History 65

1970s Foreign Policy

March 21, 2006

I. Watergate and Beyond

1. The Cover-up Unravels (press; lower-level judiciary; Senate; special prosecutor)

2. The Fall of Nixon (erratic administration response, Saturday Night Massacre, road to U.S. v Nixon, RN resigns)

            3. Preventing Another Watergate (goal: check political corruption, limit executive authority, and create a more open Congress)

II. Shattering the Cold War Consensus

            1. The New Internationalists’ Congress (transformation of the House: Rivers, Hébert, Drinan; constraining the imperial presidency: War Powers Act and ambivalent nature of congressional revolt; CIA revelations—Hughes-Ryan, trials of Church and Pike committees, establishment of Intelligence Committees; continued use of appropriations power: defense appropriations and cuts, Chile—Harrington and Kennedy; Eagleton amendment and frustrations of congressional power; Clark and Tunney amendment; backlash)

            2. The Rise of Neoconservativism (difference in regional focus: East Asia/Latin America/Africa/defense spending vs. Europe/South Asia/Middle East; Jackson, Jewish emigration, and détente; force and the Middle East—Arab-Israeli war of 1973, US policy, OPEC boycott; Moynihan and UN; Kristol and intellectual movement—critique of détente; partisan politics: RR primary challenge to Ford, 1976 NY Senate race—Moynihan vs. Abzug)

            3. Terrorism (European left terrorism—RAF, Red Brigades, IRA; Munich as turning point?; US approach—Southern Airlines hijacking and airlines’ lobby; a non-US concern?)

III. The Travails of Jimmy Carter

            1. The Carter Vision? (Vance and Brzezinski; Derian and importance of human rights office; early stumbles—Warnke, Nicaragua, Panama Canal Treaty; GOP surge—Viguerie, defeats of Clark and McIntyre)

            2. Nicaragua, Iran, Afghanistan (fall of Somoza and Shah, significance of Kirkpatrick article; uncertainties with Sandinistas; the Ayatollah’s Iran—US intelligence failures, taking of hostages, failure of rescue effort; Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and effect on US; Carter response—military increase, grain embargo, Olympics boycott)