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Richard Nixon Notes
Nixon’s “Silent Majority”
Richard Nixion looked to gain votes from Democrats that were from the South.
Nixon came from a middle-class family. At Duke Law School, he had to live in an abandoned toolshed.
He earned the nickname of “iron pants” because of his hard work.
Nixon believed himself to be a representative of the “silent majority.” It refers to the older generation (World War II veterans), but it described many people in the Midwest, West, and the South.
Nixon set 2 campaign goals: to distance himself from LBJ on Vietnam and to turn Wallace’s people into a Republican majority.
Nixon supported the Vietnam War, which made the issue delicate. He had a secret plan to end the war, but he refused to reveal it. He only pledged to find an honorable solution.
Hubert Humphrey had trouble trying to get supporters for his campaign.
Nixon won 43.4% of the popular vote, followed by Hubert Humphrey (42.7%) and George Wallace (13.5%).
The Nixon Era
People saw Nixon as a traditional small-town conservative who cherished initiative, chamber-of-commerce capitalism, 4th of July patriotism, and middle-class Victorian rules.
Nixon was more bitter towards those who he saw as enemies. He was also physically awkward.
Nixon’s language towards others was caustic and profane.
Henry Kissinger
One of Nixon’s first priorities was ending the Vietnam War.
He became allies with National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger. He shared with Nixon a global vision of foreign affairs.
Kissinger tended to pursue his goals secretly.
Both Nixon and Kissinger wanted to end the war but wanted to end the war on “peace with honor.” This meant they had to leave South Vietnam behind.
Nixon introduced “Vietnamization,” which is the gradual withdrawal of American troops to allow for peace talks in Paris. This meant that the South Vietnamese army would have to fight against North Vietnam by themselves.
As the media shifted their focus to the peace talks, many Americans were convinced that the Vietnam War was going to end.
Nixon hoped to drive North Vietnam into negotiating peace on American terms. He developed the reputation of a cold warrior who would stop at nothing.
Invading Cambodia
In the spring of 1969, Nixon launched a series of bombing attacks against North Vietnamese supply depots inside Cambodia. Johnson never did this for fear of domestic reaction.
Nixon kept the surprise attack secret. He di
He did not want people to know about the attacks because if they did, he would lose a lot of support.
Ho Chi Minh’s death in 1969 did not weaken North Vietnam. His successors continued to reject any offer that did not end with complete withdrawal or abandonment of the South Vietnamese army.
Nixon ordered American troops into Cambodia to wipe out North Vietnamese bases.
There were several protests that followed. One included a clash between authorities and students at Kent State and Jackson State.
Congress was so upset it repealed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
Fighting a No-Win War
Vietnamization seemed to work at first. The South Vietnamese troops began improving as American troops were withdrawn.
For American GIs still in Vietnam, morale was a big issue. They did not understand why the grunts in the field were still putting their lives on the line where there was not going to be a victory.
The US Army could no longer isolate itself from the things dividing up American society. For example, many soldiers began using drugs, just as young Americans began using marijuana and hallucinogens.
Black GIs brought with them the issues of black power.
The Move toward Détente
Despite Nixon's insistence on “peace with honor,” Vietnam was not a war that he wanted to fight. Kissinger and he realized that by 1968, the US did not have the tools to dominate international relations around the world.
Ever since Khrushchev stepped down after the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviets had slowly expanded their nuclear arsenal.
The Vietnam War used up valuable military and economic resources that prevented the US from addressing instability in the Middle East and other Third World regions.
Nixon Doctrine
The US remained engaged in Asia but shifted some of the military burden to other allies. At the same time, Nixon and Kissinger were looking for ways to hold Soviet power through negotiation.
Nixion’s policy to address Soviet power through negotiation was called détente. He and Kissinger looked to ease tension by linking separate cold war issues.
Nixon also decided to reach out to Mao Zedong. The Soviets viewed China as more of a threat than the US. Nixon calculated that they would cooperate to discourage the US from enlarging Chinese power.
For a long time, Republicans had supported the Nationalists in Taiwan and viewed the USSR and China as part of a Communist monolith.
Kissinger secretly went to China on a secret mission and then reappeared to announce that Nixon would go to China.
SALT I
In May, Nixon traveled to the USSR to join Leonid Brezhnev in signing the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I).
In SALT I, both sides agreed to limit the number of ICBMs each side had, as well as agreeing not to develop any ABMs.
Americans were pleased that Cold War tensions were cooling down.
It was not clear that the linkages achieved in Moscow and Beijing would help free the US from the Vietnam War.
Pluralism vs. Assimilation
Just as Vietnam weakened the liberal consensus on the need to have communism, minority activism challenged liberal assumptions on integration.
The emerging politics of the 1960s led to the creation of a model of pluralism.
Pluralism hoped to dissolve inequality by raising the status of formerly disadvantaged groups.
Traditionally, Latino civil rights activists looked to assimilate into American society. Now minorities have begun to forge their identities in opposition to the prevailing culture.
By 1970, black nationalists abandoned integration for the politics of black pride. To these activists, the qualities that distinguished black Americans were what made them distinct.
Puerto Ricans and Cubans
After WWII, more than a million Puerto Ricans migrated to NYC. As citizens of the US, they were allowed to travel around the mainland.
The newcomers were shocked when they learned that on the mainland, they faced discrimination and segregation in urban slums.
Light-skinned immigrants escaped discrimination by blending in with “Latin Americans.” The Puerto Rican community lost some of its leadership it needed to advance its political interests.
During the 1960s, groups such as Aspira adopted the strategies of civil rights activists and organizations.
The Cubans who arrived in the US after Fidel Castro came to power in 1959. Some 350,000 came to the US over the decade.
Mexican Americans constituted the largest segment of the Latino population. Until the 1940s, most were farmers and farm laborers in Texas, New Mexico, and California.
During the 1950s, the process of mechanization pushed Mexican Americans toward the cities.
César Chávez and the UFW
Mexican agricultural workers still faced harsh working conditions and meager wages. Attempts to unionize failed because workers migrated from job to job.
In 1963, César Chávez recruited Gil Padilla and Dolores Huerta to try at unionizing. Their efforts over time led to the creation of the United Farm Workers labor union.
Like MLK, Chávez used nonviolence. He was also guided by a deep religious faith. During a strike in the summer of 1966, he led a 250-mile march on Sacramento.
The UFW organized a consumer boycott of grapes in supermarkets across the nation. The boycott forced growers to negotiate contracts with the UFW, which started in the 1970s.
Chicano Activists
Chávez saw a new generation of Mexican Americans take up an aggressive brand of identity politics. They began calling themselves Chicanos.
Chicanos saw themselves as those whose heritage had been rejected, their labor exploited, and their opportunity for advancement denied.
In Denver, Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales laid out a blueprint for a separatist Chicano society.
La Raza Unida
The new activism came from college and high school students. Mexican Americans attended college i0n increasing numbers.
LBJ’s Educational Opportunity Programs brought higher education to thousands more Latinos. By 1968, some 50 Mexican American student organizations sprung up on college campuses.
La Raza Unida launched a third-party movement to gain power in communities in which Chicanos were a majority.
The Choices of American Indians
The growing strength of the civil rights movement threatened Indian tribal identities.
During the 1950s, the Bureau of Indian Affairs adopted a policy of “termination.” The bureau would cut federal services, gradually sell off tribal lands, and push people to the “mainstream” of American life.
Although most full-blooded Indians objected to the policy, some of them already assimilated with white society.
American Indian Movement
The activism of the 1960s inspired Indian leaders to create their own political agenda. In 1968, urban activists created the American Indian Movement.
In 1969, American Indians living around San Francisco Bay formed Indians of All Tribes.
Since the Bureau of Indian Affairs refused to address the problems of urban Indians, militant members of Indians of All Tribes seized Alcatraz Island.
In 1973, Russell Means and Dennis Banks led a dramatic takeover of a trading post at Wounded Knee.
Ever since the Wounded Knee takeover, it symbolized for Indians the betrayal of white promises and the bankruptcy of reservation policy. It proved how difficult it was to achieve unity when so many tribes were going their own ways.
The movement splintered further as more than 100 different organizations were formed during the 1970s at the state, local, and federal levels.
Asian Americans
The 1965 Immigration Reform Act led to a sharp increase in the number of immigrants from Asia. Asians made up 2% of the population by 1985.
The new wave of Asian Americans included middle-class professionals, a lower percentage of Japanese, and far more newcomers from Southeast and South Asia.
Many Americans saw Asian American immigrants as “model minorities.” They had skills in high demand, worked hard, were often Christian, and seldom protested.
Although many professionals assimilated into American society, agricultural laborers and sweatshop workers remained trapped in poverty.
Few Americans were aware of Asian involvement in identity politics. That was because the large majority of Asian Americans lived in 3 states: Hawaii, California, and New York. They were also less likely to join vocal protests.
Asian students advocated for a curriculum that recognized their histories and cultures.
Gay Rights
In 1972, Huey Newton seen that homosexuals “might be the most oppressed people” in American society.
By then, a growing number of homosexuals embraced liberation movements that placed them among minorities demanding equal rights.
Even during the 1950s, gay men found the Mattachine Society to fight anti-homosexual attacks and to press for wider public acceptance.
Lesbians formed the Daughters of Bilitis in 1955. Beginning in the mid-1960s, more-radical gay and lesbian groups began organizing to raise individual consciousness and to prove a gay culture in which they felt free.
Stonewall Incident
The movement’s defining moment came on Friday, June 27, 1969.
New York police raided the Stonewall Inn. The police regularly harassed gays and lesbians by raiding the places where they were gathered.
Gay activists called on homosexuals to come out and affirm their sexuality.
In 1974, gays achieved a victory when the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from a list of mental disorders.
The Feminine Mystique
Betty Friedman was one of the earliest to voice dissatisfaction with the cultural attitudes that flourished after WWII.
Even though more women were entering the job market, the media glorified homemakers and homemakers while discouraging those who aspired to independent careers.
In the Feminine Mystique, Friedan finds the problem that had no name, a dispiriting emptiness during our lives.
The book gave new life to the women’s rights movement.
The Commission on the Status of Women proposed the 1963 Equal Pay Act and helped add gender to the forms of discrimination outlawed by the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Women played a significant role in both the civil rights and anti-war movements.
Women who joined the protests of the 1960s often found themselves limited to providing menial services such as cooking and laundry.
National Organization for Women
By 1966, activist women were less willing to still be silent.
Friedan joined a group of 24 women and 2 women to form the National Organization for Women (NOW). The group persuaded LBJ to include women along with other minorities as a group covered by federal affirmative action programs.
After 1957, the birthrate began a rapid decline. By 1970, 40% of women were employed outside the home.
Education spurred the shift from home to the workplace since higher educational levels allowed women to enter an economy oriented toward white-collar service industries.
Equal Rights and Abortion
As its influence grew, the feminist movement used women's grievances to create a political agenda.
In 1967, NOW proclaimed a law that called for parental leave for working mothers, federally supported day care facilities, childcare tax deductions, and equal education and job training.
Feminists were divided on the passage on an Equal Rights Amendment and a repeal of state antiabortion laws.
Roe v. Wade
At first, support was strong for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. In 1973, 28 of the necessary 38 states had approved the ERA. 10 more were needed for ratification.
Many women in the women’s movement supported the decision in Roe v. Wade, which struck down 46 state laws restricting a woman’s access to abortion.
Justice Harry Blackmun said that a woman in the 19th century has the right to an abortion.
The early success of the Equal Rights Amendment and Roe v. Wade began to decline.
Roe v. Wade got backlash from many Catholics, Protestant evangelicals, and socially conservative women.
Phyllis Schlafly, an Illinois political organizer, began the “STOP ERA” crusade. She believed that women should embrace their traditional role as homemakers subordinate to their husbands.
By 1979, supporters of ERA were forced to admit that they would not succeed. And the ERA did not get ratified.
Sources of Pollution
As early as 1962, Rachel Carson warned against the widespread use of chemical pesticides, especially DDT. Pesticides were only one aspect of what environmentalists considered misguided technology.
A report issued in 1965 revealed that every river near an urban area in the US was polluted.
Smog, radioactive fallout, lethal pesticides, and polluted rivers were the by-products of a society that relies on technology and economic growth.
Many automobiles were inherently dangerous to their occupants.
Ralph Nader investigated the rear-engine Chevrolet Corvair. The car tended to flip over during turns or skidded uncontrollably, according to a GM report.
Nader was the son of immigrant Lebanese parents who supported his success at Princeton and Harvard Law School.
When he discovered GM’s campaign against him, he successfully sued. By the time GM’s president apologized, he became a counterculture hero.
In 1966, Congress passed the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act and the Highway Safety Act. The government needed seatbelts and set safety standards for cars, tires, and roads.
Focus on Ecology
Many environmentalists had links to the Progressive Era and the idea that government action could police corporate irresponsibility.
What made modern environmentalism distinct was a growing focus on ecology. Since the early 20th century, ecology had proved how closely life processes throughout nature depended on each other.
Rachel Carson called for a biocentric approach to nature (human-centered).
In The Closing Circle, Barry Commoner argued that modern society courted disaster by trying to “improve on nature.”
American farmers increased their crop yields by switching to artificial fertilizers. The change consumed enormous quantities of energy, raised costs, left soil sterile, and polluted nearby water.
Environmental Protection Agency
Although Nixon did not like liberal reform, he sensed that these value movements had broad popular appeal.
His administration supported the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. This law requires environmental impact statements for all major public projects.
In 1970, Nixon set up the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), whose first major act recognized Rachel Carson’s campaign of ending the use of DDT.
The president also signed a bill that set up the Occupational Safety and Health Agency (OSHA) to enforce health and safety standards in the workplace.
Nixon’s Southern Strategy
Nixon’s political instincts were shrewd. For example, rather than fighting the popular tides, he rode them in the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969.
He resisted those such as affirmative action that offended Republicans and traditional Democrats.
Both the 1968 and 1972 elections revealed a shift in political power toward the southern and western rims of the US where traditional values flourished and where whites were deserting the Democrats.
He sometimes referred to his “Southern Strategy” to replace the old New Deal coalition with a new Republican majority. By the early 1970s, his silent majority worried more about job security.
Nixon looked to create a similar backlash against identity politics. Conservatives opposed many of the era’s reforms, the integration of private clubs, and the use of racial and gender quotas for jobs and college admission.
Conservatives believed that merit should decide an individual’s opportunities.
Ethnic identity organizations spoke out against affirmative action or minorities.
Most labor leaders resisted the push for affirmative action. They were worried about rising inflation and the erosion of high-wage, union employment in major industries.
George Meany stayed a dedicated supporter of the Vietnam War. When Jock Yablonski led an insurgent movement, Tony Byle hired shooters to kill Yablonski and his wife and daughter.
Critics could not deny the fact that political and social activists had empowered people who had long seen themselves as “other” Americans who were excluded.
The reforms of the 1960s opened doors to jobs, careers, and success previously closed to all but white males.
The End of the War
Like identity politics, the continuing debate over the Vietnam War continued to divide America.
A peace settlement in Vietnam eluded Nixon because North Vietnam continued to reject any agreement that would leave South Vietnam in power.
In May 1972, Nixon mined and blockaded Haiphong. In December he launched a greater wave of attacks. American planes dropped more bombs in 12 days than they had from 1969 to 1971.
Ironically, South Vietnamese leaders threw up the greatest obstacle to a settlement because they were convinced that General Thieu’s regime would not last once the US left.
Philadelphia Plan
In August 1969, 5000 angry white union workers marched on city hall in Pittsburgh. They confronted the police, and 50 protesters were injured and 200 were arrested.
The same confrontation that happened in Pittsburgh occurred in Chicago a month later.
In both cases, the issue was the “Philadelphia Plan” for affirmative action.
The Nixon administration adopted the rule that government funding would be provided if contractors’ bids could produce minority group representations. This was set forth under Lyndon Johnson in 1967.
The building trades unions wanted to know why they were singled out when so many other industries did not meet those goals. Race played a role.
By 1969, affirmative action become a hot topic for debate and Nixon was aware. During his presidency, he preserved and expanded popular entitlements like Social Security.
Nixon’s New Federalism
Nixon saw his New Federalism as a conservative counter to liberal programs run by the government. Passed in 1972, a revenue-sharing act distributed $30 billion over 5 years, consisting of grants to state and local governments.
In the past, liberal programs from the New Deal to the Great Society often provided specific services to individuals: job keeping, programs, Head Start programs, food supplement programs for nursing mothers, etc.
Republicans believed that a “service strategy” assumed that federal bureaucrats understood what the poor needed.
Nixon favored an “income strategy,” which allowed recipients to spend money as they see fit.
Even if Nixon was determined to reverse liberalism of the 1960s, he was not a deep-dyed conservative.
Stagflation
A worsening economy forced Nixon to adopt liberal remedies. By 1970, the US entered its first recession.
In the 1970 recession, unemployment rose as economists expected, but wages and prices were rising in an inflationary spiral, which is called stagflation.
Normally, during a recession, demand for goods decreases and unemployment rises. Manufactures cut prices to encourage demand for their goods and cut wages to preserve profit margins.
Democrats labeled stagflation “Nixonomics,” although LBJ handled inflation by refusing to raise taxes to pay for the war and Great Society social programs.
Wages continued to rise during 1970 because power unions negotiated automatic cost-of-living increases into their contracts.
Richard Nixon added inflationary pressure by increasing the numbers eligible for Social Security.
Nixon decided that unemployment was a bigger threat than inflation. He adopted a deficit budget that would stimulate the growth of jobs.
In August 1971, Nixon announced that he would freeze wages and prices to provide short-term relief. For a Republican to do such a thing was heretical.
In foreign policy, Nixon reversed policies to achieve what he wanted.
School Busing
Affirmative action, school prayer, contraception, criminal rights, obscenity, and school busing were issues where the Supreme Court offended the silent majority.
Justices recognized that 15 years after the decision in Brown v. Board of Education, most school districts were still segregated. In white neighborhoods, families opposed having their children bused to all-black schools.
Although black parents were worried about how their children would be treated, they supported busing as a better education.
The Nixon Court
Under Nixon, federal policy on desegregation took a 180-degree turn.
In 1969, the Justice Department supported lawyers from Mississippi who asked the Supreme Court to delay an integration plan.
In Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, the Supreme Court ruled that busing, balancing ratios, and redrawing school district lines were all acceptable ways to achieve integration.
In 1969, Earl Warren was replaced by Warren Burger, a jurist who had no wish to break new ground.
When another vacancy opened in 1969, Nixon tried to appoint conservative southern judges who opposed civil rights and labor unions. Congress rejected both.
In the end, Nixon chose Harry Blackmun, a moderate judge from Minnesota.
McGovern and Liberal Democrats
As the 1972 election got closer, Nixon’s majority seemed to be set, especially after the Democrats chose George McGovern, Senator of South Dakota.
The Democratic platform embraced all the activist causes that the silent majority resented. It called for immediate withdrawl from Vietnam, abolition of the draft, amnesty for war resisters, and a minimum guaranteed income.
Nixon received almost 61% of the popular vote.
The overwhelming victory did not relieve Nixon’s urge to settle scores. He showed a tendency to see issues in terms of a personal “us against them.”
The administration began compiling an “enemies list”, which included television news correspondents and student activists so that they could be targeted for audits by the IRS.
Break-In
Nixon's fall began with what seemed to be a minor event.
In June 1972, burglars entered the Democratic National Committee headquarters. When they were arrested, they wore business suits and carried bugging devices, tear-gas guns, and more than $2,000.
One of the burglars who was arrested worked for the CIA. Another was carrying an address book.
Nixon said that no one from the White House staff was involved in the incident.
In January 1973, the burglars were tried along with E. Howard Hunt Jr. And G. Gordon Liddy.
Judge John Sirica wanted to know who directed the 5 burglars. One of them admitted that they were bribed to plead guilty and were protecting high government officials.
Nixon accepted the resignation of H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman. He also fired John Dean after he agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.
White House Tapes
Over the summer of 1973, several officials testified at televised Senate hearings. Each witness took the trial and its cover-up higher into White House circles.
Dean declared in a quiet tone that Richard Nixon was involved in the cover-up.
It stayed his word against Nixon's until Senate committee staff discovered that since 1970, Nixon was secretly recording all conversations and phone calls in the Oval Office.
Getting the evidence that Nixon was recording conversations was not easy. He agreed to appoint Archibald Cox to investigate the new disclosures.
When Cox subpoenaed the tapes, the president refused to turn them over. He was scared that no one would support him.
Unrelated evidence to Watergate revealed that Spiro Agnew had systematically asked for bribes. He resigned in October, and Geral Ford was the new Vice President.
On October 20, Nixon fired Cox. Reaction to this was overwhelming since 150,000 telegrams poured into Washington.
By Tuesday, 84 House members sponsored 16 different bills of impeachment. Nixon then decided to turn over the tapes to Jeon Jaworski.
Jaworski’s investigations led him to ask for more tapes and Nixon refused. He did supply 1,200 pages of typed transcripts.
The edited documents revealed that Nixion talked with John Dean about how to deal with the burglars who were in jail.
Jaworski petitioned the Supreme Court to order the release of the tapes he wanted. In US v. Nixon, the Supreme Court granted his request.
Resignation
The House Judiciary Committee adopted 3 articles of impeachment. They charged that Nixon obstructed justice, abused his constitutional authority, and hindered the investigation.
The tapes showed that on June 23, 1972, Nixon knew the burglars were tied to the White House staff and knew that John Mitchell acted to limit an FBI investigation.
With undeniable evidence that Nixon was involved in the scandal and with 3 articles of impeachment coming Nixon’s way, he resigned on August 8, 1974.
1 day after Nixon resigned, Gerald Ford was president.
The Road’s End for Vietnam and Liberalism
Gerald Ford hoped to put Watergate behind the US rather than look back at it.
Only a month into office, he granted Richard Nixon a full pardon for any crimes he committed. The pardon only deepened the nation’s cynicism.
Ford still had to deal with Vietnam. He implored Congress to grant $1 billion in emergency aid.
In April 1975, Saigon fell.
REFLECTION: Richard Nixon's presidency was one of political triumph and scandal. Nixon wooed the "silent majority" and recruited Southern Democrats into the Republican fold. Nixon relocated Southern Democrats with his Southern Strategy. Nixon's foreign policy, directed by Henry Kissinger, emphasized détente with the Soviet Union and China and attempted to end the Vietnam War with "Vietnamization." His secret invasion of Cambodia triggered national protests and riots. Nixon was also facing domestic economic issues like stagflation and therefore turned to surprise measures like wage and price controls. Social movements like civil rights, feminism, and environmentalism were emerging but largely against his conservative platform. His term ended in the Watergate scandal, where his administration's illegal activities were revealed, including a cover-up of the break-in at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee. It led to televised hearings, the disclosure of Nixon's secret tapes, and his 1974 resignation. His resignation left the nation extremely wary of government, and his replacement, Gerald Ford, was universally blamed for giving a full pardon to Nixon.
