Nixon (Domestic) Flashcards

1
Q

McCarthy verse Johnson

A

McCarthy appealed to college students- many decided to ‘be clean for gene’ and swapped jeans for suits.

Showed how vulnerable Johnson was to a Liberal Democrat challenger.

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2
Q

B Kennedy vs McCarthy

A

McCarthy seemed arrogant, cold and distant in comparison to Kennedy.
He said nothing on MLK assassination and failed to relate to minorities.
Appealed more to Middle class

Kennedy appealed more to the poor and less privileged.
Press was increasingly pro-kennedy.
Johnson emerged as a stronger candidate than McCarthy. When he attacked both racial prejudice and riots, criticise the rise of welfare and praised hard work he began to win middle class support.
-partly because of the Kennedy Legacy he stirred intense affection amongst crowd.

Democrat liberals had asked him to challenge Johnson and he left it to McCarthy. They feared he would split the liberal vote.

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3
Q

Democratic national convention

A

The youth international party wanted to show the contempts for American politics so they called on young people to come and distrupt the Democratic National convention.
-they spread rumours they were gonna put LSD in the cities water supply and produced a pig as their presidential candidate.
12,000 Police were called to the protest where police officers removed their nameplates and retaliated shouting ‘kill kill kill’. A British reporter recorded young protesters beaten into the ground by cops who have completely lost a cool.

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4
Q

Democratic national convention

A

Democrats were tainted by the events in Chicago. It reminded voters how violence and disorder had become recurrent under Johnson’s watch.
Nixon shot head of Humphrey in the polls due to his law and order policies.
Democrats were weakened by Humphreys campaign and McCarthy refused to endorse him
Anti war protesters continued to attack Humphrey and disrupted his meetings and made it impossible for his speeches to be heard.

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5
Q

Reasons for Nixon’s 1968 election victory

A

-Association with Eisenhower and moderation
-Party loyalty
-His appeal to middle America.

-Nixon won over party loyalist by tireless party fundraising and campaigning
-The old guards liked Nixon’s extreme anti-Communism.
-Nixon had governmental experience and was associated with prosperity of the Eisenhower years.

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6
Q

Nixon’s promises and policies

A

-Bring peace with honour and Vietnam
-Restore law and order in cities
-Less and cheaper government

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7
Q

Nixon’s Southern strategy and the Sunbelt

A

Sunbelt:
-increased use of air-conditioning to make hot regions more habitable
-Federal government made these areas more accessible through massive expansion of the interstate highway system

Southern strategy:
-Rejected Johnsons policy of cutting off federal funds to segregated schools.
-Proposed new federalism- wanted to share federal revenue directly with the states
-Nixon was socially conservative and disliked the elite of the north east.

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8
Q

Middle America

A

Constituted 55% of the population.

Middle America discontent: the silent majority
Watched the riots on television
-Lost patience with rioters and the federal government.
-Taxation- giving their money away to the undeserving port
-Middle America’s children were drafted and sent to Vietnam.

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9
Q

Nixon’s campaign

A

-Learn not to make many public appearances
-Appeared dignified and experienced, spoke to large audiences
-Mastered techniques for television

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10
Q

Eisenhower support

A

Announcement of the marriage of Nixon’s daughter Julie and Eisenhower’s son David gave Nixon’s campaign a boost.
David persuaded his dying grandfather to endorse Nixon

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11
Q

Nixons running mate

A

Agnew gained national attention after spring riots he summoned black leaders and castigated them as riot inciting and burn-America down type leaders.

Agnew appealed to Middle America and Republicans

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12
Q

Election results

A

-Nixon only took 43% of the popular vote. lowest winning margin
-Humphrey took 42%

Nixon had one the support of fewer than 27% of American voters

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13
Q

Welfare and anti-poverty programs

A

-Nixon made it clear he wanted to remove the wasteful and inefficient great society programmes.
-84% of American polls believed there were too many people receiving welfare money that should be working.
Middle America resented the expense

Nixon introduced the (SSI) supplementary security income which provided guaranteed income for elderly and disabled citizens.
-increase in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits
-Proposed federalisation of Medicaid for poor families

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14
Q

Business

A

Created the:
-Environmental protection agency (EPA)

Successfully shrunk the office of economic opportunities OEO
-Closed 59 job corps centre
-Cut Federal Funding for housing and youth programs

-He hoped he could make welfare recipients work through his Family Assistance Plan (FAP)
-welfare recipients would only receive $1600 per year and there were work requirements
-That was so many criticisms of Nixon’s FAP that Congress rejected it.

-Nixon vetoed the 1971 child development act which would have provided free childcare to enable poor mother to work

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15
Q

Silent majority

A

Felt like they had no rights movement and no group to protest for them
-The silent majority felt that no one was arguing that things should stay the same
-They believed in America as it had been -Concentrated in the Sunbelt region where liberal ideas hadn’t spread yet
-Johnson had alienated them with his 1964 civil rights bill

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16
Q

Changes to Civil rights

A

-Nixon attacked busing as wrenching children from their families
-Nixon’s appointment of Conservative Supreme Court justices led to a ruling that halted busing and justified the continuance of de facto segregation of schools.

Nixon’s administration gave minorities considerable help.

-He put pressure on federal contractors to employ more minority workers.
-Introduced the first federal affirmative action program known as the Philadelphia Plan requiring government contractors in Philadelphia the higher minority workers until stated targets were reached.

-University courses dedicated to black studies founded at prestigious institutions like Duke and Harvard.
-The first black woman elected to congress in 1968
-13 black members of Congress sitting in 1971
-Civil rights group like SNCC reduce dramatically in size and influence as donations dried up.

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17
Q

Law and order statistics

A

1969: 602 bombings
1969: 300 college demonstrations
1970: 1577 bombings
1970: Boston University evacuated buildings on 18 occasions because of bomb threats

18
Q

Nixon’s law and order

A

Nixon put forward a bill to decreased crime in Washington:
-District of Columbia Crime Control Act 1970, made it harder to obtain bail
Nixon administration harshly with radicals such as the black Panthers and the Chicago 8.
-The Middle America was delighted when 28 black Panthers were killed by the police and hundreds more of them imprisoned during 1969.
The Chicago ate with prosecuted in 1970 for travelling across state lines to form anti-war riots.

19
Q

Nixon’s reaction to protest movements

A

-Nixon’s inauguration was the first in American history to be marred by protests. They burned American flags and through sticks and stones at the presidential limousine.

20
Q

America’s greatest anti-war protest Moratorium

A

Thousands of Americans of all ages marched on the White House and in every major city.
Nixon was faced with pro-civil rights, black Panthers and anti-capitalism protest

-Radicals blew up buildings at the university of Colorado because scholarship funds for black students had been frozen

-Ohio State students demanded admission for more black students

-In a six hour battle with the police 7 students were shot and 600 arrested

-When Nixon appeared to be extending the Vietnam war to Cambodia and war protest erupted again in 80% of American universities

21
Q

Kent State & Jackson State

A

Kent State University students fire bombed the ROTC buildings and the National guards panicked and shot four students and injured 11. Two girls, were simply walking to class.

-Some Americans felt the government was deliberately murdering dissenters
-Nixon and antagonised students and some middle-class parents when he talked of these bums blowing up campuses. The father of one of the students shot dead at State National headlines when he said four days later, my child was not a bum.
-Nixon did not handle Kent and Jackson State well blaming it on the politics of violence and confrontation failing to express sorrow at the deaths

22
Q

Veteran anti-war protest

A

Vietnam veterans through a way over 700 medals on the steps of a capital building prelude a 500,000 strong march.

Anti War veterans occupied the statue of Liberty flying a US flag upside
Kneel ins to pray for the war and bleed ins to donate blood for the Vietcong

23
Q

Celebrity protest involvement

A

-John Lennon staged a bed in for peace
-Mohammed Ali notably against the Vietnam war

24
Q

Nixon’s approach towards protesters

A

Nixons efforts to communicate with protestors were unsuccessful
-Nixon try to discredit protesters by failing to differentiate between anti-war movement and violence splinter groups

-Threaten to end federal scholarship and loans for convicted student criminals
surveillance
-Took protesters to court
-Adjusted the draft so students aged over 20 were no longer called up and remove it completely in 1973
-Ordered surveillance on disruptive groups
-Withdrawal of American troops that proved most effective in decreasing protests

25
Q

Feminism

A

Feminist stressed how little Nixon had done the women’s issues and sorts to encourage the first lady to come to the aid.
Nixon used presidential power to increase the number of female appointments to the administration
-Created a presidential task force on women’s rights.
-Instructed the justice department to bring sex discrimination suits under the civil rights Act
-Encourage the department of labour to add sex discrimination provision guidelines federal contract compliance.

26
Q

Economic change

A

Nixon inherited a faltering economy with inflation at 4.7% and flood of imports from Germany and Japan endangered the American trade
-Nixon tried to halt inflation by cutting govt spending
New Economic Policy (NEP):
Devalued the dollar which made US exports cheaper received high approval ratings but did not help solve the economic problems.

27
Q

Energy Crisis

A

America consumed one third of the worlds oil production mostly imported from the Middle East.
American economic vulnerability was exposed when Nixon supported in the 1973 Arab Israeli war and led to OPEC oil embargo on US.
End of the embargo was followed by a 387% increase in price of oil which greatly damaged American economy.
This had a massive impact on lives of Americans who now paid 30% more for heating oil and petrol. Contributing in arise in the cost of living

28
Q

Re-election in 1972

A

Due to:
-Continued support of Middle America
-His foreign policy triumph
-Democrat problems

29
Q

Foreign policy triumphs

A

-Improved relation with USSR and SALT agreement first meaningful attempt to put a break on Soviet American nuclear arms race
-Restoration of relations with China after 20 years of tense hostility
-Nixon’s troop withdrawals from Vietnam, please voters.

30
Q

Democrat problems

A

Nixon faced less formidable opposition in 1972 than 1968 as the Democratic national convention greatly damaged the Democrats.

31
Q

1972 election results

A

Nixon won by a landslide was 60% of the popular he carried almost every state.

32
Q

CREEP

A

Engaged in:
-Illegal fundraising collected over $60 million in campaign contributions
-To discredit democratic candidates misleading the press
-Criminal surveillance

33
Q

CREEP Employees

A

Charles Colson had morality issues he does whatever Nixon says even if it’s wrong.
Gordon Liddy suggested kidnapping of political opponents and electronic eavesdropping.

34
Q

The Pentagon papers

A

Secret documents discovered and released by Daniel eIlsberg in 1971 which showed that Johnson had lied to the public and congress about the bombings of Cambodia and Laos and other aspects of the war

35
Q

The break in

A

Although these pentagon papers made Democrats look bad National Security required that classified documents always be kept secret.

Therefore EIlsberg had to be discredited

The plumbers broke into eilsberg psychiatrists office but found nothing to discredit him. They had borrowed burglary equipment and surveillance cameras from the CIA. They photographed each other standing in front of the psychiatrist office and returned the camera back to the CIA.

36
Q

Did Nixon know about the break-ins?

A

FBI trace London money from the plumbers to creep. Nixon discussed using CIA to stop the FBI however the CIA would not cooperate so Nixon tried to pay the burglars money to keep quiet.
They were indicted.

37
Q

Abuse of Power

A

After prove that the president had ordered the cover-up the judiciary committee approved impeachment on the grounds of:
-Obstruction of justice (participation in the cover-up)
-Abuse of power (invading civil rights of Ellsberg and the misuse of government agencies such as the FBI CIA and IRS and authorising wire tapping )
-Abuse of Congress ignoring subpoenas issued by Judiciary committee

-IRS system hounded newspapers hostile to Nixon
-Nixon evaded and ignored congressional requests for information on executive actions.

38
Q

Nixon’s resignation

A

Financial and legal concerns:
-Nixon resigned he would get his $60,000 presidential pension and $100,000 for staff expenses but if impeached he would be financially wiped out by legal fees and unpaid taxes as he paid virtually no tax well president
-Next faced criminal prosecution if impeached

Loss of Republican support:
-Nixon was unsure whether Republican senators would continue to support him and 2/3 majority required in the Senate to secure his impeachment.

66% of Americans favoured impeachment

39
Q

Damaged government

A

Nixon contributed to increased popular cynicism towards and distrust of government

Reflected in the decreased electoral turnout in 1970s

40
Q

Damaged Republican party

A

Republican party suffered greatly in 1974 congressional elections. Republicans on the judiciary committee that voted against impeachment loss their seats

President Ford pardoned Nixon and it probably cost him the 1976 election.

41
Q

Damage presidency

A

Congress enacted several laws to try to limit presidential power and avoid another Watergate

The Presidency of Ford demonstrated the damage Nixon had done to the prestige of the office.
Ford’s pardon of Nixon cause national outrage and caused his approval rating to plummet from 71% to 49%