Chapter 40 The Resurgence of Conservatism

1980 Election Jimmy Carter faced primary opposition- Ted Kennedy Ronald Reagan  New Right and the Moral Majority (Jerry Falwell) Neoconservatives= Reagan’s advisors Carter attacked for big government, Iran hostages, inflation “Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.” 489 EV for Reagan to 49 for Carter

President Ronald Reagan Older than any man previously elected to the presidency, Reagan displayed youthful vigor both on the campaign trail and in office.

Reagan Iranian hostages released Inauguration Day Proposition 13 in California (1978) Democratic “boll weevils”= conservative Democrats Cut the budget  Supply side economics aka Reaganomics – Would spur investment in businesses – Trickle Down Theory Blamed for Recession Actually continued deficit spending  $2 trillion in arms race with USSR; $200 billion annual deficits

Coming Home After more than a year in captivity in Iran, these hostages were released on the very day of Ronald Reagan’s presidential inauguration.

Republican conservatives scored a double victory in 1980, winning control of both the White House and the Senate. Aided by conservative Democratic “boll weevils,” they also dominated the House of Representatives, and a new era of conservatism dawned in the nation’s capital.

Cold War Continued USSR= “focus of evil in the modern world” Reagan  massive arms buildup Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) aka Star Wars 1983 Solidarity movement in Poland= martial law by USSR 1979 Marxist take over in Nicaragua (Sandinistas) Reagan= exporting communism, funded anti- communist group (Contras) Boland Amendment= ban aid to Contras for 2 years

Cold War Continued 1 st term= smaller government, 2 nd term= foreign policy 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev- leader of Communist Party in USSR; moderate and reform minded Glasnost and Perestroika Problems with central planning, called for democratization INF Treaty signed 1987 extended SALT treaties  increasing relations

Iran-Contra Scandal 1983 Lebanon terrorists= American hostages 1986 secret deal between US and Iran (allies with Lebanese terrorists)  “arms for hostages deal” Sold Iran weapons for war against Iraq Money used to aid Contra army in Nicaragua (Oliver North) Bypassed Boland Amendment and Congress! Congressional hearings to determine Reagan’s involvement

Contra Rebel Troops Head for Battle These rebels were long-seasoned and battle-scarred veterans of Nicaragua’s civil war by the time this photograph was taken in 1987.

Conservative Court End liberal activism through Reagan appointments- 3 appointments  Rehnquist Court ½ federal court appointments Scaled back affirmative action (reverse discrimination) Webster vs. Reproductive Health Services 1989 and Planned Parenthood vs. Casey 1992 reduced abortion rights Appealed to the New Right

The Moral Majority, 1981 Television evangelist and religious leader the Reverend Jerry Falwell mobilized his national Moral Majority organization in support of Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign in 1980 and a conservative social agenda.

The Justice Is a Lady, 1981 Herblock hails Sandra Day O’Connor’s appointment to the Supreme Court.

George HW Bush and the Cold War 1988 VP Bush defeated Michael Dukakis  extension of Reagan’s presidency Spring 1989: prodemocracy protest at Tiananmen Square- Beijing, China Eastern Europe- communism fell in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania December 1989: Berlin War fell and by 1990 Germany reunited

George Herbert Walker Bush (b. 1924) Campaigning, October 1988

Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China, June 1989 The Chinese communist state mobilized all its forces against students demonstrating for a more democratic China.

George HW Bush and the Cold War USSR- demanded more democracy Attempted coup d'état by Old Guard to maintain system Russian president Boris Yeltsin December 1991: USSR dissolved  Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) – Ethnic cleansing in Chechnya and Yugoslavia

Fallen Idol Romanians toppled this statue of Vladimir Lenin in 1990, symbolically marking the collapse of the Marxian dream that had agitated the world for more than a century.

The End of the Cold War Changed the Map of Europe

The Persian Gulf War 1980s war between Iran and Iraq= debt August Iraq invaded Kuwait (oil rich) and moved toward Saudi Arabia – ½ world’s oil supply UN economic sanctions- January 15, 1991 deadline Operation Desert Storm= 37 day bombing attack before invasion – General Norman Schwarzkopf Saddam Hussein= Scud missiles, chemical/biological warfare

The Highway of Death The allied coalition wreaked gruesome destruction on Iraqi forces fleeing back to Iraq after their defeat in Kuwait in 1991.

Operation Desert Storm: The Ground War, February 23–27, 1991

When President Bush reneged on his 1988 campaign promise of “no new taxes,” he inflicted mortal political damage on his reelection campaign in 1992.