• Early Life
• 1968 Election
• Foreign Policy
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The Nixon Doctrine
Détente
Realpolitik
China
Progress?
• Domestic Policy
– The Economy
– The Environment
– The Great Society Cont’
– Education
– Civil Rights
• Watergate
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‘Dirty Tricks’
1972 Election
The Cover-up
Impeachment
Nixon in Disgrace
• The End of the
American Century
• Early Life
• Vice-Presidency
– Anti-communism
– US-Soviet relations
• 1960-1968
• Imperial Presidency
• Secrecy
– Relationship with Henry
Kissinger
– Breakdown of public trust in the
Office of the Presidency
• Insecure; distrusting; angry
• Nov 1968 Nixon
won election with
43.4% vote
• A move to the
Right: ‘Southern
Strategy’
• Realism and
pragmatism
• Language: ‘law
and order’,
’forgotten
Americans’, ‘Silent
Majority’
• Henry Kissinger
• Helping nations to help themselves
– Vietnamization
• Nuclear Umbrella
– Allies and strategic
nations
• Reduced foreign
policy
responsibility
• Keeping decision
making at the top
• 27 Jan 1973: CeaseFire signed with
North Vietnam
– March 1973: US
troops complete
withdrawal
• May 1972: Treaties with USSR/ Premier Brezhnev
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Trade negotiations
Technological co-operation – Space Race
Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I)
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Strategic equality
Desire on both sides to slow expensive arms race
• Improving Sino-American relations spurred movement
• ‘Practical’ politics
• American aid dispensed on
Nation’s willingness to
oppose Soviet Union
– Actual Nature of government
of less (or even no) concern
• US supplied arms and
assistance to:
- The Shah of Iran
- White supremacist regimes
in South Africa
- Filipino kleptocrat/ dictator President Ferdinand Marcos
- Undemocratic regimes/ military juntas in Latin America
• ‘People’s Republic of
China’ (1949)
• Widening Sino-Soviet split
– Détente beneficial to both
sides
– Undermined Communist
power bloc
- Limited USSR expansion in Asia
• June 1971: Secret Kissinger visit
• Feb 1972 Nixon in China
• 1979: Formal diplomatic relations and recognition
• Warming relations with
USSR China
• Tensions rising in the
Middle East
- Oct 1973 - Yom Kippur War
- Oct 1973-Mar 1974
• ‘Shuttle diplomacy’
excludes USSR from
unstable Mid-East
• Tensions rising in
Latin America
- Destabilising
Allende
• 1969: ‘Guns and butter’
deficit
• Cut spending and raised
interest rates = stagflation
• Reduction in
manufacturing; increase
in strikes; lower standard
of living
• 1971: ‘I am now a
Keynesian’
• Increased spending to
stimulate economy
• Lurched from policy to policy
to find one that worked
- 1972: Largest deficit since
WWII
– Froze wages, prices and rent
until after the 1972 election
• 1972 Revenue-sharing Act
• 1973: 5 month oil embargo
due to Yom Kippur War
– Highlighted US dependence on
foreign oil
– Spiked oil prices: $3/ barrel $12/ barrel
– Caused high inflation
• 1970: 20m Americans celebrated 1st Earth Day
• 1969 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
– Spurred by oil spill in Santa Barbara, CA
• 1970: Clean Air Act
• 1970: Creation of
Environmental
Protection Agency
- Limited use of
pesticides
- Protected
endangered species
• 1969: Democrats held
House and Senate
– Co-operated on
increasing Social
Security; subsidised
housing; expanded Job
Corps; lowered voting
age
• Women’s Rights
– Roe V. Wade (1973)
• Healthcare
– Mixed approach
• Southern Strategy
• Against Federal funding to education
• Major amendments to the HEA (1965) in 1972
• Title IX
• Employment practices
• Academics
• Sports
• Against school prayer
• Tough on radicals to
undercut George Wallace
in 1972 election
• FBI/ CIA investigated Black
Panthers/ anti-war activists
- High profile trials
- ‘Enemies list’
• 1971: ‘The Plumbers’
• 1971: CREEP
- To ensure re-election
• 17 June 1972: break-in at the
Watergate
- Wiretapping DNC headquarters
• November 1972 Nixon re-elected
• Immediate cover-up over the
break-in
– “no-one in the White House staff,
no-one in this Administration,
presently employed, was involved in
this bizarre incident”
– Hush money; Presidential pardons;
halted FBI investigation
• James McCord (CREEP) confessed
– Woodward & Bernstein / ‘Deep
Throat’ (W. Mark Felt, FBI no.2)
• Feb 1973: Special Committee on
Presidential Campaign Activities
• Jan 1973: Watergate trial
– Resignation of Principal
Aides Bob Haldeman and
John Ehrlichman
– ‘Dirty Tricks’ exposed
– ‘Smoking gun’ – WH tapes
• Oct. 1973: ‘Saturday Night
Massacre’
• Oct. 1973: VP. Spiro
Agnew’s Resignation
• 1974: Impeachment
proceedings begin
• March 1974: Tapes subpoenaed
– Incomplete, edited versions –
‘national security
• May 1974 Impeachment hearings
began
• Aug. 9th: WH Tapes released/
Nixon guilty
- Nixon ordered cover-up, obstructed
justice; lied to American people
• Aug. 9th: Nixon Resigned
– Gerald Ford – only unelected US
President
• Defeat
– Vietnam/ liberalism/ economic
prosperity
– Presidency in disgrace
• American identity shattered
• Unease in society
– Return to ‘traditional values’
and nostalgia
– ‘I don’t know a dream that’s not
been shattered or driven to its
knees’ (Paul Simon)