President

SIGNIFICANCE of Event/Idea
Proposition 13 (1978):
Citizens increasingly balked at paying the bills for further extension of government benefits. After four decades of advancing New
Deal and Great Society programs, a strong countercurrent took hold. Californians staged a tax revolt in 1978 (known by its
ocial ballot title of Proposition 13) that slashed property taxes and forced painful cuts in government services. The California
tax quake jolted other state capitals and even rocked the pillars of Congress in faraway Washington, D.C.

What was the focus of the conservative revolution (935-936)?

-To reduce the power of labor unions and government involvement in business.

-Smaller government, less bureaucracy, and freer markets

-Free markets made free peoples and that shrinking government meant keeping nations safer from communism

Positives and Negatives of supply side economics (also known as trickle-down economics)

Ronald Reagan
Republican
(1981-1989)

-Supply-siders argued that a combination of budgetary discipline and tax reduction would stimulate new investment, invigorate
productivity, foster dramatic economic growth, and eventually even boost rather than deplete tax revenues, thus reducing the federal
deficit.

-The economy slid into its deepest recession since the 1930s. Unemployment reached nearly 11 percent in 1982, businesses folded,
and several bank failures jolted the nations entire financial system.

-The supply-siders seemed to be vindicated when a healthy economic recovery finally got under way.

How did Reagan increase tensions during the Cold War period (937-938)-SDI and Star Wars.

-His strategy for dealing with Moscow was simple: by enormously expanding U.S. military capabilities, he could threaten the
Soviets with a fantastically expensive new round of the arms race. The American economy, theoretically, could better bear this
new financial burden than could the creaking Soviet system.

-Popularly known as Star Wars, the plan called for orbiting battle stations in space that could fire laser beams or other forms of
concentrated energy to vaporize intercontinental missiles on lifto.

Iran-Contra Affair/Scandal (1986-87)-pg 938, 940-942

Diplomats secretly arranged arms sales to Iran, which was mired in a devastating territorial war with neighboring Iraq. In return, the
Iranians helped obtain the release of at least one American hostage held by Middle Eastern terrorists. Meanwhile, the money Iran
paid for the American weapons was diverted to the contras in Nicaragua. These actions brazenly violated a congressional ban on
military aid to the Nicaraguan rebelsnot to mention Reagans repeated vow that he would never negotiate with terrorists.
Washington also continued to support Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, to whom it sold weapons used against Iran.

Glasnost and Perestroika (938-939)

Glasnost, or openness, aimed at ventilating the secretive, repressive stuness of Soviet society by introducing free speech and
a measure of political liberty. Perestroika, or "restructuring", was intended to revive the moribund Soviet economy by adopting
many of the free market practices- such as the profit motive and an end to subsidized prices- of the capitalist west. Both of these
required that the Soviet Union shrink the size of its enormous military machine and redirect its energies to the dismissal civilian
economy. That necessitated an end to the Cold War.

What was Reagans economic legacy (942)?

Ronald Reagan had taken oce vowing to invigorate the American economy by rolling back government regulations, lowering taxes,
and balancing the budget. He did ease many regulatory rules, and he pushed major tax reform bills through Congress in 1981 and
1986. But a balanced budget remained grotesquely out of reach. Supply-side economic theory had promised that lower taxes would
actually increase government revenue because they would stimulate the economy as a whole. But, in fact, the combination of tax
reduction and huge increases in military spending opened a vast revenue hole of $200 billion annual deficits. In his eight years in
oce, President Reagan added nearly $2 trillion to the national debtmore than all of his predecessors combined.

What were the goals and beliefs of the Moral Majority (942-945)?
The Moral Majority was against sexual permissive- ness, abortion, feminism, and the spread of gay rights.What had in the
past been personal mattersgender roles, homosexuality, and prayerbecame the organizing ground for a powerful political
movement. They declared themselves Christian or Prolife voters.

Impact of Roe v. Wade and associated cases. How was Roe v. Wade a continuation of the
feminist movement of the late 1960s and 1970s?
The contentious issue of abortion also reached the Court in 1989. In the case of Roe v. Wade in 1973, the Supreme Court had
prohibited states from making laws that interfered with a womans right to an abortion during the early months of pregnancy. In
Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, the Court in 1989 seriously compromised Roes protections by approving a Missouri law
that imposed certain restrictions on abortion. Further inviting states to legislate in an area in which Roe had once seemed to forbid
them, the Court ruled in 1992s Planned Parenthood v. Casey that states could restrict access to abortion as long as they did not
place an undue burden on the woman. This is a continuation of feminism for it shows a debate of the rights of women to an
abortion. The argument raised questions as to the rights of women in regard to their unborn children.

Causes/Impact of Black Monday (October, 1987)-pg.946

A wave of mergers, acquisitions, and leveraged buyouts washed over Wall Street, leaving many brokers and traders mega-rich
and many companies saddled with mega- debt. A cold spasm of fear struck the money markets on Black Monday, October 19,
1987, when the lead- ing stock-market index plunged 508 pointsthe largest one-day decline in history to that point.

George H.W. Bush

Republican

(1989-1993)

End of the Cold War: Tiananmen Square (1989), Eastern Europe, Gorbachev

Long oppressed by puppet regimes propped up by Soviet guns, the region was revolutionized in just a few startling months in 1989.
The Solidarity movement in Poland led the way when it toppled Polands communist government in August. With dizzying speed,
communist regimes collapsed in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, and even hyperrepressive Romania. In December 1989,
jubilant Germans danced atop the hated Berlin Wall, symbol of the division of Germany and all of Europe into two armed and hostile
camps.The wall itself soon came down, heralding the imminent end of the forty-five-year-long Cold War. In China hundreds of
thousands of prodemocracy demonstrators thronged through Beijings Tiananmen Square in the spring of 1989. They proudly
flourished a thirty-foot-high Goddess of Democracy, modeled on the Statue of Liberty, as a symbol of their aspirations.

End of the Cold War: Impact on America (950).

The end of the Cold War also proved a mixed blessing for the United States. For nearly half a century, the containment of
Soviet communism had been the paramount goal of U.S. foreign policy. Indeed the Cold War era had been the only lengthy
period in American history when the United States had consistently pursued an internationalist foreign policy.

Causes/Impact of the Persian Gulf Crisis:

Cause: On August 2 Saddam Hussein, the brutal and ambitious ruler of Iraq, sent his armies to overrun Kuwait, a tiny, oil-rich
desert sheikdom on Iraqs southern frontier. Financially exhausted by its eight-year war with Iran, which had ended in a
stalemate in 1988, Iraq needed Kuwaits oil to pay its huge war bills. Saddams larger design was ironfisted control over the
entire Persian Gulf region. With his hand thus firmly clutching the worlds economic jugular vein, he dreamed of dictating the
terms of oil supplies to the industrial nations, and perhaps of totally extinguishing the Arabs enemy, Israel.

Impacts: Most Americans cheered the wars rapid and enormously successful conclusion. Many people echoed President
Bushs sentiments when he declared, By God, weve kicked the Vietnam Syndrome once and for all!

American with Disabilities Act (1990):

George H. W. Bush partly redeemed his pledge to work for a kinder, gentler America when he signed the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, a landmark law prohibiting discrimination against the 43 million U.S. citizens with physical or
mental dis- abilities.

Negative Events in George. H.W. Bushs Presidency (952-953):

By 1992 the unemployment rate exceeded 7 percent. It approached 10 percent in the key state of Califor- nia, ravaged by
defense cutbacks. The federal budget deficit continued to mushroom cancerously, topping $250 billion in each of Bushs years
as president. In a desperate attempt to stop the hemorrhage of red ink, Bush agreed in 1990 to a budget increase that
included $133 billion in new taxes. Bushs 1990 tax and budget package added up to a political catastrophe. In his 1988
presidential campaign, Bush had belligerently declared, Read my lipsno new taxes. Now he had flagrantly bro- ken that
campaign promise. The budget deal deeply divided his own party

Where did modern conservatism come from (special insert-954)?

But modern conservatism, however deep its roots, is also a product of the recent past. Many students of the postwar right
emphasize the theme of backlash. they explain conservatisms rise as a populist reaction among working-class whites to
the racial, cultural, and economic disruptions of the 1960s.

The Reagan Revolution

1980-1989

Goals of the Reagan Revolution:

Dismantle the welfare state from FDR and LBJ

Reduce Government budget

Smaller government

Reduce the power of labor unions

Reduce government regulation and involvement in business

Free market = free people = a nation safe from communism

The Rise of Conservatism (Republicans)

By the 1980s, the public had grown tired of the new deal and great society and were
ready to slash bills

Cut taxes by 25% over three years

Many social programs cut- 35 billion

Reaganomics- (Supply side economics) or "trickle down economics"

Tax reforms

Lower individual tax rates

Reduced federal estate taxes

Tax free savings plans for small investors

Budget reduction+ tax reduction= stimulating new investment, boost economic

productivity, economic growth, reduce deficit

Eects of Reaganomics

Economic recovery in 1983 (From recession in (1979-1982))

Gap widens between rich and poor (first time in 20th century), middle class income
stagnated

Yuppies (conspicuous consumption): symbols: cell phones, bmws, suits- valued

materialism and the pursuit of wealth

Massive military expeditures- 2 trillion

Spending on new social programs virtually impossible due to skyrocketing debt

The Christian Coalition

The religious right was made up of people who were increasingly angry at many of
the cultural trends of the 80s and 90s

Moral majority- a political Christian advocacy group: targeted sexual

permissiveness, abortion, feminism, gay rights

Used media to raise awareness

1980s religious conservatives similar to liberal protesters of the 60s and was a
reaction to social changes from the 60s

Practiced "identity politics"- defined themselves as Christian voters or Prolife voters

Prayer meetings, anti abortion movements, protesting at abortion movements, etc

similar to 1960s tactics

Religious leaders fall from grace- sex and financial scandals

Early Reagan Cold War Policy

Reagan brought a new tactic- a massive arms race to outspend the soviets "peace
through strength"

The US could aord it, the soviets could not

Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)- "Star Wars"- orbiting battle stations, laser beams,
astrodome over the US

Advocated winning a nuclear war

"Evil Empire" Speech

Reagan and the Middle East

Israel strains relations by allowing Jewish settlers to settle West Bank/ gaza strip
(Palestinian claimed) and then invaded Lebanon

Reagan sends peacekeeping force to Lebanon- brought attacks on US marine

barracks, killing 200+ marines, tries to extract American hostages from Muslim
Extremists groups

Military presence increases tensions between Middle East/ Western Nations

Reagan in Latin America

Revolution in 1979 disposes dictator gives rise to Sandinistas- liberal revolutionaries

that were anti American

Reagan verbally attacks Sandinista rebels as covering for soviets/ Cuban military
entering the region and supporting rebels in El Salvador

Reagan sends "advisors" (CIA) to bolster pro-American government in El Salvador

and aid to rebel contras (fighting the Sandinistas)

Reagan invades the Caribbean island of Grenada overturn Marxist government

Goal: carry the big stick in the Caribbean-asserting US dominance

Cold War Tensions Decrease:

1985- Mikhail Gorbachev become the reform minded leader of the Soviet Union

Glasnost or "openness" which aimed to introduce free speech and political liberty to
the Soviet Union

Perestroika or "Restructuring" which meant that the soviets would adopt free market
economies similar to those in the west

Reagan and Gorbachev have summit meetings (4) to reduce missiles (1+2 were
discussion and some posturing, 3+4 included treaties)