Nixon Today
Changing Gender Roles and the Equal Rights Amendments
Historically speaking, women have been consigned to the confines of the private, domestic sphere; tradition dictates that women are the homemaker, the caregiver, and the mother. However, how has this tradition been reconciled with the trend of women moving into the...
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...
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...
The Manila Communiqué: Nixon’s Comeback
In late October of 1966, LBJ met with leaders of several different Pacific nations to begin negotiating new policy goals for the Vietnam War. The result of this summit was The Manila Communiqué: a document that laid out specific policy goals to try to achieve peace in...
Insights from the Oval Office: Taking the Helm on Desegregation
A document directed to the Staff Secretary from Bryce Harlow outlines the details of a meeting held in the Oval Office by President Nixon. The meeting also included the Attorney General, Bob Finch, and Ed Morgan, and made clear the position held by President Nixon...
The Push for Anti-Busing Legislation
During a press conference on April 29, 1971, a reporter asked President Nixon if he approved of “the mandatory use of busing to overcome racial segregation” ruled by the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Swann v. Charlotte Mecklenburg. An unmarked provisional Q &...
The Challenge of Peaceful Desegregation
An excerpt from a 1969 statement by both Robert H. Finch, Secretary of the Department of Health Education and Welfare, and John N. Mitchell, Attorney General, gives us a perspective on the challenges still facing the nationwide integration of schools since the...
Reforming The Selective Service
Today the Selective Service system is on stand-by. Every male in America between the ages of 18 and 25 must register with the Selective Service System, but never has any individual since the Vietnam War era been conscripted into service. The first and last experience...