RAH Day 29 AgendaRAH Day 29 Agenda• Goal – to understand why Nixon was elected and how he was

both similar to and different from his predecessors. To understand why Nixon resigned. To understand that Ford was a caretaker President at a difficult time

Warm-up – why did Nixon resign?• Read p 21-23 – Articles of Impeachment –

1. identify Nixon’s alleged wrongdoings related to the Watergate break-in

2. do the articles of impeachment reflect democracy at work or a breakdown in our system?

3. Do the articles of Impeachment indicate actual examples of treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdeeds that would lead you to have wanted to remove Nixon?

– Video of Nixon’s Administration• Evaluate the presidency of Nixon – provide specific evidence to

support your evaluation• Complete top of p 24 about Pres. Ford. • Discuss DBQ for Wednesday• In groups – discuss your answers to Course Review for this unit

to review for test

Watergate – Nixon’s Downfall

June 1972 – break-in

1. The “plumbers” were part of a White House Special Investigations Unit who used “dirty tricks” like the break-in of Daniel Ellsberg’s doctor’s office to dig up dirt on political opponents. Many of the Watergate burglars like G. Gordon Liddy and Howard Hunt were also involved in the Ellsberg break-in.

Fall – 1972 –

Jan 1973

Mar 1973

April 1973 – Cox investigates cover-up

Nixon wins reelection – Woodward and Bernstein investigate the break-in with help from Deep Throat looking for ties to NixonJudge John Sirica wanted to encourage the plumbers to tell who directed their actions – He was sure that Hunt and Liddy had not acted without orders from the White House.McCord, seeing that Nixon was bribing him and the others and was covering up, decided to tell Sirica about the cover-upMitchell was the Attorney General, then directed CREEP, Dean was White House Counsel. Mitchell authorized the break-in and helped cover it up, and Dean was main director of the cover-upNixon tried to hide the cover-up so he fired Dean (who will testify in the Senate that Nixon was involved) and Chief of Staff Haldeman and Economic Advisor Erlichman resign

Watergate ScandalNixon – Wants to be re-elected

Need to: raise money, run a campaign, get info on Democrats and ruin political opponents

Special Investigations

Unit•Krogh

•Hunt

•Liddy

“The Plumbers”

Break in of Dr. Fielding’s office to steal info to ruin Pentagon Paper’s’ leaker Daniel Ellsberg

Committee to Re-Elect the PresidentFormer AG John Mitchell – ChairmanAides – H. Howard Hunt – former CIAG. Gordon Liddy – former FBIJames McCord – security specialistBurglary Team – James McCord hired former Cubans - Barker, Sturgis, Gonzales, Martinez

Aided by

Hunt and Liddy in the Howard Johnson’s Hotel

Break-in to Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate Hotel and Office

Watergate Scandal

Burglary Team – arrested after Frank Wills sees a door propped open and calls the DC Police. All 7 men are arrested.

Break-in to Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate Hotel and Office

FBI – investigates and finds a slush fund of cash to fund illegal activities against the Democrats

Judge Sirica – presides over trials of the burglars – 5 plead guilty, but McCord and Liddy fight and are convicted

Judge Sirica – hands down harsh sentences and determines there is a cover-up

Washington Post Metro Reporters investigate the Break-in – Something seems very fishy

“Deep Throat” tells Woodward to “follow the money”

They report that there is a White House connection and apparent coverup

Bob WoodwardBob Woodward

Carl BernsteinCarl Bernstein

Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, chaired by Senator Sam Ervin (D-NC) begins

to investigate Senate Committee holds hearings – Mitchell, Butterfield and

Dean all testify

Sam ErvinSam Ervin

Watergate – Nixon’s Downfall

May – July 1973 – Senate televises hearings

Spring and summer 1973

Oct 1973 – sat. Night Massacre

February 1974-

April 1974

July 1974

Aug 8 1974

a. Dean says that Nixon was involved in the cover-upb. Mitchell says that if there was a cover-up, Nixon knew

nothingc. Butterfield says that Nixon has tapes of all of his Oval

Office conversationsSenate and Judge Sirica want access to the tapes Butterfield testified existed, as does Cox – Nixon orders FBI off the case and tries to obstruct CoxCox is getting closer so Nixon orders him fired – AG Richardson resigns, DAG Rickelshaus resigns, so Solicitor General Bork fires Cox – this looks bad for Nixon – firing the man investigating him – appoints Leon Jaworski as new special prosecutor

Nixon finally gives in and releases typed transcripts of some of the tape-recordings, but the transcripts (heavily edited) did not show much incriminating except to show Nixon used profanity, did not seem to care about Watergate and was not very niceSupreme Court orders Nixon to submit to Congress and Judge Sirica the actual tape-recordings

Nixon submits tapes that show that he knew about the break-in afterwards but ordered a massive cover-up – Resigns Aug 9

House authorizes Judiciary committee to begin investigating grounds for impeachment

Watergate Scandal

Judge Sirica – hands down harsh sentences and determines there is a cover-up

Woodward and Bernstein continue to investigate and report

Nixon wants to cover-up more – pretends to want an investigation by Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox

Want the tapes!NO Tapes!! Executive privilege – and

Cox – You’re Fired!! Gimme Jaworski. BUT…

here are written transcripts of the tapes

Senate Committee finds out there are audio

tapes of Nixon

Jaworski is new

special

prosecutor Resignation

US Supreme Court Says: 9-0 “give up the tapes!!”

House asks: is there something

fishy here?

House opens investigation by

Judiciary Committee: are there grounds for

impeachment?

Ford 1 – ended watergate by pardoning Nixon2 – troubled economy – promoted “WIN”

Whip Inflation Now program – tried to tighten money by decreasing federal spending and getting Fed to raise interest rates. Cut taxes to increase growth

3 – Hostile Congress – Ford vetoed 50 bills in just about 2 years in office, Democrats wanted aid to education, health and NYC

4 – Cold War – signed Helsinki Accords with USSR and started the SALT II. Looked tough against Cambodians in the Mayaguez crisis

5 – Mayaguez Crisis against Cambodia – muscular response

Nixon Administration

1. Size and Power – Nixon was a conservative in ideology – he wanted a smaller, less powerful federal government. Instituted the New Federalism program which included the “Revenue Sharing” policy – block grants to the states with few strings attached. To prevent the Democratic Congress from spending too much money he “impounded” the money (did not spend it, even though Congressional law told him to)

However, Nixon expanded programs like social security, medicare, low income housing and the Job Corps. He also was the “environmental President” in that during his administration, he signed into law the Environmental Protection Agency, the Clean Air Act of 1970, the Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation Recovery Act

2. Inefficiency in Welfare – as a conservative, and consistent with his ideas about a smaller government, Nixon abolished the Office of Economic Opportunity, pushed through Congress cuts in Urban renewal programs, job training and education.

However, he signed into a law a new Comprehensive Employment and Training Act, authorized a new kind of welfare for those who could not work due to injury, illness, etc called Supplemental Security income, created an Urban Affairs Council and publicly pushed for the Family Assistance Plan that was very liberal sounding (He worked behind the scenes to kill the plan)

3. Vietnam – Nixon deescalated the war with Vietnamization, continued peace talks and got a peace accord signed.

To deal with the war protestors, he had the FBI infiltrate the groups, wiretapped their phones, had the CIA and IRS work to undermine the groups and their leaders, and sent the VP out to make speeches against “the nattering nabobs of negativity” – the liberal protestors

4. Nixon got reelected for two main reasons – the Southern Strategy – attracting the George Wallace and dixiecrat vote by playing the race card – publicly working against civil rights expansion and enforcement and working against busing and other methods of integrating schools, opposing bringing discrimination suits, and opposed extending the Voting Rights Act.

He also got reelected because the Anti-war George McGovern appeared weak and ineffective in 1972 when the country was still in an uproar with protests while Nixon seemed strong and had huge successes in foreign policy like the approaching end of Vietnam and the trips to China and USSR

5. Nixon tried to replace liberal justices who retired, like Earl Warren and Abe Fortas, with conservatives like Rhenquist, Powell, Blackmun and Chief Justice Warren Burger. His two most conservative nominees, Clement Haynsworth, G. Harrold Carswell, were defeated by the Senate

6. Stagflation is a period of slow to no economic growth coupled with high inflation. This period of economic problem was partially caused by deficit spending, competition from Europe and the baby boomers and more women entering the workforce, the oil embargo put on the US by OPEC made the situation worse.

Nixon’s Administration attempted to address these economic problems first by monetarism – trying to cut government spending and raising taxes and pushing the fed to interest rates – this was supposed to take money out of the economy and thus lower inflation. But it made the economy even slower leading to higher unemployment. He also instituted temporary wage and price controls. Prices stabilized a while right before the ’72 elections – then got worse.

The second plan was Keynesian – he took the US off the gold standard, devalued the dollar, pushed the federal reserve board to cut interest rates, increased tariffs– nothing really worked

•On 5 September 1965, the first use of the word hippie appeared in print. In an article entitled "A New Haven for Beatniks," San Francisco journalist Michael Fallon wrote about the Blue Unicorn coffeehouse, using the term hippie to refer to the new generation of beatniks who had moved from North Beach into the Haight-Ashbury section of San Francisco. Fallon reportedly came up with the name by condensing Norman Mailer's use of the word, "hipster" into "hippie". The name did not catch on in the mass media until almost two years later, after San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen began using the term hippies in his daily columns.