FORD & CARTER

Ford = 1st Vice President chosen under the terms of the Twenty-fifth Amendment since Nixon’s original v.p. Spiro Agnew resigned prior to Watergate due to extortion/tax fraud/bribery In the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, Ford succeeding the first President ever to resign. He pardoned Nixon in order to try & move past the scandal, but this reaffirmed many Americans’ views that politicians were corrupt & felt above the law. Watergate left many Americans with a distrust of their public officials and of government. Nixon had tarnished the very respectable image that many Americans had of the Presidency. GERALD FORD

On September 8, 1974, President Gerald Ford granted a full pardon to Richard Nixon  Ford’s approval rating plunged from 71%to 50% By 1975 the American economy was in its worst recession since the Great Depression. Ford attempted to revive the economy, but his Whip Inflation Now (WIN) plan failed. He tried to limit federal authority, balance the budget, + keep taxes low. He also vetoed more than 50 bills that Congress had passed during the first 2 years Ford had served there. FORD TAKES OVER

FORD FOREIGN POLICY Ford continued the foreign policy of Nixon. In August 1975, Ford met with leaders of NATO + the Warsaw Pact to sign the Helsinki Accords. Under the accords, the parties recognized the borders of Eastern Europe established at the end of World War II. The Soviets promised to uphold certain basic human rights but later went back on this promise, which turned many Americans against détente. Southeast Asia also continued to be a concern for Ford when Cambodia seized an American cargo ship, the Mayaguez. FORD FOREIGN POLICY

Began to take shape in the mid-1960s when Lyndon Johnson significantly increased federal deficit spending to fund both the Vietnam War & the Great Society program without raising taxes Pumped large amounts of money into the economy, which caused inflation & rising cost of raw materials, especially oil, also added to inflation 1973 OPEC announced an embargo on petroleum to countries that supported Israel & OPEC also greatly raised the price of crude oil High prices for oil based products meant Americans had less money to spend on other goods, which forced the economy into a recession. By the early 1970s, the U.S. economy suffered from stagflation–a combination of inflation and recession. ECONOMIC TROUBLES 1970s

Carter was seen as a person of high morals & an upstanding personality. He tried to end the recession & reduce unemployment by increasing government spending and cutting taxes. Inflation increased, however, so he decided to delay the tax cuts & vetoed spending programs he had proposed to Congress. He reduced the money supply and raised interest rates Scholars have suggested that Carter’s difficulties in solving the nation’s economic problems were the result of his lack of leadership and inability to work with Congress A 1979 public opinion poll showed that Carter’s popularity had dropped lower than President Nixon’s rating during Watergate. CARTER ELECTED 1976

CARTER BATTLES ECO. CRISIS Carter tried to rally American support for a war against rising energy consumption by proposing a national energy program to conserve oil & to promote the use of coal and renewable energy sources. He created the Department of Energy He asked Americans to reduce energy consumption. President Carter’s foreign policy focused on human rights. CARTER BATTLES ECO. CRISIS

President Carter’s foreign policy focused on human rights. Carter won Senate ratification of two Panama Canal treaties, which transferred control of the canal to Panama on December 31, 1999. In 1978 Carter helped get a historic peace treaty, known as the Camp David Accords, signed between Israel & Egypt. CARTER & HUMAN RIGHTS

CARTER FOREIGN POLICY – END OF DÉTENTE President Carter singled out the Soviet Union as a violator of human rights because of its practice of imprisoning people who protested against the gov. Tensions deepened as the Sov. Union invaded the Central Asian nation of Afghanistan (Dec. 1979) Carter responded with an embargo on grain to the Sov. Un. & a boycott of the Summer Olympic Games in Moscow  DÉTENTE ENDS Most Arab nations in the region opposed the treaty, but it marked the first step toward peace in the Middle East. CARTER FOREIGN POLICY – END OF DÉTENTE

IRANIAN-HOSTAGE CRISIS 1979 Iran’s monarch, the Shah, (supported by U.S.) was forced to flee, & an Islamic republic was declared Religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini ordered revolutionaries to enter the American embassy in Tehran & take 52 Americans hostage (wanted Shah returned) The hostages would not be released until Carter’s last day in office, some 444 days in captivity. Carter lost re-election to Ronald Reagan in 1981. IRANIAN-HOSTAGE CRISIS