Chapter 31

Power and Politics Since 1974

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Gerald R. Ford as president.

(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

• Served as Pres & VP without being elected

• Pardoned Nixon• End of NAM

1976 Election

• Ford and his wife Betty after 1976 Republican nomination

• Ford and Carter debate

Jimmy Carter

(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

• Gov of GA• Christian• Peanut farmer• incorruptible

(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

Presidential Election, 1976

• OPEC crisis (1970s)• Inflation &

unemployment• amnesty

Shah ousted in Iran (1979)

• US put Shah in power (1953)

• President Carter toasted the Shah at a state dinner in Tehran, calling him "an island of stability"

Iranian Hostage Crisis

• 66 Americans taken hostage in Tehran, Iran

• Rescue mission failed (1980)

• Hostages released

Reagan’s landslide win (1980)

“Are you better off now than you were four years ago?”

• Cut spending & wasteful programs

• Tax cuts• Stronger defense

Reagan, 1981-1989

Reagan’s assassination attempt (March 30, 1981)

US Abroad

Lebanon (1982)• 241 Marines killed in

suicide bombing• US withdraws from

Lebanon

US Abroad (continue)

Grenada (1983)• US troops overthrew

gov’t

Nicaragua (1983-4)• funded anti-

Sandinista Contras• Iran-Contra Affair

(1986)

Denounced Soviet Union as an “evil empire”

Bush elected 1988

• “read my lips: no new taxes”

• Fall of the Berlin Wall, 1989

• Cold War ends (1991)

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Collapse of the Soviet Bloc

1990-91 Gulf War

Gulf War 1990-91

• Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait (Aug, 1990)

• US led coalition oust Iraq (1991) • Goal achieved coalition returns

home

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Presidential Election, 1992

Clinton elected 1992

• Job creation• Deficit reduction• Overhaul of health

care & welfare• “robust economy”

(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

Presidential Election, 1996

Impeachment• Impeached (1998)• Not removed (1999)

2000 election

Bin Laden, mastermind of 9-11

US takes down Taliban & Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan (2001)

US invades Iraq (03/2003)

US invasion of Iraq (2003)

Iraq: brink of civil war?

Rumsfeld resigns (2006)

War in Iraq

• 3,000 US soldiers have died / 20k wounded

• 50k+ killed in Iraq

• $87 billion / year