Gerald Ford and the Challenges of the 1970s

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University Press of Kentucky, Apr 22, 2005 - History - 455 pages

The world was watching when footage of the "tank man" -- the lone Chinese citizen blocking the passage of a column of tanks during the brutal 1989 crackdown on protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square -- first appeared in the media. The furtive video is now regarded as an iconic depiction of a government's violence against its own people.

Throughout the twentieth century, states across East Asia committed many relatively undocumented atrocities, with victims numbering in the millions. The contributors to this insightful volume analyze many of the most notorious cases, including the Japanese army's Okinawan killings in 1945, Indonesia's anticommunist purge in 1965--1968, Thailand's Red Drum incinerations in 1972--1975, Cambodia's Khmer Rouge massacre in 1975--1978, Korea's Kwangju crackdown in 1980, the Philippines' Mendiola incident in 1987, Myanmar's suppression of the democratic movement in 1988, and China's Tiananmen incident. With in-depth investigation of events that have long been misunderstood or kept hidden from public scrutiny, State Violence in East Asia provides critical insights into the political and cultural dynamics of state-sanctioned violence and discusses ways to prevent it in the future.

From inside the book

Contents

Hungering for Heroes
17
The Congenial Presidency
38
Gerald Ford and the Ninetyfourth Congress
56
Fords Vision for America
73
The Economic Challenge
93
The Great Inflation of the 1970s
95
Taking Aim at Inflation
111
Teetering on a Knifes Edge
120
The Energy Crisis of the 1970s
197
A New Energy Program
215
The Energy Stalemate
228
Breaking the Energy Logjam
246
Diplomatic and Political Challenges
271
Gerald Fords Internationalism
273
Thunder from the Right
304
Back from the Brink
325

Rallying the Nation to Fight Inflation
132
The Great Recession of the 1970s
145
Fords 1975 State of the Union Program
157
Economic Initiatives 197576
174
The Energy Challenge
195
The Longterm President
351
Notes
360
Bibliography
421
Index
434
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About the author (2005)

Yanek Mieczkowski, professor of history at Dowling College, is the author of The Routledge Historical Atlas of Presidential Elections and Eisenhower's Sputnik Moment: The Race for Space and World Prestige.

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