1. The 1970s
Chapter 23
and 24

2. Women’s Rights Movement
 Feminism of the 1960s and early 1970s
To challenge the cult of domesticity.
National Organization for Women (NOW-1966)
Goals: to end job discrimination, legalize abortion,
obtain federal and state support for child-care center.
Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972
Support for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) (1972)
Roe v. Wade (1973)
Legalized abortion
 Becomes more radical by late 1970s.
Divisions between moderate and radical feminists.
Gloria Steinham attacks men and homemakers;
alienates most women: public backlash and “right to life”

3. Gerald Ford
 Ford inherited a presidential
office badly diminished by
the Watergate scandals.
As the first unelected president,
he had no popular mandate and
was not well known outside of
Washington.
 Yet his easy manner and
modest approach to
government helped restore
at least some degree of
confidence in the office of
president.

5. Ford’s Domestic Agenda
 Social and Fiscal
Conservative
Believed the federal
government exercised too
much power over domestic
affairs.
Resisted congressional
pressure to reduce taxes and
increase Federal spending.
Along with an energy crisis,
this helped plunge the
economy into a deep

6. Ford’s Foreign Policy:
Extending Détente
 SALT II
Ford met with Brezhnev in
1974 and accepted the
framework for another arms-
control agreement that was to
serve as the basis for SALT II.
 Helsinki Summit
Ford and Brezhnev met in
Finland in August 1975 with
other European leaders.
Agreed to recognize the
political boundaries that had
divided Eastern and Western
Europe since 1945.

7. 1976 Election
 Jimmy Carter (Democrat)
Peanut farmer &1 term governor of Georgia
Washington outsider
 Gerald Ford (Republican)
Nixon pardon
Recession
 Carter narrowly with 50.1% of popular
vote
Carried 90% of black voters
Looked to bring a new simplicity and directness

8. 

9. Jimmy Carter
 Carter and his staff had
very little experience in
Washington and did
not know how to push
forward an agenda.
 Could not maneuver
his proposals through
Congress.

10. Criticism Builds at Home
 Offered amnesty to the thousands of
young men who had fled the country
rather than serve in Vietnam.
 Negotiated a treaty to turn over the
Panama Canal Zone by 1999.
 The Economy
Inherited a bad economy and left it much worse.
Stagflation – double digit inflation and increased
unemployment.
Problems with the Oil Supply

11. Problems with Oil Supply
 Yom Kippur War (1973)
Syria and Egypt launched a
surprise attack against
Israel
Soviet Union supplied the
Arabs and the U.S. supplied
the Israeli allies
The seven Arab members of
the Organization of
Petroleum Exporting
Countries (OPEC) imposed
a boycott of oil sales to
countries seen as friendly to
Israel. (October 1973 to
March 1974)

12. Fighting Inflation
 OPEC continued to
raise prices.
Energy costs rose
Inflation rose
Interest rates shot to
20%.
 Carter called only for
voluntary restraints
on prices and wages
and conservation of
energy.

13. Problems with Oil Supply
 Motorists were forced to wait in long lines
for limited supplies of gasoline that they
regarded as excessively expensive.
 Many Americans saw nuclear energy as the
only alternative.
Three Mile Island (1979)
Nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania ruptured and
released radioactive gas. 100,000 people fled their homes.
 Carter’s approval rating dropped to 26%.
Lower than Nixon’s during Watergate

14. Camp David
Accords
 In 1978, Carter invited Egypt’s President
Anwar el-Sadat and Israel’s Prime Minister
Menachem Begin to Camp David.
 Peace Agreement
Israel would return the Sinai to Egypt in exchange
for recognition.
Israel had to negotiate a resolution of the Palestinian
refugee dilemma. (Never happened)
 Made an all-out war between Israel and the
Arab world less likely.

15. Mounting Troubles
 SALT II signed in 1979.
The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979.
 Iran Hostage Crisis (1979-80)
Ayatollah Khomeini ousts Shaw of Iran in 1979.
Carter allowed the ousted Shaw to come to U.S.
Radicals captured U.S. embassy to trade for Shaw and
wealth.
U.S. rescue mission ended with fatal helicopter crash.
53 Americans were held hostage until the day Reagan
took office. (444 days)
Carter finally released several billion dollars of Iranian assets to
ransom the kidnapped hostages.

16. End of Postwar Liberalism
 Carter’s failure was largely symbolic.
The uneasiness of the late 1970s
reflected a widespread
disillusionment with liberal social
programs.
Americans lose faith in government
Vietnam puts into question the
containment doctrine
Government could not manage the
economy
Decline in race relations

17. Triumph of Conservatism
 By 1980 rising prices, energy shortages,
and similar economic uncertainties fed a
growing resistance to a liberal agenda.
 Hard-pressed workers resented increased
competition from minorities, especially
those supported by affirmative action
quotas and government programs.
 Citizens resisted the demands for higher
taxes to support social welfare spending.

18. Triumph of Conservatism:
The Moral Majority
 A major revival of evangelical religion in late
1970s.
 The traditional family seemed under siege, as
divorce rates and births to single mothers
soared.
Sexually explicit media, an outspoken gay rights
movement, and the availability of legal abortions struck
many religious conservatives as part of a wholesale
assault on decency.
 Increasingly the political agenda was
determined by those who wanted to restore a
strong family, traditional religious values,

19. Triumph of Conservatism:
Ronald Reagan
 Unleash the capitalist spirit.
(limited government)
Dismantle the “bloated” federal
bureaucracy.
Reduce taxes and regulations.
Undo the welfare state.
 Restore national pride and regain
international respect.
Increase military spending.
Outlaw abortions and reinstitute
school prayer.
 Emphasis is on what is right
instead of what’s wrong –
patriotism and religion.

20. The Election of 1980:
The Reagan Revolution

21. 1962 Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring published
Significant Events
1966 National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act
1969 Apollo 11 moon mission
1970 First Earth Day, EPA created
1971 Nixon adopts wage and price controls
Pentagon Paper published
1972 Woodward and Bernstein investigate
Watergate burglary
1973 Saturday Night Massacre
1974 United States v. Nixon
Nixon resigns
1975 New York City faces bankruptcy
1978 Revolution in Iran