Chapter 31: Years of Doubt, 1969-1981 Section 1: Nixon Confronts ProblemsMain Idea: President Richard M. Nixon faced the challenge of governing a deeply divided America. Richard M. Nixon became president in 1968, when America was deeply divided over the Vietnam War. His major support came from conservatives, who wanted him to shrink the size of the federal government. They also wanted him to end Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society programs. President Nixon cut spending on several Great Society programs. He also tried to cut the cost of running the federal government by turning some of its activities over to the states. Nixon began a revenue sharing program by giving tax money collected by the federal government to state and local governments. To restore law and order to the country, the president appointed more conservative judges to the Supreme Court. He hoped that the judges would support strict interpretations of the law. Under Nixon’s administration, some activities by government agencies were illegal and violated citizens’ constitutional rights. The president justified the actions as necessary for the nation’s security. But these activities would later prove to be Nixon’s undoing. In addition to civil unrest, Nixon also faced an economic crisis. Government spending under Lyndon Johnson’s administration helped to push the nation into a recession, or an economic slowdown. In the early 1970s, the country battled both inflation, or rising prices, and rising unemployment. Nixon cut spending and also put a temporary freeze on wage and price increases. But these measures had little success.President Nixon achieved greater success in foreign affairs. Nixon and his foreign policyadviser, Henry Kissinger, worked to improve relations with China. In February 1972, thepresident visited China. The trip led to the opening of trade and diplomacy with theChinese. Nixon also visited Moscow in May 1972. His trip helped achieve détente—the easing of tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. Also in 1972, the two nations negotiated the Strategic Arms Limitation Agreement, or SALT agreement. This agreement limited each nation’s nuclear weapons.Section 2: Watergate Brings Down NixonMain Idea: Nixon’s involvement in the Watergate scandal caused a political crisis thatforced him to resign. Nixon’s Democratic opponent in the 1972 presidential election was George McGovern, a liberal senator from South Dakota who spoke out against the Vietnam War. He had strong support from young people, minorities, and women. However, Nixon’s success in China and the Soviet Union had increased his popularity. He easily won reelection in November 1972. Nixon had not been satisfied with merely getting reelected. He wanted to win big. By doing so, he would help Republicans gain control of Congress. This would increase his power. To help Nixon achieve a landslide victory, many people working for him engaged in illegal activities to try to weaken the Democratic Party. In June 1972, five men were caught breaking into Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate building in Washington, D.C. The burglars were linked to the Committee to Reelect the President, the organization in charge of Nixon’s reelection campaign. Nixon and his aides tried to cover up any White House connection to the break-in by lying about their activities. The President used the CIA to halt an FBI investigation. These illegal cover-up actions came to be known as the Watergate scandal.The Watergate scandal deepened in the months after the election. In February 1973, theSenate began an investigation of the matter. John Dean, a White House lawyer, testifiedbefore the Senate Watergate committee. He said that President Nixon had known about the Watergate cover-up. Then the Senate learned that Nixon had taped his office conversations. But Nixon refused to release the tapes. In July, the House Judiciary Committee voted to impeach Nixon. In August, President Nixon finally released the tapes. They proved that he had been involved. It now seemed certain that the full House would vote for impeachment. On August 9, 1974, President Nixon resigned. Watergate was one of the worst political scandals in the nation’s history.Section 3: Issues of the SeventiesMain Idea: Presidents Ford and Carter had a difficult time solving the nation’s problemsafter Watergate. Gerald Ford, Nixon’s vice-president, became president on August 9, 1974. He inherited a nation that had suffered through years of division and trauma. Ford tried to restore confidence in the presidency. He also wanted to move the nation forward. But he lost many Americans’ support when he pardoned Richard Nixon for any Watergate-related crimes. Like Nixon, Ford had little success in solving the nation’s continuing economic problems. Ford asked Americans to cut spending and energy use to bring down inflation. But this effort did little to help the economic crisis. Ford’s pardon of Nixon and his failure to improve the economy made him unpopular with many Americans. In 1976, he lost the presidential election to Democrat Jimmy Carter, the former governor of Georgia. Jimmy Carter was considered an outsider because he had never served in Washington. Carter also had little success in improving the nation’s economy but was more successful in foreign policy. He negotiated treaties with Panama, giving that nation ownership of the canal at the end of 1999. Carter also helped achieve peace between Israel and Egypt. In 1979, the president helped negotiate the Camp David Accords. Under these agreements, Egypt and Israel signed the first peace treaty between Israel and an Arab nation. This ended 30 years of conflict. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, support grew in America for environmentalism, the movement to protect the nation’s environmental resources. Rachel Carson, a biologist, had warned of the dangers of the use of chemicals called pesticides in her 1962 bestseller Silent Spring. In the 1970s, Nixon, Ford, and Carter passed laws to restrict pesticide use, regulate oil-spill clean-up, and curb air and water pollution. During the late 1970s, Americans also became aware of the possible dangers of nuclear power. In March 1979, an accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania caused radioactive water to leak out of the plant. About 100,000 nearby residents had to leave their homes until it was safe. In 1979, Jimmy Carter faced the Iran hostage crisis. In November, protesters stormed theAmerican embassy in Tehran, the capital of Iran. They were angry over America’s support of Iran’s former ruler, the Shah of Iran. The protestors took 52 Americans as hostages and held them for more than a year. Carter failed to win their release. The hostage crisis became a campaign issue in the 1980 presidential election. Carter’s Republican opponent was former California governor Ronald Reagan. His conservative ideas and optimism appealed to voters. Although Carter eventually gained release of the hostages in January 1981, the crisis in Iran and continuing economic problems at home led voters to elect Reagan president.
