Questions & Answers: U. S. History - The Presidency: 1970s to Present Day

Review some key points of Richard Nixon’s presidency.
Richard Nixon is best known for illegal activities during his presidency, but other important events marked his tenure as president, including:
· Vietnam War comes to an end
· Improved diplomatic relations between the US and China, and the US and the USSR
· National Environmental Policy Act passed, providing for environmental protection
· Compulsory draft ended
· Supreme Court legalizes abortion in Roe v Wade
· Watergate
The Watergate scandal of 1972 ended Nixon’s presidency, when he resigned rather than face impeachment and removal from office.

Review some key points of Jimmy Carter’s presidency.
Jimmy Carter was elected president in 1976. Faced with a budget deficit, high unemployment, and continued inflation, Carter also dealt with numerous matters of international diplomacy including:
· Panama Canal Treaties
· Camp David Accords—negotiations between Anwar el-Sadat, the president of Egypt, and Menachem Begin, the Israeli Prime Minister, leading to a peace treaty between the two nations.
· Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) and resulting agreements and treaties
· Iran Hostage Crisis—when the Shah of Iran was deposed, an Islamic cleric, the Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini, came into power. Fifty-three American hostages were taken and held for 444 days in the US Embassy.

Give a brief overview of Gerald Ford’s presidency.
Gerald Ford was appointed to the vice presidency after Nixon’s vice president Spiro Agnew resigned under charges of tax evasion. With Nixon’s resignation, Ford became president.
Ford’s presidency saw negotiations with Russia to limit nuclear arms, as well as struggles to deal with inflation, economic downturn, and energy shortages. Ford’s policies sought to reduce governmental control of various businesses and reduce the role of government overall. He also worked to prevent escalation of conflicts in the Middle East.

Review some key points of George H.W. Bush’s presidency.
George H. W. Bush became president after Ronald Reagan. Bush’s run for president included the famous “thousand points of light” speech. This speech was important in increasing his positions in the election polls. An election poll is a survey that predicts which candidate is favored by the people.
During Bush’s presidency, many major international events took place:
· Fall of the Berlin wall and Germany’s unification
· Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega captured and tried on drug and racketeering charges
· Breaking up of the Soviet Union
· Gulf War, or Operation Desert Storm, started by Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait
· Tiananmen Square Massacre in Beijing, China
· The arrival of the World Wide Web

Review some key points of Ronald Reagan’s presidency.
Ronald Reagan, at 69, became the oldest American president. The two terms of his administration included notable events such as:
· Reaganomics, also known as supply-side or trickle-down economics, involving major tax cuts in the upper income brackets
· Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981
· First female justice appointed to the Supreme Court, Sandra Day O’Connor
· Massive increase in the national debt—increased from $600 billion to $3 trillion
· Reduction of nuclear weapons via negotiations with Mikhail Gorbachev
· Loss of the space shuttle Challenger
· Iran-Contra scandal—cover-up of US involvement in revolutions in El Salvador and Nicaragua
· Deregulation of savings and loan industry

Review some key points of George W. Bush’s presidency.
Amidst controversy, George W. Bush, son of George Herbert Walker Bush, became president after William Clinton. The election was tightly contested, and though he did not win the popular vote, he won the electoral vote. In the end a Supreme Court ruling was necessary to resolve the issue. His second term was also tightly contested. However, in the election for his second term, Bush won both the popular and the electoral vote. On 9/11/2001, during his first year in office, Bush’s presidency was challenged by the first terrorist attack on American soil when al-Qaeda terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center, destroying it, and into the Pentagon, causing major damage. This event led to major changes in security in the US, especially regarding airline travel. It also led to US troops being deployed in Afghanistan. Later, Bush initiated war in Iraq with the claim that the country held weapons of mass destruction. On March 20, 2003, the US, along with troops from more than 20 other countries, invaded Iraq.
The last months of Bush’s administration saw a serious economic meltdown in the US and worldwide. Dramatic increases in oil prices resulted in extreme increases of gasoline prices. This, along with the meltdown of the mortgage industry, created serious and overwhelming economic issues for the Bush administration.

Review some key points of William Clinton’s presidency.
William Jefferson Clinton was the second president in US history to be impeached, but he was not convicted, and maintained high approval ratings in spite of the impeachment. Major events during his presidency included:
· Family and Medical Leave Act
· Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, a compromise position regarding homosexuals serving in the military
· North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA
· Defense of Marriage Act
· Oslo Accords
· Siege at Waco, Texas, involving the Branch Davidians led by David Koresh
· Bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
· Troops sent to Haiti, Bosnia and Somalia to assist with domestic problems in those areas

Review some key points of Barack Obama’s first term as president.
In 2008, Barack Obama, a Senator from Illinois, became the first African-American US president. His administration has focused on improving the lot of a country suffering from a major recession. His major initiatives have included:
· Economic bailout packages
· Improvements in women’s rights
· Moves to broaden gay rights
· Health care reform legislation
· Reinforcement of the war in Afghanistan