Nixon to Carter, and Canada's Quiet Revolution to the October Crisis (History HL)

By 1968 Americans were tired of war protests, riots and inflation. Richard Nixon won the presidency promising law and order plus a quiet, practical style of leadership. His domestic record turned out to be surprisingly moderate — but the way his presidency ended became the biggest political crisis in modern US history.

Nixon won re-election in 1972 in a landslide. But during that campaign, operatives connected to his re-election committee had broken into the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate building in Washington DC to plant listening devices.

How the cover-up unravelled: Nixon did not order the break-in, but he immediately helped cover it up — using the CIA to block an FBI investigation and paying hush money to the burglars. Investigative journalists and a Senate committee kept digging. The decisive discovery: Nixon had secretly taped his own Oval Office conversations.

"Possible impeachment" — get the process right: Nixon was never actually impeached. The House Judiciary Committee had approved articles of impeachment (abuse of power, obstruction of justice, contempt of Congress), but Nixon resigned before the full House could vote. Examiners reward students who state this precisely.

Vice President Gerald Ford became president and, one month later, granted Nixon a full pardon for any crimes committed as president. Ford said it would help the country heal and move past Watergate. Instead, many Americans felt cheated — Nixon avoided trial while ordinary Watergate burglars went to prison. Ford's approval ratings collapsed and the pardon badly damaged his chances in the 1976 election.

Gerald Ford (1974–1977) inherited a country that had lost trust in the presidency itself, plus a struggling economy hit by the 1973 oil crisis. He coined the term "WIN" (Whip Inflation Now) to encourage voluntary belt-tightening, but it did little against stagflation. His pardon of Nixon and a weak economy made him easy to beat in 1976.

Jimmy Carter, a relatively unknown Georgia governor, won in 1976 by promising honesty after Watergate — "I will never lie to you." His domestic record was mixed: real achievements paired with problems he could not solve.

Why domestic and foreign policy blurred for Carter: For Paper 3 you're asked about domestic policy, but Carter's presidency shows how foreign crises (oil, Iran) can wreck a domestic reputation. Keep your focus on the economic and social record when the question asks for domestic policy, but you can mention foreign shocks as context for why his popularity collapsed.

Carter lost the 1980 election to Ronald Reagan by a wide margin — voters wanted a more confident, optimistic style of leadership after over a decade of Watergate, stagflation and the hostage crisis.

Changes and conflict inside the parties (1960s–1970s)

Both major US parties were reshaped by the era's turmoil. The Democratic Party split over civil rights and Vietnam: southern white Democrats — angry about civil rights laws — began drifting toward the Republicans, while the party's 1968 convention was marked by violent anti-war protests outside and bitter divisions inside. The Republican Party moved rightward, using a "Southern strategy" (appealing to white southern voters uneasy about civil rights) to win states the party had never held before.

Canada: political stability under St Laurent, Diefenbaker, Pearson

Canada's post-war politics were calmer than the US, but still saw real change. Louis St Laurent (1948–1957) presided over a period of prosperity and continued the expansion of the welfare state; his Liberal government also negotiated Newfoundland's entry into Confederation (1949).

John Diefenbaker (1957–1963), a Progressive Conservative, ended 22 years of Liberal rule. He championed Canadian nationalism — cancelling the Avro Arrow jet fighter project (controversially), passing the Canadian Bill of Rights (1960), and extending the vote to Indigenous peoples without conditions (1960). His government fell apart over a dispute with the US about nuclear weapons on Canadian soil.

Lester Pearson (1963–1968), a Liberal, led minority governments but achieved major social reforms: universal healthcare (Medicare, 1966), the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada's new red-and-white maple leaf flag (1965), replacing the old imperial-style ensign — itself a symbol of Canada asserting its own identity.

Trudeau and "Trudeaumania": Pierre Trudeau (1968–1979, 1980–1984) brought a bold, modern style. He introduced official bilingualism (English and French, 1969) and multiculturalism as government policy (1971), pursued a "Just Society" of expanded civil liberties, and patriated the Canadian Constitution with a Charter of Rights (achieved just after this period, in 1982).