The End to a Century

Four Decades of

Somewhat Calm

1968-2008

LBJ’s Great Society – Welfare Reform

Medicare– Care for the

Elderly

Medicaid– Aid to the Poor

Food Stamps Program

Most of the programs failed because of money being spent on defense (WAR!)

Affirmative Action Confirmed

• University of California v. Bakke

• Bakke sued university that his rights were being violated by the mandatory admission program that required a quota of minority students be admitted

• After being beaten by the Police at the Stonewall Inn, Homosexual people began to riot and for a movement to gain equality.

American Indian Movement• Indians protested at

Alcatraz and Wounded Knee in order to reach equality

Manson Family Cult convicted of Tate-LaBianca Murders

Helter Skelter

Roe v. Wade

Title IX

Watergate Scandal

• G. Gordon Liddy headed the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP)• Authorized to fund a “black-ops” info finding mission against the Democratic

Party• In attempt to wire-tap the DNC office at the Watergate Hotel burglars were

arrested• Through investigative journalism led by Woodward & Bernstein of the

Washington Post Nixon and his administration were implicated• House moved to impeach, but recently reelected President Nixon resigned

before the vote

* Interesting note – Fred Thompson served on the investigative Watergate Committee

The Un-Elected President

Gerald Ford

1976 Bicentennial

OPEC Oil Embargo

• Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries

• Reaction to U.S. support of Israel in the Yom Kippur War

Jimmy Carter Wins Election

• Inherits Inflation Problems

• Stagflation – combination of decrease in value of money and low corporate output

• Banned the use of DDT

• Response to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring– A “strange stillness” had replaced the sound

of birds

NOW, led by Betty Friedan, marched for support of the ERA

Luke Saved the Galaxy

Elvis Overdosed

Travolta Lit Up the Disco Stage

Harvey Milk became the first openly gay elected official in San

Francisco – he was later assassinated

Jonestown Massacre

• Over 900 followers of the People’s Temple Cult and the Reverend James Jones committed mass murder/suicide

Tom Wolfe refers to the 1970s as the “ME” Decade

Carter’s “Finest Hour”

Camp David Accords summit with Anwar Sadat, Menachem Begin - 2 Frameworks: Sinai returned to Egypt, West Bank and Gaza, "autonomy" to PLO

Détente Continues

• China’s Ruler Deng Xiaoping visits the U.S. and the Harlem Globetrotters

SALT II – Limited ICBMs

Love Canal, NY

• Sited for having tons of toxic waste

China Syndrome Eerily Mirrors Reality as Three Mile Island Reactor

Nears Melt Down

Iran-Hostage Crisis

• U.S. sponsored government in Iran is overthrown by the Ayatollah Khomeni

• Student Protestors take hostages at US Embassy

U.S. Boycotts

1980 Summer

Olympics in Moscow to

ProtestCommunism

“Do You believe in Miracles?”

Ronald Reagan Wins

the 1980 Election

• “Are you better off than you were 4 years ago?”

• Electoral Votes 486-49

• Former Actor and governor of California

• “Win one for the Gipper!”

$16 million Inauguration(Ordered 3.5 tons of jelly

belly’s)

Reagan becomes Hero Freeing Iran Hostages

Shift in Politics toward CONSERVATISM

Cold War Heats Up

• Support Mujahedeen in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union

• Send Stinger missiles

• Support Dictators like Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines

"Our reluctance for conflict should not be misjudged as a failure of will. When action is required to preserve our national security, we will act."

• U.S. becomes the global arms merchant selling fighters and weapons to the world

• (Remember the “military-industrial complex” Eisenhower warned against?)

“Rawhide” is Shot!

James Brady was shot. A future gun control bill would be named after him.

Reagan places first female onto Supreme Court

Sandra Day O’Connor

G.I. Joe Rereleased

“…we have moved to reconstruct our national defenses. We intend to keep the peace--we will also keep our freedom."

1982 – Relinquish Iraq from sanctions and begin selling arms to them to support their war against

Iran

Urged Americans not to ignore "the aggressive

impulses of an evil empire."

• SDI – Strategic Defense Initiative– Missile/Laser Defense

system to destroy nuclear attack in the atmosphere

– “Star Wars”

May of 1983 Return of the Jedi hit the Box Offices

1983 Television

special showed the effects of an

imagined nuclear attack

Israel attacked Lebanon and Reagan sent troops to keep the

Peace. October 1983 a terrorist drove a van full of explosives into

the Marine barracks.

Invasion of Grenada

1984 Election

Gary Hart loses lead after Scandal The Boss yells at

Reagan for using his anti-Vietnam song as a political campaign song.

Geraldine Ferraro runs for VP

Video Killed the Radio Star

The Era of Big Government is Over!• Supply-Side Economics (Trickle Down Theory/Voodoo

Economics)• Tax cuts provide more money for use in saving and

investing• Mostly benefited the wealthy who were supposed to

invest their increased profits in more jobs and production

Deregulation

Cut back on government regulations in airlines, technology, phone services, etc. would hopefully stimulate the economy after the 1982 recession. (Also, increase federal insurance for Savings & Loans.)

Endorsed by Ronald Reagan, Tom Clancy wrote his first Cold War

thriller

Raised the spector fo the Japanese taking over the

American economy

Bernhard Goetz – “Subway Vigilante”

Nancy Reagan initiates the “Just Say No” campaign against

drug usegeared toward youth

Achille Lauro was hijacked

Shiites Hijack TWA 847

Gorbachev Replaces Chernenko and starts Glasnost (“Openness”) and Perestroika (“Restructuring”)

“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

Challenger Disaster

Iran-Contra Affair Broadcast on TV• NSC applied money gained from selling weapons to Iran

in order to fund the Contra opposition forces in Nicaragua

• “I do not recall.” Did the president know?

Ronald Reagan makes first mention of the AIDS Epidemic

But won’t meet with Ryan White

1st Trillion $ budgetTotal Debt $2 Trillion

GNP $5 Trillion Dollars

“Greed is Healthy”

• Michael Milken become the “Junk Bond King”

Black Monday October 19th 1987

• Stock Market Crashed by more than 25%, larger than in 1929.– Thank goodness for consumer spending!

George Bush “the elder” wins election of 1988

“A Thousand Points of Light”

In November 1989, the Berlin Wall Opened for Good!

• Triumph of Solidarity in Poland marked the beginning of the fall

• Boris Yeltsin wins first free elections in Russia in 1991

Manuel Noriega is taken from leadership in Panama by American

Troops

Bush reversed campaign pledge and supported bipartisan bill to raise

taxes

When hundreds of Savings and Loans banks went bankrupt in the 1980s, the U.S. government bailed them out by transferring about $500 billion from U.S. taxpayers to a select group of extremely rich, powerful people.

The industry was deregulated under the Reagan/Bush administration and restrictions were eased on the industry so much that abuse and misuse of funds became easy, rampant, and went unchecked. Each of the Bush family benefited from this payout.

Iraq Invades Kuwait August 2, 1989Operation Desert Storm Launched

January 16, 1990

Bush announced at 9 pm Feb. 28 "Kuwait is liberated. Iraq's army is

defeated. I am pleased to announce that at midnight tonight,

exactly 100 hours since ground operations began and six weeks

since the start of Operation Desert Storm, all United States and coalition forces will suspend

offensive operations."

The beating of Rodney King by four LA police Mar. 3 was captured on videotape, riots would break out May 1-2, 1992, after an all-white jury acquitted the four policemen, and Bush mobilized 5000 Marines and troops to help the National Guard restore order. Like rap music, the Rodney King videotape expressed in the mass media the frustration and anger of the urban poor.

Ice T advocated murdering police in his "Cop Killer" of 1992

Riots break out in response to King’s Trial

Clarence Thomas Approved for Supreme Court

Bill Clinton Wins 1992 Election

WTC Bombing 1993 (Jan. 26)

David Koresh and 95 followers of his Branch Davidian cult in Waco, TX

committed suicide or burned to death in the fire caused by an attack by FBI

armored vehicles April 19, 1993

Hillary Clinton pushed for Universal Health Care

• Could not overcome the established power of the health lobbies or the fears of socialized anything in the post-Cold War era.

Clinton announced July 19 the "Don't ask, don't tell, don't pursue" policy to allow gays to serve in the

military

George Bush sent some marines in Op. Restore Hope to protect relief

missions, but warlord Mohamed Aidid would not concede control of Mogadishu. After 17

Rangers were killed in Mogadishu Oct. 3,

portrayed in the Black Hawk Down book and film, Clinton within 6

months withdrew American forces from

Somalia.

N.A.F.T.A.• North American Free Trade Agreement

– Ended tariffs with Canada and Mexico to increase production

– Factories moved to Maquiladoras across Mexican-American border

O.J.

“If the glove does not fit you must acquit”

Midterm Elections of 1994 a Setback

• Republicans used their Contract with America to win the midterm election Nov. 9 to gain control of the Senate 53-47 and the House 230-204 for the first time since 1954, and Newt Gingrich would become the Speaker of the House

Oklahoma City Bombing

• April 19, 1995

• Timothy McVeigh

• Domestic Terrorism

• Many Children Killed

The FBI arrested Ted Kaczynski, The UnaBomber

Too Many ScandalsKenneth Starr was appointed to Independent Counsel to investigate the death of the deputy White House counsel Vince Foster and the Whitewater land transactions by President Bill Clinton.

IMPEACHMENT!!!• The House voted to impeach Clinton Dec. 19,

1998• The trial, which ran from Jan. 7 to Feb. 12, 1999,

ended in the president's acquittal on the two charges against him, perjury and obstruction of justice

Response to Embassy Bombings

in Africa• America fired a

volley of more than 70 cruise missiles in August at guerrilla training camps in Afghanistan

• Bombed chemical plant in the Sudan reportedly operated by the Saudi multimillionaire Osama bin Laden

DOT.COM

Clinton overrides New Deal Banking regulations

George W. Bush (47.8%) defeated Al Gore (48.3%) and Ralph Nader (2.7%) in the presidential election

Nov. 6

• Election undecided for 5 weeks due to conflicting counts of the Florida ballots

• U.S. v. Florida - Supreme Court Dec. 12 overruled the Florida state court decision to recount, giving Florida's 25 electoral votes

• Gore won 500,000 more popular votes than Bush nationwide

•Regents Hint: Sometimes the popular winner does not win the Electoral College [Inherit problem with the Electoral College]

Bush v. Gore

9/11 – Let Us Not Forget

Congress approves Patriot Act to support War on Terrorism

Homeland Security add to the Cabinet

War on Terrorism

• Commission finds Osama Bin Laden and Al Queda responsible for WTC Bombing

• Attack Afghanistan to destroy the Taliban who support Al Queda

Extend War on terrorism into Iraq

• Weapons of Mass Destruction

• Supporter of Terrorists

• UN Weapons Inspectors Report finds no evidence: Bush loses Coalition/UN support

May 17th, 2004

• Massachusetts Supreme Court decided it was a violation of the state constitution to deny same-sex couples access to marriage

• Election Day 2008 – California voters revoked this same right

Federal Reserve Gains Control over Economy

• Controls Interest Rates & Production of Currency in order to make monetary policy

Alan Greenspan

The New World Economy

World Trade Organization

Social Security?

Will There be Enough?

Should We Privatize?

Housing Boom!

• Banks offer low interest rates on mortgages and “subprime” rates for those with lower income.

• Suburbs expand into the “BIG” houses of new construction

• Interest Rates rise suddenly and many people cannot afford the raise in the cost of their monthly mortgage

“Too Big To Fail”

• Investment banks like AIG, Lehman Brothers, Bank of America begin to fail as their investments in unsafe mortgage protections bottom out.

Government Rescues Economy?

• End of Bush presidency the government passed a multi-trillion dollar bill to assist our economy from falling into too deep of an recession.

• Unemployment Rate currently 9.4%

Barack Obama is elected to the presidency - 2008