By 1972, Richard Nixon had made a tremendous turnaround and was a very popular President. He had gone from being unpopular a�er his increased bombing and invasions of Laos and Cambodia in the Vietnam War . He had made this reversal by brilliantly ending the Vietnam War. When the Communist Vietnamese refused to sign the Paris Peace Accords, Nixon had travelled to China to meet with the Chinese leaders. He was the first President to go to China and was the first US poli�cian to ever speak with the Communist rulers of the country. In this visit he established trade agreements with the Chinese while pre�y much cu�ng off the supply line of the Vietnamese army that got its weapons from China. His approval ra�ngs were at 68% and he won re-elec�on in 1972 in a landslide in which he won every state except Massachuse�s.

Unfortunately, the Watergate scandal was about to destroy his presidency and once again cause Americans to distrust their government. The Watergate scandal began when a break in occurred at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate complex in Washington DC. A�er court cases and police inves�ga�ons las�ng over a year, it appeared that Nixon himself may have at worst ordered the break in or at least a�empted to cover up the events of the break in. When threatened with impeachment , Nixon decided to resign instead.

When Nixon resigned, Gerald Ford became the new President. Ford had become the Vice-President when Nixon nominated him a�er his previous Vice-President, Spiro Agnew, had himself been forced to resign over another scandal. Even though Ford was seen as an honest and decent person who could successfully help the na�on get past the Watergate crisis and restore confidence, he failed miserably. His biggest mistake may have been in pardoning former President Nixon for any wrongdoing in the scandal. By issuing a pardon, the inves�ga�on into Nixon was over and Americans never got to the bo�om of the problem in the first place. It appeared to many that Ford was just a con�nua�on of the cover up and of a corrupt government. In the upcoming election of 1976 , there was a movement to elect a President who was a true outsider to poli�cs as usual in Washington.

Jimmy Carter , a peanut farmer and former governor of Georgia, was exactly the outsider that Americans were looking for. In addi�on to never having held office in Washington DC, Carter was a Sunday school teacher and a devout Chris�an that most believed was, above all else, honest. Even though he had been a complete unknown outside of Georgia just a year earlier, Carter was able to defeat Ford by a narrow margin in the 1976

elec�on to become the 39 th President of the United States. While his inaugura�on day was a sunny day of celebra�on, most of Carter’s presidency would be far from celebrated as the na�on faced crisis a�er crisis in the �me period from 1977-1980.

One posi�ve of the Carter presidency was the Camp David Accords in 1977. Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli

Prime Minister Menachem Begin together at the Camp David Presiden�al retreat just outside of Washington DC and convinced them to sign a peace treaty. The treaty ended wars that had been fought on and off since the founding of Israel in 1948 and had last been fought in 1973. Other than this issue, Carter faced problem a�er problem during his four years in office.

His problems began almost immediately when he decided to grant amnesty to those who had avoided the dra� during the Vietnam conflict . Even though the war was unpopular, many believed the dra� dodgers were traitors and saw Carter’s amnesty as a slap in the face to all of the soldiers who had fought in the war. Carter’s next problem involved oil. When the na�ons of OPEC (the Organiza�on of Petroleum Expor�ng Countries) decided to limit the amount of oil they would be selling, gas prices in the US skyrocketed. The rise in the price of gasoline impacted all areas of the economy and caused the price of pre�y much everything to rise as well. For a short �me, the US actually had to ra�on gasoline purchases by its ci�zens. A final issue that caused problems at home was Carter’s decision to give the Panama Canal Zone to Panama. The US had controlled the region since 1903 as a major shipping zone for the en�re world. In 1977, Carter signed a treaty giving the Canal to Panama. Many Americans saw this as yet another sign of weakness in the country.

In addi�on to his domes�c policy problems, Carter also had several problems with foreign rela�ons issues. In January of 1979 the Shah of

Iran le� Iran to get treatment for Cancer in the United States. When he le� Iran, a religious revolu�on took place in the country and the Iranian government was taken over by the Muslim leader the Ayatollah

Khomeini . Angry Iranians demanded that the US return the Shah so they could put him on trial. When the US refused, students stormed the US embassy in Tehran , Iran and took 44 hostages. They would keep the hostages for 444 days un�l the day Carter le� office. Another problem for Carter came in December of 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan . Carter responded by refusing to accept the SALT II treaty and having the US Olympic team boyco� the 1980 Summer Olympics in

Moscow . All in all, the years of Carter’s presidency were seen as a failure by most Americans who were �red of the United States appearing to be weak and constantly pushed around.

The 1980 presidential election saw Ronald Reagan take center stage. The former actor and two-term governor of California constantly pushed the posi�on that the problem of the United States was not the weakness or inadequacy of its people, but it's overbearing power-hungry government. Reagan drew a sharp contrast between himself…a conservative and Carter…a liberal . According to Reagan, the difference was obvious, Conserva�ves believed in a small government that le� people alone to live their lives and take care of themselves while Liberals believed that people were unable to take care of themselves and needed the government to step in and make sure that

things were fair and everyone was taken care of. By 1980, people who had distrusted their government since the early days of the Vietnam War in 1964, were ready to shrink the government and take control of their own lives. Reagan won in a landslide.

As President Reagan instantly cut taxes. His policy was known as Reaganomics and was designed to put more money in people’s pockets and let them spend it for themselves. If people spent more, companies would be

able to hire more workers, and the unemployment rate would fall. As more people were put to work, they would begin paying taxes themselves. Therefore by dropping taxes for individuals Reagan believed the government would actually take in more tax revenue. A�er ini�ally rising, the unemployment rate DID indeed begin to fall from 1982 through the mid 1990’s. In addi�on to lowering taxes, Reagan also pushed for deregula�on (limi�ng laws government how companies worked) of companies so that it would be easier for them to produce more goods more cheaply.

One of the main things that Reagan did as President was to make Americans feel be�er about being Americans. On the day he took office the hostages were released from Iran causing many to believe that with Reagan in charge, the US would be respected again by other countries because we would no longer be a pushover. In order to make the rest of the world respect the US again, Reagan ins�tuted massive spending increases in the military. The US began to build more nuclear missiles, more ships, more airplanes, and more of pre�y much any other weapon. This increase in weaponry heightened the Cold War tension between the US and the Soviet Union drama�cally. In a move that stunned the Soviets, Reagan introduced a new program known as the Strategic

Defense Initiative (SDI) and nicknamed Star Wars . SDI, as Reagan planned, would be a system of satellites that could shoot any Soviet missile out of the sky before it could harm anybody. If developed the US would have a tremendous advantage over the Soviets. While nobody knew for sure if the United States could create SDI, everyone knew the Soviets couldn’t do it. The fear of SDI led the Soviets to the nego�a�ng table.

The Soviet leader who came was Mikhail Gorbachev , the new 56 year old Soviet Premier who took office in 1985 a�er the Soviets had three very old leaders die in office over a four year period. Gorbachev was different than previous leaders. He was the first Soviet leader who did not live through the 1917 revolu�on. Gorbachev believed in an open Soviet Union whose government did not force its people and satellite countries to obey. He allowed the people to protest against perceived wrongs. When allowed to protest, the people of East Germany tore down the Berlin Wall and reunified the country of Germany in 1989. Soon a�er, the people of Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Czechoslovakia also overthrew their communist governments from 1989-91 and the Warsaw Pact was dissolved. The Cold War was over.

Late in his second term, Reagan did have one event that tarnished his image for many. In 1985 during the Iran-Contra affair , Reagan secretly sold weapons to Iran in exchange for help ge�ng American prisoners released by terrorist groups in the Middle East. The US took the money from the weapons sales and gave it to the an�-communist group in Nicaragua known as the Contras. Senate hearings were held, but Reagan avoided most charges.

Another nega�ve event of the Reagan presidency was the explosion of the Space Shu�le Challenger in January, 1986. The Shu�le trips had become so seemingly ordinary and boring, that NASA had a compe��on and picked a teacher, Christa McAuliffe, to be a part of the flight crew. With thousands, if not millions of schoolchildren around the world watching, the shu�le had a major malfunc�on and its rockets blew up a li�le over a minute a�er li�off. All of the crew members died in the wreck and the Space Shu�le program was shut down for 32 months while the cause of the explosion was

researched. It was concluded that seals on the major fuel filled rockets failed due to the extreme cold on launch day…it was below freezing at some places on the launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

While many give Reagan the credit for ending the Cold War, George HW Bush was actually the US president when the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact collapsed. He had been elected in 1988 and would remain in office un�l January of 1993. Although the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War resulted in much celebra�on, it did not end the dangers of the world…it only made them more widespread. Rather than having one enemy with a massive army to face in the Soviet Union, the US would now have thousands of small terrorist groups that operated secretly around the world, in addi�on to several rogue na�ons who may a�ack others at any point in �me. Bush’s first major foreign policy decision a�er the Cold War dealt with the Iraqi

invasion of Kuwait . Iraq, led by Saddam Hussein , invaded the neighboring country of Kuwait and took over all of its oil reserves. When Saudi Arabia felt threatened they turned to the US for help. George HW Bush somehow got 28 countries to agree to take part in Operation Desert Shield (in which Saudi Arabia would be defended) and Operation Desert Storm (in which the Iraqis would be forcefully driven out of Kuwait). A�er 5 weeks of bombing and 5 days of ground a�acks, the Iraqis surrendered. They were driven out of Kuwait and forced to agree to very strict terms (including no weapons of mass destruc�on and not being able to fly airplanes in some areas of their own country) but Saddam Hussein remained in power. A�er the war ended, the US con�nued to keep some forces in Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries.

In addi�on to his success in Iraq, George HW Bush also had interna�onal successes in several other regions. He sent US troops into the African na�on of Somalia to stop a bloody massacre in a civil war. He con�nued economic sanc�ons against South Africa un�l the country ended its policy of apartheid (separa�on of races) and released Nelson Mandela from prison. He worked to overthrow drug lords who were running and terrorizing La�n American na�ons. Bush was unques�onably an excellent President when it came to foreign policy and in February of 1991 his approval ra�ng was at an unheard of 91%...the highest for any US president in history. However, by 1992, the US economy was stagna�ng, the federal deficit was growing, and Bush went back on a campaign promise and signed a law that would slightly increase taxes. His popularity began to fall.

In 1992 Bill Clinton was elected in a very close elec�on. He was the former governor of Arkansas and the first Democrat elected to The White House since 1976. Clinton was actually a very moderate President, signing

legisla�on that could be either liberal or conserva�ve. Under Clinton, the Family Medical Leave Act was signed guaranteeing mothers 12 weeks of unpaid leave a�er the birth of a child. He signed the Brady

Bill into law which required background checks for anyone buying a handgun. He also signed the North American Free Trade Agreement

(NAFTA ) into law which made trade between the US, Mexico, and Canada easier. Clinton also signed another 270 free trade agreements with na�ons around the world to make the world marketplace work much more smoothly.

Clinton had a few major domes�c terrorist events in the country during his presidency. The first occurred in 1993 when a group known as the Branch Davidians refused to leave their compound in Waco,

Texas in which it was suspected that they were abusing children and secretly storing large numbers of illegal weapons. When the ATF tried to enter the compound, it caught on fire and 76 people (including many women and children) died. In 1995 Timothy McVeigh used a fer�lizer bomb to blow up a Federal Government building in Oklahoma City killing 168 and injuring another 800. At the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 a bomb exploded and two spectators in Centennial Olympic Park died. In 1999 two students at Columbine High School in Colorado killed 12 students and wounded another 24. Also, back in 1993 the World Trade Center in New York was a�acked by members of Al Qaeda killing 6 and injuring over 1000.

To many, the major event of the Clinton presidency was his impeachment. While being inves�gated for a possible sexual assault case, Clinton was accused of lying under oath and in�mida�ng others into also lying under oath. A�er years of inves�ga�on, Clinton was impeached by the US House of Representa�ves. When the case went before the US Senate, the senators voted not to remove the President from office and legally the ma�er was closed. Clinton would leave office with a country that was very much divided between the Conserva�ve Republicans and the Liberal Democrats. This division would lead to the Elec�on of 2000…one of the most controversial elec�ons in American history.

The election of 2000 ended up being between the Republican George W Bush (governor of Texas and son of President George HW Bush) and the Democrat Al Gore (the si�ng Vice President). The elec�on was insanely close. According to the Cons�tu�on, a candidate must earn 270 Electoral College votes to become President. At the end of elec�on night Gore had won 266 votes and Bush had won 246. Florida was s�ll too close to call. Whoever eventually won the state of Florida would have more than the required 270 electoral votes and would be the next President. Ini�al results showed that Bush had won Florida by a very narrow margin but according to Florida vo�ng rules, any elec�on within a certain margin needed to be recounted and this elec�on was within that margin. Democrats argued that the votes should be recounted by hand while Republicans countered that the recount should be done by machine. A�er weeks of arguing and ba�les in courts, the US Supreme Court determined that there wasn’t enough �me to do a recount by hand because the official count had to be completed by January 6 th and there would be over 6 million ballots to county. Bush won Florida and the overall elec�on with 271 electoral votes. However, Gore had actually gained about 500,000 more total votes na�onwide. George W Bush would enter the White House under a cloud as the leader of a very divided country.

While Bush wanted to be known as the Educa�on President and pushed legisla�on such as the No Child Left Behind Law, everything changed on September 11, 2001 when the World

Trade Center buildings in New York were a�acked and knocked down, killing almost 3000 people. The War on Terror would consume the rest of the W Bush Presidency. In Operation

Enduring Freedom , the US a�acked Al Qaeda strongholds in Afghanistan. While the American public completely agreed with the figh�ng in Afghanistan, Bush also pushed for a fight in Iraq. Figh�ng in Iraq was not as popular and was a very controversial issue. Bush argued that Saddam Hussein was helping terrorists as well as viola�ng the terms of the treaty that ended the original war in Iraq known as

Opera�on Desert Storm. A�er much debate, Bush asked Congress for and received permission to invade Iraq in Operation Iraqi Freedom . In addi�on, in order to fight the war against terrorists, Bush created the new Department of Homeland Security to be�er organize US intelligence from the CIA and the FBI. In a controversial move the Patriot Act was passed which allowed almost unlimited surveillance of every phone, computer, credit card, or television in the world. This was said to be a necessary step to stopping terrorists, but was s�ll very controversial. The War in Iraq lasted about 8 years. Saddam Hussein was removed from power, but it was very hard to help establish a new government. President Obama officially pulled US troops out of Iraq in 2011. The War in Iraq sharply divided the American public and made President Bush very unpopular. It also ushered in the elec�on of Barack Obama .

President Obama had been one of the few US senators to oppose the war in Iraq. He was a one-term senator from Illinois and he defeated Senator John McCain from Arizona easily in the elec�on of 2008. During his two terms in office, President Obama oversaw the passage of a Healthcare Bill that changed insurance laws in the United States by making it mandatory for all ci�zens to have health insurance, made it mandatory for larger businesses to provide insurance for their employees, and made it mandatory for specific items to be included in the coverage. “Obamacare” was controversial in that it was supported by about half of the country and opposed by about half of the country. Other major events of the Obama presidency were the Supreme Court ruling that same-sex marriage was legal, a push away from fossil fuels and toward “clean” energy sources, removal of US troops from Iraq while increasing troops in Afghanistan, the killing of Osama bin Laden, and a new movement of protests against perceived police brutality toward minori�es.

Divisions along party lines con�nued and in the elec�on of 2016, Donald Trump was elected as the 45 th President of the United States. He was able to win most likely by gaining the support of industrial workers in the Midwest who felt that they were not being supported economically.