USA history: 1970s

At the beginning of the 1970s, the United States is consuming vast amounts of oil. It fuels people’s high-speed muscle cars and provides the energy that heats and cools their big houses. To meet demand, the United States is relying more and more on oil imports from foreign countries, a dependency that is about to cause problems… In 1973, war breaks out in the Middle East, a key oil-exporting region. Israel is fighting against several Arab states. The United States supports Israel in the conflict and the Arab states retaliate by cutting off oil exports to the U.S.

This ban on exports is called an embargo. Within weeks, the United States faces a critical energy shortage. Businesses and consumers begin to hoard oil and gasoline, causing prices to soar. In March 1974, the embargo ends, but America’s economic problems are just beginning… Prices at gas pumps remain high long after the embargo ends. Americans begin to abandon their powerful American-made cars for compact, fuel-efficient foreign-made cars.

This shift leads to huge layoffs in the car manufacturing industry. The national unemployment rate spikes. With many people jobless and the economy spiralling, Americans hope their president, Richard Nixon, will turn things around. But Americans’ faith in Nixon is about to be shaken… Back in June 1972, during a presidential election campaign, five men broke into the Democrats’ campaign office located in Washington’s Watergate apartment complex. The men, it turned out, were agents hired by a group trying to secure the re-election of Republican president, Nixon.

At the time, Nixon denied all knowledge of and involvement in the crime. But in 1974, evidence emerges that he was in fact fully aware of the burglary plan and that it was just one offense in a massive campaign of political spying and sabotage. The whole affair becomes known as the Watergate Scandal. Americans’ trust in their politicians hits an all-time low. Some, weary of news about political scandals and the declining economy, turn inwards and devote themselves to self-improvement.

They seek comfort in the teachings of self-anointed gurus, the advice of therapists, or the pages of self-help books. This individualistic focus is in stark contrast to calls in the 1960s for a “Great Society”; some label the ‘70s ‘the “me” decade’. Self-improvement is closely linked to self-expression, and young people find freedom and flare on the dance floor. The rock and roll of the ‘60s has been overtaken by a new form of music, disco. Disco dancers flock to clubs with flashing lights and spinning disco balls, men and women alike wearing colourful bell-bottom trousers and platform shoes.

But beyond the ‘me culture’ and feel-good music, there are cries for social change. Many environmentalists are angry about factories dumping toxic waste into rivers and canals, the use of pesticides that pollute water supplies, and rising levels of car emissions that damage air quality. They call on the government to take action and the Clear Air Act and Clean Water Act are passed, setting targets and timelines for reducing pollution. Women’s groups, meanwhile, work to create a more open and equal society. They demand and win access to male-dominated universities and industries.

Women become doctors, lawyers, plumbers, pilots, stockbrokers and sports heroes. By breaking down employment barriers and expanding opportunities, women transform both the American workforce and the American family. The old idea that women belong only in the home is fading fast. The 1970s are marked by restlessness and a questioning of traditional authority expressed sometimes by a turning inward to self-renewal, and other times through rallying cries for social change.