Richard Nixon actually said...
If we are to have the kind of economy that we want, may I say also that we must recognize that America's progress economically in the past has been the result not of what government in Washington has done but it's been a result primarily of what individuals, 180 million free Americans, have been doing and doing because their Government has encouraged them and stimulated them to do it.
Context
Speech of Vice President Nixon, Television Appearance, WHO-TV, Des Moines, IA
09/15/1960