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Nixon vows to cut wasteful government spending in his nomination acceptance speech
Nixon's speech When Richard Nixon accepted the presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, he told the cheering delegates, “For the past five years, we have been deluged by government programs for the unemployed, programs for the cities, programs for the poor. And we have reaped from these programs an ugly harvest of frustration, violence, and failure across the land.” It is time, “to quit pouring billions of dollars into programs that have failed in the United States." -
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Nixon appoints Moynihan to White House Staff
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Nixon announces that Daniel Patrick Moynihan will join his White House staff
On December 10, 1969, at NIxon's transition headquarters at the Pierre Hotel on New York's Fifth Avenue, the president-elect announces that Daniel Patrick Moynihan, 41, will join his White House staff as assistant to the president for urban affairs. Professor Moynihan will take a two-year leave from his position as director of the Joint Center for Urban Studies at Harvard University and the the Massachusetts Institute for Technology. -
Nixon is inaugurated
Nixon's Inauguration Speech"The day, writes New York Times columnist Russell Baker, is ‘out of Edgar Allen Poe, dun and drear, with a chilling northeast wind that cut to the marrow, and a gray ugly overcast that turned the city the color of wet cement.” The president-elect is wearing a morning coat and striped pants, his right hand is on the family Bible, open to Isaiah 2:4. -
Nixon appoints friend Arthur Burns to White House Counsellor
On January 23, the White House press office issues the following statement by the president: "Today I am pleased to announce a major appointment. Dr. Arthur Burns, a longtime friend and trusted adviser, has agreed to join the White House Staff as the Counsellor to the President. Dr. Burns will have Cabinet rank. He will head up a small group whose prime responsibility will be the coordination of the development of my domestic policies and programs." -
Nixon signs Executive Order No. 11452
On January 24, the president's first Thursday in office, I enter the Cabinet Room at 9:30, a half hour before he is to sign Executive Order No. 11452. with a few pen strokes, Nixon will create the Council for Urban Affairs. On the table in front of where he will sit is a box of Pentel felt-tipped pens. Presidents do not sign historic documents with Pentel felt-tipped pens. We search the innards of the White House for pens that use ink and look presidential. -
The UAC meets for the first time
Running the UAC means that Pat sets the agenda. He proposes; Arthur Burns reacts. Burns sees the hazards. At the first UAC meeting, on January 23, Burns tries to play the game of "cabinet covers staff," and fails. According to the minutes, "Dr. Burns and the Vice President asked if Dr. Moynihan could prepare some outline of a national urban policy, and the President agreed. Dr. Moynihan said that "I would be glad to undertake such a task, on the condition that...no one take it seriously." -
President visits street in DC hurt by race riots
[Pat] urges an early presidential visit to the riot corridors that can symbolically show Nixon's concern. So in his second week in office, on January 31, the president stands in front of the gutted Waxie Maxie record store on 7th Street NW and announces that a vest-pocket park will be built on the site of four burned-out buildings. -
Nixon announces support for the Home Rule
On Friday, January 31, 1969, in an appearance with Secretary Romney and Mayor Washington, Nixon declared the fight was over: "For more than 20 years I have supported the home rule for the District of Columbia. I continue to support the home rule. For the present, I will seek within the present system to strengthen the role of the local government in the solution of local problems. Beyond this, I will press for congressional representation for the District." -
Nixon makes commitment to providing care for all children
On February 19, the president tells Congress, "So crucial is the matter of early growth that we must make a national commitment to providing all American children an opportunity for healthful and stimulating development during the first five years of life." -
In an attempt to organize federal agencies, Nixon and Moynihan divide the country into eight regions
On March 27, with Pat as the driving force within the White House, the president announces that five agencies--Labor, HEW, HUD, OEO, and SBA--will henceforth divide the country into eight regions, with the same states in each region, and with each region having the same headquarters. What Pat sees as a "low level of public interest" now becomes "a rather specific level of local opposition." -
Nixon announces the establishment of the Office of Child Development
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Nixon sends special message to Congress after 75 days
Nixon tries to minimize his 100-days problem by sending Congress a “special message” after 75 days about his forthcoming proposals. John Mitchell is represented with “new measures to combat organized crime” and “a detailed plan for combating crime in the District of Columbia.” Postmaster General Winton Blount gets “a comprehensive reorganization of the Post Office Department," and more. -
Nixon nominates Rumsfeld as the Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity
On April 21, the President nominates Representative Donald Rumsfeld as director, Office of Economic Opportunity. Rumsfeld also will be assistant to the president, have a cabinet rank, and be a member of the Urban Affairs Council. At the White House ceremony, Nixon tells the guests, “I remember when I was his age...I made the hardest political decision of my life. That decision was to give up a safe seat in the Congress and run for the Senate. Don Rumsfeld, today, is ‘crossing the Rubicon.'" -
Pat seeks to improve institutionalised racism
Pat writes to the president: “I do not believe this is a racist country. But it was. And there are many only half-perceived carryovers of earlier attitudes still embedded in our everyday routines. One of these is the practice of the U.S. Government to classify its citizens as ‘White’ or ‘Nonwhite.” White is normal. Not to be white is not to be normal. This is the only possible interpretation. Once you begin to think of it, the present practice is outrageous.” Pat asks Nixon to change the system. -
Nixon awards the Medal of Honor
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Nixon announces that domestic agencies will divide the nation into ten regions in order to fix specific issues
On May 21, the president--having gone back to the drawing board--issues another statement. Forget about the March 27 announcement, he says in effect. The structure of the government now will be arranged in ten regions, not eight. Pat tells a press conference, "This is the first time in the history of the American Republic that the regional boundaries of the major domestic programs will be coterminous." -
President keeps the OEO alive
The president gives the Office of Economic Opportunity a two-year extension on June 2. Pat's position is strengthened by the handoff of the OEO issue to the savvy Rumsfeld, who becomes part of his "liberal bloc" for as long as he remains in the White House. -
Nixon sends message to Congress regarding population growth.
On July 18, the president sends a long and impassioned message to Congress on the “pressing problems” of the “dramatically increasing rate of population growth.” Since this coincides with Apollo 11 heading for the moon, Nixon can perorate, “Let us act in such a way that those who come after us—even as they lift their eyes beyond the earth’s bounds—can do so with pride in the planet on which they live.” -
Nixon announces new domestic welfare plan
New Welfare Plan
In a nationally televised address from the Oval Office on Friday, August 8, Nixon outlined the program’s four main areas: “First, a complete replacement of the present welfare system; second, a comprehensive new job training and placement program; third, a revamping of the Office of Economic Opportunity; and fourth, a start on the sharing of Federal tax revenues with the States.” -
Term "nonwhite" is eliminated from the government's statistical publications
On August 15, the Bureau of the Budget’s Office of Statistical Policy announces that the term “nonwhite” will be eliminated from use in the government’s statistical publications. (The Census Bureau will use the term “Negro” until 2013, when it is dropped in favor of “black” or “African American.”) -
Nationalwide war demonstrations come to DC
On October 15, protests stage a day of nationwide demonstrations calling for a "moratorium" on the war. A quarter of a million people assemble outside the White House. The next day the president asks for staff assessments. Pat replies: "The Moratorum was a success. It was not perhaps as big as some may have anticipated--"substantian but not enormous," in David Brinkley's words--but in style and content it was everything the organizers could have hoped for." -
A confidential memo to Nixon from Pat appears on the front page of the New York Times: "Benign Neglect' on Race is Proposed by Moynihan"
The two words are from a confidential memo that Pat sends to the president on January 16. The memo is intended to be "a general assessment of the position of Negroes at the end of the first year of your administration." It begins, "In quantitative terms, which are reliable, the American Negro is making extraordinary progress. In political terms, somewhat less reliable, this would also appear to be true. In each case, however, there would seem to be counter-currents..." -
Nixon announces increased involvement in Vietnam and Cambodia
The president announces: "In cooperation with the armed forces of South Vietnma, attacks are being launched this week to clean out major enemy sanctuaries on the Cambodian-Vietnam border." Although the sanctuaries are not in Vietnam, Nixon says that "this is not an invasion of Cambodia." He is not wrong about "the the shattering effect" of his decision. The White House is now under seige, surrounded by buses tightly lined front-to-back. -
Pat resigns from the Nixon administration
Pat resigns quietly-not with a bang-in a private meeting with Nixon on May 13. The president had honored him and become his friend. He says he would like to leave for Harvard on July 1. Nixon asks, and Pat agrees, that he stay a bit longer to help get FAP through the Senate. -
Nixon considers Pat for a position at the UN
On Saturday, June 6, while at Camp David with his family, Nixon has what seems to be a random thought in that it doesn't appear to emerge from any need or desire. He calls Haldeman: "Consider Moynihan for UN!" Haldeman replies, "Good idea." Nixon's ambassador to the United Nations is a distinguished diplomat, Charles Yost. There is no indication that the administration is displeased with Yost, nor is Yost thought to be displeased with the job. -
Pat agrees to take the UN Post
On August 15, Haldeman reports that Pat has "agreed to take the UN post in January." Goign to the United Nations as America's spokesperson to the world is immensely attractive to Pat. Returning to Harvard is perhaps losing some luster, as it is not clear which department wants Pat. Strangely, the UN appointment has not been announced over the summer and Yost has still not been notified. -
Nixon tries to influence the Finance Committee to support FAP
In September, when the heat over the Cambodian incursion has died down, Nixon turns his attention to trying to influence the Finance Committee. An Air Force plane takes five members and their wives to San Diego as the president's guests as s state dinner for the president of Mexico. Another senator joins them from Arizona. Marine helicopters fly them up to San Clemente, the president's "Western White House," where the senators meet with the president while Mrs. Nixon takes their wives on a tour. -
Pat sends a letter to Nixon turning down the job at the UN
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Senate Finance Committee votes on FAP
Finally, having stalled as much as possible, the committee votes on November 20, and FAP is defeated in a 10-5 vote (with Democratic Senator Vance Hartke of Indiana not voting). Seven of the ten Democrats vote against it. Pat thinks this is an "Example of people letting the best become the enemy of the good....Senators who preferred nothing to something they regarded as less than perfect,"
