Chapter 37 Flashcards
Term referring to the simultaneous occurrence of low employment growth and high inflation in the national economy. The phenomenon characterized the economic troubles of the 1970s and posed both an intellectual challenge to economists and a policymaking challenge to government officials.
stagflation
Series of scandals that resulted in President Richard Nixon’s resignation in August 1974 amid calls for his impeachment. The episode sprang from a failed burglary attempt at Democratic party headquarters in Washington’s Watergate Hotel during the 1972 election.
Watergate
Recording made in the Oval Office in June 1972 that proved conclusively that Nixon knew about the Watergate break-in and endeavored to cover it up. Led to a complete breakdown in congressional support for Nixon after the Supreme Court ordered he hand the tape to investigators.
“smoking gun” tape
A cluster of diplomatic agreements signed by thirty-five participating countries in Finland, in 1975. The accords recognized Soviet territorial claims concerning Poland and other Eastern European countries; in exchange, the Soviet Union affirmed the legitimacy of some human rights. The accords were hailed as a significant milestone in détente during the Cold War.
Helsinki Accords
An amendment to an education bill signed by President Nixon in 1972. It read: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” This facilitated women’s access to educational facilities at all levels, conspicuously including college athletic programs.
Title IX
An amendment that declared full constitutional equality for women. Although it passed both houses of Congress in 1972, a concerted grassroots campaign by antifeminists led by Phyllis Schlafly persuaded enough state legislatures to vote against ratification. The amendment failed to become part of the Constitution.
Equal Rights Amendment
Landmark Supreme Court decision that forbade states from barring abortion by citing a woman’s constitutional right to privacy. Seen as a victory for feminism and civil liberties by some, the decision provoked a strong counterreaction by opponents to abortion, galvanizing the pro-life movement.
Roe v. Wade
Signed into law by President Reagan on October 17, 1988, the act created a legal apparatus for regulating Indian gaming, which had become a prominent part of many tribal economies.
Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988
Term for a loose network of conservative political activists and organizations that emerged in the 1970s and 1980s. More populist in tone than previous generations of conservatives, this emphasized hot-button cultural issues like abortion, busing, and prayer in school. They also espoused a nationalist foreign policy outlook that rejected détente and international treaties.
New Right
Presidential retreat in Maryland, constructed by the New Deal’s WPA, and dubbed “Shangri-La” by Franklin Roosevelt, re-named this by President Eisenhower in honor of his father and grandson. It was the site where President Jimmy Carter brokered a series of agreements between Israel and Egypt in 1978, by which Israel agreed to return some of the territory obtained during the 1967 war, Egypt agreed to honor Israel’s borders, and both hostile powers pledged to sign a peace treaty within three months
Camp David
National address by Jimmy Carter in July 1979 in which he chided American materialism and urged a communal spirit in the face of economic hardships. Although Carter intended the speech to improve both public morale and his standing as a leader, it had the opposite effect and was widely perceived as a political disaster for the embattled president.
malaise speech
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.
SALT II
The 444 days, from November 1979 to January 1981, in which American embassy workers were held captive by Iranian revolutionaries. The Iranian Revolution began in January 1979 when young Muslim Fundamentalists overthrew the oppressive regime of the American-backed shah, forcing him into exile. Deeming the United States “the Great Satan,” these revolutionaries triggered an energy crisis by cutting off Iranian oil. The hostage crisis began when revolutionaries stormed the American embassy, demanding that the United States return the shah to Iran for trial.
Iranian hostage crisis
Thirty-eighth president of the United States, 1974-1977. A long-serving congressman from Michigan, he was appointed vice president when Spiro Agnew resigned in the fall of 1973. He succeeded to the presidency upon Nixon’s resignation in August 1974 and focused his brief administration on containing inflation and reviving public faith in the presidency. Ford was defeated narrowly by Jimmy Carter in 1976.
Gerald (“Jerry”) Ford
A grassroots conservative and antifeminist leader in postwar American politics. He wrote a best-selling campaign book for the 1964 Barry Goldwater campaign and, a decade later, led the successful mobilization against the Equal Rights Amendment through her organization STOP ERA.
Phyllis Schlafly
