The Demise of Richard Nixon

The Demise of Richard Nixon

Richard Nixon was the 37th president of the United States and the only president to resign from office.

This is the story of his political career, his resignation, and the years following where he was left a desperately sad man, excluded from all serious US politics 

Politics was his life and in all respects he was a good politician, he achieved so much however he will for ever be remembered for the Watergate scandal. A scandal that left his life shattered, a man in pieces, who never would be allowed to make an impact on america ever again. 

 "Nixon was a soul in torment"--he was at his desk by 7 a.m.—with little to do

But lets explain how this man fell from from the glory of re-election to the gutter of despair.

Early life- 1913-1946

In 1913 Nixon was born to strong Quakers Francis A. Nixon and Hannah Milhous Nixon. His early life was fraught with hardships. In 1922 the Nixon ranch failed, forcing the family to uproot and move. In 1925 Nixon’s younger brother Arthur died after a short illness, this was a big change in Nixon’s life and affected the whole family greatly. He said once, "For weeks after Arthur's funeral, there was not a day that I did not think about him and cry. For the first time, I learned what death was like and what it meant." this would not be Nixon's only experience of death in his youth, his older brother Harold died of tuberculosis in 1933.Despite various catastrophes Nixon performed well academically throughout his school life and eventually received a full scholarship to Duke University School of Law, he graduated in 1937. After graduation Nixon went on to practice with the law firm Wingert and Bewley in Whittier, working on commercial litigation for local petroleum companies and other corporate matters. By 1939 Nixon would become a full partner at this form. it was whilst working this firm where Nixon would meet his future wife and mother of two children, Pat Nixon. In August 1942 with the start of Americans involvement in the war effort, Nixon decided to join the United States Navy. He was Given the rank of lieutenant and was sent to the Pacific as an operations officer with the South Pacific Combat Air Transport Command. He left the Navy in January 1946. 

Early political years- 

After leaving the navy Nixon returned to Whittier and under recommendation by a republican committee, he ran for congress against Voorhis. After year of intensive campaigning Nixon won, receiving 65,586 votes to Voorhis' 49,994. He first gained national attention in 1948 when as a member of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAAC)  he took a leading role in the investigation of Alger Hiss, a former State Department official accused of spying for the Soviet Union. his hostile questioning of hiss gained his a reputation of being fiercely anti-communist. In 1950 Nixon successfully ran for the United States Senate, it was after this campaign he gained his 'illustrious' nickname, Tricky Dick. 





Vice Presidency-
Two years later, in 1952, Nixon won the nomination for the vice presidency alongside General Eisenhower primarily because of his strong anti-communist ideals. The Eisenhower-Nixon campaign defeated the Democratic candidates with just under 34 million popular votes to their 27.3 million. Nixon was strongly criticized as during his two terms he did not assume significant responsibilities. when Eisenhower was asked to describe Nixon's contributions he said “If you give me a week, I might think of one.”

However Whilst Eisenhower was incapacitated (due to illnesses), Nixon was called on to take up many duties such as overseeing meetings and cabinet sessions. This lead the way for legislation into the formalized duties of the vice president whilst the president is unable to for fill roles due to disability. 


Presidential election of 1960-

Nixon showed him self to be a confident orator in these debates, on radio it even appeared as if he had won the debates. However on TV Nixon did not come across as well, he looked pale and was sweating desperately, whilst Kennedy remained cool and composed, conveying an image of youthful confidence. Nixon eventually lost to Kennedy by fewer than 120,000 popular votes, the closest margin since the election of 1884. Nixon was urged to contest the results by prominent republicans, as a question mark lurked over whether Kennedy had won Illinois and Texas legally. However he decided not to, he would later be praised for this decision due to his dignity in defeat.


Wilderness Years-

Following the defeat Nixon returned to California and began to practice law again. Nixon reluctantly ran for governor in 1962 to keep his hand in the political pie, however he marginally lost, and to many (including Nixon) this was viewed as the end of his political life. Later Nixon said this "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference."

Whilst he remained mostly out of the political spotlight he continued to comment on the political stance of America and was still widely respected amongst republicans.


Presidential Election-


In 1968 Nixon won the Republican nomination for presidency, he would run with Spiro Agnew who would serve as his vice president. Nixon's campaign was based on the credentials that he could end the war in Vietnam with his 'secret plan'. Hubert H. Humphrey ran as democratic candidate however he was heavily burdened by the previous government's policies (to which he served as vice president). Nixon won the election by a narrow margin, 31.7 million popular votes to Humphrey's nearly 30.9 million; Nixon was the 37th President of the United States.

Presidential years- 1969-1974


Domestic policies-

Nixon’s administration undertook a number of important reforms in welfare policy, civil rights, law enforcement, the environment, and other areas. Nixon proposed a Family Assistance Program (FAP), this would have provided a guaranteed income to working and non-working families, a policy close to Nixon due to his family being particularly poor through his upbringing. Although the measure was defeated in the Senate, its failure helped to generate support for other legislation of similar ideas.

In the area of civil rights, Nixon’s administration setup policies to reserve a percentage of jobs for minorities on federally funded construction projects. Also during his administration the percentage of African American students attending all-black school drastically reduced.

Foreign policy- 

Nixon claimed he had a “secret plan” to end the war in Vietnam during his campaign and so this was his first foreign objective. But despite hopefulness Nixon failed to negotiate, or bargain for, an end to the Vietnam War Despite repeated attempts. In June he began replacing American troops with South Vietnamese troops under his policy of “Vietnamization”. By the end of 1969, Nixon had ordered 110,000 troops home. Nixon also resumed the bombing of North Vietnam and expanded the air and ground war to neighboring Cambodia and Laos.

There were intensive negotiations between Kissinger and Le Duc Tho and it seemed the two sides reached an agreement in October 1972, and Kissinger announced, “Peace is at hand.” However these negotiations quickly broke down and an intensive 11 day bombing of North Vietnam, the Christmas bombings, followed. A new agreement was finally reached in January 1973 and signed in Paris. 

China and the Soviet Union-

Nixon’s most significant achievement in foreign affairs was the establishment of direct relations with the People's Republic of China after a 21-year estrangement. China indicated they would welcome high level discussions and for this Nixon sent his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger. The talks went well and relations thawed. Nixon visited to China in February–March 1972, the first by an American president while in office, this concluded with the USA formally recognising the “one China” principle.

In May 1972 Nixon paid a state visit to Moscow to sign 10 formal agreements, the most important of which were the nuclear arms limitation treaties known as SALT I, this summarized the new era of détente in US-soviet relations.

The Watergate scandal-


In 1972 Nixon won a landslide victory, but lets finally explain how this man fell from from the glory of re-election to the gutter of despair. 


The scandal was the illegal activities conducted by Nixon and his aides related to the burglary and wiretapping of the national headquarters of the Democratic Party at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. The five men involved in the burglary were hired by the republican re election committee. They were arrested and charged on June 17, 1972. Nixon was quick to cover up the administrations involvement and was obstructive in the FBI’s inquiries by bribing the Watergate burglars to prevent them from implicating the administration.

The story was scrupulously analysed by top newspapers such as the Washington post. With information from an informant called “deep throat” the newspapers began to accuse the president of involvement in the scandal. With the presidents involvement called into question the investigators demanded tapes of oval office conversations. The president offered transcripts, these were declined. In a news conference Nixon protested his innocence with the infamous line “I am not a crook”, and later released 7/9 of the tapes requested, one of which contained a suspicious gap of 18 and one-half minutes. Although damning, the tapes did not contain the “smoking gun” that would prove that the president himself ordered the break-in or attempted to obstruct justice.

Nixon claimed to keep all 64 tapes now requested on grounds of “executive privilege,” grounds that were claimed invalid by the Supreme Court. By this time the House Judiciary Committee had voted to recommend three articles of impeachment, relating to obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and failure to comply with congressional subpoenas. On August 5^th Nixon was forced to comply and gave a transcript of a conversation taped on June 23, 1972. It was in these the smoking gun had finally been found. Evidence that Nixon had covered up his own involvement. Faced with impeachment and conviction, Nixon resigned on the evening of Aug. 8, 1974. Gerald Ford became president, and on Sept. 8, 1974 Nixon was pardoned by the new President. 

Retirement and death-

Nixon led a moderately sad life of seclusion after his resignation, a life of exile from political life.  A close aides said  "Nixon was a soul in torment"--he was at his desk by 7 a.m.—with little to do. Nixon maintained an ambitious schedule of speaking engagements and writing, traveled, and met with many foreign leaders.  This helped Nixon  rehabilitate his public reputation and earned respect as an elder statesman and foreign-policy expert. Despite this he sill felt excluded from political life and felt shunned by many prominent politicians. Nixon died of a massive stroke in New York City in April 1994, 10 months after his wife's death from lung cancer.

Five presidents and their first ladies attend the funeral

George Washington- 1789-1797

"George Washington's integrity set a pattern for all other presidents to follow"

George Washington was a federalist from Virginia that served as the first president from 1789-1797. Washington had been the Embodiment of the revolution, and now he would become the embodiment of the new American people. He was widely known as the ‘action hero’ of the 18th century, he projected his image as being very strong, brave he was a Great War hero. You could question his intelligence and his political knowhow, but In terms of leadership the man was a marvel. This is why he was voted to the presidency twice, each unanimously. He quickly surrounded him self with a cabinet of high calibre that would do the job and make him look great. This cabinet is widely thought of as the best. One of the greatest achievements within his cabinet was getting Alexander Hamilton on board as the Secretary of the treasury. Hamilton set the course to the US economy by building the framework of a national banking system. He then assumed all war debt of the original 13 states, establishing a federal line of credit. This however did not please people such as Madison and Jefferson of Virginia, as their state had all but paid off its debt. This was Washington’s first real test as president. Behind closed doors Washington urged a compromise. He offered Virginia the state capital in return for allowing Hamilton’s proposal to go through. Washington chose swamp land known as Foggy Bottom to become the city of Washington. He had a major impact on the development of this land. Another event that defined his presidency was in 1793 when war broke out between Britain and France, Washington was called upon to take sides however he remained neutral. This decision would haunt his successors (war of 1812). Another event that defined his presidency was on the domestic front during his second term. In 1794 Pennsylvanian farmers were angered about federal excise tax on liquor and began a rebellion. Washington’s view was clear and decisive. He thought that during the American Revolution they were rebelling against taxes decided upon in London, now they were taxes decided upon in Philadelphia, it was just the law of the land. Washington mustered 12000 troops to march to Pennsylvania; this was all it took to stop rebellion. In 1797, with dignity and pride, Washington stood down after just two terms. He had begun to feel the effects of age and had realised this was simply his time. This was his finest moment.

Lincoln: The Assassination

The End of a Great President

On April 14th 1865 the 16th president of the USA, Abraham Lincoln, was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.
All but 6 weeks of Lincolns presidency had been engulfed by the great civil war between southern and the northern states However by April 14th 1865 this great war had drawn its last breath, it was all but over, Lincoln had been reelected and was ready to start the long recovery of Americas infrastructure. But alas his time was cut short, he was killed at the age of just 56. His life now a bag of seeds that could never be sown.
Lincoln's death left a great void never before seen in history. A man of great influence who had kept constitutional obligations that were the key foundations of Democratic life, all this whilst maintaining control of both the political and military needs of america. He utilized the railway system to near perfection and turned the use of telegraphs to his advantage. And under this great leadership the union was allowed victory. He was a great man, his legacy and the perfect esteem of historical fact has elevated his being to a god like phase compared the clouded and questionable soul of booth. He will forever be remembered, and maybe, one day,  his legacy will allow the sowing of the seeds that never were through the lives of others inspired by the life of Lincoln.

The Kennedy Family Curse

Kennedy Family Curse

The Kennedy's are one of the most famous political families with large dynasty of rich successful descendants, many of which have left an impressionable legacy on the USA. However this great family has had a series a tragic deaths and incidents that has led to the Kennedy curse conspiracy. In this blog post I will summarize the events that have led to the medias invention of the curse and decide whether they are valid or not. 

      

•            At the age of 23 Rosemary Kennedy underwent a lobotomy to help control her mental condition. It however failed which resulted in her condition worsening. She spent most her life in an institution

•

•     Joe Kennedy died in 1944 when taking part in Operation Aphrodite as a pilot of a modified B-24 Liberator drone bomber which accidentally exploded and crashed.

•      Kathleen Kennedy was killed in a plane crash with her lover in 1948 whilst travelling over France, she was just 28 at the time.

John F Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, November 22nd 1963 (More about this in future Blog posts)

•      Robert F. Kennedy also met a violent fate with a bullet to the brain. RFK’s presidential aspirations came to a crashing halt at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  •  Ted Kennedy crashed his car which caused the death of his partner Mary Jo Kopechne. He fled the scene for 8 hours before he came clean. It ruined his presidential chances 
  
  
  

  •
  
  
  
  

In my own opinion I do not believe there is a curse, the family have put themselves into the worlds spotlight from such an early age that it was inevitable that events such as this would happen. I think the family was however very unlucky in what happened and the fact that Rose Kennedy had to live through the deaths and downfalls of 5 of her children was dreadful. One child was killed in a war, many died in war, two died in political assassinations due to their 'to the point' political ideals, one had a car crash. you cannot help but think that some families could have suffered just as badly and that this is only called a curse due to their fame and fortune.

"A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on."- JFK

and so do legacies, the legacies of a great family, a legacy that will continue to grow as the esteem of history catches up with them.

Was Abraham Lincoln really the great emancipator?

" I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons."

No words are still as powerful today, this was the declaration that gave freedom to all american citizens regardless of race. It was a step 

forward , an action that needed to be taken. It was the first document that finally said no to american slavery once and for all. It also changed the american civil war, gave it a clear directive and was a very shrewd political move at the time. It did not immediately free slaves, quite simply it couldn't as the states in question were not under union control, however it did lead the way for the 13th amendment that eventually did , 4 million people, now free.  

However was this the case??      Is this document really that important???      

Was Abraham Lincoln really the great emancipator???

Quite honestly I don't think he was. I believe that a better description of Lincoln was that he was anti-slavery. But that just the same thing isn't it??? No, at the time there were devote abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison that simply believed that slavery was wrong,  these were the great revolutionaries, the free thinkers, the true Americans. Then there 
was Lincoln that was simply anti-slavery. This meant that he didn't want slavery in his
 country and he also didn't want the freed slaves in his country either. He basically 
wanted to deport all freed slaves to the countries such as Liberia, Guyana and Belize, 
he even thought about sending the slaves to what is now Panama, 
to construct a canal (Sound familiar??).  So he wanted to free slaves then enslave 
them in Panama. 

Also the emancipation proclamation was not the great humanitarian document everyone thinks it was. it didn't contain any of the a moral issues with slavery it was simply a military order. The words do not pull your heart 

strings, to Lincoln it was just something that had to be done. the document however nice the sentiments was in fact completely worthless. William Henry Seward, Lincoln's secretary of state, referred to the proclamation as a hollow, meaningless document showing no more than, "our sympathy with the slaves by emancipating the slaves where we cannot reach them and holding them in bondage where we can set them free."- that was his friend i'd hate to quote his enemy. 

Another reason why i can say it is worthless as it failed to do its job, this document did not free any slaves. the proclamation was directed at freeing slaves in only the 11 rebel states which were not part of the union anyway, it was like telling an untrained dog to sit, they had no control.

Lincoln didn’t want slavery to continue because he did think it was wrong but he was too spineless to do anything. He looked upon law and constitutional binds for answers, which by this time was already out of date. He thought slavery was wrong but never hid the fact he thought that the white man and the black man could never live together in a civilised society. “there is a physical difference between the white and black races that will for ever forbid the two races from living together on terms of social and political equality.”

His solution was a simple outdated ideal that this issue could be swept under the carpet, forgotten. Luckily there were abolitionists that advised him towards the right choice.

Was he a good president??   

Yes

This issue is his low point, however he had greatness thrust upon him and he handled it with dignity and finesse. The proclamation did change the future of the war, no longer was the union just fighting to retrieve the seceded states, now it was a fight to end slavery. 

Slavery- 1619-1865

The first slave were brought over to Virginia in 1619, the start of nearly 300 years of prejudice. The white man discovered continents and stole from them their most valuable resource, people. Why?  Well they were different weren't they?? mere cattle in the grand scheme of things, and that's how they were to be treated, like caged beast. It was an inherent part of society until the end of the american revolution where slavery very nearly died out, nearly. Slavery once again peeked in the south after the invention of the cotton gin which created profit from the cotton trade via the use of slavery, it's death would have saved many lives however it was not to be, soon slavery would quickly become far too "embarrassing" to the union and after years of tension 11 states would secede to become the confederate states of America, a great civil war would spark causing 4 years of conflict. Slavery was abolished in 1865 with the passing of the 13th amendment, however the legacy is still not at an end, racism to some lives on all over the world and is still a major issue, all because of a shear act of folly by ancestors that should have known better.

The Klu Klux Klan

Theodore Roosevelt once said “A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.”

  Some people dedicate their lives to free the world of terrorism, cure world hunger; some advocate themselves as the voice of all animals, many try to rid countries of vicious dictators. Some join the KKK. There are still 6000 klu klux klan members in our civilised society, racist men, whose ideals are no more complex than a pure and simple supremacy complex that engulfs their mind and souls into a world of extremist hate. Where does freedom end? Can we allow hate groups in our societies or should they be abolished? Or would abolition break freedom and be unconstitutional?  In my opinion these people are narrow-minded and are blindly shouting their rifle into the air in hopes they will hit a bird,

Some people make their lives so big, so meaningful, but still there are some that think a cause lost in 1865 in worth complete dedication.