So yesterday I accidentally made my date Monday May 1 when it actually was Wednesday May 1. Anyway today we learned
Richard Nixon:
- The Dirty Tricks Campaign = an organization used to play tricks (like sending stuff to motels) and distracting the democrats from the campaign and causing democrats to fight amongst themselves causing them to drop out so that he could go up against the worst candidate.
Notes:
- Promised to end the war- "Peace with honor"
- Expanded the war to Cambodia and Laos bombing Ho Chi Ming Trail; people believed he wasn't ending the war but making it bigger and worse
- Started pulling troops out of Vietnam as promised eventually
- The Nixon Doctrine- "Victimization" of the war; training the Vietnamese then pulling our troops out so they could fight by themselves
- Paris Peace Accords signed in 1973 stopped the fighting and got the US out of the war
- Very Green president - Clean Air Act, National Environmental Policy Act
- War on Drugs - hippies etc with many drug wars; he pushed fighting back against illegal drug use
- Desegregation of schools with state committees
- Supplemental Security Income- giving money to low income who are 65+
- Signed Title 9- prohibiting gender discrimination in all federally funded schools (as many boys programs as girls)
- Equal Employment Opportunity Act - enforces laws against workplace discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, perceived intelligence and disability
- Approved the development of NASA's space shuttle program
- Abortion was legalized during his presidency
- Moon landing happened on his watch
- He eased tensions with China and US because Nixon went and visited them and made trade deals etc. Opening relations with communist China
- Went to Soviet Union and SALT I was signed which limited nuclear weapons
- Lowered the max US speed to 55 mph to conserve gasoline during the crisis
Watergate
- Watergate was an office/hotel complex in D.C. - home to the democratic national headquarters (for election campaigns)
- 5 people were arrested for breaking and entering and then Nixon said he didn't know anything about this; he just said they were getting dirt on the democrats
- Two Washington Post reporters investigated it; why were they wearing suits? why were they bugging the phones? why did they have 100 dollars in their pocket?
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