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**Richard Nixon** January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994 Terms of Office: January 20, 1969 – August 9, 1974 Political Party: Republican Vice Presidents: Spiro Agnew (1969-1973) Gerald Ford (1973-1974) 

Richard Nixon, the 37th president, really helped out the country at the begining of his presidency but nearing the end of his presidency, he hurt America. His resolutions to the communist problems in Asia really helped improve relations with them. Watergate, on the other hand, really hurt his presidency because of the lying and covering up. Because of all the events that occured during the presidency, I would give Nixon a C+. He had both ups and downs during his presidency which is why I gave him this grade.

Nixon had a lot of goals coming into his presidency. Johnson had left a lot of turmoil for Nixon to clean up after his election with the Vietnam War. One of Nixon's goals as president was to end the war in Vietnam. Many American lives have been lost because of the war and people did not know why we were fighting the war. He started by secretly bombing Cambodia and reducing the number of troops in Vietnam. Nixon also wanted to improve relations with China and USSR. They both are rising communist powers and Nixon did not want them to become a treat to the Untied States. On the home front, Nixon was dealing with a large amount of riots because of the Vietnam War. People did not see the importance of America being in Vietnam and the U.S. military was losing a large amount of foot soldiers there. Finally, his last goal was to decrease the amount of help in Lebanon. Eisenhower had increased the aid to the country to an all time high and Nixon did not see the importance of it so her wanted to decrease the amount of help we gave.

Nixon had an okay relationship with Congress. Before he ever took the oath into the oval office, he worked within the confounds of Congress so he could connect well. Nixon and Congress approved many acts and bills while he was in office like the anticrime laws, the end to the draft, the Economic Stabilization Act, which gave Nixon the power to set wages and prices, and revenue sharing. Nixon signed a numerous amount of acts that promoted a cleaner environment. These acts helped develop new government agencies, like the Environmental protection Agency, the will help protect the woodland of America. Congress allowed Nixon to take America off the gold standard. This greatly decreased the exchange rate between countries and hurt global trading. Congress also allowed Nixon to go visit the leaders of China and the USSR in their own respective countries. This would be the first time the president would travel to these countries alone. He also was the president when man first stepped on the moon giving him a lot of fame for the action. Finally, he also appointed new justices to the Supreme Court during his terms.

Nixon had a lot of good things that he did during his first term. One of the best thing was the signing of the environmental improvement acts like National Eviromental Policy Act and the Clean Air Act. This started the environmental age in America. These acts created new government agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and Occupational Saftey and Health Administration. These new agencies protect the wildlife within America so that we keep the forests alive. Another big thing that Nixon did was open up China for trade. He was the first person to try to open up China to trade. China had been closed to the world and Nixon started to open them up. Nixon wanted to improve relations with China and the leader of China (Mao Zedong) noticed this. Zedong invited the US table tennis team to go to China for a competition. These were the first Americans to enter china after 20 years of seclusion. Later, Nixon himself traveled to China to further improve relations with the country. This visits to China greatly improved the relations between the two countries and the relationship only improved after this.

Nixon had to deal with a very large problem when he was in office which led to his resignation from the presidency. The Watergate scandel created a lot of problems for Nixon. Five men were caught breaking into the Watergate Hotel which was the Democratic party headquarters. These men were later linked to the White House but Nixon denied all claims. Nixon was trying to sabotage the Democrats for the election. They caught Nixon because of secret tapes that were recording him talking to others about the cover up. Nixon had these tapes so when Congress asked to obtain them, Nixon only gave sections.Thses tapes were missing sections that provided key information. When asked to give the rest of the tapes, Nixon refused to up the tapes which showed that he was trying to cover up something. He stated that, because of presidential power, he did not need to give the tapes to Congress but they disagreed. This then led to the start of his impeachment but he resigned before the impeachment process was finished. Nixon was not apart of the actual breaking in process but he tried to cover it up because it might look bad for him. he then lied about things to cover up his friends but he got caught.

The longest lasting influence that Nixon created was his influence in the communist countries. He greatly improved relations with China because he started to open them up for international trade. They had been closed to trade for a long time. Nixon opened up China and we are still trading with them today and benefiting from their large amount of production. He also improved relations with the USSR by limiting firearms that both countries had and by increasing trade with them. He started detente, or cooperation, between the two countries to start reaching peace. This greatly helped the tension between the two countries and resolved many problems btween them also.

Richard Nixon detroyed the image of the president for the Americans because of his lying. It took a long time for the country to rebuild the appearance of the country after this event. It is quite sad that he did ruin his presidency by lying because he had done good things before this. Because of all the events, Nixon recieves a C+.

Bibliography

37. "Richard M. Nixon 1969-1974." __The White House__. 22 May 2010. []

"Richard M. Nixon." //American Presidents: Life Portraits//. Web. 22 May 2010. []

"Richard Milhous Nixon." __American Presidents: An Online Reference Resource__. University of Virginia. Web. 22 May 2010. []

DeGregorio, William. __The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents__. Fort Lee: Barricade. 2005.