Richard Nixon in Pres. Nixon's State of the Union speeches
On Crime:
Declare and win the war against crime
We have heard a great deal of overblown rhetoric during the 60s in which the word "war" has perhaps too often been used--the war on poverty, the war on disease, the war on hunger. But if there is one area where the word "war" is appropriate it is in the
fight against crime. We must declare and win the war against the criminal elements which increasingly threaten our cities, our homes, and our lives.Last year this administration sent to the Congress 13 separate pieces of legislation dealing with
organized crime, pornography, street crime, & narcotics. None of these bills has reached my desk for signature. We in the Executive have done everything we can under existing law, but new and stronger weapons are needed in that fight.
While State
and local law enforcement agencies are the cutting edge in the effort to eliminate crime, the Federal Government should play a greater role. That is why 1971 Federal spending for local law enforcement will double that budgeted for 1970.
Source: Pres. Nixon's 1970 State of the Union message to Congress
Jan 22, 1970
On Environment:
Make peace with nature; restore nature to its natural state
In the year 1980, will the President look back on a decade in which 70% of our people lived in metropolitan areas choked by traffic, suffocated by smog, poisoned by water, deafened by noise, and terrorized by crime? The great question of the 1970s is,
shall we surrender to our surroundings, or shall we make our peace with nature and begin to make reparations for the damage we have done to our air, to our land, and to our water?Restoring nature to its natural state is a cause beyond party and
beyond factions. It has become a common cause of all the people of this country. It is a cause of particular concern to young Americans, because they more than we will reap the grim consequences of our failure to act on programs which are needed now if
we are to prevent disaster later. Clean air, clean water, open spaces-these should once again be the birthright of every American. If we act now, they can be.
Source: Pres. Nixon's 1970 State of the Union message to Congress
Jan 22, 1970
On Environment:
$10 billion for nationwide clean water program
We still think of air as free. But clean air is not free, and neither is clean water. The price tag on pollution control is high. Through our years of past carelessness we incurred a debt to nature, and now that debt is being called. The program I shall
propose to Congress will be the most comprehensive and costly program in this field in America's history.It is not a program for just one year. A year's plan in this field is no plan at all. This is a time to look ahead not a year, but 5 years or
10 years--whatever time is required to do the job. I shall propose to this Congress a $10 billion nationwide clean waters program to put modern municipal waste treatment plants in every place in America where they are needed to make our waters clean
again, and do it now. We have the industrial capacity, if we begin now, to build them all within 5 years. This program will get them built within 5 years.
Source: Pres. Nixon's 1970 State of the Union message to Congress
Jan 22, 1970
On War & Peace:
Immediate goal: end Vietnam war; we are making progress
The major immediate goal of our foreign policy is to bring an end to the war in Vietnam in a way that our generation will be remembered not so much as the generation that suffered in war, but more for the fact that we had the courage and character to
win the kind of a just peace that the next generation was able to keep.We are making progress toward that goal. The prospects for peace are far greater today than they were a year ago.
A major part of the credit for this development goes to the
Members of this Congress who, despite their differences on the conduct of the war, have overwhelmingly indicated their support of a just peace. By this action, you have completely demolished the enemy's hopes that they can gain in Washington the
victory our fighting men have denied them in Vietnam.
No goal could be greater than to make the next generation the first in this century in which America was at peace with every nation in the world.
Source: Pres. Nixon's 1970 State of the Union message to Congress
Jan 22, 1970
On Government Reform:
Nations change, they adapt, or they slowly die
As we approach our 200th anniversary in 1976, we remember that this Nation launched itself as a loose confederation of separate States, without a workable central government. At that time, the mark of its leaders' vision was that they quickly saw the
need to balance the separate powers of the States with a government of central powers.For almost 2 centuries since, the Nation grew and the Nation prospered. But one thing history tells us is that no great movement goes in the same direction forever.
Nations change, they adapt, or they slowly die.
The time has come for a new partnership between the Federal Government and the States and localities--a partnership in which we entrust the States and localities with a larger share of the Nation's
responsibilities, and in which we share our Federal revenues with them so that they can meet those responsibilities.
To achieve this goal, I propose to the Congress tonight that we enact a plan of revenue sharing historic in scope and bold in concept.
Source: Pres. Nixon's 1971 State of the Union message to Congress
Jan 22, 1971
On Government Reform:
Reduce from 12 Cabinet Departments to 8
I propose that we reduce the present 12 Cabinet Departments to eight. I propose that the Departments of State, Treasury, Defense, and Justice remain, but that all the other departments be consolidated into four:- Human Resources: dealing with the
concerns of people--as individuals, as members of a family--focused on human needs.
- Community Development: dealing with rural communities and urban communities--and with all that it takes to make a community function as a community.
- Natural
Resources: concerned with our physical environment, with the preservation and balanced use of those great natural resources.
- Economic Development: concerned with our prosperity--with our jobs, our businesses, and those many activities that keep our
economy running.
Under this plan, rather than dividing up departments by narrow subjects, we would organize them around the great purposes of government. The time has come to match our structure to our purposes---to meet the new needs of a new era.
Source: Pres. Nixon's 1971 State of the Union message to Congress
Jan 22, 1971
On Health Care:
No American will miss basic medical care by inability to pay
I will offer a far-reaching set of proposals for improving America's health care and making it available more fairly to more people. I will propose:- A program to insure that no American family will be prevented from obtaining basic medical care by
inability to pay.
- I will propose a major increase in and redirection of aid to medical schools, to greatly increase the number of doctors and other health personnel.
- Incentives to improve the delivery of health services, to get more medical care
resources into those areas that have not been adequately served, to make greater use of medical assistants, and to slow the alarming rise in the costs of medical care.
- New programs to encourage better preventive medicine, by attacking the causes of
disease & injury, and by providing incentives to doctors to keep people well rather than just to treat them when they are sick.
- I will also ask for an appropriation of $100 million to launch an intensive campaign to find a cure for cancer.
Source: Pres. Nixon's 1971 State of the Union message to Congress
Jan 22, 1971
On Jobs:
Full employment budget: stimulus balances jobs & inflation
As we have moved from runaway inflation toward reasonable price stability, we have paid a price in increased unemployment. I will submit an expansionary budget this year--one that will help stimulate the economy and thereby open up new job opportunities
for millions of Americans.It will be a full employment budget, a budget designed to be in balance if the economy were operating at its peak potential. I ask the Congress to accept these expansionary policies--to accept the concept of a full employment
budget. At the same time, I ask the Congress to cooperate in resisting expenditures that go beyond the limits of the full employment budget. For as we wage a campaign to bring about a widely shared prosperity, we must not reignite the fires of inflation
and so undermine that prosperity.
With the stimulus and the discipline of a full employment budget, we shall gain the goal of a new prosperity: more jobs, more income, more profits, without inflation and without war.
Source: Pres. Nixon's 1971 State of the Union message to Congress
Jan 22, 1971
On Welfare & Poverty:
Place floor under the income of every family with children
I will call upon Congress to take action on more than 35 pieces of proposed legislation on which action was not completed last year. The most important is welfare reform.The present welfare system has become a monstrous, consuming outrage--an outrage
against the community, against the taxpayer, and particularly against the children it is supposed to help. We may honestly disagree, as we do, on what to do about it. But we can all agree that we must meet the challenge, not by pouring more money into a
bad program, but by abolishing the present welfare system and adopting a new one.
So let us place a floor under the income of every family with children in America-and without those demeaning, soul-stifling affronts to human dignity that so blight the
lives of welfare children today. But let us also establish an effective work incentive and an effective work requirement. Let us provide the means by which more can help themselves. This shall be our goal.
Source: Pres. Nixon's 1971 State of the Union message to Congress
Jan 22, 1971
On Families & Children:
We believe in the family as the keystone of the community
The secret of mastering change in today's world is to reach back to old and proven principles, and to adapt them with imagination and intelligence to the new realities of a new age. As we look back at those old principles, we find them as timely as they
are timeless:We believe in independence, and self-reliance, and the creative value of the competitive spirit.We believe in the family as the keystone of the community, and in the community as the keystone of the Nation.
We believe that a person should get what he works for--and that those who can, should work for what they get.We believe in the capacity of people to make their own decisions in their own lives, in their own communities--and we believe in their right
to make those decisions.In applying these principles, we have done so with the full understanding that what we seek in the seventies, what our quest is, is not merely for more, but for better for a better quality of life for all Americans.
Source: Pres. Nixon's 1972 State of the Union message to Congress
Jan 20, 1972
On Free Trade:
Trade creates jobs for America's workers in world markets
Historically, our superior technology, and high productivity have made it possible for American workers to be the highest paid in the world by far, and yet for our goods still to compete in world markets. Now we face a new situation. As other nations
move rapidly forward in technology, the answer to the new competition is not to build a wall around America, but rather to remain competitive by improving our own technology still further and by increasing productivity in American industry.
Our new monetary and trade agreements will make it possible for American goods to compete fairly in the world's markets--but they still must compete. The new technology program will put to use the skills of many highly trained Americans, skills that
might otherwise be wasted. It will also meet the growing technological challenge from abroad, and it will thus help to create new industries, as well as creating more jobs for America's workers in producing for the world's markets.
Source: Pres. Nixon's 1972 State of the Union message to Congress
Jan 20, 1972
On Homeland Security:
Maintain nuclear deterrent to meet threats to US or allies
Our commitment to freedom remains strong and unshakable. But others must bear their share of the burden of defending freedom around the world. And so this, then, is our policy:- We will maintain a nuclear deterrent adequate to meet any threat to
the security of the United States or of our allies.
- We will help other nations develop the capability of defending themselves.
- We will faithfully honor all of our treaty commitments.
-
We will act to defend our interests, whenever and wherever they are threatened anyplace in the world.
- But where our interests or our treaty commitments are not involved, our role will be limited.
- We will not intervene militarily.
- But we will
use our influence to prevent war.
- If war comes, we will use our influence to stop it.
- Once it is over, we will do our share in helping to bind up the wounds of those who have participated in it.
Source: Pres. Nixon's 1972 State of the Union message to Congress
Jan 20, 1972
On Abortion:
Define the nature and extent of the basic rights of privacy
One measure of a truly free society is the vigor with which it protects the liberties of its individual citizens. As technology has advanced in America, it has increasingly encroached on one of those liberties--what I term the right of personal privacy.
Modern information systems, data banks, credit records, mailing list abuses, electronic snooping, the collection of personal data for one purpose that may be used for another--all these have left millions of Americans deeply concerned by the privacy they
cherish.And the time has come, therefore, for a major initiative to define the nature and extent of the basic rights of privacy and to erect new safeguards to ensure that those rights are respected.
I look forward to establishing a new set of
standards that respect the legitimate needs of society, but that also recognize personal privacy as a cardinal principle of American liberty. [OnTheIssues note: the "right of privacy" was the basis for the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling].
Source: Pres. Nixon's 1974 State of the Union message to Congress
Jan 30, 1974
On Health Care:
Wrong to put health care system under heavy federal hand
It is time to bring comprehensive, high quality health care within the reach of every American. [We should] assure comprehensive health insurance protection to millions who cannot now obtain it or afford it, with improved protection against catastrophic
illnesses. This will be a plan that maintains the high standards of quality in America's health care. And it will not require additional taxes.Now, I recognize that other plans have been put forward that would put our whole health care system under
the heavy hand of the Federal Government. This is the wrong approach. This has been tried abroad, and it has failed. It is not the way we do things here in America. This kind of plan would threaten the quality of care provided by our whole health care
system. The right way is one that builds on the strengths of the present system. Government has a great role to play, but we must always make sure that our doctors will be working for their patients and not for the Federal Government.
Source: Pres. Nixon's 1974 State of the Union message to Congress
Jan 30, 1974
On War & Peace:
For the first time in 12 years, America is at peace
Tonight, for the first time in 12 years, a President of the United States can report to the Congress on the state of a Union at peace with every nation of the world. Because of this, in state of the Union message, I will be able to deal primarily with
the problems of peace--with what we can do here at home in America for the American people--rather than with the problems of war.Five years ago, when I took the oath of office as your President, America was at war in Southeast Asia.
We were locked in confrontation with the Soviet Union. We were in hostile isolation from a quarter of the world's people who lived in Mainland China. Five years ago, our cities were burning and besieged. Five years ago, our college campuses were a
battleground.
As we look at America today, we find ourselves challenged by new problems. We met the challenges we faced 5 years ago, and we will be equally confident of meeting those that we face today.
Source: Pres. Nixon's 1974 State of the Union message to Congress
Jan 30, 1974
Page last updated: Feb 24, 2019