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

August 22, 1978—Kenya

Kenya of the late 1960s experienced many political assassinations that inspired President Jomo Kenyatta (known as the founding father of Kenya) to enact a crackdown on personal liberties within his nation—including the banishment of all political parties other than his own. Therefore, when President Kenyatta died in August 1978, his successor (Daniel arap Moi) inherited a nation already on the path of an authoritarian regime. As a presidential candidate in 1983 and 1988, arap Moi easily won re-election (again, it is so easy to win an election without competition.) He might have continued along this vein indefinitely had it not been for the international pressure (with strings attached) that forced him to allow a multiparty system in 1991. He continued to win elections thereafter (albeit by a much closer margin) and retired in 2002. Eleven years later, in 2013, Jomo Kenyatta's son became president of Kenya.

September 17, 1978—Israel and Egypt

At the time of the 4^th Arab-Israeli War (also known as the Yom Kippur War) in 1973, the nation of Israel was only a quarter of a century old. Each decade of its existence had contained a war that resulted in gaining more territory for Israel—and usually included Egypt as an adversary. But the cost was to further alienate itself from its neighbors. Then in 1977, the Israeli Prime Minister Menachim Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat started to secretly meet to discuss the two nations' futures. These talks eventually led to their meeting in the United States, where they signed a peace treaty titled the Camp David Accords. Their signatures on this treaty (and a second Israel-Egypt peace treaty in 1979) brought an end to the fighting between Egypt and Israel and eventually returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt. Israel's southwestern border was settled. However, disputes over Israel's other borders continued. Prime Minister Begin and President Sadat received the Nobel Peace Prize together in 1978. But the Accords also led to the suspension of Egypt from the League of Arab States for ten years and the assassination of Prime Minister al-Sadat in 1981.

Photo of Camp David Accords

October 16, 1978—International

On this date, the Catholic church elected the first non-Italian pope since the 1500s. Born in Poland, Pope John Paul II worked to adapt the Catholic Church to the 20^th Century and to unite Jews, Muslims and Christians. But his work extended beyond the religious into secular politics as he traveled the world and called upon Catholic parishioners and clergy to stand up against authoritarian regimes. He also made official apologies for wrong-doings committed by the Catholic Church in the past involving the censor of Galileo in the 1600s, the African slave trade, the Religious Wars that followed the Protestant Reformation and the Church's silence during the Holocaust. When he died in 2005, his funeral became the largest gathering of heads of state in history and he was eventually canonized as a saint in 2014.

December 25, 1978—Cambodia and Vietnam

Supported by communist opponents of Pol Pot, Vietnam launched a full-scale invasion of Cambodia in 1978 following a few years of isolated skirmishes along their shared border. Vietnam captured Cambodia's capital and removed the Khmer Rouge from power (even though the Khmer Rouge were fellow communists.) The Vietnamese established a new government and renamed Cambodia the People's Republic of Kampuchea. However, remnants of the Khmer Rouge continued to fight in rural areas until 1999.

January 29, 1979—China

When Deng Xiaoping took over China, he spent a couple of years in a power struggle with opponents. But by 1979, the leadership of China was his—free and clear. So, Deng implemented his plan to modernize the Chinese economy by opening China to foreign investment and closing the gap in the relationship between China and the West. In 1979, he officially established diplomatic relations with the United States—even though a U.S. president had visited China and many meetings between representatives of the two nations had occurred before (it is one of the quirks of international politics)—he then traveled to the United States as the first Chinese communist leader to have done so. Domestically, Deng steered China in a completely different economic path than Mao's also. He allowed Chinese farmers to return to private farming, reopened universities, reduced government ownership of businesses, allowed foreigners to visit and permitted Chinese students to study abroad. In time, he added special economic zones to allow for a separate economic system within former colonies that were returned to China.

February 11, 1979—Iran

On this date, rebels overran the government of Iran ending the Iranian Revolution . But here's what led up to that moment: Following the coup that ousted Prime Minister Mossadeq in 1953 (the only man popular enough to challenge the Shah's authority) and with the support of the United States and Great Britain, the Shah of Iran had the run of his nation and spent the next couple of decades developing his own personal secret police force to control opposition, exiling the Shia religious leader known as Ayatollah Khomeini, celebrating the 2500^th anniversary of the Persian monarchy, and grieving over the death of his son—all while living a very lavish lifestyle funded by Iranian oil. By the early 1970s, opposition to the Shah was reaching a peak and could be found amongst diverse social levels—but even more so among the Shia Muslim religious leaders. Opposition to the Shah led to the Iranian Revolution (1978-1979) in which more than 10,000 Iranians died. The Shah of Iran fled his nation in January 1979 and the rebels finally defeated the last of his armies in February 1979. Ayatollah Khomeini returned from exile and established an Islamic republic in Iran.

March 28, 1979—Science & Technology

On March 28, 1979, a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, US experienced a nuclear meltdown. Known as the Three Mile Island Accident , it was the most consequential accident in American nuclear power history and crystallized widespread anti-nuclear activism within the United States. Clean-up began later that year and lasted until 1993.

Photo of Three Mile Island site

April 11, 1979—Uganda

By 1978, dissent with Idi Amin's regime was at an all-time high in Uganda and anger with the dictator accelerated within neighboring Tanzania when Amin attempted to annex one of its regions. The Ugandan attempt at annexing part of Tanzania led to the Uganda-Tanzania War in 1978. Although backed by Muammar Qaddafi and his Libyan army, the Ugandan army was unsuccessful in repelling the Tanzanian counterattack that eventually marched into Uganda's capital city. In April 1979, Idi Amin was forced to flee his nation and his dictatorship ended. Former President Milton Obote returned to power. Obote's second time as president, 1980-1985, was marred by civil repressions, massive movements of people to refugee camps, and hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths as his armies fought against the National Resistance Army—a guerrilla army whose motive was to overthrow Obote.

May 4, 1979—Great Britain

Margaret Thatcher became the first female prime minister of Great Britain on this date. She held power until 1990 and like the first female prime minister of Israel, was also dubbed an "Iron Lady." Part of this nickname came from Thatcher's role in the Conservative movement that gained ground over the next decade. In an interview, she once explained her thoughts on Conservatism and the role of the government— " I think we've been through a period where too many people have been given to understand that if they have a problem, it's the government's job to cope with it: 'I have a problem, I'll get a grant.' 'I'm homeless, the government must house me.' They're casting their problem on society. And, you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first. It's our duty to look after ourselves and then, also to look after our neighbour. People have got the entitlements too much in mind, without the obligations. There's no such thing as entitlement, unless someone has first met an obligation."

June 4, 1979—Ghana

After a failed coup attempt landed Jerry Rawlings in jail, sympathizers rescued him and he led a military and civilian coup against the latest in a string of governments that ruled Ghana since Kwame Nkrumah's overthrow in 1966. With the old government out, Rawlings handed Ghanaian power to a civilian government. But two years later, he staged another coup accusing the civilian government of corruption. He then placed himself as the head of Ghana's government—a position he served for the next 11 years as Head of State—and for the next 8 years after that as president (a title that was created when Rawlings restructured the government to allow for free elections.)

June 18, 1979—International/Cold War

One of the most controversial treaties agreed upon by the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War occurred in June 1979 with the signing of the Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty II (SALT II.) Signed by U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, the SALT II addressed issues left on the table during the first SALT. But mainly it just established that the Soviet Union and the United States would maintain an equal number of weapons between the two nations. While the treaty was signed by both powers, it never went into effect. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan later that year and the U.S. Congress refused to ratify the SALT II in response.

July 16, 1979—Iraq

As the vice president under an ailing president, Saddam Hussein served as the de facto president of Iraq years before he became the official president in July 1979. He became the de jure president by forcing ailing President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr to retire. Within the week, President Hussein started a purge on his Ba'ath political party—within two weeks, hundreds of allegedly disloyal members of his own party were executed.

October 26, 1979—South Korea

Park Chung-hee came to rule South Korea following a military coup he led against the provisional government following Syngman Rhee's 1960 resignation. Park then spent the next 18 years molding South Korea into more and more of an authoritarian regime. Despite his nation's economic rise during his rule, there were several assassination attempts against him over the years. In October 1979, one finally became successful when Park's own security chief assassinated him.

November 4, 1979—Iran and the United States

While in exile, the Shah of Iran visited nation after nation looking for refuge. He went to Egypt, Morocco, the Bahamas, Mexico—all the while, growing more ill from cancer. The Shah wanted to go to the United States for surgery, but had to wait for permission from the American government—which was not something that President Carter wanted to give. Under political pressure, however, Carter relented on October 22, 1979. The granting of asylum and health care for the man responsible for decades of oppression by the nation that previously overthrew a popular Iranian prime minister was more than Iranian rebels could stomach—they retaliated by storming the American embassy in Tehran, Iran on November 4, 1979. Led by Iranian students, the act resulted in the seizure of 66 American diplomats and citizens, most of whom were held hostage for 444 days. Even the Shah's exit from the United States in December 1979 could not end the Iran Hostage Crisis—in fact, the Crisis lasted longer than the exiled Shah did as he died in July 1980. After Iraq invaded Iran in 1980, the effort in holding the hostages was getting to be a bit much for the new Islamic Republic of Iran and they started negotiations over the hostage's release. But that didn't happen until after the United States inaugurated a new president in 1981.

December 10, 1979—International

In 1950, Mother Teresa (a Catholic nun and missionary) founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, to care for (as she said,) "the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone." By the 1960s, her organization had hospices to care for those people throughout India and began to spread into other nations. In 1979, Mother Teresa accepted the Nobel Peace Prize during a speech in December. She died in 1997 and was named a saint by the Catholic Church in 2016.

December 27, 1979—Afghanistan/Cold War

Afghanistan was ruled by a monarchy until 1973 when General Mohammed Daoud Khan led a military coup. At that point Daoud became the president and the prime minister. He ruled for the next five years until he was assassinated during another military coup that brought in a more leftist leaning government with a closer relationship with the Soviet Union. But most Afghans were not keen on this new government and a rebellion soon followed that resulted in yet another government rising to control—one that did not favor the Soviet Union. Based on an earlier treaty of friendship between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December 1979, killed the Afghani leader, and placed Babrak Karmal in charge of the new government. The Soviet Union deployed thousands of troops to Afghanistan to stop the spread of Afghan resistance—led by the Mujahideen rebels fighting a full-scale guerrilla war with United States backing—against the new Soviet-supported government. Over the next decade, more than 100,000 Soviet troops fought the Mujahideen—you can watch the 2007 Tom Hanks movie, Charlie Wilson's War, to see how the rebels were eventually funded by the United States. During that period, more than five million Afghans fled their homes to become refugees in neighboring Pakistan and Iran, and the Afghan economy was devastated. Of those who stayed, numbers varied over how many died, but ran as high as two million—many of them were children.

January 14, 1980—India

During Indira Gandhi's first stint as prime minister of India (1966-1977,) she led her nation through an ambitious program of modernization. But due to some of her practices during the 1971 election, she was charged and convicted of electoral malpractice. Though the conviction was later overturned, Gandhi fell out of favor and lost the 1977 election. When her political party split into factions, Indira Gandhi was able to make a comeback and returned to the position of prime minister in 1980.

April 18, 1980—Zimbabwe

While the rest of Africa decolonized, the nation of Zimbabwe struggled. Known as Rhodesia (The name "Rhodesia" came from the British imperialist Cecil Rhodes who supported the European colonization of Africa almost a century earlier.) while a British colony, it remained a colony long after other African nations found independence. This status lasted for so long that the United Nations eventually, in 1966, imposed economic sanctions against the majority-white government. In the meantime, black Rhodesians formed a guerrilla group called the Patriotic Front. Under pressure from the Patriotic Front, the white prime minister (Ian Smith) agreed to a new constitution in 1978 that granted voting rights to black Rhodesians—but still contained many safeguards to protect the dominance of white Rhodesians. The ensuing election resulted in new leaders—including a black prime minister—and a new name for the colony—Zimbabwe-Rhodesia—but it was still not independent. Within the same year, the newly elected legislature was dissolved and Great Britain resumed its direct colonial rule. But in April 1980, after a very violent election that allowed all parties to be represented and to vote, a branch of the Patriotic Front won a majority of seats in the legislature and its leader, Robert Mugabe, became the new prime minister. In 1987, the Zimbabwe government transformed under an amended constitution into one with a president (elected by the legislature.) Under this system, Robert Mugabe continued his rule over Zimbabwe after being reelected in 1990 and 1996. When Mugabe took over, he dropped the "Rhodesia" and officially changed the name of his nation to just Zimbabwe. During his reign, Mugabe was charged with the genocide of tens of thousands of people who lived in regions that did not actively support him during elections. At one point, Great Britain accused him of being another Hitler. Mugabe's response was "I am still the Hitler of the time...This Hitler has only one objective, justice for his own people, sovereignty for his people, recognition of the independence of his people, and their right to their resources. If that is Hitler, then let me be a Hitler tenfold. Ten times, that is what we stand for." In the end, Mugabe created a nation that is still identified as one of the most corrupt in the world.

July 14, 1980—International

The World Conference of the United Nations Decade for Women convened in Copenhagen, Denmark in July 1980. One hundred-forty-five member nations attended to review the progress made by women in employment, health and education as outlined during the first Women's Conference in 1975.

September 22, 1980—Iran

The first years of the Islamic Republic of Iran were turbulent, to say the least. Most Iranians agreed that it was right for the Shah of Iran to leave the nation in 1979—what they did not agree on, however, was what form of society Iran should become. Ayatollah Khomeini faced opposition from all ends of the political spectrum—the leftist guerrillas fighting for a more socialist system, the Westernized moderates looking to become a democracy, and the right-wing supporters of the previous regime under the shah. Add the Iran Hostage Crisis to this mix and you have a brand-new government that was juggling a lot of stuff all at once. Which is why Iran's neighbor to the east decided to invade the stormy nation in September 1980. Despite the surprise attack, the invasion was not as successful as Iraq planned. Instead, the invasion kicked off the 8-year Iran-Iraq War—Iran reclaimed the territory it lost during the initial invasions within two years—the rest of the time was a war with either Iran on the offensive or in a stalemate. In both cases, however, the war was vicious towards the civilian population as children volunteered to clear mine fields and civilian sites were targeted for destruction. This map depicts the civilian targets on both sides of the border using symbols to represent the manner in which they were attacked. The war finally ended in 1988 when both sides agreed to a United Nations-brokered ceasefire. In the end, over one million soldiers and civilians were dead from a war that ended in a stalemate. [Side Note: An interesting twist to this war was that both the Soviet Union and the United States supported Iraq—which was not what happened in most of the wars that occurred during the Cold War.]

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