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37th President of the United States Born: January 9, 1913 Died: April 22, 1994 Party: Republican Vice President: Spiro T. Agnew (1969-1973) and Gerald Ford (1973-1974)
 * __ Richard Milhous Nixon __**

Richard Nixon’s presidency was a tough one. He had a good start with his war decisions with Vietnam and with the economy, but that took a turn for the worse. In his last years in office Nixon came up with a plan that would ruin his creditability, this scam is known as the Watergate scandal. Overall Richard Nixon’s presidency deserves a C+.

During the 1968 election Nixon appeared to represent a calmer society. With regard to the Vietnam War, he promised peace with honor, and campaigned that new leadership will end the war and win the peace in the Pacific. When Nixon took office, 300 American soldiers were dying per week in Vietnam. Johnson’s administration had negotiated a deal in which the U.S. would suspend bombing in North Vietnam in exchange for unconditional negotiations, but this rejected. Nixon had a choice, devising a new policy to chance securing South Vietnam as a non-communist state, or withdrawing American forces completely. Nixon approved a secret bombing campaign of North Vietnam positions in Cambodia in March 1969. The bombing was a huge success. Nixon than began to remove troops out of Vietnam. Under Nixon the direct payments from government to the individual American citizens rose by 6.3% and the Gross National Product to 8.9%. Food and aid also increased from 6.6 billion to 9.1 billion and the defense spending decreased from 9.1% to 5.8%. In 1970, the Democratic Congress passed the Economic Stabilization Act, giving Nixon power to set wages and prices. Nixon then imposed a 90 day wage and price freeze. Nixon then spoke to the American public, saying that by "Working together, we will break the back of inflation." When Nixon won his second election he still wanted to change the economy. Nixon found that inflation was increasing. Nixon’s legislation authorizing price controls had expired in April 30, 1973. Nixon then re-imposed price controls in June 1973. However the price controls became unpopular with the public and businesspeople, they saw labor unions as preferable to the price board. The major thing that destroyed Nixon was the Watergate scandal. Five men being caught breaking into Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. on June 17, 1972. In July 1973, White House aide Alexander Butterfield testified that Nixon had a secret taping system that recorded all of his conversations and phone calls with the Oval Office. However there is a 18 and a half gap in the tape that is still a mystery today. Nixon the lost support from the people as well as support from the Republicans. Instead of being impeached Nixon ended up resigning from office on August 8th, 1974. His impact that he left was a first for history, no other American has held office in the executive branch of the federal government as long as Richard Nixon did. He is the only person in American history to appear on the Republican Party's presidential ticket five times, to secure the Republican nomination for president three times. Although Nixon did not accomplish all that he had wished for in the Middle East, Nixon virtually expelled the Soviet Union from the region and initiated a long peace process. Nixon had an interesting relation to the public he advised people not to care about what others thought of them.

Nixon had good intentions with his presidency in the beginning with the issue of the Vietnam War and getting rid of the Soviets in the Middle East. He also had good intentions with America’s economy. However in the end the Watergate ended up ruining the support of the people. Overall Nixon deserves a C+. Bibliography: Miller Miller Center Public Affairs. Web. 27Dec. 2009. . // Wikipedia. "Richard Nixon." //Http://en.wikipedia.org//. Wikipedia, 26 Dec. 2009. Web. 27 Dec. 2009. .