GRC - The Richard M. Nixon, Gerald Ford and James Carter Administrations, 1969-1981, Continued (Lesson)

The Richard M. Nixon, Gerald Ford and James Carter Administrations, 1969-1981, Continued

September 12, 1974—Ethiopia

• If you will remember, Ethiopia was one of only two nations to never be a European colony (although it was occupied by Italy during World War II.) Sometime in the 9 or 10^th Century CE, Ethiopia formed an imperial government under a ruling emperor that continued over the next millennium to include roughly 225 emperors. The last, Haile Selassie, became emperor in 1930. During his reign, he witnessed or participated in the formation of the League of Nations, an Italian attempt to seize Ethiopia, two periods of exile, the abolition of slavery within Ethiopia, the Italian occupation during World War II, the creation of the United Nations, the formation of a popularly-elected representative body within his government, an attempted coup, a war with Eritrea, establishment of the Organization of African Unity, John F. Kennedy's funeral, and an extreme famine. It was this last detail—the famine, in conjunction with the costly long-lasting civil war against Eritrea—that led to the conditions that resulted in a successful coup in September 1974 to remove him from power. The military group that overthrew the emperor was called the Derg and had Soviet-support. The Derg, which declared Ethiopia to be a communist state in 1987, ruled until 1991.

October 30, 1974—Democratic Republic of the Congo/International

• On this date, Zaire (Democratic Republic of the Congo) hosted the historic boxing event known as the "Rumble in the Jungle" between Americans George Foreman and Muhammad Ali.

April 4, 1975—Science & Technology

• Americans Paul Allen and Bill Gates founded Microsoft—a computer operating system company—in April 1975. It grew to become the world's largest software maker over the next few decades.

April 13, 1975—Lebanon

• Before 1975, Lebanon was a refuge for persecuted religions and political groups. Its capital, Beirut, was once even known as the "Paris of the East." But all of that changed in April 1975 when civil war erupted between Christian and Muslim militias. In the ensuing chaos, the central government lost all control and the nation became a home for dozens of foreign and domestic groups that competed with each other and, sometimes, used the nation as a base to attack other nations. (A big example of this was found in the Palestinian Liberation Organization's use of refugee camps to set up military strongholds and in bases in southern Lebanon to launch attacks against Israel.) Over the next fifteen years, Lebanon experienced invasions from Syria and Israel, multiple political assassinations (once of a president that had only been in power for 17 days,) UN occupation, and thousands of terrorist attacks. Officially, the civil war ended in 1990 with a death toll over 100,000 and the number of displaced people coming close to a million.

April 17, 1975—Cambodia

• In April 1975, the Cambodian Civil War ended when the communists—known as Khmer Rouge—defeated the Khmer Republic. Led by Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge attempted to transform its nation into one that would no longer be dependent on foreign trade or aid—essentially, they attempted to go back in time to create an agrarian economy. To do this, the Khmer Rouge enforced social engineering policies that forcibly relocated city dwellers to live and work on nationalized farms. The accompanying tortures, mass executions, malnutrition, disease and famine resulted in the Cambodian genocide of between 1 and 3 million people that only ended when Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1979.

April 30, 1975—Vietnam

• The April 1975 fall of Saigon (the capital of South Vietnam) to North Vietnamese and Vietcong armies ended the Vietnam War. South Vietnam surrendered and the last Americans (along with some South Vietnamese) were airlifted out of the city. The next year, the two nations of North and South Vietnam united as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam—a communist nation—and the city of Saigon became Ho Chi Minh City (after the North Vietnamese leader.)

June 19, 1975—International

• In June 1975, the World Conference of the International Women's Year met in Mexico City. Attendees included over 100 governments with 6,000 Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) representatives at a parallel forum that created a plan of action to implement the objectives determined to advance women internationally over the next decade.

August 1, 1975—International

• After a great deal of debate, thirty-five nations (including the United States, Canada, and all but two of the European nations) signed the Helsinki Accords in August 1975 as a means of improving relations between the Western and Eastern Blocs during the Cold War. Essentially, the agreement allowed for borders to remain as they were (which was a plus for the Soviet Union) but that the people within the borders had the right to a say in their futures and to form a Human Rights group to ensure that this right was enforced. The signing of the Helsinki Accords (despite debate and displeasure among many of the signatories) resulted in better communication between the two sides of the Cold War.

October 1, 1975—The Philippines/ International

• On this date, the Philippines hosted the historic boxing event known as the "Thrilla in Manilla" between American boxers Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.

November 11, 1975—Angola

• Almost immediately following its declaration of independence from Portugal, Angola entered into a 27-year civil war that pitted the two former nationalist movements against one another. Once again, a domestic battle became part of the Cold War as each movement gained assistance from the competing superpowers and their allies. The civil war created a humanitarian crisis as millions were displaced from their homes, decades of neglect and war a shattered the national infrastructure that could no longer supply the basics of survival (like fresh water or medical treatment,) and the next generation was, at best, left without an education and, at worst, indoctrinated to become child soldiers.

November 15, 1975--International

• The very first G6 Summit took place over two days in November 1975 in France. There, leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Great Britain and the United States met to discuss how to resolve differences among those nations—especially over economic issues that eventually grew to include protectionism and energy. Over the years, the annual summit grew to include Canada and Russia (after the Soviet Union disbanded.) The "G" part of the title stands for "group" as the first members were called the Group of Six—the name of the summit has since changed to include its additions and is now called the G8 Summit.

November 20, 1975—Spain

• On this date, Francisco Franco—the militarist dictator of Spain for almost four decades—died of natural causes. Upon his death, a new king of Spain took over the realm. Within a couple of years (and after a few skirmishes,) Spain adopted a new constitution that created a parliamentary monarchy system of government and they held their first democratic elections in decades.

March 24, 1976--Argentina

• A few years before, Juan Perón returned from his exile in Spain and got himself re-elected as president of Argentina (with his third wife—Isabel—serving as his vice president.) When Perón died in 1974, Isabel succeeded him as president but was very ineffective. Therefore, in March 1976, a military coup overthrew Isabel Perón and established an authoritarian government that banned rival political parties and brutally repressed the Argentines in a "dirty war" that lasted into the 1980s and was characterized by tens of thousands of disappearances.

April 1, 1976—Science & Technology

• Americans Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne formed Apple in April 1976 as a personal computer business.

 June 1976—International

• Beginning in June 1976, the World Health Organization started receiving reports of an unknown disease breaking out in Sudan. Two months later, reports identified an outbreak of the same disease in Zaire (previously known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo.) The symptoms of the unknown disease looked similar to influenza at first, but then developed rapidly into vomiting, diarrhea, and later organ failure and uncontrollable bleeding (both internally and externally.) The new disease received the name of the Ebola Virus (based on the name of a river close to the Zaire outbreak.) Over the next few decades, outbreaks continued in Africa until 2013—when the largest outbreak exploded and lasted for a couple of years.

June 16, 1976—South Africa

• Protests against Apartheid and the forced use of the Afrikaans language (Afrikaans is an official language in South Africa that developed from 17th Century Dutch settlers) in black South African schools quickly turned into an uprising in the Soweto Township that spread into other South African townships. Roughly 600 people died. And while the African National Congress was illegal in South Africa, the organization rose out of the uprisings having the leading role in the anti-apartheid struggle.

September 9, 1976—China

• China's Mao Tse-tung died in September 1976 of natural causes. His death, along with the arrests of those politically closest to him known as "The Gang of Four," brought an end to the Cultural Revolution and a crucial change to China's modern history. Deng Xiaoping (a Chinese statesman that had fallen out of Mao's and the Gang of Four's favor) replaced Mao Tse-tung as leader of the People's Republic of China and ushered in a new era of modernization for China. He did not attack what was old or western if it made China a better nation—he even allowed Chinese farmers to farm for personal profit; and for the first time in decades, China's government, economy and standard of living improved.

February 3, 1977—Ethiopia

• Mengistu Haile Mariam took over the Derg (the communist party in Ethiopia) in February 1977. Under his control, Ethiopia experienced a violent political campaign against thousands of Ethiopians known as the Red Terror.

September 7, 1977—United States and Panama

• In September 1977, U.S. President Jimmy Carter signed the Torrijos-Carter Treaties with Panama. Dealing with the operation of the Panama Canal that connected the Pacific Ocean with the Gulf of Mexico, the first of these treaties immediately returned territory around the canal to the Panamanian nation—the second treaty guaranteed the passage of responsibility for the Panama Canal (and its operation) back to Panama in 1999.

 

RESOURCES IN THIS MODULE ARE OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES (OER) OR CREATED BY GAVS UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. SOME IMAGES USED UNDER SUBSCRIPTION.