Lesson 1: Crisis of Confidence

Lesson Focus

After Vietnam and Watergate, Americans faced a crisis of confidence. This lesson explores how President Carter's administration attempted to restore national faith while tackling energy shortages, economic turmoil, and complex foreign policy challenges.

People to Know

Jimmy Carter

Learning Objectives

• Understand the reasons behind the American public's 'crisis of confidence' in the 1970s.
• Explain President Carter’s response to the energy crisis, including his call for a 'moral war' on consumption.
• Describe President Carter's human rights-focused foreign policy, including its major successes and failures.

Feeling a crisis of confidence after Vietnam and Watergate, Americans in 1976 sought a leader to restore faith in government.
Jimmy Carter, a political outsider, promised honesty and efficiency, appealing to voters tired of Washington politics.
He won a narrow victory, becoming the first president from the deep South since 1848, and began his term by emphasizing a down-to-earth connection with the people to rebuild national trust.

Facing a crisis from dependence on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), President Carter called the energy problem the “moral equivalent of war.”
He created the Department of Energy and urged conservation but failed to convince Congress to pass stronger measures like rationing.
As a result, soaring oil prices fueled crippling double-digit inflation and a severe business recession, shocking the American economy throughout the late 1970s.

President Carter’s refusal to engage in political traditions, like approving pork-barrel legislation, created a poor working relationship with Congress.
This led to the rejection of his major reform proposals and left his administration without a unifying theme, confusing the public about his goals.
Pay special attention to the effect: Carter’s popular support dropped dramatically by 1979, and an anti-government mood fueled a nationwide tax revolt, weakening his presidency at home.

Believing foreign policy should be based on morality, President Carter prioritized human rights over military might.
This led to the landmark Panama Canal treaties of 1978, which agreed to transfer control of the canal to Panama. He also cut aid to dictators and condemned the Soviet Union’s human rights violations.
Note that this bold stance improved America’s image but strained détente, especially after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

President Carter boldly intervened in the volatile Middle East, leading to his greatest triumph and failure.
He personally brokered the Camp David Accords between Egypt's Anwar el-Sadat and Israel's Menachem Begin, a historic peace treaty. However, after the Shah of Iran was overthrown by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, militants seized the U.S. embassy.
This resulted in the 444-day Iran hostage crisis, which crippled the final year of his presidency.