President Richard Nixon
I think that Richard Nixon was an average president. He did
a lot of good things along with many bad things. No president can accomplish
good without ending up getting into something bad. Henry Kissinger was Richard
Nixon’s security advisor and eventually became secretary of state.
Richard Nixon’s Foreign Policy had many successes. Nixon
used détente with Soviet Union to release tensions with them. Nixon made a
historical moment by recognizing the government of the people of China and he
was the first American inside the borders of China. The Ping Pong Diplomacy
happened in the early 1970’s. It was when the American ping pong team got to
play against china’s ping pong team. Having relations with china was very
important. It put pressure on the Soviet Union to limiting antiballistic
missiles. Eventually Nixon succeeded limiting production of missiles and eased
tension with the Soviet Union. The meeting that Nixon had with the Soviet Union
was the Salt I or Strategic Arms Limitations Talk. The United State, China, and
Russia all agreed on the Triangular Diplomacy. Nixon had a process called
Veitnamization. This process sought to save American lives and expenses through
gradual with drawl of forces and support from the Vietnam War. When the United
State started to support Israel the Arab nations declare on October 19 that
they would not sell oil to the United States. When this happened the price of a
barrel of oil in the United States nearly quadrupled. This was the first time
in history that oil was used as a political and economic weapon. During the
Indo-Pakistani war in 1971 the Soviet Union supported the supported the Indian
army, thinking that it would weaken the United States and China. Richard Nixon
was afraid Chile would become another Chile, so the United States cut off
foreign aid to Chile trying to get their president to resign. Nixon created
domestic policies to stop the government from spending money they do not have
and ended up putting the country in a recession. During this time it caused a
lot of inflation and unemployment. Nixon created the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) started enforcing and making laws to protect human health and the
environment. The equal right amendment was designed to guarantee equal rights
for women. The Watergate scandal started when a 7,000 page documentation of the
Vietnam War. After this a unit was created to keep internal security and they
were called plumber. On June 17, 1972, 5 men were arrested while attempting to
buy the headquarters of the Democratic Party. 2 news reporters, Bob Woodward
and Carl Bernstein were investigative reporters that open the Watergate Scandal
to the public. A person that went by the name of Deep Throat was a secret source
that gave the information to the reporters. Rosemary Woods was a secretary that
tried to demonstrate how she accidentally erased the tape of a conversation
that could of opened up everything about the Watergate Scandal. The Judge
Sirica did not believe this and she was punished. After the Watergate scandal
out opened up Nixon soon resigned and became the first president to ever resign
and is still the only president to resign.