Effects of the Cold War

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Effects of the Cold War

• Defining Americas Society and Global Role

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OVERVIEW

• In this lesson we examine
• Social and economic costs of Vietnam
• The causes and effects of Watergate
• America and the end of the Cold War

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Costs of the Vietnam War

• Context Question
• What social and economic issues did Europe face
  between WWI and WWII?

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Costs of the Vietnam War

• Reduced government spending
• Price and wage freezes to control inflation and
  unemployment
• Extended Medicare to disabled citizens under 65

• Helped China join the UN
• Visited and negotiated economic development with
  China
• Signed the SALT 1 Agreements to limit nuclear
  weapons
• Signs Paris Accords in 1973 to end American
  involvement in Vietnam

Unlike in previous wars, veterans from Vietnam
were not seen as heroes by a large portion of
the American population. Political and social
divisions were numerous and deep. Nixon attempted
to restore faith in American domestic and foreign
policy
In what way could a less aggressive foreign
policy compliment domestic policy?
5
Watergate

• Burglars were caught trying to bug and wiretap
  the Democratic Party headquarters in the
  Watergate Hotel
• The burglars confessed that they had been ordered
  by leaders of CREEP (Committee to Re-elect the
  President) to break into the office
• Senate investigations revealed that Nixon had
  many conversations about Watergate taped from
  Whitehouse offices

Nixons success in the economy, Vietnam and in
normalizing relations with China resulted in his
successful re-election in 1972, but during his
campaign, certain events would ruin his
presidential career
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Watergate

• Nixon said, I am not a crook
• In an attempt to retrieve the tapes, Congress
  takes Nixon to court he argues that executive
  privilege meant that the tapes did not have to
  be disclosed
• Evidence later showed that the Presidents office
  did not order or know about the break-in but
  attempted a cover up

As the Senate investigation focused on Nixons
tape recordings, Nixon defended himself
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Watergate

• Congress immediately voted for impeachment (to
  put the President on trial) for withholding the
  tapes
• Nixon handed over the tapes and resigned on Aug
  9, 1974 because the tapes would show his
  involvement in a cover-up
• President Ford gave Nixon a Presidential pardon

When the case was brought to the Supreme Court,
they ruled that the tapes had to be released.
How might American allies have reacted to the
effects of the Vietnam conflict and the Watergate
Scandal?
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The End of the Cold War

• Context Question
• Without competition from the Soviet Union for
  spheres of influence, what might happen to US
  foreign policy?

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The End of the Cold War

• US budgetary deficits skyrocketed and US debt
  would rise from 995 billion to 2.5 trillion by
  the end of his presidency
• Reduced restrictions on oil prices and lifted
  embargo on exporting wheat to the USSR

• Reaganomics reduced income taxes and capital
  gains taxes most reductions were for the rich -
  trickle-down
• Reduced support for many welfare and social
  programs that had been installed since the days
  of Roosevelt
• Did not favour policies friendly to feminists,
  unions and minorities

In 1980, Ronald Reagan was elected president. His
domestic and foreign policies were dramatically
different from his predecessors, Carter and Ford
What were the possible long-term consequences of
Reagans policies?
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The End of the Cold War

• 1991 The US led a UN coalition against Iraq,
  which had invaded Kuwait
• 1999 The US led a NATO operation against Serbian
  military actions against its own population in
  the province of Kosovo
• 2001 The US attacked the Taliban government of
  Afghanistan for refusing to hand over Osama bin
  Laden
• 2003 The US led a pre-emptive war against Iraq
  for possibly possessing weapons of mass
  destruction no considerable amount was ever
  found

Up to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991,
the United States was no longer faced with a
major global competitor for social, economic and
political influence. In the immediate years which
followed, America followed different paths
Were these actions more internationalist or
unilateral?
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SUMMARY QUESTIONS

• Why was the Vietnam War so different for American
  society when compared to previous wars?
• What was Nixons dual purpose of trying to reduce
  tensions in the Cold War through détente?
• What did the Watergate scandal represent for the
  US and the world?
• Why did US foreign policy struggle to find
  purpose after the Cold War?