Some historians claim that the accomplishments of the presidency of Richard Nixon are oftentimes overlooked. Nixon opened diplomatic relations with China, improved relations with the Soviet Union, and began to break the Democratic stranglehold on politics in the South that had existed since the New Deal, Despite these developments, Richard Nixon will always be associated with the Watergate scandal. Watergate began a period where faith in the national government sharply declined; this lasted through the presidencies of Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. With the election of Ronald Reagan, many Americans began to “have faith in America again.” just as Nixon began a new relationship with China, under Reagan, America entered into a more positive relationship with its formal rival, the Soviet Union.
THE PRESIDENCY OF RICHARD NIXON
Richard Nixon’s election to the presidency in 1968 capped one of the greatest comeback stories in American political history. Nixon’s political obituary had been written after successive defeats in 1960 (when he was defeated by John Kennedy for the presidency) and in 1962 (after being defeated by Pat Brown for governor of California; he informed the press on election night that “you won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore,” as he was resigning from politics).
Nixon was one of the most interesting men to be elected to the presidency in the twentieth century. He was never comfortable with large groups of people, and even in staged photo events sometimes appeared uncomfortable and out of place (such as the time he was pictured walking “informally” along the beach in dress shoes). Nixon was convinced that large numbers of the news media and m any members of the Congress were his enemies. He relied on a small group of close-knit advisors, including H. R. Haldeman, his Chief of Staff, and John Ehrlichman, his Advisor for Domestic Affairs,
Nixon's Domestic Policies
As mentioned in the previous chapter, the Vietnam War took up large amounts of Nixon’s time and energies. However, other potentially crucial crises also existed. As Nixon entered office in 1969, inflation was growing rapidly, unemployment was rising, the gross national product was experiencing a lack of growth, and the United States had a rather substantial trade deficit. Some of these economic problems can be attributed to the administration of Lyndon Johnson; paying for Great Society programs and the Vietnam War at the same time created serious strains on the federal budget.
At first, Nixon tried to cut government spending and raising taxes; this policy only worsened the economy. The president then imposed a 90-day freeze on prices and wages; after these measures he also established mandatory guidelines for wage and price increases. By 1971 Nixon also directed that a program of deficit spending begin. This was somewhat similar to the approach utilized by Franklin Roosevelt in attacking the economic problems of the Great Depression.
The “Southern Strategy” of Richard Nixon
Southern whites had voted firmly Democratic since the Reconstruction era. In the 1968 presidential election cracks in this relationship between the Democratic party and the South began to show. George Wallace, former governor of Alabama, broke from the party and in 1968 ran for president as a candidate of the American Independence Party. He picked up 13.5 percent of the popular vote (a large percentage of these from the South); this aided Richard Nixon in his victory over Hubert Humphrey.
Richard Nixon decided to take decisive measures to appeal to these Southern whites and win them over to the Republican party. Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” included delaying school desegregation plans (that had been ordered by a federal court) in Mississippi and attempting to block an extension of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Nixon also attempted to block school integration by busing after the Supreme Court had endorsed busing as a method to achieve integration. Under Nixon the Supreme Court also became much more conservative, especially with Warren Burger as the new Chief Justice (nevertheless, it should be remembered that in Roe v. Wade this court outlawed state legislation opposing abortion).
Nixon's Foreign Policy
The greatest achievements of the Nixon presidency were undoubtedly in the area of foreign affairs. In formulating foreign policy, Nixon was aided by former Harvard professor Henry Kissinger, his National Security Advisor and beginning in 1973 his Secretary of State. Kissinger had conducted many of the negotiations with the North Vietnamese that allowed American troops to leave Vietnam in 1973. Nixon greatly trusted the judgment of Kissinger on foreign policy affairs.
Nixon’s greatest accomplishments included better relationships with both the Soviet Union and China, Nixon had been a fierce anticommunist in the 1950s, but during his first term in office, he instituted a policy of “detente” with the Soviet Union, The reduced tensions that this policy created were a welcome relief from the fierce anticommunist rhetoric that had existed through most of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.
In addition, Nixon realized the foolishness of continued nuclear proliferation. He visited the Soviet Union in 1972 and, during discussions with Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev, agreed to halt the continued buildup of nuclear weapons. The SALT I treaty (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) was historic, as for the first time the two superpowers agreed not to produce any more nuclear ballistic missiles and to reduce their arsenals of antiballistic missiles to 200 per side.
A journey that Nixon took earlier in 1972 was even more significant. During much of the 1950s and 1960s Nixon spoke about the need to support Nationalist China (who lived on the island of Taiwan) and the need to be vigilant against the expansion of “Red” China (who controlled the Chinese mainland). Henry Kissinger was an admirer of realpolitik and convinced Nixon that a new approach to Communist China was necessary. Kissinger maintained that it was foolish to think that the Communist Chinese would ever be overthrown, and that it would be to America’s advantage to recognize that fact. In addition, Nixon felt that a friendlier China could be used as a wedge to get future concessions from the Soviet Union.
In February 1972, Nixon and Kissinger made a historic trip to Communist China, Meetings were held with Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung and other officials. At these meetings it was decided that trade talks between the two countries would begin, and that cultural exchanges would start almost immediately. Most importantly, Nixon agreed to support the admission of Communist China to the United Nations (going against what had been traditional U.S. policy for the entire Cold War period).