The Nixon Years p.666-673. Nixon staged a political comeback, being elected president after his loss to Kennedy in 1960, and his failed bid for governor.

The Nixon Yearsp.666-673

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• Nixon staged a political comeback, being elected president after his loss to Kennedy in 1960, and his failed bid for governor of California in 1962.

• Nixon came to office practicing a “New Federalism”, in which the federal government was reduced, and money was sent back to state and local governments.

• The President tried to increase his support from Southerners by weakening the Voting Rights Act of 1965

• Nixon also opposed bussing of students (?)

• President Nixon reflected his conservative side in his placement of four conservatives judges on the Supreme Court, in spite of the Senate’s rejection of to of his nominees.

• Nixon also showed a liberal side by increasing government involvement in increasing Social Security payments, and by increasing funding for food stamps (?)

• Nixon had environmental concerns that he addressed in his signing of the Clean Air Act of 1970, and establishing the Environmental Protection Agency. (EPA)

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• Nixon signed the Occupational Safety and Health Act, and started OSHA

• President Nixon also pursued affirmative action, to try to overcome the effects of generations of discrimination. This was also applied to hiring quotas of women.

• Henry Kissinger was Nixon’s NSA advisor and later his secretary of state.

• Kissinger advocated a policy called “realpolitik”, which meant making foreign policy based on national interest, not on broad policies like containment.

• Kissinger felt that the U.S. should not necessarily fight communism or get involved in other nation’s struggles on general principles.

• How was realpolitik the opposite of containment?

• In spite of his anti-communist reputation, Nixon worked to reduce tensions with the Soviets in efforts called “détente”.

• Kissinger’s idea of realpolitik had a goal of making the world a more stable place, where the U.S. and its adversaries would accept each others positions.

• Nixon also entered into long-range negotiations with Soviets over nuclear arms reductions, resulting in the SALT I treaty.

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• Nixon and Kissinger shocked the world with new of improving relations with the People’s Republic of China.

• Why?

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In 1971 the Chinese invited the U.S. Table Tennis Team to play in China.

Nixon wanted to increase relations with the Chinese to keep the Soviets off balance.

• Years of hostilities finally boiled over in 1973 when Egypt and Syria attacked Israel

• The Soviets supported Egypt, and the U.S. sent arms and supplies to Israel

• OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Producing Countries, mostly Arab, placed an oil embargo on the US, resulting in high gas prices (50 cents a gallon??)

• Henry Kissinger employed “shuttle diplomacy”, flying back and forth to meet with the countries that refused to meet with each other.

• War was averted, and the embargo lifted. Gas prices did NOT go down.