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= Richard Nixon =

Full Name: Richard Milhous Nixon (Born January 9, 1913 - Died April 22, 1994)

Political Party: Republican

Terms of Office: January 20, 1969 - August 9, 1974 (resigned)

Vice Presidents: Spiro T. Agnew, first term*; Gerald Ford, second term


 * Agnew resigned from the vice presidency in October 1973, leaving the vice presidency vacant until Gerald Ford's appointment in December of the same year

If Franklin D. Roosevelt was the greatest president during the twentieth century, then Richard Nixon was the most controversial. His was a presidency marked by steps in the right direction; unfortunately, a greater number of steps backward proved to be his downfall. Because of the disgrace of Watergate and other scandals in the face of his otherwise fair administration, Richard Nixon deserves a grade of a C+.

Nixon's first and foremost goal was to end American involvement in the Vietnam War. His policy, called "Vietnamization", was to gradually remove U.S. troops from the area while simultaneously training South Vietnamese in preparation for allowing them to fight the war on their own. Coinciding with this was Nixon's plan to reduce the amount of U.S. troops in Asia overall, culminating in the Nixon Doctrine, which proclaimed that America would henceforth "look to the nation directly threatened to assume the primary responsibility of providing the manpower for its defense". Eventually, after a few skirmishes taking the war outside of Vietnamese territory, a peace agreement was signed in January 1973, releasing all prisoners of war and removing the last of U.S. ground forces from the area. With this, the Vietnam War was finally put to rest for the United States. Nixon's second goal was to improve U.S. relations with the communist bloc and China. He was largely successful in this, as the results of his visit to China proved; a foundation for what would be a great relationship was formed during that visit. Additionally, agreements with the Soviet Union resulted in the destruction and discontinued creation of certain chemical and biological weapons; perhaps most crucial to the beginning of the detente period was the first of the SALT talks, which placed restraints on missile production for the United States and the Soviet Union. His efforts also focused on the economy; seeking to "break the back of inflation", he froze wages and prices for ninety days and supported the idea of revenue sharing, which gave back money to state and local governments. With these and other programs he was greatly successful.

Nixon, in spite of the fact that throughout his terms the majorities in both the Senate and the House were Democratic, had a fairly stable relationship with Congress. The Vietnam War likely had an effect on both executive and legislative branches, sparking some semblance of cooperation. However, the two were not without their quarrels; Nixon had some trouble with passing some of his economic legislation through, and perhaps the best example of animosity was Congress's passing of the Economic Stabilization Act. The act provided that the president would be able to set wages and prices; Congress believed that Nixon would not utilize this power and make him appear indecisive to the public, lowering his ratings. Although they had their differences, ending the war was likely the most pressing matter at hand.

Undoubtedly, Nixon's greatest success was that of his diplomacy abroad. Abandoning previous U.S. disposition toward communist countries, Nixon instead chose the higher moral ground and sought tranquility between America and the Eastern Bloc as well as communist China. The SALT Agreement, Chemical Weapons Treaty, and the Seabed Treaty, while separate entities, formed a proverbial ray of hope for those that only wanted peace between the two great superpowers. Adding to the strength of Nixon's actions was his journey across the Pacific to forge a new relationship with China; this cements Nixon's expertise in dealing with other countries. As sure as Nixon's foreign policy was great, however, so too was his greatest blunder - Watergate and the events that followed. Beginning with the Committee to Reelect the President's break-in to the Democratic National Headquarters, other events such as the installation of monitoring devices in the aforementioned Democratic Headquarters and the subsequent attempts to conceal the schemes by authorizing the giving out of "hush money" to witnesses all seemed to point towards the unfortunate president. Tapes holding evidence against Nixon were withheld by him - he claimed executive privilege - but those tapes proved to be his downfall regardless, as he was forced to turn the tapes over to the investigators. The tapes and testimony by White House officials led to the decision to impeach him. Nixon resigned before proceedings could begin.

Although Nixon certainly left the presidency in disgrace, his foreign policy left a great legacy for future presidents to follow. The SALT II during Jimmy Carter's presidency (although it failed to achieve recognition by the United States) was an example of the United States's steps toward peace with the Soviet Union. Ronald Reagan, although hesitant at first, was later able to achieve greater peace with the USSR, though this was due in no small part to Mikhail Gorbachev's amicability. Essentially, Nixon was able to establish the precedent that peace with the communists was possible.

In lieu of the Watergate scandal, Americans were certainly unhappy about each of Nixon's mishaps. However, the country itself was probably in better shape than it had been previously - Nixon's economic policies seemed to be working, and the new relations with communist countries were certain to pay off eventually. The unfortunate truth is that these positive strides were marred by political corruption of the highest degree.

Sources http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon - Richard Nixon on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_Doctrine - The Nixon Doctrine on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandal - Information on Watergate on Wikipedia __The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents__ by William A. Degregorio