement in Vietnam and released them to the media. The papers showed that the government had lied to the American people about Vietnam.
The burglars had wanted to find evidence to use against Ellsberg in his trial for stealing the documents. When the judge in the case found out
about the burglary he dismissed the charges against Ellsberg.
Large illegal cash donations were made to the CRP by corporations, interest groups and wealthy individuals, often in return for favors from the
Administration.
"Dirty tricks" during the 1972 campaign that were used to discredit Democratic candidates.
A White House "Enemies List" and attempts by President Nixon to have the Internal Revenue Service investigate tax returns of people
opposed to his policies (IRS officials refused).
The refusal by President Nixon to release voluntarily to a grand jury, the special prosecutor for Watergate matters, the Senate Committee on
Campaign Activities, or the House Judiciary Committee voice activated tape recordings that he had secretly made of conversations in the
White House.
Revelations that President Nixon had made false claims on his income tax returns and that he owed $432,000 in back taxes.
Nixon was already badly hurt when it was revealed that Vice President Agnew had accepted bribes when he was governor of Maryland and
Vice President. To avoid prosecution, Agnew pleaded no contest to charges of income-tax evasion and resigned from the vice presidency
in October 1973. Under the 25th Amendment to the Constitution (adopted in 1967) Nixon appointed the Republican Minority Leader of the
House of Representatives, Gerald R. Ford, Vice President. Several of the Nixon's top aides were indicted, and later sent to jail.
During Congressional hearings on the break-in it was learned that Nixon had made secret voice tapes of conversations that took place in the Oval
Office. The judge handling the Watergate break-in demanded that President Nixon release the tapes that dealt with the cases before his court.
Nixon, claiming executive privilege, refused. Finally, in July 1974 the Supreme Court ordered Nixon to turn the tapes over. This decision
forced Nixon to release transcripts of conversations that showed that he knew about, and tried to cover up, the break-in. Moreover, the tapes
indicated that he had lied about his role in the cover-up. They also damaged Nixon's political support by showing that he used racial slurs and
that he swore profusely. After months of testimony, on July 27, 1974 the House Judiciary Committee recommended that the House of Representatives
impeach Nixon for obstruction of justice in the Watergate case. The televised hearings of this committee had a profound effect in turning public
opinion against Nixon and only about 25 percent of the electorate approved of his presidency. Nixon realized that the game was up and on August 8,
1974 he resigned from the presidency. Gerald Ford, the first person to become President who had not been elected to the presidency or vice-presidency,
took office the next day. In September President Ford pardoned former President Nixon for all the crimes that he committed during his presidency.
Nixon received until his death in 1994 a government pension of over $100,000 a year.
The presidencies of Ford, Carter and Reagan:
Objectives:
• Understand the presidencies of Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.
• Understand the Iran-Hostage Crisis.
• Understand the policies of President Ronald Reagan.
• Understand the end of the Cold War.
Topics:
• The presidencies of Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.
• The Iran-Hostage Crisis.
• President Reagan's policies.
Content Background:
The presidencies of Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy Carter
A major crisis of the Ford administration was the Oil Producing Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil embargo of 1973. Americans, while only about 6
percent of the world's population, consumed a third of the world's annual production of oil—39 percent of all that oil was imported (by 1990 it had
risen to 50 percent). In October 1973, in response to American support of Israel during the Yom Kipper War earlier in the month, the Arab nations
formed the OPEC cartel, temporarily embargoed their oil exports and greatly increased the price of crude oil. The price of a gallon of gasoline in the
US increased from 30 cents to over $1.50 a gallon. The rise in oil prices fed inflation, which by 1974 had reached 12 percent per year. The Ford
Administration persuaded the Federal Reserve Board to reduce the money supply in order to help control inflation and the result was the most serious
recession since World War II—unemployment climbed to 9 percent.
Jimmy Carter came out of obscurity to win the Democratic nomination in 1976. His political career consisted of one term in the Georgia
assembly and one term as Governor of Georgia. But, through adroit political maneuvering, Carter was able to win enough primary elections to
garner the Democratic nomination. Carter ran as an "outsider" to the political establishment, which, after the manipulations to the system
by Johnson and Nixon, was exactly what people wanted. Ford lost a close election to Carter because of his pardon of Nixon and the nation's
poor economic condition.
Carter will probably go down in history as one of our worst presidents. Even though the Democrats had large majorities in Congress, Carter
either refused, or did not know how, to work with them. Inflation reached almost 20 percent by 1980. From 1970 to 1980 the value of the
dollar declined by half. Relations with the Soviet Union, which had improved during the Nixon-Ford presidencies, deteriorated. When the
Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979 to support a Soviet sponsored regime against anti-Communist rebels, Carter cut-off US grain exports
to the Soviet Union (thus greatly angering American farmers), stopped discussion on the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT-II) that
were attempting to reduce the number of nuclear warheads in each country, and refused to allow American athletes to participate in the
1980 Moscow Olympics. None of these actions had any impact on Soviet leaders—they continued to stay in Afghanistan, they bought their
wheat from other countries, and they built many more missiles. They retaliated to Carter's Olympic boycott by not allowing their athletes to
participate in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. While Carter did achieve some diplomatic successes (the peace treaty between Israel and
Egypt, and the Panama Canal Treaty) the steadily worsening economy would have probably doomed his reelection chances in 1980. As it
was, his inept handling of the Iranian hostage crisis sealed his fate and he was easily defeated by the Republican candidate Ronald Reagan.
The Iran-Hostage Crisis
In 1951 Iran nationalized its petroleum industry, but it was unable to produce and market oil in the face of an international boycott
organized by the expropriated oil companies. The country became poorer and political disturbances more serious until in 1953, with the
help of the CIA, the Shah (king) of Iran dismissed the Prime Minister and took total control of the country. He then gave the oil industry
back much of what it had lost in 1951. The US immediately provided an emergency grant of $45 million to the Shah. To keep control, the
Shah gave his secret police (the SAVAK) almost unlimited power. Through the arrests and the torture of political prisoners, it made many
enemies for the Shah's government. The average Iranian was extremely poor, yet a small group of friends of the Shah lived in luxury. The US
supported the Shah since the US government wanted access to Iran's oil and the Shah was seen as a buffer against Soviet expansion into the
region. The US sold $19.5 billion worth of arms to the Shah during the period 1972-79.
Street protests against the Shah began in late 1977 and people were killed when the army fired into the protestors. These deaths triggered
further mass demonstrations in the capital city of Tehran and elsewhere. The continued murder of demonstrators by the Shah's troops
ended all pretense that there was extensive popular support for him, and the killings united opposition groups in the single goal of ridding
the country of the monarch once and for all. American intelligence also failed to discover that the Shah had incurable cancer and was being
treated by French doctors. Few in the US government believed that the Shah, an absolute monarch in command of a wealthy oil-producing
nation, with huge armed forces and a secret police giving him their support, could be overthrown by unarmed mobs lead by Islamic clerics.
After months of confusion and strikes, with oil production and exports halted and the economy in chaos, the Shah fled the country on January 16, 1979.
The Ayatollah (an Ayatollah is an Islamic scholar and holy man) Khomeini, who had been living in exile in Paris for the preceding fifteen years, and
directing the uprising against the Shah, became the ruler of Iran, and on April 1, 1979 the Islamic Republic of Iran was proclaimed. The Carter
administration hardly knew how to respond to the Iranian situation. Accustomed to thinking in terms of the Cold War, it was unable to adjust to a
fundamentalist religious revolution that hated the US and the USSR equally.
Almost everyone in Iran inaccurately believed that the CIA would attempt to repeat what it had successfully accomplished in 1953 and restore the
Shah to his throne. Carter had no intention of trying to restore the Shah, as was indicated by his recognition in February 1979 of the new Islamic
government. Carter's hope was to restore normal relations with Iran and make it, once again, a bulwark against Communism in the Middle East. In
October, despite warnings from the embassy in Teheran that his action could lead to reprisals against Americans in Iran, President Carter admitted
the Shah to the United States to get medical treatment for his cancer. On November 4, 1979, a group of Iranian "students" seized the American
embassy compound and took 53 Americans hostage. Carter overreacted to the incident. By word and action, Carter made it clear to the Iranians and the
world that the lives of the hostages were his first priority. For the next fourteen months American public opinion was centered on the crisis.
Nightly news broadcasts signed-off with "and this is the 220th day of captivity for the Iranian hostages." The ABC late night news program
Nightline began as a program that did nothing else except cover the Iranian hostage crisis.
Because of the unstable nature of the Iranian government it was not until February 1980 that the US had a list of Iranian demands to consider—the
return of the Shah to Iran for trial, the return of the Shah's wealth, an admission of guilt by the US for its past actions in Iran, plus an apology, and a
promise not to interfere in Iran's affairs in the future. These demands were clearly unacceptable and on April 7, 1980 the US severed
diplomatic relations with Iran and implemented an economic embargo of the country. President Carter knew that unless he solved the hostage crisis
he was doomed to defeat in the 1980 presidential election and on April 24th he sent an ill-planned and ill-conceived mission into Iran to try and
rescue the hostages. The helicopters carrying the American special operations soldiers became disoriented in a desert sand storm, and during a
refueling stop on the floor of the Iranian desert, a helicopter and a cargo plane collided, killing eight soldiers and the botched mission was
cancelled. The bungled operation made Carter seem weaker than ever. To conservatives it was "too little too late." Many liberal Democrats,
including Secretary of State Cyrus Vance who resigned in protest over the mission, thought that the attempted rescue, even if successful, would
cause the death of many hostages, would deepen the rift between the US and Iran, and might lead the Soviets to intervene, with perilous consequences
for US policy in the Middle East. In short, Carter's attempted rescue mission was a political disaster.
The Republican Party had long been split between moderate and conservative wings. In the election of 1980 the conservative wing won and
nominated Ronald Reagan for president. Reagan was a former movie and television actor and a successful two-term governor of California.
Reagan had almost taken the nomination away from Gerald Ford in 1976. Reagan easily defeated Carter in November.
After the November election, but before Reagan's inauguration, the Iranians struck a deal with Carter. After complex negotiations conducted
in a rush, and finished on inauguration day, the Iranians agreed to release the hostages for the return of $8 billion worth of frozen assets (with $5
billion set aside to pay off Iran's debts to American and European banks). To ensure that the humiliation of Carter was complete, Iran did
not release the hostages until immediately after Reagan took the oath of office on January 20, 1981.
President Reagan's policies
A primary goal of the Reagan Administration was to reduce the involvement of the federal government in social programs and increase the
amount of money spent on defense; it was successful in both attempts. In 1986 the government spent about $172 billion on non-defense
discretionary spending—a cut of 20 percent between 1980 and 1986 in constant dollars. The defense budget was $300 billion in 1988—an
increase of more than 100 percent between 1980 and 1988. Through a series of tax laws that reduced the taxes of the wealthy and by setting
a governmental climate of pro-business and anti-labor (the firing of Air Traffic Controllers for an illegal strike exemplifies this attitude), the
Reagan presidency created a significant change in American policy. In 1984 the CEO of IBM made $200,000 and his secretary made
$25,000 (a ratio of 10 to 1); in 1996 the CEO made $2 million and his secretary made $50,000 (a ratio of 40 to 1). The tax act of 1986 reduced
the top income-tax rate from 50 to 28 percent. This cut added up to nearly $20 billion and was roughly ten times what the bill devoted to tax
relief for the millions of poor families with incomes of $10,000 or less. The wealthiest gained the most from the 1986 tax bill in terms of aftertax income. For people who made above $200,000 a year, the tax bill provided an average bonus of $2,856—compared with about $200 for
families in the middle. In addition, higher social security taxes actually raised the tax burden of most Americans during the Reagan years.
In 1984 Reagan easily won re-election by defeating Carter's vice president Walter Mondale. Mondale's running mate was New York
congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman ever named by a national party to run as vice president. In 1991 Reagan was shot and
wounded by a potential assassin. His courage and demeanor during and after the incident increased his stature among the public.
To protect the US from a Soviet Missile attack the Reagan Administration initiated the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), or as it was
commonly known—"Star Wars." This antiballistic missile attack program cost tens of billions of dollars with little tangible results. In October
1983, the US invaded the Caribbean island of Grenada to oust a pro-Communist government (eighteen Americans died) that was having
the Cubans build a runway that could be used by the Soviet Union to fly supplies into Latin America. The United States increased aid to
the conservative government of El Salvador to aid it in its fight against left-wing rebels. In 1983 Reagan sent the Marines to Lebanon as part
of an effort to stabilize the region. Terrorists drove a truck loaded with explosives into the Marine barracks early one morning, killing 241 Americans.
Reagan, through the CIA, gave large sums of money to support the Contras ("those against" in Spanish) who were fighting the left-wing Sandinista
government of Nicaragua. The Soviet Union was supplying Nicaragua with about $750 million in aid a year. In 1986 a debate broke out in the United
States as to whether the US should continue to give military aid to the Contras, and the Democratic controlled Congress voted to give $100 million in
"humanitarian" aid to the Contras and ban all military aid. The discovery, in late 1986, that members of the President's staff were illegally diverting
money from the sale of arms to Iran (in return for Iran freeing western hostages in Lebanon) to the Contras confused the issue even more than
before. In 1988, Latin and Central American countries, led by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, urged the US to halt aid to the Contras and back a
negotiated settlement in Central America. The six year war had cost Nicaragua 60,000 casualties and created an estimated 350,000 internal
refuges. The Iran-Contra scandal caused American and Congressional opinion to stop supporting the Contras and the Reagan Administration agreed to
suspend its covert military operations in Nicaragua.
The US since 1988:
Objectives:
•Understand the presidential election of 1988.
•Understand the US invasion of Panama.
•Understand the Persian Gulf War.
•Understand the presidential election of 1992.
•Understand the presidency of Bill Clinton and the election of 2000.
Topics:
• The presidential election of 1988.
• The US invasion of Panama.
• The Persian Gulf War.
• The presidential election of 1992.
• The presidency of Bill Clinton and the election of 2000.
Content Background:
The presidential election of 1988
In the presidential election of 1988 the Democrats nominated Michael Dukakis, governor of Massachusetts and the Republicans nominated
George Bush, Reagan's vice president. After a slow start, hurt by the selection of Senator Dan Quail as his vice presidential candidate (Quail had
used family influence to join the National Guard during the Vietnam War and he was perceived as an intellectual light-weight), Bush and his
advisors ran a masterful campaign. In the election Bush emphasized the factors that had won the Republican party the presidency in every election, but
one, since 1968: anti-Communism; conservative social issues (limited access to abortion, being tough on crime and drugs, the pledge of allegiance,
the death penalty [during the final televised presidential debate the first question asked Dukakis was would he still oppose the death penalty if his wife,
Kitty, had been raped and brutally murdered—when Dukakis said "yes" Bush had the election sewn up]); subtle racism (the Willie Horton
commercial blasted Dukakis for allowing a black convict to be furloughed from prison—Horton raped a white women while out); and, "read
my lips: no new taxes." Bush easily won.
The US invasion of Panama
During the Reagan years the United States relations with the President of Panama, Manuel Noriega had deteriorated. For years Noriega had
been playing a double game. He accepted United States money ($1.2 million during the 1980s) for intelligence information, a proAmerican stand, and for not interfering with the operation with the Panama Canal. On the other hand, he also fed intelligence information to
Cuba's Castro, he allowed aid to the rebels in El Salvador and to the Communists in Nicaragua to travel freely through Panama, and
Panama became a major transfer point for Latin American drugs traveling to the rest of the world. Noriega was paid for all of these
activities. On May 7, 1989 Panama held elections and neutral observers reported that Guillermo Endara won the presidential election by a 3-1
margin. Noriega refused to give up power and he annulled the election, claiming that "obstruction by foreigners" had made the election
meaningless. Noriega had his "Dignity Battalions" break up protests in Panama City over his decision and Endara was severely beaten by
Noriega's thugs.
President Bush demanded that Noriega resign and he sent 2,000 additional troops to the Canal Zone. The Organization of American States
(OAS) condemned Noriega and called for a "peaceful transfer to democracy." On October 3, 1989 a coup attempt against Noriega failed and
the leader of the coup was killed. The United States had actively participated in the coup, but had refused to back it up at the last minute. On
December 15, Panama's National Assembly voted unanimously in naming Noriega "maximum leader" of Panama and the members declared
that Panama was in a "state of war" with the US. During the next few days several incidents occurred in which an American soldier was killed
and several Americans were harassed and beaten-up. Shortly after midnight on December 20, 1989, 11,000 troops from the US, along with
13,000 already stationed in the Canal Zone, invaded Panama. An additional 2,000 troops joined the forces on December 22 to help restore
order. Noriega took refuge in the Vatican embassy until he surrendered on January 3. After his surrender he was flown to the United States
where he stood trial, and was convicted and sent to prison for drug trafficking. Endara was sworn in as president on the day of the invasion.
Deaths were reported as 24 American soldiers and 139 Panamanian (probably higher). Civilian casualties were probably in the hundreds
but are unknown. American objectives in the invasion of Panama were to remove Noriega from power, reduce the drug traffic flowing through
Panama, and to support US interests in Central America. The OAS censured the US use of force and in the UN Security Council the US had
to veto a resolution critical of its action. Domestic reaction was generally favorable.
The Persian Gulf War
On August 1, 1990 Iraq, led by the dictator Saddam Hussein, invaded and occupied Kuwait. Iraq had long claimed that Kuwait was a province,
not an independent state, and Kuwait had been pumping more oil than it was allocated under OPEC quotas. Kuwait's actions had driven
down oil prices, greatly hurting Iraq which needed the revenue to pay for the expenses that it had occurred during the eight year long IraqIran War.
Iraq was a nation of 18 million people (24 million in 2003) in an area slightly more than twice the size of Idaho. With Kuwait, Hussein controlled
20 percent of the world's oil. With a one million-man army, the fourth largest in the world, Iraq was believed to be a major military power.
During the last major campaign of the Iran-Iraq war Hussein's troops had used poison gas and had killed 65,000 Iranians. Favored in that war by the US
government as the "lesser of two evils," Iraq was shipped large amounts of military gear—mostly from the USSR, Great Britain, and France. The US
and the UN condemned Iraq's invasion of Kuwait (the end of the Cold War allowed Russian and the US to work together—neither side wanted the
balance of power in the Mid East disrupted, and the Russians had been promised American aid for their decrepit economy), and demanded
Iraq's immediate withdrawal from Kuwait. President Bush asked Congress to adopt a resolution supporting the use of force against Iraq if it did
not comply with the UN deadline of January 15, 1991 to remove its troops from Kuwait. Congress conducted an intense debate, 52 Senators, mainly
Republicans, voted for war, 47 opposed. In the House, where the division was also mainly along partisan lines, 250 voted for, 183 against.
The navies of the Coalition forces established a blockade of Iraq and all shipments of Iraqi oil were halted. General Norman Schwarzkopf was
named commander of Operation Desert Shield, the code name for the defensive phase of the Gulf War. When Iraq refused to leave Kuwait, the
coalition forces began an aerial campaign called Operation Desert Storm. By war's end more bomb tonnage had been dropped on Iraq than had been
dropped by US forces during all of World War II. During the air campaign thousands of American, Syrian, French, British and other troops moved to
Saudi Arabia. At the start of the ground campaign 500,000 members of the American armed forces were in the Persian Gulf region. After six weeks
of bombing, half of Iraq's frontline army had deserted. Hussein attempted to divide the Coalition forces by firing Scud missiles into Israel and Saudi
Arabia. Israel refused to retaliate to the missile attacks and the Arab-West Coalition held. The cost of the war was primarily paid for by Saudi
Arabia ($16.8 billion), Kuwait ($16 billion), Japan ($10.7 billion), and Germany ($6.6 billion). On February 24 the Coalition ground campaign
began and it met with little resistance; the fighting ended after one-hundred hours. Although the road to Baghdad was open, Bush never intended to
take the city. American casualties in street fighting in Baghdad could be expected to be high and might take weeks or months to complete. No UN
resolution authorized the occupation of Iraq and the Arab partners in the coalition would not have supported a move on Baghdad. American war
deaths were 390, with an additional 458 wounded in action. Other Coalition nations had 510 casualties. Iraq suffered estimated 10,000-12,000 deaths
during the air war, and an estimated 10,000 Iraqis were killed during the ground war.
It was widely anticipated that after his humiliating defeat, Hussein would be overthrown by Iraqi army leaders and/or that dissident groups would revolt
against him. The Kurds in the north and the Shi'ite Muslims in the south did revolt. The Kurds wanted a homeland of their own (which would have
also included parts of Iran, Turkey, and the Soviet Union), while many Shi'ites wanted to join with Iran. These prospects were not supported
by the US, which feared an independent Kurdistan, a strengthened Iran, and a power vacuum in Iraq. Hussein put down the revolts with vicious
efficiency. There was no military aid to the rebels from the American led coalition. Within a year of Desert Storm, all opposition to Hussein was
crushed. Hussein was more firmly in control than before the war and he was able to frustrate the UN teams that came into his country to inspect for
weapons of mass destruction.
The presidential election of 1992
In the 1992 election Bush initially seemed unbeatable. Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua allowed free elections to be held and when he lost the
national dispute over US policy in Central America ended. The Soviet Union liberalized its policies toward the West and then collapsed. The
end of the Cold War reduced the demand for huge military expenditures to fight Communism. Bush's strong response to the invasion of
Kuwait by Iraq, and the easy American victory in Operation Desert Storm, brought Bush's popularity rating to over 90 percent. Political
commentators speculated that the Democrats might not even be able to find someone to run against the President. Things began to change in
late 1991. The United States economy underwent a severe economic recession. Many women were incited when the Supreme Court ruled in
1989 that states could restrict a woman's right to an abortion. Many women were further incensed when Bush appointed Clarence Thomas,
a black conservative to the Supreme Court and Annita Hill charged him with sexual harassment. The Senate confirmation of Thomas helped
regenerate the women's movement.
The end of the Cold War meant that the perception that the Republican Party was the stronger party in the fight against Communism had
less impact with voters. Because of the rising national debt, Bush went back on his pledge not to raise taxes. The Republican aversion to
social legislation hurt federal programs for education, housing, and health care. Concern over the environment began to increase and the
Democrats were thought to be the more activist party in this area. The Savings and Loan crisis, brought on in large part because of Republican
advocated deregulation, cost the American taxpayer $500 billion—when the scale of this cost hit home in the form of new taxes, it hurt
Bush. When the election was held in November 1992, Saddam Hussein was still in power in Iraq, Kuwait was still an absolute monarchy,
the national government did not have an energy policy to reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil, and in retrospect, the American victory
in the Persian Gulf War did not seem as impressive as it did to the American people in 1991.
Because a Bush presidential victory had seemed such a sure thing after the Gulf War, many powerful Democrats decided not to run for the
Democratic presidential nomination. This decision allowed the 47-year-old governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton, to gain the Democratic
nomination. Clinton selected Tennessee Senator Al Gore as his running mate. Texas billionaire Ross Perot also declared himself an
independent candidate. His candidacy helped Clinton because many frustrated Republicans had someone to vote for and he took votes
away from Bush. Perot's major program was a plan to reduce the $5 trillion national debt. In Clinton's campaign headquarters was a sign
that said, "It's the economy, stupid." That was indeed the case. A severe recession, the end of the Cold War, the gender gap, frustration
with "trickle down" economics, and Clinton's masterful campaign allowed the Democrats to win the presidency for the first time since 1976.
The Clinton presidency and the election of 2000
In Clinton's first two years of office the Democratic controlled Congress passed a family leave act; a motor-voter act; a budget that increased
taxes on the wealthy, decreased taxes on the poor, and reduced the rate of increase of the national debt (zero Republican votes); the Brady
Gun Control Act; a ban an assault weapons, and, with the help of Republicans in Congress, the North American Free Trade Agreement (strong
labor opposition). Clinton also proposed a major reform of the nation's health care system, formatted by his wife Hillary that failed to pass
Congress. In the off-year elections of 1994 the Republicans gained control of both houses of Congress for the first time since 1948. With the
Republican Congressional victory many pundits again wrote off Clinton. During a press conference one reporter even asked him if he was "still
relevant" in the political process. Clinton played a masterful game. He moved toward the political center, taking away many traditional Republican
issues (the signing of a "welfare reform act" is an indication of this move). The Congressional Republicans misjudged their power, and the political
climate, and in a fight over the budget allowed the government to be shutdown twice.
In 1996 the Republicans nominated the 72 year old Senate majority leader Bob Dole for the presidency. The stock market was at a record
high, inflation was low, and the economy was booming. Earlier in his presidency Clinton had sent the US military into Haiti and Bosnia as part of
peacekeeping operations, and the American public perceived both operations as successful. Clinton's advocacy of a woman's right to have an
abortion, his appointment of women and minorities to high government positions, and his strong commitment to civil rights and social issues
like education increased the "gender gap" between Democrats and Republicans, and also ensured him the vast majority of the African-American and
Hispanic vote. Clinton easily won the 1996 presidential election and the Republicans kept control of Congress.
In 1994 Clinton was accused of misconduct that allegedly occurred both before and during his presidency. He was accused by Paula Jones of sexual
harassment while she was an employee of the state of Arkansas and Clinton was governor (supposedly Clinton exposed himself to her in a Little
Rock hotel room and made sexual advances). Jones claimed that her career with the Arkansas government was hurt because she refused
Clinton's advances. A Federal judge dismissed her case in April 1998. Clinton and his wife were also accused of illegal land activity (Whitewater)
in Arkansas while he was governor and a special prosecutor was appointed by the Republican controlled congress to investigate. No evidence of
wrong-doing by the Clintons was found in the Whitewater case. In early 1998, while the Whitewater investigation was continuing, Monica Lewinsky
told an acquaintance that she had had sexual relations with the President while she was a 23 year old White House intern. The acquaintance tape recorded
the conversation and turned the tape over to Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr. At first Clinton denied the charges under oath, but later he
admitted the affair. This issue also reopened the Paula Jones case and Clinton settled her charges with a payment of $850,000 while not
admitting the truth of her accusations. In December 1997 the House of Representatives impeached Clinton on a straight party-line vote for his
perjury in the Lewinsky affair, but the Senate could not gather the necessary two-thirds vote to convict and Clinton remained in office with his
stature and power greatly reduced.
The Clinton administration had pulled US troops out of Somalia after eighteen American servicemen had been killed during "humanitarian"
operations in 1993, and had refused to send in troops to stop millions of people being killed in Rwanda, but unrest in the Balkans caused the
administration in 1999 to organize a NATO operation against Serbia in the Yugoslavian province of Kosovo. The Serbs had been conducting "ethnic
cleansing" operations against the Albanians who lived in the province. After an intense bombing campaign in which only one American plane
was lost, the Serbs allowed NATO to move into Kosovo to protect the non-Serb peoples.
In the presidential election of 2000 the Democrats nominated Vice President Al Gore. Gore picked Senator Joe Lieberman as his runningmate. Lieberman was the first Jew to run for a national office on a major party ticket. The Republicans nominated Texas governor George W.
Bush. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader ran as the Green Party candidate and took enough votes away from Gore to ensure that the election
would be extremely close. Gore won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College by one vote when the United States Supreme Court ruled 54 on a straight party-line vote to award Florida's disputed electoral votes to Bush. After the election, the US Senate had equal numbers of
Democrats and Republicans (giving Vice President Dick Chaney the deciding vote), and the Republicans maintained control of the House of
Representatives (although with fewer members than the previous congress). In May Vermont Republican Senator James Jeffords, disturbed
by the increasingly conservative nature of the Republican party, changed his affiliation to Independent and stated that he would vote with the
Democrats giving the Democrats control of the Senate and ensuring a divided government. In the off-year election of 2002 the Republicans
regained control of Congress. Despite his impeachment, Clinton left office with approval ratings of over 60 percent, and his wife was
elected a US senator from New York. Clinton may have forged a centrist coalition on policy, but his personal behavior produced a backlash on
the issue of values that was a significant factor in Al Gore's defeat.
On September 11, 2001 Fundamental Islamic al-Qaeda terrorists under the direction of Osama bin Laden hijacked four commercial aircraft.
Two of the jets were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. Both towers collapsed a couple of hours after
being struck. One of the planes crashed into the Pentagon, and one, destined for the White House, crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after
the passengers resisted the terrorists. The combined attacks killed over 3,000 people, and while most of the dead were Americans, people
from eighty-two other countries also died. During the Clinton administration, bin Laden had organized the bombings of the US embassies in
Kenya and Tanzania, and a suicide attack by small boat on the destroyer the USS Cole, in Yemen. Clinton had retaliated by having the US
military fire cruise missiles at an al-Qaeda base in Afghanistan. Bin Laden had escaped from this attack unharmed. Bin Laden was in
Afghanistan as a "guest" of the Taliban government. The Taliban is a fundamental Islamic organization that had formed during the
Afghanistan resistance to the Soviet invasion. After the defeat of the Soviets the Taliban had gained control of Afghanistan by defeating its
internal rivals. In return for Taliban support, bin Laden, who had been an extremely wealthy Saudi businessman before becoming a terrorist,
helped finance the Afghan government.
The opponents of the Taliban, a loose coalition of war-lords and their followers that called themselves the Northern Alliance, controlled
about 10 percent of Afghanistan on September 11. After the Taliban refused to turn over bin Laden to the US, the US military began
bombing Taliban and al-Qaeda positions in October and supporting the Northern Alliance economically and with Special Forces troops.
After several months of fighting, the Taliban and al-Qaeda were defeated and the Northern Alliance took control of Afghanistan. As of
September 2004, 20,000 US and 6,500 NATO troops were stationed in Afghanistan and continued to conduct military operations. The
whereabouts of bin Laden was unknown.
President Bush claimed that Saddam Hussein of Iraq was hiding weapons of mass destruction and cooperating with international terrorists.
On March 20, 2003 in Operation Iraqi Freedom, 200,000 US and British troops invaded and quickly occupied Iraq. Less than 150
American troops were killed in the invasion. On May 1st President Bush landed on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln off the coast of
California and announced the official end of combat operations in Iraq. In December Hussein was captured by US troops.
An insurgency developed after the Coalition victory, flowing into the vacuum left by the collapse of authority. Members of al-Qaeda, the Ba'ath
Party (the old ruling party of Iraq), foreign Islamic fighters, and supporters of different Iraqi interest groups continued to wage a guerrilla
war against the Coalition troops
As of September 2004, the US had over 140,000 troops stationed in Iraq and Britain had 9,000 of its forces in the country. Other nations
contributed an additional 6,000 troops to the occupying force. The US death toll stood at over a 1,000, with more than 7,000 wounded. No
weapons of mass destruction had been discovered nor was there any evidence that Iraqi supported al-Qaeda or international terrorism prior to
the invasion. In June 2004 the US turned control of Iraq over to an interim government with elections tentatively schedule for January 2005.