Nixon, Ford, and Carter

Years

The Nixon Administration

Nixon’s New Conservatism

• 1968- Entered in the Presidency• Wanted to lead the nation in a conservative direction.

• New Federalism• Distribute a portion of federal power to state and local governments.

• Welfare Reform• Advocated the family assistance plan

• Family of four would receive government money.• Only would receive money if they had no outside resources coming in.• House approved the plan- Senate attacked it!• The bill went down.

• Law and Order politics• Fought with Congress • Deescalated Vietnam.• Battled with liberal movements.

Nixon’s Southern Strategy

• Had his eyes on the 1972 presidency.• Nixon would try and attack the southern democrats by appealing to their

unhappiness.• He promised to name a Southerner to the Supreme Court.

• A New South• Many unhappy democrats.• Their party had grown to liberal.• Nixon wanted these voters.

• Nixon Slows Integration• Tried to slow down school desegregation.• Tried to stop the extension of the voting rights on 1965.• Congress voted to extend the act.

Confronting a Stagnant Economy

• Between 1967 and 1973• The United States faced a high inflation and high

unemployment. • It was called STAGFLATION!• OPEC raised oil prices.• Yom Kippur War broke out• Israel against Egypt and Syria• We helped Israel- Arab nations cut us off.

• Nixon tried to combat stagflation but nothing worked.

Nixon’s Foreign Policy Triumphs

• Nixon preferred foreign affairs to domestic problems.• Nixon’s top priority was to gain honorable peace in Vietnam.• Henry Kissinger• Nixon’s secretary of state• Promoted a policy of ‘REALPOLITIK’• Believed in evaluating a nation’s power, not its philosophies or beliefs.• Called for the United States to fully confront the powerful nations of the

globe.• Largely meant negotiation as well as military engagement.• Nixon shared this belief with Kissinger.• Developed a flexible approach in dealing with Communists nations.

• DENTENTE- policy ending cold war tensions.

Nixon Visits China

• Since 1949 the United States never recognized China.• 1971- Nixon reversed this policy.• Announced that he would visit the country.

• By going to China he was trying to soften the rift between Soviets and China.• “We want to have the Chinese with us when we sit down and negotiate with the

Russians”.• “ I knew that Zhou had been deeply insulted by Foster Dulles’s refusal to shake hands with

him at the Geneva Conference in 1954. When I reached the bottom step, therefore, I made a point of extending my hand as I walked toward him. When our hands met, one era ended and another began.”

• Two nations agreed that both would neither dominate the Pacific Ocean.• Settle disputes peacefully.• Participate in scientific and cultural exchanges as well.• Eventually reunite Taiwan with the mainland.

Nixon Travels to Moscow

• May 1972- three months later he visits Moscow.• First U.S president to visit the Soviet capital.

• After a series of meetings called the Strategic Arms Limitations Talks.• Nixon and Brezhnev signed the SALT I Treaty.• This fiver year agreement limited the number of ballistic missiles and

submarine launched missile to 1972 levels.• Foreign policy triumphs with China and Soviet Union.• PEACE IS AT HAND!

• Will re-elect Nixon in 1972.• Peace in Vietnam was elusive• One issue would lead to the downfall of the president.

Watergate: Nixon’s Downfall

• 1972• June 17

• Watergate Office Building• Five men are arrested during a bungled

break-in at the offices at the DNC ( Democratic National Committee).

• Carrying cash and documents• Employed by the Committee to Re-elect

the President.• Purpose:

• Plant listening devices in the phones of the Democratic leaders.

• Obtain documents regarding the Democrats strategy.

• Gordon Liddy, and Howard Hunt are also arrested.

• Relationship to the election committee, none of the men connects the committee or the white house to the break-in.

• November 7• Less than half of the American

people have heard of the break in.

• Nixon wins the election-capturing 60.8% of the vote.

December 8• Wife of Howard Hun dies in a

plane crash.• She is carrying 10,000 in 100$

bills.• The money was hush money to

someone in Chicago.

Nixon Timeline

• 1973• February 7

• Rumors of widespread wrongdoing, corrupt financing, political dirty tricks, by the committee to re-elect Nixon.

• Senate establishes a committee on Presidential Campaign Activities.

• Chaired by Sam Ervin• From North Carolina

• March 23• One of the seven men admitted that he and other

defendants were to remain silent.• Revealed that others were involved with the

break-in.• Named John Mitchell- Chairman to re-elect the

President.• April 20

• Patrick Gray- resigned from the FBI• Destroyed evidence to the Watergate scandal.

• April 30 • Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and Dean all resign-

Nixon’s chief of staff.• Nixon denies any knowledge in a televised

speech.• June 25

• John Dean accuses President Nixon of involvement in the Watergate cover-up

• President authorized the cover-up with hush money.

• July 16• White House aide admitted that President

Nixon secretly recorded all Oval Office conversations.

• Sets off constitutional crisis over the president’s right to keep the tapes secret.• Executive Privilege.

Nixon Timeline

• October 10• Spiro Agnew- VP

• Resigns after pleading no contest to tax evasion charges dating from his days as governor of Maryland.

• Gerald Ford filled the spot- House Minority Leader.

• October 20• Saturday Night Massacre

• Nixon orders Richardson (attorney general) to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox.

• Richardson refused the order and resigned.• Bork finally fired Cox.• Resignations and protests of Cox raise a

storm of protest in Congress.• The House actively begins to consider

impeachment of the President.

• October 23• Peter Rodino- announces an investigation into

impeachment charges against the President.• October 30

• Nixon agrees to turn over the Oval Office tapes.

• Two tapes are missing.• November 21

• One of the tapes there is 18 minute gap.• Nixon’s secretary erased that part.

• Erasure was deliberate.

• November 9• Six Watergate defendants are sentenced.• Most receive 2-8 years in jail.• Liddy- is sentenced to 20 years

• Refused to cooperate with investigators.

Nixon Timeline

• November 13• Oil companies plead guilty to

making illegal contributions to the Nixon Campaign.

• Two days later- Goodyear, 2 Airlines, report similar donations.

• December 6• Gerald Ford is sworn in as Vice

President.• Johnson Said:

• “Shucks, I don’t think he can chew gum and walk at the same time… He’s a nice fellow, but he spent to much time playing football without a helmet.”

• 1974• January 4

• President Nixon refuses to surrender 500 tapes and documents subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.

• March 1• Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell are indicted for

conspiring to obstruct the Watergate break in.• April 3

• President Nixon pays 400,000 in back taxes.• April 29

• National televised address, President Nixon offers a 1,200 page edited transcript of the tapes.

• July 24• Supreme Court rules that Nixon must turn over

the tapes requested by the special prosecutor.• White House that it will comply with the order.

Nixon’s Resignation and Pardon

• July 27• House committee approves two

articles of impeachment against Nixon

• Charging him with obstructing justice and accusing him of repeatedly violating his oath of office.

• August 5• Nixon releases the transcripts of a

conversation with Haldeman. • Nixon ordered a halt to the FBI

investigation in the tapes.• This was the SMOKING GUN.• Nixon’s remaining congressional

support disappears.

• August 8• President Nixon announces his

resignation, effective noon the following day.

• August 9• President Nixon formally resigns and

leaves for California. Vice President Gerald Ford is sworn in as President.

• August 21• Nominates Nelson Rockefeller as VP.

• Wealthy governor of New York.• September 8

• President Ford grants Richard Nixon • a “full and free and absolute

pardon… for all offences against the United States which he… has committed or may have committed or taken part in while President.”

1975-1976

• January 1, 1975• Four of the former White

House staffers charged with obstruction are found guilty.

• Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell, Mardian, and Parkinson are acquitted.

• Watergate charges against Charles Colson are dropped after he pleads guilty to crimes connected with a psychiatrist break-in.

• 1976• President Carter narrowly defeats

President Ford.• Carter’s presidency was not

affective because of his pardon of Nixon.

• Breakdown of Offences:• 1-Breaking and Entering• 2-Illegal Contributions• 3-Dirty Tricks• 4-Cover-Up/Obstruction of Justice.• 5-Miscellaneous offenses and

revelations.

The Ford Administratio

n

The Ford Years

• Ford Travels a Rough Road• Ford urged American to put the

Watergate Scandal behind them.• Domestic policies did nothing

as far as relief.• A Ford, not a Lincoln• Pardoned Nixon- this move cost

him his presidency.• Seemed likeable and Honest• Tries to whip inflation.

• Both inflation and unemployment continued to rise.

• Ford’s Foreign Policy• Relied heavily on Kissinger who

continued to hold the position of Secretary of State.

• Helsinki Accords• A Series of agreement's that

promised greater cooperation between the nations of Eastern and Western Europe.

• Would be Ford’s greatest accomplishments.

• Will not win Re-Election in 1976 election.

The Carter Administratio

n

The Carter Years

• Democratic Nominee• Nationally unknown

peanut farmer.• Former Governor of

Georgia.• “ I will never tell a lie to

the American People.”• Won by a narrow margin

against Ford.• Carter refused to play the

insider game.

• Carter’s Domestic Agenda.• Energy Crisis

• Consumption of oil and gas needed to be cut.

• National Energy Act• Placed a tax on natural gas.

• Energy measures could do little to combat a sudden new economic crisis.

• By 1980• Inflation climbed to nearly 14 percent.• Highest rate since 1947.

• Carter’s inability to solve it during an election year-was one key factor in sending Ronald Reagan to the White House.

Triumph and Crisis in the Middle East

• The Camp David Accords• Israel and Egypt are long time

enemies.• First signed peace agreement with an

Arab Country.• Israel agreed to withdraw from the

Sinai Peninsula.

• Iran Hostage Crisis• Shah of Iran was in deep trouble.• Ally of the United States.• Many Iranians resented his regime

widespread corruption and dictatorial tactics.

January 1979• Revolution broke out.• Khomeini- led the rebels in overthrowing the

shah and establishing a strict obedience to the Quran.

• Carter supported the Shah.• October 1979- Allowed the shah to enter the U.S

for cancer treatment.• This act infuriated the rebellion.

• November 4,1979• Armed students took 52 Americans hostage-

From the American Embassy. • January 20, 1981

• Reagan was president they were shortly released.• Hostages for 444 days.• This act prompted both citizens and the

government to actively address environmental concerns.