The Rise and Fall of Richard NixonCh. 22-25

New Conservatism at Home

• New Federalism• Welfare Reform• Law and Order• Win back southern conservatives• End Stagflation: high inflation + High oil

prices = low employment so freeze wages and prices

New Conservatism abroad

• Détente• Recognize China• Divide USSR and China• SALT I: reduce # of missiles to 1972 levels• Vietnam war ends 1973

1. Foreign Policy summary: accommodation with Soviets and recognition of China

“After a period of confrontation, we are entering an era of

negotiation.” -Richard Nixon’s 1st Inaugural Address

• Nixon’s go-to guy was Henry Kissinger• Shuttle diplomacy• Nixon Doctrine (1969)

– Honor treaties– Allies should use their own manpower for

their own defense.– Limited economic and military aid– “Vietnamization”- “expand, equip and get

out”

First-Term Foreign Policy Goals

• Strategic arms limitation (SALT I)

• Peaceful negotiation with foreign powers – “Rapprochement” with

China (ally against USSR)• Recognizes China

– “Détente” with the Soviet Union

Ping-Pong Diplomacy• American ping

pong team is invited to china in 1971.

• First Americans to visit China since 1949

• Opening of diplomatic relations

• U.S. lifts 20-year embargo

Détente with the Soviets• After years of hostile relations,

a cooling:– Détente focused on peaceful

negotiations and weapon limitations between the two nations.

• Unlike previous administrations, Nixon and Kissinger hope for a mutually beneficial relationship

• Not Soviets caving to Americans

2. Domestic

• “New Federalism”– Balance the power of the feds

with states– Allow some power in

Washington return to states

• Environmental Protection Agency

• Clean Air Act (vetoed by Nixon)

• OSHA• Title IX

Moon Landing ‘69Was it worth the cost?

• Spending billions of dollars to send some dudes to the moon to walk around provided a nice break from serious racial, socioeconomic issues, oh and Vietnam

• Clean Air Act (1970) • Clear Water Act (1972)

– States had specific federal guidelines to follow or face penalties with pollution

• Responses to the growing environmental movement

Energy crisis

• 1970- Worldwide oil shortages (both perceived and real)– Economic Stabilization Act

• 90 day freeze on all wages and prices

• 1973- Arabs upset about support for Israel

• OPEC Oil Embargo– National speed limit of 55 MPH– Gas lines and crappier cars

Cool (early 70s)

Not cool (late 70s)

Stagflation

17

• Inflation plus unemployment

• Defied economic patterns

Stagflation (4 reasons)

20

1. Johnson’s administration paid for Great Society and Vietnam without tax increases

2. Stiff competition from West Germany and Japan

3. Expensive energy

4. New workers entered the workforce

Tokyo1945

Tokyo 1975

3. The Court Shifts to the Right• Nixon and other

conservative balked at liberal Warren-era decisions:– Gideon v.

Wainwright (1963)– Miranda v. Arizona

(1966)– Engel v. Vitale

(1961)• Nixon appoints Warren

Burger to move the court to the right

3. The Court Shifts to the Right

• However, Roe v. Wade (1973)

3. The Court Shifts to the Right

• But also takes a shot at affirmative action in U.C. Davis v. Bakke (1979)

4. Social

• More women are working

5. Watergate and the Fall of Nixon

How does a piece of tape cause a president to resign?

“A third rate burglary”

• Polls showed Nixon trailing McGovern in early “72”

• Plumbers” turn to political espionage

• Five men (CREEP) are arrested while planting electronic surveillance equipment inside the DNC in the Watergate Office Complex

• Story disappears from the front pages

When reporters did their job

• Investigative reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover a paper trail through the inappropriately named “Deep Throat”

Cool informant in parking garage Really old guy in 2005

• Deep Throat gives a paper trail that implicates scores of FBI, CIA and Justice Department officials in a cover-up

• At the time, Nixon had ordered the CIA to block the investigation

Fall Guys

• Nixon scrambles to pin the break-in on the above guys

White House Counsel John Dean

Key White House Advisor John Ehrlichman

White House Chief of StaffH.R. Haldeman

The Senate Hearings

• Sen. Sam Ervin opens up the Watergate Hearings

• Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox is appointed to investigate

• Dean testifies he’d paid “hush money” to the Watergate burglars

The tapes

• Haldeman’s assistant Alexander Butterfield testifies about a secret White House recording system– Goes back to JFK and

LBJ

• Why you’d want to record criminal acts is unclear

“The Saturday Night Massacre”

• Country is in uproar• Cox subpoenas the

tapes• Nixon refuses

(executive privilege) and orders Cox fired

• Goes through three people at Justice to do it

“I’m not a crook!”

The Tapes• Supreme Court forces Nixon to surrender the tapes, the

effect was devastating. • Implicates Nixon from the earliest days of the Watergate

cover-up; – authorizing the payment of hush money, and attempting to use the

CIA to interfere with the FBI investigation.

• One tape, which promised to be particularly damaging, has an 18 ½ minute gap erased into the conversation.

• December 7, 1973: The White House can't explain an 18 1/2 -minute gap in one of the subpoenaed tapes. Chief of staff Alexander Haig says one theory is that "some sinister force" erased the segment.

• Nixon’s private secretary Rosemary Woods humiliatingly demonstrated for photographers how she could have inadvertently triggered the machine that erased the tape with her foot as she reached for the telephone, but no one bought it. 

The Smoking Gun• Most damaging tapes,

called “the smoking gun tapes,” were released on 5 August 1974,

• House Judiciary Committee had approved Articles of Impeachment against President Nixon.

• The effect was devastating, as even Nixon’s supporters abandoned him. 

Nixon Resigns

• Faced with impeachment, President Richard Milhouse Nixon resigns the presidency on August 9, 1974

Watergate and the Fall of Nixon

• Effects of Watergate1. Cynicism and skepticism

towards the presidency for years

2. Congress and the media gain power

3. Journalism majors increase 50%!

4. Every political scandal now ends in “-gate”! i.e. Monicagate

Where did they get the information?

• Woodward and Bernstein had many sources, some unnamed, but their most famous source was called “Deep Throat.” This was a secret source that had inside information about the president and the Watergate break-in.

• They never revealed the man’s name.

Mystery is over

• Mark Felt is Deep Throat• Served as the deputy director of the FBI. 30 year

career• Deep throat’s identity became known in 2005

when he stepped forward and identified himself.• He identified himself. The reporter’s only

confirmed it once Felt made the announcement

Gerald FordThe First Unelected

President

The Nixon Pardon

• Pardon for Nixon– Sacrificed his

presidency?

• Any crimes “discovered or undiscovered”

• Another “corrupt bargain”?????? (no proof)

Foreign Affairs• Helsinki Accords

– July 1975– Continuation of Detente– Legitimized Soviet

boundaries of Poland– Soviets agreed to be more

open and more humane…right…

• Fall of Saigon– April 29, 1975

Social• Feminist Movement gains momentum– Roe v Wade– Title IX – ERA

• Phyllis Shlafly

• Death of Other Civil Rights– Reversals in Integration– Failure of Affirmative Action– The Native “WHO CARES” Civil

Rights Movement

Jimmy CarterThe Nice Guy Who Finished First

Then…

Can our enemies take us seriously when our presidentwears cardigans?

Election of 1976

• The Bicentennial• Republicans –

Gerald Ford• Democrats – Jimmy

Carter (dark horse)– “I’ll never lie to you.”

Political (Domestic)

• Created Department of Energy (1977)

• Cut taxes• Pardoned Vietnam

Draft Dodgers

Political (Domestic) cont.• Massive inflation

– 13% in 1979• Failing economy• Americans must

Globalize trade• Dollar Loses Value as

Prices go up!!!• Interest rates soared

(no loans… no small business loans… no construction!)

Oil Crisis (Again)• Blamed economic woes on our reliance on

Foreign Oil• Iranian Revolution 1979

– Cuts off oil to U.S.

• OPEC raises Prices

• July 15, 1979- “Crisis of Confidence” Speech– Seen as Hypocritical– Seen as naïve/inexperienced

Foreign Affairs• ACTUALLY committed to

HUMAN RIGHTS in foreign affairs

• Championed the poor and oppressed:– Rhodesia– Nicaragua– Argentina (Will condemn

military dictators in L.A.)– End of Detente

• Full diplomatic relations with China in 1979

• Panama Treaties– Panama took ownership of

canal in 2000

Camp David Accords

• September 1978• Egypt – President Anwar

Sadat• Israel – Prime Minister

Menachem Begin

• Peace Accord:– Israel agreed to

withdrawal from conquered territory

– Egypt agreed to respect Israel’s borders

SALT II

• Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (Number 2)

• Failed in Ratification in Senate– Conservative Cold Warriors saw it as Naïve

Iranian Hostage Crisis• November 4, 1979• Anti-American

militants attack U.S. embassy in Teheran

• Demanded a return of the Shah– Not to power… But

for justice!• Attempted Economic

Sanctions- fail• Military rescue

(extreme failure)• 444 day crisis

American Morale in the late 70s