Chapter Overview

The chapter opens by contrasting the soaring achievements of the moon landing of 1969 with the viscous reality of oil spilled into the Santa Barbara channel during the same year. As the new decade dawned, the problems caused by technology and growth, not their benefits, forced Americans to confront the limits of what had recently seemed a future of infinite promise.

The Limits of Reform

Reform crusades did not disappear in the 1970s. Rather, the sense of a "movement" splintered into more varied causes with more particular agendas such as consumerism and environmentalism. These won some legislative victories but also encountered obstacles. While reformers pushed on, they discovered the limits of the political process.

The economy was in trouble. Johnson's pursuit both of the war and his domestic welfare programs without raising taxes had led to "stagflation" (low growth combined with inflation). Richard Nixon wanted to shift power from Washington to state and local government through a "New Federalism." But he also had to stem the economic slide. Despite his reputation as a conservative, the president resorted to Keynesian deficit spending and wage and price freezes to stem inflation. He also accepted a number of national reforms, including the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts.

Political Limits: Watergate

Nixon, too, discovered the limits of the era. He battled publicly with Congress to avoid spending funds they had appropriated; privately, he used government agencies to wage war against his perceived "enemies." During the 1972 campaign two reporters discovered links between the White House and a burglary at the Democratic headquarters in the Watergate Hotel complex. There followed allegations of White House involvement in the crime and cover-up.

The Senate's Ervin Committee discovered that a taping system recorded conversations in the Oval Office, setting off a battle between the Special Prosecutor and the President. Eventually the Supreme Court ordered release of the tapes, which revealed direct presidential involvement in the cover-up. Rather than face impeachment, Nixon resigned in August 1974, making Gerald Ford the first president elected neither as president nor as vice president by voters. The system had worked, but not without stress.

A Ford, Not a Lincoln

Secretary of State Henry Kissinger pursued a policy of realism. He acknowledged American power had declined under the pressures of inflation and falling industrial productivity. Economic ills were severely aggravated by the OPEC oil boycott. Kissinger sought to restore strength to the western alliance by promoting stability in the Middle East. But scandals involving the CIA's covert operations, along with the energy crisis, hampered his efforts. Nevertheless, the Ford-Kissinger team was able to ease tensions through détente with the Soviet Union through summits in 1974 and 1975.

Ford found himself embattled on political and economic fronts. Most controversial of all, Ford pardoned Richard Nixon. In 1976 Washington outsider Jimmy Carter used the nation's frustrations with scandal and a weak economy to defeat Ford.

Jimmy Carter: Restoring the Faith

Carter sought to bring simplicity and directness to Washington. Yet, too often he focused on detail, and as an outsider he could bring neither new vision nor political savvy to the task of governing. Inflation and energy shortages, provoking sharp rises in the price of oil, continued to hurt the economy. Americans were reluctant to embrace voluntary conservation measures.

In foreign affairs, Carter's Christian ideals initially translated into a commitment to "human rights." He negotiated a treaty providing for transfer of the Canal Zone to Panama. But he gradually stiffened his early search for détente, heeding the hard-line stance of his National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski and supporting a military build-up. Carter facilitated the signing of the Camp David Accords between traditional foes Egypt and Israel. But Iranian fundamentalists overthrew the Shah of Iran, seized the American Embassy, and held 53 Americans hostage for over a year. A Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1980 only underscored the region's instability. By 1980 the combination of a sick economy and a foreign policy in disarray produced "a crisis of confidence."