The USA by 1980 Flashcards
USA by 1980
In 1945, the United States emerged victorious from a war universally acknowledged to be a ‘good’ war against evil regimes. Americans felt pride in their image and identity abroad, and confidence in the strength of their nation and the American Dream. By 1980, the pride, confidence and strength seemed somewhat tarnished.
US position as a superpower
In 1945, America was by far the most powerful nation in the world due to its wealth and monopoly on atomic weaponry. However, by 1980 many thought that supremacy was at or near an end. Americans felt humiliated over South Vietnam (lost’ to Communism in 1975 after several decades of US aid) and over the Iranian hostage taking in 1979 (a new form of warfare against which conventional forces and nuclear arsenals seemed useless. The hostage taking was a result of increasingly unfavourable perceptions of American identity abroad. The United States had long perceived itself as a peace-loving beacon of democracy and freedom to an admiring world that frequently required its benevolent patronage and assistance. However, by 1980 many in the non-Communist world considered America a frequently aggressive power that sought to impose its will on others. While that perception owed much to US action in Vietnam between 1955 and 1973, many in Latin America in particular had long been uneasily resentful of US interventionism.
US FP 1980
By 1980 it seemed that while America was in decline, the Soviet challenge was greater than ever: the Soviets had gained nuclear and naval parity and appeared frighteningly confident and aggressive. Although subsequent events would demonstrate the unstable foundations of the Soviet Union, many Americans were convinced that the United States was unprecedentedly vulnerable: by 1980, 54 per cent of Americans believed the US world position was only ‘fair’ or ‘poor’; 62 per cent felt their country was ‘becoming weaker’;
81 per cent believed the nation was in serious trouble. Such perceptions were excessively pessimistic: America remained by far the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world, but it no longer had the massive lead over other nations that it had enjoyed in 1945.
Economic change
The economic boom of the post-war decades was over because:
• Increased federal government expenditure on the Vietnam War and on social programmes had led to a federal budget deficit and inflation.
• The energy crisis and the greatly increased price of oil had damaged
American industry and households.
• American manufacturing industries had declined in the face of foreign competition, which had led to increased unemployment it had risen to 8.2 million in summer 1980) and a trade deficit (around $40 billion during
1978-9). The mounting trade deficits had a negative impact on the dollar, causing it to slump on the world currency markets.
Nevertheless, although Americans felt economically squeezed, the United States remained easily the world’s most affluent society; with a far higher GNP than its
nearest rivals.
Car industry
The impact of foreign competition was demonstrated in the car industry.
Inexpensive and well-made Tapanese car imports were extremely attractive
TO American consumers: By 1981, lapanese companies had 23 per cent of the American car market fin 1978-9, over a quarter of the US trade deficit was due to Japan’s trade surplus. American car companies were slow to adapt. Even as the sales of American cars fell, manufacturers continued to produce ‘gas guzzlers’ that used a great deal of petrol, while Japanese cars were smaller and more economic. Chrysler lost billions and needed a controversial $1.5 billion government bailout in 1980. By 1980, foreign competition contributed to the 24 per cent unemployment in the car manufacturing city of Detroit, where the number of permanent jobs in the car industry fell from 940,000 in 1978 to C500.000 in 1982. Many American companies moved production abroad or bought finished products from foreign manufacturers for whom labour was cheaper and less assertive.
Economic problems – burgers
American economic problems led the AFL-CIO to describe the United States as a nation of hamburger stands, a country stripped of industrial capacitv and meaningful work … A service-economy … a nation of citizens busily buying
and selling cheese-burgers.’ While this is clearly an exaggeration, the unioit {
leaders had correctly identified a long-term economic trend: the decline of $ lled manufacturing jobs and the increasing dependence of American workers on low-paid, insecure jobs in the service industry.
Social change before 1960
Prior to the 1960s, America seemed to be a stable society in which:
• over two-thirds of the population lived in unprecedented affluence
• the race problem was under control, with African-Americans safely segregated by law in the South and by residence in the North
• protests were rare
• gender inequality was the generally accepted norm.
Social change by 1980
By 1980 there had been considerable social change. President Johnson’s Great Society failed to eradicate poverty but had made it more visible by drawing the nation’s attention to it. Thanks to Johnson, Americans in 1980 had a greater welfare safety net than in 1945. Social Security and free medical care programmes had been expanded. However, the Great Society had failed to improve the inner-city ghettos that had mushroomed since the middle of the century due to the impact of the Great Migration, discrimination in post war federal mortgage loans (they were not usually given to black families), while opposition to black neighbours and white flight.
AA 1980
The legal segregation and disfranchisement with which African-Americans had been afflicted in the South had been ended by 1980. Most schools were desegregated in the South by that date, but efforts to eradicate the impact of de facto housing segregation on education in the North by introducing busing had lost momentum by 1980. The busing controversy demonstrated continuing racism: cities retained ‘chocolate’ centres ringed by ‘vanilla’ suburbs. However, although one-third of African-Americans remained below the poverty line, the civil rights legislation had accelerated the introduction of affirmative action policies that contributed to a growing black middle class. Furthermore, the number of elected black officials was increasing across the nation.
Women 1980
Women’s lives had also changed dramatically since the early 1960s. The skyrocketing divorce rate (40 per cent) and new attitudes to work, sex, family and personal freedom, constituted a cultural revolution that upset conservatives.
Economic status of women
The economic status of women was improving but remained inferior to that of men. Although women’s wages were rising (they were 62 per cent of men’s wages in 1980), they remained markedly unequal. Furthermore, although more women were working and in a wider variety of jobs than in 1945, they still held fewer executive, managerial and professional positions. Like African-Americans, women were greatly underrepresented in politics, even though the number being elected was increasing. There were still only sixteen women in the US House of Representatives and no women in the US Senate in 1979-80.
Feminism
Despite continuing economic and political inequality, feminists thought they had achieved reproductive rights when the Supreme Court ruled in favour of contraception for married couples in 1965 (see page 182) and legalised abortion In 1973 (see page 237. However, the changing status of women, and Roey.
Wade in particular, stimulated a formidable reaction among social conservatives Who resented the recent and dramatic changes. Many of these conservatives belonged to the Religious Right, and they played an important partintne Presidential election victory of Ronald Reagan in 1980.
