How long did nixon serve

As he had promised, he appointed justices of conservative philosophy to the Supreme Court. In , he welcomed back the astronauts who had executed the first moon landing. In , Nixon flew to Beijing and met with Mao Zedong. His summit meetings with Soviet Union Leonid Brezhnev produced a treaty to limit strategic nuclear weapons.

In January , he announced an accord with North Vietnam that ended American involvement in Indochina. In , dismissing his opponent as too far left, Nixon defeated South Dakota Senator George McGovern by one of the widest margins on record. But within a few months, his administration was embattled over what was soon called the Watergate scandal, stemming from a break-in at the offices of the Democratic National Committee during the campaign. The break-in was traced to Nixon campaign officials.

Nixon denied any personal involvement, but the courts forced him to yield tape recordings he had made of his private Oval Office conversations, which indicated that he had, in fact, tried to divert the investigation and thus obstruct justice. Nixon spent the two decades before his death in trying to restore his reputation through books and speeches.

Patricia Nixon. Next St. July 9, Cutting government personnel. Nixon orders cuts in overseas government personnel by 10 percent. July 20, The Space Race. July 25, The "Nixon Doctrine". Nixon proposes welfare reform. Nixon discloses his program for welfare reform, which includes the Family Assistance Plan. October 31, Self sufficiency in Latin America. Nixon declares that Latin America must be responsible for its own social and economic progress.

November 3, North Vietnam rejects peace. November 26, Nixon signs Selective Service Reform. March 24, Aims to end segregation. April 23, Nixon ends draft deferments. Nixon signs executive order ending occupational and parental deferments for the draft. June 17, Request for wage and price restraint. Nixon addresses the nation through television, asking for wage and price restraint. Potential Vietnamese open election. July 23, Interagency Committee on Intelligence.

August 12, Postal Service established. September 18, Nixon meets Golda Meir. October 7, Five-point peace in Vietnam. October 29, Nixon taunted in California. While at a campaign rally in California, demonstrators taunt Nixon and throw objects at him. December 29, Occupational Health and Safety Act of December 31, January 4, January 19, Cross-Florida Canal hated.

January 22, Nixon gives State of the Union. Nixon gives his State of the Union address. February 16, Bugging the White House. April 6, May 18, Wage-Price Controls Bil. June 13, The "Pentagon Papers". July 12, Emergency Employment Act. July 15, Nixon plans to visit China. August 15, Phase One price freeze.

Nixon declares a day freeze on wages and prices, known as Phase One of his economic program. Phase Two price freeze. Nixon announces Phase Two of his economic plan, placing a ceiling on food prices. December 9, National day-care system vetoed. Nixon vetoes legislation calling for the establishment of a national day-care system.

December 22, Economic Stabilization Act extended. January 7, Nixon seeks reelection. Nixon announces that he will seek another term in office. Nixon delivers State of the Union. Nixon gives his second State of the Union message.

February 21, Nixon arrives in China. February 28, To address the problem, Nixon initially tried to restrict federal spending, but beginning in , his budget proposals contained deficits of several billion dollars, the largest in American history up to that time. Though defense spending was cut almost in half, government spending on benefits to American citizens rose from a little over 6 percent to nearly 9 percent.

To control increasing inflation and unemployment, Nixon imposed temporary wage and price controls, which achieved marginal success, but by the end of , inflation returned with a vengeance, reaching 8. With the war in Vietnam winding down, Nixon in defeated his Democratic challenger, liberal senator George McGovern, in a landslide victory, receiving almost 20 million more popular votes and winning the Electoral College vote to Nixon looked invincible in his victory.

It seems odd, in retrospect, that his re-election campaign, the Committee to Re-Elect the President also known as CREEP was so concerned about Democrats opposition that it reverted to political sabotage and covert espionage. Public opinion polls during the campaign indicated President Nixon had an overwhelming lead. The entry of independent candidate Wallace ensured some Democratic support would be taken from McGovern in the South, and for most of the American public, Senator McGovern's policies were just too extreme.

During the campaign in June , rumors began to circulate about White House involvement in a seemingly isolated burglary of the Democratic National Election Headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington, D. Initially, Nixon downplayed the coverage of the scandal as politics as usual, but by , the investigation initiated by two cub reporters for the Washington Post , Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein had mushroomed into a full-scale inquest.

White House officials denied the press's reporting as biased and misleading, but the FBI eventually confirmed that Nixon aides had attempted to sabotage the Democrats during the election, and many resigned in the face of criminal prosecution. A Senate committee under Senator Sam Ervin soon began to hold hearings.

Eventually, White House counsel John Dean gave evidence that the scandal went all the way to the White House, including a Nixon order to conceal wrongdoing. Nixon continued to declare his innocence, though, repeatedly denying previous knowledge about the campaign sabotage and claiming to have learned about the cover-up in early Nixon responded directly to the nation by staging an emotional televised press conference in November , during which he famously declared, "I'm not a crook.

Facing increased political pressure, Nixon released 1, pages of transcripts of conversations between him and White House aides but still refused to release all of the recordings. The House Judiciary Committee, controlled by Democrats, opened impeachment hearings against the president in May In July, the Supreme Court denied Nixon's claim of executive privilege and ruled that all tape recordings must be released to the special prosecutor, Leon Jaworski.

Once the recordings were released, it didn't take long for Nixon's house of cards to teeter: One of the secret recordings confirmed the allegations of the cover-up, indicating that Nixon was looped in from the beginning.

In late July , the House Judiciary Committee passed the first of three articles of impeachment against Nixon, charging obstruction of justice. Upon the threat of a likely post-impeachment conviction, Nixon resigned from the office of the presidency on August 9, He was succeeded by Gerald Ford , whom Nixon had appointed vice president in after Spiro Agnew resigned his office amid charges of bribery, extortion and tax evasion during his tenure as governor of Maryland.

Nixon was pardoned by President Ford on September 8, After his resignation, Nixon retired with his wife to the seclusion of his estate in San Clemente, California, where he spent several months distraught and disoriented. Gradually he regrouped, and by he began forming a public-relations comeback.

In August , Nixon met with British commentator David Frost for a series of interviews during which Nixon sent mixed messages of contrition and pride, while never admitting any wrongdoing. While the interviews were met with mixed reviews, they were watched by many and positively contributed to Nixon's public image.

In , Nixon published RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon , an intensely personal examination of his life, public career and White House years; the book became a best-seller.

He also authored several books on international affairs and American foreign policy, modestly rehabilitating his public reputation and earning him a role as an elder foreign-policy expert. On June 22, , his wife Pat died of lung cancer. Nixon took the loss hard, and on April 22, , just 10 months after his wife's death, Nixon died of a massive stroke in New York City.

President Bill Clinton was joined by four former presidents to pay homage to the 37th president. His body lay in repose in the Nixon Library lobby, and an estimated 50, people waited in heavy rain for up to 18 hours to file past the casket and pay their last respects.

He was buried beside his wife at his birthplace, in Yorba Linda, California. Often caricatured in media, Nixon has proved a source of fascination for his experiences that seemingly captured the best and worst of life as a public figure.

We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us! Subscribe to the Biography newsletter to receive stories about the people who shaped our world and the stories that shaped their lives. Gerald Ford became the 38th president of the United States following Richard Nixon's resignation, in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal. From The Sound of Music to Oklahoma!

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Following the war, Nixon launched his political career in when he defeated a five-term Democratic incumbent to represent his California district in the U. House of Representatives. As a congressman, Nixon served on the House Un-American Activities Committee and rose to national prominence by leading a controversial investigation of Alger Hiss , a well-regarded former State Department official who was accused of spying for the Soviet Union in the late s. Nixon was re-elected to Congress in and two years later, in , won a seat in the U.

In , General Dwight Eisenhower selected the year-old first-term senator to be his vice presidential running mate. A few months after accepting the nomination, Nixon became the target of a negative campaign that raised questions about money and gifts he allegedly received from industry lobbyists. Eisenhower and Nixon won the election of and were re-elected in In , Nixon claimed the Republican presidential nomination, but lost one of the closest elections in American history to U.

Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts. The turning point of the campaign came in the first-ever nationally televised presidential debate. During the broadcast, Nixon appeared pale, nervous and sweaty compared with his tan, well-rested and vigorous opponent.

He claimed that the media disliked him and had slanted campaign coverage in favor of his handsome and wealthy opponent. Nixon returned home to California, where he practiced law and launched a campaign for governor in When he lost this election as well, many observers believed that his political career was over.

He prevailed in the U.