The 1970’s

Détente With China and Russia

• A time of relaxed tensions between the U.S. and these countries.

• What came out of it was major treaties. – We sold $750 million worth of wheat, corn and other cereals to

the Soviet Union• The most significant being SALT (Strategic Arms

Limitation Talks)– Agreements were reached in 1972 (SALT I) during the Nixon

administration to put limitations on antiballistic missile systems and in 1979 (SALT II) during the Carter administration. But SALT II was not approved by the Senate partly as a protest against the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In 1982 the Reagan administration abandoned SALT and began a new series of negotiations called START (Strategic Arms Reduction Talks), which led to agreements in arms reductions.

Watergate

The Background• Series of political scandals involving President Richard

M. Nixon and his administration, resulting in Nixon's resignation in 1974.

• On June 17, 1972, five men were arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate apartment and office complex in Washington, D.C. The intruders, who had been hired by the Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP), were found guilty of conspiracy and burglary.

• Nixon steadily maintained he had no prior knowledge of the break-in and denied any White House connection.

• Investigative reporting by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post and testimony during the trial of the burglars led to televised Senate hearings headed by Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina.

The Tapes

• When Ervin learned of the existence of secret tapes of conversations in the president's Oval Office, he demanded that they be released. Nixon refused, claiming executive privilege.

• Special prosecutor Archibald Cox petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals, asking it to order Nixon to release the tapes to Judge John J. Sirica.

• Cox was fired by Solicitor General Robert Bork in the "Saturday Night Massacre."

• On June 24, 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court voted unanimously in United States v. Nixon that Nixon had to turn over the tapes to the new special prosecutor, Leon Jaworski.

• The House Judiciary Committee, headed by Peter Rodino, began Impeachment proceedings against Nixon on three charges, including obstruction of justice.

The Takedown

• Crucial evidence on the Watergate tapes proved that the president not only had known about the cover-up of the illegal actions but had ordered it.

• When the Judiciary Committee voted to recommend impeachment to the full House, Nixon decided to resign from office.

• On August 8, 1974, he announced in a televised address his resignation.

• Gerald Ford was sworn in as the new president the following day.

• On September 8, 1974, President Ford pardoned Nixon for any crimes he may have committed in the Watergate affair.

War Powers Act

• Passed in November of 1973 over Nixon’s veto• It required the president to report to Congress

within forty-eight hours after committing troops to a foreign conflict or “substantial” enlarging American combat units in a foreign country.

• Such a limited authorization would have to end within 60 days unless Congress extended it for 30 more days.

Arab Oil Embargo• On October 17, 1973, the Organization of Arab Petroleum

Exporting Countries (OPEC) declared an embargo on the shipment of oil to those countries that had supported Israel in its conflict with Egypt.

• Oil consumption in the United States had more than doubled between 1950 and 1974.

• With approximately 6 percent of the world's population, the U.S. was consuming 33 percent of the world's energy.

• The retail price of a gallon of gasoline rose from a national average of 38.5 cents in May 1973 to 55.1 cents in June 1974.

• With the onset of the embargo, U.S. imports of oil from the Arab countries dropped from 1.2 million barrels a day to a mere 19,000 barrels.

• Daily consumption dropped by 6.1 percent from September to February, and by the summer of 1974, by 7 percent.

The Effects• The U.S. government response to the embargo was quick, but of limited

effectiveness. • A national speed limit of 55 miles per hour was imposed to help reduce

consumption. (This, incidentally, caused traffic fatalities to drop by 23 percent between 1973 and 1974.)

• President Richard M. Nixon named William Simon as an official "energy czar," and in 1977 a cabinet-level Department of Energy was created.

• Some long-term effects of the embargo are still being felt. Public suspicion of the oil companies, who were thought to be profiteering or even working in collusion with OPEC, continues unabated (seven of the fifteen top Fortune 500 companies in 1974 were oil companies, with total assets of over $100 billion).

• But the initial moves toward more efficient automobiles and alternate sources of energy ended as oil prices fell and memory of gasoline lines faded.

• Ultimately, little of substance changed. Americans continue to use energy in amounts far out of proportion to their numbers, automakers continue to oppose legislation that would force them to increase the efficiency of cars, and the United States continues to respond to any threat to the supply of oil as a threat to national security.

Iranian Hostage Crisis

The Background• The Iran hostage crisis began November 4, 1979, when a mob of

Iranians seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking a large group of employees hostage.

• Eleven months earlier, a revolution led by the Islamic fundamentalist Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini had overthrown Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the shah of Iran.

• Relations between the two countries had been strained since that time, as Iran's new leaders denounced the United States for its longtime support of the shah.

• When the exiled shah entered the United States in October for medical care, many Iranians feared a repetition of the U.S.-assisted coup that had put the shah on the throne in 1953. The hostage taking followed.

• Nineteen hostages were released within a few weeks; the remaining fifty-two were held for 444 days.

• When it became clear that the Iranian government was not going to resolve the problem, President Jimmy Carter moved to freeze Iranian assets, both in the United States and abroad.

The Resolution• Diplomatic efforts were launched through the United Nations and various

private intermediaries, but by March 1980 it had become clear that none of the rival political groups in Iran was willing to risk the unpopularity of letting the hostages go.

• This impasse led Carter to order a rescue effort by helicopter, but three of the eight helicopters failed before reaching Tehran, and the mission had to be aborted. Eight men died in the operation.

• News of the failure aggravated the American public's mounting frustration over the crisis, providing a focus for broader criticism of Carter's administration (sharpened by the fact that this was an election year) as well as more general distress over America's waning ability to control world events.

• These issues undoubtedly contributed to Carter's defeat by Ronald Reagan in November.

• Nevertheless, by then a new Iranian government had been formed, and serious negotiations began soon after, with Algeria as mediator.

• The United States agreed to unfreeze most Iranian assets in exchange for the hostages.

• Finally, on January 20, 1981—only a few hours after Carter left office—all fifty-two hostages were released and landed safely in West Germany.