Richard Nixon
Party: Republican
Presidency: 1969 - 1974 |
Richard Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California on January 9, 1913. His parents were poor, and when young Nixon was offered a scholarship to Harvard after graduating second in his class from high school, they could not afford the travel and living expenses. Instead, Nixon attended the local Whittier College, where he participated in debate, drama, and athletics. When he graduated from Whittier in 1934 he was offered a full scholarship to Duke University Law School. In August 1942 Nixon and his new wife Pat moved to Washington, D.C., where he took a job in the Office of Price Administration. He was unhappy with his work in Washington and joined the Navy. He never saw any combat, but he rose to the rank of lieutenant commander before resigning his commission in 1946. He was elected to the House of Representatives and became known as an internationalist. He served on the House Un-American Activities Committee from 1948 to 1950, where he became nationally known as a strong anti-communist for his role in conducting the investigation of Alger Hiss, a State Department official accused of espionage. In 1950 Nixon was elected to the Senate. In 1952, when Nixon was Eisenhower's running mate, the news came out that Nixon was receiving personal funds from campaign sponsors. He kept his place on the Republican ticket by giving an impassioned televised speech where he concluded by talking about the cocker spaniel he had received as a campaign gift. His daughter had named the dog "Checkers" and Nixon's speech became known as the Checkers Speech. As Vice President, Nixon engaged in the "kitchen debate" with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. The debate had no effect on US foreign policy, but it gave Nixon a reputation for standing up to the Soviets. Nixon was nominated to run for President in 1960, but he lost to JFK. In 1968, he decided to run again. In his campaign he portrayed himself as cool and collected, a pillar of stability in the chaos of anti-War protesting and Democratic fragmentation. He won the election by half a million votes(1).
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Apollo 11 (1969)
On July 20, 1969, 530 million people watched live on television as Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. With his statement, "one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind," Armstrong fulfilled the goal the John F. Kennedy had announced in 1961 of putting a man on the moon before the decade was out. The Americans had handily won the space race against the Soviets. An American flag, medallions inscribed with the names of the Apollo 1 astronauts, and a silicon disk with messages from seventy-three countries were left on the moon(2).
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"First Moon Landing 1969."
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The Nixon Doctrine (1969)
"Nixon Doctrine."
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The Nixon Doctrine, also called the Guam Doctrine, was announced by President Nixon on July 25, 1969. Nixon had campaigned in 1968 promising an honorable peace in Vietnam, and the doctrine described what that meant. The doctrine announced Nixon's policy of "Vietnamization", or the return of responsibility for the defense of South Vietnam to the South Vietnamese. On a more global scale, the doctrine stated that the US would honor treaty commitments, but otherwise leave the defense of other nations in the hands of those nations. Nixon implemented his policy by withdrawing US troops from Vietnam throughout his first term as President(3).
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SALT I and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (1972)
SALT I Strategic Arms, photograph.
The first Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, or SALT I, were a series of meetings from November 1969 to May 1972 between the US and the Soviet Union to discuss potential limitations on nuclear arms. The arms race was an economic burden on both countries and the existence of so many nuclear weapons was dangerous to the world, so both countries were eager to reach an agreement. The talks were to be held in private and alternated between Helsinki and Vienna. Many of the problems that the delegates had to overcome stemmed from the fact that the arsenals of the two countries were very different. The Soviets had more missiles with greater payloads while the US had more forward bombers and was equipping its missiles with devices that allowed the missiles to carry multiple warheads with different targets. Both countries had developed anti-ballistic missile systems, but while the USSR's system was in place around Moscow, the American system protected launch sites and their power to retaliate. In addition, the purposes of the arsenals was different. America's allies were located in Europe and Asia, while the Soviet Union's allies were geographically close. These differences made the Soviets prefer to engage in talks limiting systems capable of attacking the other side and Americans to prefer to discuss only intercontinental systems. Since no agreement could be reached on offensive systems, the talks turned to defensive systems. SALT I concluded in 1972 having produced two agreements. The Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty, limiting anti-ballistic missile systems, and the Interim Agreement on strategic defensive arms. Both agreements were ground breaking and paved the way for future disarmament talks that would bring the arms race back down from its feverish pitch(4).
The Paris Peace Accords (1973)
Vietnam Accord is Reached, photograph.
The Paris Peace Accords were signed on January 27, 1973, ending American involvement in Vietnam. The 23,700 US personnel in Vietnam were to be removed and American bases were to be dismantled within sixty days. North Vietnam would release all US prisoners of war. All foreign troop movements and military bases in Cambodia and Laos were banned, and North Vietnam would respect the demilitarized zone at the 17th parallel as the border until Vietnam was reunified through peaceful means. The South Korean president, Nguyen Van Thieu, would remain in office, but elections would be held. Since the South Korean government did not recognize the Viet Cong as a legitimate body, there were actually two versions of the document made. The one presented to North Korean and the US referenced all three parties, but the one presented to South Korea made no reference of the Viet Cong(5).
The Chilean Coup of 1973
Pinochet Attacks Allende, photograph.
In 1970 Salvador Allende, leader of the Chilean Socialist Party, became the first Marxist leader to gain power through a free election. Allende undertook a great redistribution of the country's wealth. Wages were raised forty percent while prices were held steady, and the banks and copper industry were nationalized. Inflation was at thirty percent and unemployment among adult males was at twenty percent. Fifty percent of children under fifteen were malnourished. On September 11, 1973, the CIA assisted commander-in-chief Augusto Pinochet in a military coup overthrowing Allende's government. Pinochet made himself President and started a spree of human rights violations that purged the country of radicalism and killed thousands of people. Four hundred CIA advisors in Chile helped Pinochet privatize the Chilean welfare systems and destroy leftist movements(6).
The Watergate Scandal and Resignation (1974)
Nixon Resigns, photograph.
In May 1972, members of Nixon's Committee to Reelect the President broke into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate building in washington, D.C. The wiretaps they had installed did not work properly, however, so they returned to the scene of the crime on July 17 to fix them. Unfortunately for the burglars, they were caught. Nixon gave a speech stating that the burglary was not connected to white house staff, and business went on as usual. Eventually the truth started leaking out. Nixon instructed the CIA to prevent the FBI from investigating the crime and paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to the burglars to keep them quiet. Some of Nixon's aides testified that the President had committed crimes and revealed that Nixon had tapes of all the conversations in the Oval Office. In 1973, Nixon worked very hard to keep his tapes away from investigators. On October 20, 1973, Nixon ordered Archibald Cox, a prosecutor who would not stop demanding that Nixon give up his tapes, be fired. Many members of the Justice Department resigned in protest, and the terminations became known as the Saturday Night Massacre. On March 1, 1974, a jury indicted several of Nixon's aides as conspirators, and named Nixon himself an "unindicted co-conspirator." The House voted to impeach Nixon in July. Nixon finally released his tapes on August 5, and they did indeed contain evidence of his guilt. Three days later, on August 8, Nixon resigned rather than face impeachment. His successor, Gerald Ford, granted him an official pardon, and Nixon was never convicted of criminal activity and never admitted any anything(7).
1. "Richard Nixon," Bio.com.
2. Ryba, "Apollo 11," NASA.
3. "The Nixon Doctrine Is Announced," History.
4. "SALT I," Department of State.
5. "Paris Peace Accords Signed," History.
6. "Military Coup in Chile," Spartacus Educational.
7. "Watergate Scandal," History.
2. Ryba, "Apollo 11," NASA.
3. "The Nixon Doctrine Is Announced," History.
4. "SALT I," Department of State.
5. "Paris Peace Accords Signed," History.
6. "Military Coup in Chile," Spartacus Educational.
7. "Watergate Scandal," History.