8.01 The 1970s

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8.01 The 1970’s Who Led the White House in the 1970s? Americans were largely disheartened by the country's leadership, especially after Vietnam and the Watergate scandal. However, Nixon did have some positive impact on the country before he was forced to resign in 1974. He recognized that communism itself would not be defeated. Therefore, seeking peace between the world's superpowers would best prevent nuclear war. Nixon worked to shift the country's relationships with the Soviet Union and China to those of coexistence. Détente: The easing of tensions between nations, usually used in reference to the 1970s period of the Cold War. Inflation: The general rise in prices over time. Nixon was the first president to visit China since the Communist…show more content…
They led a group of Arab countries in an invasion of Israel to take back lands lost in 1967. The war began on the Jewish holy day Yom Kippur. The event is called the Yom Kippur War or Fourth Arab-Israeli War. U.S. support for Israel, including shipments of military equipment, triggered the OPEC oil embargo that fueled the energy crisis. Title: Iran Image: An American hostage displayed for the media in November 1979. Text: In 1953, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) helped return the shah (king) of Iran to power, replacing an elected government. The purposes were to protect oil access in the region and install a pro-U.S. government along the border of the Soviet Union. Yet, the shah's government brutalized the people. The leader of the resistance, Ayatollah Khomeini, forced the shah to flee and took control of Iran in 1979. He was openly hateful of the United States and ruled by strict Islamic law. Later the same year, the shah entered the United States for cancer treatment. Fearing a plot to return him to power, Iranian students invaded the U.S. embassy in the city of Tehran and took more than 50 American hostages. The crisis lasted 444 days, the U.S. public witnessing the intense anti-American hatred in Iran on television. Iran finally consented to release the hostages on Inauguration Day, 1981—the day Jimmy Carter left the White House. Title:…show more content…
In 1978, President Carter invited Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat and the Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to Camp David for peace talks. This became known as the "Camp David Accords." Carter facilitated this historic agreement which ended the 30 year state of war that had existed between the two nations. Israel agreed to return the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt and the people of the West Bank would be self-governing. The Palestinian issue was left open and Israel refused to recognize the Palestinian Liberation Organization, PLO, as the government of the Palestinians. What Were the Social Concerns of the 1970s? In the 1970s, Americans saw a return to more conservative politics with Presidents Nixon and Ford. The fervor of civil rights was losing its grip on national attention. Feminism was still strong early in the decade but lost steam as the fight for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) dragged on
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