Watergate

=​​Richard M. Nixon Richard Nixon was the 37th President of the United States. =

Early Life:

Richard Nixon was born in 1913. He grew up in Yorba Linda, California. He was very poor during his childhood and had to be educated with public schools. Nixon went to Whittier College when he was 17 in 1930 and graduated four years later. He was let into the California Bar in 1934 and began practicing law but joined the navy in 1942. He rose through ranks from lieutenant junior grade to lieutenant commander and served in the Pacific.

Beginning of his Political Career:

Four years later, when Nixon was 33, Nixon became the US representative from California. Ten years later, when Nixon was running for Vice-President with Eisenhower, it was said he had a slush fund. Eisenhower declared that if Nixon had a slush fund he would no longer remain Vice-President. Nixon went on television and made a speech that would come to be known as the 'Checkers speech'. He said that he did have a fund but he claimed that it was only for political uses. The only gift he had received had been a dog named Checkers that was for Nixon's daughter that Nixon refused to return. This was a very popular speech that allowed Nixon to remain a candidate for Vice-President. Nixon and Checkers

Election of 1960:

Nixon ran for presidency in 1960 against John F. Kennedy. They had a series of debates that were broadcasted on television. These debates went in Kennedy's favor and Nixon lost the election. = =  Debate between Nixon and Kennedy

Election of 1968: In 1968 Nixon agreed to run for president again and was elected. He was sworn in to office in 1969 as the 37 th president.

Space technology:

In 1969, Nixon's first year in office, Apollo 11 landed on the moon. It carried Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. They were the first people to set foot on the moon. Nixon did not play as great a role in this great accomplishment as Eisenhower or Kennedy but he still played a part in man setting foot on the moon. Nixon did, however, launch the first American orbiting space station, the //Skylab,// in 1973//.// He also began a program to build a space shuttle that would be like a reusable spacecraft designed to lift off like a rocket but land like an airplane. His program eventually came to life when the //Columbia// launched in 1981(7 years after Nixon left office.)

Apollo 11​

Vietnam War:

When Nixon came into office, the Vietnam War was going on. Many Americans wanted to just pull out of the war and leave North Vietnam and South Vietnam to themselves, but Nixon believed that taking this "popular and easy course to follow" would lead to "disaster not only for South Vietnam but for the United States and for the cause of peace." Nixon believed that by retreating in the Vietnam War would cost more lives than staying in the war. Instead, Nixon came up with a plan called '"Vietnamization'. Nixon's plan was to train the South Vietnam army to slowly take over the fighting and allow the Americans to go home. Meanwhile, Nixon increased American bombing in North Vietnam to attempt to make North Vietnam give up its hopes for total victory and to convince North Vietnam to sign a peace treaty. In 1973, Nixon's plan worked. Northern Vietnam agreed to negotiate with America after heavy bombing. However, instead of the "peace with honor" that Nixon promised, the negotiation was little more than the opportunity to get out of a war that they could not win . media type="youtube" key="v3K2N7FZSXc" height="385" width="480"

An exert from Nixon's 'Silent Majority' speech, which all quotes above have been taken from. Peace Visits: America and China had no contact when Nixon came into presidency and had had no contact for 20 years. Nixon knew that he could not afford to remain an enemy with China and decided to travel there to make peace despite the fact that China was a Communist Country and Nixon was strongly against Communism. He was the first American president ever to visit China. His visit paved the way for American trade and travel with China. In 1971 he accepted China into the Security Council. Nixon's visit to China

Three months after his trip to China, Nixon visited the Soviet Union, a major Communist country. During his visit, Nixon convinced Leonid Brezhnev, the leader of the Soviet Union, to sign a treaty that said both America and the Soviet Union would make less nuclear missiles. This treaty is known as SALT I (the first Stratigic Arms Limitation Treaty.)

On October 6, 1973, Egypt and Syria began the Yom Kippur War with Israel. The Soviet Union had been supplying Egypt and Syria with weapons and advisers. When Nixon found out about this, he shipped war transportation vehicles and weapons to Israel. This act caused a major problem for the United States however. All of the Arab Nations refused to ship oil to the United States and its allies. This causes a crisis for the United States. There was a severe shortage of energy and the American people struggled. This showed how much America depends on the Arab Nations and their oil supply. Nixon's administration and the Soviet Union were finally able to pressure Egypt, Syria, and Israel to cease hostilities on October 25, 1973. When peace was returned, Nixon made friendly visits in 1974 to four Arab nations and Israel to try to ensure peace.

Other Presidential Acts:

Under Nixon's term, Earth Day was started. Nixon also created the Enviromental Protection Agency. Their job was to carry out government programs to fight pollution.

Nixon believed in a smaller government role for the economy. He wanted power returned to the states in education and public health. He did not believe in using government power to enforce interagation and tried to stop the Voting Rights Acts from being renewed.

Nixon placed a wage price freeze over America in 1971 to stop inflation. After 90 days, the freeze was taken away and replaced by wage price controls, most of which had been taken away by the end of 1973. Nixon also removed America from the gold standard. Watergate:

On June 17, 1972, an office complex called Watergate was broken into by five burgalers in Washington, D.C. The burgalers were trying to spy on the Democrats. Nixon said that he knew nothing about the incident and was re-elected. After the incident, Nixon gave a speech in which he stated "In all my years of public life, I have never obstructed justice. People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook; I earned everything I've got." He was believed for the time being, but people were getting more and more suspicious about the Watergate Scandal as people around Nixon were arrested. Nixon also said (in private) "I don't think you're going to see a great, great uproar in this country about the Republican committee trying to bug the Democratic headquarters." He was wrong about this and the "great, great uproar" is what brought Nixon to the end of his career as the president of the United States. When it was discovered that some of Nixon's conversations about the Watergate Scandal had been caught on audio tape, he was asked to release the tapes. When he refused, a legal battle started that would continue for the next year as Nixon fought to conceal the tapes. When the Supreme Court ruled in 1974 that Nixon must release the tapes, 18.5 minutes of them had disapeared in another one of Nixon's attemps to cover up his role in Watergate. However, there was still enough to incriminate him and soon the full truth came out. The Watergate burgalers had been hired by CREEP (Comittee to Re-elect the President) and Nixon had tried to cover up the whole thing. He had halted investigations by the FBI and paid the burgalers not to talk. media type="youtube" key="sh163n1lJ4M" height="317" width="400" An exert from Nixon's 'I am not a crook' speech.

Resignation:

Nixon faced impeachment but rather than be impeached, he resigned. In 1974, Nixon left the White House for the last time and Ford became president. As Nixon walked from the White House to his helicopter, he raised both his hands in a 'V' for victory. media type="youtube" key="BN8OfPc_aQ8" height="307" width="384" Nixon Resigns Benefits of Resignation:

Although the Watergate Scandal causes a huge problem throughout the nation, one good thing did come out of it-- the Scandal proved that the Constitution worked. America's system of checks and balances could still solve the problem of corrupt power. After Presidency:

President Ford pardoned Nixon after his resignation. In 1994, Nixon died at the age of 81.

By Corinne Leard

Sources: Pictures and Videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3K2N7FZSXc http://www.ukprogressive.co.uk/wp-content/themes/mimbo2.2/images/nixon-and-checkers.jpg [] [] [] [] [] []

Text: []. [] Viola, Herman J, Helen Wheatley, and Diane Hart. //Why We Remember//. Boston: Pearson Education Inc, 2007. Print. []