World of Criminal Justice on Richard Milhous Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon served as the thirty-seventh president of the United States from 1969 to August of 1974. He became the first U.S. president to resign from office, avoiding certain impeachment by Congress for his role in the Watergate scandal. As president, Nixon continued to prosecute the Vietnam War until a peace treaty was signed in 1973. Domestically, Nixon projected a law-and-order stance that targeted criminals and political protesters alike.
Nixon was born on January 9, 1913 in Yorba Linda, California. After graduating from Whittier College in 1934, Nixon was admitted to the prestigious Duke University Law School. Upon graduation in 1937 he practiced law in Whittier, California, working until 1942 when he joined the Navy. Following World War II, Nixon committed himself to a political career. His 1946 congressional campaign as the Republican candidate was marked by an aggressive style that implied that the Democrat incumbent was soft on Communism. With the Soviet Union's occupation of Eastern Europe and the specter of war between the world's two superpowers, Nixon's message produced a victory. Nixon built upon his anti-communist credentials when he was appointed to the House Un-American activities committee. He led the investigation into former State Department official Alger Hiss's alleged communist espionage. Nixon, who stood by Whittaker Chambers, Hiss's accuser, was vindicated when Hiss was found guilty of perjury for lying about his association with Chambers. In 1950 Nixon was elected to the U.S. Senate, defeating incumbent Helen Gahagan Douglas in a bitter contest. Again Nixon accused his opponent of being soft on Communism, calling her a "pink lady." After this race, Nixon would always be accused of running dirty campaigns.
In 1952 Nixon was nominated for vice president on a ticket headed by World War II hero Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower was a opular candidate and easily defeated Adlai Stevenson. However, the campaign was harder on Nixon, who was accused of having access to a political slush fund. He defused a move to replace him on the ticket by giving a nationally televised address known as the "Checkers" speech. In his speech he claimed the only gift he had received was a cocker spaniel named Checkers.
As vice president, Nixon concentrated on foreign policy and foreign visits. He preached his anti-communism and drew world attention in 1959 when defended the American economic system at an impromptu debate with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev at an exhibition in Moscow. By 1960 Nixon was the presumptive favorite to succeed Eisenhower. Despite the benefits of incumbency, Nixon narrowly lost the election of John F. Kennedy.
Nixon's 1962 campaign for governor of California led to an embarrassing defeat. Nevertheless, Nixon reinvented himself as a New York corporate lawyer and slowly began to rebuild his political fences. He surprised many people in 1968 when he ran for the presidency again, with his aides trumpeting the birth of a "new Nixon." He won the nomination and then shrewdly used a "southern strategy" in which he sought traditionally Democratic voters in the southern and western states. This time he won the narrow victory, over vice president Hubert Humphrey.
During the campaign Nixon had implied he had a secret plan to end the Vietnam War. After taking office, however, he continued to prosecute the war and acted tough with North Vietnam. He slowly withdrew American troops from Vietnam while increasing the bombardment of North Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Despite his efforts the North Vietnamese position continued to improve. In response he ordered U.S. forces to invade Cambodia in 1970 and Laos in 1971. the Cambodian invasion triggered massive antiwar protests in the United States, virtually shutting down most college campuses for many weeks. A peace treaty was not signed until February 1973 and most U.S. forces were withdrawn shortly thereafter.
Nixon most important foreign policy initiative was establishing relations with Communist China. Secret diplomacy led to his 1972 visit to China, an event that was internationally televised. He also negotiated with the Soviet Union for limitations on nuclear weapons. Throughout his presidency, Nixon reveled in foreign relations and sought to impose stability around the world.
After Nixon's overwhelming 1972 reelection victory over Democrat George McGovern, was poisoned by the Watergate scandal, which did not come to the surface until after the election. On June 17, 1972, several burglars were caught breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. Nixon's press secretary dismissed it as a "third-rate burglary," but journalists soon became of aware of ties between the burglars and members of the White House staff. During the summer of 1973 the nations witnesses televised hearings on Watergate. Presidential counselor John Dean indicated that Nixon and his top aides had tried to cover up White House involvement in the break in by promising the burglars hush money. Nixon, however, adamantly denied any personal involvement.
The case against Nixon received a significant boost when it was disclosed at the hearings that Nixon had set up a taping system in his offices, thereby recording everything that had transpired during the days and weeks after the Watergate burglary. When special prosecutor Archibald Cox demanded the tape recordings, Nixon refused, citing executive privilege. When Cox continued to press for the tapes in court, Nixon directed attorney general Elliot Richardson to fire Cox. Richardson and his deputy resigned instead, leaving the firing to solicitor general Robert Bork. This incident did much to erode Nixon's popularity and credibility, as it came just weeks after vice president Spiro Agnew resigned after being charged with corruption while serving as governor of Maryland.
Nixon named Leon Jaworski the new Watergate special prosecutor and he continued the case for releasing the tape recordings. In March 1974, a federal grand jury indicted seven Nixon associates for conspiracy to obstruct justice and other offenses relating to the Watergate burglary. Nixon himself was named as an unindicted co-conspirator. The district court issued a new subpoena to the president requiring him to produce certain tapes and documents relating to precisely identified meetings between the president and others. On appeal the Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, for the first time recognized the general legitimacy of the doctrine of executive privilege. However, Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, writing for the Court in Nixon v. United States, 418 U.S. 683, 94 S.Ct. 3090, 41 L.Ed.2d 1039, rejected Nixon's claim of "an absolute, unqualified Presidential privilege of immunity from judicial process under all circumstances." The Court ordered Nixon to turn over the tapes.
While the courts had been handling the tapes issue, the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives conducted impeachment hearings and voted articles of impeachment. After the tapes were released, prosecutors discovered a June 23, 1972 conversation in which Nixon directed the CIA to halt the FBI investigation. With this "smoking gun," Nixon was tied to the cover-up. Nixon's political support vanished overnight. He resigned on August 8, 1974.
His successor, President Gerald R. Ford, granted Nixon a pardon for any crimes associated with Watergate and Nixon when into political exile. Nevertheless, within a few years he began a long process of rehabilitation, positioning himself as an expert on U.S. foreign policy. He wrote a number of books and by the 1990s was viewed as an elder statesman by many. Nixon died on April 22, 1994 in New York City.
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