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Chapter 38
Challenges to the
Postwar Order
1973–1980
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
• FOCUS QUESTIONS
• 1. What were the causes of economic
stagnation during the 1970s?
• 2. How did Nixon’s policy of détente develop
under the administrations of Gerald Ford and
Jimmy Carter? Did détente help or hurt
relations with China and the Soviet Union?
• 3. How did the Vietnam conflict end?
• 4. What was Watergate and how did the
episode tarnish the office of the presidency?
• 5. What were the major challenges faced by
the Carter administration, both foreign and
domestic?
Learning Objectives (Part 1)
• Analyze the scandals and challenges that
undermined Nixon's presidency, and
summarize their impact on national politics
• Outline the drawing-down of American
involvement in Vietnam
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All Rights Reserved.
Learning Objectives (Part 2)
• Describe the major social issues animating the
American domestic agenda in the 1970s
• Considering both domestic and international
events, summarize the legacy of the Carter
administration
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All Rights Reserved.
• CHAPTER THEMES
• Theme: As the war in Vietnam finally came to
a disastrous conclusion, the United States
struggled to create a more stable international
climate. Détente with the two communist
powers temporarily reduced Cold War
tensions, but trouble in the Middle East
threatened America’s energy supplies and
economic stability.
• Theme: Weakened by political difficulties of
their own and others’ making, the
administrations of the 1970s had trouble
coping with America’s growing economic
problems. The public also had trouble facing
up to a sharp sense of limits and a general
disillusionment with society. With the notable
exception of the successful feminist
movement, the social reform efforts of the
1960s fractured and stalled, as the country
settled into a frustrating and politically divisive
stalemate.
• CHAPTER SUMMARY
• Nonelected Gerald Ford took over after
Watergate forced Nixon to resign. The Communist
Vietnamese finally overran the South Vietnamese
government in 1975. The defeat in Vietnam
added to a general sense of disillusionment with
society and a new sense of limits on American
power. The civil rights movement fractured, and
divisive issues of busing and affirmative action
enhanced racial tensions. The most successful
social movement was feminism, which achieved
widespread social breakthroughs though failing to
pass the Equal Rights Amendment.
• Campaigning against Washington and
Watergate, outsider Jimmy Carter proved
unable to master Congress or the economy
once he took office. The Camp David
agreement brought peace between Egypt and
Israel, but the Iranian revolution led to new
energy troubles. The invasion of Afghanistan
and the holding of American hostages in Iran
added to Carter’s woes.
Over-arching Themes of CH-38
• America’s post-war economic prosperity began to
take a sharp slide downward.
• The economy began to slow. This was mostly due
to increased oil prices and resulting inflation.
Generally speaking, during the seventies, gas
prices tripled and inflation reached double digits
by 1980.
• Nixon was brought down by the Watergate
Scandal. The scandal involved a break-in and mic
bugging at the Democratic headquarters. Nixon
got into trouble for “obstructing justice” and
telling people to keep quiet about it.
Over-arching Themes of CH-38
• Jimmy Carter was elected as a Washington
outsider. He struggled as president with (a)
the economy which took a nose-dive and (b)
foreign affairs as he was unable to deal with
U.S. hostages taken in Iran.
• Though times were certainly not bad, mixed
with the Watergate scandal, it was a decade
without tremendous progress.
Chronology (Part 1)
WHEN
EVENT
1972



1973


1973–1974
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


Nixon defeats McGovern for
presidency
Equal Rights Amendment
passes Congress (not ratified
by states)
Title IX of Education
Amendments passed
Treaty of Paris enacts ceasefire in Vietnam and U.S.
withdrawal
Agnew resigns; Ford appointed
vice president
Frontiero v. Richardson
Roe v. Wade
Watergate hearings and
investigations
Chronology (Part 2)
WHEN
1974
1975
1976
1978
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EVENT
 Nixon resigns; Ford
assumes presidency
 Milliken v. Bradley
 Helsinki accords
 South Vietnam falls to
communists
 Carter defeats Ford for
presidency
 Camp David accords
between Egypt and Israel
 United States v. Wheeler
Chronology (Part 3)
WHEN
1979
1979–1981
1980
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EVENT
 Iranian revolution and oil
crisis
 SALT II agreements signed
(never ratified by Senate)
 Soviet Union invades
Afghanistan
 Iranian hostage crisis
 United States boycotts
Summer Olympics in
Moscow
Watergate and the Unmaking of a
President (Part 1)

Nixon’s electoral triumph in 1972

Undone by the Watergate scandal
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June 17, 1972: Five men arrested inside the
Watergate office complex; men attempted to
plant electronic “bugs” in the Democratic party’s
headquarters
They worked for the Republican Committee to
Re-Elect the President—CREEP
Incident was one in a series of Nixon
administration “dirty tricks”
Moral stench hung over the White House
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Watergate and the Unmaking of a
President (Part 2)

October 1973: Vice President Spiro
Agnew forced to resign for taking bribes
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Nixon nominated Gerald (“Jerry”) Ford
A Senate committee conducted hearings
about the Watergate affair in 1973–1974
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Aide revealed a secret taping system recorded
Nixon’s Oval Office conversations
Nixon would provide only “relevant” portions of
the tapes
July 24, 1974: Supreme Court ruled “executive
privilege” gave no right to withhold evidence
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Watergate and the Unmaking of a
President (Part 3)

June 23, 1972: The “smoking gun” tape

Nixon was an active party to the cover-up
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House Judiciary Committee drew up articles of
impeachment
Republican leaders informed Nixon that his
impeachment was a foregone conclusion and
best to resign
August 8, 1974: Nixon resigned

The principles that no person is above the law
and that presidents must be held to strict
accountability for their acts were strengthened
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Nixon, the “Law-and-Order-Man”
On July 24, 1974, the Supreme
Court unanimously ruled that
“executive privilege” gave him
no right to withhold evidence
relevant to possible criminal
activity. Skating on thin ice
over hot water, Nixon
reluctantly complied.
Sources of Stagnation (Part 1)

Economic boom petering out
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Median income stagnated
Much mystery attended the productivity
slowdown

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Vietnam War drained tax dollars from needed
improvements; touched off inflation
Rising oil prices in the 1970s also fed inflation
Deficit spending in the 1960s occurred without a
tax increase
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Sources of Stagnation (Part 2)

Prices increased throughout the 1970s

Cost of living tripled
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American businesses had small incentive to
modernize plants and seek more efficient
methods of production
Germans and Japanese built wholly new
factories with the most up-to-date technology and
management techniques
Japanese-made Toyota a harbinger of global
economic competition
Japanese came to dominate industries like steel,
automobiles, and consumer electronics
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Great Hopes for World Peace with the
United Nations, 1947
The achievements of the new
international regime were
dramatic. International trade
doubled in the 1950s and again
in the 1960s. By century’s end,
the volume of global
commerce was ten times larger
than in 1950.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeclXZWD5xo
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All Rights Reserved.
The First Unelected President (Part 1)

Gerald Rudolph Ford
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He was the first man to be made president
solely by a vote of Congress
He was widely—and unfairly—suspected of
being little more than a dim-witted former
college football player
Ford had been selected, not elected, vice
president following Spiro Agnew’s disgrace
Out of a clear sky, Ford granted a complete
pardon to Nixon
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The First Unelected President (Part 2)

Ford sought to enhance détente
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In July 1975, President Ford joined leaders
from thirty-four nations in Helsinki, Finland
The Helsinki accords
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Western Europeans cheered the conference a
milestone of détente
Critics in the U.S. charged that détente was a
one-way street
American grain and technology flowed to the
USSR; little flowed back
Fury over Moscow’s double-dealing steadily grew
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Defeat in Vietnam

1975: North Vietnamese drive southward

South Vietnamese quickly collapsed
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Remaining Americans evacuated by helicopter,
last of them on April 29, 1975
Also rescued were South Vietnamese
dangerously identified with the Americans
In a technical sense, the Americans had not
lost the war; their client nation had
Americans’ power as well as pride had been
deeply wounded in Vietnam
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Preserving the Past
A Vietnamese American boy learns classical calligraphy from his grandfather.
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Feminist Victories and Defeats (Part 1)

American feminist movement showed
vitality and momentum
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1970: Women’s Stride for Equality
1972: Title IX of the Education Amendments
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Prohibited sex discrimination in any federally
assisted educational program
Helped professionalize women’s sports
Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the
Constitution

Won congressional approval in 1972
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Feminist Victories and Defeats (Part 2)

Supreme Court challenged sex
discrimination in legislation and
employment

In Roe v. Wade (1973), the Court struck
down laws prohibiting abortion

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A woman’s decision to terminate a pregnancy
protected by the constitutional right of privacy
Court’s ruling soon faced a formidable backlash
Powerful grassroots movement opposed the
legalization of abortion
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Feminist Victories and Defeats (Part 3)

Death of the ERA

Antifeminists led by conservative activist
Phyllis Schlafly
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She believed the amendment would threaten the
basic family structure of American society
Her STOP ERA movement was successful
The ERA died in 1982, three states short
Politics and policy only part of feminism
The women’s movement an undeniably
transformative force in the 1970s
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Marching for Women’s Rights, 1977
A multiethnic and multiracial group of women, accompanied by noted “second-wave”
feminists Bella Abzug (in hat) and Betty Friedan (far right), helped to carry a torch from
Seneca Falls, New York, to Houston, Texas, site of the National Women’s Conference.
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
The Seventies in Black and White
(Part 1)

Civil rights movement had fractured

Supreme Court in Milliken v. Bradley
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Ruled that desegregation plans could not require
students to move across school-district lines
Exempted suburban districts from desegregating
inner-city schools
Affirmative action programs controversial

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“Reverse discrimination”: Racial or ethnic
background outweighed ability and achievement
In 1978, the Supreme Court upheld the claim of
one white Californian, Allan Bakke
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The Seventies in Black and White
(Part 2)

Native Americans in the 1970s

Power through using the courts and wellplanned acts of civil disobedience
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Indians used tactics of the civil rights movement
to assert their status as separate semi-sovereign
peoples
1978: United States v. Wheeler

Supreme Court declared that Indian tribes
possessed a “unique and limited” sovereignty,
subject to the will of Congress but not to
individual states
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The Bicentennial Campaign (Part 1)

Ford sought the Republican nomination

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Ford defeated challenger Ronald Reagan
Reagan propelled by a conservative
movement known as the “New Right”
The New Right emphasized hot-button
cultural issues as well as a nationalist
foreign-policy

Organization grew more powerful over the next
four years
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmSO9pMWQjA
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All Rights Reserved.
The Bicentennial Campaign (Part 2)

James Earl (“Jimmy”) Carter, Jr.
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Carter was a dark-horse candidate with
down-home sincerity
Carter ran against the memory of Nixon and
Watergate as much as he ran against Ford
He squeezed out a narrow victory
Carter’s honeymoon did not last long

An inexperienced outsider; never quite made the
transition to being an insider himself
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Carter’s Humanitarian Diplomacy
(Part 1)

Carter's concern for “human rights” the
guiding principle of his foreign policy

1978: Carter persuaded Egypt and Israel to
sign a preliminary accord
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Pledge to sign a peace treaty within three months
1979: Carter resumed full diplomatic
relations with China
President Carter concluded two treaties
turning over the Panama Canal to the
Panamanians
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Carter’s Humanitarian Diplomacy
(Part 2)

Trouble stalked Carter’s foreign policy

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Cold War with the Soviet Union reheated
Détente fell into disrepute


Cuba deployed thousands of troops
Arms-control negotiations with Moscow stalled
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Economic and Energy Woes (Part 1)

Failing health of the economy

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Inflation rate was above 13 percent by 1980
Imported oil plunged America’s balance of
payments into the red
Americans could never again consider a
policy of economic isolation
Some 27 percent of GNP depended on
foreign trade in the globalizing economy
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Economic and Energy Woes (Part 2)

Deficits in the budget aggravated inflation

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“Prime rate” was 20 percent in early 1980
High cost of borrowing money shoved small
businesses to the wall and strangled the
construction industry
Carter believed nation’s economic problems
due to dependence on foreign oil


April 1977: Proposals for energy conservation
Shah of Iran overthrown in January 1979

Iranian oil supplies stopped flowing
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Economic and Energy Woes (Part 3)

Carter sensed popular discontent
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July 1979: Carter called in leaders from all
walks of life to give him their views
July 15, 1979: His malaise speech chided
his fellow citizens for falling into a “moral and
spiritual crisis” and for being too concerned
with “material goods”
Critics wondered if Carter lost touch with the
popular mood of the country
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The Turn Toward the Market (Part 1)

Powerful conservative challenge

Emphasis shifted to the free market and the
dangers of “big government”

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“Neoconservatives” spearheaded this
conservative revival; they championed freemarket capitalism liberated from government
restraints
They called for traditional values at home and
tough anti-Soviet positions in foreign policy
Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman
argued for the superiority of free markets
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An Apostle for Capitalism
Milton Friedman receives the cash award that accompanied his Nobel Prize in
economics in 1976. Friedman won the Nobel at just the point in the 1970s that the
free-market outlook he espoused began to gain new prominence in the broader
political culture.
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The Turn Toward the Market (Part 2)

Conservative action

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Political action committees mushroomed
from 89 in 1974 to 1,024 in 1980
Companies with registered lobbyists up from
175 in 1971 to nearly 2,500 in 1982
Critics blamed stagflation on government
regulation

Contributed to deregulatory movement in
transportation, communications, and banking
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The Turn Toward the Market (Part 3)

Carter also supported deregulation and
the liberation of market forces



The turn toward the market attracted
bipartisan support
Antigovernment politics centered on taxes
A “tax revolt” in California and other states in
1978 snowballed into a tax-cutting agenda
nationwide
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Foreign Affairs and the Iranian
Imbroglio (Part 1)

Hopes for a less dangerous world

June 1979: President Carter met with Soviet
leader Leonid Brezhnev to sign the SALT II
(Strategic Arms Limitation Talks II)

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
Summer 1979: Treaty came to Senate for debate
November 4, 1979: Anti-American militants
stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and
took all of its occupants hostage
December 27, 1979: Soviet army blitzed into
Afghanistan
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Foreign Affairs and the Iranian
Imbroglio (Part 2)

President Carter slapped an embargo

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He called for a boycott of the upcoming
Olympic Games in Moscow
Carter requested a possible military draft
U.S. would “use any means necessary,
including force,” to protect the Persian Gulf
SALT II treaty was dead in the Senate
Soviet army met stiff resistance in
Afghanistan

Became “Russia’s Vietnam”
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Foreign Affairs and the Iranian
Imbroglio (Part 3)

Iranian hostage crisis




Carter applied economic sanctions and
pressure of world opinion against the
Iranians
Carter ordered a rescue mission; the mission
had to be scrapped
Failed rescue underscored the nation’s
helplessness and even incompetence
The stalemate with Iran dragged on
throughout the rest of Carter’s term
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Foreign Affairs and the Iranian
Imbroglio (Part 4)

Much lasting change had taken place in a
brief period

Long postwar boom and broadly shared
prosperity were gone



More fitful and less equitable spurts of growth
Economic inequality and political polarization
grew
Tolerance and inclusion broadened for racial
and ethnic minorities, immigrants, gays and
lesbians, and women
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