Carter + Reagan 1977 - 1988

Question 1

In 1976, largely unknown Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia gained the nomination of the Democratic Party and the Presidency by taking advantage of his status as what?

Answer 1

Carter was a Washington outsider, a significant positive trait in the years following Watergate. As a political centrist and a moderate reformer, Carter enjoyed widespread support when compared with McGovern.

President Ford, running as an incumbent and hurt politically by his pardon of Nixon, conducted a limited campaign, but did quite well. He lost by less than two million votes.

Question 2

What was President Carter’s first act as President?

Answer 2

Carter pardoned all Vietnam War draft evaders, issuing an executive order granting blanket amnesty.

Question 3

How did President Carter demonstrate to Americans that he was curtailing what was termed the “Imperial Presidency”?

Answer 3

Carter adopted a simple style; he walked to his Inauguration, demanded that cabinet members drive themselves rather than use government drivers, and cut the White House staff by a third. Carter even sold the Presidential Yacht, the USS Sequoia.

Question 4

In an effort to solve the continuing energy problem, Jimmy Carter authorized the creation of what new cabinet-level agency?

Answer 4

The Department of Energy

Carter claimed that the energy crisis was the “moral equivalent of war” and set price controls on oil and natural gas. Carter also had solar panels installed on the roof of the White House. The solar panels cost $28,000 to install and saved approximately $1,000 per year in energy costs.

Carter also ordered Americans not to set their thermometers below 78 in the summer, or above 66 degrees in the winter, an order most Americans ignored.

Question 5

How did the fall of the Shah in 1979 and the establishment of an Islamic Republic in Iran lead to a gas crisis in the United States?

Answer 5

After Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew the Shah of Iran, Carter instituted an embargo on Iranian oil imports. Prices skyrocketed, and shortages developed. Much as they had in 1973, gas lines appeared as citizens panicked.

Question 6

As his favorability waned, Carter gave his famous “Malaise Speech” in 1979. What did Carter contend in the speech?

Answer 6

Carter said that Americans were suffering from “a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation.”

Carter urged Americans to band together to fight the energy crisis by carpooling, obeying the speed limit, and saving fuel. The speech was poorly received.

Although known as the Malaise Speech, Carter never used the term “Malaise.”

Question 7

Although the U.S. had experienced 5% growth during Carter’s early years as President, the 1979 energy crisis led to the return of stagflation and prompted a recession in 1980. How did Carter attempt to aid the economy?

Answer 7

Carter attempted to get some price controls through Congress, but faced widespread opposition from that body.

Carter focused on inflation, and worked with Paul Volcker, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, to bring inflation under control by raising interest rates to 20%. Although painful for businesses and individual borrowers, the effort did bring a small recovery by late 1980.

Question 8

In one of his most controversial moves, President Carter signed a treaty giving away control of what U.S.-controlled territory?

Answer 8

The Panama Canal Zone

In 1977, on behalf of the United States, Carter agreed to turn over the Canal to the Panamanian government by 2000.

Question 9

What were the Camp David Accords?

Answer 9

The Camp David Accords were peace discussions between Israel and Egypt in 1978. President Carter served as a mediator between the two sides and they signed a peace treaty in 1979.

Question 10

In November 1979, tensions between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran broke down when the Iranian militants took what action?

Answer 10

Iranian militants seized the American embassy, taking hostages; some 52 of which were held for 444 days.

A rescue attempt, dubbed Operation Eagle Claw, was an absolute debacle, earning both Carter and the United States widespread criticism.

Question 11

What was President Carter’s policy towards the Soviet Union?

Answer 11

Carter continued the focus on détente, and signed a second SALT treaty with the Soviet Union. The treaty failed to pass the Senate when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1980.

In response to the Soviet invasion, Carter announced an embargo on grain and high technology shipments to the U.S.S.R., and boycotted the 1980 Olympics (being held in Moscow).

Question 12

What was the Moral Majority?

Answer 12

The Moral Majority was a Southern-oriented organization headed by Jerry Falwell, a Baptist preacher, and it appealed to evangelical Christians. The Moral Majority provided electoral support to Ronald Reagan and conservative candidates in the 1980s.

Many credit the Moral Majority with shaping the Republican Party’s campaign stances on school prayer and abortion.

Question 13

During his 1980 campaign, Ronald Reagan called for tax breaks and tax cuts for wealthier Americans. How did Reagan justify these measures?

Answer 13

Reagan’s policy was known as “trickle-down economics.” He argued that tax breaks and cuts for the wealthy would improve the economy as a whole because the benefits would “trickle-down” to poorer members of society.

Trickle-down economics is part of a larger economic theory, supply-side economics. This theory believes millionaires and billionaires will create more jobs if the government lets them pay less in taxes. However, some Republicans, like Reagan’s Vice President, George H. W. Bush, didn’t buy the idea of Trickle-down economics, claiming that the theory is not fully credible, calling it “voodoo economics”.

Question 14

Ronald Reagan, former Governor of California, received the Republican presidential nomination in 1980, running with the campaign slogan “Make America Great Again.” What did Reagan mean?

Answer 14

Reagan and his supporters were deeply concerned with what they viewed as the decline of America; economically, militarily, and morally. Reagan promised a national renaissance.

Reagan’s other 1980 slogan, “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” also proved appealing to voters, many of whom were worse off.

Question 15

Although he fended off a primary challenge from Edward Kennedy, Jimmy Carter still faced two significant liabilities in the 1980 election. What were they?

Answer 15

• Many voters were frustrated with Carter’s attempts to solve the problem of stagflation.
• Carter’s seeming inability to solve the Iranian hostage crisis made him (and the United States) appear weak and vacillating.

Question 16

What were the results of the 1980 presidential election?

Answer 16

In the 1980 election, Reagan gained 91% of the electoral vote. Republicans also gained control of the Senate, the first time the Republicans controlled one of the houses of Congress since 1954.

Further, shortly before Reagan’s inauguration, the Iranian hostages were released after 444 days in captivity.

Question 17

Explain what occurred for the first time since World War II.

Answer 17

During his time in office, he tripled the national deficit, which was in large part due to the massive tax cuts that he gave to the richest Americans. The top marginal tax rate when Reagan came into office was 70%, and by the time he left office, the wealthy’s tax rate had been reduced to 28%.

Question 18

How did President Reagan respond to a 1981 labor strike by air traffic controllers, who demanded a 32-hour work week?

Answer 18

Reagan ordered the controllers to return to work, pursuant to the Taft-Hartley Act. When most refused, he fired them, then broke the strike by hiring replacements or borrowing them from the military.

Inspired by Reagan’s example, many private companies began to refuse union demands and discourage union membership.

Question 19

Complete the sentence:

In 1981, President Reagan appointed _____ _____ _____ to the Supreme Court, the first woman to serve on the Court.

Answer 19

Sandra Day O’Connor

Reagan also appointed Justices Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy to the Court.

Question 20

What virus was discovered in 1981, that, since its first discovery, has killed 32 million people around the world?

Answer 20

AIDS. Which is an auto-immune disease that affects people who are infected with HIV. This disease kills 100% of the people it infects, although in recent years drugs have been developed that can extend a person’s life at least 30 years.

Before these drugs were available, people could sometimes die within one year of getting infected with HIV.

Question 21

When did Congress begin funding for HIV/AIDS research?

Answer 21

1983.

Although being discovered in 1981, President Reagan didn’t publicly talk about HIV until 1987, since he believed that the virus was only a problem that affected the LGBT community.

Question 22

Although the inflation rate had been 13% in 1980 (basically meaning prices rose 13% per year), by 1984 it had been reduced to 4%. How did Reagan accomplish this feat?

Answer 22

Reagan (and Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker) engineered a recession by keeping interest rates high for two years. This forced companies and individuals to retrench, slowing outsized price and wage increases.

Once inflation ended, the economy entered a period of high growth for much of the remainder of Reagan’s Presidency.

Question 23

What was the Reagan Doctrine?

Answer 23

As part of the Reagan Administration’s hard-line stance against communism, under the Reagan Doctrine the U.S. provided aid to anti-communist resistance movements in an effort to supplant Soviet-backed communist governments in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

Question 24

In contrast to his predecessors’ focus on détente, President Reagan took a hard-line on the Soviet Union. What term did he apply to the U.S.S.R. in 1983?

Answer 24

Reagan called the Soviet Union the “Evil Empire,” while making the case for deploying U.S. nuclear missiles to NATO countries, after the U.S.S.R. had done the same in Eastern Europe. Reagan’s rhetoric and actions marked an intention to match aggressive Soviet behavior.

Arguing that the Soviet Union would shortly fall, Reagan stated “I believe that communism is another sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages even now are being written.”

Question 25

What was the Boland Amendment (1982)?

Answer 25

The Boland Amendment forbade President Reagan from providing assistance to Nicaraguan Contras, a rebel group attempting to overthrow Nicaragua’s left-wing government.

Aid had flowed to the Contras as part of the Reagan Doctrine.

Question 26

Complete the sentence:

A 1983 bombing by an Islamic suicide bomber in _____ killed 241 American servicemen.

Answer 26

Beirut

U.S. and French forces were attacked by truck-driving suicide bombers. Both countries had troops in Lebanon as part of a multinational force sent by the United Nations.

Question 27

In 1983, President Reagan announced support for the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), which pundits dubbed “Star Wars.” What was the SDI?

Answer 27

SDI called for using ground and space-based systems to protect the United States from nuclear attack. Underlying the concept was a break from the policy of mutual assured destruction, since the policy proposed to ensure that the United States could survive a nuclear attack.

It also put pressure on the Soviet Union to match the U.S. effort, which the Soviet Union could ill afford.

Question 28

In 1983, a bloody military coup in which island nation prompted U.S. intervention and the restoration of the democratically elected government?

Answer 28

Grenada

Several American medical students were earning degrees on the island, which Reagan felt justified American involvement. Military action also had the support of the Organization of American States. The campaign resulted in 19 American military casualties.

Question 29

What was the Iran-Contra Affair?

Answer 29

Blocked from contributing funds to the Nicaraguan Contras, two Reagan officials (Oliver North and John Poindexter) raised cash by selling weapons and spare parts to Iran.

The secret circumvention of the Boland Amendment came to light in 1986, tarnishing Reagan’s reputation and prompting a Congressional investigation.

Question 30

Shortly after Reagan began his second term, a new Soviet leader came to power in the U.S.S.R. Who was he?

Answer 30

Mikhail S. Gorbachev

In 1986, Gorbachev announced glasnost (greater political freedom) and perestroika (moderate economic freedoms).

To achieve these twin goals, Gorbachev had to severely curtail military spending and remove Soviet troops from Afghanistan.

Question 31

Starting in 1986, Gorbachev began to offer significant concessions to the United States on nuclear weapons levels, conventional force size, and policy in Eastern Europe. Why?

Answer 31

The Soviet military had become an unsustainable burden on the Soviet economy, which was in shambles. Gorbachev’s policies of perestroika and glasnost required him to redirect Soviet resources from costly Cold War military commitments to more profitable areas in the civilian sector.

Question 32

In 1987, Reagan gave the most famous speech of his Presidency, stating “General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

Where was Reagan speaking?

Answer 32

In Berlin, where the Berlin Wall had divided the city for decades. Three years later, the Wall fell as the Warsaw Pact disintegrated.

Question 33

In 1987, President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. How did this treaty differ from previous nuclear arms agreements between the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.?

Answer 33

Rather than limit the number of nuclear weapons, the INF Treaty reduced the number of nuclear weapons by banning nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with intermediate-range nuclear warheads.

Question 34

To what does the “Graying of America” refer?

Answer 34

The term “Graying of America” refers to the increasing age of the average American, an upward trend that began in the 1980s.

Federal programs, such as Social Security and Medicare, are tied to age. As Americans get older on average, fewer younger workers are available to support these programs, leading to deficits and increased costs for the young.