Presentation by:
Nathan Keane
&
Drew Lambert
Key Terms
The Nixon Doctrine
Vietnamization
Aid to Families and Dependent Children (AFDC)
Philadelphia Plan of 1969
Environmental Protection Agency
Southern Strategy
Watergate
Background Info
Born January 9, 1913
Died April 22, 1994
Inaugurated on January 20, 1969
Resigned on August 9, 1974 after hearing of his near
certain impeachment.
The Nixon Doctrine
Proclaimed that the U.S. would honor it’s existing defense
commitments but that in the future, Asians and others
would have to fight their own wars without the support of
large bodies of U.S. ground troops.
Anti-war protestors staged a massive national Vietnam
moratorium in October 1969 has nearly 100,000 people
jam the Boston Common and some 50,000 filed by the
White House carrying lighted candles.
The Nixon Doctrine (cont.)
Undaunted, Nixon launched his own home front
counteroffensive on November 3, 1969 he delivered a
dramatic television appeal to the great silent majority
who presumably supported the war.
Nixon himself in 1970 sneered at the student anti-war
demonstrators as bums
Vietnam War
January 1970 Vietnam conflict had become the longest in American
history with 40,000 killed and over 250,000 wounded
The third most costly foreign war in the nations experience
Vietnamization- Nixon’s plan to withdraw the 540,000 U.S. troops in
South Vietnam
The war was highly unpopular. Drug abuse, mutiny, and sabotage
dulled the army’s fighting edge. Ugly rumors filtered out of Vietnam
that soldiers were fragging their own officers
Domestic discuss with the war was further deepened in 1970 by
revelations that in 1968 American troops had massacred innocent
women and children in the village of My Lai.
As president, Nixon’s response was to widen the war in 1970 by
ordering an attack on Vietnam’s neighbor, Cambodia.
Cambodia
April 29, 1970 without consulting Congress, Nixon ordered American
forces joining with the South Vietnamese to clean out the enemy
sanctuaries in officially neutral Cambodia
Nixon withdrew the American troops from Cambodia on June 29, 1970 after
only 2 months
The President’s supporters argued that they captured enemy supplies and
gave South Vietnamese 8 months to strengthen themselves, but the bases
were not eliminated and Cambodian communist soon overran large areas of
the country
As anti-war firestorm flared even higher,
Nixon grew more daring in his search for an
exit from Vietnam
Nixon’s Relations with China and Russia
Nixon concluded that the road out of Vietnam ran through Beijing
and Moscow
Nixon astutely perceived that the Chinese-Soviet tension afforded
the U.S. an opportunity to play off one antagonist against the other
and to enlist the aid of both in pursuing North Vietnam into peace
A former Harvard professor in 1969 had begun meeting secretly on
Nixon’s behalf with North Vietnamese officials in Paris to negotiate
an end to the war in Vietnam
1971 Nixon startled the nation when he accepted an invitation from
China to visit the country. He made the journey in February 1972
Nixon then visited Moscow in May 1972 to play his China card in a
game of high-stakes diplomacy in the Kremlin
Soviets, in need of American foodstuffs and worried over the
possibility of intensified rivalry with the American backed China,
were ready to deal
Nixon’s Relations with China and Russia
(cont.)
Nixon’s détente diplomacy did, to some extent, dry-ice the cold war
by co-opting the two great communist powers, the President had
cleverly set the stage for America’s exit from Vietnam, but the
concluding act still remained to be played
Domestic Policy
Aid to Families and Dependent Children (AFDC) targeted single
mothers of young children
Nixon increased food stamps and medic aid.
Implemented a new federal program, supplemental security income
(know as SSI) which gave generous benefits to the indigent age blind
and disabled
1972 rose social security old age pensions and increased living cost by
more than 3%
Nixon helped reduce the nation’s poverty rate to 11% in 1973
Philadelphia Plan of 1969 required construction trade unions working on
federal contracts in Philadelphia to establish goals and time tables for the
hiring of black apprentices
Domestic Policy (cont.)
Nixon opened broad employment and educational opportunities for
minorities and women
He created the Environmental Protection Agency mounting concern
for the environment and air pollution in Los Angeles
Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” emphasized on appeal to white voters
by soft pedaling civil rights and openly apposing school bussing to
achieve racial balance
Watergate
June 17, 1972 a bungled burglary had occurred in the democratic
headquarters located in the Watergate apartment office
5 men were arrested with bugging equipment
They were working for the republican committee for the re-election
of the president, better known as CREEP
They were known to raise tens of millions of dollars through
secretive, unethical, or unlawful means
They used dirty tricks in campaign runs such as espionage and
sabotage and including fake documents directed against democratic
candidates
Resignation
Watergate Scandal cause many of Nixon’s administration to be
questioned and forced to quit
The attention from Watergate caused an internal investigation from
the FBI and the CIA into Nixon’s affairs
Nixon claimed on national television that he knew nothing of the
scandal, but on June 23, 1972 a recorded conversation of Nixon
proved he had known of the scandal 6 days before it happened
This information gave the Republican party a horrible reputation and
claimed that Nixon was a loose-cannon in the seat of the President
Faced with inevitable impeachment, on August 8, 1974, Nixon
resigned and gave his farewell address on national television
Bibliography
Gannon, Frank. "Domestic Policy Initiatives of The Nixon Years." Domestic
Policy. Richard Nixon Foundation, 15 May 2010. Web. 18 Mar. 2012.
<http://domestic.nixonfoundation.org/2010/05/15/the-domestic-policyinitiatives-of-the-nixon-years-2/>.
Kennedy, David M., and Lizabeth Cohen. "The Stalemate Seventies." The
American Pageant. By Thomas A. Bailey. 11th ed. Boston, NY: Houghton
Mifflin, 1998. 966-76. Print.
"Nixon Resigns." Washington Post. Washington Post. Web. 19 Mar. 2012.
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpsrv/politics/special/watergate/part3.html>.