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Richard Nixon Born: January 9, 1913 Died: April 22, 1994 Party: Republican Terms: January 20th, 1969- August 9th 1974 (elected to two terms but resigned during his second term) Vice Presidents : Spiro Agnew (term one) and Gerald Ford (term two after Agnew resigned)

Thesis: Richard Nixon, although charismatic and politically wise in some aspects, was perhaps the most dishonest president that has ever held office. He worked hard to improve conditions in the government in which he succeeded for the most part but did so in a rather shady way. After the happenings of the Watergate Scandal came about, Nixon was very unpopular with citizens of the United States. Although Nixon worked hard to alleviate the effects of the Vietnam War and to improve the government as a whole from all aspects, the good of this does not outweigh his bad decisions that he made and for this, I would award him a C-.

Goals/Accomplishments: While in office, Nixon made many big promises to the people of the United States. First and foremost, Nixon claimed to have a "secret plan" for ending the war in Vietnam that entailed an honorable peace settlement. He did in fact steadily reduce U.S. involvement and expanded the war into Cambodia and Laos, a policy known as "widening down" the war. In this program known as //Vietnamization,// South Korea had their own forces trained so that they may take the place of American troops as they were steadily withdrawn. This proved to be very effective as it rapidly reduced American troops in South Vietnam. Coinciding with the Vietnamization program was the signing of the Nixon Doctrine which called for an overall reduction of American troops in Asia in general. Later on, the Senate repealed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which took away military funding, causing U.S. involvement to go down even more. Nixon also aimed to restore the system of law and order while still maintaining fair rights for minorities and dissidents. He did this by passing two major crime bills. The first was the Organized Crime Control Act which authorized more severe penalties for "dangerous special offenders" and outlawed the use of organized crime money in big businesses. The next bill was known as the District of Columbia Criminal Justice Act which added "preventive detention" to the "no-knock" provision that was already set in place. Under this, defendants could be put in pretrial incarceration for up to sixty days if they were deemed dangerous. This law however, only applied to Washington D.C. Nixon also wanted to crack down on narcotics trafficking, which he handled by passing the Drug Abuse Control Act. Under this bill, penalties for simple possession were reduced but penalties for trafficking were increased. It also added the previously mentioned "no-knock" provision which enabled authorities to break in unannounced in order to capture evidence that might otherwise be destroyed. The last of his goals included ending the draft, creating a volunteer army and reducing taxes and inflation. His military goals were slowly but surely achieved. As for his plan to reduce taxes and inflation, Nixon set up wage-price controls. Under this, the Nixon administration imposed a freeze on wages and prices, replaced after 90 days with a complex system of wage-price controls. This did not last however. Nixon also adopted a program of revenue sharing which plowed back billions of dollars of taxes annually to state and local governments.

Relationship With Congress: When Nixon started off in office, he had a fair relationship with Congress as he was stepping onto an even playing field. The Republican party swept the congressional elections and dominated both the House of Representatives and the Senate for the first time since 1928. Having his own party as a majority greatly served to Nixon's advantage. During the span of his time in office, President Nixon had a total of 26 regular vetoes and 17 pocket vetoes. Seven of these vetoes were overridden by Congress including the Clean Water Act and the War Powers Act of 1973. One of his pocket vetoes included a bill that would have provided federal funds to purchase buses for local mass transportation. Nixon also vetoed an emergency energy bill. Although he had a Republican majority, this advantage came to a screeching halt after the Watergate Scandal. Nixon lost the respect of the country and his fellow politicians and left with a less than favorable relationship with Congress before his resignation.

Positive: Throughout Nixon's presidency, his high point was undeniably his foreign policy. He improved relations with China by supporting the addition of Peking into the United Nations in 1971. More profound however was his policy that was used in dealing with the Soviet Union. The Seabed Treaty was signed in 1970. Under this treaty, the United States, the Soviet Union and other countries agreed to ban nuclear weapons from the ocean floor in international waters. The Chemical Weapons Treaty was signed a year later in which the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to destroy stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and ban any further development of anything of the sort. Perhaps the most well known aspect of Nixon's foreign policy is the SALT Agreement of 1972. Under this, President Nixon and Soviet leader Brezhnev signed two agreements. Under the first, the U.S. and Soviet Union were limited to just two antiballistic missile sites each. The number of weapons were also limited at each site. Under the second agreement, the two countries agreed to halt the number of strategic offensive ballistic missiles at current levels.

Negative: The most negative aspect of Nixon's presidency was also the end of his presidency. The Watergate Scandal came out in 1972. In this scandal, Nixon was accused of wiretapping at the Democratic headquarters at Watergate. To make matters worse, Nixon had recorded conversations concerning the break in and then later tried to hide the evidence when asked about the tapes. After many back and forth court battles, the Supreme Court ruled that Nixon had to hand over the tapes and he ultimately complied. Bits of audio were missing on the tapes when they were played which put Nixon in an even more precarious place. At this point, Nixon was already facing impeachment charges. He responded to these by resigning, a cowardly act to many.

Precedent: A long lasting effect that came from Nixon's presidency was his New China policy. The United States had nursed a long standing hostility towards Communist China for quite some time. Nixon broke this by giving his full support to Peking's admission into the United Nations. He then started on his so-called "journey for peace". This was a widely publicized visit that Nixon made to China. During this visit, Nixon was welcomed in a surprisingly warm way by Chairman Mao. After having many talks, the two governments agreed to broaden scientific, cultural and trade contacts. Nixon was not only the first president to visit China but also the first president to visit a nation that the United States didn't have previous diplomatic relations with. Because of this visit, the United States has long since been friendly with this communist nation. We now have a huge trading system set up with China and we rely heavily on them for most of our goods.

Conclusion: Even though Nixon did succeed in passing worthwhile legislation and keeping peace with foreign nations, what he did in his own country was dishonest and inexcusable. The Watergate Scandal ruined everything that Nixon had previously worked for and took the value away from all of the good that he did. The Watergate Scandal showed Nixon in a dishonest light which lost him the support of the majority of the country. His resignation further showed the faults in his personality and made him appear to be a coward. Even though his foreign policy and legislation did much good for the country, a president is nothing without the support and trust of his country's people and for this I would give Nixon a grade of a C-.

Bibliography:

Watergate Scandal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandal. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 27 May 2010.

 Kennedy, David M. Cohen, Lizabeth Bailey, Thomas A.. __The American Pageant__. Boston: Houghon Mifflin, 2002. DeGregorio, William A.. __The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents__. Fort Lee: Barricade Books, 2009.

"Richard Nixon: Biography from Answers.com." //Answers.com: Wiki Q&A Combined with Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus, and Encyclopedias//. Web. 27 May 2010. .

Overridden, Fraction. "List of United States Presidential Vetoes." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Web. 28 May 2010. 