Editing History of the United States (section)

==== Ford and Carter administrations ====
{{Main|Presidency of Gerald Ford|Presidency of Jimmy Carter}}
The [[Fall of Saigon]] on April 30, 1975, ended the Vietnam War.{{Sfn|John Greene}} In Central America, the U.S. government supported right-wing governments against left-wing groups, such as in [[Salvadoran civil war|El Salvador]] and [[Guatemalan civil war|Guatemala]]. In South America, they supported [[National Reorganization Process|Argentina]] and [[Military dictatorship of Chile|Chile]], who carried out [[Operation Condor]], a campaign of assassinations of exiled political opponents by [[Southern Cone]] governments, created at the behest of Chilean dictator [[Augusto Pinochet]] in 1975.<ref>{{cite news |last=Tremlett |first=Giles |date=September 3, 2020 |title=Operation Condor: the cold war conspiracy that terrorised South America |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/sep/03/operation-condor-the-illegal-state-network-that-terrorised-south-america |access-date=November 25, 2023 |work=The Guardian}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Good |first=Aaron |title=American Exception |publisher=Skyhorse Publishing |year=2022 |isbn=978-1510769137 |location=New York |pages=231–232, 237}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Bevins |first=Vincent |author-link=Vincent Bevins |title=[[The Jakarta Method]]: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World |year=2020 |publisher=[[PublicAffairs]] |isbn=978-1-5417-4240-6 |pages=200–206}}</ref>

The [[OPEC oil embargo]] marked a long-term economic transition: energy prices skyrocketed, and American factories faced serious competition from foreign automobiles, clothing, electronics, and consumer goods. By the late 1970s, the economy suffered an [[1970s Energy Crisis|energy crisis]], slow economic growth, high unemployment, very high inflation, and high interest rates ([[stagflation]]). Since economists agreed on [[deregulation]], many of the New Deal era regulations were ended.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Derthick |first=Martha |title=The Politics of Deregulation |url=https://archive.org/details/politicsofderegu00dert |year=1985}}</ref> Meanwhile, the first mass-market [[personal computer]]s were being developed in California's [[Silicon Valley]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Computer - Home Use, Microprocessors, Software |url=https://www.britannica.com/technology/computer/The-personal-computer-revolution |access-date=2024-06-01 |website=Britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

[[Jimmy Carter]] was elected president in 1976.<ref>{{Cite web |title=People & Events: The Election of 1976 |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carter/peopleevents/e_1976.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090519045846/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carter/peopleevents/e_1976.html |archive-date=May 19, 2009 |access-date=January 31, 2010 |website=American Experience |publisher=PBS}}</ref> Carter brokered the [[Camp David Accords]] between Israel and Egypt. In 1979, Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy in [[Tehran]] and [[Iran hostage crisis|took 66 Americans hostage]]. Carter lost the [[1980 United States presidential election|1980 election]] to the Republican [[Ronald Reagan]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Urofsky |first=Melvin I. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DBa6WQ5XCowC&pg=PA545 |title=The American Presidents |year=2000 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-8153-2184-2 |page=545 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016105918/https://books.google.com/books?id=DBa6WQ5XCowC&pg=PA545 |archive-date=October 16, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> On January 20, 1981, minutes after Carter's term ended, the remaining U.S. captives were released.