In Their Time

[EIGHT]

1970–1979

Managing Through the Malaise

This is an hour of history that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts.

—Gerald R. Ford

A Saudi Threat on Oil Reported

—New York Times headline, October 16, 1973

THE 1970s was a constant and often losing battle against malaise, discouragement, and even despair. Even more so than the Great Depression of the 1930s, the 1970s witnessed some of the darkest moments in the history of the country—the losing battle in Vietnam, the political scandals of Watergate, the crippling effects of oil embargoes, the senseless violence of Kent State, the bitter fight for equality, and the shocking helplessness of the Iranian hostage crisis. In the 1930s, Americans could and did turn to their president and their government ...