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Another Take on the Nixon Presidency: The First Therapeutic President?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2009

Kevin Yuill
Kevin Yuill*
Affiliation:
University of Sunderland
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Journal of Policy History , Volume 21 , Issue 2 , April 2009 , pp. 138 - 162
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Copyright © Donald Critchlow and Cambridge University Press 2009

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References

NOTES

1. Cited in Anthony Summer, The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon (London, 2000), 94. Handwritten notes of a meeting held on 5/27/71, JDE Notes of Meeting with the President—1/1/71–6/30/71 [5 of 5], Box 1 [Documents from Boxes 3–14], Nixon Presidential Materials Staff: Presidential Materials Review Board: Review on Contested Documents (hereafter Contested Files): White House Special Files (hereafter WHSF): Staff Member and Office Files (hereafter SMOF): John D. Ehrlichman, Nixon Presidential Materials Project, National Archives, College Park Maryland (hereafter NPMP). Cited in Volkan, Vamik D., Itzkowitz, Norman, and Dod, Andrew W., Richard Nixon: A Psychobiography (New York, 1997), 143Google Scholar. The “psychohistories” Nixon referred to included Dr. Eli S. Chesen, President Nixon’s Psychiatric Profile: A Psychodynamic-Genetic Interpretation (New York, 1973); Dr. David Abrahamsen, Nixon vs. Nixon (New York, 1977); Bruce Mazlish, In Search of Nixon: A Psychohistorical Inquiry (London, 1972); and Fawn M. Brodie, Richard Nixon: The Shaping of His Character (London, 1981).

2. As Magda Denes has pointed out, therapy is inherently paradoxical: the patient is simultaneously told that she cannot help who she is, while the very premise of psychotherapy is based on the notion that indeed she can help who she is. Those around the patient—for instance, parents—are at once responsible for the patient’s condition and not responsible as individuals for the same reason as the patient cannot help who she is. In the psychological worldview, all are simultaneously victims and victimizers. Being labeled “sick,” the patient is exempted from having to behave according to the norms of society but, importantly, accepts his or her “condition” as deviant, undesirable, and aberrant, and agrees to work with the therapist to be reintegrated back to the norm. Again paradoxically, the patients depend on recognition by the therapist on the basis of their condition and lose recognition if they are ever “cured.” The therapist, rather than maintaining the moral order, establishes a nonjudgmental relationship allowing “permissiveness” with the client or patient. But the therapist is also the judge of whether or not progress has been made. See Magda Denes, “Paradoxes in the Therapeutic Relationship,” Gestalt Journal 3, no. 1 (Spring 1980). Available at http://www.gestalt.org/magda.htm (03/05/08).

3. Herman, Ellen, The Romance of American Psychology: Political Culture in the Age of Experts (London, 1995)Google Scholar. Lasch, Christopher, Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations (London, 1991), 13Google Scholar. Nolan, James L., The Therapeutic State: Justifying Government at Century’s End (London, 1998), 1Google Scholar. Furedi, Frank, Therapy Culture: Cultivating Vulnerability in an Uncertain Age (London, 2004), 92Google Scholar.

4. Cited in Parmet, Herbert S., Richard Nixon and His America (London, 1990), 19Google Scholar.

5. Inglehart, Ronald, “The Silent Revolution in Europe: Intergenerational Change in Post-Industrial Societies,” American Political Science Review 65, no. 4 (December 1971): 991–1017Google Scholar. Cited in Meadows, Dennis L., Meadows, Donella H., Randers, Jorgen, and Behrens, William H. III, The Limits to Growth: A Report for the Club of Rome’s Project on the Predicament of Mankind (London, 1972), 179Google Scholar. For a discussion of the ideological importance of economic growth, see Collins, Robert M., More: The Politics of Economic Growth in Postwar America (Oxford, 2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also section 1 of Yuill, Kevin L., Richard Nixon and the Rise of Affirmative Action: The Pursuit of Racial Equality in an Era of Limits (Lanham, Md., 2006)Google Scholar.

6. Jürgen Habermas, Legitimation Crisis, trans. Thomas McCarthy (Boston, 1975). Although Habermas indicates a real difference between a “legitimation” and a “legitimacy” crisis, it is not relevant to this discussion. For further elucidations of the crisis, see Lucian Pye, “Legitimacy Crisis,” in Crises and Sequences in Political Development, ed. Lucian Pye et al. (Princeton, 1971); Wolfe, Alan, The Limits of Legitimacy: Political Contradictions of Contemporary Capitalism (New York, 1977).Google Scholar

7. Lipset, Seymour Martin, Political Man: The Social Bases of Politics (Baltimore, 1981), 64.Google Scholar

8. Myrdal, Gunnar, An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and American Democracy (London, 1944), 80.Google Scholar

9. Memorandum from Sterling Tucker to Berl Bernhard, Harold Fleming, Carl Holman, and Liz Drew, dated 5 November 1965, 3, Sylvester Papers, Records of the White House Conference on Civil Rights, ed. Steven Lawson. See also Kevin L. Yuill, “The 1966 White House Conference on Civil Rights,” Historical Journal 41 (March 1998): 259–82.

10. Memo to the Commission from David Ginsburg, Executive Director, National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, 7 November 1967, plus attached “Survey Paper on Short-Term Domestic Program Options,” no date, National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders—Records, November 1967, Box 465, Papers of Edward W. Brooke, Library of Congress.

11. Photocopied article attached to Memo to Moynihan from the Staff Secretary, Stephen Bull, 16 May 1969, President’s Handwriting, April 1969, Box 2, WHSF: POF: President’s Handwriting, NPMP.

12. Hand-written notes of a meeting held on 4-1-71 JDE Notes of Meeting with the President—1-5-71 to 4-21-71 Box 5, WHSF: SMOF: Ehrlichman, Contested Files, NPMP.

13. Cited in Small, Melvin, The Presidency of Richard Nixon (Lawrence, Kan., 1999), 42.Google Scholar

14. Small, The Presidency of Richard Nixon, 41.

15. The success of the Black Panthers is noted in “A Proposal to Design and Implement a Drug Abuse Education Program for Black Inner-City Residents,” NUL, Inc., Folder 6: White House—Nixon, Richard M., February–December 1972 (2 of 3), Box 328, National Urban League Manuscripts, Library of Congress [hereafter NUL Papers].

16. “Statement Announcing an Expanded Federal Program to Combat Drug Abuse,” 11 March 1970, Public Papers of the President of the United States, Richard Nixon, Containing the Public Messages, Speeches, and Statements of the President, 1970 (Washington, D.C., 1971) [hereafter Public Papers of the President, 1970], 76. Available at http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?month=06&year=1970.

17. Epstein, Edward J., Agency of Fear: Opiates and Political Power in America (New York, 1977), 78Google Scholar. Baum, Dan, Smoke and Mirrors: The War on Drugs and the Politics of Failure (New York, 1996), 21.Google Scholar

18. Beckett, Katherine, Making Crime Pay: Law and Order in Contemporary American Politics (New York, 1997), 39CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19. News Summaries, December 1969, Box 31, President’s Office Files: Annotated News Summaries, NPMP.

20. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/interviews/jaffe.html. (accessed 25 April 2007).

21. Rosenberger, Leif Roderick, America’s Drug War Debacle (Aldershot, U.K., 1996), 22.Google Scholar

22. Besteman, Karlst J., “Federal Leadership in Building the National Drug Treatment System,” Treating Drug Problems, vol. 2 (Washington, D.C., 1992), 72Google Scholar. Michael Massing’s The Fix (New York, 1998), dealing with the War on Drugs, notes on the front cover, “Under the Nixon Administration, we had an effective drugs policy. WE SHOULD RESTORE IT (Nixon was right).”

23. “Remarks on Signing the Comprehensive Drug Abuse and Prevention and Control Act of 1970, Public Papers of the President, 1970, 389.

24. Annotated copy of Capital District Bulletin of Kiwanis International 49, no. 3 (July 1970), in file marked “Kiwanis,” Box 76 WHSF: SMOF: Charles W. Colson, NPMP.

25. Jaffe, Jerome H. and O’Keefe, Charles, “From Morphine Clinics to Buprenorphine: Regulating Opioid Agonist Treatment of Addiction in the United States,” Drug and Alcohol Dependence 70, no. 2, supplement 1 (21 May 2003): S3-S11, S3.Google Scholar

26. Copy of Clayton Riley, “Nickel Bags of the Mighty Horse,” New York Times, 26 January 1971, Folder 3: Press Releases—Public Relations Bulletins, January 1971, Part III: Box 47, NUL Papers.

27. “A Proposal to Design and Implement a Drug Abuse Education Program for Black Inner-City Residents, NUL, Inc.,” Folder 6: White House—Nixon, Richard M., February–December 1972 (2 of 3), NUL Papers.

28. Black Caucus Report and Reviews [6 of 6] [CFOA 463], Box 47, White House Central Files [hereafter WHCF]: SMOF: Leonard Garment, NPMP. Draft Transmittal Letter to Black Caucus, 15 May 1971, Black Caucus I [1 of 2] [CFOA 463], Box 46, WHCF: SMOF: Leonard Garment, NPMP.

29. Memo for Ed Harper from Jeff Donfeld, 26 May 1971, in ibid.

30. “Remarks about an Intensified Program for Drug Abuse Prevention and Control,” 202, and “Special Message to the Congress on Drug Abuse Prevention and Control,” 203, Public Papers of the President, 1971 (Washington, D.C., 1972).

31. Nolan, The Therapeutic State, 81.

32. See ibid., 103–10. In the Florida drug courts, begun in 1989 to offer treatment as an alternative to custody, the re-arrest rates were found by an official report commissioned by the National Institute for Justice Research to be higher for those who chose treatment—33 percent—as opposed to those who might have been considered eligible for the treatment but did not—30 percent (105–6).

33. On Nixon and affirmative action, see Yuill, Richard Nixon and the Rise of Affirmative Action, chap. 10 of Graham, Hugh Davis, The Civil Rights Era: Origins and Development of National Policy, 1960–1972 (Oxford, 1990)Google Scholar; Kotlowski, Dean, Nixon’s Civil Rights: Politics, Principle, and Policy (London, 2001)Google Scholar; David Skrentny, John, The Ironies of Affirmative Action: Politics, Culture, and Justice in America (London, 1996)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34. Lowi, Theodore, The End of Liberalism: Ideology, Policy, and the Crisis of Public Authority (New York, 1969), 213.Google Scholar

35. Arthur A. Fletcher was Nixon’s Assistant Secretary for Labor, who dealt directly with the Philadelphia Plan, the first enforced federal affirmative action policy. See, for instance, memo to the President from Colson, 26 June 1971, Meetings/Phone Conversations with President: CWC’s notes—Mtg. with the President [2 of 2], Box 15, WHSF: SMOF: Charles W. Colson, NPMP.

36. Kotlowski, Nixon’s Civil Rights, 124. Memo for Bob Finch from Colson, 21 December 1971, Ethnics [3 of 3], Box 62, WHSF: SMOF: Charles W. Colson, NPMP. For further elaboration of this point, see Yuill, Richard Nixon and the Rise of Affirmative Action.

37. Flanigan objected to the proposal that the program be extended to all ethnic groups, saying: “It’s one thing to help the Blacks who are admittedly underprivileged. It’s quite another thing to suggest that simply because someone has an ethnic background (like me) he deserves special attention for job placement.” Memorandum to Harry Fleming from Peter M. Flanigan, 27 January 1970, Box 18, WHCF: Subject Files: HU (Human Rights); [Ex] HU2-2 Employment [Gen], NPMP.

38. 60-50.1 of Chapter 60, Title 41, Code of Federal Regulations. Cited in a copy of Minority Report in Box 17, WHCF: Subject Files: HU (Human Rights); [Ex] HU2-2 Employment, 18 [Gen], NPMP.

39. See letter from Arthur F. Sampson, acting administrator of the General Services Administration, to Stanley S. Scott, special assistant to the President, 25 April 1973, WHCF:SF HU[Ex] 2-5 (Women’s issues), NPMP.

40. See Chapter 7, “‘Learn, Amigo, Learn’: Bilingual Education and Language Rights in the Schools,” in The Minority Rights Revolution, ed. John D. Skrentny (London, 2002), 179–229.

41. M. Barta, Minority Report, “The Representation of Poles, Italians, Latins, and Blacks in the Executive Suites of Chicago’s Largest Corporations,” prepared by the Institute of Urban Life for the National Center for Urban Ethnic Affairs, copy in Box 18, WHCF: Subject Files: HU (Human Rights); [Ex] HU2-2 Employment [Gen], NPMP. See also John Skrentny, “Introduction: Affirmative Action: Some Advice for the Pundits,” American Behavioral Scientist 41 (1998): 877, 882.

42. Cited in Steinberg, Stephen, Turning Back: The Retreat from Racial Justice in American Thought and Social Policy (Boston, 1995), 75Google Scholar. Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Rights (New York, 1968), 2.

43. Bender, Marylin, “Job Discrimination: Ten Years Later,” New York Times, 10 November 1974, sec. 3, 1.Google Scholar

44. U.S. Civil Rights Commission, Making Civil Rights Sense out of Revenue Sharing Dollars (Washington, D.C., February 1975), 39.

45. Glazer, Nathan and Moynihan, Daniel Patrick, Beyond the Melting Pot: The Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians, and Irish of New York City (London, 1970), xxxiv, xxxv.Google Scholar

46. Cited in Cowie, Jefferson, “Nixon’s Class Struggle: Romancing the New Right Worker, 1969–1973,” Labor History 43, no. 3 (August 2002): 257–83Google Scholar, at 257. For a discussion of the Silent Majority, see Jonathan Reider, “The Rise of the ‘Silent Majority,’” in The Rise and Fall of the New Deal Order, ed. Steve Fraser and Gary Gerstle (Princeton, 1989), 243–68.

47. Cowie, “Nixon’s Class Struggle,” 257.

48. Memo for HRH [from Nixon], 30 November 1970, Memos—November 1970, Box 2, President’s Personal File [hereafter PPF]: Memoranda from the President, 1969–74: RN memo re 1968 to Memos—December 1969, NPMP.

49. Memorandum for the President’s Personal File, 29 March 1969, Files of John Ehrlichman re: EEOC [CFOA 7730], Box 86, WHCF: SMOF: Leonard Garment, NPMP.

50. Cited in Ambrose, Stephen E., Nixon: Volume Two: The Triumph of a Politician, 1962–1972 (London, 1989), 286.Google Scholar

51. Nixon, Richard, RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (London, 1978), 409–10.Google Scholar

52. Memo for John Haldeman, 30 December 1969, Memos December 1969, President’s Personal File: Memoranda from the President, 1969–74: RN memo re 1968 to Memos—December 1969, NPMP.

53. Memo to Tom Huston from John Ehrlichman, 10 February 1971, Box 3 WHCF; Subject Files HU [Ex] HU, NPMP.

54. Lassiter, Matthew D., “Inventing Family Values,” in Rightward Bound: Making America Conservative in the 1970s, ed. Schulman, Bruce and Zelizer, Julian E. (London, 2008), 13–28, at 16.Google Scholar

55. “The Metropolitan Washington Project” (newsletter), The National Center for Urban Ethnic Affairs, contained in Ethnic Studies [2 of 2] [CFOA 928], Box 83, WHCF: SMOF: Leonard Garment, NPMP.

56. Photocopied article attached to Memo to Moynihan from the Staff Secretary, Stephen Bull, 16 May 1969, President’s Handwriting, April 1969, Box 2, WHSF: POF: President’s Handwriting, NPMP.

57. Cowie argues that Nixon transformed the worker’s relationship with the state from a material one based on bargaining to a psychic one based on recognition. “Lacking both resources and the inclination to offer material betterment to the whole of the American labor force, Nixon instead tried to offer ideological and discursive shelter to those white male workers and union members who felt themselves slipping through the open fissures of the New Deal coalition.” Cowie, “Nixon’s Class Struggle,” 282. This puts the case too crudely, ignoring the need for validation among many other groups on the same basis and implying that more resources might restore workers’ identity.

58. Philip Hoffman, president of the American Jewish Committee, wrote to both candidates in the run-up to the 1972 election asking what they thought of quotas. The president wrote back on 11 August 1972 declaring that he was against “quotas” and “proportional representation.” Letter contained (loose) in Box 4, [Ex] HU 2 1972 Onward, WHCF: Subject Files: HU (Human Rights), NPMP.

59. See Editorial, “More on the President’s ‘Anti-Busing’ Program,” Washington Post, 22 March 1972, A19.

60. Notes of meetings held on 17 and 28 February 1972, Presidential Meetings and Conversations [1 of 6], Box 17, WHSF: SMOF: Charles W. Colson, NPMP.

61. Presidential Meetings and Conversations, 18 May, Box 18, WHSF: SMOF: Charles W. Colson, NPMP.

62. Copy of Washington Post, 13 March 1972, contained in file marked “Busing—Amendments—Public Reaction to [CFOA 10177],” Box 51, WHCF: SMOF: Leonard Garment, NPMP.

63. Diane Ravitch, Frank J. Battisti Memorial Lecture, “School Reform: Past, Present, and Future,” Case Western Reserve Law Review 51 (2000/2001): 187–200, at 191.

64. Formisano, Ronald P., Boston Against Busing: Race, Class, and Ethnicity in the 1960s and 1970s (London, 1991), 140–41.Google Scholar

65. Ibid., 145.