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 * Richard Milhous Nixon**


 * Birth:** January 9, 1913
 * Death:** April 22, 1994
 * Political party:** Republican
 * Terms:** 1969-1973 and 1973-1974
 * Vice president:** Spiro T. Agnew 1969-1973, Gerald Ford 1973-1974

President Richard Nixon is most notably remembered for his part in the Watergate scandal. But Watergate did not occur until the end of his presidency, meaning that Nixon's presidency was not just Watergate. In the beginning of his presidency, Nixon focused on foreign affairs with the Soviet Union and Asian countries of Vietnam and China. Nixon made great strides in these communist countries. But because his presidency was damaged with his role in the Watergate scandal, he deserves a grade of a C.
 * Thesis**

President Nixon's first goal was to unite America as a whole. This meant ending the war in Vietnam and improving relations with the Soviet Union and China. This was Nixon's main goal and the one he focused on the most. Nixon did a well job handling the situation and eventually accomplished his goal. An other goal was to make the supreme court more conservative. Nixon believed it to be too liberal. In this case, Nixon went overboard and only appointed conservative republicans to be supreme court justices. Many of his appointees were rejected. Some smaller goals that Nixon had for the nation, was to improve health care, reform the welfare system, shrink the size of the cabinet, and improve state and local governments. The first two goals were very reasonable and accomplished, but the last two were hard to handle by many viewers. Over the years new departments in the cabinet were created, causing it to increase. By decreasing the size, many of these departments would shrink or be terminated. And by improving the state and local governments, it would cost 16 billion dollars. This was a large amount of money that people thought was unnecessary.
 * Goals**

"Poor," is a good word to describe Nixon's relationship with his once fellow congressmen. When the Senate did not approve of his choice of the new supreme court justice, he lashed out on them. This was not very smart to gain support for his goals; when he criticizes their views and ideas. To try and help Nixon's relationship with congress, Nixon's go to guy was a Republican from Minnesota, Clark MacGregor. MacGregor became the congressman who knew Nixon's plans for the legislature before any other congressmen knew. But this showed many of the older comgressmen that Nixon probably did not know how to deal with congress. This only hurt him even more with congress.
 * Relationship with Congress**

The most positive outcome by far in Nixon's presidency was his dealing with foreign affairs with the Soviet Union, Vietnam, and China. Before Nixon became president, he sent a mesage to the Chinese government,"There is no place on this small planet for a billion of its potentially most able people to live in angry isolation." This was the beginning of improving the relations between the Communist powers and the United States. During Nixon's presidency, China offically invited Nixon to visit China. This was a great accomplishment since many americans had not traded or communicated with China since it converted to communism. This thus led to a better relationship with the Soviet Union. They too, offically invited Nixon to come and visit them in Moscow. In Moscow, the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty and an Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty were signed to control the growth of the nuclear weapons being created. But the most notable affair that Nixon dealt with was the Vietnam war. After trying to persuade and threaten the North Vietnamese to come to agreeable terms. North Vietnam did not comply. Under heavy pressure, Nixon withdrew the troops from Vietnam after a settlement was agreed upon, but the settlement heavly favored North Vietnam. Many americans were happy to hear that the war was over.
 * Positive outcome**

Without a doubt, the Watergate scandal was the most negative outcome of Nixon's presidency. In the scandal, five men were arrested for breaking and entering the Democatic headquarters. These men were connected to Nixon's illegal committee, the Special Investigations Unit. This unit was created to expose alleged conspiracies, to help persuade the FBI director that the conspiracy did exist. All of this was uncovered after the inncident, bringing even more speculation on Nixon. For Nixon's purposes, he recorded all of his conversations in his office, including the ones about Watergate. When told to hand them over, he cut out the Watergate parts, making him look even more suspicious. This action made it clear that Nixon was trying to cover something up. When he finally handed over the cut out parts of the tapes, he knew that he was going to be impeached and he formally resigned. Nixon put himself in this situation and by trying to cover it up, only made it worse.
 * Negative outcome**

Nixon's legacy will be remembered in American history for his part in the Watergate scandal. This was a good example of what not to do. It showed that trying to do something secretly illegal will catch up with you in the end. Nixon was the first and only president to resign from the office. Future presidents were now under tight scrutiny and American citizens doubted the integrity of the executive branch.
 * Impact/Legacy**

As the 37th president of the United States, Richard Nixon did a well job. In the beginning, he focused heavily on foreign affairs and successfully handled them. He improved relations with the Soviet Union and China. He also removed the troops from Vietnam and ended the war. But his part in the Watergate scandal hurt his legacy as president severely. This countered all of Nixon's positives. Nixon deserves a C as president.
 * Conclusion**


 * Bibliography**

"American President: Richard Milhous Nixon." //Miller Center of Public Affairs//. Web. 27 May 2010. . Monday.

"The Nation: The Coming Battle Between President and Congress - TIME." //Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews - TIME.com//. Web. 28 May 2010. .

"Richard M. Nixon." //The White House//. Web. 28 May 2010. . Time, That. "Watergate Scandal." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Web. 28 May 2010. .

"Times Daily - Google News Archive Search." //Google News//. Web. 28 May 2010. .

"WikiAnswers - What Were President Nixon's Goals for the US Supreme Court." //WikiAnswers - The Q&A Wiki//. Web. 28 May 2010. .