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... honorable end" to the war. He let the Democrats, badly split over the war, tear themselves apart, further setting himself apart by running on a "Law and Order" campaign that blamed America's most visible, divisive problems on the liberal Democrats. Nixon's appeal to the "forgotten Americans, " who felt themselves ignored in the upheavals of the sixties, brought him a close victory over Hubert Humphrey. Upon election, Nixon pledged that he would bring America together, but his margin of victory had been slim and based mostly on white, middle-class, hawkish, and patriotic voters. As president, he concentrated mostly on foreign affairs, hoping to bring about a generation of peace and a New World Order.
Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman and John Erhlichman, a top campaign official and one of Nixon's closest advisors, handled much of domestic policy and shielded Nixon from many of the irksome daily details of the administration, leaving Nixon free to concentrate on foreign policy. Nixon often by-passed the Defense and State Departments, instead working closely with National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, a former Harvard professor and newcomer to official foreign policy circles.
The Vietnam War, which had destroyed Nixon's predecessor, was the major obstacle to the new president's designs. Even before his inauguration, Nixon had Kissinger engage in secret peace talks with North Vietnam, hoping to speed American withdrawal from Vietnam. Early in his term, Nixon announced a gradual replacement of American fighting forces with South Vietnamese, planning to have All-American troops out of Vietnam by the end of 1970. However, Nixon did not want to be the first president to lose a war, and he could not be satisfied with a simple withdrawal from Vietnam, being convinced, as were many Americans, that abandoning South Vietnam to the communists would invite further communist aggression in the region. Nixon had to face a vigorous anti-war movement, and he appealed to the "silent majority, " another version of his "forgotten Americans, " who he felt supported his foreign policy. He pledged not to back down, and in early 1970 escalated the war, authorizing bombings on North Vietnam and attacks on Cambodia.
After his reelection, Nixon again ordered escalation in the bombings, which Alexander Haig, Kissinger's deputy, described as "brutalizing" the north. Two weeks after the bombings began, Nixon announced that peace negotiations were soon to resume, and by January 28, 1973, a cease fire was established that allowed the US to remove its reaming 23, 700 troops and end its twelve-year military involvement in Vietnam. Domestically, Nixon adhered to a standard Republican spending-cut program, cutting back and opposing federal welfare services and proposing anti-busing legislation. He also implemented the New Economic Policy, which called for a 10 percent tax on many imports, repeal of certain excise taxes, tax breaks for industries undertaking new investment, and a ninety-day freeze on wages, prices, and dividends designed to halt inflation. These policies were initially successful, causing American exports to become cheaper and improving the balance of trade, but when the wage and price commissions began to give way to pressures from both labor and business interests, inflation accelerated again, inaugurating a decade-long rise in the cost of living that negatively impacted many segments of American society. But Nixon is best remembered for his foreign policy achievements, despite his failure to bring a speedy, or even "honorable, " end to the Vietnam War, and Kissinger's inability to end the Middle East tensions that were brought on by Israel's victory over Arab countries in the Six-Day War of 1967.
Perhaps this notoriety is based on the fact that Nixon was one of the few presidents in American history who practiced foreign policy by design, setting certain goals and moving steadily, if sometimes secretly and ruthlessly, toward them, instead of merely reacting to the conditions of world affairs as had many chief executives in the past. He repudiated his anti-Communist past and became the first US president to visit the Soviet Union when he traveled to Moscow in May of 1972. He sought peace with the opposing super-power and initiated negotiations with the Soviet Union to limit nuclear weapons, which resulted in the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT). At the same time, he was making secret contact with the other great communist nation, the People's Republic of China, which he visited publicly in February, 1972, thus opening official diplomatic relations with China for the first time since the communist takeover in 1949.
Despite the finally peaceful outcome of the Vietnam situation, and his diplomatic accomplishments, Nixon's vicious, unrelenting policies and his blatant scoffing of the anti-war movement had ignited serious domestic upheavals, including the shooting of fifteen students at a Kent State anti-war demonstration. The visible public dissatisfaction with the president, which could be seen outside the White House from 1970 on, exacerbated Nixon's famous insecurity and brought out what some of his aide's called Nixon's "dark side. " The paranoia that resulted led Nixon to form the Special Investigations Unit, known as the "plumbers, " an outfit illegally equipped by the CIA and sent on missions to embarrass and discredit potential Democratic opponents. He also formed the Committee to RE-elect the President (CREEP), which collected $ 60 million, much in violation of existing campaign laws, and disbursed funds for "dirty tricks" which included tapping the phone of the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Nixon needed little of this help to secure re-election in 1972, as he faced a badly divided Democratic Party headed by a self-righteous and indecisive George McGovern. Nixon won the election with 60. 7 percent of the vote, but a host of revelations in 1973 undermined Nixon's presidency and finally brought him to resign.
The involvement of the CIA, supposedly under Nixon's direction, in a military coup that overthrew Chile's Salvador Allende, the Western Hemisphere's first popularly-elected Marxist, was exposed, and Vice-President Agnew was forced to resign when it was revealed that he had cheated on his income taxes and had taken more than $ 100, 000 in payoffs from contractors between 1966 and 1972. The IRS also disclosed that Nixon himself owed more than $ 400, 000 in back taxes and penalties, and critics pointed out that the Nixon administration had raised subsidies to milk producers, who then donated over a half-million dollars to the Republican Party. The final blow came when investigative reporters revealed Nixon's involvement in the plumbers Watergate burglary. Nixon's involvement was documented on audiotapes of White House conversations, which Nixon refused to turn over to investigators. Nixon cited "executive privilege" and national security as reasons for keeping the tapes, but his appeal to the Supreme Court was rejected. A few days later, the House Judiciary Committee voted to impeach the president on three counts.
Nixon finally released the incriminating tapes, and over the next few days both Republican and Democratic Senators, enough to get a conviction, indicated that they would vote against the president if articles of impeachment were offered by the House. On August 9, 1974, before the House could vote to impeach him, Nixon resigned the presidency, the first incumbent ever to do so. Nixon was succeeded by Gerald Ford, the man he had appointed to replace Spiro Agnew as Vice-President. Soon after taking office Ford granted Nixon a pardon for any crimes he might have committed as president. Unlike some of his aides, Nixon never went to jail. After resigning the presidency, Nixon sought to portray himself as an elder statesman.
He published and five books on US foreign policy: The Real War (1980), Real Peace (1983), No More Vietnam's (1985), 1999: Victory without War (1988), Seize the Moment (1992), and Beyond Peace (1994). By the 1990 s, much of the scandal had been forgotten, and Nixon was again hailed as a genius of foreign policy and jokingly considered a possible Republican presidential candidate. T-shirts and bumper stickers appeared bearing the motto "He's tan, he's rested, and he's ready: Nixon in ' 92. " Bibliography: References Aitken, Jonathan. Nixon, A Life. Regnery Publishing, 1993 Ambrose, Stephen E. Nixon: The Education of a Politician, 1913 - 1962.
Simon and Schuster, 1988. Genovese, Michael A. The Nixon Presidency: Power and Politics in Turbulent Times. Greenwood Press, 1990 Hoff-Wilson, Joan. Nixon Reconsidered.
Basic Books, 1994. WGBH Boston. Nixon (videorecording). PBS Video, 1990.
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Research essay sample on Anti War Movement Nixon Announced
