Nixon, Richard Milhous (1913-1994), was the only president of the United States ever to resign from office. He left the presidency on Aug. 9, 1974, while facing certain impeachment for his involvement in the Watergate scandal. This scandal included a break-in at the Democratic national headquarters and other illegal activities by employees of Nixon’s 1972 reelection committee and members of his executive staff. Nixon’s attempts to cover up these crimes became a major part of the scandal.
Nixon was succeeded as president by Vice President Gerald R. Ford. One month after Nixon resigned, Ford pardoned him for all federal crimes he may have committed during his presidency.
Although Nixon left office in disgrace, he won respect for his conduct of foreign policy. As president, he ended U.S. military participation in the Vietnam War in 1973 and eased the tension that had existed for years between the United States and both China and the Soviet Union. He became the first president to visit China while in office. He also visited the Soviet Union. He won congressional approval of U.S.-Soviet trade agreements and agreements to limit the production of nuclear weapons.
At home, Nixon was challenged by sharply rising prices. He placed government controls on wages and prices to halt inflation, but the controls had little effect. Nixon ended the military draft and created an all-volunteer system for the U.S. armed services. He signed into law a wide variety of economic, social, and environmental legislation that made him seem almost liberal.
When Nixon was elected president in 1968, he climaxed one of the most extraordinary political comebacks in U.S. history. In 1960, while serving as vice president under President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Nixon ran for the presidency and lost to John F. Kennedy. In 1962, Nixon was defeated when he ran for governor of California, his home state. After this loss, Nixon held what he called his “last press conference.” Reporters wrote his political obituary.
But in 1968, Nixon showed that he was politically very much alive. He won several primary elections, and again became the Republican candidate for president. This time, Nixon defeated Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, his Democratic opponent, and former Governor George C. Wallace of Alabama, the candidate of the American Independent Party. In 1972, Nixon won a second term in a landslide victory over Democratic Senator George S. McGovern of South Dakota.
Among the group of vice presidents who became president, Nixon was the first who did not succeed the president under whom he had served. Nixon became vice president under Eisenhower at the age of 40. He was the second youngest man to hold that office. John C. Breckinridge was 36 when he became vice president under James Buchanan in 1857. Before Nixon was elected vice president, he was elected twice to the U.S. House of Representatives and once to the U.S. Senate.
Friends knew Nixon as a painfully sensitive man. Nixon felt especially hurt by what he considered unfair criticism. But in politics, he won fame as a tough, forceful campaigner. He liked a good fight and had a fierce determination to succeed.
Early life
Boyhood.
Richard Milhous Nixon was born on Jan. 9, 1913, in Yorba Linda, California, a village 30 miles (48 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles. He was the second of the five sons of Francis Anthony (Frank) Nixon and Hannah Milhous Nixon. Nixon’s father had moved from Ohio to southern California. There he met and married Hannah Milhous, who had come from Indiana with her parents and a group of other Quakers. Frank Nixon later gave up his Methodist faith and became a Quaker. At one time or another, he worked as a streetcar conductor, a carpenter, a laborer, and a farmer.
In 1922, the Nixon family moved to East Whittier (now Whittier). There Frank Nixon opened a combination grocery store and gasoline station. Richard had four brothers, Harold (1909-1932), Donald (1914-1987), Arthur (1918-1925), and Edward (1930-2019).
At the age of about 10, Richard began working part-time as a bean picker. During his teens, he worked as a handyman in a packing house, janitor at a swimming pool, and barker at an amusement park. While in college, he served as bookkeeper and as manager of the vegetable department of his father’s store.
Education.
Nixon attended elementary schools in Yorba Linda, Whittier, and nearby Fullerton. At Whittier High School, history and civics were his favorite subjects. An excellent student, he also played football and starred in debating. At the age of 17, Nixon entered Whittier College, a Quaker institution. He won several debating awards, and he became president of the student body.
Nixon graduated from Whittier in 1934 and won a scholarship from the Duke University School of Law in Durham, North Carolina. Walter F. Dexter, then president of Whittier College, wrote in a letter of recommendation for Nixon: “I believe he will become one of America’s important, if not great, leaders.” At Duke, Nixon was elected president of the student law association. He also won election to the Order of the Coif, the national law fraternity for honor students. Nixon ranked third in the 1937 graduating class of 44 students.
Lawyer.
The Great Depression still gripped the United States when Nixon left Duke. There were few jobs. Nixon tried unsuccessfully to join the Federal Bureau of Investigation and then a law firm in New York City. He finally returned home and joined a Whittier law firm, in which he became a partner. Nixon and several investors later formed a company to make and market frozen orange juice, but it went bankrupt in 18 months. At the age of 26, Nixon became the youngest member of the Whittier College Board of Trustees.
Nixon’s family.
Shortly after returning to Whittier, Nixon met Thelma Catherine Ryan (1912-1993). She had been born in a mining camp at Ely, Nevada. Her father nicknamed her Pat because she was born on the eve of St. Patrick’s Day. When Pat was a baby, her parents moved to a farm in California. They died before Pat finished high school. Pat put herself through the University of Southern California, occasionally working as an extra in Hollywood films. 
When Nixon met Pat, she was teaching commercial subjects at Whittier High School. They met during tryouts for a community theater play. They were married on June 21, 1940. The Nixons had two daughters, Patricia (Tricia), born in 1946, and Julie, born in 1948. Julie married David Eisenhower, grandson of former President Eisenhower, in 1968. Tricia married Edward Cox in 1971.
Naval officer.
In January 1942, during World War II, Nixon left Whittier to take a job in the tire rationing section of the Office of Price Administration in Washington, D.C. Eight months later, he joined the Navy as an ensign. Nixon served in a naval air transport unit in the Pacific and was promoted to lieutenant commander before the war ended in 1945.
Career in Congress
Since 1936, the voters of Nixon’s home congressional district had elected a Democrat, Jerry Voorhis, to the U.S. House of Representatives. Republican leaders searched for a “new face” to oppose Voorhis in the 1946 election. Nixon, then awaiting discharge from the Navy, convinced a number of leading Republicans that he was the best candidate.
Professional politicians gave Nixon little chance of defeating Voorhis, a veteran campaigner. But Nixon campaigned aggressively, implying that Voorhis was supported by Communists, though there was little evidence to prove that he was. Nixon won the election.
U.S. representative.
In the House of Representatives, Nixon was proudest of his work on a committee that laid the groundwork for the Marshall Plan and other foreign aid programs (see Foreign aid ). Nixon helped write the Taft-Hartley Act, which established controls over labor unions. In addition, he became a member of the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
In 1948, Nixon was reelected to the House. The Alger Hiss case, which began that same year, brought Nixon into national prominence. Hiss, a former State Department official, was accused of having passed classified State Department documents to a Soviet spy ring during the 1930’s. The matter rested with Hiss’s word against that of his accusers. Many members of the Un-American Activities Committee wanted to drop the case, but Nixon insisted that Hiss was a traitor. The question of Communists in government was a fierce political issue at the time. In 1950, a federal District Court jury convicted Hiss of perjury in denying that he had ever given secret documents to Soviet agents. See Hiss, Alger .
U.S. senator.
In 1950, at the peak of his prominence in the Hiss case, Nixon ran for the U.S. Senate. He opposed Representative Helen Gahagan Douglas, a New Deal Democrat. During the campaign, Nixon emphasized charges, made originally by Douglas’s foes in the Democratic primary election, that she was “soft” on Communism. He called her the “Pink Lady.” Douglas took revenge by labeling Nixon “Tricky Dick.” In one of California’s most savage political contests, Nixon defeated Douglas by nearly 700,000 votes.
In the Senate, Nixon served on the Labor and Public Welfare Committee. He also became a popular speaker at Republican Party affairs and at civic meetings in all parts of the United States.
The 1952 campaign.
In 1952, the Republican National Convention nominated Nixon for vice president to run with General Dwight D. Eisenhower. A highlight of the campaign was a dispute over an $18,000 fund set up by Nixon’s supporters in California. They had organized the fund in 1950 to enable Nixon to campaign for Republican programs and candidates in both election and nonelection years. Nixon and his friends showed that they had used the money only for political expenses, but members of the media labeled it a “secret slush fund.” Many Republicans, fearing that Nixon might hurt Eisenhower’s chances of victory, demanded that Nixon withdraw from the ticket.
Nixon’s cause seemed hopeless. Then, on Sept. 23, 1952, Nixon stated his case in an emotional address over television and radio. He discussed his personal finances in detail, showing that he had not profited personally from the fund. He said that “Pat doesn’t have a mink coat. But she does have a respectable Republican cloth coat.” And he vowed to keep Checkers, a cocker spaniel that had been a gift to his daughters. After the program, Republicans hailed Nixon as a hero. Eisenhower put his arm around Nixon when they next met and declared, “You’re my boy.”
During the campaign, Nixon accused his Democratic opponents of not recognizing the Communist threat to the United States and the world. He charged that a vote for the Democrats was a vote for socialism at home and surrender abroad. Eisenhower and Nixon went on to defeat their Democratic opponents, Governor Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois and Senator John J. Sparkman of Alabama.
Vice president (1953-1961)
Eisenhower succeeded Democratic President Harry S. Truman in 1953. He gave Nixon the job of working with members of Congress to smooth out possible quarrels with the new administration. Eisenhower also assigned Nixon to preside over Cabinet meetings and the National Security Council in the president’s absence. Nixon took a greater role in the executive branch of the government than any previous vice president.
Eisenhower’s illnesses.
Nixon’s biggest test as vice president began Sept. 24, 1955, when Eisenhower suffered a heart attack. Nixon calmly went about his normal duties, presided at Cabinet meetings, and kept the wheels of government moving smoothly. He also stepped in when the president suffered another illness in June 1956 and a stroke in November 1957. The arrangement Nixon worked out with Eisenhower later served as a basis for the 25th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The amendment, ratified in 1967, provides for the vice president acting for the president when the president is unable to perform the duties of the office.
The 1956 election.
Many people wondered whether Eisenhower would ask Nixon to run with him again in 1956. For a while, the president seemed to be considering the idea of dropping his controversial running mate. Finally, however, the president declared: “Anyone who attempts to drive a wedge of any kind between Dick Nixon and me has just as much chance as if he tried to drive it between my brother and me.” Eisenhower and Nixon defeated the Democratic nominees, Adlai E. Stevenson and Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee.
Overseas missions.
Nixon frequently acted as spokesperson for the government on trips to other nations. As vice president, he toured nearly 60 countries, visiting every continent except Antarctica. During a tour of Latin America in the spring of 1958, Nixon faced violence and danger. In Peru, Communist agents led groups that booed and stoned him and even spit at him. In Venezuela, mobs smashed the windows of Nixon’s car. However, he was not hurt.
Nixon traveled to the Soviet Union in July 1959 to open an American exhibit in Moscow. As he and Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev walked through a model home, they argued over which economic system was better, capitalism or Communism. At one point in the “kitchen debate,” Nixon startled his hosts by pointing his finger at Khrushchev and saying bluntly: “You don’t know everything.” 
Defeat by Kennedy.
Few people doubted that Nixon would be the Republican presidential candidate in 1960. Some party leaders thought Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York might make an all-out fight for the nomination. But Rockefeller withdrew, and the Republican National Convention nominated Nixon on the first ballot. Nixon chose Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, as his vice presidential running mate. The Democrats nominated Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts for president and Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas for vice president.
The presidential campaign was close and hard-fought from start to finish. Kennedy argued that Republican methods had slowed U.S. economic growth, contributing to what he called a loss of American prestige abroad. Nixon cited figures to show that the economy was growing at a satisfactory rate. Kennedy also charged that Republicans had allowed the Soviet Union to overtake the United States in missile production.
Nixon and Kennedy took part in a unique series of four televised debates. The television and radio audiences included most of the nation’s voters. These “great debates” marked the first time in U.S. history that presidential candidates argued campaign issues face-to-face. Kennedy’s calm manner and appearance in the first debate, contrasted with Nixon’s apparent nervousness, helped Kennedy win over many voters who had been undecided about their choice.
Nixon lost to Kennedy in one of the closest presidential elections in U.S. history. Kennedy won by 114,673 popular votes out of nearly 69 million total votes. Nixon carried 26 states to 22 for Kennedy, but Kennedy received 303 electoral votes compared to Nixon’s 219. Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia got 15 electoral votes. Widespread charges of fraudulent vote counting in Illinois and Texas cast some doubt on Kennedy’s victory.
Political comeback
Defeat in California.
In 1961, Nixon began to practice law in Los Angeles. In 1962, he decided to run for governor of California. Nixon won the Republican nomination for governor by defeating Joseph C. Shell in the state primary election. But the victory was costly. Conservative Republicans had supported Shell, and Nixon’s triumph split the party. In the election, California’s governor, Democrat Edmund G. (Pat) Brown beat Nixon by about 300,000 votes.
New York City lawyer.
Nixon moved to New York City in 1963 and began a new law practice. He became a partner in a Wall Street law firm, and his associates placed his name first in the list of partners.
Some of Nixon’s supporters wanted him to run for president in 1964, but Nixon felt that most Republicans favored Senator Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona. Goldwater won the Republican presidential nomination, and Nixon campaigned for him and other party candidates. President Lyndon B. Johnson, seeking his first full term, defeated Goldwater by a huge margin.
Goldwater’s overwhelming defeat put Nixon back into the political limelight. Liberal and conservative Republicans were quarreling bitterly, and Nixon was the only nationally prominent man whom both groups could accept. In 1966, Nixon campaigned vigorously for Republican candidates in congressional elections. Republicans won 47 House seats and 3 Senate seats that had been held by Democrats. Nixon received much credit for the Republican victories.
In 1967, Nixon traveled around the world. His trip included visits to the Soviet Union and South Vietnam.
The 1968 election.
In February 1968, Nixon announced that he would be a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. Many Republicans wondered whether he could regain his voter appeal. They feared that his defeats by Kennedy and Brown had given him the image of a loser. But Nixon won primary elections by large margins in New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Indiana, Nebraska, Oregon, and South Dakota.
Nixon’s chief opponents for the presidential nomination were Governors Nelson Rockefeller of New York and Ronald Reagan of California. But Nixon easily won nomination on the first ballot at the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach. The convention nominated Nixon’s choice as running mate, Governor Spiro T. Agnew of Maryland.
The Democrats chose Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and Senator Edmund S. Muskie of Maine. Former Governor George C. Wallace of Alabama and retired General Curtis E. LeMay ran as the candidates of the American Independent Party.
Both Nixon and Humphrey promised to make peace in Vietnam their main goal as president. The Vietnam War had begun in 1957 as a battle for control of South Vietnam between South Vietnam’s non-Communist government and the Communist-led National Liberation Front, the Viet Cong. By the mid-1960’s, the United States was deeply involved in the war as an ally of the South Vietnamese government.
Nixon called for a program of what he termed “new internationalism.” Under this program, other nations would take over from the United States more of the responsibility for preserving world peace and helping developing countries. This plan later became known as the Nixon Doctrine. Nixon also pledged to strengthen law enforcement in the United States.
In the election, Nixon defeated Humphrey by only about 511,000 popular votes, 31,785,148 to 31,274,503. Wallace received 9,901,151 popular votes. Nixon won a clear majority of electoral votes, with 301. Humphrey received 191 electoral votes, and Wallace got 46.
Nixon’s first administration (1969-1973)
Foreign policy.
Nixon’s major goal was settlement of the Vietnam War. In his first inaugural address, Nixon said: “The greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker. This honor now beckons America.”
Loading the player...Richard Nixon's first inaugural address
The Vietnam War.
The Vietnam peace talks, begun in 1968, continued in Paris. But the negotiators made little progress. In March 1969, Nixon ordered a stepped-up training program for South Vietnamese forces so they could gradually take over the major burden of fighting. He also ordered secret bombings of supply routes in Cambodia. In July, he began a gradual withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Vietnam, a policy known as Vietnamization. Many Americans favored it, but many others wanted U.S. involvement to end immediately. Protests and demonstrations swept the nation.
In 1970, United States troops invaded Cambodia to attack North Vietnamese supply depots there. Nixon said the action would shorten the war, but many people felt it was expanding it. Protests broke out on hundreds of college campuses. At Kent State University in Ohio, National Guardsmen fired into a crowd of demonstrators, killing four students and wounding nine others. The shocked reaction of the nation and student strikes at other colleges, many of which closed until fall, forced Nixon to cut short the Cambodian campaign.
In May 1972, in response to a Communist offensive, Nixon ordered a blockade of North Vietnam to cut off its war supplies from the Soviet Union and China. The blockade included the mining of North Vietnam’s ports and the bombing of its rail and highway links to China. In December 1972, after peace negotiations broke down, Nixon ordered extensive bombing of Hanoi, the North Vietnamese capital.
Relations with China.
In 1969, Nixon approved the removal of some restrictions on travel by Americans to China. He also encouraged the reopening of trade between China and the United States. The two nations had stopped trading with each other during the Korean War (1950-1953). In 1971, Nixon approved the export of certain goods to China. In February 1972, the president visited China for seven days, and he began the process that led to formal recognition of China by the United States in 1979.
Relations with the Soviet Union.
In May 1972, Nixon visited the Soviet Union for nine days. During this visit, Nixon and Leonid I. Brezhnev, leader of the Soviet Communist Party, signed agreements to limit the production of nuclear weapons. Later that year, the Soviet Union became a major buyer of U.S. wheat.
The national scene.
In August 1969, Nixon proposed a series of major domestic reforms, which he termed the New Federalism. One of the reforms called for a minimum federal payment to every needy family with children. Nixon also called for a form of national health insurance and suggested a revenue sharing plan in which the federal government would share its tax revenues with state and local governments. But action on the reforms was stalled as key Democrats and Republicans in Congress asked for major changes.
Major legislation.
In spite of the legislative slowdown, Congress did enact several far-reaching laws. In 1969, it passed Nixon’s proposal to establish a lottery system for the military draft. Also in 1969, Congress approved extensive reforms in federal tax laws. These reforms included increases in personal income tax deductions and cuts in tax benefits for foundations and oil companies. In 1970, Congress established independent agencies to replace the Post Office Department and to operate the passenger trains that linked the nation’s major cities. Also in 1970, Congress approved the lowering of the minimum voting age in federal elections to 18. It began the process that led to the ratification in 1971 of the 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which set the voting age at 18 for elections. In 1972, Congress approved Nixon’s revenue sharing program. The legislation provided billions of dollars in federal tax money to state and local governments.
Inflation
was one of Nixon’s chief domestic concerns. Many Americans found that although they were earning more money than ever before, rising prices sharply cut their gains. In 1971, Nixon, concerned about how the economy might affect his reelection, set up a Pay Board to stop inflationary wage and salary increases and a Price Commission to regulate price and rent increases. The economy improved in 1972. In addition, the inflation rate slowed.
The ABM system.
In March 1969, Nixon proposed a plan to build an antiballistic missile (ABM) system called Safeguard. Nixon said the new missiles were needed to protect U.S. underground missiles and bomber bases from enemy missile attack and to match comparable systems in the Soviet Union. The plan became one of the most heavily debated issues of Nixon’s administration. Critics charged that the system would step up the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union. They also claimed the new missiles would cost too much money and fail to destroy enemy missiles. In August, the Senate narrowly approved construction of the two ABM bases Nixon had requested.
Civil rights.
Nixon developed a successful “Southern strategy” that resulted in virtually all the Southern States switching from Democratic to Republican during his time in office. The Democrats were perceived to be the party of civil rights and desegregation, while Nixon’s Republicans appeared to be more supportive of the interests of Southerners not in favor of desegregation. For example, Republicans fiercely opposed the Supreme Court’s 1971 ruling that children could be bussed to integrate public schools. However, it was during Nixon’s administration that legal segregation in Southern schools was finally ended. In addition, Nixon introduced the Philadelphia Plan, an affirmative action program for hiring in companies with large government contracts.
Supreme Court nominations.
In 1969, Nixon’s appointment of Warren E. Burger as chief justice of the United States was approved. However, in that same year and again in 1970, Nixon suffered a stinging defeat when he tried to appoint a conservative Southerner to the Supreme Court. In May 1969, Associate Justice Abe Fortas resigned from the court under charges of personal misconduct (see Fortas, Abe ). Nixon nominated Judge Clement F. Haynsworth, Jr., of South Carolina to succeed Fortas. Some critics claimed that Haynsworth was antiblack. Others charged he was unethical for ruling in a case in which he had a financial interest. In November, the Senate rejected the nomination by a 55 to 45 vote.
In January 1970, Nixon nominated Judge G. Harrold Carswell of Florida for the seat. Opposition to Carswell grew quickly after several judges and law school deans rated him unqualified for the Supreme Court. In April, the Senate defeated the nomination by a 51 to 45 vote. It was the first time that two Supreme Court nominees of a president had been rejected since 1894, when Grover Cleveland was president.
After Carswell’s defeat, Nixon charged that the Senate would not confirm a Southerner to the court. In May, the Senate unanimously approved Nixon’s third choice, Judge Harry A. Blackmun of Minnesota. In 1971, the Senate approved Nixon’s selection of Lewis F. Powell, Jr., and William H. Rehnquist for the court.
The U.S. space program
opened a new era of exploration and discovery in 1969. On July 20, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to set foot on the moon. Through a special telephone connection while they were on the moon Nixon told them, “Because of what you have done, the heavens have become part of man’s world.”
Environmental problems
attracted more and more attention during Nixon’s administration. Many Americans began to realize that pollution of the air, land, and water endangered not only the quality of life but also life itself. In 1970, Nixon set up the Environmental Protection Agency to deal with pollution problems.
In addition, although Nixon was not known to be an environmentalist, he approved of the Clean Air Act Amendments, the Coastal Zone Management Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Safe Drinking Water Act. He also transferred land to the states for 642 new parks.
The 1972 election.
Nixon and Agnew easily won renomination at the 1972 Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Fla. The Democrats nominated Senator George S. McGovern of South Dakota for president. Sargent Shriver, former director of the Peace Corps, became McGovern’s running mate.
In the election, Nixon won a landslide victory. He received almost 18 million more popular votes than McGovern—the widest margin of any U.S. presidential election. Nixon got 520 electoral votes, and McGovern received 17. John Hospers of the Libertarian Party won 1 electoral vote.
Life in the White House.
The Nixons brought a calm and reserved way of life to the White House. They preferred formal dress, including white ties and coats with tails for men and long gowns for women. They also favored fox trots and waltzes for dancing.
The Nixons’ taste in art also was conservative. They replaced a number of the Op Art paintings on White House walls with traditional landscapes and portraits. Nixon was the first president to play the piano since Harry Truman. He occasionally played for guests. Nixon followed sports closely and impressed many visitors with his knowledge of baseball and football.
Pat Nixon worked hard to encourage Americans to volunteer to help deal with the country’s social problems. She frequently traveled across the nation to support volunteer organizations.
A private man, Nixon did much of his work in a remote office in the Executive Office Building across from the White House. Shortly after taking office, he bought an estate in San Clemente, a beach resort in southern California. It became known as the Western White House because Nixon spent working vacations there. He also maintained a home in Key Biscayne, Florida.
Nixon’s second administration (1973-1974)
Foreign affairs.
On Jan. 27, 1973, the United States and the other participants in the Vietnam War signed agreements to stop fighting immediately and begin exchanging prisoners. The agreements climaxed several weeks of bargaining between North Vietnamese officials and Henry A. Kissinger, Nixon’s national security adviser, who had begun secret talks with the Communists in 1969. The United States completed its troop withdrawal from South Vietnam in March. Nixon privately assured South Vietnam that the United States would use “full force” to aid the South Vietnamese if the Communists violated the agreements. Fighting did continue in 1973, but no U.S. troops reentered the war. Later that year, Kissinger became secretary of state.
Nixon continued his efforts to improve relations between the United States and China. In 1973, the two nations sent representatives to serve in each other’s capital and exchanged visits by cultural groups.
Events at home.
Nixon carried out a key campaign pledge in January 1973 when he ended the military draft. The military then became an all-volunteer force.
Disputes with Congress.
Nixon’s relations with the Democratic-controlled Congress grew increasingly strained during 1973. Nixon angered many members of Congress by impounding (not spending) several billion dollars in federal aid on projects that Congress had approved. Nixon called the projects wasteful.
The president suffered a major defeat when Congress forced him to end U.S. bombing in Cambodia. Nixon had argued that the bombing was needed to prevent a Communist take-over of that nation. But Congress refused to provide money for bombing beyond Aug. 15, 1973.
Nixon received another major setback in 1973 when Congress overrode his veto of a resolution that limited presidential war powers. The War Powers Resolution gives Congress the power to halt after 60 days the use of any U.S. armed forces that the president has ordered into combat abroad. Passage of the resolution was the strongest action ever taken by Congress to spell out the warmaking powers of Congress and the president.
Economic problems
continued to challenge Nixon in 1973. In January, he ended most of the government-required limits that had been placed on wage and price increases in 1971. But prices soared, and another brief use of controls resulted in a shortage of beef and other foods. By the end of 1973, inflation had risen 8.8 percent, the largest increase in any year since 1947.
Also in 1973, a fuel shortage led to reduced supplies of oil for home heating and industry and to gasoline rationing in a number of states. In 1974, Congress approved Nixon’s proposal to set up a Federal Energy Administration to deal with the energy shortage.
The Watergate scandal
hit the Nixon administration during 1973. It arose from a break-in at the Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate building complex in Washington, D.C., on June 17, 1972. Employees of Nixon’s 1972 reelection committee were arrested in the break-in and convicted of burglary. Early in 1973, evidence was uncovered that linked several top White House aides with either the break-in or later attempts to hide information related to it.
Nixon insisted that he did not participate in the Watergate break-in or the cover-up. In addition, he promised a full investigation of the case. In May, Archibald Cox, a Harvard Law School professor, was named to head the investigation as the special prosecutor.
In July, a Senate investigating committee learned that Nixon had secretly made tape recordings of conversations in his White House offices since 1971. The president said that he taped the conversations to preserve an accurate record of his administration. Cox and the Senate committee asked Nixon to give them certain tapes that they believed could aid their investigations. Nixon refused. He argued that the Constitution gives a president the implied right to maintain the confidentiality of private presidential conversations. Nixon said the loss of that right would endanger the presidency.
In August, Cox and the committee filed petitions in court to obtain the tapes. U.S. District Court Judge John J. Sirica decided to review the tapes himself and ordered Nixon to give them to him. Nixon appealed the order, but a U.S. court of appeals supported Sirica.
On October 19, Nixon offered to supply summaries of the tapes to the Senate committee and to Cox. Cox refused, arguing that summaries would not be regarded as proper evidence in court. Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson to fire Cox, but Richardson refused and resigned, as did Deputy Attorney General William G. Ruckelshaus. Nixon named Robert H. Bork acting attorney general, and Bork fired Cox. Leon Jaworski, a noted Texas attorney, later succeeded Cox. But Nixon’s actions resulted in a move for his impeachment.
The resignation of Agnew
on Oct. 10, 1973, further stunned the nation. Earlier that year, federal officials had begun to investigate Agnew in connection with charges of graft in Maryland. They uncovered evidence he had accepted illegal payments as an officeholder in Maryland and as vice president. After he resigned, Agnew pleaded nolo contendere (no contest) to a charge that he had cheated on his federal income tax payment for 1967. Years later, in 1981, a Maryland court ordered Agnew to pay the state the amount of the bribes it declared he had accepted, plus interest. In 1983, Agnew paid $268,482.
Nixon became the first president to appoint a vice president under procedures established by the 25th Amendment to the Constitution. He named House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford as Agnew’s successor, and Ford became vice president on Dec. 6, 1973.
The impeachment hearings
began before the House Judiciary Committee in October 1973. The committee had obtained from the president several tapes and edited transcripts of many tapes of White House conversations. The committee issued subpoenas (legal demands) for additional tapes, but the president resisted and took his case to the Supreme Court.
In July 1974, before the court made its decision, a majority of the committee members voted to recommend three articles of impeachment against Nixon. The first article charged that the president obstructed justice by withholding evidence, counseling his aides to give false testimony, and otherwise interfering with the Watergate investigation. The second impeachment article charged that Nixon abused presidential powers, and the third accused him of refusing to obey subpoenas.
In late July, the Supreme Court ruled that Nixon had to turn over the tapes. Nixon made the tapes public on August 5. One tape revealed that he had spoken of a cover-up as early as June 23, 1972, six days after the burglary. Republican congressional leaders warned Nixon that he faced almost certain impeachment by the House of Representatives and removal from office by the Senate. Loading the player...
Richard Nixon resigns
Resignation and pardon.
Nixon told his family on August 7 that he planned to resign. He announced his decision to the American people in a nationwide television address the next evening. On August 9, with about 21/2 years remaining in his second term, Nixon submitted his resignation as president. At noon that day, Vice President Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as the 38th president. 
Nixon’s resignation ended the prospect of a struggle over impeachment. But many Americans continued to debate whether he should be prosecuted for his role in the cover-up. On September 8, Ford granted Nixon a pardon for all federal crimes Nixon may have committed while president. Ford said he made the decision to “reconcile divisions in our country and heal the wounds that had festered too long.”
Later years
After leaving office, Nixon returned to San Clemente. He avoided active participation in politics and spent much of his time playing golf and writing. Nixon maintained a strong interest in international affairs, and his opinions on U.S. foreign policy were highly regarded by many people, including both Democratic and Republican presidents who served after him.
In 1978, Nixon published RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon. In 1980, he moved to New York City and published The Real War, a book about U.S. foreign policy. Nixon moved to Saddle River, New Jersey, in 1981 and to Park Ridge, New Jersey, in 1991. His other books include Leaders (1982), Real Peace: A Strategy for the West (1983), No More Vietnams (1985), 1999: Victory Without War (1988), In the Arena (1990), Seize the Moment (1992), and Beyond Peace (1994).
In 1990, the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace opened in Yorba Linda, California. The library includes a museum.
Nixon’s wife, Pat, died of lung cancer on June 22, 1993, at their home in Park Ridge. On April 18, 1994, Nixon suffered a stroke at home just before dinner and was taken by ambulance to a hospital in New York City. Three days later, he lapsed into a coma. He died the following day, April 22. Nixon and his wife are buried on the grounds of the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace, near the house in which he was born.
