"Richard Nixon is, to this day, arguably our weirdest and most fascinating President. For foreign policy buffs of a certain realist school, Nixon's Presidency was a series of unmitigated triumphs, and an era of wiseness in foreign policy that has not been matched since. Nixon was the first to visit many places as President, among them Beijing, Moscow, Cairo, Damascus, Jakarta and Tokyo. The big four, as generally agreed upon in popular history, and in Nixon's view upon leaving office, were:
The successful albeit bloody withdrawal of American forces from the long and divisive Vietnam War, while avoiding political backlash at home from a bubbling right wing. While controversial at the time, Nixon always held to the view that what he did was correct, as Saigon hung on, by a thread, throughout the waning years of the Nixon Presidency. Nixon's withdrawal of the draft and transition to an all-volunteer military force is generally considered a wise move that would help defuse social conflict in the USA.
The famous China opening of 1972 followed by official relations with subsequent burgeoning economic and cultural ties in 1974 as China began its path to the economic and political giant it has become. Nixon would remain an important consultant for future Presidents on setting US-Chinese relations in an appropriate framework until his death in 1994,. His views on China would continue and role in the world would to be well received, particularly in Beijing. Nixon's insistence on Beijing following it's own political path as an equal to the United States, while continuing to integrate economically with the West would clash with many in the USA when discussing China's human rights, but to others, it shows a degree of wisdom not shown by other US politicians. As China has gotten wealthier and more powerful, tensions have occasionally risen, but Sino-US relations have undoubtedly made the world significantly more stable and brighter than it was in 1971.
Halting and curbing back the disasterous arms race with the Soviet Union. Improvement of relations with the Soviet Union which would culminate in a mutual space mission in 1975 following the successful SALT II treaty in 1974. The drafting of the INF treaty, the first to eliminate nuclear weapons instead of curbing them, would take place in the final years of Nixon's term, and only be halted by the outbreak of domestic scandal and the 1976 election. It is largely thanks to Nixon and his Soviet counterparts that the Cold War began to thaw and the specter of conflict between the two great powers began to recede.
Improving relations with the Arab world in the aftermath of his saving airlift to Israel in the Yom Kippur War, leading to the Camp David Agreement of 1975 between Israel, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, which laid the preliminary foundations of a Palestinian state and Israeli relations with the Islamic world, as the Arab world became more integrated with the world economy. The USA became the dominant power in the region during those years, in large part thanks Nixon and his advisor, Henry Kissinger.
It would be in Nixon's term where, for the first time, social spending would overtake military spending as forces in Europe were lessened and nuclear arms treaties signed. It would be in Nixon's term where relations with Europe would be renewed to fit a more flexible framework, Berlin removed as a flashpoint in the Cold War, and East-West ties improved. It would be in Nixon's term when, in the first weeks of 1976, an agreement between North and South Korea, with the help of the Chinese and Soviets, would be brokered, leading to eventual reunification under Southern leadership. Nixon could take comfort in that on his way to his second meeting with Mao and an ascendant Deng Xiaoping in Beijing as his domestic troubles piled up. It would be in Nixon's term where, much to the shock and horror of his conservative base, the Panama Canal would be returned to Panama, improving relations with much of Latin America. However, there was always a darker side, even to these triumphs. Nixon's cynical attitude to nuclear proliferation, particularly with Pakistan, would have grievous consequences, and his alienation of India, particularly after Operation Smiling Buddha, is generally seen as negative. Nixon's support of the Shah would come into question upon the outbreak of chaos in Iran, as well as his support of Suharto's invasion of East Timor. Nixon's unstinting support of Operation Condor and his involvement in the death of Salvador Allende would earn him the ire of many historians. And his bombing of Cambodia is generally considered to have accelerated the brewing Cambodian Civil War. In the end, Nixon's cold approach to foreign policy would alienate many by 1976. Nevertheless, Nixon is in hindsight considered to be one of our most successful foreign policy Presidents.
Nixon's domestic policy is far more mixed in terms of legacy. While extremely popular with the people, Congress was extremely hostile towards Nixon's plans to reorganize the government and to streamline the bureaucracy to a state and local level, and put up resistance to these plans that won out with Nixon's increasing troubles in the last part of his second term. Though certain measures like revenue sharing would be implemented due to popular disgust with Congress and overwhelming support for the President in 1973, Nixon would not get the overall government reorganization that he hoped to make the cornerstone of his domestic legacy, leaving that to a Democratic successor. Nixon is generally known to have had has his bright spots from a liberal perspective, particularly with his implementation of a true universal health care system in 1974, which is generally considered to have eased economic woes for many ordinary Americans. Even as the conservative movement grew more popular, Nixoncare would remain popular, much to their annoyance. Nixon is also, as mentioned above, considered to be the father of energy independence, as his leadership during the oil embargo and statesmanship in Middle East overcame much of the grumbling about the economy and the sleaziness of the Agnew Scandal for the next year. Enthusiasm and public pride over Project Independence took hold, thanks to a slick campaign by the Nixon White House. Nixon, to the horror of many conservatives, signed the ERA in 1974 and laws for increased gun control in 1975*, adding onto heresies such as the EPA and affirmative action. However, Nixon's heavy handed economic policies are generally considered to be disastrous and a huge factor in popular alienation with him by 1976. The economy had never known such a crunch since the depression. Nixon's cold, slippery aura would prove to wear thin. Nixon also had failed to solve the problems in America's ghettoes, with affirmative action largely benefitting a black middle class. His racial divisiveness would prove to be a sticking point on his legacy.
Nixon's troubles began to pile up later, in part due to his own personality and divisiveness amidst a sick economy and an America that was far more orderly than in 1968, but forever changed. Especially controversial during the last 18 months of his term was the explosion of the Ellsberg Scandal in late 1975, followed by the Angolan affair of 1976, which would lead to measures to reign in the FBI and CIA, facilitated by the death of long time director, or more aptly, dictator, J. Edgar Hoover. Dark rumors of scandal always lurked beneath the Nixon administration, and there was always an aura of sliminess that never let him reach the top run of Presidents, in the views of most. Nixon's first Vice President, Spiro Agnew, would resign in 1973 over corruption, and his top domestic aide John Ehrlichman resigned two years later over the Ellsberg Incident. However, he was never directly connected to anything, and merely reduced to lame duck status by 1976. Nixon's repeated proposal for an annual guaranteed income, completely revolutionizing welfare and complementing the health care plan, would be a casualty of this, meeting a third death in a toxic Senate that regretted they could not impeach him with so little time left. There was extremely little love lost between Nixon and Congress, as seen by the reaction to his address in 1976.
The red baiter who became a peace maker. The small town conservative who attempted to reform the government and in many ways strengthen it. The hard ball political operator, and some would say posthumously a crook, who would lead America out of the tumult and chaos of 1968. For all the eventual alienation, many ordinary Americans give Nixon credit for helping to heal the nation, as seen by the discrepancy between media and popular consensus of him. For all these contradictions, and for managing to handle the Presidency with a personality completely unsuited for politics... Nixon will continue to fascinate historians to come, and there is no doubt that he must rank among one of our better Presidents. **
As the 1976 election approached, Nixon faced a dilemma politically. Liberals would never accept him, because he was Nixon. Yet conservatives had become increasingly disgusted with him, and while always keeping any criticism of the President indirect, their champion, Ronald Reagan, was quickly becoming a frontrunner in the GOP primary. However, it was also clear that due to the Angolan Affair*, they were quickly rediscovering the fact he was “one of them”...***
"Our Presidents, TIME Magazine, 2012"
*- Nixon HATED guns and explicitly stated that he would try to do this in his second term.
**-In the end, the biggest danger to Richard Milhous Nixon was himself. The eternally fascinating and frustrating part about him is that he could have been a very great President, as Clinton mentioned, if he had been willing to be more trusting and positive. I'm reasonably confident that with no Watergate and the foreign policy moves I envision, mixed with his crappy handling of the economy and eventual scandals, he'll be in the top 20 at least, probably top 15, if not top 10. I tried to make this assessment realistic.
***- “I didn't like Nixon until Watergate”.
I'm redoing this, but I don't want to get bogged down in Nixon's second term, so I'm just going to condense his achievements and failures into one post. I will try to focus on the geopolitics some. My next posts will be about the 1976 nominations as well as a couple of developments in East and Southeast Asia.
Any comments or critiques on my writing are welcome. I've decided to get back to writing a serious TL.