Richard+Nixon

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 * __Richard Nixon__**

Richard Nixon was born in a wealthy city of Yorba Linda, California on January 9, 1913 and he died on April 22, 1994. Richard Nixon was the 37th U.S. president and he was in office from 1969 to 1974. He was the first president to ever resign from office in U.S. history. toc

**__Nixon’s Early Life__**
Nixon’s childhood was very troubled. He grew up on his father’s lemon farm. The family had four sons and two of them died during their childhood. The farm eventually failed so they decided to move to Whittier, California and there they owned a store. Nixon had a controlling mother and an abusive father which drove him to his success. He felt that he had to pretend to be “good” while doing anything to achieve what he wanted to accomplish. Nixon attended Whittier College and was an excellent student and debater. He was the head of his freshman class and he was also the leader of the student body committee as a senior. He was the second to graduate in his class in 1934 and he won a scholarship to Duke University Law School. Nixon was apart of the national scholastic law fraternity, and he failed to get a job in one of the New York law firms. The feeling of failure left him with a strong dislike of the “eastern establishment.” Nixon then moved back to Whittier and began to study law. Not too long after, he met Thelma Catherine Patricia Ryan (1912-1993) who taught in a high school. Nixon married her in 1940 and they had two daughters together, Patricia and Julie.

**__Beginning of Nixon’s Political Career__**
Nixon found a job in the federal government in the office of Emergency Management shortly before the U.S.entered World War II (1939-1945). Soon after, in August 1942, Nixon left his job and he went into the Navy as the lieutenant junior-grade in. He was ordered to go to the Pacific as the operations officer with the “South Pacific Combat Air Transport Command.” Just fourteen months later, Nixon left the Pacific and came back home to the U.S.to work as a lawyer. In September 1945, the Republicans of the city Whittier asked Nixon to run for congress and he was convinced so in January 1946, he left the Navy and began working on his campaign. Nixon put lots of effort into the campaign and the hard work paid off because he defeated a 5-term congressman. Nixon then was assigned to the House Labor Committee and the Select Committee. Nixon also held a position on the House un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) where he became involved in the campaign against subversion. In 1947, the HUAC began their investigation in the entertainment industry and blacklisted 320 artists. In 1947, Nixon, as well as other members of the committee, went to Europe and he quickly built a reputation as an internationalist in foreign policy, which proved that he was capable of working well with foreign nations. While Nixon was gaining national attention with battling threats of communism, he caught Eisenhower’s attention. Eisenhower recruited him with high hopes of gaining valuable support from the West. As a vice president, not once has Nixon failed to gratify his supporters and antagonize his critics. Not even a year had passed since Nixon took office and he already went on a trip to Europe. There he established many functional relationships and impressed critics at home with his knowledge on foreign affairs. Later in 1960, Nixon won the Republican presidential nomination and he chose Henry Cabot Lodge as his opponent. John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson were the Democrats running in the election. After being Eisenhower’s deputy for eight years, Nixon was expected to win. But the election was really close and Nixon ended up losing to John F. Kennedy by about 100,000 votes out of the 68 million cast. Nixon then returned to practice law in Los Angeles. He ran for Governor of California and also lost. After that he claimed to be done with politics. Then in 1968, Nixon changed his mind and won his party’s presidential nomination. He chose Spiro T. Agnew, Governor of Maryland, as his opponent. Nixon and Agnew ran against the Democrats, Hubert Humphrey and Edmund Muskie. There was a threat to both sides though and it was George Wallace of Alabama. He was the third-party but eventually drew support away from Humphrey and gave Nixon the green light for his winning election to the White House.

**__Nixon in Office__**
On January 20, 1969, Nixon took the oath of office and in his inaugural address, he promised to bring the nation back together. Nixon targeted harmony in the American society because during that time period, the society was split up over issues such as the domestic racial unrest and the war that was going on in Vietnam. Nixon had promised to negotiate the end of the Vietnam War. However, negotiations with North Vietnam at the Paris peace talks were unsuccessful so Nixon decided to bomb the National Liberation Front (NFL) bases in Cambodia. The information was decided to remain a secret to avoid international protests for the bombing. The bombing of the NFL failed so Nixon sent in soldiers to finish the job. By 1972, Nixon was assured that defeating Vietnam was impossible so Nixon came up with a bombing attack on Hanoi and Haiphong which came to be the most intense bombing attack in world history. In eleven days, 100,000 bombs were dropped on the two cities and the destruction was equivalent to five times of the atom bomb used on Hiroshima. The North Vietnamese refused to change the terms of the agreement so in January of 1973, Nixon signed the peace plan that was made earlier in October.

**__End of Nixon’s Political Career__**
In the 1972 election, Nixon and Agnew went up against Democrats George McGovern (1922–) and Sargent Shriver (1915–). During Nixon’s last election campaign, a minor burglary occurred and it was the start of the end to Nixon’s political career. The break-in at the Democratic national headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C.was linked to the Republicans. Nixon denied any and every type of involvement. In October 1973, Nixon lost his vice president and a few top aides. Shortly after that, the U.S. Supreme Court demanded Nixon to turn over the tape recordings that he made during the election. Instead of turning the tapes in, Nixon resigned as president before getting impeached and so on August 9, 1974, Nixon became the first president of the U.S. to voluntarily leave office before the given term came to an end. On April 22, 1994, Nixon suffered a stroke and passed away. There was a state funeral held for him in Yorba Linda, California. Former President Bill Clinton and many other individuals came to the funeral and acknowledged Nixon and his great accomplishments. However, Nixon will always be remembered for the Watergate scandal and he will never be forgotten for such dishonest behavior.

__**Analysis**__

Richard Nixon, former U.S. president, was a very significant individual during the 20th century because with great effort he ended the Vietnam War and achieved other accomplishments, however, he arranged the Watergate scandal and ended up resigning from office because of it.

**__Nixon’s Goals and Achievements__**
Nixon’s election in 1968 was a major highlight, considering his come back after being defeated in the election for president in 1960 and becoming very successful so fast. After Nixon took office, he accomplished many things including revenue sharing, ending the Vietnam War, establishing new anticrime laws, and making a broad environmental program. Nixon’s first goal as the U.S. president was to reconcile because the U.S. was split up and there was a war in Vietnam. South Vietnam was fighting against North Vietnam, and North Vietnam was a communist society. America aided South Vietnam to try and prevent the spread of communism to other nations. The American society was messed up due to the problems that the nation was dealing with. Nixon believed that ending the Vietnam War would bring the country back together so he tried to come up with ways to attempt to end it. Nixon attempted to negotiate for an end time of the war and it turned out to be quite a failure. Despite the countless attempts, the negotiations with North Vietnam were very ineffective and pointless. Slowly things started to improve though because Nixon began to order troops to return back home and the number of troops remaining in Vietnam continued to only decrease. Nixon continued to cut down on the number of troops fighting and he went from 540,000 soldiers to 25,000. Eventually, Nixon brought back all of the U.S.troops, ending the Vietnam War, which brought some sort of peace to our society and a sense of relief to the residents and soldiers of the U.S. Nixon had other achievements also but his most acclaimed one was world stability. America didn’t hold a good relationship with China and the Soviet Union so in 1972, Nixon went to Beijing and Moscow. He successfully improved country relationships with them because he was capable of reducing the tensions with both of the nations. Nixon met with the Soviet Leader, Leonid I. Brezhnev, and signed a treaty to limit production on strategic nuclear weapons. In 1973, Nixon announced with North Vietnam that he’s ending American involvement in Indochina. But the war resumed and the communists had won.

**__Nixon’s Involvement with the Watergate Scandal__**
In 1972, Nixon and Agnew ran against two Democrats named George McGovern (1922–) and Sargent Shriver (1915–). During his last campaign, there was a burglary that seemed to be minor but turned out to be the start of the ending for Nixon’s political career. The break-in at the Democratic national headquarters at the Watergate hotel in Washington, D.C.was linked to the Republicans. Reporters claimed that a few of Nixon’s officials were involved in organizing the Watergate break-in, but Nixon insisted that he didn’t know anything about the scandal or the “hush money” that was paid to the burglars. However, in April 1973, Nixon forced two of his advisers to resign. John Dean, Nixon’s third adviser, refused to resign so he was fired. After being charged with income evasion, Nixon forced his vice president, Spiro T. Agnew, to resign also. Since Agnew had resigned, Gerald Ford became the new vice president. Dean testified in court and clarified that he was reluctant to becoming Nixon’s “scapegoat” in the scandal. Dean also said that Nixon had recordings of meetings where the break-in was being planned. The special prosecutor demanded the tape-recordings but Nixon refused to give up the tapes. The Supreme Court ruled against him so Nixon really had no choice but to hand over the tapes. Some tapes had gaps that contained important and useful information while few tapes were missing completely. Nixon eventually gave up the missing tapes because he felt extreme pressure and then it became clear that he was very much involved in the scandal so the Senate wanted him impeached. On August 9, 1974, Richard Nixon left office which made him the very first president in U.S. history to ever resign before the given term was over.

Works Cited "American Experience . The Presidents . Richard M. Nixon | PBS." __PBS: Public__ __Broadcasting Service__. 20 May 2011 . Price, Raymond. //With Nixon.// New York: Viking, 1977. Print. "Richard M. Nixon." __The White House__. 19 May 2011 . "Richard Nixon : Biography." __Spartacus Educational - Home Page__. 24 May 2011 . "Richard Nixon Biography - life, family, childhood, parents, wife, school, mother, young." __Encyclopedia of World Biography__. 19 May 2011 . "Richard Nixon Biography - Thirty-Seventh President of the United States." __American__ __History From About__. 21 May 2011 . Vidal, Gore. //An Evening with Richard Nixon,//. New York: Random House, 1972. Print.