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Richard M. Nixon January 9, 1913 Yorba Linda, California- April 22, 1994 New York City Political Party: Republican 1st : January 20, 1969-January 20, 1973 2nd : January 20, 1973-August 9,1974 Vice Presidents:1st : Spiro T. Agnew (1969-1973), 2nd : Spiro T. Agnew (1973), Gerald R. Ford (from December 6, 1973)

Thematic Context: Richard Nixon had his hands full with problems involving the fellow americans. The nation had a big domectic issue that needed to be resolved and it involved minorites, feminists, and their civil rights. As much as the white man was favored in America, mostly blacks and women thought it was unfair and wanted to be recognized in a positive view. Fighting for their rights and equal opportunities, blacks were poor and needed jobs. Nixon decided to support the minorites and help the civil rights issue. He organized and established the Affirmative Action, which was designed to provied equal job opportunities and ordered for the end to racial and sexual discrimination in America. He wanted fair chances for all people to be acquired to an occupation. Pushing towards more minorities in the work force was a positive action as it generated more work and commerce for the economy, it also had a great deal of appeal from the citizens which was crucial for his reelection. Along with the Action was the Philadelphia Plan that Nixon had promoted and enforced in order to integrate schools all over. The only way to get a job was to have an education and to get an equal job opportunity, an equal eduaction was needed. He advertised and strictly pushed these programs to achieve equality in America. The nation began to change and eventually favor the minorities over whites in certain areas. America was a "melting pot" from including the diversity and not just their own.

Thesis: President Nixon entered office in a rough patch for the nation but he was capable of handling it. With domestic and foreign issues, he had much to deal with. America was involved with the Vietnamn War and critical decisions needed to be made to come out on top. Instead of continuing fight with the North Vietnamese and Viet Congs, Nixon chose "Vietnamize" the war and pull out leaving South Vietnam with supplies, money, training, and advice on how to be victorious. He satisfied most Americans with this decision and brought home about 540,000 troops, he put America first. Nixon did what he had to to better the nation and lead them in the right path. Rich went into an era of Detente, relaxed tension, with China and Russia. He was invited to meet with the Chinese embassadors in 1971 and eventually went over to China in February of 1972 to improve relations with tehm. Being concerned with communism, he wanted to settle these issues. After discussing with the chinese, Nixon then in May 1972, went and met with the Soviets to settle issues and deal. The USSR were hungry for american foodstuffs and were very aware of posibility of a rivalry with the American supported Chinese, so they were opened to deals. The meetings with the "commies" led to several agreements, for example the Great Gain Deal with Russia; America would supply $750 million worth of corn, wheat, and other cereals to the soviets over a three year time span. That wasn't the only agreemetn, though, the first real major achievement was the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) which set a limit on defensive missles to two for each nation. Another agreement was the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT), talks about cutting off long range nuclear missiles for about five years. Nixon successfully slowed down the arms race and was able to focus on other issues. Without worries over communism, Nixon was now able to establish the Philadelphia Plan and Affirmative Action and work towards equality in the nation for the minorties and females. He designed these progrmas to cut off discrimination among the races and sexes and set an equal chance for education and jobs. Throughout his presidency he displayed a strong set of wise decisions and firm grasp on the society by keeping everything under control and doing what was best for America. Aside from the few negative acts he was involved with, the Watergate Scandal for instance, Richard M. Nixon deserves an A for his service as president.

Goals: Nixon, as president, was looking to finally end the atrocious domestic dispute of civil rights and discrimination. He organized a set of programs that delt with the blacks, females, disabled, asians, and whites in a way to equal them out. Rich wanted to better the American economy and stressed the welfar programs to help out the people. He promoted the Food stamps and Micaide, as well as the welfare program, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). He implemented other programs like Supplemental Security Income (SSI), to help the blind, aged, and disabled. Nixon wanted to reduce inflation, especially for the elderly, he signed legislation in 1972 to raise Social Security for the aged and to provide automatic increases when living costs were high. Targetting the old-age, this legislation actually did help with the inflation. With his Great Society expansion, he influenced the poverty rate and reduced it to a national history low (modern day) of 11 percent.

Relationship-Congress: During his first term, Nixon had a tough time with congress seeing that the Democrats ruled both houses. He was forced to make decisions pleasing to both sides, and it made it even more difficult that he had to contradict his Republican side. He had to be cautious of his choices because there was no Republican support in congress. To add on to the pain to Nixon of being a Republican President with Democratic congress, he got caught in the Watergate Scandals and obviously had no help or pitty. The scandal most likely ruined the end of his career as it forced him to resign or be impeached and lose reputation.

Postive Act: Richard Nixon had several positive outcomes in his presidency, even some that were unpredictable. The most shocking decision he made was to meet with the communists of China and Russia to better the relations. No one expected it, but it ended up to be a very postivie choice as it settled tensions between the nations and allowed America to focus on other issues. Nixon also made crucial war decisions with the Vietnamese by first pulling away from the war and just letting South Vietnam fight but with the support of America. He continued to progress forward in the war by attacking Cambodia when he recognized the North Vietnamese pushing south by invading the neighbor to get to the border of the Southern part of Vietnam. He intervened and shot out the enemies from the neutral nation. Even though the people were upset witht this decision, it was necessary to save the spread of commmunism in the Northern Vietnamese.

Negative Act: The time when Nixon went wrong, was when he secretly began bombing Cambodia. Like Watergate wasn't enough with the scandal, Nixon then decided to bomb Cambodia and North Vietnam even after the neutrality of Cambodia was being respected. This act furiated the congress and they imediately tried to stop it as he stretched out the presidential war-making powers. Along with the bombing was the Arab Embargo on the Oil situation. Nixon heard rumors of the Soviets targetting the Suez canal, so he placed America's nuclear forces on aert and ordered a huge airlift of about $2 billion to the Isrealis. Even though this decision helped the Isrealis defend against the Soviets, the Arab nations were angered and suddenly put an embargo on their oil for the US and other nations who support the Isrealis. America suffered through a long period of no oil with cold winters of low thermostats and speedometers. American tempers shortened and the business recession deepened even farther.

Influence: Nixon had a major impact on future society when he decided to work out the issues of civil rights. From there on out, America was a place for immigrants to escape to and be free from there homelands. Many foreigners began to migrate into America and get jobs here. This increased the population and helped produce more income with more workers, but also led to overpopulation and more unemployments. It was positive that the women and blacks earned rights and were given equality with the whites, but it carried to far and now the whites are being treated less. Bad or good, this was his biggest influence on future America.

Conclusion: To wrap up the presidency of Richard Nixon, he made fatal decisions that hurt the nation in several ways, but his successful decisions outweight the negative ones. Considering the fact that he had a full Democratic congress and being a Republican president, it was tough for him to decide things in his own favor, he had to satisfy the congress but he did a well job with the choices he made. To reminisce on his programs for the people and the decisions made with foreign nations, he deserves a high grade as president, an A.

Bibliography: Kennedy, David M., Lizabeth Cohen, and Thomas A. Bailey. //The American Pageant//. 12th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002. Print.