26 P R O S P lllll".\:'111)PROIlIBIS;'•. Y" ,;" I I~!!i;//!II!I~nll1:lll
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It wasNixon 'smoment of g reatest triumph.But
soon hewasintrouble. HlCwasaccusedo f bein g
involvedin an illegal plan todiscredithispolit ical
opponents. calledth e"Warerg arcAffair. "Congr ess
threatenedto puthi m 011 trial-" impeach"him- for
misusingh ispowers.Toavoidth is.Nixon resig ned
asPr esid en t.
NixonwasfollowedasPr esidentfirst byCc raldFo rd
(1974 -7) andthenbyJimmyCarter( 19n - 81).
N eith erFo rd not Carterwonmuch successor
p o pularity asPr esident. Onereaso nfo r thiswasthat
bothfoundit d ifficultto com rolinflano n. The
UnitedStatesno wim portedlotsofoi l. After an
Arab-Israeliwarin 1973 internationaloilpr icesro se
steeply.T heseoil-pricein creasescausedgeneral
inflation.By 1980 pricesintheUnitedStateswere
risingby13.5 per centa yearandth i s wasmakinglife
d ifficu ltfo rmany people.
In 1980 Americanselecteda Presidenttheyhoped
wouldmake a betterjob o f ru nni ng the coun try .l ie
wasa for m er filmactornam edRo n ald Reagan. Like
N ixo n,Reagan was aRepublican. Athome, he
showed littlesy m path yfo rthepoor.H e said that he
aimedtomakeAmerican sd ependlessa ll
govern me n thelpandmoreonself-help.Abroad.
Reagan was determinedtomaketheU n itedStates
str o ng er th an itsoldrival.theSo vietU nion.l ie
spen tmanymillionsofdollarson developin g
p owerfu l newmissilesand on researchII U Oweapo1ls
toknockoutenemy miss il esfromspace.
Man ypeople athomean dabroa dcriticized Reagan.
Somesaidthath e w asunfeeling.O ther s believed that
he w asincompetent. Stillotherscalled him a
dangerous warmonger .But Reag an 'spolicies -
includ ingth e spe nd ingo n weap ons-helpedmo re
A me ricanseofmdjobs.Business men made b igger
p rofits. M o st Am criransc-all except the poorestof
them -becamebetter offThishelped to make
Reaga npopu lar ,So didhi s relaxedand friendly
manner.whichcam eover wello n televisio n.
Reaganw aspopularfo ranother reason.too .Aftt'r
[he shameofVietnamand Water gate hissimple
"stand onyo u rownfeetandacttou gh "policies
m ade man yAmericansfee l proud o f t heir country
again.In19H4th ey re-electedhimas P resid en tbyo ne
o f th e bigg estmajorities i n Americanhistory.He was
sti llpopular. and for muchth e same reasons. when
his secondtermasPr esid entendedin 1989.III