US Political History 1960s

Key Figures

• Hubert Humphrey: Johnson's VP
• Richard J. Daley: Chicago's mayor
• George Wallace: former Alabama governor
• Henry Kissinger: Nixon's special advisor on foreign affairs
• Leonid Brezhnev: General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
• Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein: two reporters from the Washington Post
• George McGovern: senator, example of modern American liberalism, opposition to growing US involvement in Vietnam War
• John Sirica: judge for Watergate, believed the men did not act alone
• Sam Ervin: chaired Watergate hearing
• Archibald Cox: special prosecutor to investigate the case
• Spiro Agnew: combative vice president
• General Ford: 38th president of the US

Nixon's Domestic Policies

• New Federalism: distribute a portion of federal power to state and local governments
• Revenue sharing: state and local government should send their federal dollars however they saw fit within certain limitations
• Welfare Reform: Nixon's attempt to reform welfare, which he believed had grown cumbersome and inefficient
• Family Assistance Plan: every family of four with no outside income would receive a basic federal payment of $1600 a year with a provision to earn up to $4000 a year in supplemental income
• Federal Spending on Social Programs: Nixon integrated social security, Medicare, and Medicaid, made food stamps more accessible
• Impoundment and the courts: courts ruled the presidential impoundment was unconstitutional

Law and Order, and the Silent Majority

• "Law and Order": Daley valued, emphasizing the need for order in the country
• Silent Majority: Middle Class Americans who wanted order restored to a country beset by urban riots and anti-war demonstrations

Civil Rights and the Southern Strategy

• Nixon's approach to civil rights: employed his southern approach to obtain political support from white southern voters
• Busing: school districts may bus students to other schools to end the pattern of all-black and all-white educational institutes
• The Southern Strategy: Nixon tried to attract Southern conservative Democrats by appealing to their unhappiness with federal desegregation policies and federal supreme court

Economy and Foreign Policy

• Stagflation: high inflation + high unemployment
• Causes of Stagflation: high inflation, increased competition in international trade, flood of new workers
• OPEC: Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
• Realpolitik and the Cold War: foreign policy should be based solely on consideration of power, not ideals or moral principles
• Detente: a policy aimed at easing Cold War tensions, more flexible approach to dealing with communists
• Nixon's Visit to China: to seek the normalization of relations between the two countries
• SALT I Treaty: strategic arms limitation rules, five-year agreement limited the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched missiles to 1972 levels

The Watergate Scandal

• Imperial Presidency: executive branch became the most powerful branch when Nixon took office
• The President's Men: small and fiercely loyal group of advisors
• The Plumbers: tasked to find out who was giving out classified information
• The Committee to Reelect the President: Nixon's reelection campaign
• Saturday Night Massacre: Nixon ordered Attorney General Richardson to fire Cox, Richardson refused and resigned
• The Nixon Tapes: the tapes were the key to revealing that Nixon knew and when he knew it
• Impeachment charges: obstruction of justice, abuse of power for political purposes, defying judiciary committee subpoenas, tax evasion