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For all its murderousness and mediocrity, the decade recorded numerous accomplishments although, typically, a lot of them went unnoticed in the undiscriminating cultural uproar. U.S. scientists enlarged the boundaries of knowledge in nuclear physics, biophysics, particle physics, biochemistry and electrooptics, among other fields. American plant biologists continued to develop the hybrid corn that remains one of this century's most important contributions to agriculture. Although the moon program was dismantled during the '70s, the two Vikings and two Voyagers probed Mars and Jupiter; now the Voyagers are proceeding to Saturn and then to even remoter reaches.
Material progress advanced handsomely enough, but the psychology of the decade seemed to follow a downward trajectory. A consensus was lost, and authority seemed to operate only erratically. The nation split into single-interest power factions. The screws of the American machine jarred loose; the whole thing rattled. Yet any such bleak view of the decade is not entirely justified. Norman Mailer has observed that Americans are obsessed by the question of whether they behave virtuously or not; the ambiguities of the '70s may disturb their moral self-image, and with it, their yearning for clear-cut conclusions. In fact, the U.S. on the whole behaved with considerable virtue, facing up to crises (a lost war and a broken presidency) that might have turned other societies rabid or anarchic. The U.S. has not been at war since it left Viet Nam, and if it has not brought conclusive harmony to the Middle East, it has led Egypt and Israel to live in peace. It has, more over, the forbearing and civilized in the midst of all the Ayatullah's provocations.
There is an impression now of national unity, a feeling that the U.S. is emerging from the privatism and divisions of the Me Decade. The lunacy in Iran has a lot to do with that, of course. But it may not be entirely wistful to hope that the mood will last, that the '80s may even prove to be the Us Decade.
—Lance Morrow
On the following pages TIME presents the decade's memorable moments and fancied faces. The collection ranges from the triumph of the Bicentennial to the debacle of Saigon; from the grotesque suicides of Jonestown to the burlesgue success of Evil Knievel's Snake River plunge; and from the worst of Hearst to a terrific Tiegs.