Nixon and Reagan Lecture Summary

Richard Nixon: 37th President (1968-1974)

Elected in 1968, resigned in 1974.
Republican.
Born in California; his father was a lemon farmer.
Education:
- Whittier College.
- Duke Law School.
Early career:
- Worked for the government in the Office of Price Administration before the war.
- Served in the Navy during World War II and was discharged as a lieutenant colonel in 1946.
Political career:
- Elected to the House of Representatives in 1946 as a Republican.
- Served on the House Un-American Activities Committee, targeting communists.
- Elected to the Senate in 1950.
- Accused his opponent of being a communist, referring to her as the "pink lady."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Nixon as his vice president in 1950s.
- Nixon was chosen to appease the right wing of the party.
- Ran for president in 1960 but lost to John F. Kennedy.
- Ran for governor of California in 1962 but lost.
- Told the media that they wouldn't have "Dick Nixon to kick around anymore."
- Elected president in 1968.

Checkers Speech

During his vice-presidential campaign, a secret political slush fund was exposed.
He used the fund to attack opponents and accept political gifts, including a dog named Checkers.
Nixon gave a speech addressing the issue, stating he would not give the dog up.
The public largely supported him, and the scandal subsided.

Nixon's Perceived Educational Inadequacies

Nixon felt inferior to those with Ivy League educations, despite attending Duke Law.
He had a complex about his education and felt looked down upon by the Ivy League educated.

1968 Election

Nixon vs. Hubert Humphrey vs. George Wallace.
Electoral College:
- Nixon: 301.
- Humphrey: 191.
- Wallace: 46.
Nixon won 32 states, Humphrey 14, and Wallace 5 (all Southern states).
Popular Vote:
- Nixon: 31.8 \, \text{million}.
- Humphrey: 31.27 \, \text{million}.

Vietnam War and the 1968 Election

LBJ considered ending the Vietnam War before leaving office and wanted both candidates (Humphrey and Nixon) to remain neutral on Vietnam while he tried to end it.
Nixon and Humphrey both spoke positively about ending the war.
Chennault Affair: Nixon worked through back channels (Anna Chennault) to communicate with North Vietnam, telling them not to negotiate with LBJ, promising a better deal under his presidency.
LBJ was aware of Nixon's actions and had him recorded on tape.
Nearly half of the deaths in Vietnam occurred during Nixon's presidency.
LBJ did not release the tape to avoid damaging the political process and questions about why he had tapes of Nixon.
The worry was that a peace treaty under Johnson would give Humphrey an advantage in the election.
Nixon's actions prevented any possibility of peace, extending the war until 1974.

Southern Strategy

The origin of the Southern strategy appealed to southern conservatives traditionally aligned with the Democratic Party to vote Republican.
George Wallace played a role in preventing Democrats from capturing the South.
Barry Goldwater laid the groundwork by opposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Nixon continued to exploit racial resentments, emphasizing that the Democratic Party had abandoned the South.
Strom Thurmond supported Nixon based on promises not to enforce civil rights or voting rights acts.
Nixon used coded language to appeal to racially motivated southern conservatives and exploited fears of 1960s culture, such as hippies and drug use.
Nixon called Timothy Leary, who pushed for drug legalization, "the most dangerous man in America."

Kent State and Hard Hat Riots

After the National Guard shot student protesters at Kent State, Nixon criticized the students.
The Nixon administration coordinated with construction unions in New York to counter student protests.
This led to the Hard Hat Riots, where construction workers and others attacked student protesters.
Thousands were involved, with over a hundred injuries.
Nixon invited the hard hat people into the White House, calling them "true Americans" and endorsing violence against his political opponents.

Domestic Policy

Nixon was an anti-New Deal Republican who used impoundment (refusal to spend allocated funds) to undermine programs, particularly Great Society programs.
He cut funding for some programs but struggled with others.
20% of controllable expenses were impounded by Nixon, but the courts challenged this.
Nixon tried to pass welfare reform that would provide cash payments through reverse income tax, but it was seen as a tax cut that would require work for low pay.

Environmental Policy

Nixon called for clean air, clean water, and open spaces and congress passed the National Environmental Policy Act.
He reorganized bureaucracy to create the EPA, established through legislation like the Clean Water Act and OSHA.
Nixon was not a fan of the EPA.
Nixon realized he could neuter the environmental movement by controlling the EPA to get political points.
Nixon underfunded the EPA, ensuring it would not strongly enforce environmental regulations.
These laws were largely passed with strong Democratic majorities.

Law and Order

Nixon emphasized "law and order," signaling support for suppressing protests and targeting African Americans.
He created the Witness Protection Program, mandatory sentencing, and new drug control measures.
Nixon led the "War on Drugs," which was a political attack on anti-war leftists and black people.
John Ehrlichman stated that the Nixon administration associated hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin to criminalize both groups and disrupt their communities.

Foreign Policy

Nixon used US power to amplify domestic power, as seen in Vietnamization and detente during the Cold War.
Pushed for detente, visiting Moscow in 1972 and signing SALT treaties to limit ballistic missile development.
He also went to China, improving relations.
Most of Nixon's foreign policy was concerned with Vietnam.
Nixon touted a secret plan to end the war but could not reveal it due to LBJ's agreement.
Madman Strategy: Kissinger informed back channels that Nixon was reckless and would escalate the war to end it, but Ho Chi Minh was unswayed.
The North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh didn’t believe Kissinger.
Nixon initiated Vietnamization, shifting responsibility for the war to South Vietnam.
He secretly bombed Cambodia in 1970, leading to the Kent State protests and massacre.
Withdrew troops from Cambodia but continued bombing it for three years.
In 1973, Nixon signed a peace agreement, but it was never ratified by congress and was not much better than what was offered in 1968 or 1969.
Cambodia:
- Secretly bombed Cambodia, starting in March 1969 (Operation Menu).
- Backed a coup that removed democratically elected Prince Sihanouk.
- This constant bombing and destabilization led to the rise of the Khmer Rouge.
- Operation Freedom Deal continued bombing Cambodia for three more years.
- At least 50,000 to 150,000 Cambodians killed.
- Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime killed between 1.5 and 2 million Cambodians.
- Ben Kiernan argued that US destabilization was crucial for the Khmer Rouge's rise to power.

1972 Reelection and Watergate

Nixon created the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP).
He won the election handily with 520 electoral votes to McGovern's 17 and had a clear majority of votes in the country.
During the campaign, someone broke into the DNC headquarters in the Watergate Complex.
Frank Willis, a security guard, noticed the taped door, and five men were arrested on the Sixth Floor inside the Democratic National Committee's offices.
Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward discovered ties to the White House, CIA, and CREEP.
Mark Fisk, known as Deep Throat, fed them information from the FBI's investigation.
The Watergate break-in was not initially a major issue and was connected to Castro.
Nixon began obstructing the FBI investigation.
Watergate investigation led to hearings and testimony before congress.
SCOTUS ruled Nixon's tapes were not subject to executive privilege.
The Plumbers unit was created.

Nixon Administration Scandals Additional Detail

Nixon felt that the Pentagon Papers were going to screw him over.
He worried the Pentagon Papers would expose the Chennault affair.
Nixon ordered the creation of the Plumbers unit, who broke in and stole papers (on tape).
Daniel Ellsberg released the Pentagon Papers, detailing US involvement in Vietnam since 1945.
To undermine Ellsberg, the Plumbers broke into his psychiatrist's office to get dirt on him.
The Plumbers were a covert hit group that carried out spy activity: tapping phones, money laundering, fraud, forgery.
They attempted schemes like ratfucking (turning opponents against each other).

Saturday Night Massacre and Impeachment

Nixon ordered the attorney general to fire the special prosecutor investigating Watergate.
Attorney General Richardson refused and resigned, along with his deputy.
Robert Bork fired the special prosecutor.
Nixon released more tapes with an 18-minute gap.
Articles of impeachment were drawn up, including obstruction of justice and violation of constitutional rights of citizens.
Impeachment was political, requiring public understanding and support.
Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, after Republican senators told him he would be removed from office.

Ronald Reagan: 40th President (1981-1989)

Served two full terms.
Republican.
Born in Tampico, Illinois, in 1911.
Nicknamed "Dutch" for being a little fat Dutchman.
His father was an alcoholic who beat his mother and him.
Reagan had a dad complex.
Education: Eureka College on a partial football scholarship.
Early career:
- Radio sports announcer.
- Seven-year contract with Warner Brothers in 1937.
- Played terminally ill George Gipp in a Knute Rockne movie, telling his teammates to "win one for the Gipper."
- Win one for the Gipper became a thing that we said about Reagan.
- Appeared in movies like Bedtime for Bonzo.
- B movie actor
Became president of the Screen Actors Guild in 1947.
His anti-communist views started here.
Supported the Hollywood blacklist, naming suspected communists. (appealed to conservatives).
Became involved with GOP politics in the 1960s.
Elected governor in 1966.
Challenged Ford for the GOP nomination in 1976 but lost.

Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine

In the 1960s, Ronald Reagan did conservative things.
Distributed a record speaking out against socialized medicine, supported by the American Medical Association and American Nursing Association.
He says the doctor begins to lose freedoms, so you decide that the doctor can have so many patients, and they're equally divided amongst the various doctors by government, but then the doctors aren't equally divided geographically.
This was done to undercut programs like Medicare and Kennedy’s nationalized health care program.
This is how Reagan ends: If I don't do it (Meaning push back against Socialized Medicine), one of these days, you and I are gonna spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like to be once like in America when men were free.

1980 Election

Reagan ran and won for president, that Carter was providing over a recession, though attempting he he was trying to turn Ronald Reagan into Herbert Hoover.
Reagan flipped it on Hoover, and portrayed himself as FDR.
Saw Reagan is the death knell of the New Deal coalition (Carter had given the famous Malay speech).
Seemed to be an inspirational leader & was a great cheerleader with a smile.
Even did nasty things, he had a smile, and the media laughed.
Routinely admitted that he was an FDR supporter while portraying the New Deal as a satanic mode of the new American right.
The nineteen eighties brings in the myth of the a lot. Reagan Democrats makes a good story, more of a myth.

Reagan's Campaign and the Election of 1980

Stole the briefing book from the Carter campaign for the debates and then used it in the debates.
There was an investigation into how and why they used it. No criminal charges.
During the Iranian revolution in 1979, the Iranians stormed the American embassy and held the Americans within it hostage in an effort to keep American invasion/ the disposition of the Iranian dictator prop up by America,
By the time the election rolled around, they had been in it for over a year by the election day.
Two failed rescue attempts, there was a torturesque type events going on.
Carter was close to releasing hostages (October.)
The Reagan campaign was freaked that they were gonna be released in October, and that would be enough to bump Carter's numbers up and put them over top.
Carter- down nearly 10,000,000 votes shy of Reagan (8,000,000 votes shy of Reagan).
Reagan was hammering Carter on the hostages, on the recession, all of these things were kind of slowly improving.
The recession was even getting a tiny bit better by the time the election was rolling around, but political hay came out of the the pillaring of Carter by Reagan was working.
The hostages weren't released because behind Reagan’s scenes, the Iranians were told to keep them held until Reagan was in office because he would give them a better deal.
Hostages were released minutes (4) after Reagan finished his inaugural address and credit was given to Reagan without him doing anything legally.

Reagan's Domestic Policy

An attempt to destroy the New Deal. Cut the budget by cutting taxes, and then this would cut inflation and unemployment.
Economy didn’t recover until 1982

Supply side or trickle-down economics

Reductions of over $40,000,000,000 in the budget, a 30% tax cut mainly into the top tax brackets, and plans to reduce bureaucratic waste.

Demonizing African Americans (The Welfare Queen)

Announced his campaign in the South at the site of a Ku Klux Klan lynching. He also demonized, African Americans, and gave birth to the trope of the welfare queen.
Linda Taylor was the welfare queen: also known as Martha Louise White or Martha Louise Miller (Black woman, born to white mother in the South).
Was routinely harassed by the police in Oakland, California.
Grand jury indicted her in 1974 for receiving payments adding up to a grand total of 7,608 (Later, 8,865).
Her prosecution in Illinois cost over 50,000, prison was 15 to 20,000.
Reagan made her famous when he brought up the idea of welfare Cadillacs and the abuse of the welfare system and was describing Linda Taylor when he said that she had 80 names, 30 addresses, 12 Social Security cards, and a tax-free income of 150,000).

Reagan's Foreign Policy

Reagan was determined to kill the Cold War: increased military spending (2,400,000,000,000.
With that, especially the tax cuts increased the national debt: In 1980, the national debt was 914,000,000. It was 2,600,000,000,000 in 1988 (nearly a 200% increase).
Carter’s last budget was 55 million. Reagan's last budget was 180,000,000 deficit.
Also pulled back Detente and pushed for a more hostile position towards communism (Called the USSR the "Evil Empire,