The Final Days is a 1976 non-fiction book written by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein about the Watergate scandal . A follow-up to their 1974 book All the President's Men , The Final Days concerns itself with the final months of the Presidency of Richard Nixon including battles over the Nixon White House tapes and the impeachment process against Richard Nixon .
166-527: Not long after the resignation of Richard Nixon in August 1974, Woodward and Bernstein took a leave of absence from The Washington Post in order to begin work on the book. They originally intended to cover just the last hundred days of the Nixon presidency but then expanded it further back. They hired two research assistants, Scott Armstrong and Al Kamen , and among them they interviewed 394 people involved in
332-444: A "blockbuster" in terms of content, but Woodward demurred, saying instead that it would be "a book of a hundred small surprises." According to Jon Marshall's 2011 retrospective look at Watergate and the press, although Bernstein got co-equal credit on the cover, he in fact did relatively few interviews and not only less of the writing than Woodward, but also less than either Armstrong or Kamen. (It could also be noted that Woodward wrote
498-501: A 168-page magazine about the opening of the sports arena. The magazine's editors and writers were not informed of the agreement, which breached the Chinese wall that traditionally has separated advertising from journalistic functions at American newspapers. Publisher Mark Willes also had not prevented advertisers from pressuring reporters in other sections of the newspaper to write stories favorable to their point of view. Michael Kinsley
664-788: A Democratic newspaper, were both afternoon competitors. By the mid-1940s, the Times was the leading newspaper in terms of circulation in the Greater Los Angeles . In 1948, it launched the Los Angeles Mirror , an afternoon tabloid, to compete with both the Daily News and the merged Herald-Express . In 1954, the Mirror absorbed the Daily News . The combined paper, the Mirror-News , ceased publication in 1962, when
830-534: A May 2007, mostly voluntary, reduction in force , characterized the decrease in circulation as an "industry-wide problem" which the paper had to counter by "growing rapidly on-line", "break[ing] news on the Web and explain[ing] and analyz[ing] it in our newspaper." The Times closed its San Fernando Valley printing plant in early 2006, leaving press operations to the Olympic plant and to Orange County . Also that year
996-562: A choice which Nixon believed would unite the party by appealing to both Northern moderates and Southerners disaffected with the Democrats. The choice of Agnew was poorly received by many; a Washington Post editorial described Agnew as "the most eccentric political appointment since the Roman Emperor Caligula named his horse a consul . In his acceptance speech, Nixon articulated a message of hope, stating, "We extend
1162-441: A compromise based on Nixon's plan, but gave up when unable to get more than a 13–12 majority of his committee to support his compromise. Environmentalism had emerged as a major movement during the 1960s, especially after the 1962 publication of Silent Spring . Between 1960 and 1969, membership in the twelve largest environmental groups had grown from 124,000 to 819,000, and polling showed that millions of voters shared many of
1328-637: A facility in El Segundo, near the Los Angeles International Airport , in July 2018. Since 2020, the newspaper's coverage has evolved away from national and international news and toward coverage of California and especially Southern California news. In January 2024, the paper underwent its largest percentage reduction in headcount—amounting to a layoff of over 20%, including senior staff editorial positions—in an effort to stem
1494-528: A local Metromix site targeting live entertainment for young adults. A free weekly tabloid print edition of Metromix Los Angeles followed in February 2008; the publication was the newspaper's first stand-alone print weekly. In 2009, the Times shut down Metromix and replaced it with Brand X , a blog site and free weekly tabloid targeting young, social networking readers. Brand X launched in March 2009;
1660-453: A loss—only fueled more inflation. Despite their failure to rein in inflation, controls were slowly ended, and on April 30, 1974, their statutory authorization lapsed. Between Nixon's accession to office and his resignation in August 1974, unemployment rates had risen from 3.5% to 5.6%, and the rate of inflation had grown from 4.7% to 8.7%. Observers coined a new term for the undesirable combination of unemployment and inflation: " stagflation ",
1826-767: A mistake. By the end of 1971, 156,000 U.S. soldiers remained in Vietnam; 276 American soldiers serving in Vietnam were killed in the last six months of that year. North Vietnam launched the Easter Offensive in March 1972, overwhelming the South Vietnamese army. In reaction to the Easter Offensive, Nixon ordered a massive bombing campaign in North Vietnam known as Operation Linebacker . As U.S. troop withdrawals continued, conscription
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#17328019573981992-538: A number of major publications and writers, including The New York Times , Boston Globe critic Ty Burr , Washington Post blogger Alyssa Rosenberg, and the websites The A.V. Club and Flavorwire , announced that they would boycott press screenings of future Disney films. The National Society of Film Critics , Los Angeles Film Critics Association , New York Film Critics Circle , and Boston Society of Film Critics jointly announced that Disney's films would be ineligible for their respective year-end awards unless
2158-685: A phenomenon that would worsen after Nixon left office. One of Nixon's major promises in the 1968 campaign was to address what he described as the " welfare mess". The number of individuals enrolled in the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program had risen from 3 million in 1960 to 8.4 million in 1970, contributing to a drop in poverty . However, many Americans, particularly conservatives, believed that welfare programs discouraged individuals from finding employment ; conservatives also derided " welfare queens " who they alleged collected excessive amounts of welfare benefits. On taking office, Nixon established
2324-462: A possible danger to himself, Nixon's strong strain of anti-Semitism, and that the president and First Lady Pat Nixon were estranged and had been for some time. The promotion was effective: this issue of Newsweek became the fastest selling one in the magazine's history. The debate over these particular incidents colored much of the subsequent reaction to the book. The book contains two parts, with twenty chapters. The first carries on from where All
2490-626: A prominent Democrat like Humphrey or Sargent Shriver into his administration, but was unsuccessful until early 1971, when former governor John Connally of Texas became Secretary of the Treasury. Connally would become one of the most powerful members of the cabinet and coordinated the administration's economic policies. In 1973, as the Watergate scandal came to light, Nixon accepted the resignations of Haldeman, Erlichman, and Mitchell's successor as attorney general, Richard Kleindienst . Haldeman
2656-874: A record-setting deal for $ 1.55 million, eclipsing a previous mark for any publisher for non-fiction works held by The Joy of Cooking . At the same time, the paperback edition of All the President's Men was atop that bestseller list and the film All the President's Men was the biggest box-office success in the land. All of these successes made both authors wealthy. The book was the last collaboration between Woodward and Bernstein; quite dissimilar in personality, and with different approaches towards their newfound wealth, they soon went their separate ways, although they have remained close friends. In 2005, Bernstein wrote an afterword for Woodward's book The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate's Deep Throat , which detailed Woodward's relationship with FBI Associate Director Mark Felt ,
2822-523: A series of city riots in various cities, made 1968 the most tumultuous year of the decade. Throughout the year, Nixon portrayed himself as a figure of stability during a period of national unrest and upheaval. He appealed to what he later called the " silent majority " of socially conservative Americans who disliked the 1960s counterculture and the anti-war demonstrators. Nixon waged a prominent television advertising campaign, meeting with supporters in front of cameras. He promised " peace with honor " in
2988-473: A team of Times reporters delivered management with a critique of the paper's online news efforts known as the Spring Street Project. The report, which condemned the Times as a "web-stupid" organization, was followed by a shakeup in management of the paper's website, and a rebuke of print staffers who were described as treating "change as a threat." On July 10, 2007, the Times launched
3154-460: Is my last press conference ." In the years after his defeat, Nixon established himself as an important party leader who appealed to both moderates and conservatives. Nixon entered the race for the 1968 Republican presidential nomination confident that, with the Democrats torn apart over the war in Vietnam, a Republican had a good chance of winning the presidency in November, although he expected
3320-415: Is the nature of truly tragic ordeals), and weathering it with considerable courage and dignity." This fuller depiction did much to ameliorate the initial denunciations of the book. Making reference to the debate swirling around the book, the Times wrote: But can we believe The Final Days ? Are Messrs. Woodward and Bernstein finally credible? All that can be reported here is that the experience of reading
3486-472: The 1960 presidential election by John F. Kennedy . In 1962 , Nixon ran for governor of California against incumbent Pat Brown , and was defeated handily, leading the media to label him as a "loser". This defeat was widely believed to be the end of his career; in an impromptu concession speech the morning after the election, Nixon famously blamed the media for favoring his opponent, saying, "you won't have Nixon to kick around anymore because, gentlemen, this
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#17328019573983652-410: The 1968 presidential election . Four years later, in the 1972 presidential election , he defeated Democrat nominee George McGovern , to win re-election in a landslide. Although he had built his reputation as a very active Republican campaigner , Nixon downplayed partisanship in his 1972 landslide re-election. Nixon's primary focus while in office was on foreign affairs . He focused on détente with
3818-557: The AFL–CIO and UAW . The following month Nixon proposed the Comprehensive Health Insurance Act, consisting of an employer mandate to offer private health insurance if employees volunteered to pay 25 percent of premiums, replacement of Medicaid by state-run health insurance plans available to all with income-based premiums and cost sharing, and replacement of Medicare with a new federal program that eliminated
3984-565: The Brand X tabloid ceased publication in June 2011 and the website was shut down the following month. In May 2018, the Times blocked access to its online edition from most of Europe because of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation . In 1999, it was revealed that a revenue-sharing arrangement was in place between the Times and Staples Center in the preparation of
4150-615: The Chicago Cubs baseball club. He put up for sale the company's 25 percent interest in Comcast SportsNet Chicago. Until shareholder approval was received, Los Angeles billionaires Ron Burkle and Eli Broad had the right to submit a higher bid, in which case Zell would have received a $ 25 million buyout fee. In December 2008, the Tribune Company filed for bankruptcy protection . The bankruptcy
4316-636: The Clean Water Act . He signed the Endangered Species Act of 1973 , the primary law for protecting imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of economic growth and development untempered by adequate concern and conservation". Nixon also pursued environmental diplomacy, and Nixon administration official Russell E. Train opened a dialog on global environmental issues with Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin . Political scientists Byron Daines and Glenn Sussman rate Nixon as
4482-580: The Democratic presidential candidate, rejected this alternative to endorsement, and after Donald Trump , the Republican candidate, alluded to the newspaper not having endorsed Harris, Mariel Garza, the editor of the opinion section, resigned in protest, as did two other members of the editorial board, Robert Greene and Karin Klein. Two hundred Times staff signed a letter condemning the way in which
4648-512: The House of Representatives initiated impeachment proceedings. Facing removal by Congress, Nixon resigned from office. Though some scholars believe that Nixon "has been excessively maligned for his faults and inadequately recognised for his virtues", Nixon is generally ranked as a below average president in surveys of historians and political scientists . Richard Nixon had served as vice president from 1953 to 1961, and had been defeated in
4814-593: The Los Angeles Times under the Chandler family. The paper's early history and subsequent transformation was chronicled in an unauthorized history, Thinking Big (1977, ISBN 0-399-11766-0 ), and was one of four organizations profiled by David Halberstam in The Powers That Be (1979, ISBN 0-394-50381-3 ; 2000 reprint ISBN 0-252-06941-2 ). Between the 1960s and
4980-912: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Other significant regulatory legislation enacted during Nixon's presidency included the Noise Control Act and the Consumer Product Safety Act . When Congress extended the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in 1970 it included a provision lowering the age qualification to vote in all elections—federal, state, and local—to 18. Later that year, in Oregon v. Mitchell (1970),
5146-659: The Office of Economic Opportunity , the Job Corps , and the Model Cities Program . Nixon advocated a " New Federalism ", which would devolve power to state and local elected officials, but Congress was hostile to these ideas and enacted only a few of them. During Nixon's tenure, spending on Social Security , Medicare , and Medicaid all increased dramatically. Total spending on social insurance programs grew from $ 27.3 billion in 1969 to $ 67.4 billion in 1975, while
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5312-869: The People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union , easing Cold War tensions with both countries. As part of this policy, Nixon signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and SALT I, two landmark arms control treaties with the Soviet Union. Nixon promulgated the Nixon Doctrine , which called for indirect assistance by the United States rather than direct U.S. commitments as seen in the ongoing Vietnam War . After extensive negotiations with North Vietnam , Nixon withdrew
5478-594: The Poynter Institute reported that " ' At least 50' editorial positions will be culled from the Los Angeles Times " through a buyout. Nancy Cleeland, who took O'Shea's buyout offer, did so because of "frustration with the paper's coverage of working people and organized labor" (the beat that earned her Pulitzer). She speculated that the paper's revenue shortfall could be reversed by expanding coverage of economic justice topics, which she believed were increasingly relevant to Southern California; she cited
5644-538: The Times drew fire for a last-minute story before the California recall election alleging that gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger groped scores of women during his movie career. Columnist Jill Stewart wrote on the American Reporter website that the Times did not do a story on allegations that former Governor Gray Davis had verbally and physically abused women in his office, and that
5810-470: The Times to fight local unions led to the bombing of its headquarters on October 1, 1910, killing 21 people. Two of the union leaders, James and Joseph McNamara , were charged. The American Federation of Labor hired noted trial attorney Clarence Darrow to represent the brothers, who eventually pleaded guilty. Otis fastened a bronze eagle on top of a high frieze of the new Times headquarters building designed by Gordon Kaufmann , proclaiming anew
5976-739: The United States Courts of Appeals , and 181 judges to the United States district courts . When Nixon took office in January 1969, the inflation rate had reached 4.7%, the highest rate since the Korean War . Johnson's Great Society programs and the Vietnam War effort had resulted in large budget deficits. There was little unemployment, but interest rates were at their highest in a century. Nixon's major economic goal
6142-692: The War on Cancer , resulted in passage that December of the National Cancer Act, which injected nearly $ 1.6 billion (equivalent to $ 9 billion in 2016) in federal funding to cancer research over a three-year period. It also provided for establishment of medical centers dedicated to clinical research and cancer treatment, 15 of them initially, whose work is coordinated by the National Cancer Institute . The second initiative, focused on Sickle-cell disease (SCD), resulted in passage of
6308-420: The " noise-polluting " Supersonic transport (SST), which Congress dropped funding for in 1971. Additionally, he vetoed the Clean Water Act of 1972, and after Congress overrode the veto, Nixon impounded the funds Congress had authorized to implement it. While not opposed to the goals of the legislation, Nixon objected to the amount of money to be spent on reaching them, which he deemed excessive. Faced as he
6474-554: The 1960s under publisher Otis Chandler , who adopted a more national focus. As with other regional newspapers in California and the United States, the paper's readership has declined since 2010. It has also been beset by a series of ownership changes, staff reductions, and other controversies. In January 2018, the paper's staff voted to unionize and finalized their first union contract on October 16, 2019. The paper moved out of its historic headquarters in downtown Los Angeles to
6640-662: The 1965 Watts Riots and the 1992 Los Angeles riots . In the 19th century, the chief competition to the Times was the Los Angeles Examiner followed by the smaller Los Angeles Tribune . In December 1903, newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst began publishing the Los Angeles Examiner as a direct morning competitor to the Times. In the 20th century, the Los Angeles Express , Manchester Boddy 's Los Angeles Daily News ,
6806-519: The 20th century in 1971. Bowles points out, "by identifying himself with a policy whose purpose was inflation's defeat, Nixon made it difficult for Democratic opponents ... to criticize him. His opponents could offer no alternative policy that was either plausible or believable since the one they favored was one they had designed but which the president had appropriated for himself." Nixon's policies dampened inflation in 1972, but their aftereffects contributed to inflation during his second term and into
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6972-539: The Cambodian government of Lon Nol , which was then battling a Khmer Rouge insurgency in the Cambodian Civil War , as part of Operation Freedom Deal . In 1971, Nixon ordered incursions into Laos to attack North Vietnamese bases, provoking further domestic unrest. That same year, excerpts from the " Pentagon Papers " were published by The New York Times and The Washington Post . When news of
7138-473: The Council of Urban Affairs, under the leadership of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, to develop a welfare reform proposal. Moynihan's proposed plan centered on replacing welfare programs with a negative income tax , which would provide a guaranteed minimum income to all Americans. Nixon became closely involved in the proposal and, despite opposition from Arthur Burns and other conservatives, adopted Moynihan's plan as
7304-569: The District of Columbia Crime Control Bill, which included no-knock warrants and other provisions that concerned many civil libertarians. In response to growing drug-related crime, Nixon became the first president to emphasize drug control, and he presided over the establishment of the Drug Enforcement Administration . After a nearly decade-long national effort , the United States won the race to land astronauts on
7470-526: The ERA or their cause after his election. Nevertheless, he appointed more women to administration positions than Lyndon Johnson had. Upon taking office, Nixon pronounced the " Nixon Doctrine ", a general statement of foreign policy under which the United States would not "undertake all the defense of the free nations." While existing commitments would be upheld, potential new commitments would be sharply scrutinized. Rather than becoming directly involved in conflicts,
7636-614: The Ford administration. As Nixon began his second term, the economy was plagued by a stock market crash , a surge in inflation, and the 1973 oil crisis . With the legislation authorizing price controls set to expire on April 30, the Senate Democratic Caucus recommended a 90-day freeze on all profits, interest rates, and prices. Nixon re-imposed price controls in June 1973, echoing his 1971 plan, as food prices rose; this time, he focused on agricultural exports and limited
7802-675: The Hearst afternoon Herald-Express and the morning Los Angeles Examiner merged to become the Herald-Examiner . The Herald-Examiner published its last number in 1989. In 2014, the Los Angeles Register , published by Freedom Communications, then-parent company of the Orange County Register , was launched as a daily newspaper to compete with the Times . By late September of that year, however,
7968-783: The House or the Senate in the concurrent congressional elections . For the major decisions of his presidency, Nixon relied on the Executive Office of the President rather than his Cabinet. Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman and adviser John Ehrlichman emerged as his two most influential staffers regarding domestic affairs, and much of Nixon's interaction with other staff members was conducted through Haldeman. Early in Nixon's tenure, conservative economist Arthur F. Burns and liberal former Johnson administration official Daniel Patrick Moynihan served as important advisers, but both had left
8134-708: The Medicare Part A payroll tax. In December 1973, he signed the Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973 , establishing a trial federal program to promote and encourage the development of HMOs. There was a renewed push for health insurance reform in 1974. In January, representatives Martha Griffiths and James C. Corman introduced the Health Security Act, a universal national health insurance program providing comprehensive benefits without any cost sharing backed by
8300-627: The Moon on July 20, 1969, with the flight of Apollo 11 . Nixon spoke with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin during their moonwalk, calling the conversation "the most historic phone call ever made from the White House". Nixon, however, was unwilling to keep funding for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at the high level seen through the 1960s, and rejected NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine 's ambitious plans for
8466-813: The National Sickle Cell Anemia Control Act in May 1972. Long ignored, the lifting of SCD from obscurity to high visibility reflected the changing dynamics of electoral politics and race relations in America during the early 1970s. Under this legislation, the National Institutes of Health established several sickle cell research and treatment centers and the Health Services Administration established sickle cell screening and education clinics around
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#17328019573988632-453: The Nixon campaign interfered with any ongoing negotiations between the Johnson administration and the South Vietnamese by engaging Anna Chennault , a prominent Chinese-American fundraiser for the Republican party. Whether or not Nixon had any involvement, the peace talks collapsed shortly before the election, blunting Humphrey's momentum. On election day, Nixon defeated Humphrey by about 500,000 votes, 43.4% to 42.7%; Wallace received 13.5% of
8798-481: The Nixon presidency." In a 2018 retrospective ranking by Politico of all of Woodward's 20 books, including his newly released Fear , the ranking of The Final Days was second best, trailing only All the President's Men . The Politico writer said of The Final Days that "This book ... is fantastic, the model for all [by Woodward] that came after." The book was a major commercial success. It became Simon & Schuster's fastest selling book, surpassing by half again
8964-413: The North Vietnamese, but negotiators were unable to reach an agreement. With the failure of the peace talks, Nixon implemented a strategy of " Vietnamization ," which consisted of increased U.S. aid and Vietnamese troops taking on a greater combat role in the war. To great public approval, he began phased troop withdrawals by the end of 1969, sapping the strength of the domestic anti-war movement. Despite
9130-413: The President's Men leaves off, in particular from April 30, 1973, when John Dean , the White House counsel , was fired, and brings the narrative through developments of later in 1973 and then up to late July 1974. Part II consists of a day-by-day account of the title-referenced final days, beginning with "Wednesday, July 24" and continuing through "Friday, August 9". There is also a Cast of Characters at
9296-401: The Schwarzenegger story relied on a number of anonymous sources. Further, she said, four of the six alleged victims were not named. She also said that in the case of the Davis allegations, the Times decided against printing the Davis story because of its reliance on anonymous sources. The American Society of Newspaper Editors said that the Times lost more than 10,000 subscribers because of
9462-675: The Senate had rejected President Johnson's nomination of Associate Justice Abe Fortas to succeed retiring Chief Justice Earl Warren . Months after taking office, Nixon nominated federal appellate judge Warren E. Burger to succeed Warren, and the U.S. Senate quickly confirmed him. Another vacancy arose in 1969 after Fortas resigned from the Court, partially due to pressure from Attorney General Mitchell and other Republicans who criticized him for accepting compensation from financier Louis Wolfson . To replace Fortas, Nixon successively nominated two Southern federal appellate judges, Clement Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell , but both were rejected by
9628-468: The Senate. Nixon then nominated federal appellate judge Harry Blackmun , who was confirmed by the Senate in 1970. The retirements of Hugo Black and John Marshall Harlan II created two Supreme Court vacancies in late 1971. One of Nixon's nominees, corporate attorney Lewis F. Powell Jr. , was easily confirmed. Nixon's other 1971 Supreme Court nominee, Assistant Attorney General William Rehnquist , faced significant resistance from liberal senators, but he
9794-452: The Sunday edition. Garfield was dropped altogether shortly thereafter. Following the Republican Party 's defeat in the 2006 mid-term elections , an Opinion piece by Joshua Muravchik , a leading neoconservative and a resident scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute , published on November 19, 2006, was titled 'Bomb Iran'. The article shocked some readers, with its hawkish comments in support of more unilateral action by
9960-416: The Supreme Court handed down its decision in the 1971 case of Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education , cross-district school busing it emerged as a major issue in both the North and the South. Swann permitted lower federal courts to mandate busing in order to remedy racial imbalance in schools. Though he enforced the court orders, Nixon believed that "forced integration of housing or education"
10126-440: The Supreme Court held that Congress had the authority to lower the voting age qualification in federal elections, but not the authority to do so in state and local elections. Nixon sent a letter to Congress supporting a constitutional amendment to lower the voting age, and Congress quickly moved forward with a proposed constitutional amendment guaranteeing the 18 year-old vote. Sent to the states for ratification on March 23, 1971,
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#173280195739810292-453: The US, as well as Nixon's Vietnamization policy retrospectively. Los Angeles Times The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles , California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles area city of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper in the nation and the largest in the Western United States with a print circulation of 118,760. It has 500,000 online subscribers,
10458-432: The United States would provide military and economic aid to nations that were subject to insurgency or aggression, or that were otherwise vital to U.S. strategic interests. As part of the Nixon Doctrine, the U.S. greatly increased arms sales to the Middle East , especially Israel , Iran , and Saudi Arabia . Another major beneficiary of aid was Pakistan , which the U.S. backed during the Bangladesh Liberation War . At
10624-410: The United States, this time against Iran. On March 22, 2007, editorial page editor Andrés Martinez resigned following an alleged scandal centering on his girlfriend's professional relationship with a Hollywood producer who had been asked to guest-edit a section in the newspaper. In an open letter written upon leaving the paper, Martinez criticized the publication for allowing the Chinese wall between
10790-471: The Vietnam War clashed violently with police. The mayhem, which had been broadcast to the world in television, crippled the Humphrey campaign. Post-convention Labor Day surveys had Humphrey trailing Nixon by more than 20 percentage points. In addition to Nixon and Humphrey, the race was joined by former Democratic governor George Wallace of Alabama, a vocal segregationist who ran on the American Independent Party ticket. Wallace held little hope of winning
10956-414: The Vietnam War but did not release specifics of how he would accomplish this goal, resulting in media intimations that he must have a "secret plan". Humphrey's polling position improved in the final weeks of the campaign as he distanced himself from Johnson's Vietnam policies. Johnson sought to conclude a peace agreement with North Vietnam in the week before the election; controversy remains over whether
11122-613: The Vietnam War could not be won and he was determined to end the war quickly. Conversely, Black argues that Nixon sincerely believed he could intimidate North Vietnam through the Madman theory . Regardless of his opinion of the war, Nixon wanted to end the American role in it without the appearance of an American defeat, which he feared would badly damage his presidency and precipitate a return to isolationism . He sought some arrangement which would permit American forces to withdraw, while leaving South Vietnam secure against attack. In mid-1969, Nixon began efforts to negotiate peace with
11288-424: The White House by the end of 1970. Conservative attorney Charles Colson also emerged as an important adviser after he joined the administration in late 1969. Unlike many of his fellow Cabinet members, Attorney General John N. Mitchell held sway within the White House, and Mitchell led the search for Supreme Court nominees. In foreign affairs, Nixon enhanced the importance of the National Security Council , which
11454-449: The White House. He also created the Domestic Council , an organization charged with coordinating and formulating domestic policy. Nixon attempted to centralize control over the intelligence agencies, but he was generally unsuccessful, in part due to pushback from FBI director J. Edgar Hoover . Despite his centralization of power in the White House, Nixon allowed his cabinet officials great leeway in setting domestic policy in subjects he
11620-467: The Woodward and Bernstein narrative "an unfeeling account" but presents a description of the encounter that is not that far away from theirs. Both Nixon and Kissinger have the encounter starting in the Lincoln Sitting Room but ending in the Lincoln Bedroom . In 1989, a television adaptation of the book, also named The Final Days , aired. It starred Lane Smith as Nixon. It was nominated for five Primetime Emmy Awards and one Golden Globe Award . In
11786-440: The army to keep the postal system going. In the end, the government met the postal workers' wage demands, undoing some of the desired budget-balancing. In December 1969, Nixon somewhat reluctantly signed the Tax Reform Act of 1969 despite its inflationary provisions; the act established the alternative minimum tax , which applied to wealthy individuals who used deductions to limit their tax liabilities. In 1970, Congress granted
11952-529: The assumption of $ 90 million in pension liabilities, closed on June 16, 2018. In 2000, John Carroll , former editor of the Baltimore Sun , was brought in to restore the luster of the newspaper. During his reign at the Times , he eliminated more than 200 jobs, but despite an operating profit margin of 20 percent, the Tribune executives were unsatisfied with returns, and by 2005 Carroll had left
12118-412: The beginning, starting at Robert Abplanalp and finishing with Ronald L. Ziegler , and a Chronology at the end, running from November 5, 1968 through August 9, 1974. Both are intended to help the reader keep the complex chain of events and people in mind. As published by Simon & Schuster , the book contained some photographic illustrations and cost $ 10.95. After it became the fastest selling book in
12284-402: The book is credible — that is, the book is artistically believable. After all, as extraordinarily fresh as the whole thing seems, what's new about it consists of comparatively minute details; the framework in which these details are presented we've always known to be true, and we've read about at least a dozen times before. And the details at least seem plausible: it is always reasonably clear from
12450-467: The book. In an example of the book's approach, J. Fred Buzhardt co-operated with Woodward and Bernstein during the research for the book, by sitting for eight "extensive" interviews. One person was interviewed as many as 17 times. Release of the book was preceded by the publishing of excerpts in Newsweek magazine, which included a number of the authors' more vivid narrations. (At the time, Newsweek
12616-472: The budgets of their respective departments. Nixon did not appoint any female or African American cabinet officials, although Nixon did offer a cabinet position to civil rights leader Whitney Young . Nixon's initial cabinet also contained an unusually small number of Ivy League graduates, with the notable exceptions of George P. Shultz and Elliot Richardson , who each held three different cabinet positions during Nixon's presidency. Nixon attempted to recruit
12782-581: The central legislative proposal of his first year in office. In an August 1969 televised address, Nixon proposed the Family Assistance Plan (FAP), which would establish a national income floor of $ 1600 per year for a family of four. Public response to the FAP was highly favorable, but it faced strong opposition in Congress, partly due to the lack of congressional involvement in the drafting of
12948-418: The country. Nixon proposed reducing the number of government departments to eight. Under his plan, the existing departments of State , Justice , Treasury , and Defense would be retained, while the remaining departments would be folded into the new departments of Economic Affairs, Natural Resources, Human Resources, and Community Development. Although Nixon did not succeed in this major reorganization, he
13114-524: The credo written by his wife, Eliza: "Stand Fast, Stand Firm, Stand Sure, Stand True". After Otis' death in 1917, his son-in-law and the paper's business manager, Harry Chandler , took control as publisher of the Times . Chandler was succeeded in 1944 by his son, Norman Chandler , who ran the paper during the rapid growth in Los Angeles following the end of World War II . Norman's wife, Dorothy Buffum Chandler , became active in civic affairs and led
13280-443: The decision was reversed, condemning the decision as being "antithetical to the principles of a free press and [setting] a dangerous precedent in a time of already heightened hostility towards journalists". On November 7, 2017, Disney reversed its decision, stating that the company "had productive discussions with the newly installed leadership at the Los Angeles Times regarding our specific concerns". In October 2024, Soon-Shiong,
13446-543: The demands of the Tribune Group—as was publisher Jeffrey Johnson—and was replaced by James O'Shea of the Chicago Tribune . O'Shea himself left in January 2008 after a budget dispute with publisher David Hiller . The paper reported on July 3, 2008, that it planned to cut 250 jobs by Labor Day and reduce the number of published pages by 15 percent. That included about 17 percent of the news staff, as part of
13612-497: The dollar to float against other currencies, and ended the convertibility of the dollar into gold. Nixon's monetary policies effectively took the United States off the gold standard and brought an end to the Bretton Woods system , a post-war international fixed exchange-rate system . Nixon believed that this system negatively affected the U.S. balance of trade ; the U.S. had experienced its first negative balance of trade of
13778-574: The draft between 1970 and 1973. A wave of protests swept the country in reaction to the invasion of Cambodia. In what is known as the Kent State shootings , a protest at Kent State University ended in the deaths of four students after the Ohio Army National Guard opened fire on an unarmed crowd. The shootings increased tensions on other college campuses, and more than 75 colleges and universities were forced to shut down until
13944-780: The effort to build the Los Angeles Music Center , whose main concert hall was named the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in her honor. Family members are buried at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery near Paramount Studios . The site also includes a memorial to the Times Building bombing victims. In 1935, the newspaper moved to a new, landmark Art Deco building, the Los Angeles Times Building , to which
14110-629: The election outright, but he hoped to deny either major party candidate a majority of the electoral vote , thus sending the election to the House of Representatives , where segregationist congressmen could extract concessions for their support. The assassinations of Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. , combined with disaffection towards the Vietnam War, the disturbances at the Democratic National Convention, and
14276-462: The election to be as close as in 1960. One year prior to the 1968 Republican National Convention the early favorite for the party's presidential nomination was Michigan governor George Romney , but Romney's campaign foundered on the issue of the Vietnam War . Nixon established himself as the clear front-runner after a series of early primary victories. His chief rivals for the nomination were Governor Ronald Reagan of California, who commanded
14442-624: The establishment of a permanent base on the Moon by the end of the 1970s and the launch of a crewed expedition to Mars in the 1980s. On May 24, 1972, Nixon approved a five-year cooperative program between NASA and the Soviet space program , culminating in the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project , a joint mission of an American Apollo and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft in 1975. Nixon submitted two significant medical research initiatives to Congress in February 1971. The first, popularly referred to as
14608-422: The excerpts, described it as "An extraordinary work of reportage on the epic political story of our time." The book as a whole gave a more balanced, at times sympathetic, portrait of Nixon. The New York Times daily review by Christopher Lehmann-Haupt said that the book was "Unprecedented...[Nixon] emerges from the book as a tragic figure weathering a catastrophic ordeal (of his own making, to be sure, but that
14774-685: The face of almost certain impeachment and removal from office, the only U.S. president ever to do so. He was succeeded by Gerald Ford , whom he had appointed vice president after Spiro Agnew became embroiled in a separate corruption scandal and was forced to resign. Nixon, a prominent member of the Republican Party from California who previously served as vice president for two terms under president Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961, took office following his narrow victory over Democrat incumbent vice president Hubert Humphrey and American Independent Party nominee George Wallace in
14940-476: The failure of Operation Lam Son 719 , which was designed to be the first major test of the South Vietnamese Army since the implementation of Vietnamization , the drawdown of American soldiers in Vietnam continued throughout Nixon's tenure. In early 1970, Nixon sent U.S. and South Vietnamese soldiers into Cambodia to attack North Vietnamese bases, expanding the ground war out of Vietnam for
15106-405: The families grew larger, the later generations found that only one or two branches got the power, and everyone else got a share of the money. Eventually the coupon-clipping branches realized that they could make more money investing in something other than newspapers. Under their pressure the companies went public, or split apart, or disappeared. That's the pattern followed over more than a century by
15272-657: The federalization of Medicaid for poor families with dependent minor children, and support for health maintenance organizations (HMOs). This market-based system would, Nixon argued, "build on the strengths of the private system." Both the House and Senate held hearings on national health insurance in 1971, but no legislation emerged from either committee. In October 1972, Nixon signed the Social Security Amendments of 1972, extending Medicare to those under 65 who had been severely disabled for over two years or had end stage renal disease and gradually raising
15438-400: The fifth-largest among U.S. newspapers. Owned by Patrick Soon-Shiong and published by California Times, the paper has won over 40 Pulitzer Prizes since its founding. In the 19th century, the paper developed a reputation for civic boosterism and opposition to labor unions , the latter of which led to the bombing of its headquarters in 1910. The paper's profile grew substantially in
15604-652: The first Democratic Party primary on March 12 in New Hampshire, and the closeness of the results startled the party establishment and spurred Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York to enter the race. Two weeks later, Johnson told a stunned nation that he would not seek a second term. In the weeks that followed, much of the momentum that had been moving the McCarthy campaign forward shifted toward Kennedy. Vice President Hubert Humphrey declared his own candidacy, drawing support from many of Johnson's supporters. Kennedy
15770-553: The first time that an intra-term vacancy in the office of vice president was filled. The Speaker of the House , Carl Albert from Oklahoma, was next in line to the presidency during the 57-day vacancy. Nixon made four successful appointments to the Supreme Court while in office, shifting the Court in a more conservative direction following the era of the liberal Warren Court . Nixon took office with one pending vacancy, as
15936-472: The first time. He had previously approved a secret B-52 carpet bombing campaign of North Vietnamese positions in Cambodia in March 1969 (code-named Operation Menu ), without the consent of Cambodian leader Norodom Sihanouk . Even within the administration, many disapproved of the incursions into Cambodia, and anti-war protesters were irate. The bombing of Cambodia continued into the 1970s in support of
16102-414: The foreword to Marshall's book.) As noted in the book's foreword, all the information and scenarios depicted were taken from interviews with 394 people who were involved. The content of the interviews was considered on the record, but the identity of the sources remained confidential. Every detail was thoroughly checked, and any information that could not be confirmed by two separate accounts was left out of
16268-490: The form of Supplemental Security Income , which provides aid to low-income individuals who are aged or disabled. The Nixon administration adopted a "low profile" on school desegregation, but the administration enforced court desegregation orders and implemented the first affirmative action plan in the United States. Nixon also presided over the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and
16434-591: The former president of General Mills , was criticized for his lack of understanding of the newspaper business, and was derisively referred to by reporters and editors as The Cereal Killer . Subsequently, the Orange County plant closed in 2010. The Times ' s reported daily circulation in October 2010 was 600,449, down from a peak of 1,225,189 daily and 1,514,096 Sunday in April 1990. In December 2006,
16600-461: The freeze to 60 days. The price controls became unpopular with the public and business people, who saw powerful labor unions as preferable to the price board bureaucracy. Business owners, however, now saw the controls as permanent rather than temporary, and voluntary compliance among small businesses decreased. The controls and the accompanying food shortages —as meat disappeared from grocery stores and farmers drowned chickens rather than sell them at
16766-569: The goals of environmentalists. Nixon was largely uninterested in environmental policy, but he did not oppose the goals of the environmental movement. In 1970, he signed the National Environmental Policy Act and established the Environmental Protection Agency , which was charged with coordinating and enforcing federal environmental policy. During his presidency, Nixon also signed the Clean Air Act of 1970, and
16932-440: The hand of friendship to all people... And we work toward the goal of an open world, open sky, open cities, open hearts, open minds." At the start of 1967, most Democrats expected that President Lyndon B. Johnson would be re-nominated. Those expectations were shattered by Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota, who centered his campaign on opposition to Johnson's policies on the Vietnam War . McCarthy narrowly lost to Johnson in
17098-704: The last U.S. soldiers from South Vietnam in 1973, ending the military draft that same year. To prevent the possibility of further U.S. intervention in Vietnam, Congress passed the War Powers Resolution over Nixon's veto. In domestic affairs, Nixon advocated a policy of " New Federalism ", in which federal powers and responsibilities would be shifted to state governments. However, he faced a Democratic Congress that did not share his goals and, in some cases, enacted legislation over his veto. Nixon's proposed reform of federal welfare programs did not pass Congress, but Congress did adopt one aspect of his proposal in
17264-480: The late 1970s, Saturday Night Live featured a recurring sketch parodying some of the scenes described in the book with Dan Aykroyd as Nixon, John Belushi as Kissinger, Chevy Chase as David Eisenhower and Gilda Radner as Julie Nixon Eisenhower . Resignation of Richard Nixon Richard Nixon 's tenure as the 37th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1969, and ended when he resigned on August 9, 1974, in
17430-426: The leak first appeared, Nixon was inclined to do nothing, but Kissinger persuaded him to try to prevent their publication. The Supreme Court ruled for the newspapers in the 1971 case of New York Times Co. v. United States , thereby allowing for the publication of the excerpts. By mid-1971, disillusionment with the war had reached a new high, as 71 percent of Americans believed that sending soldiers to Vietnam had been
17596-564: The legislation in July 1974. The Nixon years witnessed the first large-scale efforts to desegregate the nation's public schools. Seeking to avoid alienating Southern whites, whom Nixon hoped would form part of a durable Republican coalition, the president adopted a "low profile" on school desegregation. He pursued this policy by allowing the courts to receive the criticism for desegregation orders, which Nixon's Justice Department would then enforce. By September 1970, less than ten percent of black children were attending segregated schools. After
17762-733: The limit on hospital days, added income-based out-of-pocket limits, and added outpatient prescription drug coverage. In April, Kennedy and House Ways and Means committee chairman Wilbur Mills introduced the National Health Insurance Act, a bill to provide near-universal national health insurance with benefits identical to the expanded Nixon plan—but with mandatory participation by employers and employees through payroll taxes and with lower cost sharing. Both plans were criticized by labor, consumer, and senior citizens organizations, and neither gained traction. In mid-1974, shortly after Nixon's resignation, Mills tried to advance
17928-598: The loyalty of many conservatives , and Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York, who had a strong following among party moderates . At the August Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida , Reagan and Rockefeller discussed joining forces in a stop-Nixon movement, but the coalition never materialized and Nixon secured the nomination on the first ballot. He selected Governor Spiro Agnew of Maryland as his running mate,
18094-402: The mid-2000s it was also the whole or partial subject of nearly thirty dissertations in communications and social science. The Los Angeles Times has occupied five physical sites beginning in 1881. The Los Angeles Times was beset in the first decade of the 21st century by changes in ownership, a bankruptcy , a rapid succession of editors, reductions in staff, decreases in paid circulation,
18260-476: The need to increase its Web presence, and a series of controversies. In January 2024, the newsroom announced a roughly 20 percent reduction in staff, due to anemic subscription growth and other financial struggles. The newspaper moved to a new headquarters building in El Segundo , near Los Angeles International Airport , in July 2018. In 2000, Times Mirror Company , publisher of the Los Angeles Times ,
18426-561: The negative publicity surrounding the Schwarzenegger article. On November 12, 2005, new op-ed editor Andrés Martinez announced the dismissal of liberal op-ed columnist Robert Scheer and conservative editorial cartoonist Michael Ramirez . The Times also came under controversy for its decision to drop the weekday edition of the Garfield comic strip in 2005, in favor of a hipper comic strip Brevity , while retaining it in
18592-423: The new executive editor. Merida was then a senior vice president at ESPN and headed The Undefeated , a site focused on sports, race, and culture; he had previously been the first Black managing editor at The Washington Post . The Los Angeles Times Olympic Boulevard printing press was not purchased by Soon-Shiong and was kept by Tribune; in 2016 it was sold to developers who planned to build sound stages on
18758-503: The newly private media company's mandate to reduce costs. Hiller himself resigned on July 14. In January 2009, the Times eliminated the separate California/Metro section, folding it into the front section of the newspaper, and also announced seventy job cuts in news and editorial or a 10 percent cut in payroll. In September 2015, Austin Beutner , the publisher and chief executive, was replaced by Timothy E. Ryan . On October 5, 2015,
18924-492: The news and editorial departments to be weakened, accusing news staffers of lobbying the opinion desk. In November 2017, Walt Disney Studios blacklisted the Times from attending press screenings of its films, in retaliation for September 2017 reportage by the paper on Disney 's political influence in the Anaheim area. The company considered the coverage to be "biased and inaccurate". As a sign of condemnation and solidarity,
19090-429: The newspaper announced a layoff that would affect at least 115 employees. It named Terry Tang its next executive editor on April 8, 2024. The Times has suffered continued decline in distribution. Reasons offered for the circulation drop included a price increase and a rise in the proportion of readers preferring to read the online version instead of the print version. Editor Jim O'Shea, in an internal memo announcing
19256-677: The newspaper would add other facilities until taking up the entire city block between Spring, Broadway, First and Second streets, which came to be known as Times Mirror Square and would house the paper until 2018. Harry Chandler , then the president and general manager of Times-Mirror Co. , declared the Los Angeles Times Building a "monument to the progress of our city and Southern California". The fourth generation of family publishers, Otis Chandler , held that position from 1960 till 1980. Otis Chandler sought legitimacy and recognition for his family's paper, often forgotten in
19422-416: The newspaper. His successor, Dean Baquet , refused to impose the additional cutbacks mandated by the Tribune Company. Baquet was the first African-American to hold this type of editorial position at a top-tier daily. During Baquet and Carroll's time at the paper, it won 13 Pulitzer Prizes , more than any other paper except The New York Times . However, Baquet was removed from the editorship for not meeting
19588-430: The non-endorsement was handled, and thousands of subscribers cancelled their subscriptions. Soon-Shiong had previously blocked an endorsement by the editorial board in 2020, when he overruled their decision to endorse Elizabeth Warren in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries . As of 2014, the Times has won 41 Pulitzer Prizes , including four in editorial cartooning, and one each in spot news reporting for
19754-414: The notorious anonymous source known as " Deep Throat " who provided critical information to Woodward during their investigation of Watergate. The pair reunited in 2012 for a Washington Post op-ed column. In it they said that subsequent archival evidence and other historical accounts indicated that in the words of the column's title, "Nixon was far worse than we thought." Making reference to The Final Days ,
19920-539: The number of racial minorities hired across the nation in various construction trades, implementing the first affirmative action plan in the United States. The Philadelphia Plan required government contractors in Philadelphia to hire a minimum number of minority workers. In 1970, Nixon extended the Philadelphia Plan to encompass all federal contracts worth more than $ 50,000, and in 1971 he expanded
20086-435: The only Republican president since World War II to have a positive impact on the environment, asserting that "Nixon did not have to be personally committed to the environment to become one of the most successful presidents in promoting environmental priorities." While applauding Nixon's progressive policy agenda, environmentalists found much to criticize in his record. The administration strongly supported continued funding of
20252-632: The operation convinced Nixon of the necessity to quickly reach a final agreement with North Vietnam. After years of fighting, the Paris Peace Accords were signed at the beginning of 1973. The agreement implemented a cease fire and allowed for the withdrawal of remaining American troops; however, it did not require the 160,000 North Vietnam Army regulars located in the South to withdraw. By March 1973, U.S. military forces had been withdrawn from Vietnam. Once American combat support ended, there
20418-583: The opposition. They were exposed when the break-in of the Democratic National Committee Headquarters ended in the arrest of five burglars. This kicked off the Watergate Scandal and gave rise to a congressional investigation. Nixon denied any involvement in the break-in. However, after a tape emerged revealing that Nixon had known about the White House connection to the burglaries shortly after they occurred,
20584-503: The owner of the Times , told executive editor Terry Tang that the newspaper must not endorse a candidate in the 2024 United States presidential election , but should instead print "a factual analysis of all the POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE policies by EACH candidate during their tenures at the White House, and how these policies affected the nation". The Times editorial board, which had been preparing to endorse Kamala Harris ,
20750-596: The pair said that their inclusion of anti-Semitic remarks and attitudes by Nixon in the book had been borne out by later revelations. The pair also sat for a joint retrospective '40 years later' interview on their Watergate reporting with CBS in 2014. In his 1978 memoir RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon , the former president gave an account of the famous night-before-resignation-announcement scene that presents it as shorter and more business-like, but allows that his sense of "agony" and "loss" became "most acute" for him that night. Kissinger's 1982 memoir Years of Upheaval calls
20916-493: The paper announced its circulation had fallen to 851,532, down 5.4 percent from 2005. The Times ' s loss of circulation was the largest of the top ten newspapers in the U.S. Some observers believed that the drop was due to the retirement of circulation director Bert Tiffany. Others thought the decline was a side effect of a succession of short-lived editors who were appointed by publisher Mark Willes after publisher Otis Chandler relinquished day-to-day control in 1995. Willes,
21082-773: The paper joined with The Washington Post to form the Los Angeles Times–Washington Post News Service to syndicate articles from both papers for other news organizations. He also toned down the unyielding conservatism that had characterized the paper over the years, adopting a much more centrist editorial stance. During the 1960s, the paper won four Pulitzer Prizes , more than its previous nine decades combined. In 2013, Times reporter Michael Hiltzik wrote that: The first generations bought or founded their local paper for profits and also social and political influence (which often brought more profits). Their children enjoyed both profits and influence, but as
21248-508: The paper's attempted hiring of a "celebrity justice reporter" as an example of the wrong approach. On August 21, 2017, Ross Levinsohn , then aged 54, was named publisher and CEO, replacing Davan Maharaj , who had been both publisher and editor. On June 16, 2018, the same day the sale to Patrick Soon-Shiong closed, Norman Pearlstine was named executive editor. On May 3, 2021, the newspaper announced that it had selected Kevin Merida to be
21414-411: The passage of major environmental laws like the Clean Water Act , although that law was vetoed by Nixon and passed by override. Economically, the Nixon years saw the start of a period of " stagflation " that would continue into the 1970s. Nixon was far ahead in the polls in the 1972 presidential election, but during the campaign, Nixon operatives conducted several illegal operations designed to undermine
21580-704: The plan to encompass women and racial minorities. Nixon and Attorney General Mitchell also helped enact an extension of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that expanded federal supervision of voting rights to all jurisdictions in which less than 50 percent of the minority population was registered to vote. Dean J. Kotlowski states that: Over the course of the Vietnam War, a large segment of the American population came to be opposed to U.S. involvement in South Vietnam. Public opinion steadily turned against
21746-463: The poverty rate dropped from 12.8 percent in 1968 to 11.1 percent in 1973. In August 1970, Democratic senator Ted Kennedy introduced legislation to establish a single-payer universal health care system financed by taxes and with no cost sharing . In February 1971, Nixon proposed a more limited package of health care reform, consisting of an employee mandate to offer private health insurance if employees volunteered to pay 25 percent of premiums,
21912-517: The power centers of the Northeastern United States due to its geographic and cultural distance. He sought to remake the paper in the model of the nation's most respected newspapers, such as The New York Times and The Washington Post . Believing that the newsroom was "the heartbeat of the business", Otis Chandler increased the size and pay of the reporting staff and expanded its national and international reporting. In 1962,
22078-481: The president the power to impose wage and price controls , though the Democratic congressional leadership, knowing Nixon had opposed such controls through his career, did not expect Nixon to actually use the authority. With inflation unresolved by August 1971, and an election year looming, Nixon convened a summit of his economic advisers at Camp David . He then announced temporary wage and price controls, allowed
22244-569: The printing bill, Cole and Gardiner turned the paper over to the Mirror Company. In the meantime, S. J. Mathes had joined the firm, and it was at his insistence that the Times continued publication. In July 1882, Harrison Gray Otis moved from Santa Barbara, California to become the paper's editor. At the same time he also purchased a 1/4 stake in the paper for $ 6,000 mostly secured on a bank loan. Historian Kevin Starr wrote that Otis
22410-490: The printing plant closure and with a refocusing of sports coverage for editorial reasons, daily game coverage and box scores were eliminated on July 9, 2023. The sports section now features less time-sensitive articles, billed as similar to a magazine. The change caused some consternation in the Los Angeles Jewish community , for many of whom reading box scores was a morning Shabbat ritual. On January 23, 2024,
22576-763: The proposal became the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution on July 1, 1971, after being ratified by the requisite number of states (38). Nixon also endorsed the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which passed both houses of Congress in 1972 and was submitted to the state legislatures for ratification. The amendment failed to be ratified by 38 states within the period set by Congress for ratification. Nixon had campaigned as an ERA supporter in 1968, though feminists criticized him for doing little to help
22742-778: The proposal. Many conservatives opposed the establishment of the national income floor, while many liberals believed that the floor was too low. Though the FAP passed the House, the bill died in the Senate Finance Committee in May 1970. Though Nixon's overall proposal failed, Congress did adopt one aspect of the FAP, as it voted to establish the Supplemental Security Income program, which provides aid to low-income individuals who are aged or disabled. Determined to dismantle much of Johnson's Great Society and its accompanying federal bureaucracy, Nixon defunded or abolished several programs, including
22908-534: The publisher's history, the price was raised to $ 11.95, supposedly to defray paper costs and, in the publisher's words, as part of "maintaining priority press time so that [it] can get on press before other books." Reviews of the book focused both on the disclosures within it and the methods by which it was written. Regarding the first, the Los Angeles Times said the book was "Fascinating, macabre, mordant, melancholy, frightening...." Newsweek , which ran
23074-462: The rate of the publisher's previous fastest, 1960's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich . It debuted atop The New York Times best seller list for the week of April 25, 1976. It stayed in the top spot for 18 weeks, and on the full list for 29 weeks total. Altogether The Final Days sold some 630,000 copies in hardcover. Paperback rights to the book were in April 1976 sold to Avon Books in
23240-475: The same he concluded, "Hell, I trust Woodward and Bernstein," saying "not only are they great reporters," but that some of his own findings in researching the first days of the Presidency of Gerald R. Ford had confirmed some of their reporting regarding the last days of the Nixon one. In a look back from three decades later, The Guardian called the book "a meticulous recreation of the last hundred days of
23406-549: The site. It had opened in 1990 and could print 70,000 96-page newspapers an hour. The last issue of the Times printed at Olympic Boulevard was the March 11, 2024, edition. Printing moved to Riverside , at the Southern California News Group 's Press-Enterprise printer, which also prints Southern California editions of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal . In preparation for
23572-576: The start of the next academic year. As the U.S. continually drew down the number of troops in Vietnam, the number of protests declined, especially after 1970. The Nixon administration vigorously prosecuted anti-war protesters like the " Chicago Seven ", and ordered the FBI, CIA, NSA, and other intelligence agencies to monitor radical groups. Nixon also introduced anti-crime measures like the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and
23738-404: The tale. People were anxious to talk in an effort to get their (sometimes self-serving) perspective on the events included in the narrative, and almost all of the sources were promised anonymity in return. In this way, Woodward and Bernstein constructed a fly on the wall type narrative of the events in question. While the book was being written, there were some intimations that it was going to be
23904-469: The text who their possible sources could have been; and they always read as if they had been reconstructed from a secondhand point of view. In a perspective from The New York Times Book Review , author Richard Reeves said that the book "is a spectacular piece of reporting, with all the delights and limitations of journalism." Reeves also expressed concern over the sourcing matter, saying that they should have gotten some of their sources to go on record. All
24070-541: The tide of financial losses and maintain enough cash to be viably operational through the end of the year in a struggle for survival and relevance as a regional newspaper of diminished status. The Times was first published on December 4, 1881, as the Los Angeles Daily Times , under the direction of Nathan Cole Jr. and Thomas Gardiner . It was first printed at the Mirror printing plant, owned by Jesse Yarnell and T. J. Caystile . Unable to pay
24236-668: The time Nixon took office, there were over 500,000 American soldiers in Southeast Asia . Over 30,000 U.S. military personnel serving in the Vietnam War had been killed since 1961, with approximately half of those deaths occurring in 1968. The war was broadly unpopular in the United States with widespread and sometimes violent protests taking place on a regular basis. The Johnson administration agreed to suspend bombing in exchange for negotiations without preconditions, but this agreement never fully took force. According to Walter Isaacson , soon after taking office, Nixon concluded that
24402-512: The vote. Nixon secured 301 electoral votes to Humphrey's 191 and 46 for Wallace. Nixon gained the support of many white ethnic and Southern white voters who traditionally had supported the Democratic Party, but he lost ground among African American voters. In his victory speech, Nixon pledged that his administration would try to bring the divided nation together . Despite Nixon's victory, Republicans failed to win control of either
24568-720: The war following 1967, and by 1970 only a third of Americans believed that the U.S. had not made a mistake by sending troops to fight in Vietnam. Anti-war activists organized massive protests like the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam , which attracted over 600,000 protesters in various cities. Opinions concerning the war grew more polarized after the Selective Service System instituted a draft lottery in December 1969 . Some 30,000 young men fled to Canada to evade
24734-405: Was Governor of Maryland and vice president. On October 10, 1973, Agnew pleaded no contest to tax evasion and became the second vice president after John C. Calhoun to resign from office. Nixon used his authority under the 25th Amendment to nominate Gerald Ford for vice president. The well-respected Ford was confirmed by Congress and took office on December 6, 1973. This represented
24900-550: Was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan in June 1968, leaving Humphrey and McCarthy as the two remaining major candidates in the race. Humphrey won the presidential nomination at the August Democratic National Convention in Chicago , and Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine was selected as his running mate. Outside the convention hall, thousands of young antiwar activists who had gathered to protest
25066-460: Was a brief truce, but fighting quickly broke out again, as both South Vietnam and North Vietnam violated the truce. Congress effectively ended any possibility of another American military intervention by passing the War Powers Resolution over Nixon's veto. The war concluded with the Fall of Saigon the year after Nixon's resignation, resulting in a unified communist Vietnam and a costly failure for
25232-418: Was a businessman "capable of manipulating the entire apparatus of politics and public opinion for his own enrichment". Otis's editorial policy was based on civic boosterism , extolling the virtues of Los Angeles and promoting its growth. Toward those ends, the paper supported efforts to expand the city's water supply by acquiring the rights to the water supply of the distant Owens Valley . The efforts of
25398-563: Was a memorable August 7, night-before-resignation-announcement scene with the president, in which a sobbing Nixon asked Kissinger to kneel and pray with him in the Lincoln Sitting Room , with Nixon ending up curled on the floor, beating the carpet with his fist whilst bemoaning his fate. The sensational nature of some of the excerpts brought significant criticism. Other items revealed by the excerpts included Nixon's deteriorating mental state, fears among his sons-in-law that he posed
25564-501: Was a result of declining advertising revenue and a debt load of $ 12.9 billion, much of it incurred when the paper was taken private by Zell. On February 7, 2018, Tribune Publishing , formerly Tronc Inc., agreed to sell the Los Angeles Times and its two other Southern California newspapers, The San Diego Union-Tribune and Hoy , to billionaire biotech investor Patrick Soon-Shiong . The sale to Soon-Shiong through his Nant Capital investment fund, for $ 500 million plus
25730-758: Was able to convince Congress to eliminate one cabinet-level department, the United States Post Office Department . In July 1971, after passage of the Postal Reorganization Act , the Post Office Department was transformed into the United States Postal Service , an independent entity within the executive branch of the federal government. Nixon supported passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act , which established
25896-546: Was hired as the Opinion and Editorial ( op-ed ) Editor in April 2004 to help improve the quality of the opinion pieces. His role was controversial, for he forced writers to take a more decisive stance on issues. In 2005, he created a Wikitorial , the first Wiki by a major news organization. Although it failed, readers could combine forces to produce their own editorial pieces. It was shut down after being besieged with inappropriate material. He resigned later that year. In 2003,
26062-548: Was just as improper as legal segregation, and he took a strong public stance against its continuation. The issue of cross-district busing faded from the fore of national politics after the Supreme Court placed limits on the use of cross-district busing with its decision in the 1974 case of Milliken v. Bradley . Nixon established the Office of Minority Business Enterprise to promote the establishment of minority-owned businesses. The administration also worked to increase
26228-544: Was led by National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger . Nixon's first secretary of state, William P. Rogers , was largely sidelined during his tenure, and in 1973, Kissinger succeeded Rogers as secretary of state while continuing to serve as National Security Advisor. Nixon presided over the reorganization of the Bureau of the Budget into the more powerful Office of Management and Budget , further concentrating executive power in
26394-513: Was not strongly interested in, such as environmental policy. In a 1970 memo to top aides, he stated that in domestic areas other than crime, school integration, and economic issues, "I am only interested when we make a major breakthrough or have a major failure. Otherwise don't bother me." Nixon recruited former campaign rival George Romney to serve as the secretary of housing and urban development, but Romney and Secretary of Transportation John Volpe quickly fell out of favor as Nixon attempted to cut
26560-412: Was owned by The Washington Post Company .) At the same time, revelations from these excerpts appeared in many newspaper stories. Two revelations that caught the most attention regarded Secretary of State Henry Kissinger . One was the disparaging comments about Nixon that Kissinger supposedly made to his staff, such as a reference to "our meatball President." The other, which received even more attention,
26726-548: Was purchased by the Tribune Company of Chicago , Illinois, placing the paper in co-ownership with the then WB-affiliated (now CW -affiliated) KTLA , which Tribune acquired in 1985. On April 2, 2007, the Tribune Company announced its acceptance of real estate entrepreneur Sam Zell 's offer to buy the Chicago Tribune , the Los Angeles Times , and all other company assets. Zell announced that he would sell
26892-478: Was reduced and in 1973 ended; the armed forces became all-volunteer. In the aftermath of the Easter Offensive, peace talks between the United States and North Vietnam resumed, and by October 1972 a framework for a settlement had been reached. Objections from South Vietnamese President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu derailed this agreement, and the peace talks broke down. In December 1972, Nixon ordered another massive bombing campaign, Operation Linebacker II ; domestic criticism of
27058-625: Was succeeded by Alexander Haig , who became the dominant figure in the White House during the last months of Nixon's presidency. As the Watergate scandal heated up in mid-1973, Vice President Spiro Agnew became a target in an unrelated investigation of corruption in Baltimore County, Maryland of public officials and architects, engineering, and paving contractors. He was accused of accepting kickbacks in exchange for contracts while serving as Baltimore County Executive , then when he
27224-411: Was to reduce inflation; the most obvious means of doing so was to end the war. As the war continued, the administration adopted a policy of restricting the growth of the money supply to address the inflation problem. In February 1970, as a part of the effort to keep federal spending down, Nixon delayed pay raises to federal employees by six months. When the nation's postal workers went on strike, he used
27390-426: Was ultimately confirmed. Burger, Powell, and Rehnquist all compiled a conservative voting record on the Court, while Blackmun moved to the left during his tenure. Rehnquist would later succeed Burger as chief justice in 1986. Nixon appointed a total of 231 federal judges, surpassing the previous record of 193 set by Franklin D. Roosevelt . In addition to his four Supreme Court appointments, Nixon appointed 46 judges to
27556-477: Was with a generally liberal Democratic Congress, Nixon used his veto power on multiple occasions during his presidency. Congress's response came in the form of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 , which established a new budget process, and included a procedure providing congressional control over the impoundment of funds by the president. Nixon, mired in Watergate, signed
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