20. The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War (1957- 1975) was a war fought on the ground in South Vietnam and bordering areas of Cambodia and Laos and in the strategic bombing of North Vietnam. In Vietnam, the conflict is known as the "American War”. U.S. involvement in the war gradually increased, though there never was a formal declaration of war. There had been a movement of opposition to the war in the United States starting in 1964.

Demonstrations protesting Am. involvement broke out on college campuses, and there were violent clashes b/n students and police. The United States then unilaterally withdrew its troops from Vietnam in 1973 and two years later the North had a complete control over the whole country. Stung by his increasing unpopularity, Johnson decided not to run for a second full term. Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968. He pursued a policy of Vietnamization, gradually replacing American soldiers with Vietnamese. In 1973 he signed a peace treaty with North Vietnam and brought American soldiers home. Nixon achieved two other diplomatic breakthroughs: re-establishing U.S. relations with the People's Republic of China and negotiating the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty with the Soviet Union. In 1972 he easily won re-election ( Watergate political scandal in which an attempt to bug the national headquarters of the Democratic Party (in the Watergate building in Washington, D.C.) led to the resignation of President Nixon (1974)).

21 Us political scandal of the 70’s 80’s and 90’s.

70’s - Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968. He pursued a policy of Vietnamization, gradually replacing American soldiers with Vietnamese. In 1973 he signed a peace treaty with North Vietnam and brought American soldiers home. Nixon achieved two other diplomatic breakthroughs: re-establishing U.S. relations with the People's Republic of China and negotiating the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty with the Soviet Union. In 1972 he easily won re-election ( Watergate political scandal in which an attempt to bug the national headquarters of the Democratic Party (in the Watergate building in Washington, D.C.) led to the resignation of President Nixon (1974)).

80’s – Iran-Contra scandal - a political scandal of 1986 involving the covert sale by the U.S. of arms to Iran in exchange for Am. hostage in Lebanon. The proceeds of the arms sales were used by officials to give arms to the anticommunist Contras(freedom fighters) in Nicaragua, despite congressional prohibition. Sale occurred during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, at a time when official relations between the countries were suspended.

90’s – scandal b\n president Bill Clinton and White House trainee Monica Lewinski, it shook the foundation of Am. Puritanism and broke the myth of US president’s supremacy, high morale and honesty.

22. The Reagan revolution

Ronald Reagan, former governor of California, won a landslide victory in 1980, and Republicans also gained control of the Senate for the first time in twenty-five years. Reagan promised an end to the drift in post-Vietnam U.S. foreign policy and a restoration of the nation's military strength. He also aimed to cut government spending on welfare and social services geared toward the poorer sectors of society, which had built up during the Vietnam era. Reagan combined the tight-money regime of the Federal Reserve with an expansionary fiscal policy. Another factor in the recovery from the worst periods of 1982-83 was the radical drop in oil prices, which ended inflationary pressures of spiraling fuel prices.

By the middle of 1983, unemployment fell from 11% to 8.2. Reagan-era deficits were keeping the U.S. dollar overvalued. With such a high demand for dollars, the dollar achieved an alarming strength against other major currencies.

The U.S. balance of trade grew increasingly unfavorable; the trade deficit grew from $20 billion to well over $100 billion.