The Late Cold War, c. 1968-1991

1. The Late Cold War,
c. 1968-1991

2. Richard Nixon
37th POTUS
1969 – 1974
promised “law and
order” to the “silent
majority”

3. Realpolitik
Détente: reduction in Cold War tensions
China: Feb 1972 – met Mao Zedong in China
USSR: Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT I)

4. 1973: US aid to Israel during the Yom Kippur War prompted OPEC Oil
Embargo by Arab states; massive oil shortages; Congress imposes
national 55 mph speed limit
• Oil embargo  prices rise
• + decline of factories/rise of service jobs and foreign competition
 9% unemployment
Economic stagnation + inflation = Stagflation

5. Election of 1972 – Nixon paranoid about losing vs. George McGovern
Southern Strategy: to attract Southern Dems (Wallace supporters) Nixon
appealed to “silent majority” who opposed the 1960s counterculture

6. Nixon wins every state except Mass! Factors: Foreign policy success
(China and USSR visits) and George McGovern very liberal

7. Nixon Scandals
Illegal FBI wiretaps of “enemies list” (protest leaders and “radicals”)
June 1972: Men hired by Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP)
broke into the Democratic National Campaign Headquarters at
Watergate Hotel and Office Complex in D.C.
FBI Associate Director Mark Felt, aka “Deep Throat”, led Washington Post
reporters Woodward and Bernstein to investigate  Senate hearings

8. Nixon refused to turn over
recordings of Oval Office
conversations to Congress
claiming Executive Privilege 
US v Nixon  public shock over
Nixon’s profanity and crudeness
and missing 18 minutes
Also, Vice President Spiro
Agnew resigned for accepting
bribes when Maryland
governor  appointment of
Gerald Ford as VP

9. Resignation
House voted impeachment for:
1. Obstruction of justice
2. Abuse of power
3. Contempt of Congress
August 9, 1974: Nixon resigned;
Ford = first unelected president

10. Gerald Ford
38th POTUS
1974-1977

11. Ford Domestic Policy
Nixon Pardon: end “national
nightmare”  intense criticism
Carter campaign button, 1976

12. WIN Buttons (Whip Inflation Now): worst recession in 40 years
• Americans asked to cut back on oil but no incentives
• Voluntary wage/price freezes
• No Immediate Miracles
• FAILED

13. Jimmy Carter
39th POTUS
1977-1981
• Born Again Christian
• Georgia peanut farmer
• Washington outsider

14. Election of 1976
Carter won by getting 287-241 electoral votes and 97% of the
African American vote

15. Carter Domestic Policy
Malaise Speech, July 15, 1979:
“In a nation that was proud of hard
work, strong families, close-knit
communities, and our faith in God,
too many of us now tend to worship
self-indulgence and consumption.
Human identity is no longer defined
by what one does, but by what one
owns … I'm asking you for your
good and for your nation's security
to take no unnecessary trips, to use
carpools or public transportation
whenever you can, to park your car
one extra day per week, to obey
the speed limit, and to set your
thermostats to save fuel…”

16. Carter Foreign Policy
Champion of Human Rights
Scheduled return of Panama
Canal to Panama in 1999

17. Camp David Accords (1979):
Between Anwar Sadat of Egypt and
Menachem Begin of Israel

18. Iran Hostage Crisis (1979):
1953: CIA and British MI6 overthrew democracy in
favor of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
1979: Shah traveled to US; Islamic Fundamentalist
Ayatollah Khomeini led Islamic revolution
52 Americans hostages held in U.S. embassy by
radical Islamic students
Iranian Hostage Crisis: held for 444 days; release
coincided with Reagan inauguration

19. Cold War: Carter tried to continue
détente but:
1. SALT II not approved by Senate
2. 1979: Soviet Union invasion of
Afghanistan
3. US boycott of 1980 Moscow
Olympics
4. US grain embargo of USSR

20. Rise of Conservatism
1970s: rightward shift in American politics
New Right Coalition: business leaders, middle-class voters,
disaffected Democrats, and fundamentalist Christians
Reaction against:
• Stagflation  economic conservatism
• Civil rights advances  political conservatism
• Breakdown of traditional family  religious fundamentalism

21. Reverse Discrimination
Regents of U of CA v Bakke (1978):
colleges cannot use racial quotas;
race can only be a plus factor

22. 1980 Election

24. Ronald Reagan
40th POTUS
1981-1989
“The Great
Communicator”

25. Supply-side (Trickle-down) economics,
or Reaganomics:
lower taxes 
businesses investments to improve productivity 
increased supply and lower cost of goods 
lower consumer prices 
more spending and economic stimulus
“It sounds like Voodoo economics.”
– George H.W. Bush

26. 1) Cut social welfare spending on
school lunch programs, nursing
homes, disability payments, etc.
2) 25% tax cut for the rich
3) increased defense spending (by
adding to national debt)
4) Deregulation of banking,
airlines, and telecommunications;
mining, forestry, oil drilling
increased
5) Break power of labor unions
(air traffic controller strike)

27. yuppies = (young urban professionals)

28. Election of 1984
Jesse Jackson
placed third in
Democratic Primaries

29. Election of 1984
Geraldine Ferraro
joined Mondale as
first female VP
candidate

31. Social Issues:
Supreme Court grows more
conservative
Sandra Day O’Connor
first female Supreme Court
justice

32. Reagan Foreign Policy
• USSR = “evil empire”
• Reagan Doctrine – from containment
to rollback
• Massive defense spending
• Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)
• Added $2.5 Trillion to National Debt

33. Iran-Contra Affair
• Nicaragua, 1979: Sandanistas (socialists)
overthrew corrupt US-supported dictator;
then won free election
• 1981: Reagan authorizes CIA to fund and
train Contras (right-wing anti-
Sandanistas)
• 1983: Congress cut funding to Contras in
Boland Amendment
• 1985-1986: Reagan Admin secretly sold
missiles to Iran, used profits to fund
Contras
• “Teflon President”, Bush pardons all

34. Support for Mujahideen in Afghanistan fighting Soviet
occupation

35. After Soviet withdrawal in 1989, the Mujahideen:
• became the Taliban
• established harsh Islamic Shariah law,
• supported Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda terror network,
• were overthrown by 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11

36. Improved U.S.-Soviet Relations:
1985: Mikhail Gorbachev introduced major reforms
in Soviet Union
• Glasnost - end political repression
• Perestroika - intro free markets in Soviet Union
1987: Reagan and Gorbachev sign INF Agreement

38. Election of 1988
Michael Dukakis vs. George Bush

39. “And I'm the one who will not
raise taxes… And the
Congress will push me to raise
taxes and I'll say no. And
they'll push, and I'll say no,
and they'll push again, and I'll
say, to them, ‘Read my lips:
NO NEW TAXES.’”

41. George H.W. Bush
41st POTUS
1989-1993
“Read my lips:
NO NEW TAXES.”

42. Bush Foreign Policy/Challenges
April 1989, Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China: 100,000 pro-
democracy students demonstrate against Communist Party rule
June 4, 1989: PLA tanks crush demonstration; 10,000 killed?

43. Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, 1989:
August 1989, Poland:
Pro-democracy Solidarity party won first free
election since WWII
October 1989:
Communist Party rule ended in Hungary; ends in
all other Eastern European nations by 1991

44. November 9, 1989: Fall of the Berlin Wall
October 1990: Germany reunited

53. Breakup of Soviet Union:
April 1991: Georgia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
declared independence
August 1991: failed coup attempt to remove
Gorbachev by Communist Party hardliners
December 8, 1991: Soviet Union dissolved

54. End of Cold War:
1991: Bush and Gorbachev signed START I (Strategic Arms Reduction
Treaty)  nuclear warheads to under 10,000; removed 80% of world’s
nuclear weapons

55. End of Cold War:
1993: Bush and Yeltsin sign START II  nuclear warheads to under
3,000

56. End of Cold War:
2010: Obama and Medvedev signed New START  cut missile
launchers by 50% and reduced to 1550 nuclear warheads