NIXON AND THE WATERGATE SCANDAL

What events led to Richard Nixon’s resignation as President in 1974?

NIXON’S POLICIES TARGET MIDDLE AMERICA

• Political ups & downs:• 1946 - House of

Representatives• 1950 - Senate• 1952 - Vice President• 1960 and 62 – Lost

presidential and gubernatorial

• President in 1968

Nixon calls for a “New Federalism”• Silent majority• “reverse the flow of power and

resources from the States and communities to Washington and start power and resources flowing back from Washington to the States and communities”

• Revenue sharing with states

Nixon Expands the Government’s Role• Occupational Safety and

Health Administration (OSHA)

• Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)

• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

• Clean Air Act• $ for social welfare

programs

The Economy Struggles• Recession and inflation

= STAGFLATION:• War• Foreign competition• Price of oil• OPEC embargo• Nixon freezes wages

and prices for 90 days

Nixon Follows a Southern Strategy

• Expand base• Southern whites• Blue collar workers• Normally

democrats• Change to

republicans

Controversy Rages Over Busing

• Conservative judges• Moratorium on

court ordered busing

Nixon Proposes New Civil Rights Initiatives

• Philadelphia Plan: a type of affirmative action

• “…segregation didn’t occur naturally – it was imposed…visible, measurable goals to correct [these] imbalances are essential.”

Nixon’s Strategy Succeeds

1972 High approval ratings

• Trips to China and Soviet Union

• Moderate with VP Spiro Agnew

• 61% of popular vote and almost all electoral votes

THE WATERGATE SCANDAL BRINGS NIXON DOWN

• Botched burglary of Dem Party HQ June ’72

• Connected to White House

• Burglars tried in ’73• Connection revealed

btwn burglars and top Nixon Administration

• Nixon tries to deny it

Watergate Goes Pubic

• “Deep Throat”• Connection to

C.R.E.E.P.• “I am not a

crook”

Revealing the White House Tapes

• Spiro Agnew resigns in unrelated scandal

• Ford is new VP• Summer ‘73 discovers

taping of Oval Office conversations includes break in cover-up

• Executive Privilege

U.S. vs. NIXON• “The expectation of a President

to the confidentiality of his conversations of correspondence…has all the values to which we accord deference for the privacy of citizens…But…The very integrity of the judicial system depend on full disclosure of all the facts, within the framework of the rules of evidence”

Nixon Resigns

• Charged with obstructing justice, misuse of power and refusal to comply with White House subpoenas

• Resigns before he could be impeached

• “…process of healing which is so desperately needed in America”

For what was Nixon guilty?

• Cover-up of break in• “dirty tricks” for re-

election• “enemies list”• Wiretapping of gov’t

employees and reporters

Watergate Has a Lasting Impact“The lies, the lies, the lies…What a

pity, what a pity! Here was a president who got us out of Vietnam, ended the draft…and by his bold overtures to Red China opened new avenues toward world peace. Now the good vanishes in the wreckage of the bad. The swearing in of Gerald Ford can’t come one hour too soon.”

August 30, 1974

• FEDERAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN ACT AMENDMENTS (1974)

• FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT AMENDMENTS (1974)

• GOVERNMENT IN THE SUNSHINE ACT (1976)

• ETHICS IN GOVERNMENT ACT (1978)

Looking at the Bright Side• Strength of checks and

balances• “extraordinary triumph

in the American system”

-Time magazine• “Our great republic is a

government of laws and not of men”

-Gerald Ford