Southern Strategy, End of Cold War, 9/11

1. The Southern Strategy, End of the Cold War, Desert Storm & 9/11

2. Jimmy Carter1977-1981 • Deeply religious Christian • Washington Outsider, who refused to play the “political game”, and it hurt his presidency • Human Rights Diplomacy: example Cut off aid to Chile and Argentina because of human rights violations by their military governments and renegotiated the Panama Canal Treaty to gradually transfer (critics said “give-away”)control of the Canal from US to Panama • Stagflation was back in full force, as was deficit spending and a new energy crisis…

3. OPEC • Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which regulates the price and supply of oil, created an embargo against Israel's allies during the Yom Kippur War of 1973. • Raised the price of gas by 400% between 1973 and 1979 and • Created an energy crisis, especially during the harsh winter of 1976 to 1977 • Huge gas-guzzling vehicles did not help.

4. Camp David Accords • 1979: created a peace agreement between Israel (Begin) and Egypt (Sadat) • Single greatest success for Carter Administration • However, not all was calm in the Middle East…

5. Iran Hostage Crisis 1979-1981 Fundamentalist Islamic holy men, led by Ayatollah Khomeini took power from Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in Iran in Jan. 1979 Iranian student radicals took hostages in the US embassy to protest US backing of the former Shah 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days (November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981) The hostages initially were held in buildings at the embassy, but after a failed (1980) rescue mission they were scattered to different locations around Iran to make rescue impossible.

6. Social Revolutions and Cultural Movements of the 1960s and 70s • Civil Rights/ Black Power • Student Movement and the New Left • Antiwar (Vietnam) • Counterculture and the Sexual Revolution • Minority Rights (Hispanic, Native and Asian Americans) • Gay Liberation Movement • Environmental Movement Individual Rights - Supreme Court Cases • Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) • States must provide lawyers to indigent defendants • Miranda v. Arizona (1966) • Defendant must be read rights upon arrest

7. The Women’s Movement • The Civil Rights Movement, increased education and employment since WWII, and the sexual revolution all contributed to the renewal of the Women’s Movement in the 1960’s • Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique is widely credited with sparking the beginning of this second-wave feminism in the US.[2] • National Organization for Women (NOW) worked hard for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which passed through Congress, but failed to be ratified. • Equal Pay Act (1963) and Civil Rights Act (1964) helped women in the workplace… Steinem at a news conference, Women's Action Alliance, January 12, 1972

8. Roe V. Wade (1973) • Supreme Court Case, in which the Court ruled 7–2 that a right to privacy under the due process clause of the 14th Amendment extended to a woman's decision to have an abortion and thus gave women the right to an abortion until “viability.” • In disallowing many state and federal restrictions on abortion in the US, Roe v. Wade prompted a national debate that continues to this day.

9. During the late Twentieth Century, the differences between the two Major parties grew more pronounced… Democratic Party VS. Republican Party LIBERAL CONSERVATIVE Big Government Shrink Government Increase Taxes Reduce Taxes (esp. at top) Increase Programs/gov’t. spending Decrease programs/gov’t. spending Less military spending More military spending Cooperate with UN more Cooperate with UN less More Environmental regulation Less Environmental regulation “Traditional Values” less important “Traditional Values” more important Nationalization of Industry/Health Care Privatization of Industry/Health Care Pro-Gun Control Anti- Gun Control Pro-public education Ed. Vouchers/Defund public education Pro-Choice Pro – Life Not pro-Israel; Pro-Israel; Pro-LGBT Less Pro-LGBT More Restrained Foreign Policy More Aggressive Foreign Policy Less Restrictive Immigration Policy More Restrictive Immigration Policy

10. NEW RIGHT: By the late 1970s, Middle and Working-class Americans, especially in the South had grown tired of Liberal programs and trends, such as: • Busing (Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Ed.) • Affirmative Action (Regents of Univ. of California v. Bakke) • No established prayer in schools (Engel v. Vitale) • Unfundedfederal mandates • “Degeneration” of youth (counterculture; Roe v. Wade) The American Conservative movement included both religious conservatives and fiscal (economic) conservatives…1970s saw shift in the South from Democratic to Republican – a trend that began with Nixon’s Southern Strategy

11. Moral Majority • Founder Jerry Falwell (1979) • Religious organization for political change (or a political organization working to fulfill religious goals?) • Supported “Traditional” and “Mainstream American” values.

12. Ronald Reagan 1981-1989 • B Movie Actor (and Governor of California) • Older (oldest president ever) • Stood for lower taxes, traditional American values, and military preparedness (especially vs. USSR, which he called “The Evil Empire”) • Conservative Resurgence coupled with bad economic times in the late 70s, helped Reagan win the 1980 Presidential election. • “Government is not the solution government is the problem.”

13. “Reagonomics” Supply-Side (trickle-down) economics: • Cut taxes (and thus domestic/social spending*) so that the private sector would invest more, under the assumption that it would lead to increased production, jobs, and prosperity. • In fact cutting taxes to the rich just made those at the top wealthier. • Economic Recovery Act: Cut overall federal taxes by 25%; 28% for the wealthiest Americans. • Also reduced government regulation of industry *Note that the spending savings was greatly offset by dramatic increase in military spending

14. Results of Reaganomics

15. The End of the Cold War

16. Reagan Built Up the Military • Reagan significantly increased military spending in the Cold War, both nuclear and conventional arms increased. • Increased military spending from 100 billion to 300 billion per year during his presidency. • Believed (correctly) that the USSR could not compete with this type of spending

17. SDI • Strategic Defense Initiative: meant to create a system of anti-missile defenses to protect the United States. This was something the USSR could not afford to pursue, economically…may have been the last straw for them.

18. Fought Communism • Supported the Contras: anti-communist rebels in Nicaragua (funded by 1986 sales of arms to Iran … Iran-Contra Affair Scandal…oops) • Removed a leftist dictator from power in Grenada • Supported a right-wing government in El Salvador against leftest rebels • Continued to aid Afghanistani anti-Soviet rebels.

19. Why Change in the Soviet Union • Huge economic problems in the USSR • Their war in Afghanistan had drained their economy • Gorbachev came to power in 1985: Perestroika (economic reform) and Glasnost (openness)

20. Gorbachev and Reagan • Met four times between 1985 and 1989 to discuss arms reduction, Soviet pull-out of Afghanistan and diplomatic cooperation…The two men became friends.

21. Berlin Wall Fell in 1989 • “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall”…East Germans were at last allowed into West Berlin. • Bush Senior was President by this time

22. The Soviet Union Broke Up in 1991, and the Cold War Was Officially Over

23. Sandra Day O’Connor • 1986 • First female appointed to the Supreme Court. Moderate Conservative Supreme Court Justice • Her appointment, along with three others, was meant to make the court much less liberal-minded

24. Social Security HIV/AIDS Reform Act • Beginning of the AIDS epidemic first appeared in 1981 • The president remained mostly silent on the issue of the AIDS epidemic. • Bush Senior will promote funding for research on the disease • As the number of elderly grew, the Social Security System began to pay out more than it took in. • 1983, Reagan Signed the Act, raising the minimum retirement age from 65 to 67 and increasing payroll taxes to cover the payments.

25. Iran-Contra Affair • A political scandal in the that occurred during the second term of the Reagan Administration. Senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran (which was the subject of an arms embargo). They hoped thereby to secure the release of several U.S. hostages and to fund the Contras (anti-communists) in Nicaragua (See Containment Policy). Further funding of the Contras by the government had been prohibited by Congress. • The situation began as an operation to free the 7 American hostages being held in Lebanon by a group with Iranian ties. It was planned that Israel would ship weapons to Iran, and then the United States would resupply Israel and receive the Israeli payment. The Iranian recipients promised to do everything in their power to achieve the release of the U.S. hostages. Large modifications to the plan were devised by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North of the National Security Council in late 1985, in which a portion of the proceeds from the weapon sales was diverted to fund the Contras, in Nicaragua. • While President Reagan was a supporter of the Contra cause, the evidence is disputed as to whether he authorized the diversion of the money raised by the Iranian arms sales to the Contras

26. George H. W. Bush (Sr.) 1989-1993 • “Read my Lips…NO NEW TAXES!”…Bush would be forced to go back on this campaign pledge to start paying off the national debt…combined with 1990 economic recession => one term president • Most famous for his foreign policy work and his “patient diplomacy”, building multinational coalitions against international “bad guys” like Saddam Hussein. • Of his foreign policy work he is most famous for the Persian Gulf war or “Operation Desert Storm” in 1991.

27. War on Drugs • During the Bush Administration, the US “War on Drugs” expanded, especially in Latin America. • Included a December, 1989 invasion of Panama to arrest Panamanian dictator, Manuel Noriega

28. William (“Bill”) Clinton 1993-2001 Domestic Policy Gun Control: The Brady Bill & Assault Weapons Ban Comprehensive gun control laws. The first, named for a Reagan’s aide hurt during the assassination attempt, required background checks on gun purchasers. The second banned the production and sale of some semi-automatic firearms to civilians. Healthcare Clinton would have passed a law that guaranteed medical care for all Americans, but it was defeated in Congress. NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement: brought down all barriers to trade in North America(US, Canada, Mexico)) Note: Scandals in the Clinton White House led to a Republican Congressional victory in 1994

29. Clinton Foreign Policy • 1994 (Haiti): US sent troops to Haiti to put the democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide back into power after he was overthrown by a military dictatorship. • 1994 (Middle East Peace) Encouraged peace treaty between Jordan and Israel and return of home rule to Palestinians in the Gaza strip • 1995 (Bosnia): American troops sent (with NATO forces) to stop ethnic cleansing and secure peace during a civil war between Serbs, Muslims and Croats in what used to be Yugoslavia. • 1995: Reestablished diplomatic relations with Vietnam

30. George W. Bush (2001 – 2009) • Inaugurated in January 2001, after a close and controversial 2000 Election • Faced with new realities after the attacks on 9/11, Bush was left with the task of strengthening US National Security against the “Axis of Evil”: • Patriot Act and Department of Homeland Security (2001) • War in Afghanistan and 2nd Iraqi War (2001-present) (2003-present) • Economic Downturn (Severe Recession began later in Bush’s second term, probably costing Republicans the Presidency in 2008 .

31. Questions • From 1860 to 1960 the North was identified as a Republican stronghold while the South tended to vote Democratic. The reverse is true now. How and why did this situation change? • Why were Carter and Bush senior one term presidents? • From the Carter presidency to the two terms of the second President Bush, the Middle East has been a constant focus. What are the reasons for this? • What factors led to the end of the cold war? • Compare and contrast the Women’s Movement with the Religious Right.