Nixon's Accomplishments and appointments
  On the morning of July 20, 1969, Nixon addressed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin during their historic moonwalk, live via telephone. Along with those of the astronauts, Nixon's name and signature were inscribed on the plaques left behind by Apollo 11 in 1969 and Apollo 17 in 1972. Ironically it was the Democrat controlled Congress and President Nixon who had wound down the NASA budget and curtailed the Apollo program due to budget pressures caused principally by the vast expense of US involvement in Vietnam. On January 5, 1972 Nixon approved the development of the Space Shuttle program, a decision that profoundly influenced U.S. efforts to explore and develop space for several decades thereafter.

In 1972 Nixon was re-elected in one of the most massive landslide elections in U.S. political history, defeating George McGovern and garnering over 60% of the popular vote. He carried 49 of the 50 states, trailing only in Massachusetts.

On January 2, 1974 Nixon signed a bill that lowered the maximum US speed limit to 55 MPH in order to conserve gasoline during the 1973 energy crisis.

On April 3, Nixon announced he would pay $432,787.13 in back taxes plus interest after a congressional committee reported that he had inadvertently underpaid his 1969 and 1972 taxes.

Cabinet

 
OFFICE NAME TERM
 
President Richard Nixon 1969–1974
Vice President Spiro T. Agnew 1969–1973
  Gerald R. Ford 1973–1974
 
State William P. Rogers 1969–1973
  1973–1974
Treasury David M. Kennedy 1969–1971
  John B. Connally 1971–1972
  George P. Shultz 1972–1974
  William E. Simon 1974
Defense Melvin R. Laird 1969–1973
  Elliot L. Richardson 1973–1973
  James R. Schlesinger 1973–1974
Justice John N. Mitchell 1969–1972
  Richard G. Kleindienst 1972–1973
  Elliot L. Richardson 1973–1974
  William B. Saxbe 1974
Postmaster General Winton M. Blount 1969–1974
Interior Walter J. Hickel 1969–1971
  Rogers C. B. Morton 1971–1974
Agriculture Clifford M. Hardin 1969–1971
  Earl L. Butz 1971–1974
Commerce Maurice H. Stans 1969–1972
  Peter George Peterson 1972–1973
  Frederick B. Dent 1973–1974
Labor George P. Shultz 1969–1970
  James D. Hodgson 1970–1973
  Peter J. Brennan 1973–1974
HEW Robert H. Finch 1969–1970
  Elliot L. Richardson 1970–1973
  Caspar W. Weinberger 1973–1974
HUD George Romney 1969–1973
  James T. Lynn 1973–1974
Transportation John A. Volpe 1969–1973
  Claude S. Brinegar 1973–1974


Supreme Court appointments

Nixon appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States:

  • Warren E. Burger - Chief Justice - 1969
  • Harry Andrew Blackmun - 1970
  • Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr. - 1972
  • William Rehnquist - 1972

Major initiatives

  • Normalizing of diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China and partially abandoning the Republic of China on Taiwan as part of Realpolitik, a foreign policy eschewing moral considerations. In the short term Nixon was successful in playing the "China card" against the Soviet Union and its client state North Vietnam.
  • Establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency.
  • Establishment of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
  • Establishment of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
  • Establishment of the Supplemental Security Income program.
  • Establishment of the Office of Minority Business Enterprise
  • SALT I, or Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, led to the signing of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
  • "Vietnamization": the slow withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam while dramatically increasing the scale of bombing.
  • Release of the dollar from the fluctuating gold standard that had controlled its worth since the Bretton Woods Conference, allowing its value to float in world markets.
  • Space Shuttle program started.

 

 

 

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Nixon - The Peacemaker is a web site by JPCohen. Copyright © jpcohen publishing.
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Contact me at joe.cohen@rvv.com last updated:12/25/10