ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the complicated relationship between President Richard Nixon and the conservative movement. Prior to the 1968 presidential election, conservative leaders tended to support Nixon for office. They saw him as a leading anti-communist candidate who would fight both the Cold War and the Vietnam War correctly, and help the United States win both wars. This appealed to conservatives who viewed themselves as the leading pro-war group in the nation. As this chapter demonstrates, supporting Nixon hurt the movement as his policies of détente and Nixon’s visit to China in 1972 infuriated the right. In addition, conservatives were unsure of how best to respond to his Vietnamization policies which withdrew American troops from the Vietnamese war. This frustration with Nixon was felt by the elite but not the grassroots. Thus, Nixon caused a rift on the right between the elite and grassroots, as the elite worked to help John Ashbrook in the 1972 Republican presidential primary. However, Ashbrook garnered very little support as his campaign embodied the divide within the conservative movement. Thus, the late 1960s and early 1970s were a period ripe with frustration among conservatives as Nixon drove a wedge between different conservative groups.
