1586482985-Jordan:Layout 1 8/25/08 10:09 AM Page 86

86

VERNON E. JORDAN, JR.

had been sapped by the Watergate scandal and its military

self-confidence by the chaotic retreat from Vietnam. The

economy had suffered a decade of inflation, the oil shock of

�"�Ś�ą, and two severe recessions. The most humiliating event

of all was what came to be known as the Iran hostage crisis�"

the plundering in November �"�Ś�Ś of the American embassy

in Teheran and the kidnapping of fifty-two American diplo-

mats, service members, and private citizens by Islamic funda-

mentalists allied with Iran’s theocratic regime. The hostages

were held captive for  days�"through the American presi-

dential campaign and election. The Iranian regime released

them almost exactly at the moment of Reagan’s inauguration

on January �, �"�Ś�".

Another mighty contribution to the Reagan landslide was

the rising hostility of many whites to completing the unfin-

ished work of the civil rights revolution of the �"�Śs. The

white conservative coalition of nonprofit legal foundations

and think tanks that arose in reaction to the civil rights victo-

ries of the �"�Śs had fashioned a deft campaign in the courts

of law and the court of public opinion to disparage affirma-

tive action in higher education and in government contract-

ing as �śreverse discrimination.” They contended that laws

prohibiting discrimination were sufficient to erase the effects

of an entire century’s concentrated antiblack bigotry in both

public and private sectors of American society. In this area of

public policy, Reagan signaled he would reverse what had be-

come accepted government standards. His August �"�Ś ap-