RECONSIDERING NATIONAL PRIORITIES

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CHAPTER 27
19721979

• RECONSIDERING NATIONAL PRIORITIES

CREATED EQUAL JONES ? WOOD ? MAY ? BORSTELMANN ?
RUIZ
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In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong
families, close knit communities, and our faith
in God, too many of us now tend to worship
self-indulgence and consumption.

• President Jimmy Carter, 1979

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TIMELINE

• 1972 February Nixon announces visit to China
• May Détente initiated during summit meeting
• June Watergate break-in
• Nixon wins reelection
• Nike shoes founded
• Ms. Magazine published
• Title IX of the Educational Amendments
• 1973 The Ervin Committee hearings
• October OPECs boycott begins
• The War Powers Act
• Roe v. Wade
• Billie Jean King vs. Bobby Riggs

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TIMELINE continued

• 1974 August Nixon resigns
• Jackson-Vanik Amendment
• 1975 April Saigon falls to NLF and North
  Vietnamese
• Hudson River found to be riddled with PCBs
• 1976 All the Presidents Men
• Jimmy Carter elected President
• 1977 Panama Canal Treaty signed
• Trans-Atlantic Pipeline completed
• 1978 Love Canal sealed off
• The China Syndrome
• 1979 March Camp David Accords signed

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RECONSIDERING NATIONAL PRIORITIES Overview

• Twin Shocks Détente and Watergate
• Discovering the Limits of the U.S. Economy
• Reshuffling Politics
• Diffusing the Womens Movement

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TWIN SHOCKS DÉTENTE AND WATERGATE

• Triangular Diplomacy
• Scandal in the White House
• A President Laid Low

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Triangular Diplomacy

• The Triangle U.S., Russia, and China
• Nixon first U.S. President to visit China (1972)
• Initiates détente with Soviets

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Scandal in the White House

• June 17, 1972 Nixons reelection campaign breaks
  into Democratic National Committee Headquarters
  in the Watergate Hotel
• Cover-up at White House ensues
• Secrecy and wire-tapping
• Publication of the Pentagon Papers in 1971
• Investigative reporting by Woodward and Bernstein
• Senate Watergate hearings and the tapes
• August 9, 1974 Nixon resigns

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A President Laid Low

• The Watergate shadow
• Percentage of voters decreases
• Mistrust of politicians and politics
• Questions on the balance of powers
• Vice President Gerald Ford assumes office and
  grants a full pardon to Nixon

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DISCOVERING THE LIMITS OF THE U.S. ECONOMY

• The End of the Long Boom
• The Oil Embargo
• The Environmental Movement

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The End of the Long Boom

• Stagflation
• War spending
• Wages drop
• Unemployment rise
• More citizens living in poverty
• Gap between rich and poor widens
• Drop in productivity
• U.S. corporations move jobs to Mexico
• Maquiladoras
• Anti-immigrant sentiments

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The Oil Embargo

• Israel seizes control of the West Bank and Gaza
  Strip
• 6 years later, Egypt and Syria attack Israel on
  Yom Kippur
• Kissinger diplomacy brings ceasefire and Arab
  resentment of U.S.-Israel ties
• October, 1973 OPEC begins embargo on selling oil
  to the U.S. or western European nations that
  supported Israel in the war

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Imported Petroleum as Share of U.S. Consumption
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The Environmental Movement

• Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation and
  Audubon Society increases membership
• Capitalistic growth with finite resources
• Acid rain, smog, rainforest destruction, oil
  spills, nuclear waste disposal, species
  extinction, ozone depletion, global warming,
  toxic chemicals
• Cigarette smoking declines, organic foods,
  popularity of running, recycling, DDT banned,
  reduction on national speed limit to 55mph

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RESHUFFLING POLITICS

• Congressional Power Reasserted
• I Will Never Lie to You
• Rise of a Peacemaker
• The War on Waste

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Congressional Power Reasserted

• War Powers Act of 1973 President cannot wage war
  for more than 90 days without consent of Congress
• Jackson-Vanik Amendment ties human rights to
  détente
• Congressional investigations of CIA, FBI, My Lai

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I Will Never Lie to You

• Jimmy Carter wins Presidency in 1976
• A reaction to the previous years of corruption
• A poor economy and a fragmentation in the
  Democratic party for the new president
• Moralistic views and a desire to balance the
  federal budget hampers Carters work with the
  Congress

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Rise of a Peacemaker

• Pardon of draft resisters
• Promotion of human rights
• Desire to end racial discrimination
• Reigns in CIA and fires G.H.W. Bush
• Signs treaties giving Panama sovereignty over
  canal
• Camp David Accords

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The War on Waste

• the Moral equivalent of war conservation of
  energy
• Department of Energy
• Tax incentives for development of alternative
  sources of energy
• Revolution in Iran

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DIFFUSING THE WOMENS MOVEMENT

• The Meanings of Womens Liberation
• New Opportunities in Education, the Workplace,
  and Family Life
• Equality Under the Law
• Backlash

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The Meanings of Womens Liberation

• Personal relationships
• Ms. Magazine
• Public arena
• Equal pay for equal work
• Law
• Bringing to light domestic abuse and rape

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New Opportunities in Education, the Workplace,
and Family Life

• Education Number of women law students increases
  by 35 in 10 years co-educational colleges
• Workplace women work in non-traditional jobs
  such as police office, construction workers
  success in the professional careers such as
  doctors and lawyers
• Family Lifemore women in workforce changes role
  at home, chores shared with husband, but often in
  addition to outside job. Divorce rates climb as
  well.

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Equality Under the Law

• Title IX comparable dollars for mens and
  womens sports programs
• Equal Rights Amendment approved by Congress and
  sent to states for ratification
• Roe v. Wade grants women right to make decision
  of whether to continue a pregnancy
• The Selective Service Act of 1980

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Backlash

• Womens new found economic independence and
  educational opportunities alter male-female
  relationships
• Resistance from womens groups
• Shaflys stop-ERA campaign helps defeat
  ratification
• Hyde Amendment no Medicaid funds for indigent to
  have abortions