MASTER PLAN, Ep 1: Nixon’s Milk Money Prompts A Backlash

To begin unpacking the 50-year story of how extremists and tycoons orchestrated a system of legalized corruption in America, we travel back to a hopeful era when it seemed the country might actually drain the swamp. The year is 1971, a time when hot pants were hot, bell bottoms were swinging, and progress flowed like… milk. 

Then-President Richard Nixon, gearing up his reelection campaign, gets caught fixing dairy prices in return for campaign contributions from the milk industry. He pretends to support campaign finance reform while a secret memo outlines a White House plan to get corporate forces to pressure Congress to block it.

The gambit fails, and Nixon is shamed into signing the first anti-corruption law in a half century. But “Tricky Dick” isn’t done looking for loopholes. And some of his cronies are already drawing up an even more ambitious counteroffensive, a master plan that would reshape American life as we know it. 

The Evidence

While Nixon’s milk scandal is not as well known today as Watergate, The Lever’s team of investigative reporters shows why it should be — by unearthing archival material demonstrating the brazenness of the scheme, including: