Unit 2H.2 - The USA, 1955-92: conformity and challenge
Institution
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History for Edexcel A Level: Democracies in change: Britain and the USA in the twentieth century
· This includes detailed revision notes of the first chapter of Edexcel History A-level Option 2H.2: The USA, 1955–92: conformity and challenge.
· This chapter is Social and political change, 1973–80
· It covers everything on the specification and is laid out in an easy-to-understand way...
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Unit 2H.2 - The USA, 1955-92: conformity and challenge
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1 The Crisis of Political Leadership
Watergate:
● The Watergate building was an office block in Washington DC.
○ In 1972, Nixon's Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP) hoped to gain
electoral advantage through knowledge of Democratic Party secrets of this.
○ The CREEP organised two illegal break-ins into the Democratic National
Committee headquarters in the Watergate building, in order to install
electronic surveillance devices.
○ The first burglars were apprehended within the Democrat offices on 17 June
1972 and arrested.
Nixon’s reaction:
● Nixon's initial reactions were mixed.
○ On the one hand, he seemed unconcerned.
○ On the other hand, he quickly moved to try to cover up the administration's
involvement in the break-in.
● Nixon and his aides discussed using the CIA to stop the FBI investigating the
break-in.
○ This was a clear attempt to obstruct justice.
● When the CIA refused to cooperate, the President tried to pay the burglars to keep
quiet.
○ This was a further obstruction of justice
● Despite these attempts, the Watergate burglars were convicted in January 1973.
○ The President's approval rating sank to 17%
○ Vice-President Spino Agnew was forced to resign over tax evasion and
accepting bribes.
The Watergate tapes:
● Great pressure from Congress, the press and public opinion forced him to release
some of his tapes.
○ In July 1974, the Supreme Court ruled that he had to release all of them.
○ When the tapes revealed that Nixon had ordered the cover-up, the House of
Representatives moved to impeach him.
● The charges included:
○ obstruction of justice
○ abuse of power (by using government agencies such the FBI, the CIA and the
IRS against his political enemies)
● To avoid impeachment, Nixon resigned in August 1974.
● Vice-President Gerald Ford became president.
,The significance of Watergate:
● Nixon was a moderate Republican, but he and his policies were discredited by
Watergate.
● Congress enacted laws to limit presidential power.
○ War Powers Act (1973) — to limit presidential power to take the nation into
war
○ The Ethics in government Act (1978) — made it easier for a special
prosecutor to investigate alleged presidential wrongdoings.
○ The revulsion generated by Nixon and Watergate prompted Presidents
Gerald Ford (1974-77) and Jimmy Carter (1977-81) to try to differentiate and
distance themselves from Nixon with a new style of leadership.
Gerald Ford:
● Ford was a respected and popular Congressman 1948 to 1973.
● He accepted the vice-presidency after Spre Agnew's resignation, with the joke that
he was a ‘Ford not a Lincoln’.
● When Nixon resigned, Americans were desperate for a ‘regular guy’.
○ Some Americans related to his family (his lively and outspoken was
photographed pushing him fully clothed into the Camp David pool).
● Ford's popularity with Congres, the media and the American people plummeted
because he pardoned Richard Nixon.
● Many Americans believed that Nixon should be put on trial as the other Watergate
conspirators were.
Jimmy Carter:
● Carter rejected excessive formality.
○ He and his family walked down Pennsylvania Avenue.
○ Carter sold the presidential yacht
○ Wore casual clothes for a televised broadcast
Ford v. Congress and the media:
● The general loss of respect for the presidency after Watergate, Ford's informality and
the fact that he had not been elected president combined to make the media
disrespect him.
○ Lyndon Johnson's joke that he had played football once too often without a
helmet was frequently cited.
○ Ford was shown falling over on ski slopes and stumbling down a plane ramp:
one network showed the latter 11 times in one newscast.
○ A New Yorker magazine cover showed him as Bozo the Clown.
○ A right-wing New Hampshire newspaper showed him as Jerry the Jerk.
Ford v. Carter In 1976:
, ● A poll revealed that 76% of people believed Ford lacked presidential quality.
● 80% said the same of Carter.
The leadership of President Carter:
● News of Carter's micromanagement leaked out in 1979.
○ In his first six months as president he reviewed all requests to use the White
House tennis courts.
● Although a Democrat, Carter's nations with the Democrat Congress were poor.
○ The House Speaker said Carter didn't seem to understand the need to master
the legislative process.
● The media made much of the influence of his wife, referring to her as ‘Mrs President’.
● By December 1977, polls revealed that only 18% of Americans had a lot of
confidence in Carter.
○ By 1980 he had the lowest-ever approval rating of any president.
The Iranian Hostage Crisis:
● In 1978 Islamic fundamentalists led a successful revolution against the shah of Iran.
● In 1979, Iranian militants stormed the US embassy in Tehran.
○ They took 60 American hostages in protest against Carter allowing the Shah
to receive cancer treatment in the USA.
○ American humiliation increased when Carter tried but failed to negotiate the
hostages' release.
○ Then he sent helicopters on an unsuccessful rescue mission in 1980.
■ One helicopter broke down upon entering Iranian airspace.
■ Another got lost in a sandstorm.
■ A third developed hydraulic problems.
● The commanders and President Carter agreed to abort the mission, but then one of
the helicopters crashed into a US transport aircraft.
○ Both burst into flames.
○ 8 American airmen died
○ 4 were badly burned.
Growing political disillusionment:
● Percentage of Americans who felt that government will ‘do what is right most of the
time’:
○ 1969 — 56%
○ 1979 — 29%.
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