chapter 31 power and politics since 1974 © 2003 wadsworth group all rights reserved
TRANSCRIPT
Chapter 31
Power and Politics Since 1974
© 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved.
Gerald R. Ford as president.
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
• Served as Pres & VP without being elected
• Pardoned Nixon• End of NAM
1976 Election
• Ford and his wife Betty after 1976 Republican nomination
• Ford and Carter debate
Jimmy Carter
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
• Gov of GA• Christian• Peanut farmer• incorruptible
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
Presidential Election, 1976
• OPEC crisis (1970s)• Inflation &
unemployment• amnesty
Shah ousted in Iran (1979)
• US put Shah in power (1953)
• President Carter toasted the Shah at a state dinner in Tehran, calling him "an island of stability"
Iranian Hostage Crisis
• 66 Americans taken hostage in Tehran, Iran
• Rescue mission failed (1980)
• Hostages released
Reagan’s landslide win (1980)
“Are you better off now than you were four years ago?”
• Cut spending & wasteful programs
• Tax cuts• Stronger defense
Reagan, 1981-1989
Reagan’s assassination attempt (March 30, 1981)
US Abroad
Lebanon (1982)• 241 Marines killed in
suicide bombing• US withdraws from
Lebanon
US Abroad (continue)
Grenada (1983)• US troops overthrew
gov’t
Nicaragua (1983-4)• funded anti-
Sandinista Contras• Iran-Contra Affair
(1986)
Denounced Soviet Union as an “evil empire”
Bush elected 1988
• “read my lips: no new taxes”
• Fall of the Berlin Wall, 1989
• Cold War ends (1991)
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Collapse of the Soviet Bloc
1990-91 Gulf War
Gulf War 1990-91
• Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait (Aug, 1990)
• US led coalition oust Iraq (1991) • Goal achieved coalition returns
home
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Presidential Election, 1992
Clinton elected 1992
• Job creation• Deficit reduction• Overhaul of health
care & welfare• “robust economy”
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
Presidential Election, 1996
Impeachment• Impeached (1998)• Not removed (1999)
2000 election
Bin Laden, mastermind of 9-11
US takes down Taliban & Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan (2001)
US invades Iraq (03/2003)
US invasion of Iraq (2003)
Iraq: brink of civil war?
Rumsfeld resigns (2006)
War in Iraq
• 3,000 US soldiers have died / 20k wounded
• 50k+ killed in Iraq
• $87 billion / year