A Changing Society - saralandboe.org

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New Yorkers celebrate themillennium, January 1, 2000

A ChangingSociety

A reassessment of postwar developmentsmarked the last three decades of the twentieth

century. The Cold War ended and politicalboundaries were redrawn. The United States

remained a global force, but the role of thefederal government was diminished in the

wake of scandal and a renewed conservatism.As the United States entered a new century,

the nation continued to redefine itself. Thecountry’s social diversity posed new challenges

and provided new strength to the nation.Understanding the shifts of this period will help

prepare you for your future. The followingresources offer more information about this

time in American history.

Primary Sources LibrarySee pages 1056–1057 for primary source

readings to accompany Unit 10.

Use the American History PrimarySource Document Library CD-ROM to

find additional primary sources about thechanges in recent years of American history.

Why It Matters

1968–Present

Handheld computer and stylus

“I was not elected toserve one party, but to

serve one nation.”

—George W. Bush, 2001

950

Politics andEconomics 1971–1980

1972• Nixon visits China and

the Soviet Union

• Watergate burglars arrestedat Democratic NationalCommittee headquarters

1973• Britain, Ireland, and Denmark

join Common Market

1974• India becomes world’s

sixth nuclear power

Why It MattersThe protests of the 1960s were passionate and sometimes violent. The nation elected President

Nixon on a promise to uphold the values of what Nixon called “Middle America.” In foreignpolicy, Nixon charted a new path with a historic visit to China. At home he introduced “New

Federalism.” In 1974 the Watergate scandal forced Nixon to resign. Presidents Ford and Carterfaced an economic downturn and a major energy crisis.

The Impact TodayExperiences of the 1970s have had an impact today.

• The Watergate scandal has left many Americans less confident in political leaders.• The Department of Energy, created by President Carter, still exists as a cabinet-level agency.

The American Vision Video The Chapter 32 video, “The Watergate Break-In,” examines the circumstances surrounding this scandal.

▲ ▲

1974• Nixon resigns

• Gerald Ford becomespresident

▲

▼1971• People’s Republic of

China admitted to UN

▼ ▼

1971 1974

Ford1974–1977

Nixon1969–1974

1973• Roe v. Wade Supreme

Court decisionlegalizes abortion

• Senate Watergateinvestigations begin

• OPEC oil embargoleads to fuel shortages

951

1976• Mao Zedong dies

1979• Sandinista guerrillas

overthrow dictatorship of Somoza

• Margaret Thatcher becomesprime minister of Great Britain

HISTORY

Chapter OverviewVisit the American VisionWeb site at tav.glencoe.comand click on ChapterOverviews—Chapter 32 topreview chapter information.

President Nixon with Chinese premier Zhou Enlai (on Nixon’s right) during Nixon’shistoric visit to China in 1972

▼ ▼1977• Human rights manifesto signed by

241 Czech activists and intellectuals

▼

1979• Iranian revolutionaries seize

U.S. embassy in Tehran

▲▲ ▲

1977 1980

Carter1977–1981

1975• President Ford signs

Helsinki Accords

1976• Jimmy Carter

elected president

http://tav.glencoe.com

Millions of Americans saw police and demonstrators clash on the streets of Chicago atthe Democratic National Convention in late August 1968. Many television viewers were out-raged at the police tactics they saw. G.L. Halbert, however, was not one of them. To makehis support of police efforts public, Halbert wrote a letter to Newsweek magazine:

“Congratulations to Mayor Daley and the Chicago police on their tough handling of theyippies, Vietniks, and newsmen. If more mayors and police departments had the courage tocrack down on those who carry only the flags of our enemies and newsmen who consistentlyslant their coverage of events in favor of those who would undermine and disrupt our coun-try, there would be greater freedom for the majority of Americans rather than greater law-lessness for the few. It is a tragedy that such individuals are allowed to cringe behind ourconstitutional guarantees after they have wreaked destruction by their agitation.”

—quoted in Newsweek, September 16, 1968

1968Nixon wins presidential election

952 CHAPTER 32 Politics and Economics

✦ 1970 ✦ 1974

Appealing to Middle AmericaThe views expressed by G.L. Halbert were not unusual. While they did not shout as

loudly as the protesters, many Americans supported the government and longed for anend to the violence and turmoil that seemed to plague the nation in the 1960s. The pres-idential candidate in 1968 who appealed to many of these frustrated citizens was

The NixonAdministration

Main Idea President Nixon sought to restore law andorder and traditional values at home andto ease Cold War tensions abroad.

Key Terms and NamesSouthern strategy, revenue sharing,impound, Henry Kissinger, détente,summit

Reading StrategyOrganizing As you read about PresidentNixon’s administration, complete agraphic organizer by listing his domesticand foreign policies.

Reading Objectives• Describe Nixon’s domestic agenda.• Discuss Nixon’s foreign policy

achievements.

Section ThemeGlobal Connections One of PresidentNixon’s most dramatic accomplishmentswas changing the relationship betweenthe United States, Communist China, andthe Soviet Union.

✦ 1972

1969Nixon proposes FamilyAssistance Plan

February 1972Nixon visits China

May 1972Moscow hostsAmerican-Soviet summit

Nixon’s Administration

Domestic Policy Foreign Policy

✦ 1968

Students and police clashat the 1968 Democratic

National Convention

Richard Nixon, a Republican. Nixon aimed many ofhis campaign messages at these Americans, whom hereferred to as “Middle America” and the “silentmajority.” He promised them “peace with honor” inVietnam, law and order, a streamlined government,and a return to more traditional values at home.

The Election of 1968 Nixon’s principal opponent inthe 1968 presidential election was Democrat HubertHumphrey, who had served as vice president underLyndon Johnson. Nixon also had to wage his campaignagainst a strong third-party candidate, GeorgeWallace, an experienced Southern politician andavowed supporter of segregation. In a 1964 bid for theDemocratic presidential nomination, the formerAlabama governor had attracted considerable support.

On Election Day, Wallace captured an impressive13.5 percent of the popular vote, the best showing ofa third-party candidate since 1924. Nixon managed avictory, however, receiving 43.4 percent of the popu-lar vote to Humphrey’s 42.7 and 301 electoral votesto Humphrey’s 191.

The Southern Strategy One of the keys to Nixon’svictory was his surprisingly strong showing in theSouth. Even though the South had long been aDemocratic stronghold, Nixon had refused to con-cede the region. To gain Southern support, Nixonhad met with powerful South Carolina senator StromThurmond and won his backing by promising sev-eral things: to appoint only conservatives to the fed-eral courts, to name a Southerner to the SupremeCourt, to oppose court-ordered busing, and to choosea vice presidential candidate acceptable to the South.(Nixon ultimately chose Spiro Agnew, governor ofthe border state of Maryland.)

Nixon’s efforts paid off on Election Day. Largenumbers of white Southerners deserted theDemocratic Party, granting Humphrey only onevictory in that region—in Lyndon Johnson’s homestate of Texas. While Wallace claimed most of thestates in the Deep South, Nixon captured Virginia,Tennessee, Kentucky, and North Carolina. SenatorStrom Thurmond’s support delivered his state ofSouth Carolina for the Republicans as well.

S.C.8

N.C.

VA.12

FLA.14

GA.12

ALA.10MISS.

7

TENN. 11

KY. 9

W.VA.

7

DEL. 3MD. 10

N.J. 17

N.Y.43

PA.29

CONN. 8R.I. 4

MASS. 14

ME.4

N.H. 4

VT. 3

OHIO26IND.

13

MICH.21

WIS.12

ILL.26

LA.10

ARK.6

MO.12

IOWA9

MINN.10

N. DAK.4

S. DAK.4

NEBR.5

KANS.7

OKLA.8

TEX.25

MONT.4

WYO.3

COLO.6

N. MEX.4

UTAH4

ARIZ.5

NEV.3

IDAHO4

CALIF.40

OREG.6

WASH.9

12 1

Washington, D.C.3

ALASKA3

HAWAII4

The Election of 1968

CHAPTER 32 Politics and Economics 953

1. Interpreting Maps What regions provided Nixon withsolid support?

2. Applying Geography Skills Nixon barely won the popular vote. How did he win so many electoral votes?

Democrat

Independent

31,275,166

9,906,473

191

CandidateElectoral

VotePopular

VotePolitical

Party

Humphrey

Wallace

Presidential Election, 1968

Nixon 301

46

31,785,480 Republican

Following his victory, Nixon set out to attract evenmore Southerners to the Republican Party, an effortthat became known as the Southern strategy. Towardthis end, the president fulfilled his agreements withThurmond and took steps to slow desegregation.During his tenure, Nixon worked to overturn severalcivil rights policies. He reversed a Johnson adminis-tration policy, for example, that had cut off federalfunds for racially segregated schools.

A Law-and-Order President Having also won thepresidency with a promise of law and order, Nixonimmediately set out to battle crime in America. Hisadministration specifically targeted the nation’s anti-war protesters. Attorney General John Mitchelldeclared that he stood ready to prosecute “hard-linemilitants” who crossed state lines to stir up riots.Mitchell’s deputy, Richard Kleindienst, went evenfurther with the boast, “We’re going to enforce thelaw against draft evaders, against radical students,against deserters, against civil disorders, againstorganized crime, and against street crime.”

Nixon also went on the attack against the recentSupreme Court rulings that expanded the rights of

accused criminals. Nixon openly criticized the Courtand its chief justice, Earl Warren. The presidentpromised to fill vacancies on the Supreme Court withjudges who would support the rights of law enforce-ment over the rights of suspected criminals.

When Chief Justice Warren retired shortly afterNixon took office, the president replaced him withWarren Burger, a respected conservative judge. Healso placed three other conservative justices on theCourt, including one from the South. The BurgerCourt did not reverse Warren Court rulings on therights of criminal suspects. It did, however, refuse toexpand those rights further. For example, in Stone v.Powell (1976), it agreed to limits on the rights ofdefendants to appeal state convictions to the federaljudiciary. The Court also continued to uphold capitalpunishment as constitutional. ; (See page 1083 for moreinformation on Stone v. Powell.)

The New Federalism President Nixon’s Re-publican constituency also favored dismantling anumber of federal programs and giving more controlto state and local governments. Nixon called thisNew Federalism. He argued that it would provide

the government agencies that wereclosest to the citizens the opportunityto address more of their issues.

“I reject the patronizing idea thatgovernment in Washington, D.C., isinevitably more wise and more effi-cient than government at the state orlocal level,” Nixon declared. “The ideathat a bureaucratic elite in Washingtonknows what’s best for people . . . isreally a contention that people cannotgovern themselves.” Under the NewFederalism program, Congress passeda series of revenue-sharing bills thatgranted federal funds to state andlocal agencies to use.

Although revenue sharing wasintended to give state and local agen-cies more power, over time it gave thefederal government new power. Asstates came to depend on federalfunds, the federal government couldimpose conditions on the states.Unless they met those conditions, theirfunds would be cut off.

While he worked to limit federalgovernment responsibilities, Nixonalso sought to increase the power ofthe executive branch. Nixon did not

i n H i s t o r yRomana AcostaBañuelos 1925–

On her first day of business in down-town Los Angeles, California, RomanaAcosta Bañuelos made $36 selling tor-tillas. That was in 1949. She made greatstrides after that, becoming a success-ful businessperson and serving as U.S.treasurer in the 1970s.

Born in 1925 in a small town inArizona to Mexican American immi-grants, Bañuelos spent part of herchildhood on a relative’s small ranch inMexico. Rising early, she tended thecrops and helped her mother makeempanadas (Mexican turnovers) to sellto local restaurants. “My mother wasthe type of woman that taught us howto live in any place and work with whatwe have.”

That lesson inspired Bañuelos to starther own business when she returned tothe United States at the age of 19.Gradually her business grew, and bythe mid-1960s, it was thriving. In 1979Romana’s Mexican Food Products

employed about 400 people and hadsales of some $12 million annually.

Bañuelos worked at more thanaccumulating wealth. She contributedto scholarships for Mexican Americanstudents, especially those interested inbusiness, which Bañuelos believes is animportant path to political influence.With a number of partners, she alsofounded the Pan-American NationalBank. It too was successful.

Bañuelos’ success and communityleadership led to President Nixon’sappointing her as U.S. treasurer in1971.


build many strong relationships in Congress. Hislack of camaraderie with lawmakers and the fact thatthe Republican Party controlled neither house led tostruggles with the legislative branch. Nixon oftenresponded by trying to work around Congress anduse greater executive authority. For instance, whenCongress appropriated money for programs heopposed, Nixon impounded, or refused to release,the funds. The Supreme Court eventually declaredthe practice of impoundment unconstitutional.

The Family Assistance Plan One federal programNixon sought to reform was the nation’s welfare sys-tem—Aid to Families with Dependent Children(AFDC). The program had many critics, Republicanand Democratic alike. They argued that AFDC wasstructured so that it was actually better for poorpeople to apply for benefits than to take a low-payingjob. A mother who had such a job, for example,would then have to pay for child care, sometimesleaving her with less income than she had on welfare.There was also great inequity among states sinceeach was allowed to develop its own guidelines.

In 1969 Nixon proposed replacing the AFDC withthe Family Assistance Plan. The plan called for pro-viding needy families a guaranteed yearly grant of$1,600, which could be supplemented by outsideearnings. Many liberals applauded the plan as a sig-nificant step toward expanding federal responsibilityfor the poor. Nixon, however, presented the programin a conservative light, arguing it would reduce fed-eral supervision and encourage welfare recipients tobecome more responsible.

Although the program won approval in the Housein 1970, it soon came under harsh attack. Welfarerecipients complained that the federal grant was toolow, while conservatives, who disapproved of guar-anteed income, also criticized the plan. Such opposi-tion led to the program’s defeat in the Senate.

Evaluating What impact did thirdparty candidate George Wallace have on the 1968 election?

Nixon’s Foreign PolicyDespite Nixon’s domestic initiatives, a State

Department official later recalled that the presidenthad a “monumental disinterest in domestic poli-cies.” Nixon once expressed his hope that a “com-petent cabinet” of advisers could run the country.This would allow him to focus his energies on thesubject that truly fascinated him, foreign affairs.Embarking on an ambitious foreign policy agenda

that included historic encounters with both Chinaand the Soviet Union, Nixon set out to leave hismark on the world stage.

Nixon and Kissinger In a move that would greatlyinfluence his foreign policy, Nixon chose as hisnational security adviser Henry Kissinger, a formerHarvard professor. As a teenager Kissinger had fledto the United States from Germany with his family in1938 to escape Nazi persecution of Jews. He hadserved as a foreign policy consultant for PresidentsKennedy and Johnson. Though Secretary of StateWilliam Rogers technically outranked him, Kissingersoon took the lead in helping shape Nixon’s foreignpolicy.

Nixon and Kissinger shared views on manyissues. Both believed simply abandoning the war inVietnam would damage the United States’s positionin the world. Thus they worked toward a gradualwithdrawal. Nixon and Kissinger also believed in shaping a foreign policy rooted in practicalapproaches rather than ideologies. They felt thenation’s decades-long anticommunist crusade hadcreated a foreign policy that was too rigid and oftenworked against the nation’s interests. While bothleaders wanted to continue to contain communism,they believed that engagement and negotiation withCommunists offered a better way for the UnitedStates to achieve its international goals. As a sur-prised nation watched, Nixon and Kissinger put theirphilosophy into practice by forging friendlier rela-tions with the Soviet Union and China.

Reading Check


“Ping-Pong Diplomacy” In April 1971, nearly ayear before President Nixon made his historic tripthere, Communist China welcomed a different kindof U.S. delegation—the American ping-pong team.When the team received their surprise invitation,Time magazine called it “the ping heard round theworld.” The nineplayers, four officials, and twospouses who arrivedon the Chinesemainland were thefirst Americans toenter China sincethe Communisttakeover in 1949.

The Establishment of Détente The Soviet Unionwas not initially pleased when Nixon, a man with ahistory of outspoken anticommunist actions, becamepresident. The Washington correspondent for theSoviet newspaper Izvestia, Yuri Barsukov, had calledthe election “unwelcome news for Moscow” and pre-dicted that Soviet leaders “would have to deal with avery stubborn president.”

Things did not turn out that way, however. Nixonwas still a staunch anticommunist, but he came toreject the notion of a bipolar world in which thesuperpowers of the United States and the SovietUnion confronted one another. He believed theUnited States needed to understand the growing rolethat China, Japan, and Western Europe would soon

play. This “multipolar” world of the future demandeda different approach to American foreign policy.

With Kissinger’s help, Nixon fashioned anapproach called détente, or relaxation of tensions,between the United States and its two major Com-munist rivals, the Soviet Union and China. In explain-ing détente to the American people, Nixon said thatthe United States had to build a better relationshipwith its main rivals in the interests of world peace:

“We must understand that détente is not a lovefest. It is an understanding between nations that haveopposite purposes, but which share common inter-ests, including the avoidance of a nuclear war. Suchan understanding can work—that is, restrain aggres-sion and deter war—only as long as the potentialaggressor is made to recognize that neither aggres-sion nor war will be profitable.”

—quoted in The Limits of Power

Nixon Visits China Détente began with an effort toimprove American-Chinese relations. Since 1949,when a Communist government came to power inChina, the United States had refused to recognize theCommunists as the legitimate rulers. Instead, theAmerican government recognized the exiled regimeon the island of Taiwan as the Chinese government.Having long supported this policy, Nixon now setout to reverse it. He began by lifting trade and travelrestrictions and withdrawing the Seventh Fleet fromdefending Taiwan.

After a series of highly secret negotiationsbetween Kissinger and Chinese leaders, Nixonannounced that he would visit China in February1972. During the historic trip, the leaders of bothnations agreed to establish “more normal” relationsbetween their countries. In a statement that epito-mized the notion of détente, Nixon told his Chinesehosts during a banquet toast, “Let us start a longmarch together, not in lockstep, but on differentroads leading to the same goal, the goal of building aworld structure of peace and justice.”

In taking this trip, Nixon hoped not only tostrengthen ties with the Chinese, but also to encour-age the Soviets to more actively pursue diplomacy.Since the 1960s, a rift had developed between theCommunist governments of the Soviet Union andChina. Troops of the two nations occasionallyclashed along their borders. Nixon believed détentewith China would encourage Soviet premier LeonidBrezhnev to be more accommodating with theUnited States.


Arms Buildup Anxiety The urgent need to negotiate a reduction in nucleararms is demonstrated in this 1970 cartoon. When was the SALT I agreementfinally signed?

Analyzing Political Cartoons

U.S.-Soviet Tensions Ease Nixon’s feelings aboutthe Soviets proved correct. Shortly after the publiclearned of U.S. negotiations with China, the Sovietsproposed an American-Soviet summit, or high-leveldiplomatic meeting, to be held in May 1972. On May22, President Nixon flew to Moscow for a weeklongsummit. Thus, he became the first American presi-dent since World War II to visit the Soviet Union.

Before Nixon’s visit, Secretary of CommerceMaurice Stans spent 11 days in the Soviet Union. Inhis visits to a tractor plant, a steel mill, and an oilfield, Stans recalled, “It was as friendly a meeting asif I were representing California and negotiatingwith the state of Arizona.” Before leaving, however,Stans requested a favor from his Soviet host, AlexeiKosygin:

“‘There is one thing I hope you will take care of:on the highway into Moscow there is a great big bill-board with the United States pictured as a viciouskiller, with a sword in one hand and a gun in theother, killing people all over the world. I don’t thinkthat will be a good entrance for President Nixon, andthe sign ought to come down.’ He said, ‘It will.’”—quoted in Nixon: An Oral History of His Presidency

During the historic Moscow summit, the twosuperpowers signed the first Strategic ArmsLimitation Treaty, or SALT I, a plan to limit nucleararms the two nations had been working on for years.Nixon and Brezhnev also agreed to increase tradeand the exchange of scientific information.

Détente profoundly eased tensions between theSoviet Union and the United States. By the end ofNixon’s presidency, one Soviet official admitted that

“the United States and the Soviet Union had theirbest relationship of the whole Cold War period.”President Nixon indeed had made his mark on theworld stage. As he basked in the glow of his 1972 for-eign policy triumphs, however, trouble was brewingon the home front. A scandal was about to engulf hispresidency and plunge the nation into one of itsgreatest constitutional crises.

Summarizing What were theresults of the 1972 American-Soviet summit?

Reading Check

Writing About History


Checking for Understanding1. Define: impound, détente, summit.2. Identify: Southern strategy, revenue

sharing, Henry Kissinger.3. Describe Nixon’s New Federalism

policy.

Reviewing Themes4. Global Connections What were the

results of Nixon’s policy of détente?

Critical Thinking5. Evaluating How did Nixon’s China visit

affect Soviet relations?6. Categorizing Use a graphic organizer

similar to the one below to describehow President Nixon establisheddétente in the countries listed.

Analyzing Visuals7. Analyzing Political Cartoons Study

the cartoon on page 956. What is itsmessage about the impact of the armsbuildup on average citizens in both theSoviet Union and the United States?

China

Soviet Union

Détente Discussion Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev listens to PresidentNixon during Brezhnev’s June 1973 visit to Washington, D.C. On June 22 thetwo signed an agreement on the prevention of nuclear war. What does theword détente mean?

History

8. Expository Writing Take on the role ofa member of President Nixon’s staff.Write a press release explaining Nixon’sdomestic and foreign policies.

U.S.-Soviet Tensions Ease Nixon’s feelings aboutthe Soviets proved correct. Shortly after the publiclearned of U.S. negotiations with China, the Sovietsproposed an American-Soviet summit, or high-leveldiplomatic meeting, to be held in May 1972. On May22, President Nixon flew to Moscow for a weeklongsummit. Thus, he became the first American presi-dent since World War II to visit the Soviet Union.

Before Nixon’s visit, Secretary of CommerceMaurice Stans spent 11 days in the Soviet Union. Inhis visits to a tractor plant, a steel mill, and an oilfield, Stans recalled, “It was as friendly a meeting asif I were representing California and negotiatingwith the state of Arizona.” Before leaving, however,Stans requested a favor from his Soviet host, AlexeiKosygin:

“‘There is one thing I hope you will take care of:on the highway into Moscow there is a great big bill-board with the United States pictured as a viciouskiller, with a sword in one hand and a gun in theother, killing people all over the world. I don’t thinkthat will be a good entrance for President Nixon, andthe sign ought to come down.’ He said, ‘It will.’”—quoted in Nixon: An Oral History of His Presidency

During the historic Moscow summit, the twosuperpowers signed the first Strategic ArmsLimitation Treaty, or SALT I, a plan to limit nucleararms the two nations had been working on for years.Nixon and Brezhnev also agreed to increase tradeand the exchange of scientific information.

Détente profoundly eased tensions between theSoviet Union and the United States. By the end ofNixon’s presidency, one Soviet official admitted that

“the United States and the Soviet Union had theirbest relationship of the whole Cold War period.”President Nixon indeed had made his mark on theworld stage. As he basked in the glow of his 1972 for-eign policy triumphs, however, trouble was brewingon the home front. A scandal was about to engulf hispresidency and plunge the nation into one of itsgreatest constitutional crises.

Summarizing What were theresults of the 1972 American-Soviet summit?

Reading Check



Checking for Understanding1. Define: impound, détente, summit.2. Identify: Southern strategy, revenue

sharing, Henry Kissinger.3. Describe Nixon’s New Federalism

policy.

Reviewing Themes4. Global Connections What were the

results of Nixon’s policy of détente?

Critical Thinking5. Evaluating How did Nixon’s China visit

affect Soviet relations?6. Categorizing Use a graphic organizer

similar to the one below to describehow President Nixon establisheddétente in the countries listed.

Analyzing Visuals7. Analyzing Political Cartoons Study

the cartoon on page 956. What is itsmessage about the impact of the armsbuildup on average citizens in both theSoviet Union and the United States?

China

Soviet Union

Détente Discussion Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev listens to PresidentNixon during Brezhnev’s June 1973 visit to Washington, D.C. On June 22 thetwo signed an agreement on the prevention of nuclear war. What does theword détente mean?

History

8. Expository Writing Take on the role ofa member of President Nixon’s staff.Write a press release explaining Nixon’sdomestic and foreign policies.

As Bob Woodward, a young reporter for the Washington Post, sat in a Washington,D.C., courtroom on the morning of June 17, 1972, he was in a rather foul mood. Hiseditor had ruined his Saturday by calling him in to cover a seemingly insignificant butbizarre incident. In the early hours of that morning, five men had broken into theDemocratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters in the city’s Watergateapartment-office complex.

Woodward sat toward the back of the courtroom listening to the bail proceedingsfor the five defendants. At one point, the judge asked each man his occupation. One ofthe men, James McCord, answered that he was retired from government service.

“Where in government?” asked the judge.“CIA,” McCord whispered.Woodward sprang to attention. Why was a former member of the Central

Intelligence Agency involved in what seemed to be nothing more than a burglary? Over the next two years, Woodward and another reporter, Carl Bernstein, would investi-

gate this question. In so doing they uncovered a scandal that helped bring about a graveconstitutional crisis and eventually forced the president to resign.

—adapted from All the President’s Men

June 1972Burglars arrested in Democratic NationalCommittee headquarters at Watergate complex


✦ March 1973 ✦ September 1974

The Roots of WatergateThe scandal known as Watergate originated from the Nixon administration’s

attempts to cover up its involvement in the break-in at the Democratic NationalCommittee (DNC) headquarters, along with other illegal actions committed during

The Watergate Scandal

Main IdeaDuring his second term, President Nixonbecame embroiled in a scandal that ulti-mately forced him to resign.

Key Terms and NamesSam J. Ervin, John Dean, executive privi-lege, impeach, Federal Campaign ActAmendments

Reading StrategyTaking Notes As you read about theWatergate scandal, use the major head-ings of the section to create an outlinesimilar to the one below.

Reading Objectives• Describe the character of Richard Nixon

and the attitude of his White House.• Explain the Watergate scandal and dis-

cuss its effects.

Section ThemeGovernment and Democracy TheWatergate scandal intensified the linger-ing distrust of government that hadgrown in the United States during theVietnam War.

✦ December 1973

May 1973Senate begins Watergateinvestigation

October 1973Battle over White House tapesleads to “Saturday Night Massacre”

August 1974Nixon resigns

The Watergate Scandal

I. The Roots of WatergateA.B.C.

II.A.B.

✦ June 1972

Reporters Bob Woodwardand Carl Bernstein

Nixon’s re-election campaign. While the affair beganwith the burglary at the Watergate complex, a num-ber of scholars attribute the scandal in large part tothe character of Richard Nixon and the atmospherethat he and his advisers created in the White House.

Nixon and His “Enemies” Richard Nixon hadfought hard to become president. He had battledback from numerous political defeats, including aloss to John Kennedy in the 1960 presidential elec-tion, to win the presidency in 1968. Along the way,however, Nixon had grown defensive, secretive, andoften resentful of his critics.

In addition, Nixon had become president during atime when the United States was still very much atwar with itself. Race riots and protests over theVietnam War continued to consume the country. InNixon’s view, these protesters and other “radicals”were out to bring down his administration. Nixonwas so consumed with his opponents that he com-piled an “enemies list” filled with people—frompoliticians to members of the media—whom he con-sidered a threat to his presidency.

Mounting a Re-election Fight As Nixon’s re-election campaign got underway in 1972, many in hisadministration expressed optimism about winning asecond term. The president had just finished tri-umphant trips to China and the Soviet Union. In

May, former Alabama governor George Wallace,who had mounted a strong third-party cam-

paign in 1968, had dropped his bid foranother run at the White House after

an assassin’s bullet paralyzed him.Meanwhile, Nixon’s Democratic

opponent, South Dakota sen-ator George McGovern, wasviewed as too liberal onmany issues.

At the same time, Nixon’shold on the presidency wasuncertain. Despite the highapproval ratings for thepresident’s summit meet-ings in Beijing and Moscow,the unpopular Vietnam Warstill raged. Nixon staffersalso remembered how closethe margin of Nixon’s 1968 victory had been. Seekingto gain an edge in every way they could, Nixon’steam engaged in a host of subversive tactics, fromspying on opposition rallies to spreading rumors andfalse reports.

These tactics included an effort to steal informa-tion from the Democratic Party’s headquarters. In theearly hours of June 17, 1972, five Nixon supportersbroke into the party’s office at the Watergate complexin Washington, D.C. They had intended to obtain anysensitive campaign information and to place wire-taps on the office telephones. While the burglarswere at work, a security guard making his roundsspotted a piece of tape holding a door lock. Theguard ripped off the tape, but when he passed thedoor later, he noticed that it had been replaced. Hequickly called police, who arrived shortly andarrested the men.

The Cover-Up Begins In the wake of the Watergatebreak-in, the media discovered that one of the burglars,James McCord, was not only an ex-CIA official but alsoa member of the Committee for the Re-election of thePresident (CRP). Reports soon surfaced that the bur-glars had been paid to execute the break-in from asecret CRP fund controlled by the White House.

Watergate Hotel The hotel gave its nameto the scandal that brought down PresidentNixon. Hotel guard Frank Willis, picturedhere, reported to police the evidence of abreak-in at the Democratic NationalCommittee headquarters there. What wasNixon’s response to the break-in?

History


Student WebActivity Visit theAmerican Vision Website at tav.glencoe.comand click on StudentWeb Activities—Chapter 32 for anactivity on the 1970s.

HISTORY


As questions swirled about a possible WhiteHouse connection to the burglary, the cover-upbegan. Administration officials destroyed incriminat-ing documents and provided false testimony toinvestigators. Meanwhile, President Nixon steppedin. While the president may not have ordered thebreak-in, he did order a cover-up. With Nixon’s con-sent, administration officials asked the CIA to inter-vene and stop the FBI from inquiring into the sourceof the money paid to the burglars. Their justificationwas that such an investigation would threatennational security.

All the while, the White House strongly deniedany involvement in the break-in. Nixon’s press secre-tary dismissed the incident as a “third-rate burglaryattempt,” while the president himself told theAmerican public, “The White House has had noinvolvement whatever in this particular incident.”

The strategy worked. Most Americans believedPresident Nixon. Despite efforts by the media, in par-ticular the Washington Post, to keep the story alive,few people paid much attention to the Watergateaffair during the 1972 presidential campaign. OnElection Day, Nixon won re-election by one of the

largest margins in history with nearly 61 percent ofthe popular vote compared to 37.5 percent for GeorgeMcGovern. The electoral vote was 520 votes forNixon and 17 for McGovern.

Examining Why did members ofthe CRP break into the Democratic National Committeeheadquarters?

The Cover-Up Unravels Shortly after his triumphant re-election, an exu-

berant and confident Nixon told his cabinet and staffthat 1973 “can be and should be the best year ever.”In a matter of months, however, the Watergate affairwould erupt, and the coming year would be one ofthe president’s worst.

The First Cracks Show In 1973 the Watergate bur-glars went on trial. Under relentless prodding fromfederal judge John J. Sirica, McCord agreed to coop-erate with both a grand jury investigation and withthe Senate’s Select Committee on PresidentialCampaign Activities, which had been recently estab-lished under Senator Sam J. Ervin of North Carolina.McCord’s testimony opened a floodgate of confes-sions, and a parade of White House and campaignofficials exposed one illegality after another over thenext several months. Foremost among the officialswas counsel to the president John Dean, a member ofthe inner circle of the White House who leveled alle-gations against Nixon himself.

A Summer of Shocking Testimony In June 1973,John Dean testified before Senator Ervin’s committeethat former Attorney General John Mitchell hadordered the Watergate break-in and that Nixon hadplayed an active role in attempting to cover up anyWhite House involvement. As a shocked nationabsorbed Dean’s testimony, the Nixon administra-tion strongly denied the charges.

A standoff ensued for the next month, as theSenate committee attempted to determine who wastelling the truth. Then, on July 16, the answerappeared unexpectedly. On that day, White Houseaide Alexander Butterfield testified that Nixon hadordered a taping system installed in the WhiteHouse to record all conversations. The presidenthad done so, Butterfield said, to help him write hismemoirs after he left office. For members of thecommittee, however, the tapes would tell themexactly what the president knew and when heknew it.

Reading Check

Sitting in Judgment Representative Barbara Jordan from Texas was an out-spoken member of the House Judiciary Committee. What was this committee’srole in the impeachment process?

History

The Case of the Tapes All the groups investigatingthe scandal sought access to the tapes. Nixon refused,pleading executive privilege—the principle thatWhite House conversations should remain confiden-tial to protect national security. A special prosecutorappointed by the president to handle the Watergatecases, Archibald Cox, took Nixon to court in October1973 to force him to give up the recordings. Nixon,clearly growing desperate, ordered Attorney GeneralElliot Richardson, and then Richardson’s deputy, tofire Cox. Both men refused and resigned in protest.Solicitor General Robert Bork finally fired Cox, butthe incident, nicknamed the “Saturday NightMassacre” in the press, badly damaged Nixon’s rep-utation with the public.

The fall of 1973 proved to be a disastrous time forNixon for other reasons as well. His vice president,Spiro Agnew, was forced to resign in disgrace.Investigators had discovered that Agnew had takenbribes from state contractors while he was governorof Maryland and that he had continued to acceptbribes while serving in Washington. Gerald Ford, theRepublican leader of the House of Representatives,became the new vice president. Nixon then had todefend himself against allegations about his ownpast financial dealings.

GOVERNMENT

Nixon Resigns In an effort to quiet the growing out-rage over his actions, President Nixon appointed anew special prosecutor, Texas lawyer Leon Jaworski,who proved no less determined than Cox to obtainthe president’s tapes. In April 1974, Nixon releasededited transcripts of the tapes, claiming that theyproved his innocence. Investigators felt otherwiseand went to court again to force Nixon to turn overthe unedited tapes. In July the Supreme Court ruledthat the president had to turn over the tapes them-selves, not just the transcripts. With nowhere else toappeal, Nixon handed over the tapes.

Several days later, the House JudiciaryCommittee voted to impeach Nixon, or officiallycharge him of presidential misconduct. The commit-tee charged that Nixon had obstructed justice in theWatergate cover-up; misused federal agencies toviolate the rights of citizens; and defied the author-ity of Congress by refusing to deliver tapes andother materials that the committee had requested.The next step was for the entire House ofRepresentatives to vote whether or not to impeachthe president.

As the nation held its collective breath in antic-ipation, investigators finally found indisputable


High Political Drama After resigning his office on August 9, 1974,President Nixon and his family say goodbye to aides and friends on theWhite House lawn. On the capital’s streets, a reader takes in the newsin the Washington Post, the newspaper that started the Watergateinvestigation. Who replaced Nixon as president?

History

evidence against the president. One of the uneditedtapes revealed that on June 23, 1972, just six daysafter the Watergate burglary, Nixon had ordered theCIA to stop the FBI’s investigation of the break-in.With this news, even the president’s strongest sup-porters conceded that impeachment and convictionin the Senate now seemed inevitable. On August 9,1974, Nixon resigned his office in disgrace. GeraldFord took the oath of office and became the nation’s38th president.

Explaining What was the signifi-cance of John Dean’s testimony before the Senate committee?

The Impact of WatergateUpon taking office, President Ford urged

Americans to put the Watergate affair behind themand move on. “Our long national nightmare is over,”he declared. The effects of the scandal, however,endured long after Richard Nixon’s resignation.

The Watergate crisis prompted a series of newlaws intended to limit the power of the executivebranch. In the 1970s Congress passed a number oflaws aimed at reestablishing a greater balance ofpower in government. The Federal Campaign ActAmendments limited campaign contributions andestablished an independent agency to administerstricter election laws. The Ethics in Government Actrequired financial disclosure by high governmentofficials in all three branches of government. The FBIDomestic Security Investigation Guidelines restrictedthe bureau’s political intelligence-gathering activi-ties. After Watergate, Congress also established a

means for appointing an independent counsel toinvestigate and prosecute wrongdoing by high gov-ernment officials.

Despite these efforts, Watergate left manyAmericans with a deep distrust of their public offi-cials. Speaking some 20 years after the Watergateaffair, Alexander Haig, a former high-level Nixonaide, said the scandal had produced, “a fundamentaldiscrediting of respect for the presidency . . . [and] anew skepticism about politics, in general, whichevery American feels to this day.” On the other hand,some Americans saw the Watergate affair as proofthat in the United States, no person is above the law.As Bob Woodward observed:

“Watergate was probably a good thing for thecountry; it was a good, sobering lesson. Account-ability to the law applies to everyone. The problemwith kings and prime ministers and presidents is thatthey think that they are above it, and there is noaccountability, and that they have some special rights,and privileges, and status. And a process that says:No. We have our laws and believe them, and theyapply to everyone, is a very good thing.”—quoted in Nixon: An Oral History of His Presidency

After the ordeal of Watergate, most Americansattempted to put the affair behind them. In the yearsahead, however, the nation encountered a host ofnew troubles, from a stubborn economic recession toa heart-wrenching hostage crisis overseas.

Evaluating Why did Congress passnew laws after the Watergate scandal?

Reading Check

Reading Check


Checking for Understanding1. Define: executive privilege,

impeach.2. Identify: Sam J. Ervin, John Dean,

Federal Campaign Act Amendments.3. Evaluate the effects of the Watergate

scandal on the way American citizensviewed the federal government.

Reviewing Themes4. Government and Democracy How did

the Watergate scandal alter the balanceof power between the executive andlegislative branches of government?

Critical Thinking5. Evaluating How did the discovery of

the White House tapes change theWatergate cover-up investigation?

6. Organizing Using a graphic organizersimilar to the one below, fill in theeffects of the Watergate scandal.

Analyzing Visuals7. Analyzing Photographs Study the

photograph on page 961. How wouldyou describe the scene of Nixon’s leave-taking? What in the photo suggests thatthis is a formal occasion? Why do youthink this ceremony might be importantfor the nation?

8. Descriptive Writing Take on the roleof a television news analyst. Write ascript in which you explain theWatergate scandal and analyze the factors that led to the scandal.


Effects ofWatergate

Scandal

On a sunny February day in 1977, Ellen Griffith and her fiancé, Roger Everson, both ofNashville, Tennessee, sat together in a place where neither of them dreamed they wouldbe—the state unemployment office. Just a month before, Griffith, a 20-year-old salesclerk ina shopping center, and Everson, 21, had been excitedly making wedding plans. Now, withEverson laid off and Griffith on a reduced work schedule, the young couple had decided toput their future plans on hold. “It cost something to get married, you know,” said Everson.

What had landed the two in this predicament was a one-two punch of a particularly bit-ter winter and an energy shortage that had gone on for much of the decade. The brutally coldweather in the Midwest and East had increased the demand for oil and fuel, already in shortsupply throughout the country. In response, the government had asked numerous companiesand shops to conserve energy by cutting back on their business hours. As a result, Griffithsaw her work schedule slashed from 40 hours per week to 20 hours.

As the couple sat stoically in the unemployment office waiting for their names to be called,Griffith wondered how she would pay her bills on her reduced salary and whatever she mightbe able to get from the state. “I just feel like we’ve been rained on,” she said glumly.

—adapted from the New York Times, February 3, 1977

1973OPEC oil embargo leads to fuelshortage in the United States

✦ 1975

The Economic Crisis of the 1970sSince the end of World War II, the American economy had been the envy of the world.

During the 1950s and 1960s, many Americans enjoyed remarkable prosperity and hadcome to assume it was the norm. This prosperity rested in large part on easy access to

Ford and Carter

Main IdeaDuring the 1970s, Presidents Gerald Fordand Jimmy Carter attempted to lead theUnited States through both domestic andforeign crises.

Key Terms and Namesinflation, embargo, stagflation, HelsinkiAccords, Department of Energy

Reading StrategyOrganizing As you read about theadministrations of Presidents Ford andCarter, complete a graphic organizer list-ing the causes of economic problems inthe 1970s.

Reading Objectives• Explain the reasons for economic

troubles in the United States during the 1970s.

• Discuss Jimmy Carter’s domestic andforeign policies.

Section ThemeEconomic Factors A weakening economy and growing energy crisismarred the terms of Ford and Carter.

✦ 1977

1974President Ford pardonsRichard Nixon

1976Jimmy Carter winspresidential election

1979Iranian revolutionaries seizeU.S. embassy in Iran


EconomicProblems

in the 1970s

Causes

Lines of jobseekers at an unemployment office

✦ 1973 ✦ 1979

raw materials around the world and a strong manu-facturing industry at home. By the 1970s, however,the boom years gave way to a decade of hard times.

A Mighty Economic Machine Slows The nation’seconomic troubles began in the mid-1960s. PresidentJohnson significantly increased federal deficit spend-ing when he attempted to fund both the Vietnam Warand his ambitious Great Society program withoutraising taxes. This pumped large amounts of moneyinto the economy, which spurred inflation, or a risein the cost of goods.

Rising costs of raw materials due to greater com-petition for them was another cause of inflation. Inparticular, the rising cost of oil dealt a strong blow tothe nation’s economy. More than any other nation,the United States based its economy on the easyavailability of cheap and plentiful fossil fuels. Withthe highest volume of oil consumption in the world,the nation had become heavily dependent on importsfrom the Middle East and Africa.

For years, the Organization of PetroleumExporting Countries (OPEC) sold oil for its mem-ber countries. Prices remained low until the early1970s, when OPEC decided to use oil as a politicaland economic weapon. In 1973 the Yom Kippur Warwas raging between Israel and its Arab neighbors.Tension had existed between Israel and the Arabworld ever since the founding of modern Israel in1948. Since most Arab states did not recognizeIsrael’s right to exist, U.S. support of Israel madeAmerican relations with Arab states uneasy.

Now OPEC announced that its members wouldembargo, or stop shipping, petroleum to countries thatsupported Israel, namely the United States and someWestern European nations. OPEC also raised the priceof crude oil by 70 percent, and then by another 130 per-cent a few months later. As a result, the United Statessuffered its first fuel shortage since World War II.

Although the embargo ended a few months afterit began, oil prices continued to rise. OPEC raisedprices three more times in the 1970s and again in1980. By that time, the price of a barrel of crude oilhad risen from $3 in 1973 to $30 in 1980. Theincrease accelerated inflation. As prices rose for oil-based products, Americans had less money to spendon other goods, which helped cause a recession.

ECONOMICS

A Stagnant Economy Another economic problemwas the decline of the manufacturing sector. In theyears following World War II, the United States haddominated international trade, but by the 1970s, itfaced increased international competition. Manymanufacturing plants were now decades old and lessefficient than the newer plants that Japan andEuropean industrial nations built after the war. In1971, for the first time since 1889, the United Statesimported more goods than it exported. By 1985,Americans were also borrowing more money fromforeigners than they were lending abroad.

These factors forced many factories to close, andmillions of workers lost their jobs. Although new

jobs were available in the growinginformation and service-orientedsector, many industrial workerswere poorly equipped for them.The result was a growing pool ofunemployed and underemployedworkers.

Thus in the early 1970s PresidentNixon faced a new and puzzlingeconomic dilemma that came to beknown as “stagflation,” a combina-tion of rising prices and economicstagnation. Economists whoemphasized the demand side ofeconomic theory, including sup-porters of Keynesianism, did notthink that inflation and recessioncould occur at the same time. Theybelieved that demand drives pricesand that inflation would only occurin a booming economy when

A Scarce Commodity Americans had to schedule their lives around the availability of gasoline during theOPEC oil embargo. Why did OPEC institute the embargo?

History

raw materials around the world and a strong manu-facturing industry at home. By the 1970s, however,the boom years gave way to a decade of hard times.

A Mighty Economic Machine Slows The nation’seconomic troubles began in the mid-1960s. PresidentJohnson significantly increased federal deficit spend-ing when he attempted to fund both the Vietnam Warand his ambitious Great Society program withoutraising taxes. This pumped large amounts of moneyinto the economy, which spurred inflation, or a risein the cost of goods.

Rising costs of raw materials due to greater com-petition for them was another cause of inflation. Inparticular, the rising cost of oil dealt a strong blow tothe nation’s economy. More than any other nation,the United States based its economy on the easyavailability of cheap and plentiful fossil fuels. Withthe highest volume of oil consumption in the world,the nation had become heavily dependent on importsfrom the Middle East and Africa.

For years, the Organization of PetroleumExporting Countries (OPEC) sold oil for its mem-ber countries. Prices remained low until the early1970s, when OPEC decided to use oil as a politicaland economic weapon. In 1973 the Yom Kippur Warwas raging between Israel and its Arab neighbors.Tension had existed between Israel and the Arabworld ever since the founding of modern Israel in1948. Since most Arab states did not recognizeIsrael’s right to exist, U.S. support of Israel madeAmerican relations with Arab states uneasy.

Now OPEC announced that its members wouldembargo, or stop shipping, petroleum to countries thatsupported Israel, namely the United States and someWestern European nations. OPEC also raised the priceof crude oil by 70 percent, and then by another 130 per-cent a few months later. As a result, the United Statessuffered its first fuel shortage since World War II.

Although the embargo ended a few months afterit began, oil prices continued to rise. OPEC raisedprices three more times in the 1970s and again in1980. By that time, the price of a barrel of crude oilhad risen from $3 in 1973 to $30 in 1980. Theincrease accelerated inflation. As prices rose for oil-based products, Americans had less money to spendon other goods, which helped cause a recession.

ECONOMICS

A Stagnant Economy Another economic problemwas the decline of the manufacturing sector. In theyears following World War II, the United States haddominated international trade, but by the 1970s, itfaced increased international competition. Manymanufacturing plants were now decades old and lessefficient than the newer plants that Japan andEuropean industrial nations built after the war. In1971, for the first time since 1889, the United Statesimported more goods than it exported. By 1985,Americans were also borrowing more money fromforeigners than they were lending abroad.

These factors forced many factories to close, andmillions of workers lost their jobs. Although new

jobs were available in the growinginformation and service-orientedsector, many industrial workerswere poorly equipped for them.The result was a growing pool ofunemployed and underemployedworkers.

Thus in the early 1970s PresidentNixon faced a new and puzzlingeconomic dilemma that came to beknown as “stagflation,” a combina-tion of rising prices and economicstagnation. Economists whoemphasized the demand side ofeconomic theory, including sup-porters of Keynesianism, did notthink that inflation and recessioncould occur at the same time. Theybelieved that demand drives pricesand that inflation would only occurin a booming economy when

A Scarce Commodity Americans had to schedule their lives around the availability of gasoline during theOPEC oil embargo. Why did OPEC institute the embargo?

History

demand for goods was high. As a result, they did notknow what fiscal policy the government should pur-sue. Increased spending might help end the recession,but it would increase inflation. Raising taxes mightslow inflation, but it would also keep the economy inrecession.

Nixon decided to focus on controlling inflation.The government moved first to cut spending andraise taxes. The president hoped that higher taxeswould prompt Americans to spend less, whichwould ease the demand on goods and drive downprices. Congress and much of the public, however,protested the idea of a tax hike. Nixon then tried toreduce consumer spending by getting the FederalReserve Board to raise interest rates. When thisfailed, the president tried to stop inflation byimposing a 90-day freeze on wages and prices andthen issuing federal regulations limiting futurewage and price increases. This too met with littlesuccess.

When Nixon resigned in 1974, the nation’s infla-tion rate was still high, despite many efforts toreduce prices. Meanwhile, the unemployment ratewas over five percent. It would now be up to GeraldFord to confront stagflation.

Explaining How did PresidentNixon attempt to stop stagflation?

Ford Takes OverMost Americans considered Gerald Ford a decent

and honest if not particularly dynamic leader. Whenhe became vice president, Ford had readily acknowl-edged his bland personality. “I’m a Ford, not aLincoln,” he said. Still, the new president boastedexcellent credentials, including a degree from Yale

Law School, naval service during World War II, andservice in the House of Representatives since 1949.His fellow Republicans had elected him as minorityleader in 1965. Ford would need to draw on all hisexperience during his time in office.

Ford Pardons Nixon Ford was in the White Housejust a month when his efforts to restore faith in thenation’s leadership suffered a serious setback. OnSeptember 8, 1974, Ford announced that he wouldgrant a “full, free, and absolute pardon” to RichardNixon for any crimes he “committed or may havecommitted or taken part in” while president. “This isan American tragedy in which we all have played apart,” he told the nation. “It could go on and on andon, or someone must write the end to it.”

Ford insisted he was acting not out of sympathyfor Nixon, but in the public interest. Ford’s positionwas that he wanted to avoid the division that chargesagainst Nixon and a public trial would create.Nonetheless, the pardon aroused fierce criticism.Ford’s approval ratings soon plunged from 71 per-cent to 50 percent.

Ford Tries to “Whip” Inflation By 1975 the Amer-ican economy was in its worst recession since theGreat Depression, with unemployment at nearly ninepercent. Rejecting the notion of mandatory wage andprice controls to reduce inflation, Ford requested vol-untary controls. Under a plan known as WIN—WhipInflation Now—he urged Americans to cut back ontheir oil and gas consumption and to undertake otherenergy-conserving measures. The plan stirred uplittle enthusiasm and eventually failed. The presidentthen turned to cutting government spending andadvocating higher interest rates to curb inflation.This too failed.

Reading Check


Coping With Shortages Cartoonist Brant Parker reflected the public’s frustration over the oil shortages of the1970s. What message does the cartoonist convey with the statement “the figs are next”?

Analyzing Political Cartoons

As Ford attempted to revive the economy, he alsoattempted to limit federal authority, balance thebudget, and keep taxes low. Ford vetoed more than50 bills that the Democratic-led Congress passed dur-ing the first two years of his administration.

Ford’s Foreign Policy In foreign policy, Ford contin-ued Nixon’s general strategy. Ford kept Kissinger onas secretary of state and continued to pursue détentewith the Soviets and the Chinese. In August 1975 hemet with leaders of NATO and the Warsaw Pact tosign the Helsinki Accords. Under the accords, the par-ties recognized the borders of Eastern Europe estab-lished at the end of World War II. The Soviets in returnpromised to uphold certain basic human rights,including the right to move across national borders.The subsequent Soviet failure to uphold these basicrights turned many Americans against détente.

Ford also encountered problems in Southeast Asia.In May 1975, Cambodia seized the Mayaguez, anAmerican cargo ship traveling near its shores, claim-ing that it had been on an intelligence-gathering mis-sion. Calling the ship’s seizure an “act of piracy,” Forddispatched U.S. Marines to retrieve it. Cambodiareleased the crew before the marines arrived.

The Election of 1976 As the 1976presidential election approached,Americans were pessimistic andunsure of the future. With risinginflation and unemployment, manycitizens were undergoing an ad-

verse change of lifestyle. There wereequally serious problems in foreign

affairs. Political turmoil in developingnations threatened world stability, while

the Soviet Union was pursuing an aggressiveforeign policy. Americans therefore looked to elect aman who could meet these challenges.

The presidential race pitted Gerald Ford againstJames Earl Carter, Jr., or Jimmy Carter, as he liked tobe called. Carter was somewhat of a political outsider.A former governor of Georgia, Carter had no nationalpolitical experience. Nonetheless, he had won theDemocratic primary with an inspiring and well-organized campaign. Carter sought to take advantageof his outsider image, promising to restore moralityand honesty to the federal government. He alsopromised new programs for energy development, taxreform, welfare reform, and national medical care.

More than the programs he proposed, it wasCarter’s image as a moral and upstanding individualthat attracted most supporters. Ford meanwhile char-acterized Carter as a liberal whose social programspending would produce higher rates of inflationand require tax increases.

In the end, Carter edged Ford with 50.1 percent ofthe popular vote to Ford’s 47.9 percent, while captur-ing 297 electoral votes to Ford’s 240. On InaugurationDay, to demonstrate his man-of-the-people style,Carter declined the traditional limousine ride andwalked from the Capitol to the White House.

Examining What steps didPresident Ford take to try to control inflation?

Carter Battles the Economic CrisisCarter devoted much of his domestic agenda to

trying to fix the economy. At first he tried to end therecession and reduce unemployment by increasinggovernment spending and cutting taxes. When infla-tion surged in 1978, he changed his mind. He delayedthe tax cuts and vetoed the spending programs hehad himself proposed to Congress. He then tried toease inflation by reducing the money supply andraising interest rates. His main focus, however, wason the energy crisis. In the end, none of his effortssucceeded.

Reading Check


Reassuring Presence After the turmoil of Watergate, President Gerald Ford,shown here with First Lady Betty Ford, was a comforting leader, but he wasunable to solve the problem of inflation. Through what methods did Ford tryto “whip inflation now”?

History

A “War” Against Consumption Carter felt that thenation’s most serious problem was its dependence onforeign oil. In one of his first national addresses, hetried to rally Americans to support what he termed a“war” against rising energy consumption. “Our decision about energy will test the character of theAmerican people and the ability of the President andCongress to govern this nation,” Carter stated.

Carter proposed a national energy program to con-serve oil and to promote the use of coal and renewableenergy sources such as solar power. He persuadedCongress to create a Department of Energy and alsoasked Americans to make personal sacrifices to reducetheir energy consumption. Most of the public com-plied as best they could, although many ignored thepresident’s suggestion.

At the same time, many business leaders andeconomists urged the president and Congress toderegulate the oil industry. The regulations, firstimposed as part of President Nixon’s price controlplan, limited the ability of oil companies to pass onOPEC price increases to American consumers. As aresult, oil companies found it difficult to make aprofit, and they lacked the capital to invest in newdomestic oil wells. These regulations, combinedwith OPEC price increases, helped create the energycrisis of the 1970s. Carter agreed to support deregu-lation but insisted on a “windfall profits tax” to pre-vent oil companies from overcharging consumers.The tax, however, conflicted with the basic idea ofderegulation, which was to free up corporate capitalfor use in searching for new sources of oil. In theend, Carter’s contradictory plan did not solve thecountry’s energy crisis.

In the summer of 1979, instability in the MiddleEast produced a second major fuel shortage anddeepened the nation’s economic problems. Underincreasing pressure to act, Carter made several pro-posals in a television address. The speech wasnotable for Carter’s bleak assessment of the nationalcondition. He complained about a “crisis of confi-dence” that had struck “at the very heart and soul ofour national will.” The address became known as the“malaise” speech, although Carter had not specifi-cally used that word. Many Americans interpretedthe speech not as a timely warning but as Carterblaming the people for his failures.

Carter’s Leadership Problems In retrospect, Pres-ident Carter’s difficulties in solving the nation’s eco-nomic problems lay in his inexperience and inabilityto work with Congress. Carter, who was proud of his outsider status, made little effort to reach

out to Washington’s legislative leaders. As a result,Congress blocked many of his energy proposals.

Carter also failed to translate his ideas into a con-crete set of goals to inspire the nation. He offered nounifying theme for his administration, but insteadfollowed a cautious middle course that left peopleconfused. By 1979 public opinion polls showed thatCarter’s popularity had dropped lower thanPresident Nixon’s during Watergate.

Summarizing To what didPresident Carter devote much of his domestic agenda?

Carter’s Foreign PolicyIn contrast to his uncertain leadership at home,

Carter’s foreign policy was more clearly defined. Aman of strong religious beliefs, Carter argued that theUnited States must try to be “right and honest andtruthful and decent” in dealing with other nations.Yet it was on the international front that PresidentCarter suffered one of his most devastating defeats.

Reading Check


Change of Pace Jimmy Carter underscored his campaign image of being anew kind of politician by walking to the White House after his inauguration.What about Carter’s image in 1976 might have been appealing to the public?

History


Morality in Foreign Policy Carter had set the tonefor his foreign policy in his inaugural speech, whenhe announced, “Our commitment to human rightsmust be absolute. . . . The powerful must not perse-cute the weak, and human dignity must beenhanced.” With the help of his foreign policyteam—including Andrew Young, the first AfricanAmerican ambassador to the United Nations—Carterstrove to achieve these goals.

The president put his principles into practice inLatin America. To remove a major symbol of U.S.interventionism in the region, he moved to give thePanamanians control of the Panama Canal. TheUnited States had built and run the canal since 1903.In 1978 the president won Senate ratification of twoPanama Canal treaties, which transferred control ofthe canal to Panama on December 31, 1999.

Most dramatically, Carter singled out the SovietUnion as a violator of human rights. He strongly con-demned, for example, the Soviet practice of imprison-ing people who protested against the government.Relations between the two superpowers suffered a fur-ther setback when Soviet troops invaded the Central

Asian nation of Afghanistan in December 1979. Carterresponded by imposing an embargo on the sale ofgrain to the Soviet Union and boycotting the 1980Summer Olympic Games in Moscow. Under the Carteradministration, détente virtually collapsed.

Triumph and Failure in the Middle East It was inthe volatile Middle East that President Carter met hisgreatest foreign policy triumph and his greatest fail-ure. In 1978 Carter helped broker a historic peacetreaty, known as the Camp David Accords, betweenIsrael and Egypt, two nations that had been bitterenemies for decades. The treaty was formally signedin 1979. Most other Arab nations in the regionopposed the treaty, but it marked a first step toachieving peace in the Middle East.

Just months after the Camp David Accords,Carter encountered a crisis in Iran. The United Stateshad long supported Iran’s monarch, the Shah,because Iran was a major oil supplier and a bufferagainst Soviet expansion in the Middle East. TheShah, however, had grown increasingly unpopularin Iran. He was a repressive ruler and had

HOSTAGE TO TERROR Bound and blindfolded,American diplomat Jerry Miele is led out of the U.S.embassy in Tehran, Iran, aftermilitants stormed the buildingon November 4, 1979. Tenmonths earlier, an Islamic fun-damentalist revolution hadoverthrown the Shah of Iran,a staunch American ally.President Carter’s decision toallow the ailing Shah to seekmedical treatment in theUnited States led to theembassy takeover. Of theAmericans taken captive, 52were held for more than a year.The crisis contributed toCarter’s defeat in the presiden-tial election in 1980.

MOMENTinHISTORY



Checking for Understanding1. Define: inflation, embargo, stagflation.2. Identify: Helsinki Accords, Department

of Energy.3. Identify the achievement and failure

President Carter experienced in theMiddle East during his administration.

Reviewing Themes4. Economic Factors How did President

Carter attempt to deal with the nation’senergy crisis?

Critical Thinking5. Evaluating Do you think President

Ford should have pardoned RichardNixon? Why or why not?

6. Organizing Complete a graphic organ-izer similar to the one below by listingthe ways that President Carter appliedhis human rights ideas to his foreignpolicy.


photograph on page 968. What effectdo you think images such as this onehad on Americans who were living ortraveling in other countries?

8. Expository Writing Write an essayidentifying what you believe to bePresident Carter’s most important for-eign policy achievement. Explain yourchoice.

introduced Westernizing reforms to Iranian society.The Islamic clergy fiercely opposed the Shah’sreforms. Opposition to the Shah grew, and inJanuary 1979 protesters forced him to flee. AnIslamic republic was then declared.

The new regime, headed by religious leaderAyatollah Khomeini, distrusted the United Statesbecause of its ties to the Shah. In November 1979, rev-olutionaries stormed the American embassy inTehran and took 52 Americans hostage. The militantsthreatened to kill the hostages or try them as spies.

The Carter administration tried unsuccessfully tonegotiate for the hostages’ release. In April 1980, aspressure mounted, Carter approved a daring rescueattempt. To the nation’s dismay, the rescue missionfailed when several helicopters malfunctioned andone crashed in the desert. Eight servicemen died inthe accident. Hamilton Jordan, President Carter’schief of staff, described the gloomy atmosphere in theWhite House the day after the crash:

“I arrived at the White House a few minutes beforethe President went on television to tell the nationabout the catastrophe. He looked exhausted andcareworn. . . . The mood at the senior staff meetingwas somber and awkward. I sensed that we were alluncomfortable, like when a loved one dies andfriends don’t quite know what to say. . . . After themeeting, I wandered around the White House. . . .My thoughts kept returning to the bodies [of theservicemen] in the desert.”

—quoted in Crisis: The Last Year of the Carter Presidency

The crisis continued into the fall of 1980. Everynight, news programs reminded viewers how manydays the hostages had been held. The president’sinability to free the hostages cost him support in the1980 presidential election. Negotiations with Irancontinued right up to Carter’s last day in office.Ironically, on January 20, 1981, the day Carter leftoffice, Iran released the Americans, ending their 444days in captivity.

Summarizing What was PresidentCarter’s main foreign policy theme?

Reading Check

Carter’s Human Rights Foreign Policy

The Islamic StateIn establishing an Islamic republic, the Ayatollah

Khomeini created a state in which the codes and beliefsof Islam guide politics and thus direct nearly every aspectof life. Mullahs, or Islamic religious leaders, becamepolitical leaders as well, which allowed them to imposeIslamic codes on Iranian citizens. In a religious state, reli-gious practices are not a matter of choice but the law ofthe land. Politics and religion have joined forces in otherparts of the Islamic world as well. In 1996 a group knownas the Taliban transformed Afghanistan into an Islamicstate. From insisting that men grow beards to forbiddingwomen to work outside the home, Afghanistan’s leadersenforced a social order based on an interpretation ofIslam. What long-held American principle does thecreation of a religious state violate?

As the United States prepared to celebrate its bicentennial on July 4, 1976, a reporterasked Stoyan Christowe for his views on the state of the nation on the eve of its 200th birth-day. The 77-year-old Vermont resident acknowledged that the United States was “in prettybad shape,” but added that the country would turn around—as it always had.

“I believe in this country. I’ve always believed in it. There is a quotation by BenjaminFranklin, in a letter to George Washington during the Revolutionary War. Franklin talked of acornfield during a drought, and how the cornstalks have shriveled and curled, and it was asad sight. And then, he said a thunderstorm came along, spilling rain, and a day or twoafter, the sun came out, and the corn came to life, and it was a delight. . . . I know we’regoing through a kind of turmoil now, but the country is okay. . . . My faith in this countrywas never shaken. Like that cornfield—the sun will shine again, and the rains will come,and brother, those cornstalks will revive, and it will be a beautiful sight.”

—quoted in Newsweek, July 4, 1976

1971All in the Familydebuts


✦ 1973 ✦ 1979

The Search for FulfillmentLike Stoyan Christowe, many Americans in the 1970s believed that the United States

would eventually move beyond the Watergate scandal, the Vietnam War, and the coun-try’s nagging economic problems. In the meantime, some Americans sought ways to get

The “Me” Decade: Life in the 1970s

Main Idea In the midst of widespread cynicismabout their leaders and concerns aboutthe economy, Americans sought fulfill-ment and escape during the 1970s.

Key Terms and NamesNew Age movement, guru, transcendental meditation, All in the Family, disco

Reading StrategyCategorizing As you read about life inthe United States in the 1970s, completea graphic organizer similar to the onebelow by listing the changes thatoccurred in family life during that time.

Reading Objectives• Explain the emergence of new spiritual

movements and religions.• Discuss social changes of the 1970s.

Section ThemeCulture and Traditions Even after theturbulent 1960s, American culture contin-ued changing to reflect new trends andideas.

✦ 1970 ✦ 1976

1977Disco mania peaks with release of Saturday NightFever; The Complete Book of Running published

Changes inFamily Life

1974Good Timesdebuts

Cover of StoyanChristowe’s book

on with their daily lives. As a way of coping withanxious times, they sought escape, laughter, and ful-fillment in a wide range of fads, entertainment, andspiritual movements.

Writer Tom Wolfe labeled the 1970s the “medecade,” referring to the idea that many Americansgrew more self-obsessed in this decade as they strovefor greater individual satisfaction. Indeed, the mostpopular books of the period included such titles asI’m OK, You’re OK; How to Be Your Own Best Friend;and Looking Out for Number One. Journalist RichardMichael Levine argued that in light of the growingfeelings of despair and cynicism about American soci-ety, it was little wonder that many people turnedinward. “In the damp, late autumn of 1973, it did nottake a religious fanatic in a tattered overcoat to sensethat the real Kingdom lay within, things being as rot-ten as they were without,” he wrote. In their quest forself-improvement, many Americans were willing toembrace new movements.

The New Age Movement Disenchanted with theconventional religions of their parents, some youngmen and women sought fulfillment through the hostof secular movements and activities that made up the New Age movement. New Age enthusiastsembraced the idea that people were responsible forand capable of everything from self-healing to creat-ing the world. They believed spiritual enlightenmentcould be found in common practices, not just in tradi-tional churchgoing. They tried activities such asyoga, martial arts, and chanting to achieve fuller spir-itual awareness. Kathy Smith, a college student dur-ing the 1970s, recalled how she and others claimed tofind “Zen,” or enlightenment, in running and otherphysical activities:

“They were beginning to understand how exerciseaffects your soul, how it affects your being. Peoplestarted getting in the ‘Zen’ of things: the Zen of tennis,the Zen of working out, the Zen of motorcycle repair,the Zen of running. I, like many others, started con-necting physical activity to the spiritual side. Peoplealso started looking at yoga and tai chi, and not onlythe stretching aspects of these disciplines but themental aspects. Now they were working the body, themind, and the spirit.”

—quoted in The Century

The New Age movement took many different pathsto transform individuals and society. Some New Agersextolled the power of crystals and gemstones toimprove life; others touted astrology. Some were

inspired by the Eastern belief in reincarnation, whichtaught that people could be reborn many times untilreaching perfection. Awareness of former lives wassupposed to bring knowledge of the true inner self.

Transcendental Meditation Many Americans whowere dissatisfied with established religions sought newreligions. A number of these new religions originatedin Asia and centered on the teachings of gurus, or mys-tical leaders. One of the more well-known gurus wasMaharishi Mahesh Yogi. A native of India, Maharishimoved to the United States in 1959, where he led a spir-itual movement known as transcendental meditation.Maharishi worked in relative obscurity until 1967,when the wildly popular rock group the Beatles beganto explore his teachings. Their attention brought anAmerican following. Transcendental meditation sug-gested daily meditation and the silent repetition ofspiritual mantras as a way of achieving peak intelli-gence, harmony, and health. If all the people on Earthpracticed transcendental meditation, its advocatesbelieved, the world would enjoy peace.

Changing Families The search for fulfillment hadan impact on many American families. The cam-paigns of the era, especially the women’s movement,began to change how many women viewed theirroles as wives and mothers. By 1970, 60 percent ofwomen between the ages of 16 and 24 had joined the

East Meets West Beatles GeorgeHarrison (left) and John Lennon (right)helped Maharishi Mahesh Yogi gainfame when they embraced his tran-scendental meditation movement.

labor force. Between 1970 and 1980, women aged 25to 34 had the largest annual percentage growth in theworkforce.

These changes in turn led to changes in family life.With women increasingly active outside the home,smaller families became the norm. The birthrate fellto an all-time low in 1976, and parents and their chil-dren began spending less time together. A greaternumber of families also split apart, as the divorce ratedoubled from 2.5 divorces per thousand people in1966 to 5 per thousand 10 years later.

Summarizing What were the basicbeliefs of the New Age movement?

Cultural Trends in the 1970sPopular culture in the 1970s reflected many of the

changes taking place in society. Television now some-times portrayed women in independent roles or tookon formerly taboo subjects such as racism, poverty, and abortion. Meanwhile, Americans listened anddanced to new forms of music and sought fun and escape in a variety of new fads.

TURNING POINT

Television in the 1970s The decade opened with arevolutionary new situation comedy on Saturdaynights. Unlike earlier sitcoms, The Mary Tyler MooreShow featured an unmarried woman with a

meaningful career at its center. Actress Mary TylerMoore played the main character, Mary Richards,who had left a small town for a big-city job as a tele-vision news producer. Mary sparred with her gruffbut caring boss, despaired over the shallowness ofthe blow-dried news announcer, and had adventureswith friends. Mary also went on dates but never gotaround to marrying.

The debut of the sitcom All in the Family inJanuary 1971 marked an even bigger turning point intelevision programming. The show took risks byconfronting potentially volatile social issues and byfeaturing a controversial hero, the blue-collar andbigoted Archie Bunker. Archie called his wife Edith“Dingbat” and his liberal son-in-law “Meathead.” Healso mocked his feminist daughter and various ethnicgroups. Though Archie prided himself on being theman of the house, he never won any arguments withhis liberal family or his African American neighbors.

By carefully mixing humor and sensitive issuesand by not preaching to its audience, All in the Familyprovided viewers with a way to examine their ownfeelings about issues such as racism. ProducerNorman Lear claimed that the show “holds a mirrorup to our prejudices. . . . We laugh now, swallowingjust the littlest bit of truth about ourselves. . . .”

Several years later, Archie Bunker’s AfricanAmerican neighbors became the stars of anothertelevision series, The Jeffersons. George Jefferson, likeArchie, was opinionated and prejudiced but

Reading Check


• Bee GeesDisco fans around the country andthe world danced to the sounds ofthe Australian group the Bee Gees.The movie Saturday Night Feverfeatured their music and cata-pulted them into the limelight.

DiscoThe counterculture of the 1960s pro-vided music designed to raise people’sconsciousness of social issues. The discomusic of the 1970s, with its simple lyricsand intense beats, was designed simplyto entertain. By the end of the decade,millions of people throughout the nationand the world were dancing under flash-ing disco lights.

• FashionNew styles of clothing, first associatedwith disco patrons, became commonfor everyone. Men wore brightly pat-terned synthetic shirts, bell-bottom

pants, and platform shoes or boots.Women wore wildly patterneddresses or jumpsuits with highheels or boots.

ultimately likable. The Jeffersons portrayed AfricanAmericans in a new light: as successful andrespected. Maude, another spin-off from All in theFamily, featured Edith Bunker’s feminist cousin, whohad recently remarried after her third divorce. Thestrong-willed Maude did not need to depend on hernew husband, Walter. This popular program drewintense controversy in 1972 when Maude made thedifficult decision to have an abortion.

Maude’s African American maid, Florida, gener-ated another series in 1974. Starring Esther Rolle asFlorida, Good Times portrayed an African Americanfamily struggling to raise three children in a low-income housing development in Chicago.

Music of the 1970s The music of this periodreflected the end of the 1960s youth and protest move-ments. The hard-driving rock of the tumultuous 1960sgave way to softer sounds. “The fading out of ear-numbing, mind-blowing acid rock,” Time commentedin 1971, “is related to the softening of the youth revolu-tion.” The music became more reflective and less polit-ical, reflecting a desire to seek fulfillment from within.“These days, nobody wants to hear songs that have amessage,” said a member of the rock group Chicago.Popular entertainers in tune with the new meditativeatmosphere included singers Barry Manilow and JohnDenver and the bands ABBA and the Eagles.

The 1970s also saw the rise of disco music. Thedisco craze of the later 1970s began in African

American and Latin nightclubs. There, disc jockeysplayed recorded dance music with a loud and per-sistent beat. The fast pace and easy rhythm attractedfans, but disco also seemed well suited for the “megeneration.” Unlike rock ’n’ roll, disco allowed thepeople dancing to it to assume greater prominencethan the music. As the co-owner of a popular dis-cotheque in New York described the phenomena,“Everybody secretly likes to be on center stage andhere we give them a huge space to do it all on.”

Gus Rodriguez, who had moved with his familyfrom Puerto Rico to Brooklyn 20 years earlier, recalledgoing to discos with his friends in the mid-1970s:

“We would go to the discos several times a week,but the weekends were always the best. Getting readyto go out was sort of a ritual, especially on Saturdays.During the day you would go buy that shirt, or thatbelt, or those platform shoes, all of which seemedincredibly important at the time. You had to have aparticular type of look. And we all dressed the sameway. We would call each other up to coordinate whatcolor suits everybody was wearing—who’s wearingthe powder-blue suit, who’s wearing the white suit,who’s wearing this, who’s wearing that. And then wewould carefully iron everything so it was just so.”

—quoted in The Century

Disco mania reached its peak after the 1977 movie,Saturday Night Fever. In the film, a middle-class

• Saturday Night FeverJohn Travolta played the role of Tony Manero in this 1977film. By day Tony worked as a clerk in a Brooklyn store. At night, however, he transformed himself into a discostar. A popular success, the film showed Tony as a youngworking-class kid with a dream to escape his ordinaryexistence. Life at the disco provided a road to that escape.

All in the Family Many Americans saw a little of themselves in the charactersof this popular sitcom.

Italian American teenager played by John Travoltatransformed himself into a white-suited disco kingeach Saturday night. The movie’s soundtrack soldmillions of copies and spurred a wave of disco open-ings across the country and around the world.

Fads and Fashions In addition to disco, the nationembraced many other fads during the 1970s.Americans by the millions bought T-shirts that borepersonalized messages, while teenagers flew downsuburban and city streets on skateboards. Obsessedwith self-discovery, a number of Americans slippedmood rings on their fingers to get in touch with theirinnermost feelings. Supposedly, the ring’s colorchanged to match the wearer’s ever-changing mood.Blue, for example, signaled happiness and bliss,while gray denoted nervousness and anxiety.

Meanwhile, millions of drivers bought citizensband (“CB”) radios for their vehicles. This radiosystem allowed drivers to talk to each other over atwo-way frequency within a range of a few miles.Many truck drivers installed the radios in an effort towarn each other of police and speed traps. Soon,however, average drivers had purchased them,mostly for entertainment purposes. Drivers adoptedtheir own CB name, or “handle,” and talked to eachother using CB jargon and code words.

Fitness was another trend during the “medecade,” as many Americans turned to exercise toimprove the way they felt and looked. One populartype of exercise in the 1970s was aerobics. PhysicianKenneth H. Cooper popularized the exercise conceptin his 1968 book Aerobics. It was a way to achieve car-diovascular fitness without the drudgery and isola-tion that often accompanies physical exercise. Thisnew way to stay fit while having fun and interactingsocially with others quickly gained popularity. By themid-1970s, men and women were dancing in gymsacross the country. Running also attracted a wide fol-lowing, as scores of Americans began pounding thepavement to stay fit and trim. In a testament to thepopularity of running, athlete Jim Fixx’s work TheComplete Book of Running was a bestseller followingits publication in 1977.

By the end of the 1970s, a number of these fads andtrends began to fade. A decade in which Americanscame to recognize their country’s vulnerability and itslimits had ended. As the new decade dawned,Americans looked forward to regaining confidence intheir country and optimism in their own futures.

Examining What was the impact ofdisco music on American society?

Reading Check


Checking for Understanding1. Define: guru, transcendental

meditation, disco.2. Identify: New Age movement, All in

the Family.3. Summarize the basic beliefs of follow-

ers of transcendental meditation.

Reviewing Themes4. Culture and Traditions What new cul-

tural trends affected American societyin the 1970s?

Critical Thinking5. Analyzing How did television in the

1970s reflect society at that time?6. Organizing Complete a graphic organ-

izer similar to the one below by listingthe cultural trends of the 1970s.


photographs in the “What Life WasLike” feature on pages 972–973. Howhas popular music and fashion changedsince the 1970s?

8. Descriptive Writing View a televisionprogram that was popular in the 1970s.Write a description of the program andexplain how it reflected society at thattime.

Cultural Trendsof the 1970s


Put on a Happy Face Throughout the 1960s and1970s, the nation experienced a “button craze” aspeople expressed themselves by pinning buttons withslogans to their clothing. The most popular buttonactually said nothing at all. In 1971 Americans beganbuying a yellow button with asimple smile on it. By the fallof 1971, marketers esti-mated that more than 20million smile buttonshad been sold, making itthe most popular faditem since the hula hoop.

975

Critical Thinking

Why Learn This Skill?This textbook, like many other history books, is a

secondary source. Secondary sources draw fromprimary sources to explain a topic. The value of asecondary source depends on how its author usesprimary sources. Learning to analyze secondarysources will help you figure out whether thosesources are presenting a complete and accuratepicture of a topic or event.

Learning the SkillTo determine whether an author uses primary

sources effectively, ask these questions:

• Are there references to primary sources in thetext, footnotes, or acknowledgments?

• Who are the authors of the primary sources?What insights or biases might these people have?

• Is the information from the primary sources inter-woven effectively to support or describe an event?

• Are different kinds of primary sources consid-ered? Do they represent varied testimony?

• Is the interpretation of the primary sourcessound and logical?

Practicing the SkillIn the following excerpt from The Cold War,

1945–1987, author Ralph B. Levering discussesPresident Carter’s China policy. Carter sent hisnational security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, toChina to encourage better relations and thus putpressure on the Soviets. As you read, identify the pri-mary sources Levering uses to make his argument.

During his trip to Peking, Brzezinski did everything hecould to please the Chinese leaders. . . . He stressed repeat-edly the evil nature of the Soviet Union. . . . Upon hisreturn, Brzezinski told a New York Times reporter thatthe trip was intended to “underline the long-term strategicnature of the United States’ relationship to China.”

. . . Soviet leaders were deeply concerned. An editorialin Pravda on May 30, 1978, stated that Brzezinski“stands before the world as an enemy of détente.”

Pravda also blamed China, stating on June 17 that“Soviet-American confrontation . . . is the cherisheddream of Peking.” On the whole, U.S. officials were notdispleased by the Kremlin’s anger and concern: perhapsit would make Soviet leaders more anxious to concludethe SALT negotiations and more inclined to showrestraint in the Third World.

1 What kind of primary source does Levering usetwice in this passage?

2 Do you think this kind of primary source hasany possible weaknesses?

3 Would the use of government documentsstrengthen the author’s argument? Why or whynot?

Skills AssessmentComplete the Practicing Skills questions on page

977 and the Chapter 32 Skill ReinforcementActivity to assess your mastery of this skill.

Analyzing Secondary Sources

Applying the SkillAnalyzing Secondary Sources Find and read an in-depth article in a newspaper. Then list the primarysources the article uses and analyze how reliable youthink they are.

Glencoe’s Skillbuilder Interactive WorkbookCD-ROM, Level 2, provides instruction andpractice in key social studies skills.

President Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon visiting theGreat Wall of China during their historic 1972 trip.

Reviewing Key Facts12. Identify: Southern strategy, Sam J. Ervin, OPEC, New Age

movement.

13. What were the main aspects of President Nixon’s domesticand foreign policies?

14. What was the impact of the Watergate scandal on theAmerican people?

15. Why did President Nixon freeze wages and prices in the early1970s?

16. What factors caused economic problems in the United Statesin the 1970s?

17. What changes in family life occurred in the United States inthe 1970s?

Critical Thinking18. Analyzing Themes: Government and Democracy How did

the Watergate scandal affect the relationship among thethree branches of government?

19. Evaluating What impact did cultural phenomena such asdisco music, the use of CB radios, and exercise trends haveon the U.S. economy?

20. Forming an Opinion Alexander Haig stated that theWatergate scandal led to “a fundamental discrediting ofrespect for the presidency . . . [and] a new skepticism aboutpolitics, in general, which every American feels to this day.”Do you agree with his statement? Why or why not?

21. Interpreting Primary Sources When the Arab-Israeli Warof 1973 developed into a stalemate, the Arab nationsimposed an oil embargo on the United States, the chief sup-porter of Israel. Because Arab countries supplied much of theoil used in the United States, the embargo created an energycrisis. The excerpt below is taken from an article in theDecember 3, 1973, issue of U.S. News & World Report. Itdetails the growing energy problems that the United Stateswas facing at that time. Read the excerpt and answer thequestions that follow.

“Evidence of the full dimensions of the energy crisis in thiscountry is becoming more clear each day.

• Electric-power brownouts, even blackouts, are predictedfor many parts of the U.S. before the end of the year.

• Voltage reduction of 5 percent from 4 P.M. to 8 P.M. eachday was ordered starting November 26 in all six NewEngland States, where fuel shortages threaten homes,schools, factories. . . .

• As a first step to cut gasoline use, President Nixon wasreportedly ready to order closing of service stationsnationwide from 9 P.M. Saturday to midnight Sunday on weekends. . . .

1. impound2. détente3. summit4. executive privilege5. impeach6. inflation

7. embargo8. stagflation9. guru

10. transcendental meditation11. disco

Reviewing Key TermsOn a sheet of paper, use each of these terms in a sentence.

Uniting aDivided Country

• Nixon’s conservative politicsappeal to “Middle America.”

• Nixon begins pulling ground troops out of Vietnam.

• Tensions withSoviet Union andChina ease.

• Nixon signs treaty limiting nuclear arms.

Scandal andEconomic Turmoil

• Watergate scandalbrings down Nixon.

• Congress enacts new laws to limit presidential power.

• Inflation, energy crisis, and foreign competition causeeconomic slowdown.

• Ford and Carter fail to revive economy.

ChallengingTraditional Values

• New Age movement advocatesself-fulfillment.

• More women join the workforce.• Television shows prominently

feature African Americans andindependent women;address sensitiveissues such asracism and abortion.


• Immediate rationing of gasoline and fuel oil is beingurged on the President by top oil-industry executives. . . .

One major piece of legislation . . . directs the President totake measures necessary to reduce the nation’s energydemands by 25 percent within four weeks.

Speed limits would be cut nationally; lighting and heat-ing of public and commercial buildings would be cur-tailed; home-owners would be given tax deductions towinterize their homes. . . .

Other pending measures would impose year-round day-light saving time and would open naval oil reserves forintensive exploration. . . .”

a. What proposals did the U.S. government make to dealwith the energy crisis?

b. What lessons do you think the United States might havelearned from the crisis?

22. Categorizing Complete a chart similar to the one below bylisting the attempts each president made to strengthen thenation’s economy.

Practicing Skills23. Analyzing Secondary Sources Examine the Bob Woodward

quotation on Watergate’s impact on page 962. Then use thesteps you learned on the subject of analyzing secondarysources on page 975 to answer the following questions.a. Who is Bob Woodward, and how was he related to the

Watergate scandal?

b. How knowledgeable or reliable do you think Woodwardis as a source? Why do you think so?

Chapter Activity24. Researching Artifacts One useful way of learning about cul-

tures of different periods is by examining artifacts from theera. Many of these artifacts can be found in museums andart galleries, while others may be found in your own home.What sorts of artifacts could you find about the 1970s? Whatwould they tell you about the culture and lifestyle of that era?Create a chart listing possible artifacts and how they repre-sent the 1970s.

Writing Activity25. Persuasive Writing Imagine you are an aide to President

Nixon during the early 1970s. Nixon has just returned fromhis historic mission to China to establish diplomatic relationswith the Communist nation. Write a press release on thepresident’s trip for reporters, explaining the reasons Nixonreversed American policy and the expected benefits fromdoing so.

Economics and History26. The graph above shows inflation rates in the United States

from 1960 to 1992. Study the graph and answer the ques-tions below.a. Interpreting Graphs How did the nation’s inflation rate

change between 1965 and 1980?

b. Determining Cause and Effect What factor was mostimportant in causing this change?

Self-Check QuizVisit the American Vision Web site at tav.glencoe.comand click on Self-Check Quizzes—Chapter 32 toassess your knowledge of chapter content.

HISTORY

StandardizedTest Practice

Directions: Choose the phrase that bestcompletes the following sentence.

As a political conservative, President Nixon wanted to

A increase federal spending on welfare programs.

B take more aggressive federal action to speed desegregation.

C return power to state governments.

D appoint activist-minded justices to the Supreme Court.

Test-Taking Tip: Think of the meaning of political conser-vative: someone who believes that the federal government’srole in society should be limited. Choose the answer thatbest reflects this meaning.

President Attempts to Strengthen Economy

NixonFordCarter

Inflation, 1960–1992

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1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1992

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Documents

A Changing Society - saralandboe.org