Word: machiavellianism
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Although Republicans argued at the time that Kennedy's decision to call Corretta King was prompted by a Machiavellian as opposed to a humanitarian instinct, Nixon's decision not to contact the Kings or express any concern was no less political. As White observed...
...Nixon's jubilation, his choices came close to producing utter surprise. White House advisers insist that although Friday and Lillie had been the leading candidates, a back-up list included Rehnquist and Powell. An understandably Machiavellian theory immediately surfaced that Nixon had deliberately sent out his list of six while intending all along to nominate Rehnquist and Powell, their names preserved from advance criticism. In that way, according to the theory, the less than distinguished earlier possibilities would make the final choices seem, by comparison, Olympians...
Characteristically both Machiavellian and idealistic, the Kennedy Administration approved efforts to encourage a coup after Diem's attack on Buddhist pagodas in August, but when reservations over the success of an overthrow deepened, the U.S. withdrew its clandestine support of the generals and the coup was delayed. Concern heightened, however, with reports that Nhu might seek rapprochement with the North, which could have resulted in a neutralist government in Saigon. The plotting continued, and two days before Diem was ousted, McGeorge Bundy cabled Lodge...
...until the last moment, the White House thought they had it in the bag. Where in Justice, Richard Harris's book on the Justice Department, Nixon and his ventriloquist Mitchell come off as Machiavellian, in the Carswell case harebrained better describes their style. John Mitchell reportedly thought Carswell "too good to be true"; Nixon studied the Constitution diligently and concluded, quite literally, that "it is the duty of the President to appoint and of the Senate to advise and consent." And Senator Hruska, a special friend of the White House, sat like Christopher Robin clutching his Pooh bear...
...particular target for conservative criticism. Richard Nixon plainly wants to put his own stamp on the voluntary agencies begun by his Democratic predecessors, and the merger into Action, by absorbing VISTA into a larger, less controversial whole, may blunt the attack. Some think that the reorganization is actually a Machiavellian maneuver by the President to gut VISTA and the Peace Corps, although both programs can continue effectively if the Administration really wants them to. Shuffling bureaucracies about means nothing in itself...