The Rise and Fall of Richard Nixon

Road to the White House Nixon lost two close elections Lost to JFK in the 1960 election 1962 lost an election to become California’s Governor Claimed his political career was over 1968 Nixon won the Republican Nomination for President LBJ decided not to run for reelection George Wallace won support of the white “South” Democratic National Convention spiraled into a violent affair over the Vietnam War. Resulted in Nixon winning the White House

Turmoil SPIRO AGNEW 39th Vice-Presidnt In 1973, Agnew was investigated by the United States Attorney's office for the District of Maryland, on charges of extortion, tax fraud, bribery, and conspiracy. He was charged with having accepted bribes totaling more than $100,000 while holding office as Baltimore County Executive, Governor of Maryland, and Vice President. On October 10 that same year, Agnew was allowed to plead no contest to a single charge that he had failed to report $29,500 of income received in 1967, with the condition that he resign the office of Vice President. Nixon later replaced Agnew by appointing House Minority Leader Gerald Ford to the office of Vice President. 

Domestic Policies New Federalism – reduce the size and power of the federal government Revenue Sharing – federal government distributed tax revenues to states and local governments to spend as they saw fit. Did away with some of LBJ’s Great Society bureaucracy. He increased Social Security and enlarged the Food Stamp Program. New federal agencies into existence. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) – protecting workers on the job. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – to protect human health and to safeguard the natural environment. Family Assistance Plan – government would support every poor family with a minimum annual income (Congress would reject this plan) Philadelphia Plan – required construction companies working on federally funded projects to hire specific numbers of minority workers Encouraged black capitalism by providing federal assistance to black owned businesses.

Dealing with a Struggling Economy 1970 the United States entered a recession. Economy suffered stagflation. Unemployment rose but also prices increased at an dangerous rate. Attacked Stagflation in two ways: 1) Nixon froze wages and prices for 90 days. 2) He authorized a new federal agency to strictly limit future wage and prices increases. 3) Replacing strict wage and price controls with voluntary guidelines.

Energy Crisis OPEC stopped shipping oil to the United States. Oil embargo was established to protest U.S. support for Israel in conflicts between Israel and other Arab nations. Government urged homeowners to lower their thermostats. Reduced highway speed limits to 55MPH.

Nixon’s Foreign Policy He hoped to replace endless conflict with a stable world order in which the superpowers could coexist peacefully. Realpolitik – politics of reality; refers to politics based on practical rather than idealistic approach. Nixon Doctrine: 1) United States could no longer bear the full burden of defending the free world. 2) Promised the United States would continue to protect its allies from Soviet or Chinese nuclear attacks. In other cases of aggression, the United States would expect the nation at risk to do more to help itself. Détente – relaxation of tension or hostility towards the Soviets and Chinese.

Détente with the USSR and China Several reasons for wanting a better relationship. 1/5 of the Worlds Population Relationship between China and the USSR began to spoil. Est. friendly diplomatic relations with China might pressure Soviet Leaders who feared Chinese power to cooperate more with the U.S. First U.S. President to visit China Pledged to establish formal diplomatic relations Three months after visiting China he became the first president to visit Moscow. Brezhnev’s desire to receive U.S. economic and technological aid. U.S. agreed to sell to the USSR at least $750 million worth of grain over a 3 year period. SALT I (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) Limited the USSR to 1,618 missiles to the United States 1,054.

Watergate / Abuses of Power June 17, 1972 five men broke into the DNC offices. Burglars wore suits and carried bugging or wiretapping devices Worked for Nixon’s reelection campaign. Once elected Nixon developed an “enemies list” that included reporters, politicians, activists, and celebrities whom he vied as being unfriendly to his administration. He authorized the FBI to tap the phones of news reporters whom he felt were biased against him. Ordered phone tapping of members of his own staff he did not trust. Wiretaps were unconstitutional and thus an abuse of power, because a judge had not properly authorized them. Set up his own White House security operations to investigate leaks of damaging information to the press. Known as the Plumbers * Deep Throat is the pseudonym given to the secret informant who provided information to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of The Washington Post in 1972 about the involvement of United States President Richard Nixon's administration in what came to be known as the Watergate scandal.

Watergate Nixon’s reelection campaign paid the plumbers to bug the Democrats’ offices. During trial one of the plumbers implicated the Nixon Administration in a cover-up. Defendants had been paid to lie to protect government officials. Justice Department appointed a special prosecutor to investigate Nixon’s misconduct. A special prosecutor is a lawyer from outside the government whom the attorney general or Congress appoints to investigate a federal official for misconduct while in office. At Televised hearings, former White House counsel John Dean testified Nixon had been involved in effort to cover up WH links to Watergate. Another former aide revealed that President Nixon installed a recording system in the WH Oval Office that taped every conversation Nixon had there. Senate subpoena the tapes; Nixon refused citing executive privilege. United States v Nixon ordered the president to release the tapes. Tapes proved that Nixon had ordered a Watergate cover-up Nixon resigned on August 8, 1974 facing three articles of impeachment. He became the only President ever to Resign