The Nixon Years

1969-1974

Richard Nixon

Vietnam War

• New Strategy – renew Bombing of North – change draft system–Vietnamization - let South Vietnamese

fight

• Protests continue - 300,000 to DC in ‘69

The 1970’s

• Cambodia invaded

• 4 Kent State (Ohio) students killed in protest over Cambodia invasion

• Jackson State - 2 students killed by police

• Colleges go on strike

•

– You know, you see these bums, you know, blowin' up the campuses. Listen, the boys that are on the college campuses today are the luckiest people in the world, going to the greatest universities, and here they are, burnin' up the books, I mean, stormin' around about this issue, I mean, you name it —- get rid of the war, there'll be another one. -- Richard Nixon, New York Times, May 2, 1970

The War Ends

• 1969-73 De-escalation

• Paris Accords - Jan ‘73 - Americans agree to pull out

• ‘75 - Saigon Falls (Capital of S. Vietnam)

Easing the Cold War

• Nixon takes steps to build better relations with communist countries

• Visits Red China & Moscow

• Détente - replace confrontation

w/cooperation

Easing the Cold War

• SALT I – Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty signed with USSR

• Shuttle Diplomacy – Sect. Of State Henry Kissinger acted as 3rd party intermediary between belligerent nations

• Forms U.S.-China anti-Soviet alliance

More on Nixon/Kissinger Foreign Policy

• Did nothing to discourage Pakistan from committing genocide in India

• Multiple interventions in Latin America to support non-communist governments

• Instigated military coup in Chile

• Supported dictatorships in Argentina, Indonesia and Africa

Build-up to Watergate

• 1972 Presidential Campaign

• Worried about Vietnam & inflation

• The “Enemies List” – Included journalists, politicians, Democratic donors, etc.

• Landslide Victory over George McGovern

Watergate Scandal

• Break in at Watergate Hotel

• Republican “plumbers” install listening devices to spy on Democrats

• 1973 - Senate holds hearings on scandal

• VP Spiro Agnew resigns after taking bribes

The Crisis Deepens

• Congress begins considering

impeachment• If found guilty by 2/3 of Senate he

would be forced out

• Nixon resigned rather than face impeachment