| The years following the Second World War saw a significant shift in American public opinion regarding the environment. Concern for conservation of natural resources grew into a potent political force concerned with the larger issue of deterioration in environmental quality. This dissertation focuses on Richard Nixon's response to this political reality, analyzing the Nixon Administration's environmental record.;Although Nixon had little interest in, or experience with, environmental matters, he acknowledged the importance of the issue politically and began a campaign to win the environmental vote from his Democratic opposition. The Nixon Administration remained on the defensive for much of its first year in office, only winning the political initiative with a significant environmental program unveiled early in 1970. The Administration was unable to maintain this momentum, however, as the Democrats responded forcibly with their own, more extensive agenda. Democratic efforts struck Nixon as unnecessary and too costly, and thus a threat to the nation's economy. Angered that environmentalists had not given him more credit, and now assuming that the environment was not critical politically, Nixon shifted his Administration's policy in 1971. No longer did the Administration cater to the environmental movement, but allied itself with industry in a conservative backlash. Within the Administration, pro-environmental advisors such as John Whitaker, Russell Train and William Ruckelshaus lost influence, with Nixon open to the arguments of business and the Department of Commerce. In the election year of 1972, the Administration toned down its antienvironmental rhetoric, citing its accomplishments in its early years, but remaining antagonistic to the environmental movement itself. After the election the Administration's relations with environmentalists deteriorated further, as the energy crisis commanded Nixon's attention.;The Nixon Administration was, in the end, a critical period in American environmental history. Although Nixon only cared about the environment as a political issue, and although he shifted his policy away from environmentalism, his early efforts on behalf of environmental protection resulted in a number of significant accomplishments. These include, among others, the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and the signing of the National Environmental Policy Act. |
