PRESIDENT NIXON

1. PRESIDENT NIXON

2. PRESIDENT NIXON • New Federalism • Revenue Sharing • Southern Strategy

3. Nixon’s Politics and Domestic Policies • New Federalism • Thought federal government was too large • Solution was called the New Federalism • Key feature was the concept of revenue sharing • Believed that local governments could spend taxpayers money more effectively • Southern Strategy • Nixon wanted to expand his support in the Democratic south • Tried to weaken the 1965 Voting Rights Act • Urged a slowdown in forced integration • Opposed busing • Wanted local governments to take action themselves • Drugs and Crime • Opposed federal court rulings that put limits on the power of the police. • Sought to name conservative judges to federal courts • Filled four openings on the Supreme Court (2 of his nominees were rejected)

4. DOMESTIC POLICY • Believed Federal Government was too large • Increased Social Security payments • Evironmental issues • Against school busing • Took stand against drug crime • New Federalism: Local govts could regulate spending

5. PRESIDENT NIXON • Established Détente between US and Soviet Union • Opened diplomatic relations with China • Curtailed heroin flow into US borders

6. PRESIDENT NIXON • SALT I Treaty (strategic arms Limitation talks) • EPA Environmental Protection Agency • OSHA - Occupation safety and health administration

7. Commitment to Environment • All federal programs condensed into E.P.A. • Clean Air Act • Water Quality Improvement Act (oil spills) • OSHA- safe employment • 26th amendment- lowered voting age • Apollo 10- moon Landing- Armstrong

8. Main events in the presidential election of 1972 • Nixon was concerned about winning the 1972 presidential election and was not above using illegal actions to help ensure his re-election. • During his first term, Nixon advisors created a group that came to be known as the “Plumbers.” • Their job was to respond to “leaks” of secret information and to investigate Nixon’s political enemies.

9. WatergateNixon’s Downfall President Nixon’s involvement in the Watergate scandal forced him to resign from office.

10. The Watergate scandal was caused by an illegal break-in and attempts to block the investigation of it. The affair tested the idea that no one, not even the president, is above the law.

11. Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers • Daniel Ellsberg was an employee of the Defense Department who leaked a classified assessment of the Vietnam War in 1971. • The 7,000 page document came to be known as the Pentagon Papers.

12. The White House Plumbers • After the release of the Pentagon Papers, the White House created a unit to ensure internal security. • This unit was called the Plumbers because they stopped leaks. Howard Hunt G. Gordon Liddy James McCord Chuck Colson

13. Nixon campaign aides were determined to win his re-election by any means necessary. They hired 5 men to raid & wiretap the Democratic party offices in a Washington, D.C., complex called Watergate.

14. Wire Taps • Hoping to photograph files and place taps on phones, the men were caught. Rather than forcing those involved to resign, the administration tried to hide the link to the White House.

15. Watergate • In 1971 the Plumbers tried to damage the reputation of Daniel Ellsberg—the man who had leaked the Pentagon Papers—by breaking into Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office and looking for information on Ellsberg.

16. Watergate • In early 1972 the Plumbers decided to break into the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate hotel to collect information about the Democratic strategy for the 1972 election.

17. WATERGATE

18. Watergate On June 17, 1972, police arrested five men who had broken into the offices of the Democratic National Committee. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post refused to let the story die and continued to investigate the break-in.

19. watergate • The Post reported that the break-in was part of a widespread spying effort by the Nixon campaign, but this did not seem to affect voters. • On election day Nixon won one of the most overwhelming victories in U.S. history.

20. The Election of 1968 • Richard Nixon only narrowly won the 1968 election, but the combined total of popular votes for Nixon and Wallace indicated a shift to the right in American politics. • The 1960's began as an era of optimism and possibility and ended in disunity and distrust. • The Vietnam war and a series of assassinations and crises eroded public trust in government and produced a backlash against liberal movements and the Democratic party.

21. Woodward, Bernstein and the Washington Post • Watergate came to public attention largely through the work of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, investigative reporters from the Washington Post. • Despite enormous political pressure, Post editor Ben Bradlee, publisher Katherine Graham, Woodward and Bernstein, aided by an enigmatic source nicknamed “Deepthroat” kept the story in the public consciousness until Nixon’s resignation.

22. Watergate Enters the Nixon Campaign • The break-in was eventually tied to the Nixon reelection campaign through a $25,000 check from a Republican donor that was laundered through a Mexican bank and deposited in the account of Watergate burglar Bernard Barker. • Later it was discovered that Former Attorney General John Mitchell, head of Nixon’s “Committee to Re-Elect the President,” (CREEP) controlled a secret fund for political espionage. • Mitchell would later go to prison for his role in the scandal

23. The Election of 1972 • Despite the growing stain of Watergate, which had not yet reached the President, Nixon won by the largest margin in history to that point.

24. The Watergate Investigations: Judge John Sirica • Watergate came to be investigated by a Special Prosecutor, a Senate committee, and by the judge in the original break-in case. • Judge Sirica refused to believe that the burglars had acted alone. • In March 1973, defendant James W. McCord sent a letter to Sirica confirming that it was a conspiracy. • Sirica’s investigation transformed Watergate from the story of a “third-rate burglary” to a scandal reaching the highest points in government.

25. Senate Investigation and the Oval Office Tapes • The Senate began hearings into Watergate in May 1973. • The hearings were televised in their entirety. • They focused on when the President knew of the break-in. • In June 1973, former White House legal counsel John Dean delivered devastating testimony that implicated Nixon from the earliest days of Watergate.

26. Senate Investigation and the Oval Office Tapes • The Administration was eager to discredit Dean and his testimony so it began to release factual challenges to his account. • When former White House aide Alexander Butterfield was asked about the source of the White House information, he revealed the existence of an automatic taping system that Nixon had secretly installed in the Oval Office. • These tapes would become the focus of the investigation.

27. The Smoking Gun Tapes • When the Supreme Court forced Nixon to surrender the tapes. • Nixon was implicated from the earliest days of the cover-up: • authorizing the payment of hush money • attempting to use the CIA to interfere with the FBI investigation. • One tape has an 18 ½ minute gap. • Nixon’s secretary Rosemary Woods demonstrated how she could have inadvertently erased the tape, but no one bought it. • “The smoking gun tapes,” were released in August 1974, just after the House Judiciary Committee approved Articles of Impeachment against Nixon.

28. The Saturday Night Massacre • The Administration reached an agreement with the Senate Watergate Committee that its Chairman would be allowed to listen to tapes and provide a transcript to the Committee and to Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox. • The deal broke down when Cox refused to accept the transcripts in place of the tapes. • Since the Special Prosecutor is an employee of the Justice Department, Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Cox. Archibald Cox

29. The Saturday Night Massacre • When Richardson refused, he was fired. • Nixon ordered Deputy Attorney General William D. Ruckelshaus to fire Cox . • When he refused, he was fired. • Nixon then ordered Solicitor General Robert Bork (who was later nominated for the Supreme Court by Reagan) to fire Cox and he complied. • The Washington Post reported on the “Saturday Night Massacre.” Robert Bork

30. Nixon Resigns • On 27 July 1974, the House Judiciary Committee approved Articles of Impeachment against Nixon. • The House was to vote on the matter soon. • Nixon conceded that impeachment in the House was likely, but he believed that the Senate vote to remove him would fail. • On 5 August 1974, when the “smoking gun tape” became public, a delegation from the Republican National Committee told Nixon that he would not survive the vote in the Senate. • On 9 August 1974, Richard Nixon became the first American president to resign.

31. Aftermath • More than 30 government officials went to prison for their role in Watergate. • Richard Nixon was not one of them. • In September 1974, President Gerald Ford gave Nixon a full pardon. • Woodward and Bernstein won the Pulitzer Prize. • They collaborated on 2 books, All the President’s Men and The Final Days. • In 1976 All the President’s Men was adapted into an Oscar winning film. • The identity of Deepthroat was kept secret until W. Mark Felt unmasked himself in 2005. Ford announcing the pardon

32. The Crisis Continues Nixon continued to deny his involvement in the break-in or a cover-up. Public confidence in Nixon was very low. The White House revealed that an 18-minute portion of the tape had been erased. There were calls for impeachment. Nixon released some transcripts of the tapes in the spring of 1974. Nixon Resigns The Supreme Court ruled that Nixon must hand over the tapes. At the same time, the House Judiciary Committee voted to recommend impeachment. On August 8, 1974, Nixon resigned the presidency. He must have known that the tapes would reveal clear evidence of his wrongdoings. The Watergate Scandal

33. The Saturday Night Massacre • Nixon argued that executive privilege gave him the right to withhold the tapes. • Investigators rejected Nixon’s claim of executive privilege and Special Prosecutor Cox and the Senate Watergate committee issued subpoenas demanding the tapes. • In response, Nixon executed the so-called Saturday night massacre. • Nixon directed attorney general Elliot Richardson to fire Cox. He refused and quit. • .

34. In response, Nixon executed the so-called Saturday night massacre. • Nixon directed attorney general Elliot Richardson to fire Cox. He refused and quit. • Nixon then ordered Richardson’s assistant to fire Cox. He refused and resigned. • Finally, the third-ranking official in the Justice Department fired Cox. • The president’s actions shocked the public.

35. WATERGATE BURGLARS • James W. McCord - a security co-ordinator for the Republican National Committee and the Committee for the Re-election of the President. McCord was also a former FBI and CIA agent.. • Eugenio R. Martinez - CIA connections • Frank A. Sturgis -CIA connections

36. WATERGATE BURGLARS • G.Gordon Liddy: • Wash. Council to re-elect Nixon, former FBI, former member of White House staff • refused to answer questions

37. WATERGATE BURGLARS • Howard Hunt Jr: • former White House employee, CIA, writer of espionage novels • Involved in Bay of Pigs • JFK assassination?

38. WATERGATE CHARGES • Attempted burglary • interception of telephone and other communications from the Democratic offices (wiretapping)

39. WATERGATE SCANDAL • JUNE 19,1972: White House denies any involvement • August 1972: $25,000 check earmarked for Nixon campaign ends up in bank account of Watergate Burglar

40. WATERGATE SCANDAL • Secret White House tape recordings • Battle over turning over the tapes • White House can’t explain an 18 ½ minute gap in one of the tapes

41. WATERGATE SCANDAL • November 1972: Nixon wins in one of largest landslides in US history over George McGovern

42. WATERGATE SCANDAL • JAN. 1973 • Former Nixon aides: Liddy, McCord are convicted of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping

43. WATERGATE SCANDAL Heavily influenced by media: Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein (Washington Post) Deep Throat Senate Extablishes committee Public Hearings

44. Impeachment • In July 1974, the Supreme Court ordered the White House to release the tapes. Three days later a House committee voted to impeach President Nixon. If the full House of Representatives approved, Nixon would go to trial in the Senate. If judged guilty there, he would be removed from office.

45. Nixon Resigns • When the tapes were finally released, it was clear that Nixon had known of the cover-up. On August 8, 1974, he resigned but defiantly refused to admit guilt.

46. Accidental PresidentGerald Ford • Vice President Gerald Ford, a career Congressional leader from Michigan ascends to the position of President of the United States, after never have been elected to national office.

47. Nixon Resigns • The Supreme Court ruled that Nixon must hand over the tapes. • At the same time, the House Judiciary Committee voted to recommend impeachment. • On August 8, 1974, Nixon resigned the presidency. • He must have known that the tapes would reveal clear evidence of his wrongdoings.

48. President Nixon Resigns • The White House tapes reveal that Nixon ordered the cover-up of the Watergate break-ins. • Before he is impeached, President Nixon will become the first and only President to resign his position. • Americans will continue to down the road of mistrust, not only of the President, but the entire government body. • Nixon will later reveal that he felt that as President, he was allowed to do anything as President.

49. Gerald Ford • Vice President Spiro T. Agnew resigned after being charged with cheating on his taxes and taking payments in return for political favors. • Nixon choose Gerald R. Ford to replace Agnew. • Ford was the Republican leader in the House of Representatives. • When Nixon resigned, Ford became president. • He was the first person ever to become president without having been elected either president or vice-president.

50. WATERGATE SCANDAL • Deep Throat: Wm Mark Felt • 2nd in command for the FBI • Important source for Washington Post • Revealed in 2005