Prepare: Take a few minutes to think about the material that we’ve covered in this course so far. Reflect: Reflect on what you found interesting, surprising, or confusing in this past week. Did anything that you learned cause you to understand an issue and event differently? Have you discovered any habits or tips that help you to complete your course work more effectively or efficiently? Write: This discussion forum is an opportunity for you to explore topics that interest you, share critical insights and questions that you are working with, share your struggles and triumphs, and discuss difficulties that may have arisen this week, hopefully finding solutions. Your initial post should describe your experiences in the course this past week, prompting further discussion. You should address at least two of the following questions: • • • • • • What struck you in particular as you explored the course materials this week? What insights have you had? What have you been struggling with? What questions have come up for you at this point? Do you have any helpful tips that you’ve picked up in this course or in a past course? Do you have questions about the assignment that your classmates might be able to help with? (If you have a question for the instructor, be sure to contact your instructor through email or in the Ask Your Instructor Forum). Utilize the reading material to support your claims. 13 The Conservative Triumph Associated Press After an energy crisis struck in the 1970s, many began to conserve, and automakers rolled out a series of compact cars. Short fuel supplies led to rationing and forced Americans to wait in long lines for gas. bar82063_13_c13_411-446.indd 411 1/9/15 9:37 AM American Lives: Jerry Falwell Pre-Test 1. President Nixon’s approach to foreign affairs can be described as “multipolar.” T/F 2. The Equal Rights Amendment was a successful constitutional ban on all forms of gender discrimination. T/F 3. Title IX expanded educational opportunities for girls and women. T/F 4. President Reagan’s economic program was successful in helping even the poorest Americans. T/F 5. As president, Jimmy Carter was able to please both the Religious Right and liberals who lauded his social and economic policies. T/F Answers can be found at the end of the chapter. Learning Objectives By the end of this chapter, you should be able to: • • • • • Discuss the ways that Nixon’s domestic and foreign policies contrasted with the ideology of conservative Republicans. Explain how women and minorities fared under Nixon’s presidency. Explain why Jimmy Carter lost support from both the Religious Right and liberals. Discuss the major issues that drove the conservative agenda. Explain how Reagan’s economic policies differed from those of Carter or Nixon. American Lives: Jerry Falwell Televangelist and political activist Jerry Falwell was a leading force behind the drive to wed Christian ideology with conservative politics in the United States. He became a nationally known leader of the so-called Religious Right that heavily influenced presidential and other federal elections in the 1970s and 1980s. Most importantly, Falwell formed a political organization, the Moral Majority, in 1979 to mobilize Christians behind Republican political candidates. He became a leading spokesperson for the group, which consisted of a number of political action committees that raised private funds to influence elections or legislation. The Moral Majority sought to fuse personal beliefs with political action. It became a force behind the pro-life movement that opposed legal abortion, and it channeled a growing desire among conservatives to bridge the church–state divide by promoting movements for public prayer and opposing the teaching of evolution in the nation’s schools. At the height of its political influence, the group claimed more than 4 million members and was extremely important in electing (and reelecting) Ronald Reagan as president. Falwell and his twin brother were born in Lynchburg, Virginia, in 1933, just as the Great Depression was gripping the nation. After attending Baptist Bible College in Missouri, he returned to bar82063_13_c13_411-446.indd 412 1/9/15 9:37 AM American Lives: Jerry Falwell Lynchburg, where he founded the Thomas Road Baptist Church. From early in his career, Falwell opposed the civil rights movement and spoke out against the desegregation of Virginia schools. He argued, “The facilities should be separate . . . when God has drawn a line of distinction, we should not attempt to cross that line” (as cited in Himes, 2011, p. 261). In the 1970s and 1980s, he spoke for a growing number of Americans who worried that the demands of groups like women, gays, and other minorities threatened traditional values like the nuclear family and monogamous heterosexual relationships, as well as the condemnation of homosexuality, pornography, and vice. Falwell’s message of Christian activism resonated with many Americans grown weary from more than a decade of turmoil in the struggle over civil rights and the Vietnam War. His ministry, which drew more than 2,000 worship© Bettmann/Corbis pers each week, became one of the nation’s first megachurches, and he hosted a weekly radio and Baptist minister Jerry Falwell was a television program called the Old-Time Gospel Hour. leading political force of the Religious Falwell also founded important conservative educa- Right. tional institutions. The Lynchburg Christian Academy (now Liberty Christian Academy) opened in 1967 as an arm of his ministry, and in 1971 Falwell established Liberty University, which grew to become one of the largest Christian colleges in the nation. Both institutions attracted students by promoting conservative Christian values and teachings. During the second half of the 1980s, Falwell’s popularity and the influence of the Religious Right began to wane. He continued to appear in public as a conservative commentator, and he won a judgment in a libel case after the publisher of Hustler magazine printed a parody of him. However, the Supreme Court, citing the First Amendment, overturned that ruling in 1988. In 1996 the motion picture The People vs. Larry Flint dramatized the case. After the attacks of September 11, 2001, Falwell’s statement that the terrorist incident was a judgment on America for “throwing God out of the public square” (as cited in Edsall, 2006, p. 54) drew significant criticism. Although considerably less influential nationally, Falwell’s message continued to resonate with conservatives who supported his ministry and the growth of Liberty University. Still active in promoting his vision for America, he died in his office in 2007. For further thought: 1. How did Jerry Falwell tap into the concerns of many Americans in the 1970s and 1980s? 2. How did the Religious Right help shape American conservatism during these decades? bar82063_13_c13_411-446.indd 413 1/9/15 9:37 AM Nixon’s America Section 13.1 13.1 Nixon’s America The conservative consensus that supported Falwell’s Moral Majority was not yet in place when Richard Nixon assumed the presidency in 1969. He campaigned against Johnson’s Great Society and the millions of dollars funneled into government programs. Although many Americans were disillusioned with the Vietnam War and concerned with urban unrest and the growing rights demands of various groups in society, Nixon won by a very small margin. Once in office, Nixon departed from his campaign rhetoric and advanced the liberal causes of his predecessor in important ways. Many of Nixon’s programs and actions angered conservatives in his own Republican Party. However, the Vietnam War was the most pressing concern he faced upon assuming office. Nixon and Vietnam Nixon pursued a peace settlement already begun during Johnson’s administration. American and North Vietnamese leaders met in Paris to discuss the possibility of ending the hostilities. Though the diplomatic talks had no direct impact on the war, they helped boost Nixon’s popularity at home. Nixon further increased his public approval with his policy of Vietnamization. This meant that the United States sought to limit its fighting on the ground by training South Vietnamese forces to wage their own war. The president had inherited a difficult situation, and he determined early in 1969 that there was little possibility of victory. He devised the Vietnamization strategy to ease the U.S. involvement before the almost inevitable collapse of South Vietnam. Nixon announced this policy directly to the American people in a televised address on November 3, 1969, saying: Good evening, my fellow Americans. Tonight I want to talk to you on a subject of deep concern to all Americans and to many people in all parts of the world—the war in Vietnam. I believe that one of the reasons for the deep division about Vietnam is that many Americans have lost confidence in what their Government has told them about our policy. (as cited in Vilade, 2012, p. 196) At that point 31,000 Americans had died in the war, and Nixon told the American people that there were just two courses of action. The first was immediate withdrawal. The second was to persist in “our search for peace” and “continued implementation of our plan for Vietnamization.” Nixon concluded by saying, “I have chosen this second course. It is not the easy way. It is the right way” (as cited in Gettleman, 1995, p. 444). Cambodia and Its Consequences Vietnamization did little to ease the conflict or the antiwar protests in the United States. In 1970 Nixon ordered troops into Cambodia, a neutral nation on the border of Vietnam. Aiming to cut off supplies to the North, the movement instead destabilized the Cambodian government and began a chain of events that saw the rise of the Communist Khmer Rouge party. During its reign, which lasted until 1979, Cambodians were indiscriminately killed and forced into rural communes. bar82063_13_c13_411-446.indd 414 1/9/15 9:37 AM Nixon’s America Section 13.1 The Cambodian campaign served to escalate antiwar protests at home. On May 4, 1970, a student protest on the campus of Kent State University in Ohio resulted in the deaths of four students, who were shot by National Guardsmen. Student protests and strikes spread to more than 350 colleges and universities, with the National Guard called in to police 21 campuses. Antiwar sentiment started within the youth culture but soon expanded into the rest of society. Troop morale plummeted as the war dragged on, and public support waned as the mainstream press reported unflattering accounts from the war zone. In 1971 the New York Times began to publish a classified defense department report, the Pentagon Papers, which traced U.S. involvement in Vietnam back to the years of World War II and revealed how several presidents misled the American people about involvement in the region. Nixon was so incensed at the report’s leak that he created his own team of investigators he called the “plumber squad,” mostly former CIA operatives, to gather information about the government official responsible for sharing the documents with the press, a military analyst named Daniel Ellsberg, and to prevent future leaks. As a result of the revelations in the documents, in 1973 Congress passed the War Powers Act, requiring the president to seek congressional approval before committing troops to a foreign conflict. Christmas Bombing Meanwhile, a breakdown in the Paris negotiations meant a continuation of conflict. As Nixon increased his resolve to end the war, he reverted to a strategy first used in the mid-1960s. The United States began massive B-52 bombing runs over Vietnam in December 1972, which Nixon called the Christmas bombing. During the runs 20,000 tons of bombs were dropped, but this did little to change the direction of the war—in large part because there were few targets of any real military value (Anderson, 2002). The United States continued to lose troops, 15 of its bombers did not return, and the nation’s resolve hardened against the war. The American death toll had nearly doubled in Vietnam after Nixon’s announcement of his plans for Vietnamization. Fall of Saigon On January 27, 1973, the United States signed the Paris Peace Accords with the North Vietnamese. American negotiators accepted terms that left the South Vietnamese government in control in Saigon, but North Vietnamese troops were allowed to stay in the region. North Vietnam returned all American prisoners of war. It took 2 years for all American troops to pull out, and as the last were leaving in April 1975 the Communist forces marched into Saigon and attacked the U.S. embassy, forcing the final Americans to escape via helicopter. Saigon, which was once the American base of operations, became Ho Chi Minh City, and South Vietnam fell under Communist control. bar82063_13_c13_411-446.indd 415 Associated Press The North Vietnamese, seen here in a tank passing through the Presidential Palace in Saigon, placed South Vietnam under Communist control. 1/9/15 9:37 AM Nixon’s America Section 13.1 Vietnam’s Legacy Though the war is long over, the failure to win in Vietnam continues to shape U.S. foreign policy and public opinion. The losses in Vietnam included the deaths of 1.2 million Vietnamese and 58,000 Americans, at a cost of $150 billion to the United States. Americans grew weary of the war and disillusioned with their government, and they descended into a collective amnesia about the period. Revelations such as the Pentagon Papers undermined American trust in the government and forever disabused many of a blind sense of security in Congress and especially the presidency. The Democratic Party’s credibility came to be questioned as well, and the fact that Democratic politicians both led the nation into an unwinnable conflict and covered up their motives contributed to a lasting view of the party’s inability to govern in national security affairs. Also contributing to this perception was the fact that the antiwar movement ultimately found a home in the Democratic Party. Vietnam also proved to be a serious financial drain on the American economy. It contributed greatly to an inflationary spiral and an increase in the federal debt. The economic impact strained the United States through much of the 1970s. The war’s legacy and the divisions created during the conflict led many to question U.S. involvement in future military actions, always weighing involvement against the unwinnable situation in Vietnam. The use of the draft to fill military ranks also ceased, and thereafter the U.S. military became all-volunteer armed forces. In the end, the war shifted U.S. thinking about foreign policy and led to debate over America’s position as the world’s police force. New Federalism and the Welfare State Nixon’s support for some liberal domestic programs emanated from the political climate of his first term. Democrats maintained a majority in Congress, and the Republican Party included a few liberals and many moderates. Nixon also had to act because of serious economic problems. In his inaugural address, he supported the goals of full employment, better housing, educational advancements, urban renewal, and protecting the environment. At the same time, he cautioned, “[W]e are approaching the limits of what government alone can do” (as cited in Mason, 2004, p. 57). Nixon proposed a form of New Federalism that would reform welfare by providing federal block grants for states to spend according to local needs. Initially created under the New Deal, the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program had grown substantially during the 1960s, producing what some called a welfare crisis. The program also came to be associated with African Americans, because a growing number of African American families in poor communities relied on it. Some conservatives in Congress condemned welfare recipients as unwilling to work and accused them of taking advantage of the government. Ignoring these critics, Nixon proposed a Family Assistance Plan to replace the AFDC and guarantee a minimum income for all Americans while creating a national standard for welfare. bar82063_13_c13_411-446.indd 416 1/9/15 9:37 AM Nixon’s America Section 13.1 Supported in some conservative circles, the plan dovetailed with the consideration of a negative income tax to reward working families at the bottom of the income scale. Nixon aimed to create a climate that incentivized working over receiving welfare payments. If passed, it would have guaranteed an income of $16,000 for a family of four, but the program failed to win congressional approval (Mason, 2004). Racial and Social Justice While on the campaign trail, Nixon appealed to southern Whites and some Democrats by manipulating their opposition to African American equality and civil rights developments. In what was known as the Southern Strategy, he hoped to gain the support of southerners by appearing to support their racism against African Americans. For example, he opposed judicial activism and spoke out against busing students to enact desegregation rulings. Up to this time, Republicans had received little support among White southerners due largely to the party’s historical legacy as a supporter of African American rights during the Reconstruction era. As civil rights gained broad support, the Southern Strategy shifted to become a subtler policy that advocated issues of concern to southerners, such as a “law-andorder” opposition to the youth counterculture and promiscuity. However, as president, Nixon had to enforce the law. During his first term, the Supreme Court overruled previous delays to implementing school desegregation. Ruling in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, the court held that busing students was the appropriate means to integrate public schools. Finally, nearly 15 years after the Brown decision (see Chapter 11), southern states moved to integrate public schools. Nixon soon found himself at odds with conservatives over racial issues. Although the first use of the term affirmative action came in an executive order issued by John F. Kennedy and the idea advanced under Johnson, Nixon supported the most forceful federal affirmative action program to increase minority hiring. Proposed by his secretary of labor, George Schultz, the Philadelphia Plan required construction firms contracting with the federal government to consider goals and timetables to increase the hiring of minority workers. It also led to the employment of minority-owned businesses in construction subcontracting. Although historians suggest that Nixon’s support for the plan was a political calculation to divide African Americans and organized labor (two important components of the Democratic Party), it set the stage for future work-related quota systems. Nixon also supported the 1969 creation of the Office of Minority Business Enterprise, a moderately successful program that aided minority owned businesses. Women’s issues also gained attention as the feminist movement continued to expand and demand social change. Nixon opposed abortion and vetoed a comprehensive child development bill that would have created a national day care system, but he signed Title IX into law. Part of a larger education bill, it banned the exclusion of women and girls from any aspect of education programs, thus spurring a surge in funding for women’s athletic programs at all levels. bar82063_13_c13_411-446.indd 417 1/9/15 9:37 AM Nixon’s America Section 13.1 Youth gained another benefit under Nixon with the ratification of the 26th Amendment to the Constitution, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18. The fact that 18-year-olds could be drafted to fight in Vietnam, even t