Week 5: Final Project

HIS 206: United States History II

Instructor Guidance

Week 5

We have finally reached our last week of class. Congratulations to you all for coming this far, you have done it! These five week classes can be pretty grueling, basically condensing 15 weeks of work into 5. The fact that you have made it this far while juggling everything else that is happening in your lives speaks to your aptitude as capable and talented college students. Take stock of all the ways that you have grown and all that you have learned over the past five weeks, and be proud of yourself everything that you have accomplished!

This week’s guidance will cover the following areas:

1. Walking Step by Step through Creating Your Final Project

2. Checklist and Assignments for Week 5

3. Topics covered this week

4. Source list

Walking Step by Step through Creating Your Final Project

Video Transcript

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Checklist and Assignments for Week 5

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Topics Covered This Week

Timeline

The Rise of Conservatism

The turbulence of the 1960s, with the Civil Rights movement, Women’s Liberation movement, and the anti- war protests alienated many Americans. Conservatism as an intellectual and political movement goes back to the 1930s with Frederick Hayek and it remained alive through the 1960s with William F. Buckley Jr., Ayn Rand, and Milton Friedman.

However, liberalism dominated American politics throughout that period, beginning with the FDR’s New Deal continuing with the infrastructure building projects of the Eisenhower administration, the space program and the emphasis on Civil Rights in the Kennedy administration and the Great Society program of the Johnson administration. Beginning with the 1964 presidential election, in which Lyndon B. Johnson defeated Barry Goldwater, conservatism began to attract more followers who felt that the rapid change in American society was detrimental to traditional institutions and values.

Richard Nixon capitalized on the feelings of alienation in 1968 by running as the candidate of the “Silent Majority,” meaning those Americans who were not involved in protest movements and who found the violence and chaos of the 1960s distressing. At its base, conservatism seeks to maintain the status quo, viewing social and political change with distrust and looking to protect traditional social institutions and values.

Watch this short video on the difference between libertarianism and conservatism

Doherty, B. (2007, May). Conservatism vs Libertarianism [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiFDYqFzGVA

Learn more about different ideologies, including conservatism, liberalism, fascism, totalitarianism and communism here:

West, N. (2014). Ideology. Retrieved from http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/westn/Ideology.html

The political upheaval of the 1960s did produce lasting change. Those ideas that seemed so radical, like gender and racial equality, moved into the mainstream. That period also contributed to the rise of identity politics, in which individuals’ gender, race, religion, and class determines their political associations and views. It is a movement away from an emphasis on the larger human experience and commonalities. Identity politics is present in both liberal and conservative circles.

Learn more about identity politics here:

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2012). Identity Politics. Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/identity-politics/

The Carter Presidency

With the rise of conservatism, how did the Democratic candidate, Jimmy Carter, get elected president in the 1970s? Although he was a Democrat, Carter was also a Southern governor, a small town farmer, an evangelical Christian, and had military experience. He was a common person who seemed able to bridge the gaps between liberals and conservatives.

While president, he strengthened the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and increased funding for social programs but he also deregulated the airline and railroad industries. Carter’s biggest challenge, however, was stagflation, which is an economic condition with rising unemployment, rising inflation, but stagnating wages, which worked to decrease Americans’ buying power.

Stagflation was caused in large part by rising energy costs that began with the OPEC oil embargo in 1973. In an effort to deal with the energy crisis and stagflation, Carter encouraged both energy conservation and deregulation.

Watch a clip of the nightly news report on the OPEC oil embargo

NBC Nightly News. (1973, October 17). OPEC OIL EMBARGO [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCLRlVxOH-Q

The Iran Hostage Crisis

As mentioned earlier in the course, in 1953, the United States (the CIA) covertly helped the overthrew the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammed Mosadeq, and installed the Shah as a ruler. While the Shah did not support or tolerate communism, he proved to be an authoritarian and repressive dictator who championed Western values and culture.

The United States continued to support the Shah because he maintained stability and ensured the flow of Iranian oil to the United States. However the Shah had alienated many groups in Iranian society both secular and religious which ultimately led to the Iranian Revolution of 1979 in which the Shah was forced into exile and the Ayatollah Khomeini (who had become a popular leader while in exile in Paris) returned.

The Ayatollah Khomeini led a theocracy (and Islamic Republic) in which a very restrictive form of Islamic law was implemented. While the Ayatollah was popular, it is important to note that many did not support him and had wanted a secular state. Many scholars feel the popular uprising (which did have a very strong religious element) was hijacked by Khomeini and his supporters in the implementation of an Islamic State.

Because of anger toward the United States for installing and maintaining the Shah, Americans in Iran became a target and 53 Americans in the US Embassy in Tehran were taken hostage. Although Carter attempted to negotiate their release and even sent a failed rescue mission, the combination of stagflation and the hostage situation proved too much and Carter lost the 1979 presidential election. The hostages were finally released on the day of President Ronald Reagan’s inauguration, fueling rumors that Reagan had secretly negotiated a deal with the Iranians to keep the hostages until he won the election and became president.

Watch a short video on the Iran Hostage Crisis of 1979

National Archives. (2010). Hostage - 1979 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aMk5Q3PJyM

See declassified documents related to the Iran Hostage Crisis here:

National Security Archive. (1999, November 5). 20 Years after the Hostages: Declassified Documents on Iran and the United States. Retrieved from http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB21/index.html

The Impact of Trickle Down Economics

Ronald Reagan, a former New Deal Democrat and Hollywood actor, switched to conservatism and the Republican Party in the 1950s due to concern about communist infiltration and high government spending. He championed supply-side economics, meaning that he cut taxes in an effort to increase spending and fuel the economy.

Although the country faced high deficits, a reduction in taxes was argued to stimulate the economy and result in higher overall tax revenues. He also made deep cuts in social programs. The wealthiest Americans enjoyed the greatest reduction in taxes on the theory that they would increase their spending and the money would “trickle down” to everyone else. This was a controversial strategy that President George H.W. Bush at the time called “voodoo economics.”

The recession continued and the stock market crashed in 1982, leading to a reversal in economic policy and tax increases, which did prompt the economy to improve. However, effects of the economic upturn were uneven, benefitting the wealthiest and increasing the gap between the rich and the poor.

Watch a short clip of Alan Greenspan discussing trickle down economics

CSPAN. (2008, October 3). Alan Greenspan says "Trickle Down" Reaganomics failed [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GQecQ06xus

The Collapse of the Soviet Union

President Ronald Reagan pursued two different strategies in relation to the Soviet Union. He publicly denounced the Soviet Union while privately negotiating with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. By the 1980s, the Soviet Union was severely economically strained, both because of the invasion of Afghanistan and because of the long-term effects of trying to keep up militarily with the United States. In addition, the old guard Soviet leaders were quite old and a succession of them died during Reagan’s term.

Mikhail Gorbachev, a relatively young man, became the Premier of the Soviet Union in 1988 and was the only Soviet Premier born after the 1917 revolution. He fully understood the problems with the Soviet economy and he pulled Soviet troops out of Afghanistan and Eastern Europe. Without the presences of Soviet troops, Eastern European nations began overthrew their communist dictators and the European communist world began to disintegrate, with the Soviet Union finally falling in 1991.

In the United States, Reagan is often credited with orchestrating the end of the Cold War. He did increase military spending, which pushed the Soviets to increase military spending and putting further strain on the Soviet economy. He also negotiated with Gorbachev, creating a safe space for the Soviet Union to dismantle. However, Mikhail Gorbachev won the Nobel Peace Prize for taking the decisive actions that led to the collapse of communism in Europe and the end of the Cold War, most notably removing Soviet troops from Afghanistan and Eastern Europe.

The video below brings some of the excitement of the collapse of the Soviet Union.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL3hXprCMdk "People Power" from the PBS Series People's Century

The dissolution of the Soviet Union created a power vacuum and political and social chaos erupted in a number of former Soviet republics and satellite states. The Soviets had emphasized (and enforced) a common Soviet identity and, without the Soviet influence, nationality, ethnicity, and religion became the dominant identifying components in many of these new nations, creating conflict and leading to instances of ethnic cleansing. The most well-publicized of these nations was the former Yugoslavia.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the immigration patterns changed as many people from Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East fled political conflicts and economic deprivation in their own countries. Although previous immigrants to the United States had been overwhelmingly European and Christian, the new immigrants represented a variety of races, ethnicities, and religion. This new diversity served to increase their visibility among Americans and lead to fears that they would negatively affect American society. However, as we have learned in this course, these are not new but resemble the fears and hostility that have greeted immigrants in years past.

It is important to note regarding Regan's foreign policy that his government funded the Contra War against the new Sandinista government of Nicaragua. As mentioned before Nicaragua had been government by successive dictatorships of the Somoza family for decades. In the late 1970s that rule was challenge by the left-oriented Sandinista movement. They finally won the war in 1979. Because the United States did not approve of this government, under Reagan it backed an illegal war to topple the regime. The administration also backed the brutal dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in Chile. (Pinochet had led a coup against the popular and elected government of Salvador Allende resulting in his death). If you are interested in reading a different view on the impact of the Reagan years on Latin America from a critical perspective you might want to read Noam Chomsky's account at https://libcom.org/history/1970-1987-the-contra-war-in-nicaragua

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Sources

ABC News. (Producer). (2011). A hidden America: Children of the plains [Video file]. Retrieved from https://secure.films.com/OnDemandEmbed.aspx?Token=52814&aid=18596&Plt=FOD&loid=0&w=640&h=480&ref=

Barnes, L. & Bowles, M. (2014).The American story: Perspectives and encounters from 1877. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

Bartlett, B. (2007). 'Starve the Beast': Origins and development of a budgetary metaphor. Independent Review, 12(1), 5-26. Retrieved from http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/

Carter, D. T. (2003, Jan.). The rise of conservatism since World War II. OAH Magazine of History, 17(2), 11-16. Retrieved from http://magazine.oah.org/

Cohen, D. (Producer & Writer). (2005). The presidents: 1977-2004 [Series episode]. In S. Werbe (Executive producer), The presidents. Retrieved from https://secure.films.com/OnDemandEmbed.aspx?Token=43181&aid=18596&Plt=FOD&loid=0&w=640&h=480&ref=

The Political Compass (http://www.politicalcompass.org/)

Foner, N. (2006). Then and now or then to now: Immigration to New York in contemporary and