1. 24.1 NIXON’S PRESIDENCY

2. NIXON AT HOME New Federalism attempted to give more power to the states & local govts. “revenue sharing” allows states and locals to choose how to spend federal govt. dollars Both liberals and conservatives opposed his Family Assistance Plan (FAP) Would require unemployed people to work, but would guarantee them govt. payments too.

3. NIXON AT HOME With a liberal Congress, he increased Social Sec., Medicare, Medicaid But cut other liberal programs that helped the poor, women, minorities His “law and order” politics appealed to middle class white voters… But sometimes involved illegal FBI and CIA actions

4. NIXON AT HOME Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” flipped conservative Democrats to the Republicans He allowed many conservative southern states to slow down the process of school desegregation

5. NIXON AT HOME As Supreme Court Justices retired/died, he replaced them with more conservative ones But they sometimes made liberal decisions The “Swann” decision said districts could bus their students across town to combat de facto segregation For the most part, busing has been abandoned over the years, highly unpopular

6. FIGHTING “STAGFLATION” High inflation was caused by high govt. spending High unemployment caused by increased foreign competition (“outsourcing jobs”)

7. FIGHTING “STAGFLATION” OPEC (oil-rich countries) cut off oil to us 1973-1974 Price of gas went up 400% Nixon was unable to combat “stagflation”

8. NIXON ABROAD Nixon and Kissinger decided to actually start talking with Communist countries We shifted our focus towards powerful countries, not weak ones like Vietnam Overall, they worked towards détente, easing tensions with Commies

9. NIXON ABROAD Nixon’s week in China in 1972 allowed us to start creating business ties with them Also just improve “friendliness” (ping pong scene from Forest Gump, anyone?) Nixon’s visit to Moscow led to the SALT I treaty This limited certain types of missiles (but not the total # of nukes)