508 ChaPter^10
ing from the West to restore American power, rescue us all, and bring back
the “old” America that had so successfully ruled the world.The “Greening” of Richard Nixon? The Life, and Death, of the Environment
“The great question of the seventies is, shall we surrender to our surround-
ings, or shall we make peace with nature and begin to make reparations for
the damage we have done to our air, our land, and our water?” Those words
were spoken not by some “tree-hugging hippie,” but by President Nixon dur-
ing his 1970 State of the Union address. “Restoring nature to its natural state
is a cause beyond party and beyond faction,” he continued. “It has become a
common cause of all the people of America.” Beginning in the 1970s, envi-
ronmental policy entered a new era in which the federal government increased
its role in protection the earth like never before. It developed over a dozen
new federal regulations and statutes enforced by the newly created
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Environmental destruction and pol-FIGuRE 10-4 Woman wearing a gas mask in Virginia, 1967