Transcript Nixon Foreign & Domestic Policy

Nixon Foreign & Domestic
Policy
Nixon & Communism
• Henry Kissinger: Nixon’s Sec. of State
• Realpolitik: focus on concrete national interests, not ideology
• So what does realpolitik mean?
• There is no united worldwide communist movement
• Focus on China & Soviet Union
Nixon & China
• Why China?
• 1) economic opportunities
• 2) weaken China’s relation with USSR
• Nixon meets with Zhou Enlai (China’s Premier)
• Results
• Trade thrives
• Americans visit China
Nixon’s Tool for Relations with China
• PING-PONG!!!!!!
In the End China & the US are BFFs!!!!
• It bridged “the vastest ocean in the world, twenty-five
years of no communication.” – Zhou Enlai
• Focus shifts to USSR when Soviet
Leader Leonid Brezhnev invites Nixon
to Moscow
Nixon & Brezhnev
• SALT I (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty)
• Major step towards ending the nuclear arms race
• Nixon worked towards détente
• easing Cold War tensions
Thoughts on Nixon?
As an American can you trust Richard Nixon as the President
of the US? Why?
Nixon Domestic Policy
• New Federalism
• Tired of “big” government
• Revenue sharing with states
• States fund social programs
• Silent majority
• People who give life to the American Dream
• Federal Government Programs
• OSHA(Occupational Safety and Health Administration)
• DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration)
• EPA (Environmental Protection Agency)
What was it?
• Office/apartment complex
• Headquarters o f Democrats
June 17,1972: The scandal starts
• CREEP (Committee to Re-Elect Nixon)
• Lead by John Mitchell (former Attorney General)
• “Dirty Tricks”- find ways to discredit Democrats
• Led by G. Gordon Liddy & E. Howard Hunt
• What happened?
• 5 men caught sneaking into Democratic headquarters
• Result: Mitchell informs Nixon of event
• Cover-up occurs
Televised Hearings Begin
• Before hearings: Liddy & 6 others are convicted of crimes
• Head prosecutor: Archibald Cox
• John Dean (White House Counsel)
• Claims Nixon knew about Watergate
Oval Office Tapes
• Nixon had all conversations in Oval Office taped
• Approval rating plummets
• Spiro Agnew (Nixon’s V.P.) resigns
• Watergate investigators want the tapes
• Nixon refuses (executive privilege)
• Supreme Court Cases: US v. Nixon
• Unanimous decision
• Nixon ordered to turn over the tapes
End of Richard Nixon
• 1974: Nixon threatened to be impeached
• August 8, 1974: Nixon resigns
• 1st and only president ever to do so
• Gerald Ford ( Nixon’s V.P.) takes over
Exit of Richard Nixon
All the President’s Men
• Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein
• Washington Post reporters
• Inform public about scandal
• “Deep Throat”
• Watergate informer
• Later revealed as W. Mark Felt
Summary
•How would you determine Nixon’s
presidency?