No, We Did Not Win The War On Drugs And Other Events Of The 1980s

It was the 80s. The children of the baby boomers were growing up. This generation, so berated for being a bunch of whiny slackers, grew up in the previous decade of apathy. Did things get better? Not much in some ways. In other ways it was great.

This ten year stretch was called "The Reagan Era" as most of the politics were dominated by the Republic Party and two termed President Ronald Reagan. Who would have thought an actor would become President! He had a kind, gentle manner about him and was more like America's grandpa. He was also consider the leader of the rich and the religious right which frustrated many of the middle and lower class workers who were suffering from "Reaganomics," a term coined for giving the rich access to more monetary benefits and it just might trickle down to the poor.

Early in his office, on March 30, 1981, John W. Hinckley attempts to assassinate the President. He shoots Reagan in the chest and hits his press secretary, James Brady, who would later have reason to want to pass the "Brady Bill" since this incident left him unable to walk again. Hinckley was found to be insane and was ordered to a psychiatric unit. Only two months later, May 13, 1981, Pope John Paul II also faced an assassination attempt and survived.

Do you remember back in 1980 when we were friends with Afghanistan? Due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, President Carter declared that the U.S. will boycott the Olympics held in Russia. This was at the time when the Cold War was active and people were in fear of a nuclear war we all knew no one would win. Who would have thought just 20 years later the Soviet Union and the U.S. would be friends and Afghanistan the enemy?

Then there was that nasty little incident with Iran where they took American ambassadors and workers hostage. This was brewing for quite some time. For the longest time 52 were captive and 8 were killed. After the swearing in of Ronald Reagan, the hostages were released.

Just as it looked like a peace agreement might be getting somewhere in the Middle East, Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat of Egypt was assassinated. Still, there are hopeful people that one day maybe there will actually be peace.

Many people were out of work and jobs were hard to get, but the 70s has seen the worst end of that cycle. Things actually were just starting to move forward, albeit slowly. It was just frustrating for the working class people who saw the rich get richer as the poor couldn't get ahead. Those who used to work for companies they thought would carry them to retirement learned a new term called "early retirement" where the company which once honored their hard work and service tried to get rid of them early and cheaply to hire young workers at half their salaries.

One of the serious flaunters of the wealth was a famous religious icon, Jim Bakker. What can one say about a man who would buy an air conditioned dog house? His public scandal brought about the demise of his religious empire which many thought was great, finally, someone getting what they deserved. Jim Bakker was involved in the PTL scandal accused of selling more timeshares than were actually available. He was also accused of having an affair and of committing homosexual acts. In order to try and save his ministry, he agreed to turn it over to Jerry Falwell for safekeeping. Falwell made sure this empire would forever be destroyed.

Bakker wasn't the only religious icon to have scandalous issues become tabloid fodder. James Swaggart was involved with frequenting prostitutes and proclaimed on television his sins. This public showing of admission was viewed as self-serving by many and he would prove them right as he did it again. But at least he wasn't Oral Roberts who claimed God was an extortionist/blackmailer and if he didn't collect enough money God would kill him. He didn't make the quota and God still kept him around.

In the 80s we weren't just busting our religious leaders, but we were after political leaders of other countries. Reagan declared a "War on drugs" and Nancy Reagan encourged children to "Just say No!" Then there was the actual "fighting" of this war. Manuel Noriega was a notorious drug criminal and former Panamanian dictator. US troops invaded Panama to get this drug kingpin only to find out he flew the coop long before they arrived. He went to seek shelter at the Vatican and eventually gave up after a barage of awful loud music (or awful, loud music.) This war, which is still going on, has not stopped drugs from being sold or taken and made criminals out of people who need help. It has made it violent in many inner cities and some small towns and wherever people have a drug habit and it becomes a risky, but profitable business people will kill for. Back then it was pot, acid, coke and heroine that were the main culprits. Eventually coke would be turned into something more sinister called crack and new drugs would be on the illegal market such as special k. The war wasn't won and there have been way too many casualties already.

I clearly remember May 18, 1980. Mount St. Helens was giving signals that it would erupt soon. Just about everyone got out of the area except some hikers and those just outside of the roped off area and those who were there to keep people safe. There was also a very stubborn old man by the name of Harry Truman who refused to leave his home. Sadly, after all had settled down there was nothing left of him. Those who were in and around the danger areas were lucky if they only suffered some smoke inhalation and burns. Many who were there died. Everyone was only expecting a flowing path of lava, instead the top exploded and left the town in darkness and knee deep in ash and soot.

The saddest event in pop culture history was on December 8, 1980 when John Lennon assassinated by Mark Chapman who was a deranged fan. Almost everyone remembers where they were when they heard the news.

Love Canal was a small town outside of in Niagra Falls, New York. The Hooker Chemicals and Plastics Company have been using this town as a toxic dump. It was finally catching up. Evacuation of 710 families was ordered after reports that 30 percent of the residents in the area had suffered chromosone damage.

Once upon a time, Lily Tomlin did a skit making fun of the phone company. They could be as rude as they wanted, after all, where else were you going to go for phone service? AT&T was the only phone service, but in 1981 laws were being passed and lawsuits for anti-trust were won, so they had to break it up and allow others access to the phone lines. The big fear was that prices would sky rocket and all calls would sound like they were coming from a tin can. Instead, prices have become very cheap and service has improved. A big point in the favor of business competition!

On July 7, 1981, President Reagan nominated Sandra Day O'Connor for the U.S. Supreme Court, making her the first woman to ever serve on this court. O'Connor is a Republican and had a record of supporting abortion rights and the Equal Rights Amendment. Her selection was praised by women's groups, but opposed by the anti-abortion lobby.

If you love corned beef, a product of Argentina, you may have noticed a scare supply on the store shelves in 1982 during the little scuffle at the Faukland Islands. It ended with the British winning the war and went on as a footnote in history.

The store used to be a safe place. For those who are too young to remember or weren't born, they may not realize that all products had simple closing techniques. A jar was just a jar with a lid on it, not a jar with a lid and a vacuum pressured safety seal. Even medicine bottles had at best a child's safety cap which was easy enough for most children to open. The Tylenol tampering scare changed the way things were packaged forever. Seven people died in Chicago after taking Extra-Strength Tylenol. They didn't realize some prankster laced the pills with cyanide which could have easily been done in the stores or even in the processing plant. To prevent this from happening again, especially after a few copycat attempts, laws were passed to make things tamper proof.

Speaking of tragedies, who can forget the social event of the century? On July 29, 1981, Lady Diana Spencer took "Philip Charles Arthur George" as her lawful wedded husband in front of a viewing audience of over a billion people, mostly from their tv sets. It looked as if they would live happily ever after, but that was deceiving. Princess Diana (or Di as she was informally called by the press) and Prince Charles were not happily married and barely were on speaking terms. Charles was in love with someone else and Diana had emotional issues which was aggravated by the cold manner of the Royal Family. Together they had two sons and eventually divorced. Just when things were looking up in her life, tragically she dies in a car accident in 1997.

Do you remember drinking New Coke? Be glad if you don't. In 1985 the company wanted to mess with the popular original formula to create a "smoother, rounder, yet bolder," taste. Due to the complaints and lack of sales, they were forced to go back to the original. If it works, don't fix it!

Back in 1985 Live Aid had a goal to raise enough money and awareness to help the starving people of Africa, particularly Ethiopia. Due to severe drought and civil unrest, people were dying almost on an hourly basis from starvation or disease. It didn't solve the problem, but at least it fed some of the hungry. It was also keeping everyone in the U.S. away from the so-called gay disease called AIDS. Back then, people only assumed this disease was a plague only among gay men. They were dying and no one seemed to care until it started to become noticed in the straight community. A dreaded disease which was once considered high risk to only gay men moved on to become a growing epidemic to women and now the high risk is teenagers. Ironically, while Live Aid was trying to help Africans from starving to death, AIDS was killing them faster than starvation. At least there are treatments available now that will keep patients from dying as quickly, just not in Africa.

On January 28, 1986, NASA and any lay person who had a dream of going on a spaceship was given a punch in the eye. Challenger, a space shuttle carrying seven crew members, including high school teacher Christa McAuliffe, prepared to take off. It looked as if the launch was going great until 74 seconds later when it exploded. All seven were killed, sadly the students of Mrs. McAuliffe and her family were watching. The space shuttle program was suspended while the accident was being investigated. It turned out to be a faulty O-ring.

April 28, 1986 Chernobyl had a serious accident. Clouds of radiation waft across Europe after a reactor at the Soviet nuclear power plant Chernobyl catches fire in a partial meltdown. This event, as well as Three Mile Island almost a decade earlier, made people even more hesitant about using nuclear energy.

The Iran-Contra scandal was the biggest public relations nightmare for the Republican party (even more so than Clinton getting lucky with an intern and lying about it under oath!) Oliver North was called before Congress in December of 1986 and pleaded the Fifth Amendment so as to not incriminate himself in the scandal. The Reagan administration had traded arms to Iran to sponsor Contra rebels in Nicaragua. No one was talking and eventually the scandal went away with a lot of unanswered questions. Most of the evidence was shreded. Oops!

June 3, 1989, in Tiananmen Square (China), thousands of Chinese army troops stormed and crushed a pro-democracy movement. It is estimated that at least several hundred people, and maybe as many as 5,000, died in their fight for freedom.

This was the prequel to television to come. The Menendez brothers killed their parents on August 20, 1989 by shooting them multiple times. At first they claimed someone else must have done it, but their behavior caused them to become prime suspects. Later they said it was in self-defense although it was refuted as the parents were killed while sitting down and from behind. Eventually the defense they would use was they were abused and afraid of their father. The first time around the jury could not reach a decision. The next time they were declared guilty. Perhaps they should have used the "dream team" which would later make the next television court drama show with O J Simpson.

Back in 1984, Nina had a song called "99 Red Balloons" and a popular movie of 1982, "War Games" as well as made for tv movies such as "Special Bulletin" painted very well the fear we had of a nuclear holocaust. Anything Communist was feared. Then a ray of hope came on November 9, 1989 as the Berlin Wall was dismantled. This reunited the formerly Communist East Germany with the democratic West Germany. People used to get shot and killed for the crime of trying to escape over the wall to freedom. Now that is a thing of the past. This also led to the softening of the ways of the Soviet Union who would re-think its Communist government in favor of a Capitalist based government. And the world sighed a big sigh of relief, but still with caution.

This decade had a lot of memorable events, some great and some sad. Hopefully we will all learn lessons from this past and make the future better.

20th Century 1980-90

Info Please 1980-1989

Find The Book Related To These Topics AT Barnes & Noble

Return To History Index