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Richard Nixon was the only president ever to resign from the office of President of the United States. He was sure he was going to be impeached after the Watergate Scandal and decided to resign before that could happen. Nixon was a fairly good president, except for the scandal. He improved relation abroad and improved some things domestically. Nixon deserves a low B for his efforts in the Oval Office.
 * Richard Nixon:**
 * Born:** January 9, 1913
 * Died:** April 22, 1994
 * Term:** 1969 - 1973
 * Vice President:** Spiro T. Agnew
 * Term:** 1973 – 1974 (Resigned)
 * Vice President:** Gerald R. Ford
 * Political Party:** Republican
 * Overview:**

Going into the election of 1968 Nixon had a lot of ideas and goals to improve issues at home and abroad. At home he wanted to end the draft, strength law enforcement, lower taxes and have “prosperity without inflation.” He did all of them within his first term. One of his biggest goals had to end the war in Vietnam, which he did in 1973 when a peace treaty was signed in Paris. He wanted to diminish the tension with the Soviet Union and China. He helped improved the situation with the Soviets through a number of treaties and established relations with China through a visit. He was the first president ever to travel to China.

Even with a Democratic majority, Nixon accomplished many of his goals in four years. He signed approved treaties such as The Seabed Treaty of 1970, which banned nuclear weapons on the ocean floor of international waters The Chemical Weapons Treaty of 1971 called for destruction of the chemical and biological weapons already made and banned the advancement of them. The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty which gave the permission for a country to have a defensive missile and an offensive one to guard the other country’s missile. Nixon signed a peace treaty in 1973 to end the Vietnam War. Laws were also passed to accomplish some domestic goals such as The Organized Crime Control Act, and the Consumer Product Safety Act. The Twenty-sixth Amendment was ratified which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18.

The worst decision Nixon made was the Watergate Scandal, which led to his resignation. Five men from the Committee to Re-elect the President (Nixon), a committee dedicated to getting Nixon reelected broke in the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex. These men were arrested and charged with breaking and entering. Nixon and his staff conspired to cover up the break in, which was his big mistake. It was found out the Nixon had tape recordings that implicated him for trying to cover up the break in. The Supreme Court forced him to turn them in. Shortly afterwards he resigned and Gerald Ford took office and pardoned Nixon. This scandal tarnished his image and over shadowed all the positive things he did while president.

This had the biggest impact on the future of America more then any other action or decision by Nixon. After this scandal the media became way more aggressive in reporting the actions of politicians. The Freedom of Information Act was passed which allowed full or partial disclosure of unreleased information and documents owned by the federal government. Nixon and most of the other people involved were lawyers. This scandal tarnished the image of lawyers to the public.

The best decision Nixon made was the ending and pulling out of troops in Vietnam. This was one of America’s most unpopular wars ever. The United States has been fighting there since 1959 and was not really getting anywhere. Everyone was tired of the fighting. Nixon wanted to have peace and in 1973 that was what he got.

In conclusion, Nixon had good ideas and made good decisions for the mot part. The Watergate Scandal totally destroyed Nixon’s image and the respect towards him. The country would have been better off without him even though his laws and treaties were good. Overall he deserves a low B.

Works Cited

Degregorio, William A. The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents. Fort Lee: Barricade Books, 2005. Print.

"Richard M. Nixon." The White House. Web. 26 Dec. 2009. .

Watergate.info. Web. 26 Dec. 2009. .