Objective: I can describe the failures and achievements of president’s Ford and Carter.

Preview: pick up last set of primary resources.

Process: Ford and Carter SheetsOn Your Own: Iranian Hostage Crisis Reading (replacement grade OR primary resource folder)

The Ford & Carter Years

•With the resignation of Nixon on August 9th, 1974 over the Watergate Scandal, Ford (Nixon’s VP) took over.• Only man in American history to serve as Vice President and President without being elected to either office!•Why? 25th Amendment; Nixon’s original VP had been Spiro Agnew, who had resigned (tax evasion). Nixon picked Ford to replace him.

Gerald Ford Becomes President

• First things first, he pardoned Nixon less than a month after his resignation. • Never-ending stagflation.• WIN: Whip Inflation Now• Program declaring inflation “public enemy #1”• Asked citizens to voluntarily change their spending/saving behavior to fight inflation.

• Cut taxes, increased unemployment benefits, raised interest rates. Caused a recession.

Domestic Policy

• Relied on Henry Kissinger’s help.• Traveled to the Soviet Union.• Signed the Helsinki Accord in Finland—a series of agreements that promised greater cooperation between Eastern and Western Europe. • Tries to intervene in Vietnam as it falls to Communism…Congress says no!• Two years of flops!

Foreign Policy

Gerald Ford ran for re-election, because why not?

Democrats pick Jimmy Carter…Peanut farmer turned governor of Georgia. Promised to restore integrity to the

nation’s highest office. Promised not to lie to the American

people. Down-to-earth Gave similar chats on the radio/TV as

FDR had done.Planks:

Focus on energy conservation Solve economic problems

America gets a Peanut Farmer!

• National Energy Act: tax on gas-guzzling cars, tax credits for alternative energy development.• Inflation skyrocketed to 14% due to continued Middle Eastern violence.• Job layoffs, transfer from

manufacturing jobs to service sector jobs.

• Carter’s popularity took a serious hit.• Was popular with minorities; appointed more African Americans, women and Latinos than ever before in American history.

Domestic Policy

• Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979.• Carter placed a grain embargo on

the USSR.• Boycotted the Olympics (being

held in Moscow in 1980).• Camp David Accords: with unrest in the Middle East between Arab nations and Israel, Carter invited the leader of Egypt and the leader of Israel to Camp David.• Agreement that called for peace

between the two nations.• Iranian Hostage Crisis (reading)

Foreign Policy

• Cut off relations with countries known to torture and kill their own citizens (Brazil/Argentina)• Human Rights Bureau created.

• Panama Canal given to Panama.• Environmentalism: realization that pollution and overconsumption were damaging the environment.• Earth Day: April 22, 1970• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): set and enforce pollution standards, conduct research, assist in pollution control.

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