Introduction to the Watergate Era (1968–1979)

The Watergate era was a particularly troubled time in American history. In 1968 the U.S. war in Vietnam was at its worst, with more than five hundred thousand American soldiers deployed to the South Asian nation. Back home, protestors marched against the protracted war and the military draft that was pulling young people into its service. Despite the great civil rights achievements of just a few years earlier, riots erupted in segregated neighborhoods as racial tensions continued to simmer. The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) and Senator Robert F. Kennedy (1925–1968) were assassinated by gunmen within two months of one another. President Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973), undone by the quagmire in Vietnam, bowed out of pursuing a second term. His successor, Richard M. Nixon (1913–1994), was voted into office twice, but he resigned early in disgrace after details of the Watergate scandal came to light. The next two U.S. presidents—Gerald Ford (1913–2006) and Jimmy Carter (1924–)—would also depart under difficult circumstances.

Watergate revealed the inner workings of the Nixon administration, leaving Americans distrustful of government. The Vietnam War, which ended in ignominious defeat, left some fifty thousand Americans dead and thousands more maimed and emotionally scarred. Equal rights were finally guaranteed by law to African-Americans, but poverty and sociopolitical disenfranchisement continued to be scourges on their population. Women gained greater control over their personal lives, which gave rise to an angry antifeminist movement. Two energy crises caused oil shortages, forcing Americans to use less energy in their homes and wait in long lines to fill their gas tanks. Nuclear power, touted by many at the time as an alternative energy source, was believed to hold great promise in solving U.S. fuel problems, but in March 1979 a malfunction and radioactive leak at Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear plant caused widespread panic. Before the year was out, Muslim extremists in Iran raided the U.S. embassy in Iran, where they held more than fifty Americans hostage for 444 days.

While bad news dominated the front pages, many governmental reforms that passed during the 1970s actually improved the lives and safety of many Americans. Congress established regulations and standards to benefit American workers and automobile users. New crime-fighting and public safety agencies were launched. The nascent environmental movement convinced voters and politicians alike to be proactive in protecting the health of the planet. After Watergate, integrity and transparency became government priorities.

The reforms of the 1960s and 1970s continue to influence the United States, as do the anxieties caused by all that went wrong during the Watergate era. By 1979 the nation’s ego was deflated and its confidence drained. In Vietnam, the Middle East, and its own cities, the United States experienced turmoil that threatened to turn Americans against each other and the rest of the world. Assumptions of power and privilege—by the federal government, the U.S. military, and segments of the American populace—were challenged as never before.

After more than a decade of being forced to see what was wrong with America, the nation wanted to hear what was right. In 1980 presidential candidate Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) ran a campaign that focused on the positive, ultimately winning the presidency.