1971 Vs 2005
Cyndi Barca
From May 21 to 25, 1971, Travis experienced rioting resulting from tensions in the Airman dormitory area and the Vietnam War. One-hundred and thirty five individuals were arrested, 80 of them detained overnight. The base had to call for police assistance from at least 70 officers from the civilian community. (U.S. Air Force photo)
When they exited the bus, journalists snapped photos of the two together. Two days later, the U.S. team received an official invitation to travel to China and play exhibition matches against the Chinese team. The United States accepted the invitation and everyone rushed to make arrangements.
The team left Japan for Hong Kong, where they crossed a bridge connecting British-controlled Hong Kong to mainland China on April 10, 1971. Connie Sweeris took out her camera and quickly snapped a photo of the bridge and the guards on it as they crossed the border on foot.
Once in China, the team traveled by plane and train to Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin. Upon arriving at their first destination and disembarking their plane, the U.S. team, Chinese players, and welcoming Chinese officials posed for a group photo on the tarmac.
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The Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (FECA) regulated the financing of federal election campaigns (president, Senate, and House), including the money raised and spent by the candidates pursuing those offices and by the political parties.
In 1971 Congress passed FECA, which limited the amount candidates could contribute to their own campaigns, limited the amount that a federal campaign could spend on paid advertising, and expanded disclosure requirements. The new law went into effect in the 1972 presidential election, but it was overshadowed by the Watergate scandal, which led to the first and only resignation of a U.S. president, Richard M. Nixon, in 1974. The various investigations brought to light numerous campaign-finance abuses, including illegal contributions from corporations, cash contributions, hidden funds controlled by the Nixon reelection committee, and favors extended to donors in exchange for large contributions.
In the wake of the scandal, in 1974 Congress enacted extensive amendments to FECA. These amendments limited to $1,000 per election the amount an individual could contribute to any federal campaign and introduced limits on the amount an individual could contribute to a political party or political committee and on the amount a political committee could contribute to a candidate ($5,000 per election).
The 1974 law also established a system of voluntary public financing for presidential campaigns under which candidates seeking the nomination of the major parties could receive from the federal government funds matching the first $250 of each contribution from an individual, if the candidates agreed to limit their overall spending in seeking the nomination.
In Buckley v. Valeo (1976), the Supreme Court upheld the limits on contributions, the reporting and disclosure rules, and the system of voluntary public financing for presidential campaigns, but it struck down the limits on independent expenditures, the caps on campaign spending, and the limits on what candidates could contribute to their own campaigns.
As effectively rewritten by this decision, FECA served as the framework for regulating the financing of federal elections without major modification until passage of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act in 2002.
The international monetary system after World War II was dubbed the Bretton Woods system after the meeting of forty-four countries in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in 1944. The countries agreed to keep their currencies fixed (but adjustable in exceptional situations) to the dollar, and the dollar was fixed to gold. Since 1958, when the Bretton Woods system became operational, countries settled their international balances in dollars, and U.S. dollars were convertible to gold at a fixed exchange rate of $35 an ounce. The United States had the responsibility of keeping the dollar price of gold fixed and had to adjust the supply of dollars to maintain confidence in future gold convertibility.
In March 1962, the Federal Reserve established its first swap line with the Bank of France and by the end of that year lines had been set up with nine central banks (Austria, Belgium, England, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Canada). Altogether, the lines provided up to $900 million equivalent in foreign exchange. What started as a small, short-term credit facility grew to be a large, intermediate-term facility until the U.S. gold window closed in August 1971. The growth and need for the swap lines signaled that they were not just a temporary fix, but a sign of a fundamental problem in the monetary system.
International efforts were also made to stem a run on gold. A run in the London gold market sent the price to $40 an ounce on October 20, 1960, exacerbating the threat to the system. In response, the London Gold Pool was formed on November 1, 1961. The pool consisted of a group of eight central banks (Great Britain, West Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, France, and the United States). In order to keep the price of gold at $35 an ounce, the group agreed to pool gold reserves to intervene in the London gold market in order to maintain the Bretton Woods system. The pool was successful for six years until another gold crisis ensued. The British pound sterling devalued and another run on gold occurred, and France withdrew from the pool. The pool collapsed in March 1968.
At that time the seven remaining members of the London Gold Pool (Great Britain, West Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, and the United States) agreed to formulate a two-tiered system. The central banks agreed to use their gold only in settling international debts and to not sell monetary gold on the private market. The two-tier system was in place until the U.S. gold window closed in 1971.
While the United States was in the midst of the Triffin dilemma, it was also facing a growing problem of inflation at home. The period that became known as the Great Inflation had started and policymakers had put anti-inflation policies in place, but they were short lived and ineffective. At first, both the Nixon administration and the Federal Reserve believed in a gradual approach, slowly lowering inflation with a minimum increase in unemployment. They would tolerate an unemployment rate of up to 4.5 percent, but by the end of the 1969-70 recession the unemployment rate had climbed to 6 percent, and inflation, as measured by the consumer price index, was 5.4 percent.
The first order was for the gold window to be closed. Foreign governments could no longer exchange their dollars for gold; in effect, the international monetary system turned into a fiat one. A few months later the Smithsonian agreement attempted to maintain pegged exchange rates, but the Bretton Woods system ended soon thereafter. The second order was for a 90-day freeze on wages and prices to check inflation. This marked the first time the government enacted wage and price controls outside of wartime. It was an attempt to bring down inflation without increasing the unemployment rate or slowing the economy. In addition, an import surcharge was set at 10 percent to ensure that American products would not be at a disadvantage because of exchange rates.
Eichengreen, Barry. "Epilogue: Three Perspectives on the Bretton Woods System." In A Retrospective on the Bretton Woods System: Lessons for International Monetary Reform, edited by Michael Bordo and Barry Eichengreen, 621-58, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.
In 1970, the American people made clear their desire for a cure for the second-leading cause of death in the United States. President Nixon responded during his January 1971 State of the Union address: "I will also ask for an appropriation of an extra $100 million to launch an intensive campaign to find a cure for cancer, and I will ask later for whatever additional funds can effectively be used. The time has come in America when the same kind of concentrated effort that split the atom and took man to the moon should be turned toward conquering this dread disease. Let us make a total national commitment to achieve this goal."
As part of this national effort, in October 1971, the Army's Fort Detrick, Maryland, biological warfare facility was converted to a cancer research center, eventually becoming the Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center, an internationally recognized center for cancer and AIDS research.
On December 23, 1971, President Nixon followed through on his promise as he signed the National Cancer Act into law, declaring, "I hope in the years ahead we will look back on this action today as the most significant action taken during my Administration."1
As this 92d Congress begins its session, America has lost a great Senator, and all of us who had the privilege to know him have lost a loyal friend. I had the privilege of visiting Senator Russell in the hospital just a few days before he died. He never spoke about himself. He only spoke eloquently about the need for a strong national defense.
In tribute to one of the most magnificent Americans of all time, I respectfully ask that all those here will rise in silent prayer for Senator Russell.
Mr. Speaker, before I begin my formal address, I want to use this opportunity to congratulate all of those who were winners in the rather spirited contest for leadership positions in the House and the Senate and, also, to express my condolences to the losers. I know how both of you feel.
To those new Members of this House who may have some doubts about the possibilities for advancement in the years ahead, I would remind you that the Speaker and I met just 24 years ago in this Chamber as freshmen Members of the 80th Congress. As you see, we both have come up in the world a bit since then.
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