Nixon

1
Nixons Vietnam

• In the summer of 1969 Pres. Nixon announced the
  first withdraw of troops from Vietnam
• Negotiations with N. Vietnam were at an impasse
• The U.S. and S. Vietnam demanded that all N.
  Vietnamese forces withdraw from S. Vietnam that
  Nguyen Van Thieu (new leader of S. Vietnam)
  remain in power
• The North Vietnamese insisted that
• U.S. troops withdraw from S.
• Vietnam and that the Thieu
• government step aside for a
• coalition govt that included the
• Vietcong

Below Nguyen Van Thieu w/ Pres. Johnson
2
Vietnamization

• Pres. Nixon conferred with his new National
  Security Advisor Henry Kissinger (an emigrant who
  had earned 3 degrees from Harvard)
• They developed a plan known as VIETNAMIZATION
• Vietnamization called for the gradual withdrawal
  of U.S. troops in order for the S. Vietnamese to
  take on a more active combat role
• The U.S. knew however that the S. Vietnamese
  couldnt stand on their own were admitting
  defeat
• By August of 1969 25,000 U.S. troops had returned
  home
• Over the next 3 years the number of troops in
  Vietnam went from 500,000 to 25,000
• Pres. Nixon was trying to acquire what he called
  Peace with Honor
• Pres. Nixon tried to keep dignity for the U.S. by
  this drawn out withdraw still demanded that the
  S. Vietnamese govt remain intact
• Even as the U.S. was pulling ground troops out
  Pres. Nixon ordered massive bombing attacks on
  North Vietnam and also on Vietcong supply lines
  in Cambodia and Laos

Above ARVN soldiers walking Through a rice
patty Below U.S. fighter bombers
3
My Lai Massacre

• In November of 1969 the New York Times reporter
  Seymour Hersh broke news about an incident in
  March of 1968 in the small village of My Lai in
  the northern part of S. Vietnam
• A U.S. platoon under the command of Lt. William
  Calley Jr. while searching for Vietcong rounded
  up more than 200 innocent Vietnamese (mostly
  women, children, and elderly men) and shot
  killed them
• One soldier when asked what their directive had
  been replied Kill anything that breathed
• The soldiers claimed that they were just
  following orders
• 25 soldiers were charged with some degree of
  responsibility but only Lt. Calley was convicted
  imprisoned

4
The Invasion of Cambodia

• The countries mood in 1970 was much less
  explosive
• Troops were coming home the end was
• in sight
• On April 30,1970 President Nixon announced that
  U.S. troops had
• invaded Cambodia to clear out N. Vietnamese
  Vietcong supply centers
• College students across the nation burst into
  protests
• Over 1.5 million college students closed down
  1,200 college campuses

5
The Invasion of Cambodia

• Despite Nixons election the bloody war in
  Vietnam raged on
• With the invasion of Cambodia the Vietcong N.
  Vietnamese efforts intensified as well
• American casualties mounted as did Vietcong

6
MeKong Delta

• The MeKong River delta area in South Vietnam near
  Saigon became a violent battle ground

7
Kent State Massacre
8
Kent State Massacre

• At Kent State University (Oh.) massive student
  protests led to the burning of the ROTC building
• On May 4, 1970 the mayor called the National
  Guard they fired live ammunition into a crowd
  of campus protesters who were hurling rocks at
  them
• The gunfire wounded nine people and killed four

Above National Guards guarding the burnt down
ROTC building Bottom Right National Guard
firing into the crowd Bottom Middle N. Guards on
field at Kent State Far Left Women agonizing
over dead friend
9
Kent State Massacre
10
Continued Protests

• Ten days later violence erupted on the all-black
  college of Jackson State in Mississippi
• National Guardsmen once again fired on a crowd of
  demonstrators that were throwing glass bottles
• 12 students were wounded and 2 were killed (both
  innocent bystanders)
• The country was sharply divided over the
  shootings
• Many people supported the Guardsmen felt that
  the students got what they asked for
• The Building and Construction Trades Council in
  New York held a rally with over 100,000 member
  supporting the government its actions

11
The Pentagon Papers

• After Nixon Kissinger embarked on a bombing
  then invasion policy towards Cambodia with out
  even informing Congress the U.S. Congress
  repealed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution on Dec. 31,
  1970
• In June of 1971 a former Defense Department
  worker leaked a 7,000 page document written by
  then Sec. of Defense Robert McNamara from
  (1967-1968)
• These documents revealed the govt had drawn up
  plans for entering the war even while Pres.
  Johnson had been promising not entering troops
• They also showed that the U.S. had no plans of
  leaving Vietnam
• The Pentagon Papers confirmed many peoples
  belief that the govt had not been honest about
  its war intentions

Sec. State Kissinger
Sec. Defense McNamara
President Johnson
12
The War continues

• In March of 1972 the North Vietnamese Vietcong
  launched their largest offensive since Tet
• President Nixon ordered a massive bombing of
  North Vietnamese cities
• He also ordered Haiphong harbor (where Soviet
  Chinese forces brought supplies) to be mined
• The bombings were able to stop the Vietnamese
  assault but the stalemate continued

13
The War continues

• With 1972 being an election year President Nixon
  decided to push for an end to hostilities in
  Vietnam
• Henry Kissinger handled the negotiations for the
  U.S. with Le Duc Tho from North Vietnam
• Finally in 1972 Nixon (Kissinger) and the U.S.
  dropped their demands that all North Vietnamese
  soldiers leave S. Vietnam before a U.S. withdrawl
• Kissinger announced that Peace
• is at hand
• shortly before
• the election

Sec. of State Henry Kissinger
14
RealPolitik

• President Nixon his National Security
• Advisor (later Sec. of State) Henry
• Kissinger changed U.S. foreign policy
• from that of containment to a new idea known as
  RealPolitik or Political Realism
• Under the U.S.s containment policy the U.S.
  refused to officially recognize countries with
  communist governments
• Under RealPolitik the U.S. would base decisions
  solely on consideration of power instead of moral
  ideals or principles
• Ignoring some counties if they were weak
• But recognizing powerful countries even if they
  were communist
• This new policy of détente meant a more flexible
  approach and negotiation with communist countries

15
Nixon visits China

• The U.S. had not formally recognized mainland
  China since the communist took over in 1949
• President Nixon reversed this policy in 1971 when
  he announced that he would visit the country to
  seek the normalization of relations between the
  two countries
• The Soviets and Chinese communists were feuding
  and had broken ties in 1960
• President Nixon wanted to take advantage of this
• In February of 1972 Nixon landed in Beijing met
  with Chinese premier Zhou En-lai
• This would also lay the groundwork for economic
  relations with the Chinese and their growing
  population

16
Nixon visits Moscow

• In May of 1972, 3 months after his visit to China
  Pres. Nixon went to the U.S.S.R. becoming the 1st
  U.S. President ever to do so
• Nixon and Soviet Premier Brezhnev began a series
  of meetings known as the Strategic Arms
  Limitation Talks (SALT)
• Nixon and Brezhnev signed the SALT I Treaty
• This was a 5 year agreement to limit the number
  of ICBMs (Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles)
  and submarine launched missiles to 1972 levels
• These are the missiles that could carry nuclear
  warheads to the U.S. from U.S.S.R. and vice-versa
• These Foreign Policy victories and a rosier
  outlook in Vietnam led to success in the 72
  election for Pres. Nixon

17
Nixon wins reelection
P.O.W.s celebrating their return home in 1973?

• Pres. Nixon wins reelection but peace did not
  come quickly
• The Thieu govt of S. Vietnam rejected
  Kissingers plan
• Talks between the two side broke off in Dec. of
  1972
• In a response to this Pres. Nixon ordered 11
  straight days of bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong
  (over 100,000 bombs) the two largest cities in N.
  Vietnam
• The two sides returned to the bargaining table
  and on Jan. 27th of 1973 the U.S. N. Vietnam
  signed an agreement ending the war known as the
  Paris Peace Accords
• On March 29, 1973 the last U.S. combat troops
  left for home
• For the U.S. the Vietnam War had ended

18
The Paris Peace Accords

• Despite U.S. troops leaving the battle
• the war in Vietnam raged on between
• North South Vietnam
• Just months after the U.S. withdrawal the
• cease-fire agreement was broken
• In March of 1975 after nearly two years
• of fighting the North Vietnamese launched
• a full-scale invasion against the South
• Thieu asked the U.S. for help but President Ford
  (whom had taken over for Nixon after Watergate)
  refused, providing only economic aid
• On April 30, 1975 North Vietnamese tanks rolled
  into Saigon captured the S. Vietnamese capital
• Soon after S. Vietnam surrendered to the North

19
The Legacy of Vietnam

• 58,000 Americans were killed
• and some 303,000 were
• wounded in Vietnam
• North South Vietnamese
• deaths reached over 2 million
• The result of the war led many
• Americans to be more cautious about foreign
  affairs more cynical towards the government
• The War Powers Act of 1973
• Said that the President must inform Congress
  within 48 hours of sending forces w/o a
  declaration of war
• Troops may remain there no longer than 90 days
  without congressional approval

Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C.
20
Vietnam after the War

• N. Vietnamese communists
• imprisoned more than 400,000
• South Vietnamese in
• reeducation or labor camps
• This prompted 1.5 million Vietnamese to flee
• Citizens who had supported U.S. war effort and
  businessmen whom the communists expelled when
  they nationalized the countries businesses
• Thousands of boat people or poor Vietnamese
  left with nothing and traveled across the S.
  China Sea in barges and row boats
• Nearly 50,000 died on the high seas from
  exposure, drowning, illness, or piracy
• U.S. invasion of Cambodia started a civil war in
  which the communist group Khmer Rouge began to
  execute professionals and others with education
  or foreign ties
• It is thought that over 1 million Cambodians were
  killed

21
Nixon after Vietnam

• President Nixon believed in shrinking
• the size of the federal government
• This became known as New
• Federalism
• President Nixon began advocating
• the Family Assistance
• Plan that would reduce the role of the Federal
  government and make welfare recipients
  responsible for their own lives
• Requiring work with welfare checks
• The bill passed the House before being rejected
  in the Senate
• Pres. Nixon increased Social Security, Medicare,
  and Medicaid payments

22
Nixon after Vietnam

• After his election in 1968 Pres. Nixon tried to
  both end the war in Vietnam and then restore
  order between the conservatives and the hippies
• Nixon used the FBI to illegally wiretap left-wing
  individuals including the Democratic offices in
  the Watergate Hotel
• He also used the CIA to investigate individuals
  and even the Internal Revenue Service to audit
  the tax returns of anti-war civil rights
  activists

23
Lasting Effects of the Counter culture

• This counter culture was responsible for a new
  feminist movement
• More women in the workforce
• The Roe v. Wade abortion decision (1973)
• Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal
  in the United States
• Anti-War protests that eventually led to the War
  Powers Act of 1973
• Restrictions on the President for using U.S.
  troops abroad
• Motown the birth of African-American artists
• Long hair and bright colorful clothing (tie-dye,
  beads, blue jeans)
• More drug use
• Greater emphasis on freedom of expression
• More violence in television and the movies

24
Lasting Effects of the Counter culture

• The casual aspect of the counter culture had a
  lasting effect
• American attitudes toward sexual behavior became
  more casual and permissive
• This led to the sexual revolution
• Magazines, books, music, and movies began to
  address the subject of sex and violence that had
  once been prohibited
• These liberal attitudes and changes were soon met
  with a conservative response that would lead to
  Richard Nixons election

25
Fight for Equality

• A new feminist movement began in the late 1960s
  1970s.
• A 1963 Presidential commission reported that
  women were paid far less than men even when doing
  the same jobs
• It also stated that women were seldom promoted to
  management positions, regardless of their
  education, experience, or ability
• The National Organization for Women (NOW) was
  established to protest womens rights founded by
  Betty Friedan
• By 1969 175,000 members had joined
• Gloria Steinem a liberal journalist political
  activist started the National Womens Political
  Caucus to encourage women to seek political
  office often spoke out for womens equality

Woman political activists Gloria Steinem
26
Fight for Equality

• In 1972 Congress passed the Equal Rights
  Amendment (ERA)
• It then needed the ratification of 38 states to
  be added to the constitution
• The bill would guarantee that both men women
  had the same rights under the law
• Some influential women such as conservative
  Phyllis Schlafly felt that there were unintended
  problems with this bill
• She said that it could lead to women being
  drafted into the military
• End of the husbands responsibility to provide for
  his family under the law
• Same-sex marriages
• The debate over this bill sparked a New Right
  movement to combat the new feminist movement
• This new right was known as a Pro Family
  movement against the Pro-Abortion, pro-ERA
  supporters
• They became focused on social, cultural, and
  moral problems
• By leading the Conservative charge Phyllis
  Schlafly changed the debate from political and
  economic to cultural
• The ERA went down in defeat in June of 1982 (the
  deadline for ratification)
• The womens movement had a large effect on
  peoples views attitudes
• A 1965 survey of Stanford Univ. graduates showed
  70 planned not to work when their children were
  preschool age
• A 1970 survey of Stanford Univ. graduates showed
  7 planned to stop working when their children
  were preschool age
• 1970 only 8 of medical school graduates 5 of
  law graduates were women
• 1998 42 of med. school graduates 44 of law
  school graduates were women

Conservative womans leader Phyllis Schlafly
27
Nixons Court

• During his 5 years in office President Nixon
  appointed 4 new members to the United States
  Supreme Court
• Chief Justice Warren Burger, Harry Blackmun,
  Lewis Powell, William Rehnquist
• Nixon tried appointing staunch southern
  conservatives that were generally unqualified to
  serve on the Supreme Court
• These appointments met much hostility and were
  rejected but did win Nixon much support from
  Southerners in the 1972 election
• Despite his attempt to make the court more
  conservative it remained moderate with only one
  of the four appointees having a conservative
  record

Lewis Powell
William Rehnquist
Warren Burger
Harry Blackmun
28
Stagflation

• During the first term of Nixons presidency the
  U.S. was involved in an economy that had high
  inflation and high unemployment
• This state is known as STAGFLATION
• High inflation was a result of the deficit
  spending by LBJ to fund both the Vietnam war and
  his Great Society programs
• High unemployment was the result of women, baby
  boomers and migrant workers entering the
  workforce as well as the U.S. reliance on foreign
  oil
• The U.S. received much of its oil from middle
  eastern oil producing countries of OPEC
  (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries)

29
Struggling Economy
30
Yom Kippur War

• On October 6, 1973 war broke out when the
  combined forces of Syria and Egypt invaded Israel
  on Yom Kippur the most sacred Jewish holiday
• Fighting only lasted 3 weeks but 7,700 Egyptians,
  7,700 Syrians, and 4,500 Israelis were killed or
  wounded
• The United States sent massive military aid to
  Israel (our longtime ally)
• The Arab OPEC nations responded by cutting off
  all oil sales to the U.S.
• When OPEC resumed its sale of oil to the U.S. in
  1974 the price had quadrupled

31
Watergate
32
Watergate

• At 230 a.m., on June 17, 1972 a
• guard at the Watergate office apartment
  complex caught 5 men breaking into the DNC
  (Democratic National Committee) headquarters.
• The burglars had planned to photograph documents
  wiretap phones
• The leader of this group was James McCord a
  former CIA agent head of security for the CRP
  (Committee to Reelect the President)
• Pres. Nixons former Attorney General John
  Mitchell was the head of the CRP

James McCord
CRP Head John Mitchell
33
The Watergate Cover-up

• Workers for the Presidents Chief of Staff H.R.
  Haldeman began shredding documents with
  connection to the break in
• The White House asked the CIA to urge the FBI to
  stop its investigation of the break in in the
  interest of national security
• The CRP paid nearly 450,000 to the Watergate
  burglars to buy their silence
• Despite all of these events the break in was of
  little interest to the American public during the
  1972 Presidential campaign
• President Nixon wins reelection in a landslide
  over George S. McGovern

White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman
Dem. Presidential Candidate George S. McGovern
34
Woodward and Bernstein

• Despite the seeming insignificance
• of the break in two reporters from the
  Washington Post Bob Woodward Carl Bernstein
  continued to investigate
• They would eventually write several articles that
  linked the break in to the White House
  Administration

Woodward Bernstein
Bob Woodward
Carl Bernstein
35
Watergate

• On March 20, 1973 a few days before the burglars
  were to be sentenced James McCord wrote a letter
  to the Judge of the case John Sirica telling him
  that he lied under oath and hinted that powerful
  members of the Nixon administration had been
  involved
• The Senate decided to investigate the Watergate
  incident in 1973
• In an attempt to distance himself from the
  incident President Nixon announced on April 30,
  1973 the resignations of White House counsel John
  Dean, Haldeman, and Ehrlichman (Presidents
  Domestic Advisor)
• The President also announced that his new
  Attorney General Elliot Richardson was to appoint
  a special prosecutor to investigate the break in

James McCord
President Nixon
John Ehrlichman
36
The Senate Investigation

• John Dean testified first and answered Senator
  Howard Bakers question What did the President
  know, when did he know it? by saying that
  President Nixon had been deeply involved in the
  cover-up
• The White House denied these accusations it
  became a his word against mine situation
• In July presidential aide Alexander Butterfield
  reveled to the committee that Pres. Nixon had
  taped virtually all of his Presidential
  conversations with a taping system that was
  installed in the White House

Sen. Howard Baker
White House Aide Alexander Butterfield
37
Saturday Night Massacre

• A year long battle for access to the Presidents
  tapes began
• Archibald Cox the Special prosecutor finally took
  the President to court in October of 1973 to
  obtain the tapes
• Nixon refused and ordered Attorney General
  Richardson to fire Cox
• Richardson refused to fire Cox resigned
• The Deputy Attorney General also refused the
  Presidential order was fired
• Solicitor General Robert Bork finally fired Cox
  but Coxs replacement Leon Jaworski was also
  determined to get access to the tapes
• Just days before the Saturday night massacre Vice
  President Spiro Agnew resigned after it was
  learned that he had accepted bribes when he was
  Governor of Maryland
• President Nixon nominated House Minority Leader
  Gerald Ford as his vice-president he was
  confirmed by Congress

Att. Gen. Richardson
Archibald Cox
Vice-Pres. Ford
Vice-Pres. Agnew
38
The Fall of a President

• In March of 1974 a grand jury indicted 7
  presidential aides on charges of conspiracy,
  obstruction of justice, and perjury
• In the spring of 1974 President Nixon announced
  on television that he was releasing 1,254 pages
  of edited transcripts of White House
  conversations about Watergate but still refused
  to release the unedited tapes
• The case then went to the Supreme Court
• On July 24, 1974 the Supreme Court ruled
  unanimously that the President must surrender the
  tapes despite his claims that doing so would
  violate national security

39
Watergate
40
Nixon Resigns

• Even without the tapes the
• House Judiciary Committee
• determined that there was
• enough evidence to impeach
• President Nixon
• On July 27, 1974 they approved
• three articles of impeachment
• charging Nixon with obstruction
• of justice, abuse of power,
• and contempt of Congress
• On August 5, 1974 Nixon release the tapes but
  they contained many gaps
• One of 18 ½ minutes which was claimed to have
  been accidentally erased by Nixons secretary
• The tapes showed that Nixon was aware of the
  break ins tried to cover them up
• On August 8th of 1974 before the House could vote
  on impeachment President Nixon announced his
  resignation but maintained his innocence

41
Nixon Resigns
42
Legacy of Watergate

• Eventually 25 members of Nixons administration
  were convicted served prison terms for
  Watergate
• Watergate along with Vietnam made the American
  public very cynical about the Presidency as well
  as public officials that endures to this day
• Gone were the reverence for the President shown
  for FDR JFK

43
Ford Takes Over
44
Ford Takes Over

• His first act was grant President Nixon a full
  pardon
• This prevented Nixon for any criminal charges as
  well as preventing his impeachment
• Ford claimed that he wanted to put the issue
  behind the country
• President Ford declared that Our long national
  nightmare is over
• This act cost Ford much public support
• President Ford nominates Nelson Rockefeller to
  fill the vacant Vice-Presidency in Dec. of 1974
• He is confirmed by the Senate

President Ford signing the pardon of President
Nixon
45
Ford Takes Over
46
Inflation

• When President Ford takes over the country was in
  the early stages of a recession
• Inflation unemployment were on the rise
• The OPEC oil price increase pushed gasoline
  heating oil prices up caused inflation to rise
  from 6 to 10
• Pres. Ford tried to combat the growing inflation
  by cutting government spending and raising
  interest rates this had the opposite effect
  however the country slipped further into a
  recession
• Ford also had to fight a Democratic controlled
  congress ended up vetoing over 50 pieces of
  legislation

47
Foreign Policy

• Ford continued President Nixons foreign policy
  leaning on Secretary of State Henry Kissinger
• Ford met with Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev in
  November of 1974
• Later President Ford would travel to Helsinki,
  Finland to meet with 35 nations sign a series
  of agreements that promised greater cooperation
• between the nations of Eastern
• Western Europe ? Helsinki
• Accords
• This would be President Fords
• greatest accomplishment

Sec. of State Kissinger
President Ford with Soviet Premier Brezhnev
48
Vietnam

• The 1973 cease-fire in Vietnam had broken down
  heavy fighting had broken out again after America
  had left
• President Ford asked Congress for 722 million to
  help South Vietnam but Congress refused
• Without Americas help South Vietnam surrendered
  to the North in 1975
• Later that year Communist Cambodia siezed the
  U.S. merchant ship Mayaguez in the gulf of Siam
• Ford responded by sending a massive military
  force to rescue the 39 crew members aboard the
  ship
• 41 U.S. troops would die in the mission leading
  to criticism of Pres. Ford

49
The Election of 1976
Vs.

• Gerald Ford won the Republican nomination for
  President despite a challenge from Californian
  governor Ronald Reagan
• The Democrats nominated former peanut farmer
  Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter
• Carter was an outsider played on Americas
  growing cynicism with Washington politics
  (Vietnam, Watergate, etc)
• Carter promised to bring integrity back to
  Washington won in a very close election 40.8
  million to 39.1 million
• President Carters outsider role alienated
  himself from both parties in Congress made it
  very difficult for him as President

50
The Energy Crisis

• President Carter believed that Americas reliance
  
• on foreign oil was the primary reason behind our
  energy crisis
• He presented Congress with more than 100
  proposals on Energy conservation development
• These proposals were fought fiercely by
  Representatives from oil gas producing states
• Automobile manufacturers also lobbied against the
  gas rationing proposals
• National Energy Act was passed in 1977
• This act placed a tax on gas guzzling cars
• Removed price controls on oil natural gas
  produced in the U.S.
• Extended tax credits for the development of
  alternative energy

51
The Energy Crisis

• In the summer of 1979 violence in the Middle East
  caused another fuel shortage in the U.S. and OPEC
  announced another price hike in that same year
• Inflation rose from 7.6 to 11.3
• President Carter attempted a wide array of
  measures to combat inflation but he seemed to
  have no direction with his policies
• Inflation continued to rise to 14 by 1980

52
The Changing American Economy

• The U.S. economy was evolving in the 1970s
• Manufacturing jobs (steel, automobiles, iron,
  rubber, clothing, etc) were being downsized in
  the U.S. because of booming foreign markets
• New booming economies in West Germany, Japan,
  Taiwan, Korea
• Markets that could pay there workers far less
  than U.S. manufacturers
• Service jobs were dominating the U.S. economy
  (communications, transportation, retail)
• Many U.S. workers in the 1970s didnt have the
  education needed for these new jobs when they
  were laid off from the factory (manufacturing)
  jobs

26
74
1950
47
53
1980
34
66
2000
53
The Carter Presidency

• President Carter appointed more
  African-Americans,
• Women, other minorities to high positions than
  
• any other President
• Carter used the idea of Human Rights as the
  foundation for his foreign policy
• Carter cut off military aid to countries such as
  Argentina Brazil who had been allies b/c they
  imprisoned tortured thousands of their own
  citizens
• Pres. Carter took much heat when he announced
  that the U.S. had reached an agreement with
  Panama to relinquish control of the Panama Canal
• The date set was Dec. 31, 1999
• The Senate ratified this treaty by the slim
  margin of 68-32
• Because of his stand on human rights the détente
  (relaxed tension) between the U.S. the
  communist countries of China the U.S.S.R. began
  to dissolve
• A second round of Strategic Arms Limitations
  Treaties (SALT II) were eventually signed but not
  ratified in the U.S.

54
The Camp David Accords

• The crowning achievement of President Carters
  foreign policy was the Camp David Accords
• In 1978 after peace talks had broken down between
  long time enemies Egypt Israel, President
  Carter invited Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat
  Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to the
  Presidential retreat in Maryland (Camp David)
• After 12 days of intense negotiations the
• three leaders signed a peace agreement
• Israel agreed to withdraw from the Sinai
  Peninsula
• It had seized this territory in a 6 Day war in
  1967
• Egypt formally recognized Israels right to exist
• Anwar el-Sadat would be seen as a traitor in
  Egypt despite winning the Nobel Peace prize
  (along with Benin) was assassinated in 1981

(L to R) el-Sadat, Carter, Benin
55
Iran Hostage Crisis

• In 1979 the Muslim religious leader
• Ayatollah Khomeini led rebels in over-
• throwing the Iranian shah establishing
• a religious state
• The United States was an ally of the shah and in
  October of 1979 nine months after he had fled
  from power the U.S. allowed the shah to enter the
  U.S. for cancer treatment
• This infuriated the Iranians
• On Nov. 4, 1979 students seized the U.S. embassy
  in Tehran took the 52 Americans hostage
• They demanded that the U.S. send the shah back to
  Iran in exchange for the hostages

Ayatollah Khomeini
56
Iran Hostage Crisis

• President Carter refused to give in to terrorist
  demands turn over the shah
• A year long stand-off ensued
• The U.S. continued intense negotiations to free
  the hostages
• After 444 days the hostages were released on
  January 20, 1981 shortly after the new President
  Ronald Reagan took office

Ayatollah Khomeini
Iranians showing one of the hostages
57
The Carter Presidency
58
Environmentalism

• Author Rachel Carson a marine biologist published
  a book in 1962 entitled Silent Spring
• This book warned against the growing use of
  pesticides
• This book became a wake up call to many Americans
  of the dangers of pollution over consumption to
  the environment
• President Nixon responding to increase pressure
  consolidated 15 federal pollution programs into
  one agency the EPA (Environmental Protection
  Agency)
• Oil was found in Alaska in 1968 soon raised
  concerns of many people about the effects the oil
  industry would have on the native wildlife
  ecosystem
• President Nixon turned over millions of acres of
  Alaskan territory to the native peoples for
  conservation
• Congress later Presidents would turn over
  millions of more acres for protected areas
  (Alaskan Wildlife refuge National Monument)

59
Three Mile Island

• As Americas dependence on foreign oil became
  well-known many people in the 1970s began to
  promote nuclear power as the alternative
• Many opponents of nuclear power pointed out the
  dangerous effects to humans the environment
  that nuclear waste had
• These concerns were validated when on March 28,
  1979 one of the nuclear reactors at a plant on
  Three Mile Island near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
  malfunctioned
• The cooling system failed to work the reactor
  overheated
• People feared that radiation would spread all
  over the region
• Low-level radiation did end up escaping over
  100,000 residents of the area had to be evacuated
• On April 9th the danger was over people could
  return to their homes
• No one was seriously injured because of the
  incident but it had profound effect on peoples
  views towards nuclear power
• Construction of new power plants were halted
  many existing plants were gradually shut down