nixon ford carter admin

Presidential Election of 1968

Democrats

• Democrats are very divided 

• Eugene Mccarthy and RFK are anti-war 

• Hubert Humphrey is for the war

• RFK is assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan in LA – Arab nationalist who disliked Kennedy for his support of Israel 

• Hubert Humphrey gets the nomination 

• Violence erupts and it is televised 

• Eight days of protest against Humphrey – youth are pissed off because he was for the war

Republicans

• Richard Nixon and Spiro T. Agnew 

• He calls for peace in Vietnam, but not peace at any price 

Chennault Affair

• Named after Anna Chennault

• Chinese-American Republican fundraiser 

• She worked as an intermediary between the South Vietnamese and Nixon 

• Nixon wants the Vietnamese to delay the opening of peace talks and that he would offer them better prospects if he became president – sway the election away from Humphrey because a peace talk would have swung Americans towards the Democrats 

• In Oct 1968, President Chu Van Tan refused to join the Paris Peace talks

• LBJ calls it treason, he knew because he was spying on Anna Chennault 

• LBJ never admitted the information to the public because he would admit that he was spying on Anna 

• He feared releasing the info would damage the presidency 

• Nixon would deny involvement  

South

• To win the South, Nixon pledged to reduce enforcement of civil rights legislation and bus integration

• Nixon talked about the great, quiet, forgotten majority, the non-shouters and the non-demonstrators

American Independent Party

• George Wallace – segregation today, tomorrow

• Converted segregationist talk to conservative talk on the national level

• His part in the election influences the Nixon administration because he wins all of the deep South 

Victory

• Narrow for Nixon 

• Believed that Vietnam gave him the win 

• Democrats retain control of Congress

Nixon Domestic Policy

Realpolitik

• Practical politics or politics of the real world brother than politics based on theoretical, moral, or idealistic concerns

Nixonomics

•  LBJ lack of taxing although massive spending on domestic programs and Vietnam

• Economic is also erratic because US goods faced stiff international markets 

• US technology and economy was no longer superior or unchallenged – Marshall Plan gave European countries new tech and funding, so they have better economies 

• The US workforce grew by 40% or 30M due to baby boomers and women – number of new jobs could not keep pace with the number of people who wanted them 

• The economy depended on cheap sources of energy and no nation was more careless with it 

• OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Companies) was a group of states, Middle eastern, who used oil as a political and economic weapon 

• OPEC announces they won’t sell oil to countries supporting Israel, raises prices 400%

• Long lines to get gas and lower factory production 

Stagflation

• Slow economic growth, high unemployment, and inflation 

• Initially, Nixon uses the teachings of Milton Friedman (Adam Smith and John Keynes) who claimed that prices could be lowered by reducing the money supply 

• The results were disastrous because his ideas caused the worst stock market crash since 1929 

• He deliberately unbalanced the economy to create demand and decrease unemployment – failed 

• Aug 1971, they freeze wages, prices, and rents for 90 days – after they would replace the freeze w/ flexible guidelines that would allow annual price and wage increases

• Works – trade deficit vanishes, inflation was halved, economy snapped out of a recession 

• In order for this to continue, business had to continue following guidelines, but they undermine controls instituted by the government

• Stagflation returns and economic despair continues 

Democratic Congress

• Nixon is a Republican, but he signs a lot of legislation

1970 Occupational Safety and Health Act

• Make business places safer

26th Amendment 1971

• Lowers voting age to 18 

• 18 year olds being drafted, so they should be old enough to vote

Social Security and Federal aid

• Education

Federal Election Campaign Act 1971

• Modified rules governing corporate financial donations to political campaigns

War Powers Act 1973

• Passed over Nixon’s veto 

Apollo Space Program

• Continues funding 

• Neil Armstrong walks on the moon in 1961

Supreme Court

• Chief Justice Warren Burger – known for strict constructionism

• Burger Court was unpredictable and politically independent 

• Infuriated Nixon 

Pentagon Papers Case

• New York Times stole them

• Revealed that the government was lying to the people involving our involvement in Vietnam

• Nixon infuriated b/c he thought it was a matter of national security

Roe v. Wade (1973)

• Allowed for abortion federal protection

Spying 

• Nixon liked the electronically manage his enemies

• Supreme Court limited the DOJ’s efforts at electronic surveillance

Alexander v. Holmes County BOE (1969)

• Ordered desegregation 

• Southern schools still segregated 

Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg BOE (1971) 

• Bussing students to promote integration was constitutional 

Women’s Movement

Title IX

• 1972

• Achieved to sign gender equity in college sports 

• Later it will trickle down to public schools 

Equal Rights Amendment

• Passed by Congress in 1972 

• Created Alice Paul in the 1920s 

• Sent to the states

• ERA had been a cornerstone of the Republican party since the 1940s, among Republican women

• Phyllis Schlafly insisted that the ERA would take away rights from women and links it to Communism, abortion, and the state taking over care of children

• Republican party changes its mind

• ERA has to be ratified by 3/4s of the states, it got 35/38 needed votes 

• 1977, it is dead 

• However, in 2020, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify

• It has not become an amendment b/c Congress placed a ratification deadline on the ERA, 1982, so there is question whether or not that is constitutional 

• 25 states, including NJ and PA, include the ERA in their state constitutions

• Legislation was made since the 1970s, but legislation can be easily changed by Congress

Environment

• Not a major priority for Nixon, but at the time, there is both Republicans and Democrats pushing for environmental protection

• Today, they belong to the Democrats 

Rachel Carson, Silent Spring 

• 1962

• Humans have an impact on nature especially w/ the use of pesticides

1969 Endangered Species Act

1970 Water Quality Improvement Act

1971 Environmental Protection Agency

• Combined federal agencies into a single cabinet position

1976 Resource Recovery Act

• $453 for recycling

Chile

Salvador Allende

• Marxist Socialist 

• He ran for president and wanted to nationalize all industry

• Despite the CIA providing campaign money to his opponents, he still got elected in Oct 1970 

• The CIA encouraged the Chile military to oust him 

• In Sept 1973, he was either murdered or committed suicide 

• Paved the way for Augusto Pinochet 

Augusto Pinochet

• Seemingly allied w/ US and dictator

• Declares himself president and he executes thousands of his citizens 

Nixon Doctrine

• The US was no longer the world’s policeman against Communism 

• The US would provide economic and technical assistance, but not troops

• The US would pursue partnerships w/ Communist countries in areas of mutual interest 

China Opening 

• Since 1949, and since the Bamboo curtain, mainland China did not exist to us – we recognized Formosa 

• We tried to stop other nations from trading with the Chinese 

• Chinese were worried about the Soviet Union 

Mao Zedong

• Hopes for friendly relations w/ the US 

• Nixon responded positively to friendly signals from Zedong 

• Nixon decides to ease some trade/travel restrictions

Ping Pong Gambit

• April 1971

• China invites the US ping pong team 

Nixon

• In 1971, Nixon stuns the Americans when he announced that he planned to visit China

• A lot of US enthusiasm 

• His impeccable anti-Communist credentials — House Un-Americans Committee and Chambers — would save him from right-wing attacks 

• He wants to improve relations because 

  • 1) Most Western European nations had already normalized relations 

  • 2) There is a lot of UN pressure to give them a seat the seat on the Security Council – Taiwan expelled in 1971 

  • 3) He was hoping to use China friendly relations as a weapon against the Soviet Union 

  • 4) Hope that China could convince Hanoi for a settlement to end the Vietnam War

• He arrives Feb 22, 1972 

• For 5 days, he meets with Premier Jou Enlai and Mao Zedong 

Shanghai Communique 

• Defined the terms of the US-China relationship

• They agree to open up a legation – unofficial embassy 

• The US renounced restrictions on trade and travel to China 

• The US admits that Taiwan is a part of China 

Soviet Union 

Detente with the USSR

• Means relaxed tensions 

• Henry Kissinger and Nixon reversed US policy since 1945 

• They sought detente for reasons

  • 1) They could the Soviet Union against China 

  • 2) They hoped that they could work with China and get a peace settlement – Ho Chi Minh was not a tool though 

  • 3) NATO allies were making their own deals with the USSR 

  • 4) US industrial and financial interests – Eastern European markets 

  • 5) Spiraling arms race 

1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

1971 Berlin Agreement

• Defined the political status of Berlin 

• US recognizes East Germany as a legitimate state

• It created mechanisms for a peaceful resolution of any conflicts that might arise 

1972 Moscow Summit

• Leonid Brezhniv and Nixon meet 

• They sign three major agreements

  • 1) Limited each the 2 ABM sites and put ceilings on number of ABMs

  • 2) SALT I – Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, freezes number of missiles in both arsenals at 1972 levels for 5 years 

  • Both  accept strategic equality as basic promise for future arms control negotiations 

• Most productive era in relations

• Rival continues in third-world countries, but it is good

1974 Jackson-Vanik Amendment

• Came from critics in Congress over relaxed detente 

• Denied the USSR most favored nation trading status w/ the US until they stopped human rights abuses and allowed unlimited emigration of Jews

Middle East

Shuttle Diplomacy 

• Not as successful, but shows that US recognized Arab Power

• Kissinger negotiates an end to the Yom-Kippur War of 1973

• Pressure to prevent Israel from taking additional Arab land 

• Promotes closer ties with Egypt and restrained support of Israel

• He made many trips between capitals 

• Never created a peace formula and it ignored the Palestinian problem

1972 Presidential Election 

• Campaign was boring and one-sided b/c Nixon was incredibly popular – he was not going to lose 

CREEP

• Committee for the Reelection of the President 

• Headed by John Mitchell 

• Election cost $60M

Democrat

• George McGovern and Seargant Shriver – related to the Kennedy family

• George Wallace had been a challenger in the primaries – attempted assassination ends his run 

• Divided over Vietnam and Civil Rights 

• McGovern calls the Nixon administration the most corrupt in history 

• Democrats sweep Congress, but it was a landslide victory for Nixon 

Watergate

Tricks used by top advisors

• Illegal wiretaps played on bureaucrats and journalists suspected of leaking info to the press

• Used IRS to harass political opponents

• Raised millions of dollars in illegal campaign funds

• Ordered break-ing of Anciel Ellsberg psychiatrist office

• Circulated literature slander Democratic candidates

Break-in

• At DNC Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. 

• 5 men – the Plumbers – caught trying to photograph and steal documents and install bugs 

• If the 5 men would have admitted what they were doing, it would have embarrassed Nixon, but not for long 

• Instead, they cover it up 

• G. Gordon Liddy, former FBI and member of CREEP, and E. Howard Hunt, former CIA and head plumber, planned the operation 

Aftermath

• Nixon involved in cover-up

• All 7 men arrested 

• John Dean in charge of the White House investigation

• Sam Ervin in charge of Senate investigation 

• Initially the burgerally produced little public concern

• Sept 1972, a federal grand jury indicts the 7 men directly involved

• March 1973, trial begins 

• Republicans denied charges and the cover-up is successful for a while

• Spring 1973, cover-up fails 

Carl Bernstein & Bob Woodward

• Traced illegal campaign funds to CREEP

• Secret informant is “Deep Throat” 

• He never gave specific information, he confirmed information that the journalists were able to recover

• He suggested other avenues to explore 

Judge John Sirica

• Does not think the burglars acted alone and pressured them to tell the truth 

• James McCord, former CIA/FBI, hoping to avoid a long prison term, implicates CREEP and other prominent White House officials  

• Acting director of FBI L. Patrick Gray resigns after confirming he destroyed document

• Creator of the plumbers John Ehrlichman resigns

• H.R. Haldemann Chief of Staff resigns and serves time in prison

• Attorney general John Mitchell resigns

Senate Watergate Hearings

• May 17, 1973

• Televised 

• By mid-June, the question is “was Nixon involved” 

• John Dean testified before the committee and was fired because he said that Nixon was involved in the cover-up from the beginning 

• Archibald Cox replaced Dean

• Nixon said he only learned about the cover-up in March

• Vice-president Agnew took bribes when he Governor of Maryland 

• Aug 1973, federal prosecutors charged Agnew w/ bribery, extortion, conspiracy, and income-tax evasion 

• Nixon, convinced that Agnew was guilty, asked Agnew to resign

• Agnew resigned, fined $10K, gets 3 years of probation 

• Gerald Ford is the new Vice-president, old House Minority Leader, only president that was never elected when Nixon resigned 

Audio Tapes 

• July 13, 1973

• Senator discovers that Nixon recorded phone calls/conversations 

• Senate committee and Archibald Cox subpoena tapes of the Nixon-Dean convos 

• Nixon rejects both subpoenas and cites executive privilege 

• Judge Sirica orders Nixon to release the tapes

• White House appeals 

Archibald Cox

• Oct 10 1973

• Continues to pressure Nixon

• Nixon gets fired in the “Saturday Night Massacre”

• He orders his Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Cox, but he refuses to and he resigns 

• Nixon tries to get the Deputy AG William Ruckelshaus to do it, but he refuses to and he resigns

• Finally, Robert Bork will dismiss Cox 

• Nixon orders the FBI to seal all files and he replaces Cox w/ Leon Jaworski 

Grand Jury

• March 1, 1974 

• Indicts the key players 

• Would have indicted Nixon as well, but sitting-presidents could not be indicted while in office 

House Judiciary Committee

• Begins proceedings 

• Nixon releases edited transcripts, but there are discrepancies and things missing

Appeals Court

• White House appealed

• They also ruled that Nixon had to release the tapes 

• Jaworski asks the Supreme Court to hear the case 

US v. Nixon (1974)

• Nixon had to release the tapes in a unanimous vote 

• Nixon eventually releases the tapes, but two of the nine tapes do not exist and one of the tapes has a 18.5 minute gap between a conversation between Nixon and Haldeman three days after the break-in

• Credibility further undermined by questionable financial dealings w/ real estate in California and Florida and income-tax evasion 

Impeachment 

• July 1974, they sent three articles of impeachment to the House

• “Smoking Gun” tape found that Nixon was going to use the CIA to block the FBI investigation 

• Aug 8, 1974, Nixon speaks to the US for last time when he resigns – claimed that he resigned because he lost his political base and could no longer govern effectively, never mentioned Watergate 

• Aug 9, 1974, Ford takes the oath of office

• 378 officials, including 3 cabinet members and several top White House aids, either pled guilty or were convicted 

• 31 go to prison

Gerald Ford

• Nixon never impeached or imprisoned b/c Ford pardoned him 

• Ford did it because if not, America would continue to lose faith in government 

Ford Administration

• First he was a representative from Michigan 

• He became the House minority leader 

• He becomes vice president 

• He vows to continue Nixon’s policies 

• His top priority was to restore national confidence

• He grants a pardon to Nixon – many thought he made a deal – and to the draft dodgers if they did public service for one to two years 

• He creates new directives for greater Congressional oversight of the CIA and new guidelines for the FBI

• He receives no Congressional support 

Economy

• Deteriorates 

• Inflation soars

• Unemployment reaches 7%

• He tries to fix it w/ tight monetary policies, but it brought the worst downturn since the Great Depression 

WIN (Whip Inflation Now)

• Combat inflation by citizens and businesses 

• US multinational organizations relocated overseas b/c it was cheaper 

Energy Crisis 

• Oct 1973

• OPEC embargo US oil shipments for a few months to protest US support of Israel in recent wars w/ Egypt and Syria 

• Shortages of heating oil, brown outs, motorist lines

China

• Ford doesn’t gain as much ties as Nixon

• He visits Beijing but US support of Taiwan 

USSR

• Aug 1975 – Ford and Soviet leader met w/ European leaders in Helsinki, Finland

• USSR agrees to ease restriction of Jews to emigrate 

Vietnam

• War ends on Apr 1975

1976 Presidential Election

•  Campaign was dull

• Neither candidate stood out

Republican

• Gerald Ford

• Faced a challenge from Reagan for the nomination  

Democrat

• Jimmy Carter w/ Walter Mondale 

• Naval officer, nuclear engineer, and peanut farmer 

Winner

• Jimmy Carter 

• He was an outsider from Georgia so he was not part of the politics of DC – LBJ, Nixon, Ford 

Carter Administration

• Tries to restore popular faith in government 

• Includes more women, Blacks, and Hispanics in the government

• His top priority was to slash the size and cost of government – sells presidential yacht, cut White House staff, told the cabinet to give up government cars, installed solar panels on the White House

Economic problems

• Inflation, unemployment, declined productivity 

• He tries pump priming – John Meynard Keynes – give more money into the economy to increase spending 

• $14B to trigger job growth, cuts taxes by $34B 

• LBJ spent a lot of money on the Great Society and Vietnam, so it causes a spike in inflation 

• Minimum wage increase 

• 1979-1980, stagflation was at its worst 

• The Fed Reserve imposes strict monetary restriction that drive interest rates to historic heights 

• US goes into recession 

• Despite the 1973 enemy crisis, US uses more oil 

Department of Energy

• 1977 

• Combined conservation efforts and research and development 

• National Energy Act 1978 – set gas emission standards and gave incentives to apply alternate energy systems like solar 

• Act is gutted by oil, gas, and automobile industries 

Second Oil crisis

• 1979

• Iran Ayatollah 

• Carter becomes frustrated with economic issues and the US inability to reduce dependence on oil 

• He goes on TV and delivers an angry address in which he blames the American people for the nation’s problems

• Carter is baffled on how to solve the issue, he did not have a consistent public policy approach

• He never established a relationship or communication with Congress, media, or people 

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978)

• Bakke is a 37-yr old White male engineer who decided to go to med school 

• He applies and is denied despite the fact that his MCAT scores and GPA were higher than 16 minorities admitted under the set-aside policy

• Affirmative action policy started via. Kennedy 

• In a 5-4 decision, the court invalidates the Davis system and orders Bakke admitted, but they do endorse affirmative action by listing race as a reason of admission 

3-Mile Island

• Nuclear power plant near Harrisburg 

• Melts down, but they were able to fix it before there was an explosion 

Foreign Policy

• Believed that the soul of foreign policy should be the defense of human rights abroad 

Camp David Accords

• Built on Kissinger’s Shuttle Diplomacy

• Camp David is the presidential retreat in Maryland 

• In 1977, Egypt’s Anwar Sadat cannot get rid of the Israelis from the Sinai peninsula so he offers peace for the return of land 

• The agreement included Israeli’s withdrawal from the West Bank, the Golden Heights, and recognition of the Palestinian Liberation Organization as the Palestinian government 

• Israel’s Menachem Begin was willing to bargain on the Sinai, but not on Palestinian issues 

• In 1978, Carter invites both to Camp David – for two weeks, they achieve a framework for peace in the Middle East 

• Egypt agrees to a separate peace with Israel, Israelis agree to return the Sinai to Egypt, Palestinian issue is left vague, they agreed to self-governance of the West Bank w/ political status to be worked out later

• March 26, 1979

• Carter hoped the accords would launch an era of peace

Panama Canal

• April 1978

• Carter convinces the Senate to turn the canal to Panama in 2000 

Nicaragua 

• Feb 1978

• US cut of military aid to Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza 

• He is overthrown by the Sandinistas 

• US extends a $75M aid package, but when the Sandinistas help out Marxist guerillas in El Salvador, they begin a civil war and US stops aid 

China

• Exchanges ambassadors in 1979

Decline of Detente 

• Began under Ford and continues under Carter 

• US withdrawal of troops from Korea as a friendly gesture 

• Soviets view it as a sign of weakness and get more aggressive 

• Salt II isn’t ratified b/c the US proposed additional cuts in arsenals and the US had officially recognized China 

• Salt II becomes mute in 1979 when the Soviets invade Afghanistan 

• US trains Osama bin Laden with weapons 

• In Dec 1979, 85K Soviet troops invade to suppress Muslim rebellion 

• US supplies Afghan freedom fighters w/ weapons, cancel shipments to the USSR

• 1980, US boycotts the Moscow olympics 

• US increases military spending and removes restrictions on CIA 

Carter Doctrine

• 1980

• Calls the Persian gulf of vital Western influence and the US would repel by any means necessary an attack by an outside force 

Iran Hostage Crisis

• Prior to the ayatollah, it was an ally to US and helped constrict the USSR 

• They were a major supplier of oil

• They purchased billions of dollars of US arms 

• Shah Mohamma Reza Pahlavi allows the CIA to station electronic spy equipment along the Iran border w/ USSR 

• In 1978, there is anti-American rhetoric 

• The Islamic clergy led by the ayatollah, who was exiled, was preaching the idea that they wanted the modern Iran to be replaced with an Islamic republic 

• The shah forbid his army to fight, Jan 16th, 1979, Shah flees Iran 

• Iran’s oil production halts, economy slows 

• The US tries to establish relations with the ayatollah, but they call us the Great Satan 

• Oct 1979, Carter allows the shah to enter the US for medical treatment, cancer 

• Nov 4, Iranian militants overran the embassy in Tehran and take 53 Americans hostage

• US freezes all Iranian assets in US

• We suspend arm sales and boycott trade

• Ransom was the return of the shah and all of their wealth, shah would be executed 

• US does not negotiate with terrorists 

• April 1980, US severs all diplomatic relations and authorizes a military rescue

• Rescue is a failure 

• July 1980, shah dies in Egypt 

• Sept 22, 1980,

• Iraq invades Iran and offers to unfreeze assets for the return of hostages

• Iran refused

• Jan 21, 1981, as soon as Reagan takes the oath of office, Iran releases hostages for the return of $81B in Iranian assets