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Chapter 30: The Conservative Ascendancy, 1974–1991
Chapter Review
I. AMERICAN COMMUNITIES Grass Roots Conservatism in Orange County,
California
Orange County’s 800 square miles lie at the geographic center of Southern California
and citrus farming dominated the economy until the 1940s, when defense spending
created thousands of new manufacturing jobs. Goldwater’s 1964 campaign had
ignited great enthusiasm in Orange County, but his defeat forced conservatives to
consider ways to shed the “extremism” label. Elected California governor in 1966,
Ronald Reagan sought to limit state support for welfare and other social services,
while expanding state power to enforce law and order.
Reagan’s success in California and Nixon’s election in 1968 signaled a new turn for
American conservatives, fueling a California tax revolt that led to Proposition 13 that
slashed property taxes and strictly limited future tax increases. Orange County also
supported
the spectacular growth of “born again” evangelical Christianity. As
president, Reagan introduced a new economic program—“Reaganomics”—that
reduced income taxes for wealthy Americans but funded the largest military buildup
in American history, redirecting the focus of government in response to the activism
and voting of conservatives from Orange County and across the nation.
II. THE OVEREXTENDED SOCIETY
Post-war prosperity had kept conservatives at bay. Then, in the 1970s, economic
growth ground to a halt and Americans faced an unfamiliar combination of inflation
and rising unemployment. Economists termed this novel condition “stagflation.”
After emerging from World War II as the most prosperous nation in the world and
retaining this status through the 1960s, the country suddenly found itself falling
behind Western Europe and Japan. Meanwhile, presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy
Carter promised little and, as far as many voters were concerned, delivered less.
a. A Troubled Economy
The OPEC oil embargo of 1973 made Americans painfully aware of their
dependence on Middle East oil supplies. Although Nixon responded by
appointing an “energy czar” and promoting conservation, energy prices climbed,
raising rents and food bills with them. At the same time, the United States lost
ground to Asian and European producers of cheaper and more efficient cars,
televisions, radios, tape players, cameras, and computers. The United States had
lost its dominance in the global economy. An AFL-CIO leader complained that
the United States was becoming “a nation of hamburger stands . . . a country
stripped of industrial capacity and meaningful work.” Industrial unions shrank,
although growth in service industries made up some of the losses. The slump also
hurt working women; between 1955 and 1980 the wage gap worsened, with
women falling from 64 percent of men’s earnings to 59 percent, and women
clustered in occupations where the lowest wages prevailed. African American
women made some gains. By 1980, northern black women’s median earnings
were about 95 percent of white women’s earnings. Hispanic women flooded into
the workforce, but mainly in low wage jobs with few prospects for advancement.
b. The Endangered Environment
The environmental downside of the post-World War II economic boom was
becoming painfully evident. The first Earth Day was celebrated in 1973, and
pollution and climate change became political issues. Activists succeeded in
blocking some massive construction projects, such as nuclear energy plants; more
often they halted small-scale destruction of a natural habitat or historic urban
district. At Love Canal near Buffalo, toxic wastes dumped by the Hooker
Chemical Laboratory had oozed into basements and backyards, and in 1978
homemaker Lois Gibbs organized her neighbors to draw attention to the grim
situation. Eventually New York State bought up all the houses and relocated
families.
Congress responded to pressure by creating the EPA in 1970 and passing scores
of bills to protect endangered species, reduce automobile pollution, limit and ban
the use of some pesticides, and control strip-mining practices. City leaders, both
Democratic and Republican, resisted congressional mandates for reduction in air
pollution, stalling compliance. George Meany, president of the AFL-CIO,
denounced “tree hugger” environmentalists as enemies of economic growth, and
United Auto Workers lobbyists joined automakers in resisting emission and gas
mileage rules. Environmentalists lost a key campaign with the approval of the
Alaskan Pipeline, 800 miles of pipe often leaking into an endangered
environment, connecting oil fields with refining facilities in the Lower 48.
c. “Lean Years Presidents”: Ford and Carter
Ford and Carter presided over a depressed economy and a nation of disillusioned
citizens increasingly open to conservative appeals. The pardon of Richard Nixon
reinforced public cynicism toward government and Ford in particular. Ford’s
nomination of Nelson Rockefeller annoyed conservatives and his WIN program
was ridiculed. First Lady Betty Ford broke ranks with conservatives to champion
gun control, the Equal Rights Amendment, and abortion rights.
Ford banked on his incumbency for the 1976 election, and, dumping Rockefeller,
picked Kansas Senator Robert Dole as his running mate, and narrowly won
renomination. After a fight with Teddy Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, a former Navy
officer and governor of Georgia as well as a born-again Christian, who presented
himself as a political outsider, won the Democratic nod.
Counting on support from both conservative and southern voters who would
ordinarily vote Republican, he defended existing entitlement programs while
opposing Kennedy’s call for comprehensive health coverage. Capitalizing on
Ford’s unpopular Nixon pardon, Carter got just over 50 percent of the popular
vote and a 297-to-240 margin in the Electoral College. In office, Carter seemed to
many observers enigmatic, even uninterested in the presidency, more conservative
than liberal. Although he carried out reforms of airline regulation and improved
efficiency of some programs, his lack of a clear energy policy was ridiculed and
stagflation raged on. His defeat in 1980 left liberalism and the Democratic Party
discredited and in disarray.
MHL document: Jimmy Carter, The “Crisis of Confidence” Speech (1979) at
www.myhistorylab.com
d. The Limits of Global Power
In April 1975, the North Vietnamese captured Saigon as the South Vietnamese
Army, now without U.S. assistance, fell apart. All fighting stopped within a few
weeks, and Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnam was reunited under
a Communist government. The limits of American global power were clear for all
to see.
Announcing a “new morality” in foreign policy, Carter reversed decades of
support for repressive right wing regimes in Latin America and sought to reign in
the CIA. In the Middle East, Carter brought together Israeli leader Menachem
Begin and Egypt’s Anwar Sadat at Camp David in 1978, and mediated a peace
treaty signed in Washington in 1979. Despite the accord, the status of
Palestinians remained unresolved. Carter’s foreign policy morality led to a
controversial agreement to return the Panama Canal to Panamanian control with a
treaty narrowly ratified by the Senate in 1978. In 1979, the U.S. finally granted
diplomatic recognition to Communist China, but Carter angered conservatives by
severing ties with Nationalist Taiwan. Human rights and national interest collided
as Carter continued to support repressive regimes in South Korea, El Salvador,
and the Philippines, and he refused to recognize the leftist Sandinistas in
Nicaragua, despite pleas for humanitarian aid. Détente continued with the signing
of the SALT II treaty in 1979, but a Soviet invasion of Afghanistan the same year
reversed the trend, and Carter sent covert military aid to Afghan fighters while
cutting off grain shipments to Russia and blocking American participation in the
1980 Moscow Olympics.
e. The Iran Hostage Crisis
This event made President Carter’s previous problems seem small by comparison.
U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East had long depended on a friendly
government in Iran. After the CIA helped restore the shah in 1953, millions of
dollars of U.S. military and economic aid had poured in to prop up the shah. In a
state visit, Carter toasted the shah for his “great leadership” and overlooked the
rampant corruption in government and a well-organized opposition. In 1979
Ayatollah Khomeni’s Islamic revolutionaries overthrew the shah. When Carter let
the shah come to the United States for medical treatment, some of Khomeini’s
followers retaliated, storming the U.S. embassy and taking the American staff as
hostages. After more than a year of indecision and as oil prices soared Carter
ordered U.S. military forces to stage a disastrous nighttime helicopter rescue
mission. The political and economic fallout destroyed what was left of Carter’s
credibility as his energy policy and human rights based foreign policy lay in ruins.
III. THE NEW RIGHT
Economic and foreign policy failures mobilized “the politics of resentment.” Many
whites resented higher taxes to fund programs for minorities and the poor while
slowing economic development, and doing nothing for middle class and poor whites.
In 1978, a California “taxpayers’ revolt” led to Proposition 13 that cut property taxes
and government revenues for social programs and education. Old-style conservatives
lined up behind these initiatives, as did the New Right. By far the largest component,
evangelical or “born again” Protestants took shape as a larger and more powerful
political force.
a. Neoconservatism
“Neocons,” many of them former liberal Democrats who had lost faith in the New
Deal and Great Society sought to repeal Johnson’s affirmative action programs
and dismantle the antipoverty programs, believing that equality of opportunity
had been replaced by an unfair quest for equality of outcomes.
The heart of neoconservatism was foreign policy. Angered over failure in
Vietnam, neoconservatives called for a stronger national defense against
communism. They opposed détente and accused Carter of allowing communists
to advance in third world countries and responding to Soviet occupation of
Afghanistan too timidly. Neoconservatives played an important role in building
the institutional foundation for the rightward turn in American politics. Wellfunded think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise
Institute, the Hoover Institution, and the Scaife Foundations offered opportunities
to individuals and institutions agreeable to their views. The surge rightward
gained intellectual respectability from neoconservatives and prepared the way for
broader popular support.
b. The Religious Right
During the 1970s evangelical Protestants, who grew to include more than 50
million Americans, became the backbone of the New Right as fundraisers and
recruiters for conservative PACs and community-based organizations. Members
of the Religious Right generally supported the neoconservatives on foreign and
domestic policy, including a balanced budget amendment and, returning prayer to
the public schools, and Supreme Court reinstatement of the death penalty in
1977. As grassroots activists, they provided the political muscle that carried
Orange County conservatism from the margins to the center of the Republican
Party.
TV ministers such as Pat Robertson, Jimmy Swaggart, and Jim and Tammy Faye
Baker reinforced the message. Jerry Falwell’s Old-Time Gospel Hour was
broadcast over 200 television stations and 300 radio stations each week, and in
1979, Falwell formed the Moral Majority, that quickly claimed a membership of 2
to 3 million, and lobbied for tough laws against homosexuality and pornography,
cuts in welfare spending and increased defense spending. The Moral Majority also
waged well-publicized campaigns against school integration and busing.
MHL video: Evangelical Religion and Politics, Then and Now at
www.myhistorylab.com
c. The Pro-Family Movement
The defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) stood at the top of the New
Right agenda. Nearly all mainstream women’s organizations and both political
parties endorsed the ERA after it was approved by Congress in 1972. In response,
the New Right swung into action. STOP-ERA and the Eagle Forum, both founded
by Phyllis Schlafly, mounted large, expensive campaigns in each swing state and
overwhelmed pro-ERA resources. Although 35 states had ratified the ERA by
1979, the amendment remained three votes short of passage and died in 1982. The
“pro-family” movement also attacked Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court
ruling restricting state bans on abortion on grounds of women’s privacy rights.
Opponents of Roe rallied for a constitutional amendment defining conception as
the beginning of life and arguing that the “rights of the unborn” supersede a
woman’s right to control her own body. By 1980 the National Right to Life
Committee had 11 million members. Groups such as the Orange County Pro-Life
Political Action Committee rallied against sex education programs in public
schools. Activists picketed Planned Parenthood counseling centers, intimidating
potential clients and extremists bombed dozens of abortion clinics.
MHL document: Roe v. Wade (1973) at www.myhistorylab.com
d. The 1980 Election
Carter’s prospects for reelection appeared to rest on the hopes of an improved
economy and resolution of the Iran hostage crisis. Democrats unenthusiastically
endorsed Carter along with his running mate, Walter Mondale.
Former California governor Ronald Reagan had been building his Republican
campaign since his near nomination in 1976. Former CIA director and Texas oil
executive George H. W. Bush, more moderate than Reagan, became the
Republican candidate for vice president.
While Carter implored Americans to tighten their belts, Reagan assured them that
“America’s best days lay ahead” and promised to cut taxes. Reagan’s platform
embraced the conservative agenda calling for less government and a return to
family values. Reagan’s victory marked a resounding defeat of liberalism. Carter
won only 41.2 percent of the popular vote to Reagan’s 50.9 percent, 49 votes in
the electoral college to Reagan’s 489. Orange County gave Reagan a whopping
68 percent of the vote. White working people, the traditional supporters of the
Democratic Party, had defected to the Republicans in large numbers, although
both women and African Americans voted for Reagan in far fewer numbers. And
barely half of the eligible voters had turned out, bringing Reagan into office with
a slim mandate of 25 percent. In a final cruel twist, the Iranians released the
hostages on Inauguration Day, humiliating Carter and boosting Reagan’s
popularity.
MHL document: Ronald Reagan Presidential Campaign Ad: A Bear in the
Woods at www.myhistorylab.com
IV. THE REAGAN REVOLUTION
Reagan would become the most influential president since FDR as he reshaped
politics. Ironically, Reagan had begun as a New Deal Democrat who admired
Roosevelt as an inspirational leader. But by the time he entered the White House in
1981, shortly before his seventieth birthday, Reagan had rejected the activist welfare
state legacy of the New Deal era. “In the present crisis . . . ,” he declared,
“government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.” Reagan
and his allies proceeded to reshape the political and social landscape of the nation
along conservative lines.
a. The Great Communicator
Americans knew Ronald Reagan mainly from his Hollywood movies and
television appearances. Although never a big star, on screen he appeared tall,
handsome, and affable, appealing qualities than continued through his presidency.
As president of the Screen Actors Guild, Reagan had cooperated with
investigations of Hollywood communists. In the 1950s, he hosted General
Electric Theater on TV and shifted toward pro-business conservatism. After he
played a leading role in Republican Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential
campaign, wealthy conservatives convinced Reagan to run for governor of
California. In 1966, he defeated Democratic governor Edmund G. Brown,
winning 72 percent of the vote in Orange County. He won reelection in 1970. As
governor, Reagan cut the state welfare rolls, placed limits on the number of state
employees, and funneled a large share of state tax revenues back to local
governments. He vigorously attacked student protesters and black militants,
tapping into the conservative backlash against 1960s activism. When Reagan
entered the White House in January 1981, his supporters confidently predicted
that the “Reagan Revolution” would usher in a new age in American political
life.
MHL document: Ronald Reagan, First Inaugural Address (1981) at
www.myhistorylab.com
b. Reaganomics
A supply-side economic theory, dubbed “Reaganomics,” dominated the
administration’s planning and helped redirect the American economy. Keynesians
traditionally favored moderate tax cuts and increases in government spending to
stimulate the economy and reduce unemployment during recessions. Supplysiders called for simultaneous tax cuts and reductions in public spending, a plan
they claimed would stimulate consumption and employment through new
investment. To put more disposable income in the pockets of the rich, 1981 tax
reform cut the maximum income tax from 70 percent to 50 percent, lowered the
maximum capital gains tax from 28 percent to 20 percent, and eliminated the
distinction between earned and unearned income, a boon to renters and investors.
A companion Omnibus Reconciliation Act cut spending for more than 200 social
and cultural programs, from housing and food stamps to the arts. At the same
time, Reagan greatly increased the defense budget. Organized labor faced new
hostility. Reagan fired 13,000 air traffic controllers in response to what he
considered an illegal strike. Conservative appointees to the National Labor
Relations Board and the federal courts toughened their antiunion position. In the
quest for deregulation, Reagan appointed conservatives to head the Environmental
Protection Agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the
Consumer Product Safety Commission, who favored business over consumers,
abolishing or weakening hundreds of rules. Wall Street also benefited as the
Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and other agencies
all gave business a freer hand. Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan encouraged these
trends, and a wave of market speculation and a series of financial scandals
ensured.
MHL document: Paul Craig Robert, The Supply-Side Revolution (1984) at
www.myhistorylab.com
c. The Election of 1984
Hoping to win back disgruntled voters, Democrats chose Carter’s liberal vice
president, Walter Mondale, as their nominee. Mondale named Representative
Geraldine Ferraro of New York as his running mate, a first for women in
American politics. Initially Mondale ran even with Reagan, but the president’s
enormous personal popularity and the booming economy, overwhelmed the
Democratic ticket. While Mondale emphasized the growing deficit, called
attention to Americans who were left out of prosperity, and promised to raise
taxes, Reagan cruised above it all. It was “morning again in America,” his
campaign ads claimed. In one of the biggest landslides in American history,
Reagan won 59 percent of the popular vote—nearly 75 percent in Orange
County—and carried every state but Minnesota and the District of Columbia. A
majority of blue-collar voters cast their ballots for the president, as did 54 percent
of women, despite Ferraro’s presence on the Democratic ticket.
d. Recession, Recovery, and Fiscal Crisis
Supply-side economics benefited the rich, but when a severe recession hit in
1982, the unemployment rate reached nearly 11 percent, or more than 11.5
million people, with another 3 million simply not looking for work. By 1983,
unemployment dropped to about 8 percent while inflation fell below 5 percent.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose from 776 in August 1982 to an all-time
high of 2,722 in August 1987. The administration took credit for the turnaround,
hailing the supply-side fiscal policies that had drastically cut taxes and domestic
spending, ignoring the Fed’s tight money policy, lower energy prices and huge
defense spending, while critics pointed to growing fiscal problems. Reagan had
promised to balance the federal budget, but his policies had the opposite effect as
the national debt tripled and debt service costs soared, creating structural
problems with profound and long-lasting implications for the American economy.
Foreign investors, attracted by high interest rates on government securities,
pushed up the value of the dollar in relation to foreign currencies, making it
difficult for foreigners to buy American products, while making overseas goods
cheaper to American consumers, sparking a persistent trade deficit. The bull
market collapsed in October 1987 with a stock market crash, perhaps a response
to the raging deficit.
V. BEST OF TIMES, WORST OF TIMES
Reagan set the tone for the era when he responded to a reporter’s question asking him
what was best about America by saying “someone can always get rich.” Ivan Boesky,
later indicted for criminal trading, echoed Reagan, saying “greed is healthy.”
Grimmer realities lay under the surface as the nation moved toward greater
inequality, with the middle class shrinking, and poverty on the rise. After eight years
of tax cuts, defense buildup, growing budget deficits, and record trade imbalances, the
economic future looked uncertain at best, especially for the middle class.
a. A Two-Tiered Society
The Reagan Revolution benefited the very rich and hurt almost everyone else.
While the top 1 percent’s share of income and wealth soared, real wages fell and
poverty rates climbed. Job creation was mostly concentrated in low wage jobs.
The effects were worse for minorities. By 1992, 33 percent of all African
Americans lived in poverty, as did 29 percent of Hispanics (the rate was
especially high among Puerto Ricans, yet low among Cuban Americans). In
1954, the year of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, black families
earned about 53 percent of the income of white families. This figure rose to 60
percent in 1969 and peaked at 62 percent in 1975. Meanwhile, affirmative action
was weakened by the 1978 Bakke case and the courts backed away from busing
to achieve racial balance in schools, allowing white flight to the suburbs as the
poor and minorities stayed behind in decaying inner cities.
b. The Feminization of Poverty
An increasingly imbalanced economy also hit working women who faced
shrinking job opportunities and stagnant pay. To stay above the poverty level, a
woman depended on the financial support of an adult male breadwinner. Yet
divorce rates left more women and their children in poverty.
New no-fault
divorce laws lowered or eradicated alimony, pushing even many middle-class
women into poverty. Moreover, the majority of men defaulted on child-support
payments within one year after separation. Whereas divorced men enjoyed a
sizable increase in their standard of living, divorced women suffered a formidable
decline. A sharp rise in teenage pregnancy reinforced this trend. Even with Aid to
Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) payments and food stamps, it was
impossible for unemployed single mothers to keep their families above the
poverty line.
Among black women, the number of female-headed families increased in just one
decade from 30 percent in 1970 to 47 percent in 1980. More than half of all black
babies were now born to unmarried mothers.
c. Sunbelt/Rustbelt Communities
Population shifts mirrored other trends in the Reagan era. As the Sunbelt (from
Florida to California) benefited from federal defense spending and retirees’ Social
Security checks, cities like Phoenix, Houston, and Las Vegas, as well as most in
California, boomed. Even so, income in the new urban areas followed national
patterns, with Hispanics in the Southwest especially falling behind. Sunbelt states
spent state and federal funds on police, roads, and services to new suburbs.
Meanwhile Rustbelt states suffered sharp declines in heavy manufacturing like
cars and steel, shedding jobs and population. As farm income fell, family farms
in the Midwest disappeared as well. By 1984 rural poverty rates were twice that
of urban areas.
d
Epidemics: Drugs, AIDS, Homelessness
Drug addiction and drug trafficking took on frightening new dimensions in the
early 1980s. As crack addiction spread, the drug trade assumed alarming new
proportions both domestically and internationally. While the Reagan
administration launched a highly publicized “war on drugs” and Nancy Reagan
advised “Just Say No,” critics charged that drug addiction was primarily a health
problem, not a law enforcement issue, and certainly not a threat to national
security.
In the early 1980s, doctors began encountering a puzzling syndrome of unusual
infections and pneumonia in young gay men. After researchers at the Centers for
Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta identified a virus as the cause, they called the
new disease Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Many Americans
perceived AIDS as a disease of homosexuals. But other victims became infected
through intravenous drug use, blood transfusions, heterosexual transmission, or
birth to AIDS-carrying mothers.
AIDS provoked fear, anguish, and anger. In city after city, the gay community
responded to the AIDS crisis with energy and determination. Reagan, playing to
conservative antigay prejudices, ignored the epidemic, which had affected
thousands and killed half of those infected. Reagan also refused to respond to a
growing problem of homelessness among the urban poor, Homeless people
wandered city sidewalks panhandling and struggling to find scraps of food, with
Vietnam vets, addicts, the mentally ill, and the simply poor and unfortunate
among the estimated 3 million on the streets by the early 1980s, all victims of
declines in public funding for drug and mental health treatment programs and
affordable housing, or so critics charged
VI. TOWARD A NEW WORLD ORDER
Reagan campaigned to restore America’s world leadership, reviving Cold War
patriotism and championing American interventionism in the Third World, especially
in the Caribbean and Central America. His infusion of funds into national security
programs would have enormous consequences for the domestic economy as well as
for America’s position as a global power, even while internal changes within the
Soviet Union made the entire Cold War framework of U.S. foreign policy largely
irrelevant by the late 1980s.
a. The Evil Empire
In a sharp turn from President Nixon’s pursuit of détente and President Carter’s
focus on human rights, Reagan made anticommunism central to foreign policy. In
1983 he described the Soviet Union as “an evil empire . . . the focus of evil in the
modern world.”
Administration officials argued that during the 1970s the nation’s military
strength had fallen dangerously behind that of the Soviet Union. Critics pointed
out that the Soviet advantage in ICBMs was offset by U.S. superiority in
submarine-based forces and strategic aircraft. Polls showed 70 percent of
Americans wanted détente, not an arms race, and in June 1982, three-quarters of a
million people—the largest political rally in American history—demonstrated in
New York City for a halt to spending on and deployment of nuclear weapons.
Far from being swayed, Reagan continued to increase military spending. In 1983,
he further unsettled superpower relations with a five year, $26 billion Strategic
Defense Initiative (SDI) plan for a space-based ballistic-missile defense system,
dubbed “Star Wars,” after the popular films. Despite criticism that plan was
unworkable, expensive, and destabilizing Reagan pressed ahead, spending $17
billion in research before he left office—without achieving any convincing
results. The prospect of meaningful arms control dimmed in this atmosphere, and
U.S.-Soviet relations deteriorated.
MHL document: Ronald Reagan, Address to the National Association of
Evangelicals (1983) at www.myhistorylab.com
b. The Reagan Doctrine
Declaring the “Vietnam syndrome” over, Reagan reasserted America’s right to
intervene anywhere in the world to “roll back” communism by overt and covert
aid to anti-communist resistant movements, what became known as the “Reagan
Doctrine.” Increased U.S. aid helped armed mujahedeen (many of whom later
supported the Taliban and Al Qaeda) who drove the Soviets out of Afghanistan in
the doctrine’s greatest success. Blaming Castro for all problems throughout
Central America, from 1980 and 1983 the United States poured more military aid
into Central America than it had during the previous 30 years. A 1983 operation
to save the tiny island of Grenada from Marxist threats was condemned by the
U.N., but Reagan claimed “we got there just in time.” In El Salvador, the
Administration continued to support the pro-American but repressive regime with
$5 billion in aid, funding right-wing death squads and failing to stop a bloody
civil war. In Nicaragua, Reagan claimed the Sandinista government posed “an
unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security” and approved a CIA
plan to arm and organize Nicaraguan exiles, known as Contras, to fight the
Sandinistas, who, predictably were only driven closer to Cuba and the Soviets.
Scores of U.S. churches offered sanctuary to political refugees from Central
America in protest, and in 1984 Congress passed the Boland Amendment,
forbidding support to the Contra. Reagan turned to the National Security Council
to find a way to keep the Contra war going, setting the stage for the enormously
damaging Iran-Contra affair.
c. The Middle East and the Iran-Contra Scandal
The Iran Contra scandal was a direct result of the contradictions of Reagan’s
policies and revealed a dangerous disdain for the rule of law in his
administration. The threat of terrorism in the Middle East, Reagan insisted,
loomed as one of the most serious threats to U.S. national security. Refusing to
admit that pro-Israel American policy had alienated many in the Middle East,
Reagan insisted that terrorism was funded by the Soviets. In 1986, Reagan
launched bombing raids against Libya to show his antiterrorist resolve. As a
fierce war between Iran and Iraq escalated, the administration tilted publicly
toward Iraq and its unsavory dictator, Saddam Hussein, to please the Arab states
around the Persian Gulf. Reagan then secretly changed course and offered to
supply Iran with weapons in exchange for help in freeing hostages held by
Islamic radicals in Lebanon.
Subsequent disclosures elevated the arms-for-hostages deal into a major scandal.
To escape congressional oversight, Reagan and CIA director William Casey
turned the National Security Council into a covert agency, using profits from arms
sales to Iran to fund the Contras. In televised hearings, NSC staffer Oliver North
defiantly defended his actions in the name of patriotism. Ultimately, the IranContra investigation raised more questions than it answered. The full role of CIA
director Casey, who died in 1987, particularly his relationships with Oliver North
and the president, remained murky. But by shredding documents and lying to
Congress, North and NSC director John Poindexter kept the scandal from
reaching Reagan, who was able to maintain “plausible deniability.” In December
1992, following his reelection defeat and six years after the scandal broke,
President George H. W. Bush granted pardons to six key players in the IranContra affair.
d. The Collapse of Communism
Meanwhile the Soviet Union moved toward collapse. In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev
became the new Soviet leader. Although a lifelong Communist, Gorbachev
represented a new generation of disenchanted party members who wanted to end
the Cold War and promote economic and political reform at home.
In Gorbachev’s view, revival of the Soviet economy depended on halting the arms
race. In four summit meetings with Reagan, Gorbachev moved haltingly toward
disarmament. But political and economic reforms in the Soviet Union proved
disruptive, with drastically reduced living standards and political uncertainty. In
March 1989, the Soviet Union held its first open elections since 1917, and a new
Congress of People’s Deputies replaced the old Communist Party-dominated
Supreme Soviet. After Gorbachev announced that satellite nations would no
longer be kept in line by force, prodemocracy movements broke out from Poland
to Bulgaria. After dissidents tore down the Berlin Wall in November 1989,
unimpeded by East German security police, the DDR collapsed and Germany
moved quickly to reunification One by one socialist regimes collapsed across
Eastern Europe. By Christmas Day, 1991, the Soviet Union itself was dissolved,
ending 50 years of Cold War superpower rivalry in what George H. W. Bush later
called an event of “biblical proportions.”
VII.
“A KINDER, GENTLER NATION”
In 1988, Republican candidate George Herbert Walker Bush hoped to ride on
Reagan’s coattails and also made strong pledge to voters: “Read my lips: no new
taxes.” Winning the general election handily over Massachusetts governor Michael
Dukakis with 40 out of 50 states and 56 percent of the popular vote, he began to move
away from Reagan. In his inaugural address, Bush, promising a “kinder, gentler
nation.” In international affairs, Bush had prepared well to provide leadership in a
dramatically changing world, having served as vice president, UN ambassador, envoy
to China, and CIA director. However, he soon found himself facing a host of
problems complicated, rather than resolved, by the end of the Cold War as well as a
Democratic Congress.
a. Reagan’s Successor: George H. W. Bush
Bush carried over several Reagan policies, such as the war on illegal drugs. With
William Bennett as the new “drug czar” Bush planned increased funding for more
police and construction of more prisons. He also fortified the border patrols in an
attempt to stem the flow of drugs from Latin America. In December 1989, Bush
sent U.S. troops to Panama to capture General Manuel Noriega, an international
drug-dealer formerly on the CIA payroll. Thousands of Panamanians died but
Noriega was brought to the United States and tried on drug-trafficking and
racketeering charges. During the Bush presidency, the federal budget for drugcontrol tripled.
As a “compassionate” conservative, and despite business opposition, Bush signed
the Americans with Disabilities Act penalizing workplace discrimination against
the disabled and requiring businesses and local governments to provide access to
their facilities. Yet he vetoed a bill that would have provided six months of unpaid
family leave for workers with new children or family emergencies. Strengthened
environmental laws pleased some, as did federal support for higher educational
standards, but Bush angered conservatives when he broke his tax pledge and
signed an increase on the wealthy.
b. The Persian Gulf War
As the Cold War ended, Bush faced new challenges in the Middle East. On
August 2, 1990, Iraqi troops swept into neighboring Kuwait to seize control of its
rich oil fields. Saddam Hussein, Iraq’s military dictator, claimed Kuwait was a
ancient province of Iraq, but he also coveted Kuwait’s Persian Gulf ports and
sought to punish Kuwait for exceeding OPEC quotas, driving down oil prices.
The United States responded swiftly. On August 15, President Bush launched
Operation Desert Shield and ordered U.S. forces to Saudi Arabia and the Persian
Gulf. After Hussein ignored UN sanctions and demands that he withdraw from
Kuwait, Bush denounced him as another Hitler, and, with Congressional support,
launched Operation Desert Storm on February 24. It took only 100 hours to force
Saddam Hussein’s troops out of Kuwait, but the war failed to dislodge Saddam
Hussein, who remained in power despite CIA attempts to overthrow him and
repeated bombings of Iraqi military positions. The repercussions of the Gulf War
were long-lasting. American soldiers in Saudi Arabia enraged Islamic militants
who swore revenge, among them Saudi millionaire Osama bin Laden, a veteran of
the Afghan war. Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda organization began planning terror
operations against Western interests in the Middle East, a harbinger of more
terrible events to come.
MHL document: George H. W. Bush, Gulf War Address (1990) at
www.myhistorylab.com
MHL map: The Middle East in the 1980s and 1990s at www.myhistorylab.com
c. The Economy and the Election of 1992
The Gulf War marked the high point of Bush’s popularity, with his approval
rating nearing 90 percent, higher than FDR’s during World War II. Faced with a
costly savings and loan crisis and a stagnant economy, Bush reneged on his
campaign promise and worked with Democrats in Congress to raise taxes. In the
1992 campaign, Bush faced a formidable opponent, William Jefferson Clinton, a
young articulate and intelligent New Democrat who made “It’s the economy,
stupid,” the centerpiece of his campaign. Clinton promised deficit reduction and a
tax cut for the middle class, taking advantage of Bush’s betrayal of his own
campaign promise not to raise taxes. Clinton also struck a conservative note by
calling for “responsibility” by welfare recipients and pledging support for
families, while also promising a business-friendly administration to promote job
growth.
Economic issues also fueled the independent campaign of Texas billionaire H. Ross
Perot, who, with his folksy East Texas twang, argued that a successful businessman
such as himself was better qualified to solve the nation’s economic woes than
Washington insiders. Although failing to carry a single state, Perot scored 19
percent of the popular vote. Clinton, with only 43 percent, carried 32 states to win
the presidency.
VIII. CONCLUSION
Building on the trauma of Vietnam and deepening anxiety over social and cultural
change, Ronald Reagan led an ideologically-charged conservative resurgence that
rejected much of the legacy of the 1960s and turned to Christian fundamentalism,
family values, and economic individualism. Despite pledges to shrink government,
Reagan’s military expenditures had the opposite effect. While conservatives
celebrated Reagan as a return to what was best in America, economically and
culturally, the breakdown of the safety net left many less secure.