Though deeply disillusioned by Vietnam and the Watergate scandal, most Americans hoped that, with these disasters behind them, better times lay ahead. This was not to be. Under the leadership of the Democratic president Jimmy Carter, the economy worsened as oil-producing nations in the Persian Gulf and Latin America raised the price of petroleum. Carter’s efforts to revive the economy and rally the country behind energy conservation were ineffective. Activists on both the left and the right continued to fight over the role of the federal government in economic affairs as well as over the racial and cultural issues that divided the nation.