The inflation began earlier as a consequence of the Marshall Plan and the dollar’s role as the postwar reserve currency. Huge dollar balances accumulated in Europe, more than the gold standard could support by 1959.
When a national currency serves as the world’s reserve currency a conflict occurs between that nation’s domestic policy and its foreign policy designs. A Belgian named Triffin identified the resulting monetary problem and the Triffin Dilemma is named for him.
When Kennedy took office in 1960 he was confronted with the Triffin Dilemma. To defend the dollar he needed to cut budget deficits and raise interest rates. But that would have put the economy into recession and he wasn’t willing to do it. So instead he opted for inflation, the first hard sign of which was removal of silver from American coinage in 1964. Johnson continued JFK’s policies, adding the Vietnam War and Great Society to all of the spending. Nixon inherited Johnson’s mess, and rather than accept the necessity of recession to defend the dollar he broke its last link to gold.
Great summary especially our pulling silver coinage in 1964. Nixon was semi-justified in closing the gold window to finance the Vietnam war. Gov’ts always borrow and inflate during wartime. But also just as much money was spent on Great Society programs...that stuff also compelled Nixon to inflate
Wikipedia says Paul Volcker was the main person who helped Nixon with the mechanics of shutting the gold window