Unit 11 part I america in the 1970s
Political activism did not disappear in the 1970s, however it was rechanneled into other causes. Some young people worked for the enforcement of anti-pollution laws or joint consumer-protection groups or campaigned against the nuclear power industry. Following the example of blacks, other minorities – Hispanics, Asians, American Indians, homosexuals – demanded a broadening of their rights.
President Richard Nixon (1969-1974) was a Republican, who took office after eight years of Democratic rule. He was much less interested than Kennedy and Johnson in helping the poor. He believed that people should overcome hardship by their own efforts. As President, Richard Nixon was faced with many problems in foreign affairs. The war was still going on in Vietnam, and trouble was brewing again in the Middle East. Nixon worked to do something about these problems. He achieved two major diplomatic goals: reestablishing formal relations with the People’s Republic of China and negotiating the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I) with the Soviet Union.
Even as the United States was fighting the Vietnam War, relations with the Soviet Union had begun to improve. In 1969, the United States and the Soviet Union were among some 60 countries that signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. In it, countries with nuclear weapons promised not to help other countries to build them. That same year, the two powers began talks on limiting defensive nuclear weapons. Out of these talks came the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT). In it, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to limit production of certain missiles.
In June 1969, President Nixon came to Moscow to sign the SALT agreement. He was the first American President to visit here. Nixon said that the United States and the Soviet Union should have closer economic and business ties. A few months later, the United States agreed to sell American wheat and other grains to the Soviet Union. It was the largest export grain order the United States had ever received. All of this was part of a new policy toward the Soviet Union formed by President Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Called detente, it meant a relaxation of cold war tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. In 1973 Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev visited Washington, D.C. He met there with President Nixon, members of Congress, and some American business leaders. During the visit, it was agreed that both the United States and the Soviet Union would work on another SALT agreement. In addition, both leaders agreed that their nations should avoid actions which might lead to nuclear war. There was also agreement for the two countries to work together in the areas of business, science, and culture.
At the same time, President Nixon was also trying to improve relations with the People's Republic of China. On February 21, 1972, he became the first American President to visit the People's Republic of China. Nixon signed a declaration that said Taiwan was legally part of mainland China. It also said that in time American forces would leave there, and that Taiwan's future would be decided by the Chinese themselves. This, more than anything, showed how much United States policy toward China had changed under President Nixon. This policy was continued in the 1970s. In January 1979, the United States formally recognized the People's Republic of China.
But the 1970s was a time of discontent and disillusion for many American people. President Nixon had promised in his 1968 campaign to bring the people together – to unify the country. Nixon said he would follow policies that would heal the wounds of war abroad and violence at home. This represented a search for consensus, or general agreement.
One of the most important problems facing the country in the late 1960s was inflation. Prices rose higher and higher each year, mostly because of the cost of the Vietnam War. To stop inflation, Nixon first called for a tight money policy. In August 1971, he announced his New Economic Policy but it did little to bring about consensus.
The subject of women's rights became more and more an issue in the 1970's. During Nixon's years in office, American women stepped up a long-time struggle against discrimination against them. By 1970 women made up nearly 40 percent of the workforce. Yet they faced discrimination both in the kinds of jobs they could get and in the amount of money they were paid. For example, in 1970 women earned only 60 percent as much as men. Women often were not only limited to lower-paying jobs but were paid less for the same job. To end such discrimination, the National Organization for Women (NOW) was formed in 1966. There were also other groups formed to work for women's rights.
Another area of conflict in the 1970's was the space program. In 1969 the United States had reached Kennedy's goal of landing on the moon. By the end of 1972 the United States had made five more moon landings. Although most people admired such feats, some thought that the money could be better used elsewhere. They felt that greater efforts should be made to solve the problems on the earth. In spite of this, Nixon was able to get support for Skylab, which was launched in 1973. This was an orbiting laboratory to test the ability of humans to live and work in outer space. In 1975 the United States and the Soviet Union carried out a joint space mission. An American Apollo and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft docked together while orbiting the earth. This docking symbolized the spirit of detente between the two powers.
In 1972 Nixon was reelected as President, soon Americans learned of a scandal involving the President and members of his staff. In June 1972 five people had been arrested for breaking into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C. The office was in the Watergate Hotel, and the scandal that followed was called Watergate. Journalists investigating the incident discovered that the burglars were connected to the White House and the Committee to reelect the President. In February 1973 the Senate set up a committee to look into charges of corruption in the 1972 election. In July 1973, it was revealed that President Nixon had recorded his office conversations concerning the Watergate affair. Nixon repeatedly had said that he had not known about the break-in nor had he used his powers to cover it up. The Senate committee hoped that his tapes would bring out the truth. Nixon, however, refused to give up the tapes, claiming executive privilege. After long resistance he finally made them public. The tapes revealed that Nixon was directly involved in the cover up. More and more Americans lost faith in the President, and by the summer of 1974 it was clear that Congress was likely to impeach and to convict the President. On August 9, 1974 Richard Nixon became the only American President to resign his office.
In the middle of Watergate, the American people had received another blow to their faith in government leaders. In October 1973 Vice-President Spiro Agnew resigned from office. He had been charged with accepting bribes both before and during his term as Vice-President. After Agnew left office, Nixon named Republican Gerald Ford as Vice-President. Twenty months later, upon Nixon’s resignation Ford became President. He was the first person to serve as President who had not been elected to either the Presidency or the Vice-Presidency.
Ford became President in a time of crisis. His priority was to restore trust in the government which had been shaken by the Watergate scandal. Besides, economic problems remained serious as inflation and unemployment continued to rise and gross national product fell. At first, Americans greeted Ford favorably. Shortly after taking office, however, President Ford lost some of those good feelings as he pardoned Nixon for any crimes which he might have committed while in office. This meant that Nixon would not have to face criminal charges for his part in Watergate. Ford hoped it would help heal the wounds of Watergate, but most Americans were angered by the pardon.
In public policy, Ford followed the course Nixon had set. He carried on detente with the Soviet Union and worked toward closer relations with China. He also went on working for nuclear arms control and visited the Soviet Union in December 1974.
Under Ford, there was much disagreement over how to make America self-sufficient in energy. Ford favored deregulation. This meant removing price controls on gas and oil. Prices would then rise, and because of this, people would use less fuel. Higher profits from higher prices would aid companies in developing new forms of energy. Ford was not able to get the Congress to pass this measure. However, the Congress did pass the Energy Policy and Conservation Act. This act dealt with saving fuel and finding new forms of energy.
In 1976 the election was won by Democratic candidate Jimmy Carter, former governor of Georgia. Carter had limited political experience, but many voters now preferred an “outsider” – someone who was not part of the Washington establishment. During the campaign Carter made a number of promises. He said that he would balance the budget and cut military spending, create jobs to lower unemployment, "clean up" the government and make certain changes in foreign policy.
He could not control the chief economic problem of the 1970s – inflation. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) had been increasing the cost since 1973, and those increases fueled a general rise in prices.
Once in office, however, Carter had difficulty working with the Congress. One area of conflict was Carter's new foreign policy. He wanted the United States to use its power to uphold human rights all over the world. One way to do it was to cut off military and economic aid to governments which violated these rights. Carter, for example, favored withdrawing aid from Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and Ethiopia. These were countries ruled by dictators who jailed people opposing them. Carter also urged the white-minority governments of South Africa and Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) to share power with their black-majority populations. President Carter also supported Soviet dissidents, people who spoke out against their government, and the Soviet Union was angered by Carter's policy. Relations between the two countries grew worse after the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan in December 1979. In protest, Carter asked the United States Olympic team to boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.
DISCUSSION
How did political activism change in the 1970s?
Being a Republican, did President Nixon share Kennedy’s attitudes to social issues?
What were the two major tasks that Nixon accomplished in foreign affairs?
Speak about the development of US-Soviet relations.
What is SALT?
What economic challenges did the US face in the 1960s?
What were the objectives of NOW?
How did American space program develop in the 1970s?
What is Watergate? Was it a blow to people’s faith in government?
Why did Spiro Agnew resign from office?
What were the priorities of the Ford administration?
What was the reaction of most Americans to pardoning of Nixon?
Speak about the disagreement over energy issues.
Why, do you think, Americans voted for Carter in 1976?
Speak about Carter’s foreign policy.