JANUARY 1973 U.S.-North Vietnam Peace Agreement Negotiations among the warring parties in Vietnam were initiated in 1968, but the most important conversations began secretly in August 1969, with Henry Kissinger representing the Nixon administration and Le Duc Tho the North Vietnamese regime. In the course of the next three years, as the United States withdrew its forces from the country, Washington abandoned many of its original objectives (for example, that North Vietnamese military units leave the South), but it obtained no significant response from the enemy until the autumn of 1972, when it became clear that Nixon would be re-elected. At that point, when Hanoi gave up its demand that the South Vietnamese government be disestablished before any future elections, the United States accepted the concession as sufficient and, though the South Vietnamese protested, signed an armistice with Hanoi (January 23, 1973). Thus the American role in the war ended, though the accords actually had little effect on the conflict and were only superficially honored. After Nixon resigned in 1974, Congress repudiated American promises of aid and air support to Saigon. In the face of a renewed North Vietnamese offensive, South Vietnam collapsed in 1975.
DECEMBER 1973 Irvine General Plan Envisions Non-Aviation Future for MCAS El Toro
The desire of Irvine to someday use MCAS El Toro for non-aviation purposes was carefully conveyed by the City to the County of Orange and the Local Agency Formation Commission at the time of Irvine’s incorporation in 1971. This intent was endorsed by The Irvine Company as a result of its concerns about environmental quality and safety. Such land use ideas were part of the City of Irvine’s first General Plan, adopted in December 1973, and the City Council reaffirmed opposition to the commercialization of El Toro in April 1988. Nevertheless, the base’s reuse after its closure (which occurred in July 1999) became Orange County’s most controversial planning issue during the 1990s. On January 12, 1999, the City Council adopted a resolution calling for the defeat of a proposed commercial airport at MCAS El Toro. In March 2002, voters approved a countywide anti-airport initiative, paving the way for a large metropolitan park (which became the Orange County Great Park) and limited commercial development at the former Marine base.
AUGUST 1974 Watergate Leads to Nixon’s Resignation
OCTOBER 1973 Yom Kippur War, Oil Embargo
Figure 61. Out bound for Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, Richard M. Nixon leaves Washington for the last time as President. Image courtesy of White House photo from Nixon Presidential Materials Staff .
Resentful at previous defeats and at continued Israeli occupation of the Sinai and Golan Heights, Egypt and Syria led an Arab coalition in launching a surprise attack in those regions on Yom Kippur (October 6) — among the holiest days of the Jewish year — in 1973. The offensive was initially successful and prompted a massive supply effort by the United States to compensate for Israeli losses. Within a week, however, the Israeli army recovered the initiative, and at this point it was the Soviet Union’s turn to become concerned about its ally, Egypt. An Israeli counter-attack across the Suez Canal isolated the Egyptian Third Army and finally compelled the superpowers to impose an armistice on October 25. The war not only severely strained Soviet-American relations, it also undermined Israeli feelings of invincibility, strengthened Arab confidence, and helped to alienate Egypt from the USSR. The most lasting effect lay in the impact of the oil embargo imposed by the Arabs in retaliation for the American re-supply of the Israeli army. This sanction tripled the cost of oil and seriously destabilized the global economy.
The expansion of executive power during the Cold War, often described as the rise of the “imperial presidency,” reached a culmination in the abuses of the Watergate scandal, setting in motion the most serious constitutional crisis of the 20th century. The public story began in June of 1972, when five men working for Nixon’s re-election campaign were arrested while trying to bug the Democratic campaign headquarters in the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. Subsequent efforts by President Nixon and his aides to cover up their connection to the crime revealed that administration leaders had engaged in a number of illegal activities, including accepting inappropriate campaign monies, using “dirty tricks” to sabotage political opponents, and attempting unlawfully to silence critics. In February 1974 the House of Representatives began an impeachment investigation of the President. In July the Supreme Court ordered the President to turn over recordings he had made of White House conversations. On August 8, 1974, confronted with almost certain impeachment, President Nixon resigned and flew home to California, his plane landing at MCAS El Toro. SEE FIGURE 61
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