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UNIT 10: MODERN AMERICA
Chapter 30 – Searching for Order
Section 1 – Nixon’s Presidency and Watergate
Main Ideas:
1. Americans faced domestic challenges, including an energy and economic crisis.
2. Nixon’s foreign policy led to improved relations with Communist powers.
3. The Watergate scandal forced Nixon to resign.
4. Gerald Ford became president upon Nixon’s resignation and faced many challenges.
Vocabulary:
-stagflation
-Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
-realpolitik
-Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
-détente
-Watergate
-Gerald Ford
-pardon
The Big Idea: Richard Nixon’s policies helped ease Cold War tensions before the Watergate scandal brought down
his presidency.
Main Ideas:
1. Americans faced domestic challenges, including an energy and economic crisis.
-President Nixon promised to work on behalf of Americans who supported the war.
-Called them the “Silent Majority”.
-Criticized student protestors.
-Did not believe American should leave Vietnam quickly.
-New Federalism was Nixon’s new plan for government.
-Limit power of federal government.
-Reflected Nixon’s conservatism, or a desire to limit the involvement of government in citizens’ lives.
-Promised to reduce welfare spending and restore law and order.
-Opposed new civil rights legislation.
-Economic Troubles
-America was experiencing stagflation – the economic condition of combined stagnant growth and high
inflation.
-Rising prices reduced purchasing power of the U.S. dollar by more than 30 percent.
-Rising oil costs contributed to inflation.
-United States imported almost one-third of its oil from Middle Eastern countries that belonged to
the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC.
-OPEC worked to control production and keep oil prices high.
-When the United States helped Israel in the Yom Kipper War, OPEC declared an embargo, or ban, on
oil sales to the United States.
-Oil and gas prices soared.
-Energy crises worsened an already weak economy.
2. Nixon’s foreign policy led to improved relations with Communist powers.
-Nixon took a realpolitik approach to foreign policy.
-Foreign policy decisions would be based on practical American interests, not on moral or political ideals.
-Helped bring an end to Vietnam War.
-Approach was controversial.
-The United States backed harsh military governments in Latin America because they were friendly to
the United States.
-Nixon worked to widen the split between Soviet Union and China and also improve U.S. relations with both
Communist powers.
-China
-In 1972 Nixon visited China.
-Met Chinese leader Mao Zedong.
-Improved U.S.-China relations.
-Soviet Union
-In May 1972 Nixon flew to Moscow and participated in the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT)
with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.
-Talks led to a treaty limiting each country’s nuclear weapons.
-Opened a period of détente, or less hostile relations, between the United States and the
Soviet Union.
-Soviets began buying grain from American farmers.
3. The Watergate scandal forced Nixon to resign.
-On June 17, 1972, five men were arrested while breaking into the Democratic National Committee’s
offices at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C.
-Burglars carried camera and recording equipment.
-Police discovered link between burglars and Nixon administration.
-Nixon denied involvement in the break-in.
-Went on to landslide victory in the 1972 election.
-The break-in then exploded into a massive political scandal that became known as Watergate.
-Investigation
-Reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein investigated, found a secret contact, and learned of
illegal activities by Nixon administration officials.
-Senate committee also investigated and learned that Nixon made recording of Oval Office
conversations.
-Nixon was compelled to turn over the tapes after a ruling by the Supreme Court.
-Recordings proved Nixon had directed the Watergate cover-up and lied about it.
-Nixon’s Resignation
-House Judiciary Committee recommended impeachment and began the process on July 27, 1974.
-On August 8, 1974, Nixon appeared on national television and announced resignation.
-Gerald Ford was sworn in as president on August 9, 1974.
-Many Americans lost faith in government officials.
4. Gerald Ford became president upon Nixon’s resignation and faced many challenges.
-Vice President Gerald Ford became president when Nixon resigned.
-First modern president to hold the office without being elected to it.
-Lost some public support when he granted Nixon a pardon, or freedom from punishment.
-Ford began a campaign called Whip Inflation Now (WIN).
-Encouraged people to save money and businesses to hold down wages and prices.
-Met with resistance in Congress.
-In 1975, Ford and Congress began to compromise on WIN, but inflation and unemployment remained high.
Section 2 – America in the 1970s
Main Ideas:
1. American society debated key social issues during the 1970s.
2. Jimmy Carter was elected president in 1976.
3. Carter had successes as well as failures in foreign policy during his administration.
Vocabulary:
-affirmative action
-Rachel Carlson
-Jimmy Carter
-human rights
-apartheid
-sanctions
-Camp David Accords
-Iran hostage crisis
The Big Idea: Americans faced major challenges both at home and around the world in the 1970s.
Main Ideas:
1. American society debated key social issues during the 1970s.
-The American population was changing in the 1970s.
-Most immigrants came from Latin America and Asia.
-Birth rate declined.
-By 1970, Americans 65 and older became one of the fastest growing population groups.
-America faced new challenges in finding ways to balance the views of all Americans.
-The Equal Rights Amendment caused national debate, but failed.
-1972 law known as Title IX banned discrimination on basis of sex in federally funded educational
programs.
-In 1973 the Supreme Court legalized abortion in Roe v. Wade.
-Affirmative Action
-Americans debated affirmative action, the practice of giving special consideration to nonwhites or
women to make up for past discrimination.
-Supporters argued it was needed to improve educational and job opportunities for minorities and
women.
-Opponents insisted that any race-or-gender-based preferences were unfair.
-Environment
-Biologist Rachel Carson brought attention to environmental issues such as pollution in the 1970s.
-April 22, 1970, was the first celebration of Earth Day.
-Congress passed new laws to limit the release of pollutants.
-The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established in 1970 to enforce environmental
legislation.
-Debates on balancing business and environmental concerns.
2. Jimmy Carter was elected president in 1976.
-Democratic nominee Jimmy Carter defeated Republican nominee Gerald Ford in a close 1976 election.
-Carter faced many challenges.
-Economy sluggish, high unemployment and inflation, and high oil prices.
-Had a difficult time convincing Congress to support his proposals.
-Carter hoped to use nuclear energy to help solve energy crisis.
-Accident at Three Mile Island nuclear power plant caused new worries about safety of nuclear energy.
-No new reactors would be built until the mid-1980s.
3. Carter had successes as well as failures in foreign policy during his administration.
-Carter favored policies that promoted human rights – the basic rights and freedoms of all people.
-Reduced U.S. aid to former allies that committed human rights violations.
-Worked to pressure South African government into ending apartheid, a system of laws requiring racial
segregation.
-Called for sanctions, or economic penalties, to encourage reform.
-Policy in Latin America
-In 1977 Carter signed treaties that would transfer control of Panama Canal to Panama by the year
2000.
-Relations with the Soviet Union
-Détente broke down when Carter criticized the Soviet Union for committing human rights abuses.
-When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, Carter broke off arms talks and refused to allow
athletes to participate in 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.
-The Middle East
-Carter worked to ease tensions in the Middle East.
-In 1978, he helped Egypt and Israel reach a peace agreement in the Camp David Accords.
-In 1979, rebels overthrew the shah, or king, or Iran and established an Islamic fundamentalist
dictatorship.
-On November 4, 1979, a group of Iranian students attacked the U.S. embassy in Tehran, the capital of
Iran, and seized about 90 hostages.
-The Iran hostage crisis lasted for more than a year.
-After failed rescue attempt in 1980, many Americans lost confidence in Carter’s leadership.
Section 3 – The Reagan Presidency
Main Ideas:
1. President Reagan based his policies on conservative ideas.
2. Reagan took a hard stand against communism in his foreign policy.
Vocabulary:
-Ronald Reagan
-supply-side economics
-deficit
-Iran-Contra affair
-Mikhail Gorbachev
The Big Idea: President Reagan enacted conservative policies at home and took a strong anti-Communist stance in
the Cold War.
Main Ideas:
1. President Reagan based his policies on conservative ideas.
-Republican candidate Ronald Reagan won an easy victory over President Carter in the 1980 election.
-Asked voters, “Are you better off than when you were four years ago?”
-On the day of his inauguration, January 20, 1981, Iran finally released the American hostages after
444 days of captivity.
-Reagan’s approach to government based on conservative ideas.
-Wanted to cut taxes.
-Promised to scale back the size of government.
-Encouraged expansion in key industries by reducing government regulations.
-Appointed conservative justices to the Supreme Court, including Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman
to serve as a Supreme Court justice.
-“Reaganomics”
-Reagan’s economic policies were based on a theory called supply-side economics.
-Called for sharp tax cuts, with goal of increasing amount of money people and businesses have to
invest.
-Investment would lead to economic growth and creation of new jobs.
-Over time, increased economic activity would produce increased tax revenues for government,
became known as “Reaganomics”.
-Spending on defense increased.
-New spending outpaced the new tax revenues.
-Resulted in a deficit – the amount by which a government’s spending exceeds its revenues.
-Election of 1984
-President Reagan ran for reelection in 1984 against Democratic candidate Walter Mondale.
-Mondale chose Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate, the first woman to run for vice president on
a major ticket.
-Reagan won a landslide victory with 59 percent of the popular vote.
-economy was booming.
2. Reagan took a hard stand against communism in his foreign policy.
-Central America
-Reagan supported anti-Communist governments in Central America and sent aid to them as they fought
civil wars.
-Congress passed Boland Amendment in 1984, banning U.S. aid to Contras, rebels in Nicaragua.
-Iran-Contra affair broke when it was exposed that some U.S. officials had continued to send aid to
the Contras via illegal sale of arms to Iran.
-The Soviet Union
-Reagan took a tough stand against the Soviet Union by halting arms negotiations and expanding U.S.
military.
-When Mikhail Gorbachev became the new Soviet leader, he began a process of economic and political
reforms called perestroika.
-Reagan saw Gorbachev’s desire for change and signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty,
eliminating all medium-range weapons in Europe.