Richard Nixon

=== Domestic policy ===
==== Economy ====
{{further|Nixon shock|1970s energy crisis}}
[[File:Nixon Opening Day 1969 Two.jpg|thumb|Nixon at the [[History of the Texas Rangers (baseball)#Washington Senators: 1961–1971|Washington Senators]]' 1969 Opening Day with team owner [[Bob Short]] (arms folded) and Baseball Commissioner [[Bowie Kuhn]] (hand on mouth). Nixon's [[Aide-de-camp#United States|aide]], Major [[Jack Brennan]], sits behind them in uniform.]]
At the time Nixon took office in 1969, inflation was at 4.7&nbsp;percent—its highest rate since the Korean War. The [[Great Society]] had been enacted under Johnson, which, together with the Vietnam War costs, was causing large budget deficits. Unemployment was low, but interest rates were at their highest in a century.{{sfn|Ambrose|1989|pp=225–226}} Nixon's major economic goal was to reduce inflation; the most obvious means of doing so was to end the war.{{sfn|Ambrose|1989|pp=225–226}} This could not be accomplished overnight, and the U.S. economy continued to struggle through 1970, contributing to a lackluster Republican performance in the midterm congressional elections (Democrats controlled both Houses of Congress throughout Nixon's presidency).{{sfn|Ambrose|1989|pp=431–432}} According to political economist Nigel Bowles in his 2011 study of Nixon's economic record, the new president did little to alter Johnson's policies through the first year of his presidency.{{r|Bowles-Small}}

Nixon was far more interested in foreign affairs than domestic policies, but he believed that voters tend to focus on their own financial condition and that economic conditions were a threat to his reelection. As part of his "[[New Federalism]]" views, he proposed grants to the states, but these proposals were for the most part lost in the congressional budget process. However, Nixon gained political credit for advocating them.{{sfn|Ambrose|1989|pp=431–432}} In 1970, Congress had granted the president the power to impose wage and price freezes, though the Democratic majorities, knowing Nixon had opposed such controls throughout his career, did not expect Nixon to actually use the authority.{{r|Bowles-Small}} With inflation unresolved by August 1971, and an election year looming, Nixon convened a summit of his economic advisers at [[Camp David]]. Nixon's options were to limit fiscal and monetary expansionist policies that reduced unemployment or end the dollar's fixed exchange rate; Nixon's dilemma has been cited as an example of the [[Impossible trinity]] in international economics.<ref name=":1">{{cite book|last=Oatley|first=Thomas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4GJoDwAAQBAJ|title=International Political Economy: Sixth Edition|date=2019|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-351-03464-7|pages=351–352}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Gowa|first=Joanne|title=Closing the Gold Window|date=1983|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctvr7f40n|publisher=Cornell University Press |jstor=10.7591/j.ctvr7f40n|isbn=978-0-8014-1622-4}}</ref> He then announced temporary wage and price controls, allowed the dollar to float against other currencies, and ended the convertibility of the dollar into gold.{{sfn|Aitken|pp=399–400}} Bowles points out,
<blockquote>by identifying himself with a policy whose purpose was inflation's defeat, Nixon made it difficult for Democratic opponents&nbsp;... to criticize him. His opponents could offer no alternative policy that was either plausible or believable since the one they favored was one they had designed but which the president had appropriated for himself.{{r|Bowles-Small}}</blockquote>

Nixon's policies dampened inflation through 1972, although their aftereffects contributed to inflation during his second term and into the Ford administration.{{sfn|Aitken|pp=399–400}} Nixon's decision to end the gold standard in the United States led to the collapse of the [[Bretton Woods system]]. According to Thomas Oatley, "the Bretton Woods system collapsed so that Nixon might win the 1972 presidential election."<ref name=":1"/>

After Nixon won re-election, inflation was returning.{{sfn|Hetzel|p=92}} He reimposed price controls in June 1973. The price controls became unpopular with the public and businesspeople, who saw powerful labor unions as preferable to the price board bureaucracy.{{sfn|Hetzel|p=92}} The controls produced [[Economic shortage|food shortages]], as meat disappeared from grocery stores and farmers drowned chickens rather than sell them at a loss.{{sfn|Hetzel|p=92}} Despite the failure to control inflation, controls were slowly ended, and on April 30, 1974, their statutory authorization lapsed.{{sfn|Hetzel|p=92}}

==== Governmental initiatives and organization ====
[[File:State of the Union Speech in the US Capitol - NARA - 194346.tif|thumb|upright|Nixon gives the 1971 [[State of the Union Address]].]]
[[File:Richard Nixon - Presidential portrait.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Official Nixon portrait by [[James Anthony Wills]], {{circa|1984}}]]
[[File:US incarceration rate timeline.gif|thumb|upright|Graph of increases in [[Incarceration in the United States|U.S. incarceration rate]]]]
Nixon advocated a "[[New Federalism]]", which would devolve power to state and local elected officials, though Congress was hostile to these ideas and enacted few of them.{{sfn|Aitken|p=395}} He eliminated the Cabinet-level [[United States Post Office Department]], which in 1971 became the government-run [[United States Postal Service]].{{sfn|USPS, Periodicals postage}}

Nixon was a late supporter of the [[conservation movement]]. Environmental policy had not been a significant issue in the 1968 election, and the candidates were rarely asked for their views on the subject. Nixon broke new ground by discussing environmental policy in his [[State of the Union speech]] in 1970. He saw that the first [[Earth Day]] in April 1970 presaged a wave of voter interest on the subject, and sought to use that to his benefit; in June he announced the formation of the [[United States Environmental Protection Agency|Environmental Protection Agency]] (EPA).{{sfn|Aitken|pp=397–398}} He relied on his domestic advisor [[John Ehrlichman]], who favored protection of natural resources, to keep him "out of trouble on environmental issues."<ref name="Distillations"/> Other initiatives supported by Nixon included the [[Clean Air Act of 1970]] and the [[Occupational Safety and Health Administration]] (OSHA), and the [[National Environmental Policy Act]] required [[environmental impact statement]]s for many Federal projects.<ref name="Distillations">{{cite magazine|last1=Rinde|first1=Meir|title=Richard Nixon and the Rise of American Environmentalism|magazine=Distillations|date=2017|volume=3|issue=1|pages=16–29|url=https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/magazine/richard-nixon-and-the-rise-of-american-environmentalism|access-date=April 4, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180405024821/https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/magazine/richard-nixon-and-the-rise-of-american-environmentalism|archive-date=April 5, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Aitken|pp=397–398}} Nixon vetoed the [[Clean Water Act]] of 1972—objecting not to the policy goals of the legislation but to the amount of money to be spent on them, which he deemed excessive. After Congress overrode his veto, Nixon [[impoundment of appropriated funds|impounded]] the funds he deemed unjustifiable.{{sfn|Aitken|p=396}}

In 1971, Nixon proposed health insurance reform—a private health insurance employer mandate,{{efn|name=voluntary|voluntary for employees}} federalization of [[Medicaid]] for poor families with dependent minor children,{{sfn|NHI: CQ Almanac 1971}} and support for [[health maintenance organization]]s (HMOs).{{sfn|HMO: CQ Almanac 1973}} A limited HMO bill was enacted in 1973.{{sfn|HMO: CQ Almanac 1973}} In 1974, Nixon proposed more comprehensive health insurance reform—a private health insurance employer mandate{{efn|name=voluntary|voluntary for employees}} and replacement of Medicaid by state-run health insurance plans available to all, with income-based premiums and [[cost sharing]].{{sfn|NHI: CQ Almanac 1974}}

Nixon was concerned about the prevalence of domestic drug use in addition to drug use among American soldiers in Vietnam. He called for a [[war on drugs]] and pledged to cut off sources of supply abroad. He also increased funds for education and for rehabilitation facilities.{{sfn|Ambrose|1989|p=418}}

As one policy initiative, Nixon called for more money for [[sickle-cell disease|sickle-cell]] research, treatment, and education in February 1971{{sfn|Office of the Federal Register|pp=179–182}} and signed the National Sickle Cell Anemia Control Act on May 16, 1972.{{sfn|The American Presidency Project}}{{sfn|National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute|p=2}}{{efn|see especially page 2 (after introductory material) in which a bar graph displays NHLBI funding for sickle cell research from FY 1972 through FY 2001, totaling $923 million for these thirty years, starting at $10 million for 1972, then about $15 million a year through 1976, about $20 million for 1977, etc}} While Nixon called for increased spending on such high-profile items as sickle-cell disease and for a [[war on cancer]], at the same time he sought to reduce overall spending at the [[National Institutes of Health]].{{sfn|Wailoo|pp=165, 170}}

==== Civil rights ====
The Nixon presidency witnessed the first large-scale [[racial integration|integration]] of public schools in the South.{{sfn|Boger|p=6}} Nixon sought a middle way between the segregationist Wallace and liberal Democrats, whose support of integration was alienating some Southern whites.{{sfn|Sabia}} Hopeful of doing well in the South in 1972, he sought to dispose of desegregation as a political issue before then. Soon after his inauguration, he appointed Vice President Agnew to lead a task force, which worked with local leaders—both white and black—to determine how to [[School integration in the United States|integrate]] local schools. Agnew had little interest in the work, and most of it was done by Labor Secretary [[George Shultz]]. Federal aid was available, and a meeting with President Nixon was a possible reward for compliant committees. By September 1970, less than ten percent of black children were attending segregated schools. By 1971, however, tensions over desegregation surfaced in Northern cities, with angry protests over the [[Desegregation busing in the United States|busing]] of children to schools outside their neighborhood to achieve racial balance. Nixon opposed busing personally but enforced court orders requiring its use.{{sfn|Parmet|pp=595–597, 603}}

Some scholars, such as James Morton Turner and John Isenberg, believe that Nixon, who had advocated for civil rights in his 1960 campaign, slowed down [[Desegregation in the United States|desegregation]] as president, appealing to the racial conservatism of Southern whites, who were angered by the [[civil rights movement]]. This, he hoped, would boost his election chances in 1972.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674979970|title=The Republican Reversal—James Morton Turner, Andrew C. Isenberg {{!}} Harvard University Press|via=www.hup.harvard.edu|date=November 12, 2018 |page=36|publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=9780674979970 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190108151027/http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674979970|archive-date=January 8, 2019|url-status=live|access-date=July 31, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo8212972.html|title=The Partisan Sort|series=Chicago Studies in American Politics |pages=24|publisher=University of Chicago Press |access-date=July 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190731184243/https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo8212972.html|archive-date=July 31, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>

In addition to desegregating public schools, Nixon implemented the [[Philadelphia Plan]] in 1970—the first significant federal [[affirmative action]] program.{{sfn|Delaney|1970-07-20}} He also endorsed the [[Equal Rights Amendment]] after it passed both houses of Congress in 1972 and went to the states for ratification.{{sfn|Frum|p=246}} He also pushed for African American civil rights and economic equity through a concept known as black capitalism.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Harambee City: Congress of Racial Equality in Cleveland and the Rise of Black Power Populism.|last=Frazier|first=Nishani|publisher=University of Arkansas Press|year=2017|isbn=978-1-68226-018-0|pages=184–207}}</ref> Nixon had campaigned as an ERA supporter in 1968, though feminists criticized him for doing little to help the ERA or their cause after his election. Nevertheless, he appointed more women to administration positions than Lyndon Johnson had.{{sfn|PBS, Nixon, Domestic Politics}}
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