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** PARTY: ** Republican ** TERMS: ** //(1969-1972), (1973-1976)// ** VP: ** Spiro Agnew (1969-1972) Gerald Ford (1973-1974)
 * NAME: ** Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994)

Looking at what Richard Nixon accomplished during his terms as president shows that this man was a fantastic choice for president. He granted blacks their rights and improved foreign relations. However, Nixon did a poor job in decisions made in Vietnam and is most remembered for his involvement in the Watergate Scandal, so he deserves a C.

Going into his presidency, one of Nixon’s goals was to lower crime rate. The way he accomplished this was by creating new anti-crime laws. Another goal was to obtain arms control agreements with the Soviet Union. Through summit meetings with Russian leader Leonid Brezhnev, they made a treaty to limit strategic nuclear weapons. One of Nixon’s major hopes for was restraining inflation. He attempted this in a few different ways. One was controlling wage increase from 5.5 % a year to 2.5 % ; however this merely helped to control wages, not inflation. Another attempt at decreasing inflation was to completely eliminate the gold standard. This backfired on him because while this prevented foreign nations from claiming gold in exchange for their dollars it also increased inflation due to the weakened exchange rate of the dollar against foreign currency which heightened the cost of exports. So, in the end, his attempts were to no avail. Nixon also attempted to reform welfare by decreasing military spending from 9.1% to 5.8% and raising the amount of money the government would give to the public from 6.3% to 8.9%. Also, food aid and public assistance rose from $6.6 billion to $9.1 billion. Nixon wanted to be able to build up better relations with China, and after meeting with Mao-Zedong himself, he accomplished this. He also planned on desegregating schools and was able to get 82% of blacks to go to these new interracial schools, an increase from the 30% when he entered office. And last, but certainly not least, Nixon aimed to end the war in Vietnam, and near the end of his presidency he was able to pull all troops out of Vietnam and get America out of it.

Simply the fact that congress was a Democratic majority foreshadows the fact that they and Republican Nixon would not get along. One piece of evidence of this was when Congress passed the Economic Stabilization Act, giving Nixon power to set wages and prices. Congress did not believe the president would use the new controls and felt this would make him appear to be indecisive. While opposed to //permanent// wage and price controls, Nixon imposed the controls on a temporary basis in a 90 day wage and price freeze. Another example is the Watergate scandal which attempted to sabotage the Democrats of which Nixon was affiliated with. But even though they had tension, the managed to work together to pass laws to help the environment like the Environmental Protection Agency, the Clean Air Act and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. They also passed the Equal Rights Agreement which guaranteed equal rights to blacks.

The most positive outcome that came of Nixon’s presidency was his relations in China and Soviet Russia. It started as an invitation from China for America to join them in a table tennis competition in hopes for a friendlier relationship. Then China went the extra mile and invited Nixon to come visit, so Nixon arranged for him and his wife to go to Communist China. There, they engaged in direct talks with Mao and Chou and because of this visit, Chinese-American relations got better. After this, America decided to try and attempt the same thing with the U.S.S.R. and sure enough, after meeting up with them, their relationship got better too. The meeting ended in an agreement for increased trade and two landmark arms control treaties: SALT I, the first comprehensive limitation pact signed by the two superpowers, and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which banned the development of systems designed to intercept incoming missiles. They also decided that détente, or cooperation, was in order after so many years of tension between them during the Cold War. One of the most negative outcomes that occurred during Nixon’s presidency came of some of the decisions made in Vietnam. Now, he is indeed commended on getting America out of the war, however, there were several things that happened that was not to the public’s liking. One thing he did was implement the Nixon Doctrine, which replaced American troops with Vietnamese troops, also called "Vietnamization." While America did like that they got their troops back, they didn’t like that we still remained in the war, this time using troops from Vietnam. Also, while Nixon was pulling troops out of Vietnam, he was putting them right back into Laos and Cambodia to invade and disrupt so-called North Vietnamese sanctuaries.

Richard Nixon is among the well known presidents today, but sadly it is not for his positive impacts on this country. The legendary Watergate scandal is imprinted on the minds of Americans today and has left a rather sour note in his name. Presidents today can look back on this and think twice about trying to cover something like this up, or, just make sure they don’t get caught. On a lighter note, he also created four new government departments; Commerce, Labor, Transportation, and Agriculture. During his administration, America successfully landed a man on the moon and Nixon made a telephone call to Neil Armstrong from the White House while the astronaut was there.

In conclusion, Nixon did many good things in his presidency; he helped with desegregation, and relationships with China and Russia. But he also made some bad decisions during his terms like some of the decisions in regards to the Vietnam War and his decision to attempt to hide the Watergate tapes. Due to this mixture of both good and bad, Nixon deserves a C.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/richardnixon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon http://www.usa-presidents.info/nixon.htm
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