Chapter 29 Disorder and Discontent, The American People, 6 th ed.

I.The Decline of Liberalism

The Republican Agenda  Nixon was willing to use economic tools to maintain fiscal stability  Although parts of his monetary plan worked, inflation plagued the economy  Nixon worked to control the communications industry as best he could, denounced “disruptive elements” of the population, and was able to appoint four Supreme Court justices

Civil Rights  Nixon was less sympathetic to the cause of civil rights than his Democratic predecessors  Nixon felt that any effort to woo the black electorate in the South was a waste of his time  Nixon denounced busing of Black students into white school districts, effectively prolonging segregation in the South

II.The Ongoing Effort in Vietnam

Vietnamization  This was Nixon’s plan to bring American soldiers home from the Vietnam war by gradually replacing American forces with Vietnamese troops  With this reduction of troop number, Nixon ramped up the bombing of North Vietnam and (illegally) extended the destruction to Cambodia and Laos

The End of the War  The conflict in Vietnam lingered past Nixon’s reelection in 1972 until the spring of 1975  The Communist-aided North finally broke through weakened South Vietnamese lines and took Saigon  58,000 men and women had died in the war

III.Constitutional Conflict and Its Consequences

Watergate  Early in 1972, Nixon’s aides proposed an elaborate scheme to wiretap various leaders of the Democratic Party and use gained information to disrupt their nomination process in the upcoming election  The wiretappers were arrested and every member of the Nixon administration was suspected  The lengthy unraveling of the facts took several years and led to the eventual resignation of Nixon

Ford and Carter  Gerald Ford became president upon the resignation of Richard Nixon and handily lost to former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter in the 1976 election  Carter stood for honesty, home-spun virtue and a reduction of presidential powers  Severe problems with the economy and American hostages in revolutionary Iran spelled his political downfall after one term

IV.The Continuing Quest for Social Reform

Attacking the Feminine Mystique  National Organization for Women (NOW): a pressure group concerned with the promotion of equal opportunity for women  The combined women’s movement pushed for adoption of an Equal Rights Amendment, but the required 38 states for ratification could not be achieved

Protests  This era saw fledgling protest movements in the Latino communities of America and a resurgence of “nationalism” within the various Native American tribes who were eager to use the legal system to try to win back their original lands stolen by the U.S.  Gays, Lesbians, Environmentalists and Consumer advocates used the era to promote their causes and encourage national change