Election of 1968

Nation wary of Johnson, Vietnam and Civil Rights unrest.

Johnson declines 2nd election, 3rd term.

Robert “Bobby” Kennedy runs in spring 1968 primaries, hoping to carry on JFK legacy.

Assassinated after clearing the Democratic field of major challengers.

Democrats run LBJ’s vice-president, a supporter of Civil Rights.

Election, 1968Richard Nixon (R) 31.8 Million

43.4%301

Hubert Humphrey (D) 31.3 Million42.7%191

George Wallace (I) 9.9 Million14%5

Wallace, of Alabama, runs on a Segregationist platform, trying to attract “Solid South” Democrats who might not support Nixon.

Nixon runs a “Southern Strategy” to shift Southern white supremacists into the Republican party.

1968

Nixon sweeps a weakened and unpopular Democratic Party out of power in 1968 on a campaign promising to end the war in Vietnam and to restore “law and order” in the cities.

The campaign also used “law and order” rhetoric to signal it’s opposition to the more aggressive antiwar and Civil Rights agendas.

In the South, Nixon actively worked to move white supremacists into the Republican party, using the “Southern Strategy”

Nixon appealed to the “Silent Majority” the alleged mass of non-protesting, conservative, “normal” American voter.

Nixon

Cold War anti-Communist credentials

California Representative, anti-Truman spokesperson, 1940s

Eisenhower’s VP, 1953-1961Failed Presidential run 1960Critic of JFK and LBJ, 1961 to

1968Established New York/DC law

firm in 1960s

Nixon, First Term

Polices of a Moderate:-EPA, 1970-Détente w/ Russia, 1970s-Support for OSHA, 1970-Open relations with

Communist China, 1972

Nixon, 1st Term

Vietnam War:• Ongoing civil protests at home• Expanded conflict to Laos and Cambodia• Escalated bombing campaign• Drew down troop levels, but no real end in sightCivil Rights Movement:• Continued racial conflict• Increased police response• Kent State, 1970: National Guard opened fire on student

protestors, 4 killed, 9 wounded

Watergate: Beginning of Trouble

1971: Nixon organized “Plumbers” to stop leaks about Vietnam War

1972: Plumbers, Committee to Re-Elect the President burglarized Democratic campaign offices at Watergate Hotel

1972: News of break-in during summer of election, Nixon denied knowledge, deplored action by criminals, won in landslide

Nixon, Re-election, 1972

Nixon (R) 47 million61%520 EC

McGovern (D) 29 million38%17 EC

Nixon Landslide!

1972

Watergate: Nixon’s Fall

Evidence that Nixon’s Attorney General John Mitchell organized the raid came to light late in the election year.

Funding for the break in came directly from White House supporters of Nixon.

April 1973: Two of Nixon’s aides, Haldeman and Ehrlichman, resign and take the blame.

Nixon’s new AG opens investigation, hires an “independent prosecutor” Archibald Cox.

Watergate: Nixon’s Fall

Cox’s subpoena requests included White House tapes, which Nixon refused to submit.

Nixon urged AG to dismiss Cox, and a wave of resignations in the AG office is known as the “Saturday Night Massacre”

Once released, the tapes include several erasure gaps, evidence of a cover up.

Nixon: “I am not a crook!”

Watergate1973: Leon Jaworski leads new investigationOct 1973: Vice President Agnew resigns, complicit in tax

evasion, bribery ring. Nixon appoints Gerald Ford.1974: Supreme Court compels Nixon to release all of the tapes.March-April 1974: Watergate operatives, over a dozen

indicted, many plead guilty, many convictedAug 5, 1974: Taped evidence emerged that Nixon planned and

supported espionage and had been lying during the cover up.

Aug 8, 1974: House committee votes for impeachment, Nixon resigns.

Ford, uninvolved in the conspiracy, issues Presidential Pardon: “for crimes real and imaginary”

Disco, Funk, Punk

New Hollywood

Arab Israeli Wars

1948: Independent Israel. Provokes Egyptian-led Arab revolt.

1956: Suez Canal Crisis.Britain and France, with Israeli aid, attack Egypt. USA and USSR together pressure Allies to end attack on

Egypt.1967: Six Day War

Second Egyptian-led Arab attack on Israel.US supported Israel in 1967.Saudi Arabia threatened US, war is very brief, no real

consequences for US and oil.

Arab Israeli Wars1973: Yom Kippur War, Third Egyptian-led attack on Israel.

Saudi Arabia threatened USA with embargo.Sought more funds for war, demand 100% increase in oil prices, US negotiators agree to 15%, Arab nations angered and confused over relationship with USA.

Embargo, October 19735% reduction every month in production until price goes up.100% embargo to the USA.

President Nixon authorized $2.2 billion in aid— to Israel.Oil jumps from $5 to $17 a barrel, US enters enormous slump

of recession and “stagflation”

Election of 1976

Jimmy Carter (D) 40.8 million50.1%297

Gerald Ford (R) 39.1 million48%240

Close election, despite Ford’s notorious pardon of Nixon. Ronald Reagan waged a tough primary fight in 1976 and remained a Republican leader during the Carter administration.

The South: Returned to the Democratic party.

1976

Jimmy Carter

• Georgian Assemblyman and Governor.

• Peanut farmer.• Sunday school teacher

and evangelical Christian.• Champion of “New

South” post-Civil Rights.

Jimmy Carter’s Mixed Domestic Policy

• Amnesty for draft dodgers, 1977.• Increased payroll taxes for Social Security.• Tentatively supported deregulation of major

industries.• Increased federal park system.• Inflation skyrocketing due to fuel costs,

weakness with OPEC harmed Carter at home.

Nixon, Ford, Carter

High levels of inflation.Rising unemployment.OPEC oil shock in 1973.Iran oil shock in 1979.

Carter’s Mixed Foreign Policy

• Carter negotiated peace between Israel and Egypt, securing Arab recognition of Israel and an end to major conflicts between Arab nations and Israel.

• Carter begins aid to Afghan rebels against USSR.

• Carter negotiates return of Panama Canal zone.

Carter, Anwar Sadat, Menachem Begin, 1978

Iranian Revolution, 1979

Reagan’s America

Reagan, 1940s-1980

Hollywood actor.SAG VP and Pres, 1946-59.Corporate spokesman, GE.Goldwater campaigner, 1964.California governor, 1967-1975.GOP primary candidate, 1976.GOP national candidate, 1980.

Election of 1980

Ronald Reagan (R) 43.9 million51%44 EC

Jimmy Carter (D) 35.5 million41%6 EC

John Anderson (I) 5.7 million7%

Reagan sweeps, picking up the South.

1980

Reagan: “A New Day in America”Assertive Foreign Policy

”Vietnam Syndrome”Criticized as “cowboy” attitudeEscalated Cold War and Arms RaceFunded anti-Communist and right wing forces in

Central America to balance Cuban influenceSent US marines to Lebanon during Civil War, 240+

killed in bombing in 1983Invasion of Grenada in 1983, a Caribbean nation

with a Cuban-inspired government established in 1979

Generally, Reagan promoted an invigorated foreign policy based on US strength after post-Vietnam “fatigue”

Reagan’s First Term

“Reaganomics”“Government is not the solution, government is the

problem.”Supply-side, or trickle down, economic theories and

monetarist policies of the anti-Keynesian Chicago school.

Cut taxes, cut expenditures, the economy will grow, government revenue will increase, job creation will expand.

“Starve the beast”- Anti-government philosophy.

“Reagonomics”

• Top tax rate cut from 70 to 50%, 1981.• Top tax rate cut from 50 to 28%, bottom raised from 11 to

15%, 1986.• “Volcker shock” restrains inflation.• Medicaid, food stamps, the EPA, and election monitoring all

faced cuts. Grants to states for education, hospitals, worker training also faced deep cuts.

• Deregulation of finance led directly to the Savings & Loan (S&L) crash of 1987.

• Increased military funding.• Average of $200 Billion annual deficits triples national

debt.

Election of 1984

Ronald Reagan (R) 54.5 million59%525 EC

Walter Mondale (D) 37.6 million41%13 EC

1984

Reagan’s Second Term

Immigration Reform, 1986: A mix of light employer sanctions, amnesty for undocumented immigrants, and increased border security.

Iran-Contra Scandal, 1986: After giving arms to Israel for an illegal sale to Iran, Israel returned the funds to the US who then used the revenue to support right wing Contras in El Salvador fighting left wing forces from Nicaragua. Reagan pled innocence, but proof emerged of his knowledge of the arms sales, although not the funding of the Contras.

Investigation led to 14 indictments, 11 convictions, all pardoned by President Bush.

Election of 1988

George H.W. Bush (R) 48.9 million53%426 EC

Michael Dukakis (D) 41.8 million46%111 EC

1988

George H.W. Bush

• Enormous Reagan deficits• Post-Crash of 1987

recession• Tax hikes, 1990• Unemployment rising,

benefits extended, 1991• Iraq War I: Desert Shield

and Desert Storm, 1990-1991.

Culture Wars vsReagan’s Apotheosis

Poverty ReliefAbortionAffirmative ActionSchool/Public PrayerGay RightsImmigration ReformEnvironmentalismMilitarism