1. Goal 12:
The United States Since Vietnam
(1973-present)
The learner will identify and analyze
trends in domestic and foreign affairs
of the United States during this time
period.

2. Goal 12 Essential Questions
12.01: What are the significant events in US foreign policy since
Vietnam?
12.02: What has been the impact of recent constitutional
amendments, court rulings, and federal legislation?
12.03: What economic, technological, and environmental changes
have taken place in the US and how have they changed
American lives?
12.04: What social, political, and cultural changes have taken place
in the US and how have they changed American lives?
12.05: What has been the impact of growing racial and ethnic
diversity in American society?
12.06: How has terrorist activity altered American society?

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

4. Key Nixon Admin Figures:
Henry Kissinger, National Security
Adviser
Spiro Agnew, Vice President

5. Nixon Foreign Policy
“Vietnamization”  Nixon Doctrine
“ … we shall furnish military and economic assistance when requested … But we
shall look to the nation directly threatened to assume the primary responsibility of
providing the manpower for its defense.”

6. Realpolitik
Détente: reduction in Cold War tensions
China: Feb 1972 - Nixon travels to China to
meet with Mao Zedong
USSR: Strategic Arms Limitations Talks
(SALT I)

7. Nov. 1973: War Powers Act - secret bombing of Cambodia 
President must report to Congress within 48 hrs of military action;
Congress must approve if longer than 60 days

8. Nixon Domestic Policy
New Federalism: shift from federal budgeting of social
programs to state level; “revenue sharing”
Family Assistance Plan: welfare reforms; requires
recipients to work; did not pass

9. 1973: OPEC Oil Embargo - for US aid to Israel; 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 and stagnant economy
Economic stagnation + inflation = Stagflation; Nixon used Keynesian
economics and imposed 90 day price freeze but was ineffective

10. Burger Court
1969: four judges retire; Nixon appoint Warren Burger as Chief
Justice, also appointed William Rehnquist  more conservative
court
1973: Roe v. Wade, pro-choice abortion ruling
1974: U.S. v. Nixon, Watergate scandal trial

11. Election of 1972 – Nixon vs. George McGovern; Nixon paranoid about
losing
Southern Strategy: to attract Southern Dems (Wallace supporters)
Nixon appeals to “silent majority” (does not like black militants,
protestors, youth culture, etc.)
Slows school desegregation/opposed busing (required by 1971 Swann
v. Charlotte)

12. Nixon wins every state except Mass! Factors: Foreign policy success
(China), George Wallace assassination attempt, and George McGovern
very liberal

13. 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 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

14. White House aide revels all conversations recorded; Nixon refuses to
turn over tapes claiming Executive Privilege  US v Nixon  public
shock over Nixon’s profanity and crudeness and missing 18 minutes
Also, Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned in 1973 for accepting
bribes when Maryland governor  appointment of Gerald Ford as
VP

15. Resignation
House votes impeachment for:
1. Obstruction of justice
2. Abuse of power
3. Contempt of Congress
August 9, 1974: Nixon resigns;
Ford = first unelected
president; demonstration of
Constitutional strength and
stability of American system

16. Gerald Ford
38th POTUS
1974-1977

17. Ford Domestic Policy
Nixon Pardon: After one
month in office, Ford
pardoned Nixon of all crimes;
to end the “national
nightmare”  intense
criticism
Carter campaign button, 1976

18. CIA/FBI Reform
Rockefeller Commission, Church Committee and Pike Report -
investigated illegal CIA and FBI activities “which had no conceivable
rational relationship to either national security or violent activity.”
• 1953-1974: massive, illegal domestic intelligence investigations
of SDS, war protestors, civil rights leaders, and others
• Extensive phone tapping, mail opening, bug planting, and home
and office burglaries
• 26,000+ individuals identified to be arrested in the event of a
“national emergency”
• Funding of non-consensual human experimentation
• Failed attempts to assassinate foreign leaders

19. CIA/FBI Reform
• New CIA Director: George H.W.
Bush
• CIA ended and FBI reduced domestic
spying
• FBI could continue warrantless
searches and phones taps without
probable cause if targeting
terrorists, spies, or other enemies of
the state and only for
counterintelligence; not regular
criminal investigations.
• Executive Order 11905: banned
political assassinations

20. WIN Buttons (Whip Inflation Now): worst recession in 40 years leads
to failed effort to end inflation and unemployment
• Americans asked to cut back on oil/gas use but no incentives
• Called for voluntary wage/price freezes
• No Immediate Miracles

21. Ford Foreign Policy
Failure in Southeast Asia:
April, 1975: Fall of Saigon
1975-1979: Cambodian Genocide
by Khmer Rouge; US Marines
rescue 39 crewmen from Mayaguez

22. Helsinki Accords: 35 states including USSR and US pledge to
cooperate economically, respect national boundaries, and promote
human rights

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

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

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

27. Camp David Accords (1979):
Between Anwar Sadat of Egypt and
Menachem Begin of Israel
• Egypt was first Arab nation to
recognize Israel
• Israel returned Sinai to Egypt
• Still most significant progress in
Mideast peace process

28. Iran Hostage Crisis (1979):
1953: CIA and British MI6 overthrew democracy in
favor of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
1979: Shah travels to US for cancer treatment;
Islamic Fundamentalist Ayatollah Khomeini leads
a revolution in his absence
52 Americans hostages held in U.S. embassy until
Shah returned; we refuse and Shah dies naturally
Hostages held for 444 days until diplomatic
agreement reached; release coincides with Reagan
inauguration

29. 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

30. Carter Domestic Policy
Amnesty for Vietnam draft dodgers
Inflation: Cut spending, allowed interest rates to rise
National Energy Act: tax on gas guzzlers, tax credits for solar
energy, remove price controls on domestic oil, bailout to Chrysler

31. 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…”

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

33. Cable TV Televangelists Pat Robertson and Jim Bakker drew 100
million strong weekly audiences
Jerry Falwell’s anti-abortion Moral Majority
Social agenda: anti-abortion, anti-ERA, anti-busing, anti-affirmative
action

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

35. 1980 Election

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

39. “Reaganomics”:
1) budget cuts from
programs for the poor -
school lunch programs,
nursing homes, disability
payments
2) 25% tax cut – mainly
benefited the rich
3) increased defense
spending

40. Supply-side (Trickle-down) economics:
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

41. Deregulation of banking, airlines, and telecommunications;
mining, forestry, oil drilling increased
Did Reaganomics work?
1982: Worst recession since Depression, 17,000 business
failures, 9,000,000 unemployed … but finally began
recovering in 1983.

42. But “yuppies” (young urban
professionals) thought it worked … (at
least until 1987.)

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

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

47. Social Issues:
Supreme Court grows more
conservative:
Antonin Scalia and
Anthony Kennedy added
Sandra Day O‟Connor
first female Supreme Court
justice
Also, Rehnquist promoted to
Chief

48. 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

49. stations Marines to quell violence in Lebanese Civil War (Christian vs.
Muslim)
Beirut Bombings:
April 1983: Islamic fundamentalist suicide bomb in U.S. embassy kills
63
October 1983: Islamic fundamentalist suicide bomb kills 241 US
Marines

50. Grenada, October 1983: US invasion
of Caribbean island to remove pro-
Cuban regime; first major operation
since Vietnam

51. Iran-Contra Affair
• Nicaragua, 1979: Sandanistas
(communists) overthrew corrupt US-
supported dictator
• 1981: Reagan authorizes CIA to fund and
train Contras (anti-communists)
• 1983: Congress cuts funding to Contras
in Boland Amendment
• 1985-1986: Reagan Admin secretly sells
2500+ anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles
to Iran, uses profits to fund Contras
• “Teflon President”, Bush pardons all

52. Support for Mujahideen in Afghanistan fighting Soviet
occupation

53. 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

55. Election of 1988
Michael Dukakis vs. George Bush

56. “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.‟”

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

60. 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?

61. Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe,
1989:
August 1989, Poland:
Pro-democracy party wins elections
October 1989:
Communist Party rule ends in Hungary; ends in
all other Eastern European nations by 1991

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

63. Breakup of Soviet Union:
Mapping the fall of communism
April 1991: Georgia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania declare
independence
August 1991: Communist hardliners fail in attempt to remove
Gorbachev
December 8, 1991: Soviet Union dissolves

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

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

66. End of Cold War:
2010: Obama and Medvedev sign New START  will cut number of
missile launchers by 50% and reduce to 1550 nuclear warheads by
2018

67. Invasion of Panama
December 1989: Bush sends 25,000 troops to Panama to
remove General Manuel Noriega for drug trafficking to
the U.S.

69. Persian Gulf War
August 1990:
Saddam Hussein orders
Iraqi forces to invade
Kuwait

70. Persian Gulf War
January 16, 1991: Operation
Desert Storm begins with five
week air war

71. Persian Gulf War
February 23-28, 1991: 543,000 troops from 38 nations
led by Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf launch ground
attack from Saudi Arabia and liberate Kuwait

73. Bush Domestic Policies
Clarence Thomas: replacement for
Thurgood Marshall but
conservatism angered minorities
Americans with Disabilities Act
(1990): “a kinder gentler America”;

74. Domestic Problems
• Iran Contra pardon
• Savings and Loan (S&L) Crisis:
Reagan banking deregulation  bank failures  $88 billion
bailout
• “No new taxes.”  Large tax increase
• 1990-92 recession  “It‟s the economy, stupid.”

75. Election of 1992

76. Bill Clinton
42nd POTUS
1993-2001
“I feel your pain
…”

77. “New Democrat” - shift away
from traditional Democratic Party
values
• Need to move people off
welfare
• Growth in private business as a
means to economic progress
• Strong national defense
• Pro death penalty
• Push for a balanced budget

78. Clinton Domestic Policy
First priority: Health Care reform
In charge: Hillary Clinton
Goal: universal coverage
Problems:
• Doctors & insurance industry disagree
• Take too much time, fails to pass

79. Early Accomplishments:
• Family and Medical Leave Act (1993)
• Brady Handgun Bill (1994)  5-day waiting period
before purchasing a handgun
• North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
• Minimum Wage increase

80. Welfare Reform
• Worked with Republicans in Congress.
• Required work for welfare recipients with school age
kids.
• Max of 5 years for benefits.
• Cut welfare rolls by 50% + internet boom tax revenues =
balanced budget

81. 1994 Republican Revolution
• First Republican control of Congress for since 1954
• Contract with America: “Era of big government is over.”
• Newt Gingrich, Speaker of House

82. 1995-1996 Government Shutdowns
Budget battle between Congress and Executive  government
shutdowns
 Clinton 1996 re-election vs. Bob Dole

84. 1993 World Trade Center Bombing
February 26, 1993: Al-Qaeda car bomb killed seven, injured 1042
Foreshadowed 9/11

85. Growth of Terrorism
April 19, 1995:
Oklahoma City Bombing
Anti-government militia
members Timothy McVeigh
and Terry Nichols kill 168
die, wound 800+
"Think about the people as if they were storm
troopers in Star Wars. They may be individually
innocent, but they are guilty because they work
for the Evil Empire.”
- Timothy McVeigh on the deaths of bombing

86. Columbine High School massacre
April 20, 1999: Two students kill 12 students and a
teacher, injured 21, then committed suicide
More attention paid to bullying, teen isolation.

87. Monica Lewinsky Affair
Perjury? Impeachment!
• Clinton accused of
lying under oath 
Congress impeaches
for perjury
• Not guilty, lied in
press statements but
never in federal
courts.

88. CNN Foreign Policy
Unsure of new role as sole superpower:
• Bosnia/Kosovo
• Somalia  “Black Hawk Down”
• Rwanda

89. Bosnia 1990 pop. = 4 m.
• 44% Bosniak (Muslim)
• 31% Serb (Eastern Orthodox Christians)
• 17% Croatian (Roman Catholic Christians)

91. Ethnic Cleansing: By 1995, 200,000 had died including 80% of
Bosniaks.

92. By 1995, 200,000 had died including 80% of Bosniaks.

94. Somalia –establish cease fire
and deliver food and aid

95. Trade Issues
• Permanent trade with China
• (NAFTA) North American Free Trade Agreement

96. 2000 Election: Bush v. Gore
Gore won the pop. vote by 500,000, but controversy in Florida  Bush
v. Gore,
Supreme Court ruled for Bush in 5-4

97. George W. Bush
43nd POTUS
2001-2009
“They misunderestimated

98. Bush Tax Cut:
$1.35 trillion tax cut/10 yrs

99. No Child Left Behind (2003)
"Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?”
--Florence, South Carolina, Jan. 11, 2000
As yesterday's positive report card shows, childrens do learn when
standards are high and results are measured."
- on NCLB, Washington, D.C., Sept. 26, 2007

100. September 11, 2001: Attacks in NYC and
DC

101. War in Afghanistan, 2001-present
Goal: Remove the Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist party which
had been harboring Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda forces
responsible for the 9/11 attacks

102. War in Iraq, 2003-2011
Goal: Remove Saddam Hussein from
power; falsely suspected of having WMD
NO CONNECTION TO 9/11!

103. 2004 Election:
Red State, Blue State, or Purple America?

104. 2008 Election

105. Goal 12 Objectives
12.01: Summarize significant events in foreign policy since the
Vietnam War.
12.02: Evaluate the impact of recent constitutional amendments,
court rulings, and federal legislation on United States'
citizens.
12.03: Identify and assess the impact of economic, technological,
and environmental changes in the United States.
12.04: Identify and assess the impact of social, political, and cultural
changes in the United States.
12.05: Assess the impact of growing racial and ethnic diversity in
American society.
12.06: Assess the impact of twenty-first century terrorist activity on