The presidential transition of Richard Nixon began when he won the United States 1968 United States presidential election, becoming the president-elect, and ended when Nixon was inaugurated at noon EST on January 20, 1969. Nixon had become president-elect once the election results became clear on November 6, 1968, the day after the election. This was the first presidential transition to take place following the passage of the Presidential Transition Act of 1963.
Preparations for a transition were begun by the administration of outgoing president Lyndon B. Johnson many months before the election. Planning for a potential transition into the presidency was also begun by then-candidate Nixon in the months ahead of his election. Nixon's pre-election and post-election transition efforts were headed by Franklin B. Lincoln Jr., and Johnson's were headed by Charles S. Murphy.
At the time of the transition, the United States was engaged in the ongoing Vietnam War, and peace talks with North Vietnam were ongoing.
Pre-election developments
A presidential transition was guaranteed to occur in 1968 after incumbent president Lyndon B. Johnson announced on March 31, 1968 that he had decided against seeking reelection. In November 1968, the Associated Press observed that more advance planning had been taken for the 1968-69 presidential transition than any previous transition.
Johnson made it known early into the presidential campaign series that he would actively make information on national interests available to the candidates, telling the press that he would provide them with intelligence briefings on the state of international affairs. Such intelligence briefings had some precedent, with candidates secretly receiving briefings amid World War II. Additionally, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, during the 1960 presidential election had publicly committed to provide some briefings to candidates. On May 15, Johnson had the under secretary of state begin providing State Department, Pentagon, and CIA briefings to all of the major candidates for the presidency.
Johnson began planning for a presidential transition in the summer of 1968. He produced a number of briefing books for the next presidential administration. On July 26, he invited likely Republican Party nominee Nixon and American Independent Party nominee George Wallace to the White House for personal consultations (the Democratic Party nominee was not yet decided). This was the first time that a president had held such meetings with opposition party candidates. During the 1952 presidential election, Democratic president Harry S. Truman had invited Republican nominee Dwight D. Eisenhower to such a meeting with him, but Eisenhower declined his invitation.
Transition planning began at agencies ahead of the election. For instance, the Bureau of the Budget had instructed vision heads in the spring of 1968 to begin collecting material that could be helpful to advise the president-elect during their transition.
In September, after all the major nominees were decided (following Hubert Humphrey winning the Democratic Party nomination at the Democratic National Convention, and Nixon being formally nominated at the Republican National Convention), Johnson appointed Charles S. Murphy as his transition officer, putting him in charge of heading his administration's role in the pending transition. He would be a liaison to representatives of the election's three major presidential candidates (Humphrey, Nixon, and Wallace) in planning for their prospective transitions. Johnson also, at the same time, invited all three major candidates to appoint representatives to consult with his presidential administration in regards to transition planning.
Johnson set aside, furnished, and equipped 50 rooms of office space in two executive office buildings near the White House to be made available after the election to the victor's transition team.
Johnson also directed department and agency heads to assign a senior official to develop transition plans fit to the needs of their department or agency. He also tasked each department and agency with the task of preparing briefing books that would be useful for incoming officials, and to later brief the incoming management of their department of agency during the transition,. During the official transition, as appointees were made, the prepared briefing books would be provided to them by their outgoing counterparts at their first meetings.
Johnson, while wanting his vice-president, Hubert Humphrey, to win the election, expressed to confidants his desire to have a warm relationship and transition with Nixon if he were to win.