PRESIDENT RICHARD M. NIXON - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 12/04/1970 - HFSID 217399
Price: $1,400.00
RICHARD NIXON
Nixon signed this letter two days after the creation of the EPA,
thanking a senator for supporting Nixon's appointee to that agency's
Administrator post.
Typed letter signed: "RN" by Nixon as United States
president. 1 page, 6½x8¾, on White House stationery with embossed Great Seal
of the United States. December 4, 1970. Addressed to Honorable Jennings
Randolph, Chairman, Committee on Public Works, United Sates Senate, Washington,
DC. In full: "Dear Jennings: I have learned from my staff of your fine
assistance in getting William D. Ruckelshaus confirmed as Administrator of the
Environmental Protection Agency, and of your support for the appropriations for
the SST. Your efforts in behalf [sic] of these two legislative items, as
well as your continued cooperative spirit, are deeply appreciated. With warm
personal regards, Sincerely,". This letter comes at an important time in the
federal government's relation with the natural environment. The law creating the
federal Environmental Protection Agency was signed by Nixon on Dec. 2, 1970,
two days before this letter was signed, and Ruckelshaus was the first
head of that agency. 1970 was a watershed year for the United State's
relationship with the natural environment. Congress had sent Nixon their
National Environmental Policy Act the previous year. Nixon responded in 1970 by
making environmental activism a speaking point in his State of the Union address
and, in Feb. 22, introduced a 37-point environmental action plan. Exactly two
months later, America celebrated its first Earth Day, on April 22. The
outpouring of public support for protecting the nation's natural environment
convinced Nixon of the need for a federal "Environmental Protection Agency",
which was created later that year. Ruckelshaus (born 1932 in Indianapolis,
Indiana) had been appointed Assistant Attorney General in charge of the federal
Department of Justice's Civil Division in 1969 before he was appointed first
head of the EPA. He was responsible for enforcing 1970's Clean Air Act and
1972's Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act, and he also instituted a ban
on the insecticide DDT. He was appointed director of the FBI and Deputy Attorney
General of the DOJ in 1973. The two refused to fire Archibald Cox, special
prosecutor into the Watergate scandal, which led to Nixon firing them, an
incident that came to be called the "Saturday Night Massacre". NIXON
(1913-1994) was elected 37th President of the United States in 1968
after representing California in the U.S. House of Representatives
(1947-1951) and Senate (1951-53) and serving two terms as Dwight D. Eisenhower's
Vice President. He lost (1960), then won, extremely close Presidential
elections (facing John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey, respectively), then won
re-election by a landslide against George McGovern in 1972. His re-election
triumph rapidly turned sour, however, as the burgeoning Watergate scandal
claimed more and more of his key aides and finally compelled his own resignation
in the face of a possible impeachment. On September 8, 1974, he received a
blanket pardon from President Ford for any crimes he may have committed against
the United States while President. A pragmatic conservative who gained an early
reputation as an anti-communist but achieved diplomatic triumphs in relations
with China and the Soviet Union, Nixon was a prolific writer in retirement,
repairing his reputation and hastening his emergence as an elder statesman.
RANDOLPH (1902-1998, born in Salem, West Virginia), a Democrat, served as
U.S. Senator from West Virginia from 1958-1985. From 1965-1977, he served as
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Works and from 1977-1981 as Chairman
of its successor, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Fold
crease not near signature. Fine condition.
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