nixon: a criminal in the making? prior stories about nixon?
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Nixon: a criminal in the making?
Prior stories about Nixon?
1968 Election!
NIXONHUMPHREY
WALLACERFK
GOV OF ALABAMA
How did Nixon win?
Nixon only43.3%
1968 Election
• Nixon’s Goals:1.) Restore law and order 2.) Bring home troops3.) Streamline government 4.) Return to traditional values
1968 Election: Richard Nixon(R) Hubert Humphrey (D)
George Wallace (Independent)Wallace an experienced Southern politician and
supporter of segregation
• Gained southern support by promising S.C. senator Strom Thurmond he would do these things:– Appoint only conservatives to federal courts– Name a Southerner to the Supreme Court– Oppose court-ordered busing– Choose a vice president from the South
Spiro Agnew = Vice Pres
Nixon as President
Southern Strategy: attracting more Southerners to the Republican Party
– Followed through on promises to Thurmond– Took steps to slow desegregation – Overturned civil rights policies
• Reversed a decision made by Johnson that had cut off federal funds for racially segregated schools
The New Federalism
• Took federal programs and gave more control to state and local governments
• Created revenue sharing– Granted federal funds to state and local agencies
to use to give them more power
– Instead gave federal government power over time• The federal government could impose conditions on the
states that needed the money
• If conditions were not met, their money would be cut off
Nixon tries to increase power as president
• Nixon & Congress = not friends– Both the House and Senate controlled by
Democrats– Laws Nixon supported wouldn’t get passed
• Tried to work around Congress and use greater executive authority– Nixon impounded, or refused to release, funds
for programs he opposed that were given by Congress
• Supreme Court eventually declared impoundment unconstitutional
The Media did not love Nixon…
"The Nixons had their own style--simple, direct and fundamentally American. They were not flashy or flamboyant.
Sometimes they were a little self-conscious or uncertain. Their manner was strictly Middle American. They looked like the family down the block. To many Americans, they seemed upright,
religious and hardworking.“ -- from The Nixons (1992) by Cass R. Sandak
What were Nixon’s Accomplishments?
Ex 1.) He had a good relationship with communist nations.
Ex 2.) He removed troops from Vietnam = Vietnamization
1.) Nixon takes on the Cold War
• 1st US President to visit communist USSR and China since WWII!
• Détente = Nixon’s new way of dealing with the Soviets.– Goal of Détente = negotiate and relax
tensions between US and USSR…gradually work towards a peaceful end to the Cold War.
Did détente work?
SALT Agreement- Strategic Arms
Limitation Treaty (SALT)
A)USSR and US both agreed to reduce the amount of nuclear weapons being made.
B)Agreed to share scientific information with one another.
1971 1973
Henry Kissinger: Vietnamization
DétenteGradual relaxation of tension
between the US and leading
Communist Nations
NIXON VISTS RUSSIA
NIXON IN CHINA
“Ping Pong” DiplomacyNickname the media gave
To Nixon’s negotiationsWith China
2.) Nixon removed troops from Vietnam
• Vietnamization = removed troops from Vietnam
BUT…don’t forget• He expanded the war into Cambodia &
Laos• Increased bombings and bombed
Saigon• And Vietnam fell to communism anyway
What are Nixon’s Failures?
1.) The Watergate Scandal
2.) Violated the Constitution
3.) Was vengeful and insecure
4.) He was too focused on the Cold War, did not help the economy of other domestic issues.
1972 Election: Nixon wins on a landslide
TheWatergate
Scandal
WHY did Watergate Happen?
WHY did Watergate Happen?
1972 ElectionNixon (R) v. McGovern (D)
• Nixon = anxiety, feared he would not win– Kept an “enemies list” included everyone Nixon
thought was out to ruin his political career
• Nixon creates the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CRP) included all his top advisors and White House aides
• Purpose of Break-In = to steal important Democratic campaign information
The CrimeG Gordon Liddy
Committee to Re-Elect The President
(CREEP)
Howard Hunt
Stage 1: Watergate Break-in
June 17, 1972G. Gordon Liddy & Howard Hunt (Both members of
the CRP) ordered 5 men to break into Watergate• During break-in security guard sees that the lock
has been taped = calls the police• James McCord = one of the thieves who is
arrested. He was an ex-CIA member and Nixon supporter
• Once in police custody = everyone started “snitching”
HOW did Watergate Happen?
HOW did Watergate Happen?
This is the Watergate Building’s security guard’s log showing the time when the guard made an entry after noticing tape on a lock and calling the police.
The bottom picture is a magnified view of the entry from the log book shown at top.
Stage 2: Investigations Begin
Nixon wins the 1972 Election• Soon after Nixon takes office, the FBI begins
investigating Watergate.
Was Nixon Involved? Did he lie to Americans?
Carl Bernstein and Bob WoodwardBoth were journalists for the Washington Post. With the
help of an informant called “Deep Throat” = they are able to uncover facts that support that Nixon was
involved with covering up Watergate!
Watergate is DiscoveredWatergate is Discovered
Bernstein & WoodwardWashington Post
DEEPTHROAT
Stage 3: Congressional Hearings
June 1973• All of the defendants say Nixon was involved• Court discovers Nixon’s “Secret Tapes”
– When the court demands he hands over the tapes Nixon argues Executive Privilege = the idea that protecting the tape was a matter of national security
• July 1973 = Spiro Agnew resigns as VP, turns out he was taking bribes. Gerald Ford is appointed new VP.
Watergate goes to TrialWatergate goes to Trial
Stage 4: The Secret Tapes
The Secret Tapes
July 1974
• Nixon’s “Secret Tapes” record him ordering the Watergate Cover-Up. He had lied to the American people
• Discovered during the investigation: 18 ½ minutes of tape missing!
…Where did it go??
Oops…
• According to President Nixon's secretary, Rose Mary Woods, on September 29, 1973, she was reviewing a tape of the June 20, 1972, recordings when she said she had made "a terrible mistake" during transcription. While playing the tape on a Uher 5000, she answered a phone call. Reaching for the Uher 5000 stop button, she said that she mistakenly hit the button next to it, the record button. For the duration of the phone call, about 5 minutes, she kept her foot on the device's pedal, causing a five-minute portion of the tape to be re-recorded. When she listened to the tape, the gap had grown to 18½ minutes and she later insisted that she was not responsible for the remaining 13 minutes of buzz.
Rosemary’s Boo-Boo
Stage 5: Nixon Resigns
The Los Angeles Times newspaper refused to run this cartoon on Easter Sunday believing it was too offensive.
Watergate is Discovered
August 9, 1974
• Nixon resigned BEFORE he is impeached.
• Gerald Ford becomes President = pardons Nixon of all criminal charges
Obstruction of Justice& Perjury
Executive Privilege
The SentencingImpeach? Pardon?
“I am not a crook!”
Deep Throat
Mark Felt
FBI 2nd in Command
Revealed he was “Deep Throat” in 2005!
Spiro Agnew = Vice Pres
Agnew had alsoresigned.
SO, who Becomes
President?
Current Line of
Succession
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