american dream

• Gerald Ford


  served in the Navy during WWII, then became a lawyer, then a Representative for Michigan. He was honest and open but not a great mind. He was Nixon's vice president, but replaced him after Watergate - this tainted his presidency.
• Chevy Chase


  this comedian impersonated Ford every night on the Saturday Night Live show, presenting him as an idiot who would fall down stairs and injury himself and others.
• Alexander Haig


  he was promoted to Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, in 1974, by Ford, he resigned in 1979, but returned to government service under Raegan.
• Pardoning of Nixon


  Ford pardoned Nixon 'for all offences', this being seen as an error of judgement as polling suggested that people wanted to see Nixon punished
• Johnson on Ford


  he said that Ford had played too much football without his helmet and that 'Jerry Ford is so dumb he can't far and chew gum at the same time'.
• Jimmy Carter


  is a Democrat who became Governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975. He defeated Ford in 1976 promising an outsider's insight and a return of morality, but struggled economically and in foreign affairs.
• 1976 election


  Cater received 51% of the popular vote, with Ford gaining 49%, Carter received 297 electoral points, with Ford gaining 240. Carter had huge media support, positioning himself as a Southerner and Christian.
• 37


  Carter had visited this many states and given 200 speeches before other candidates announced their candidacy.
• Carter on Vietnam


  he healed divides by pardoning Vietnam-era draft resisters and ended the funding of the B-1 bomber airplane.
• sound bite


  a short extract from a speech that serves as a handy summary. The media was becoming more oriented around this, but it was hard to summarise his complex legislation - this alienating the population more.
• Carter's Energy Policy


  Carter experienced increasing energy prices imposed on the West by OPEC. He responded with a combination of tight money and calls for voluntary restraint.
• SALT II (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty)

  agreement between Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and American president Jimmy Carter. Despite an accord to limit weapons between the two leaders, the agreement was ultimately scuttled in the U.S. Senate following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
• The Three Mile Island Accident (Pennsylvania)

  mechanical and human errors resulted in a partial meltdown of the reactor core and the release of radioactive gases into the atmosphere. This played on people's fears on a nuclear catastrophe and led to the shutdown of several plants.
• 200,000


  strong rally of people culminated in New Yok in the aftermath of the Three Mile Island Accident.
• Betty Ford


  was a former model and dance teacher, she married Gerald Ford in 1948. As First Lady she had approval ratings of over 75%, due to her passionate support for women's rights - being pro-choice.
• Bryan v. Itasca County (1976)

  ruled that the state did not have a right in assessing taxation on property of a Native American living on a reservation. This paved the way for the lucrative practice of operating casinos on their land.
• Ford on social divisions

  his period was one of the most quietest since the mid-50s, he had no mandate and was not inclined to push issues of minority rights.
• 14


  gay and lesbian activists were invited to the White House for the first official visit of its kind in 1977.
• 1980 anti-gay discrimination executive order


  Carter formally refused to issue one of these and was unwilling to risk his political capital in a first term to make this stand - unlike Johnson.
• 1974 Equal Credit Opportunity Act

  was signed by Ford, which outlawed credit discrimination on the basis of race, colour, religion, national origin, sex, marital status or age. Ford was pro-women's rights
• Taylor v. Louisiana (1975)

  ruled that excluding women from the jury pool, undermined the a person's right to a fair trail, by a representative community.
• 1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act

  was signed by Carter, making employment discrimination on the basis of pregnancy illegal, this being a considerable moral success.
• Carter's women shelters


  these began to be set up to support domestic violence victims, with states adopting domestic violence laws.
• Rape laws


  also began to change, making it not a legal requirement to their being a witness present to the rape in order to charge. South Dakota in 1975 passed the first law on marital rape.
• 1974 midterms


  the pardon of Nixon led to the Democrats taking Congress, with 291 to 144 advantage in the Senate and a 61 to 39 advantage in the House.
• Church Committee's findings


  revealed that the CIA had been acting in foreign affairs by assassinating leaders, to pursuit their political agenda, increasing the idea of corruption in politics.
• Corruption under Ford


  - Spiro Agnew's corruption, led to the position of VP being less important than when Nixon or Johnson held it, appointing Rockefeller alienated more hard-line Conservatives who wanted Raegan.

  - he gave Alexander Haig a greater role, he was formerly Nixon's Deputy Assistant.

  - he kept Nixon's head of Office Management and Budget, Roy Ash.
• Corruption under Carter


  - his sister, Ruth, was pictured with Larry Flynt (publisher of Hustler).

  - 'Billygate', his brother Billy, was gifted $250,000 from the Libyan government after creating 'Billy Bear'.

  - 'Koreangate', 30 Congressmen were accused of taking bribes from the South Korean government to reverse Nixon's decision of removing troops.
• Larry Flynt


  was a publisher of pornography, also publishing the magazine Hustler, which was a huge controversy regarding if the 1st Amendment allowed freedom of speech regarding pornography. He shot by a white supremacist after publishing interracial porn.
• Billygate


  Carter's brother Billy marketed his own beer called, 'Billy Beer' and received $250,000 for an unspecified reason from the Libyan government after visiting the country three times in 1978 and 79, leading to a state investigation.
• Koreagate


  in which 30 Congressmen were accused of taking bribes from the South Korean government in order to reverse Nixon's decision to remove troops from South Korea, Democrat Richard Hanna served a year in prison due to this fallout.
• 70%


  of all new jobs created in the 1970s were in low-paying service industries where salaries were eaten away by 10% to 15% inflation each year.
• Samuel P Huntington


  (an author of the Crisis of Democracy) argued that the 1960s had produced a substantial increase in governmental activity and a decrease in government authority - country had lost confidence in the government.
• Ronald Raegan's growing popularity

  many believed, with his film star confidence and a promise to cut government back down to size, would make him a compelling candidate.
• The Church Committee


  was set up to look into the CIA's conduct following Watergate's affair, in their role of the assassinations of foreign leaders. This led to greater congressional oversight of the CIA.
• Helsinki Accords


  It recognised the existing boundaries of European countries established at the end of WWII. It also supported human rights, to which the Soviets reluctantly agreed.
• Brezinski on Carter


  he convinced Carter to take the new approach, allowing SEATO and CENTO to dissolve, while dismissing the detente.
• SALT II (1979)


  this promised limitations on development of future missiles and a reduction by both sides to 2250 usable weapons of all categories - still enough to make the planet unhibitable.
• Carter's Human Rights Policy

  he went on to criticise both the USSR and China over this - after the USSR ignored the Helsinki Accords. He suspended economic aid to Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Uganda. He was accused of hypocrisy for not pursuing human rights further.
• Carter on China


  Formally recognized the Communist People's Republic of China in 1979. This meant the severing of ties with Taiwan, but continued relations on an unofficial level.