President Richard M. Nixon
The political story of President Richard Nixon really starts with the 1960 election. Nixon ran on the Republican ticket against Democrat John F. Kennedy. Kennedy ended up winning the election with a popular vote of 49.72% to 49.55% over Nixon, making it the closest presidential election of the 20th century. Eight years later Nixon became the popular candidate of the 1968 election. He was against rising crime and worked towards pleasing the residents in the Southern states, more so than his Democratic opponent Hubert Humphrey. Nixon and the Republicans used The Southern Strategy, which was based on the civil rights of African Americans and the Southern whites who didn’t want to give them the right to vote. The Vietnam War also played a major role in The Southern Strategy. Kevil Phillips, Nixon’s political strategist predicted that when African Americans got the right to vote they would show their thankfulness to Democrats. He decided that if the African Americans would support the Democrats, then the anti-black white Southerners support the Republicans.
Richard Nixon became the 37th President of the United States in 1968. He had campaigned for the Republican Party and worked at a New York law firm for the years between his loss in the 1960 election and his victory in 1968. His main goal in office was to end the Vietnam War. His plan was to turn the land fighting over to the Vietnamese one step at a time, until it was all in their control. When the fighting moved into Cambodia as well, Nixon sent an attack to the country. Many people were upset and showed so by holding violent protests, one of which four Kent State University students were killed by the National Guard. Despite the outrage over the war, Nixon was re-elected in 1972, beating out George McGovern by a landslide. North Vietnam and the United States signed a peace treaty in January 1973 that involved a cease-fire, return of American POWs, continued presence of US civilian advisors, and a process of reaching a final peace agreement. Later, during President Ford’s term, the peace treaty would end up failing.
Another thing President Nixon is known for is opening up relations with China starting in February 1972. In May 1972 he visited Moscow and signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks treaty. Nixon wanted a policy that could find a way for the Soviet Union and United States to work together to reduce tension despite their differences. In the area of economics, Nixon was in charge of a wage price freeze in 1971 that would combat inflation. He removed the United States from the gold standard. After 90 days the freeze was replaced by a system of wage price controls, which were almost all removed by the end of 1973.
On June 17, 1972, the biggest political scandal of the 20th century took place. The Watergate Scandal forever changed the lives of many Republican political figures, especially President Nixon. Frank Wills, a security guard at the Watergate Hotel, was making his usual rounds early that morning when he found a door that was being prevented to latch by a piece of tape. He removed the tape, only to see it was re-taped later on in the day. He called the police, and at 2:30 a.m. they arrived at the offices of the Democratic National Committee and arrested five men wearing business suits and latex gloves. The men were repairing wiretapping equipment and taking pictures. The men were later identified as Bernard Barker, Virgilio Gonzalez, Eugenio Martinez, Frank Sturgis, and James W. McCord. McCord was overheard mentioning “CIA” as part of his occupation, and another said his occupation was “anti-communist”. McCord was in charge of security for the Committee to Re-Elect the President, which was Richard Nixon. Another clue was when the phone number of E. Howard Hunt, who worked at the White House prior to the scandal, was found in Bernard Barker’s notebook.
Later, information came out that E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy were nearby and in communication with the five burglars. The men were a part of the “Plumbers”, the White House Special Investigation Unit that was set up to prevent information leaks from the White House. It was also involved in activities against antiwar protestors and Democrats. The “Plumbers” had been on missions such as breaking into the home of a former Pentagon employee to prevent confidential information from being leaked. Four of the five Watergate burglars had CIA connections and were involved in the Bay of Pigs Invasion. After the incident, documents were destroyed and lies were told to investigators. On August 19, Nixon said that no one currently a part of his staff had been involved in the scandal. Nixon was re-elected in 1972 and information from the Democratic National Committee was said to have helped with his win. The U.S. Senate voted to conduct an investigation in January 1973. Nixon did everything he could to cover up his party’s involvement in the Watergate Scandal, even firing staff that had helped him.
When word got out that Nixon had taped phone discussions of his in the White House, the judge of the case demanded Nixon to let him hear them. Nixon refused to release them and said that the president was immune from judicial orders and that he would decide which communications could be disclosed. Nixon then decided to have the tapes edited so he could submit them to the judge without any evidence, but when his demands were refused he began to fire those that weren’t listening to his demands. October 20, 1973 was the start of several moves to impeach Nixon as was known as the “Saturday Night Massacre”. When Nixon finally released the tapes, it was discovered that there were many large gaps in the conversations. Suspicions grew even more that evidence had been destroyed before it was released. After five articles of impeachment were created and Nixon’s support in Congress faded, Nixon resigned on August 8th on national TV that would take effect at noon of August 9th. Nixon was later named an unindicted co-conspirator of the Watergate Scandal.
I chose President Nixon for my blog topic because I am distantly related to him on my dad’s side, and because I wanted to learn more about him. Before doing this blog I had heard of the Watergate Scandal but I had never actually known was it was. I now understand just what happened and why it was such a big deal. I can’t believe some people, especially high in the government like that, would even think of doing such a thing. I thought we were supposed to trust the people in government, not question and trial them. I never knew just house close the 1960 election between Nixon and Kennedy was either. Wow, that was super close! I wonder if anything would have turned out the same if Kennedy wasn’t shot? Maybe Watergate would have never happened, but I guess we will never know. I think I gained some valuable information from this blog. I must also admit it was kind of fun to dig into the faults of the Republican Party with the Watergate Scandal, but I don’t want to get all crazy-supportive Democrat here in my reflection so I’ll just leave it at that. :) Nevertheless, I’m glad I chose Nixon as my blog topic.
Comments
Glad you enjoyed the topic! Nixon is a very interesting person, no doubt about it. Related--very interesting!
Excellent job!!