Crisis of Confidence, 1969 - 1980

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CHAPTER 30

• Crisis of Confidence, 1969 - 1980

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America United and Divided

• Apollo 11
• Neil Armstrong walks on moon
• Near disaster of Apollo 13
• 400,000 celebrate Woodstock in 1969
• Nixon begins Vietnamization -- bringing
  American troops home
• Anti-war movement escalates
• Kent State
• Americans learn more about events in Vietnam
• William Calley
• Pentagon Papers

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Activism, Rights, and Reform

• Womens rights see some improvement
• Minority groups push for rights as well
• La Raza Unida
• American Indian Movement
• Wounded Knee
• To court black voters, Nixon become concerned for
  civil rights
• Office of Minority Business Enterprise
• Nixon impacts Supreme Court, especially with
  Warren Burger
• Roe v. Wade
• Court also attacks lingering segregation

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The Struggle for the Equal Rights Amendment
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New Directions at Home and Abroad

• Nixon restructures welfare
• Returns much control to state level
• First Earth Day is celebrated in 1970
• Environmental Protection Agency
• Clean Air Act of 1970
• Nixon supports CIA covert actions in Latin
  America
• Henry Kissinger
• Nixon visits China
• Closer relations, ignored Taiwan question
• Moscow Summit, May 1972
• Strategic Arms limitation Treaty
• Détente

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Four More Years?

• Nixon wins victory over George McGovern
• Watergate Hotel burglary
• U.S. withdrawal left Vietnam vulnerable
• 50,000 American dead in war
• Watergate Scandal
• Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein investigation
  showed Nixon involved in cover up
• Nixons resigns, August 9, 1974
• Gerald Ford becomes president.
• Yom Kippur War
• Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
• U.S. support for Israel, bring oil embargo
  against U.S

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Presidential Election, 1972
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Gerald Ford in the White House

• Ford in office
• War Powers Act (1973)
• Pardons Nixon in September 1974
• Offers conditional amnesty to Vietnam draft
  evaders
• North Vietnam takes South Vietnam, April 29, 1975
  
• Americans view Ford as unprepared
• Helsinki Accord of 1975
• Jimmy Carter wins 1976 election

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The Election of 1976
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The Carter Years

• Carter supports civil rights
• Nation divided on affirmative action
• President oversees return of Panama Canal Zone
• Camp David Accord between Israel and Egypt
• Anwar Sadat and Menahem Begin
• Carters finest hour
• Inflation, high unemployment, and energy crisis
  burden America

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The Carter Years (cont.d)

• Iranian Hostage Crisis
• Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
• November 4, 1979, dozens of American taken
  hostage at embassy in Tehran
• April 1980, rescue mission ended in deadly
  failure
• 8 soldiers dead
• Carters credibility destroyed

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Discussion Questions

• Examine Nixons policy on Vietnam. How was it
  different than that of his predecessor? Was it
  successful?
• What were the details of the Watergate Scandal?
  Why were Americans willing to have Nixon removed
  from office?
• What were the problems that faced Ford and
  Carter? How did each deal with them?
• Explain this statement Carters greatest
  achievement and his most abysmal failure both are
  connected to the Middle East.