GLO: Lesson - The 1970s

The 1970s

The Cold War: Detente

After the turbulent 1960s, America yearned for a less aggressive military approach to international relations. The USA ended its involvement in the Vietnam War and built diplomatic bridges with China and the USSR under President Nixon. The Yom Kippur War, launched after Egypt attacked Israel on a Jewish holy day in 1973, threatened to derail the fragile peace.

The US protected Israel, so the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC - a coalition of mostly Arabic Muslim-majority Middle Eastern oil-producing countries) embargoed the US, which led to an oil crisis. However, even in the face of this war, the US invited Egypt and Israel’s leaders to meet to end hostilities.

Image note (top right): Israeli soldiers celebrate on a tank during the Yom Kippur War.

The peace ended with the close of the 1970s. First, a group of Iranian student revolutionaries led by the radical Ayatollah Khomeini took over the Iranian government in 1979. In retaliation for the CIA missions of the 1950s, the students held American journalists hostage.

The crisis was played out on live international television, and the hostages were only freed after 400 days. Later that year, the USSR invaded Afghanistan to steal their wheat. The invasion would last a decade and cost over a million lives.

Image note (left): A description from Frontlineclub.com “Tehran, Iran. Armed militants outside the United States Embassy, where diplomats had been held hostage since 4 November, 1979. In the background is a banner displaying the American Statue of Liberty.”

Female Leadership

While women had led important countries in the past, two important female leaders came to power in the 1970s: Indira Gandhi and Golda Meir.

Indira Gandhi became the first female leader of India. She was both charismatic and ruthless, with wide popularity among the lower classes and the Soviet Union. She led a war against Pakistan, which led to the creation of Bangladesh. The war and the OPEC oil crisis affected India so much that Indira Gandhi declared The Emergency, which limited civil rights and canceled elections. She also forced rural men to get sterilized to slow the country’s population growth. Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984.

Image note (right): Indira Gandhi’s official portrait.

Golda Meir became the Prime Minister of Israel quite suddenly after the death of the previous Prime Minister. As a leader, she simultaneously tried to befriend Arabs privately but publicly granted no recognition of Arab Palestine. The deaths under Meir’s leadership during the Yom Kippur War, even though it was a win for Israel, led the public to turn against her. She resigned in 1974.

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