Discussion #12: Assessing Ronald Reagan
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davidsonus8_ppt_ch31.htmlChapter 31: The Conservative Challenge1976 to 1992
U.S. A NARRATIVE HISTORY, EIGHTH EDITION
DAVIDSON • DELAY • HEYRMAN • LYTLE • STOFF
The Conservative Challenge1976 to 1992
“During the years of the Carter, Reagan, and Bush administrations, the nation’s political and social agenda was increasingly determined by a conservative movement, including newly politicized evangelical Christians, that sought to restore traditional religious and family values, patriotism, and a more limited role for government.”
What’s to Come
The Conservative Rebellion
The Presidency in Transition: Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter
Prime Time with Ronald Reagan
Standing Tall in a Chaotic World
An End to the Cold War
The Conservative Rebellion (1)
Many traditionally-minded Protestants moved from churches growing more liberal to evangelical ones
Moving Religion into Politics
- Used modern media to spread the word
- Falwell and LaHaye join to fight a gay rights law
- Concerned Women of America (CWA)
- Moral Majority
- Pope John Paul II
- Shared certain views with evangelicals
- Proposition 13
- California’s property tax reform
- Inspired similar legislation in other states
- Mass media blamed for corrupting family values
- Archie Bunker
- Youthful blue-collar culture
- People for the American Way
- War Powers Resolution
- Creation of intelligence oversight committees
- Influence of Kissinger
- Yom Kippur War
- OPEC’s oil boycott hurts western economies and Japan’s
- Inflation and U.S. cities on the brink of financial disaster
- Shuttle diplomacy
- Negotiations between Jerusalem in Israel
- Mounting industrial competition
- S. looked to further détente; SALT II
- “Born-again” Christian governor from the Sun Belt
- Carter beat Ford by a slim margin
- Difficulty in setting priorities
- Too much too soon
- Strengthening of the EPA
- Clashing environmental and energy policies
- comprehensive national energy program emerged
- Three Mile Island
- Wage stagnation, unemployment, and inflation
- President’s fiscal conservatism
- Human rights
- Panama Canal treaties
- Real test for conservatives: the Soviet Union
- Playing “the China card”
- Free flow of oil versus the survival of Israel
- Camp David accords
- Iranian Revolution
- Americans taken hostage at U.S. Embassy in Teheran
- Soviets invaded Afghanistan
- Energy dependence and economic instability
- OPEC increases in the price of oil
- Carter’s approval rating sank to record lows—77 percent negative
- Disastrous attempt to rescue hostages
- S. mired in “a crisis of confidence”
- Reagan “revolution”
- Hands-off leadership
- Contrasted with Jimmy Carter
- Luck played a role
- Hostages freed
- Soviet leaders died
- Failed assassination attempt
- Supply-side economics
- Tax cuts
- End of 50 years of liberal government?
- Anti-union climate
- Budget cuts at EPA
- OSHA cutbacks
- Department of Interior leadership
- “Revenue enhancements”
- Tax increases when supply-side boom failed to materialize
- Revival of the economy
- Economic inequality
- Outsourcing
- Yuppies
- Young, upwardly mobile, urban professionals
- Gen-Xers: those born after the baby boom, for whom computers were second nature
- Women: high-wage vs. low-wage jobs
- Job displacement effect on black males
- Union decline
- Soviet Union: the “evil empire”
- Deficits
- Huge deficits caused by defense spending and tax cuts
- Cost overruns and wasteful spending
- Revived anti-nuclear movement
- Lebanon
- Israeli invasion
- American peacekeeping force sent to Beirut
- Bombing of the marine barracks
- Terrorist attacks by Islamic fundamentalists
- Reagan promised retribution, but against whom?
- Intelligence agencies lacked solid information
- American bombing of Libya
- Grenada invasion (1983)
- Nicaragua
- Sandinistas and Contras
- CIA, and the Boland Amendment
- election
- Reagan’s popularity remained strong
- Reagan against Walter Mondale and running mate Geraldine Ferraro
- Reagan won easily
- Arms for hostage's deal
- Oliver North
- Profits from an arms deal were used to unlawfully support the Contras
- Irangate
- President kept in ignorance
- Mikhail Gorbachev
- Perestroikaand glasnost
- Moscow eliminated certain nuclear-capable missiles
- Election of 1988
- George H. W. Bush won by a comfortable margin
- Fall of communism in Europe
- Signaled the end of the cold war
- Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START): reductions in nuclear weapon stockpiles
- Tiananmen Square rally crushed
- Saddam Hussein
- Battled Iran with U.S. support
- Iraq invaded its oil-rich neighbor, Kuwait
- Operation Desert Storm (1991)
- President’s popularity high
- “Kinder, gentler” nation
- Pressure from conservatives
- Opposition to environmental restrictions
- Earth Summit
- President opposed efforts to draft stricter rules to lessen the threat of global warming
- Signed into law the sweeping Clean Air Act passed by Congress in 1990
- Education Summit in 1989; set modest goals
- Appointment of Antonin Scalia
- Clarence Thomas hearings
- Changing stance on affirmative action
- Ballooning deficit
- Savings and loan crisis
- Public health crisis
- Soaring medical costs
- AIDS
- Gramm-Rudman Act (1985)
- Bush agreed to new taxes along with budget cuts
- Bill Clinton’s campaign and election
- the economy, stupid”
The Catholic Conscience
The Conservative Rebellion (2)
During the late 1970s and the 1980s, conservatives increasingly spoke out against abortion and in favor of the right to life for an unborn fetus. Adopting the tactics of protest and civil disobedience once common to radicals in the 1960s, they clash here with pro-choice demonstrators outside Faneuil Hall in Boston. ©Bettmann/Getty Images
The Conservative Rebellion (3)
Tax Revolt
The Media as Battleground
Saturday Night Fever
The Conservative Rebellion (4)
John Travolta, the blue-collar Brooklyn boy with aspirations, dressed to the nines and “Stayin’ Alive” to the beat of the Bee Gees. ©Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
The Presidency in Transition: Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter (1)
Trimming Presidential Powers
Energy and the Middle East
The Presidency in Transition: Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter (2)
As the energy crisis contributed to New York City’s near-bankruptcy, Gerald Ford at first opposed federal assistance. New Yorkers were not amused. ©New York Daily News/Getty Images
MAP 31.1: OIL AND CONFLICT IN THE MIDDLE EAST, 1948 to 1988
After World War II the Middle East became a vital geopolitical region beset by big-power rivalry and complicated by local, tribal, ethnic, and religious divisions. Much of the world’s oil reserves lie along the Persian Gulf. Proximity to the former Soviet Union and vital trade routes such as the Suez Canal have defined the region’s geographic importance. Revolutions in Iran and Afghanistan, intermittent warfare between Arabs and Jews, the unresolved questions of Israel’s borders and a Palestinian homeland, the disintegration of Lebanon, and a long war between Iran and Iraq were among the conflicts that unsettled the region.
The Presidency in Transition: Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter (3)
Limits across the Globe
Jimmy Carter: Restoring the Faith
The Search for Direction
The Presidency in Transition: Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter (4)
Energy and the Environment
The Sagging Economy
The Presidency in Transition: Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter (5)
In 1979 the four cooling towers at Three Mile Island nuclear reactor had to be shut down, due to a leak of radioactive steam. ©Bettmann/Getty Images
The Presidency in Transition: Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter (6)
Foreign Policy: Principled or Pragmatic?
The Middle East: Hope and Hostages
The Presidency in Transition: Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter (7)
It was at Camp David, in private talks sponsored by President Jimmy Carter (center), that Egyptian president Anwar Sadat (left) and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin (right ) hammered out a “Framework for Peace in the Middle East” as a first step toward ending decades of war and mistrust. ©David Rubinger/Getty Images
The Presidency in Transition: Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter (8)
A President Held Hostage
MAP 31.2: ELECTION OF 1980
Reagonbeat Cater with a staggering 91% of the electoral vote and 51% of the popular vote.
Prime Time with Ronald Reagan (1)
The Great Communicator
Prime Time with Ronald Reagan (2)
The Reagan Agenda
Prime Time with Ronald Reagan (3)
Striking air traffic controllers protest their firing. ©Yvonne Hemsy/Getty Images
Prime Time with Ronald Reagan (4)
A Halfway Revolution
Prime Time with Ronald Reagan (5)
Winners and Losers in the Labor Market
POVERTY IN AMERICA, 1970 to1993 (1)
Social Security and other income supplements to older Americans reduced their rate of poverty. For all other traditionally impoverished groups the prosperity of the Reagan-Bush years (1981 to1989) left them slightly worse off than in 1980. The charts also indicate that during the years 1970 to 1993, poverty was most severe for single mothers and their children and for people of color. (top right) ©David Buffington/Getty Images RF; (top left) ©Stock Shop Photography LLC/iStockphoto RF; (center left) ©eyecrave/iStockphoto RF; (bottom left) ©Plush Studios/Blend Images RF
POVERTY IN AMERICA, 1970 to 1993 (2)
Many high-tech companies build headquarter complexes much like college campuses. Oracle, a business software systems company, erected this gleaming complex in Redwood City, California, near what has come to be known as Silicon Valley. ©Ken Wolter/Shutterstock RF
Standing Tall in a Chaotic World (1)
The Military Buildup
Standing Tall in a Chaotic World (2)
Disaster in the Middle East
Standing Tall in a Chaotic World (3)
Frustrations in Central America
MAP 31.3: NICARAGUA AND ITS NEIGHBORS IN THE 1980S
The strong anti-Communist tilt of the Reagan administration led it to actively intervene in Central America, particularly with aid toward the overthrow of the left-leaning Sandinista government in Nicaragua. But Congress reacted to the mining of Nicaraguan harbors by forbidding any American aid to the Contra forces.
Standing Tall in a Chaotic World (4)
The Iran-Contra Connection
Cover Blown
Standing Tall in a Chaotic World (5)
Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North successfully took the offensive in his testimony before the congressional committee investigating the Iran-Contra scandals. Here North delivers a pro-Contra lecture to the committee. ©Lana Harris/AP Photo
Standing Tall in a Chaotic World (6)
From Cold War to Glasnost
Standing Tall in a Chaotic World (7)
In October 1986 President Reagan and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev met for arms talks at Reykjavík, Iceland. At their second summit meeting Gorbachev proposed that the two superpowers agree to “the liquidation of nuclear weapons.” Reagan liked that ambitious goal (considerably more than his skeptical advisers), but he was unable to agree because he wanted to continue development of an antiballistic missile system. ©David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images
An End to the Cold War (1)
A Post–Cold War Foreign Policy
The Gulf War
MAP 31.4: WAR WITH IRAQ: OPERATION DESERT STORM
When Saddam Hussein invaded oil-rich Kuwait on August 2, 1990, the United States formed a coalition to defeat the Iraqis. (Although Turkey was not a formal member, it allowed its airfields to be used. Israel remained uninvolved to avoid antagonizing Arab coalition members.) The coalition launched Operation Desert Storm in January 1991; land forces invaded on February 24, routing Iraqi troops, who left Kuwait in ruin and its oil fields aflame.
An End to the Cold War (2)
Domestic Doldrums
An End to the Cold War (3)
The Conservative Court
Disillusionment and Anger
An End to the Cold War (4)
As the AIDS epidemic spread in the 1980s, quilts such as these expressed sorrow for lost friends and loved ones. The quilts also served to raise public awareness of the need for a more effective policy to aid people living with AIDS and fight the disease. ©Kristoffer Tripplaar/Alamy
An End to the Cold War (5)
The Election of 1992
“[W]hat role would the United States play in the post–cold war era, when it stood as the lone superpower in the world arena? Those were questions for president-elect Bill Clinton as he sought to lead the United States into the post–cold war world.”
MAP 31.5: ELECTION OF 1992
Clinton beat Bush with more than double the amount of electoral votes and 5% more popular votes.
