The conservative turn: Nixon, Ford and the beginning of the end, 1971–76

Abstract

This chapter analyses the conservative turn of the Nixon White House and how this impacted the War on Poverty. It shows how Nixon decisively turned against his own FAP proposal and how he sought to bring Johnson’s anti-poverty initiatives to an end by finding ‘horror’ stories to discredit existing programmes. In doing so, the chapter argues that Nixon’s conservative shift has mistakenly been cited by historians as taking place after the 1972 elections, when in actual fact it occurred two years earlier. The chapter also charts the role anti-poverty politics in the 1972 elections, in which Nixon defeated McGovern in a landslide – partly by claiming that McGovern’s anti-poverty proposals were unrealistic. Finally, the chapter shows how the arrival of Gerald Ford in office did little to revive the War on Poverty’s fortunes.