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Richard Nixon First Election Win
November 8th, 1968, Republican Richard Nixon wins the Presidential Election by slim margins. Coming into presidency, Nixon was challenged to end the war in Vietnam and to appease the civil unrest on the war's second front, the American home. Nixon was a genius when it came to foreign policies. He began the reparation of relations with communist powerhouses. But when it came to domestic affairs, the President fell short and America began to slip into the worst economic hardships since the 30s. -
Détente with the Soviet Union and Rapprochement with China
Shortly after the Tet Offensive, Nixon began to pursue détente with the Soviet Union and rapprochement with China, which he hoped would isolate the North Vietnamese from the larger communist powers. Détente led to nuclear arms reduction on the part of the superpowers, but Nixon was disappointed that the Chinese and the Soviet Union continued to supply the North Vietnamese with aid. -
Watergate Scandal
As a result of a "third-rate burglary" on June 17 of 1972, the Democratic National Committee headquaters became associated with the greatest political scandal of the century and would reveal President Richard Nixon's extreme thirst for power and revenge. With the assistence of "Deep Throat" and Nixon recordings, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were able keep the scandal alive in the pubic eye which led to a Nixon resignation. -
Vietnamization
Soon after the Paris Peace Accords signing, which ended America's participation in the Vietnam War, on March 29th, 1973, the last set of American troops left Vietnam and force the South to defend themselves in a US foreign policy called Vietnamization. Just in the year before, Americans bombed Cambodia and Laos to destroy Vietcong forces in the neighboring countries and hoped that the attacks would speed up the peace agreements. However, peace did not last. In 1975, the South fell to communists. -
Jimmy Carter Becomes the 39th President of the United States
November 8th, 1976, Democrat and former US navy man, Jimmy Carter is elected the 39th President of the United States. He enters office having to handle pretty serious issues, like the domestic economic downfall and continuing progress in foreign relations. Carter served one term in office until conservative Ronald Reagan became his successor as the country turned right. -
Panama Canal Treaty
Before the Panama Canal opened in 1914, ships traveling between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans had to circle the southern tip of South Americs, a precarious 8,000 nautical miles.The U.S. were responsible for the shortcut, between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, through a distant neighbor's "backyard", the Panama Canal. On September 7, 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed the Panama Canal Treaty and Neutrality Treaty promising to give control of the canal to the Panamanians by the year 2000. -
Iran Hostage Crisis
The Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States were fifty-two Americans were held hostage for 444 days after a group of Islamist students and militants supporting the Iranian Revolution took over the American Embassy in Tehran during Carter's presidency. In the United States, the hostage-taking was seen as an outrage violating the principle of international law granting diplomats immunity from arrest and diplomatic compounds' inviolability. -
Reagan Becomes President
The contest was between incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter and his Republican opponent, former California Governor Ronald Reagan. Reagan, aided by the Iran hostage crisis and a worsening economy at home, won the election in a landslide, receiving the highest number of electoral votes ever won by a non-incumbent presidential candidate.Carter, attacked Reagan as a dangerous right-wing radical, but America was already on its journey to the right. -
The President is Shot
On March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan was shot by John W. Hinkley, Jr., while leaving the Washington Hilton Hotel after giving a speech. The President was hit under his left arm by a bullet that ricocheted off his limousine. Once the sound of shots rang in the air, Secret Service agent Jerry Parr shoved Reagan into his limousine, and then, after noticing the President had been shot, directed the car to the George Washington University Hospital. Reagan made a quick recovery. -
Reagan and Gorbachev Meet in D.C.
Gorbachev and Reagan meet in Washington, D.C., and sign the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is a 1987 agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union that eliminated nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with intermediate ranges, defined as between 300-3,400 miles.
