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The Origins of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969
The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 is one of the most important pieces of environmental policy passed in the 20th century. Often referred to as the Magna Carta of Environmental Policy, it laid out a uniform national approach to environmental issues. Its...
Amid Middle East Strife, Nixon Brought Hope
By the late 1960s, conditions in the Middle East were tumultuous. Israel had captured and held mass swaths of territory, and tensions with its neighbors were at an all-time high. However, the election of a new U.S. President brought hope in 1969 that stability and...
The Formation of a New National Security Council
After winning the election of 1968, then President-elect Richard Nixon and his Assistant for National Security Affairs Dr. Henry Kissinger set about restoring the National Security Council to its preeminent role in foreign policy planning. Nixon’s belief that foreign...
Developing Nixon’s China Policy
Richard Nixon’s 1953 Far East Trip holds pivotal, if little known, importance in the history of US-China relations. It was on this trip that Nixon realized the true importance of China in the fight against communism, and began to take it seriously as a significant...
The Pressures which Led to the Reversion of Okinawa
The Nixon administration issued 206 National Security Study Memoranda (NSSMs). These memos ordered the National Security Council to produce studies on topics which either the President or his Assistant for National Security Affairs, Henry Kissinger, considered...
1953: VP Nixon in Japan
The presidency of Richard Nixon played a crucial role in the development of post-World War II relations between Japan and the United States, which culminated in the return of Okinawa to the Japanese government in 1972. However, RN’s encouragement of Japanese autonomy...
A Concerned Citizen’s Change of Heart
A letter written by a concerned citizen offers an insight into the public reaction to school desegregation as it was carried out under the Nixon Administration. The author had previously submitted a letter consisting of 204 signatures protesting the school’s...
Advancing Women in the Federal Government
Calls from American women from all walks of life for an increased presence of women in the federal government came as early as President Nixon’s first inauguration. The head of this criticism, Washington Post reporter Vera Glaser, charged that only three of the first...
Reagan Echoes Nixon’s Anti-Busing Position
Throughout his administration years of 1969-74 President Richard Nixon time and again voiced his opposition to the compulsory busing of school children as a means to counteract segregation. The tax burden of mass busing, the dehumanizing act of reducing school...
A Conversation With the President About Foreign Policy
From left to right: Howard K. Smith of ABC, Eric Sevareid of CBS, John Chancellor of NBC, and President Richard Nixon. It was television day, as H.R. Haldeman, President Nixon's chief of staff wrote in his diaries. A day when President Nixon would lock himself in a...