Ch 26 Chapter Study Outline
Chapter 26 Study Outline
- President Nixon
- Sporadic conservatism of President Richard Nixon
- Nixon's domestic policy
- Liberal side
- New regulatory agencies
- Environmental Protection Agency
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration
- National Transportation Safety Board
- Lavish spending on social services
- Environmental protection legislation
- Endangered Species Act
- Clean Air Act
- Family Assistance Plan
- Promotion of affirmative action: Philadelphia Plan
- Conservative side
- New Federalism: "block grants" to states
- Nomination of jurists with segregationist pasts to Supreme Court
- Abandonment of Philadelphia Plan; courting of working-class whites
- Racial policy and the Burger Court
- The Burger Court
- Appointment of Chief Justice Warren Burger by Nixon
- Burger's surprisingly moderate tenure
- Rulings on school desegregation measures
- Approval
- Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education
- Subsequent spread of court-ordered busing plans
- Local controversies; Boston crisis
- Limits on extent: Milliken v. Bradley
- Rulings on affirmative action
- The court and affirmative action
- Approval
- Griggs v. Duke Power Company
- United Steelworkers of America v. Weber
- Mixed: Bakke v. University of California
- Rejection of racial quotas, approval of consideration of race
- Ambiguous legacy
- The continuing sexual revolution
- Premarital sex
- Rising divorce rate
- Declining birth rate
- Expanding opportunities for women
- Title IX
- Equal Credit Opportunity Act
- Influx of women into workforce
- Professional
- Pink collar
- Strides of gay and lesbian movement
- Growing political presence
- Gay rights measures
- Coming out
- The Seventies as "me decade"
- Nixon and détente—Foreign policy
- Hard-line side
- Support for pro-U.S. dictatorships
- Chilean coup
- U.S. role
- Brutal outcome
- "Realist" side
- New approach to communist powers
- Break from monolithic conception
- Pursuit of "peaceful coexistence"; "détente"
- China initiative
- Nixon visit
- Broadening of diplomatic and trade relations
- Soviet Union initiative
- Nixon visit
- Trade agreements
- Arms control treaties: SALT, Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty
- Vietnam and Watergate
- Nixon and Vietnam
- "Secret plan"
- "Vietnamization"
- Invasion of Cambodia
- Swelling of antiwar sentiment
- Indications
- Magnitude of campus protest
- Social breadth of protest
- Spread of alienation among troops
- War Powers Act
- Contributing factors
- Killings at Kent State, Jackson State
- Revelations of My Lai massacre
- Publication of Pentagon Papers
- The end of the Vietnam War
- Paris peace agreement
- Provisions
- Unresolved issues
- Collapse of South Vietnam
- Nixon's landslide reelection over George McGovern
- Watergate
- Background: Nixon's obsession with secrecy, thwarting opposition
- "Enemies list"
- Pattern of illegal actions
- Wiretapping, break-ins, political sabotage
- "Plumbers": Ellsberg break-in
- Watergate break-in
- White House cover-up
- Unraveling of cover-up
- Trial of burglars
- Investigative journalism
- Congressional hearings
- Special prosecutor
- Revelations of White House tapes
- Supreme Court ruling on tapes
- House Judiciary Committee call for impeachment
- Nixon's fall—And resignation
- Significance and aftermath
- Convictions, imprisonment of top administration figures
- Measures to address government abuse of power
- Church Committee hearings
- Congressional restrictions on FBI, CIA
- Freedom of Information Act
- Corrosion of public faith in government, liberal outlook
- End of Golden Age
- Economic slowdown
- Indications
- Decline of manufacturing
- Slow growth rate
- Inflation
- Trade deficit
- Federal deficit
- Unemployment
- Interest rates
- "Stagflation"; "misery index"
- Causes
- Competition from foreign manufacture
- Cost of Vietnam War
- Surge in oil prices
- 1973 Middle East war
- Oil embargo
- "Oil shocks" in America
- Growth of western energy production
- Nixon economic responses
- United States off gold standard
- Wage and price controls
- The beleaguered social compact
- New hardships
- Accelerated decline of manufacturing jobs; shift to lower-paying service jobs
- Decline of public services
- Rise in poverty rate
- Weakening and shrinking of labor movement
- New opportunities
- Growth of Sunbelt
- Remaking of city centers
- Ford as president
- Gerald Ford's ascension to presidency
- Domestic record
- Nixon pardon
- Anti-inflation campaign
- Economic recession; rise in unemployment
- Foreign policy record: Helsinki Accord
- The Carter administration
- Jimmy Carter
- Background
- Reputation for honesty, piety; "outsider" status
- Political orientation
- Shades of old "Progressive" approach
- Embrace of black aspirations
- Electoral victory over Ford
- Domestic record
- Carter and the economic crisis
- Elements: spending cuts, deregulation, higher interest rates
- Conflict with Congress over
- Persistence of inflation
- Call for expanded use of nuclear energy
- Argument for
- Impact of Three Mile Island
- "Crisis of confidence" speech
- Foreign policy record
- Humanitarian philosophy
- De-emphasis of Cold War thinking
- Emphasis on Third World poverty
- Countering nuclear proliferation
- Emergence of human rights politics
- Manifestations of humanitarian philosophy
- Camp David accord
- Panama Canal treaty
- Limits on support for Central American dictators (Nicaragua, El Salvador)
- SALT II agreement
- Limits of humanitarian philosophy
- Continuation of international arms sales
- Continued support for repressive allies
- Iran crisis
- Background
- Iran's strategic importance to United States
- American support for repressive Shah
- Iranian revolution
- Islamic fundamentalism; Ayatollah Khomeini
- Anti-American spirit
- Seizing of American hostages
- Plunging popularity of Carter
- Afghanistan crisis
- Soviet invasion
- Carter response
- Announcement of Carter Doctrine
- Grain embargo
- Olympic boycott
- Withdrawal of SALT II treaty
- Boost in military spending
- Aid to Afghan resistance
- Carter's conservative legacy
- Domestic policy
- Foreign policy
- The Rising tide of conservatism
- Context
- Economic problems
- International crises
- Civil rights and sexual revolutions
- Rising crime rates
- Currents
- "Neo-conservatives"
- Aims
- Curtailment of domestic programs
- Renewal of Cold War foreign policy
- Think tanks
- The Religious Right
- Popular base
- Aims
- Promotion of "Christian values"
- Opposition to "sexual revolution"
- Mobilization
- Modern means of spreading message
- Jerry Falwell, Moral Majority
- Conservative backlash
- Against gay rights
- Anita Bryant
- Save Our Children
- Against Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
- Origins of ERA
- Approval by Congress
- Ratification battles
- Themes of opposition
- Phyllis Schlafly
- Outcome: Final defeat of ERA
- Against abortion rights
- Targeting of Roe v. Wade
- "Right to life" vs. "right to choose"
- Points of conflict
- Roe v. Wade
- Judicial nominations
- Public funding of abortions
- Demonstrations, violence against abortion providers
- Outcomes
- Continuing legality of abortion
- Impact of intimidation
- Against taxes
- Background: Mounting resentment of government intervention, tax burden
- Proposition 13 (California)
- Passage
- Material effects in California
- Political repercussions around nation
- Against federal regulation of western lands; Sagebrush Rebellion
- Election of 1980
- Backdrop: conservative tide across Western world
- Campaign of Ronald Reagan
- Breadth of conservative themes
- Ability to galvanize and broaden conservative base
- Reagan landslide victory
- Carter's historical reputation
- As president
- As former president
- The Reagan revolution
- Background on Reagan
- Political evolution
- Political skills
- Reagan and American freedom—Impact on national agenda
- "Reaganomics"—Economic program
- Philosophy
- Theory of "supply side" ("trickle-down") economics
- Retreat from principle of progressive taxation
- Hostility to government regulation, union power
- Key initiatives
- Drastic reductions in federal taxes and top tax rates
- Dismantling of regulation
- Cutbacks on regulatory agencies
- Appointment of pro-business regulators
- Dismissal of striking air traffic controllers (PATCO)
- Economic trends under Reagan
- Harsh recession, then prolonged expansion
- Strengths
- Robust stock market
- Low inflation
- High profits
- Technological advances
- Down sides
- Weakening of labor movement
- Ongoing decline in manufacturing
- "Downsizing"
- Rising economic inequality
- Middle-class stagnation, hardships for working-class minorities and poor
- Emphasis on corporate deal making over production
- Reckless financial speculation; savings and loan scandal
- Ballooning of budget deficits, national debt
- The second "Gilded Age" and inequality
- Affirmation of "greed"
- "Yuppies"
- Reagan reelection victory over Walter Mondale
- Conservatives' and Reagan
- Areas of approval
- Cuts in federal antipoverty efforts
- Curtailment of civil rights enforcement, affirmative action
- Verbal support for conservative social agenda
- Curtailment of abortion, gender equality
- Prayer in schools
- War on drugs
- Areas of disappointment
- Unwillingness to undo core elements of welfare state
- Limited inclination or ability to advance conservative social agenda
- Reagan and the Cold War
- Philosophy
- "Free World" vs. "evil empire"
- Commitment to military strength
- Impatience with "Vietnam syndrome"
- Distinction between "totalitarian" and "authoritarian" regimes
- Key initiatives
- Arms build-up
- Strategic Defense Initiative
- Nuclear deployment in Europe
- Interventions abroad
- Grenada
- Libya
- Lebanon
- Military aid
- To pro-U.S. dictators
- To pro-U.S. insurgencies
- The Iran-Contra affair
- Features of scandal
- Secret sale of arms to Iran
- Illegal diversion of proceeds to Nicaraguan Contras
- Unraveling of scandal
- Press leaks
- Congressional hearings
- Political fallout
- Reagan and Gorbachev—Easing the Cold War
- Mikhail Gorbachev
- Emergence as Soviet leader
- Glasnost, perestroika
- United States-Soviet negotiations
- Arms control talks, agreements
- Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan
- Reagan's legacy
- Rhetoric of conservative values
- Undermining of conservative values
- Triumph of conservative assumptions; discrediting of liberalism
- The Election of 1988
- Mudslinging
- George H. W. Bush victory over Michael Dukakis
Last modified: Tuesday, March 1, 2011, 8:11 AM