Richard M. Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States. He was elected to the office in 1968 and held it until 1974. In 1972, members of Nixon's administration were caught breaking into the Watergate Complex, thus giving it the nickname “The Watergate Scandal.” After, it was brought to Nixon's attention that members of his cabinet were performing these activities, so he had them pay off the criminals to not disclose they were a part of it.
After this became public, Nixon was out on trial infront of the Supreme Court in the case Nixon v. United States. One person who testified against him noted that Nixon was in possession of tapes of the conversations about the scandal. He was saving these to write his memoirs. The Senate demanded that he handed over the tapes, however he brought up that it was a matter of national security that he didn't. After months of hearings, the Supreme Court said that holding the tapes was unconstitutional. However, during transcription, 18 ½ minutes were accidentally recorded over. We will never know what these tapes actually held. From here, the Senate brought up trials of impeachment for Nixon. This led him to resign from office. Nixon's former vice president, Spiro Agnew, had to resign over the scandal. His new vice president, Gerald Ford, took office that day.
Gerald R. Ford, Jr.
Gerald Rudolph Ford was the only president in history never to be elected on a ticket with a president or elected to the presidency. He was appointed by Nixon and therefore never really “won” office. His position as 38th President of the United States only lasted two years. During his term, inflation was rampant and the economy was stagnant, thus coining the term stagflation, which theoretically could never happen. The problem with this was to fix the rising inflation rate means that stagflation would become worse and vice-versa. Ford released his plan he called WIN!—Whip Inflation Now!
For his foreign policy, he continued Nixon's policy of détente, or easing of tensions between our nation and the communist nations. In 1975, the Ford and his advisor Henry Kissinger traveled to Helsinki, Finland to negotiate about recognization of nations with the Soviet Union in the process of showing d&eactute;tente. The United States agreed to recognize borders set up by the USSR in Eastern Europe if the USSR would promise to give their citizens basic human rights. The Soviet Union did not, so the policy eroded away. The next year was an election year. In 1976, Ford ran against Jimmy Carter, a new politician who was never tainted by the power of Washington, but was governor of Georgia for a time. Ford lost with 240 electoral votes and Carter won with 297. This means, in fact, that Ford never won a presidential election.
James E. Carter
James Earl Carter (Jimmy Carter) was a peanut farmer in Georgia. He held the office of governor in Georgia before deciding to run for president as a Democrat. In 1976, Carter became the 39th president of the United States, beating Ford by a small margin. Still a rising problem of inflation, Carter deregulated many things from airplanes to gas and oil prices. He also unsucessfully raised the minimum wage, which further led to inflation, as companies had to pay their workers more and had to charge more for their goods to make more of a profit. However, to try to stop that, he decreased the cap for white-collar workers, so the "yuppies" couldn't make more than they already were. He then tried to increase taxes once again.
His foreign policy was equally as terrible. He gave up the Panama Canal to show that the government was lessening its control on other nations. This hardly did anything, as the world still saw the United States as the "Big Brother" to everone. In Iran, after the Ayatollah overthrew the Shah, college students raided the American embassy in Tehran and seized 52 American diplomats. Countless efforts to try and get them released and a failed rescue attempt which led to the death of American soldiers held no diplomatic measures to try and get back the hostages. After 444 days, on the day of Reagan's nomination to the prsidency in 1981, Iran released the hostages. This was done as a kick to Carter to show that the era of Reagan is a new era and that he was a horrible president. In the 1980 election, Reagan beat Carter with 51% of the popular vote. Carter was not liked upon many, and Reagan crushed the electoral college.
Ronald W. Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States. He beat Jimmy Carter by a large margin. He first tried to fix the failing economy. He raised interest rates of everything using the federal reserve. This gave people an incentive to work. Then, he put 25% tax cuts in place. This stopped inflation. By 1983, the economy was fixed. Throughout the rest of his presidency, he felt no resistance, as he was loved by the masses. In the 1984 election, he won by a landslide to Walter Mondale, winning every state except Minnesota and Washington D.C. Also during his presidency, the immune disease AIDS arose widespread and caused a lot of fear. Drugs in schools were big and so was drunk driving. Organizations put in place such as MADD—Mothers Against Drunk Driving helped stop these horrible epidemics.
His foreign policy was astounding. He was able to wreck the Soviet Union's economy and cause the end of the Cold War. Mikhail Gorbachev, the new Soviet leader, put in place glasnost, openess of freedoms, and perestroika, a free economy. This damaged the idea of communism, as revolutions could now take place. Countries such as Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria revolted against the communist rule, and after the Soviet Union fell in December of 1991, formed the CIS, Commonwealth of Independent States. Reagan knew that if the United States were to rapidly build up our military, the Soviet Union would try to follow, but not have enough money to continue. He started the largest peacetime military buildup in the United States' history. As planned, the Soviet Union followed but their economy fell flat which led to the collapse.