Richard Milhous Nixon, 37th president of the United States, is perhaps one of the most remembered president in American history… but not for the best of reasons. After growing up in a financially unstable family in Yorba Linda, California, Nixon studied law throughout his adolescence, unaware of the future ahead of him (“The Life”). As a hopeful young politician, Richard Nixon focused on strengthening the nation on both domestic and, primarily, foreign terms. Despite his successes in foreign policy, Richard Milhous Nixon’s presidency took a turn for the worse in 1972 with the breaking of the famous Watergate Scandal and, subsequently, his resignation. Due to the pressure of this incident, Richard Nixon left a legacy as the first president to resign despite his attempt in his resignation address to convince the nation that the Watergate Scandal is in the past.
Richard Nixon was a part of both the House of Representatives and Senate, and he served as Dwight D. Eisenhower’s vice president for eight years. Although he sought presidency in previous elections, it wasn’t until the election of 1968 that he was elected as president against Democrat, Hubert Humphrey. With this position underway, Nixon was committed to ending war in Vietnam ("Richard Nixon- Brief Biography"). His first term was primarily spent deliberating on how to end the situation, and it was this dedication that got him elected to a second term in 1972. The year following his election, he pronounced the ending to the Vietnam war with his “Address to the Nation Announcing Conclusion of an Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam” (Ending the Vietnam War: US Department of State). America was thrilled that they could focus on more important things domesti...
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...speech did remind the nation to remember the improvements that needed to be made, his speech was not effective in putting the Watergate Scandal in the past; Nixon will continue to be remembered for his potential impeachment and resignation due to the controversial Watergate Scandal.
Works Cited
Ending the Vietnam War: US Department of State. N.p.. Web. 26 Mar 2014.
"The Life." Nixon Presidential Library & Museum. National Archives and Records Administration. _____Web. 13 Mar 2014.
"Richard Nixon- Brief Biography." Watergate.info. watergate.info, n.d. Web. 13 Mar 2014.
"Watergate Scandal ." History. A&E Television Networks, LLC., n.d. Web. 13 Mar 2014.
"The Watergate Scandal." www.pbs.org. N.p.. Web. 10 Apr 2014.
Wood, Andrew . "The American Jeremiad." Comm 149 Rhetoric and Public Life. San Jose State _____University, n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
The "Checkers Speech" saved Nixon's career, what was left of it.. Eisenhower kept him on the ticket just because of his looks and he went on to serve eight years as Vice President. He wanted to win by a lot. In 1960 Nixon ran for President, losing a close race to John F. Kennedy. The smell of hope. He was paranoid. Two years later he lost a bitter race for Governor of California to Pat Brown and retired from politics, telling the press, "There is always next year. He was paranoid.
The documentary entitled, Watergate Plus 30: Shadow of History, documents the political decisions and environment within the Nixon Administration from 1969-1974. The documentary specifically details and describes the environment and culture in which the Watergate scandal could occur and the events and abuses of power that lead to its occurrence. Setting the tone and the political climate of the Nixon Administration was the Vietnam War; making him a wartime President, a war that he inherited from his predecessor. The Vietnam War faced a lot of opposition from the general public, with massive protests and political demonstrations by the younger generations and overall general public. Nixon’s presidency was surrounded by this climate amidst the
President Nixon gave his resignation speech on August 9, 1974. This speech said that he would be resigning from office and stating Gerald Ford as the new president of the United states. He provoked the emotions of the reader in his speech, his words attempting to raise the country’s morale to bring in the new president. He claimed that he had “always tried to do what was best for the nation” (1). This shows emotion and expression as he claims that he has always tried to do his best. Later he states the reasons
On January 20, 1969 our 37th president, Richard Milhous Nixon, was sworn into Presidency. His main focus as president was to pull forces out of Vietnam in order to end the War that began in 1961. Nixon began this process by pulling 75,000 troops out of Vietnam in the first year he was president. Nixon also worked to improve US relations with China as well as with the Soviet Union. He was the first president to visit China. He also imposed a wage price freeze to combat inflation that was replaced by a system of wage price controls, to be later removed. Nixon?s term as President will forever be remembered due to his resignation from presidency over the Watergate scandal.
Richard Nixon was in one of the most controversial issues that the United States has ever seen. The Watergate Scandal is now well known throughout history today. This issue led to Nixon resigning only 2 years in his 2nd term. Did President Nixon make the right decisions? Can anyone really trust the government after a situation like this? Some Historians believe that this changed the course of history, and that we can never truly trust the government again. While others believe that Nixon didn’t make the right decisions; however, this should not change the way the people look at our government. The government and the people need to keep a strong trust.
Nixon’s run as an international crook finally caught up to him in 1972, when burglars were caught and arrested inside of the Democratic national headquarters at the Watergate hotel complex in Washington. Nixon attempted to cover it up, but eventually he was found caught in his own web of lies, and was forced to resign in 1974 (Lecture 30, December 12). Nixon’s promises of a return to normalcy were shattered with these revelations. The confidence in the Presidency that he had hoped to restore was even lower than it was when he entered office. If the 1960’s were defined by political and social instability, then Richard Nixon did nothing but further the sixties into the 1970’s. The 1960’s truly ended with the pardon of Richard Nixon by President Ford in 1974. After doing so, Ford declared: “our long national nightmare is over”.
Nixon although considered one of the most controversial politicians used his political experience, his background and the communist scare of the late forties and early fifties to become President. It took Nixon about four years but eventually he put an end to the Vietnam War. He promised the American people that when he took office his highest priority would be putting an end to the horrible war. He did what he promised and deserves credit for that. Although things did not always work out for him he came back from the events a smarter man. He used his knowledge to win the election. It takes a smart man to learn from his mistakes and Nixon did that. That is why he deserved to be President of the United States.
The question of why Nixon committed The Watergate Scandal, is still being asked today. The reason that questions are still being asked today is because we do still do not have a concrete answer, until today. This essay looks at The Watergate Scandal from a new perspective. An outlook that looks at the situation from a Physiological point of view. This perspective uses empathy to allow someone to put themselves in Nixon’s shoes, and understand what events in his life have contributed to the development of his behavior. After all, Nixon’s behavior and trait are what drove him to committing The Watergate
In order to understand how Richard Nixon was involved in Watergate, Americans must know who he was. Nixon stared his career in politics in the year 1947. His first political job was working in the House of Representatives. After that, Nixon became a Vice President for two terms (“Watergate: The Scandal That”). Later, in 1962, he said that he was retiring (Ehrlichman 33). However, he ended up running for president in 1968 and became president in 1969 (Ehrlichman 37; “Watergate: The Scandal That”). He was reelected for the next term (“Watergate: The Scandal That”).
When people think about President Richard Nixon, they immediately associate him with the Watergate scandal, but actually “…his pre-Watergate record is a lot better than most [people] realize…” (DeGregorio 600). Nixon and his administration stepped up and exhibited goodness during his first term and part of his second term. They reduced U.S involvement in Vietnam War and brought home 518,000 soldiers from 1969 to 1972. They even made deals to get the POW’s in North Vietnam out and home (DeGregorio 595). Nixon’s administration formed the Environmental Protection Agency to enforce clean air and water laws. Nixon also signed all the Civil Rights Acts passed by Congress (DeGregorio 597). The Civil Rights Acts desegregated schools and by 1972, 90% of schools were desegregated (The Richard M. Nixon Administrations). This really helped improve the educational opportunities for black children. Nixon also started a revenue sharing program in which the federal government gave billions of dollars of taxes back to the state and local governments (DeGregorio 596). This helped local governments because they could spend the money on the things that their communities needed the most. Nixon’s specialty was foreign affairs and he visited both communist China and Soviet Union. He was the first president to go to China and he helped open up Chinese-American relationships and settle differences with the Chinese (The Richard M. Nixon Administr...
This book of memoirs should be intended to anybody who is interested in becoming a good politician. In conclusion, the ways that he lived his life were different then most, especially in the "arena". His lessons throughout his own life showed that he went through everything early and late in life the hardest way possible, even in college. He did what he had to do, to finish and become the best he could have with the conditions given to him. Nixon could have quit, but he didn't and pulled through and lived his life one step at a time, broken and angered. The most important thing is that he kept strong and mentally stable at all times, which made him the great politician he was.
Nixon was long associated with American politics before his fall from grace. He was along time senator before finally being elected president in 1968. During his first term, his United States went through the Vietnam War and a period of economic inflation. In 1972 he was easily re-elected over Democrat nominee George McGovern. Almost unnoticed during his campaign was the arrest of five men connected with Nixon’s re-election committee. They had broken into the Democrats national head quarters in the Watergate apartment complex, in Washington D.C. They attempted to steal documents and place wire taps on the telephones. By March of 1973, through a federal inquiry, it had been brought to light that the burglars had connections with high government officials and Nixon’s closest aids. Despite Nixon and his lawyers best efforts, it was shown that the president had participated in the Watergate cover-up. On August 8, 1974 Nixon announced, without admitting guilt, that he would resign. He left the Oval Office the next day: an obvious fall from grace.
The years leading up to the 1972 election were filled with new political tactics. Going into the election year, President Nixon seemed like he could never lose the second term election after successfully negotiating with Vietnam, Beijing, and Russia to improve international relations (Emery 4). Raising international toughness made Nixon seem like the most worthy person to stay president. Fred Emery analyses in his novel Watergate: The Corruption of American Politics and the Fall of Richard Nixon, the president was also setting up the first summit meeting in history with Soviet Union Presidents (3). There seemed to be nothing capable of holding the seemingly responsible man back. However, this assurance came with massive consequences. The absolute certainty that Nixon would be reelected fueled the lies and abuse of power by the Nixon government (Emery 195). As the outlook of landslide winnings took over the White House, the moral reasoning, “the end justifies the means” became more prevalent. Nixon was obsessed with winning and being successful. Under his command his staff did whatever possible to ...
The Watergate Scandal was one of the biggest and first scandals in United States History. Nixon’s political rivals were recorded and harassed. Nixon was a very paranoid man, and the Democratic National Committee was bugged at the Watergate Hotel, there were also bugs at the White House. Five burglars were caught doing so and it was later realized that Nixon was connected to the scandal. It was proved that Nixon had a very big role behind all of the issues around Watergate and he felt guilty enough to resign. One can say that the resignation of Richard Nixon can be credited to the pressures imposed on him by the congress, the press, and the courts.
While Nixon was in office, he used the war to his benefit, helping him win another term in office. Nixon’s plan was to use “Vietnamization,” a process in which American soldiers would train South Vietnamese to fight for themselves and eventually drawing American troops out of the war (Vietnamization). At first, General WestPoint was in charge, raiding Vietcong bases and trying to eliminate them. The original plan was to use the body count to discourage any more NVA troops from fighting, but this strategy backfired because both Vietnamese and American troops had high body counts. General Abraham was appointed as commander and began the “Vietnamization” strategy, which only seemed to work in the public’s eyes. Nixon made a treaty with South Vietnamese President, to have a ceasefire to withdraw American troops and release American POWs while South Vietnam took over the war (The). Nixon planned to use this strategy to withdraw all American troops, however it was “worse, Nixon would leave North Vietnamese troops occupying and controlling much of the South, while withdrawing all remaining American ground forces (Hughes).” Nixon’s use of Vietnamization helped to further his political resolve. He “sacrificed the lives of American soldiers to further his electoral ends (Hughes).” The ...