The Age of Limits

Santa Barbara oil spill cleanup and Apollo 11 launch: Which story would characterize the future?

The Limits of Reform Ralph Nader attacks GM–Unsafe at Any Speed, but GM seems

unconcerned, though they may have been well aware Conservation versus

preservation—use vs. pristine Barry Commoner and ecology

—“improve on nature” causes problems

EPA established Earth Day —1970;

jobs vs. environment

The “unsafe at any speed” Corvair and Nader and his Raiders on the steps of the Capitol.

Barry Commoner,

author of The Closing Circle,

which discussed

damage to the ecology.

Watergate and the Politics of Resentment

Revenue sharing—block grants to states for states to use as they decide: part of “New Federalism,” anti-New Deal

Family Assistance Plan—proposal that stressed “workfare” not welfare, finally enacted in 90’s

Nixon reforms—OSHA (workplace safety), Clean Air, Water Acts show Nixon’s practical side

School busing Nixon and the Court

—conservative appointments stem Warren court’s liberal activism

Boston police protect and oversee the school district’s

busing policy.

George McGovern—fighting uphill battle against CREEP

The plumbers—fix leaks

Impoundment—Congressional

appropriations Nixon left unspent: illegal

Senate hearings—reporters for Post

start things: How deep did Watergate go?

Agnew resigns—bribes in MD and DC Saturday Night Massacre—fires Cox

The smoking gun—Nixon hip deep in conspiracy

Fair Campaign Practices—dodged by PAC’s

Part of the Watergate Office Building complex in

Washington, DC.

George McGovern campaigning during the 1972 election.

Spiro Agnew

END OF READING

A Ford, Not a Lincoln

War Powers Act—consult Congress, explain, withdraw after 60 days unless Congress approves: no more Gulf of Tonkins?

Coup in Chile—overthrow a democracy with a dictatorship to save it from a worse dictatorship?

Yom Kippur War and the energy crisis—Arabs pressure U.S. for support of Israel with oil embargo

Pinochet, the brutal dictator who took over Chile with U.S.

help and approval, killing

elected President Allende.

South Vietnam falls—no surprise there, but do we owe the South Vietnamese anything?

Helsinki summit—U.S./Soviet agreements for détente (European political boundaries recognized, Soviet Jews allowed to emigrate)

CIA and FBI abuses—Senate investigations reveal domestic spying, LSD, assassinations, infiltration of domestic groups, drive MLK to suicide?

Jimmy Carter—being an “outsider” from Georgia a political advantage for public tired of “insider” politics

A U.S. marine helplessly watches as South Vietnamese

climb the United States embassy walls, trying to find a way out of the country, as

North Vietnamese forces close in on Saigon.

Jimmy Carter: Restoring the Faith

Department of Energy—Carter tried to fight “produce more, not conserve” mindset of corporate America with MEOW (lower to 65, drive 55)

Three Mile Island—stuck valve (Homer?) causes realization that nuclear maybe not be as great as advertised: inadequate safeguards,radioactive waste

The Chrysler bailout—billion-

dollar tax credit: save big corporation to save jobs, economy? Precedent?

Three Mile Island near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,

site of an unnerving nuclear accident.

Human Rights—economic pressure for

humane policies overseas

Brzezinski and Central America—Commies all over the place?

Reviving the China card—make Soviets

think twice: U.S.-China-Japan

Salt II—limitations unratified

Camp David Accords—stop 30-yr. state of war

Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy mastermind. (Below)

Egypt’s Anwar Sadat, Jimmy Carter, and Israel’s Menachem Begin sign

the Camp David Accords. Sadat would later be assassinated by

Muslim fundamentalists.

The Iranian revolution—long-time U.S. ally toppled by Muslim fundamentalists

The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan—Muslim fundamentalist problems of their own; U.S. slaps their wrists with boycott of 1980 Olympic games—Carter Doctrine: U.S. will intervene unilaterally when interests threatened in Persian Gulf

Crisis of Confidence—hostages, economy hobbles Carter’s re-election bid

Some of the 53 American Embassy personnel are

displayed as prisoners in Teheran during the hostage crisis sparked by the Iranian Revolution and dragged on

over a year in the media.