own secret foreign policies, both avid believers in “realpolitik”, a theory to “place great emphasis on the state’s interests; it also also included a preference for dealing with strong leaders of nations that could aid in the pursuit of these interests,” (Drew, 60).
During his Presidency, Nixon unfortunately inherited the ongoing Vietnam War and him and his aides needed to figure out how to deal with this situation, which lead to Kissinger’s lengthy secret Paris Peace Accords, where he met with Vietnamese politburo member Le Duc Tho to discuss ending the war. The Paris Peace Accords with Vietnam was a lengthy negotiation and citizens continued to put political pressure on Nixon to withdraw the troops, holding peaceful demonstrations called
Entering World War II in 1939, Nixon started working for the federal government for the Office of Emergency Management. He soon joined the navy in 1942 to help fight against the german, japanese, and italians. He was serving as an aviation ground officer and then rose to the rank of lieutenant commander. He got sent to the Pacific with the South Pacific Combat Air Transport Command. Almost fifteen months later he soon arrived in the United States. While Nixon was in the United States he was elected the U.S. House of Representatives. He defeated the five-term Democratic Congressman Jerry voorhis in a campaign that relied on Jerry’s communist actions. Nixon soon gained the reputation as an internationalist in foreign policies. He also had to
The Vietnam war was a costly matter for America that infected U.S. politics and destroyed the economy. When President Nixon took office, he tried to improve the United States relation with Russia through detente in 1969. This couldn’t solve the problem in Vietnam. This lead to the US leaving the fight in Vietnam in 1973 with the help of a peace agreement. President Nixon also continued his negations with Soviet Russia and visited China.
Both President Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon were presidents during the cold war. Their uses of presidential power within foreign policy greatly shaped the United State’s strategies in cold war politics. Comparing their actions as Chief Diplomat, Chief Legislator, Chief Executive and Commander in Chief shows how they have used both their formal and informal powers to lead the nation. President Eisenhower was much more successful in gaining congress approval through working with them yet had much more trouble dealing with peace abroad. Nixon was able to use powers to make successful gains within the cold war abroad, yet had trouble
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” “We have nothing to fear except fear itself.” Those influential words were said by Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt respectively. Even though they are very influential words, my favorite has to be: “By taking this action, I hope that I will have hastened the start of the process of healing which is so desperately needed in America.” This was Richard Nixon’s quote as he became the first person to resign from their presidency. Former President Richard Nixon was remembered for many things, most notably as the worst president in the United States of America, all because of a thing called “Watergate.” That begs the question: was Nixon’s presidency as bad as it is known for, or were there good things that outweigh the bad?
The Vietnam War was perhaps one of the most controversial and disputed wars in American history. Initially sparked by a communist uprising in northern Vietnam, the war quickly became a scramble for the containment of communism by America and other anti-communist nations. After the communists in North Vietnam defeated the French and relinquished their control over the country, a now independent Vietnam split into two opposing sides, with South Vietnam fighting alongside numerous anti-communist nations in a struggle to prevent the spread of communism. During what seemed to be the final stages of the war, efforts were made to restore peace and temporarily appease North and South Vietnam until some more solid decisions could be made about the fate of the country. These efforts included the Geneva Accords, which were later thwarted, and the signing of the Paris Peace Accords.
The Nixon administration was forced to de-escalate the war in Vietnam. The antiwar movement fueled US troop withdraws from Vietnam. Through his ‘Vietnamization' program, President Nixon entailed withdrawing American troops and strengthening the South Vietnam's army. Nixon hoped to calm domestic opposition to the conflict and thereby buy time for his effort to a force favorable outcome to the war. The antiwar movement accomplished congressional legislation that cut off U.S. funds for the war. Wells,
After years of LBJ's Great Society, Richard Nixon won the 1968 election on a pledge to stem the country's ballooning welfare programmes and reduce the government's role in the economy. Early in his presidency, Nixon placed fiscal conservatives in a number of high government positions. He named Donald Rumsfeld as the Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, an organisation the man disliked, and a renowned economics professor and free market advocate, Arthur Burns, as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Reflecting his professed devotion to decentralisation, he also urged the Congress under the slogan, “New Federalism”, to delegate Washington's authority over social spending to individual states. The heady days of constant government
After the Second World War, the United States and the Soviet Union emerged as superpowers and subsequently a period of tension and hostility arose, known as the Cold War. During this time, a new possibility of complete nuclear destruction that would claim the lives of many emerged, therefore “the easing or relaxing of tensions†on both sides was needed, this period would be known as detente. Both countries had been guaranteed mutually assured destruction as they had both managed to stay ahead in the development of nuclear arsenals. By the late 1960s the Soviets had surpassed the United States in intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) by 1,300 to 1,054. Although the U.S was still
Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson when they were President. Then in 1969, President Richard Nixon appointed Kissinger to be his National Security Adviser. Both Nixon and Kissinger favored back channel negotiations, this can be seen through Kissinger’s secret trips to China in 1971. These trips lead the way for normalized American-Chinese relations and President Nixon’s visit to China in 1972. China wasn't the only nation Kissinger got involved in. Subsequently, Kissinger was appointed Secretary of State in 1973. Kissinger had been conducting back channel negotiations with Le Duc Tho, North Vietnam’s chief negotiator, since 1969. Kissinger and Tho finally signed the Paris Peace Accords in 1973. The Accords ended US involvement in Vietnam, included a cease-fire between North and South Vietnam and North Vietnam agreed to release all prisoners of war. Vietnam is what most see as Kissinger’s greatest achievement and seeing how he received a nobel peace prize for it, it may very well be but his contributions don't stop
In a nation divided by war in 1969, Richard Nixon delivered a speech with the hope that it would bring Americans together. At this time the American people stood divided on their views on the war. Many people wanted to withdraw from the war and many people supported the war in the quest for peace. The Vietnam War had already been going on for quite some time when Nixon came into office. Nixon was the second youngest president; he came to office in 1969 as the 37th president of the United States. (Sheppard) The goal of his speech was to unite the nation as he pursued the war and to try to win peace. Americans were divided among going to war and ending the war for peace. The tone
Richard Nixon, though created a large credibility gap within the US, he accomplished a lot for the country. He served five years in the presidential office as a republican (1969-1974), and he was the only president to resign from office in history. Although through his presidency he had accomplished many things, such as creating revenue sharing, ending the draft, and creating anticrime laws, he still had a rough time rebuilding his reputation after many assumptions of corruption in his office. Though he never admittedly pledged guilty to his crimes of taking government funds for his own personal gain, there was proof that he was. After the Watergate scandal, the American people set their mind to believe what the proof led to, so Nixon’s
President Richard M. Nixon’s administration had to face many international and domestic challenges in the United States between 1968 and 1974, some positive and some negative. His achievements in expanding peaceful relationships with both China and the Soviet Union are contrastingly different with his continuation of the Vietnam War. In the end, Nixon’s scandals and abuse of presidential power caught up to him, and his administration did much to corrode America’s faith in the government.
It can be argued that President Nixon did and did not achieve peace with honour. During the war Nixon had two contradictory aims; to get out of Vietnam quickly and to get out of Vietnam with honour. This proved to be problematic as if he withdrew all troops in an instant, and left the South Vietnamese army (AVRN) to fight their own battle, he would be seen as cowardly and lose honour. Nixon played a vital role in the war in Vietnam as under his presidency saw the extreme escalation of the war and end of the war itself.
In Nixon’s effort to end the war, his first policy was to send a message to Hanoi that he meant business. His policy consisted of escalated strategic bombings near the border of Cambodia in hopes to get the North Vietnamese to fear that the United States was capable of doing anything to achieve victory. Even Johnson was skeptical of expanding the war into Cambodia but Nixon’s first policy in full effect. Unfortunately, America was blinded by the corruptness of Nixon’s “peaceful presidency” since
He tried his best not to lose the war because he does not want American war to be the loser. The United States troops were completely pulled back from Vietnam before the finish of March of 1973, yet America continued battling in Cambodia. North Vietnam did not respond to US notices and before the year 's over Nixon stayed weak after Watergate. In his article, the author said that Nixon tried to protect the Thieu administration in South Vietnam and let South Vietnam on the safe side because he needed the Thieu government to be secure. North Vietnam needed to have a unity but South Vietnam strived to be a free country. Nixon 's mission was to help and support the nations that are US partners such as South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, but other nations would need to shield themselves from the communism. When Nixon attempted to stay faithful to his obligation to the Thieu government in South Vietnam, Secretary of State Dr. Henry Kissinger needed to proceed onward to different United State interests gradually. The purpose for these spending is to secure the Thieu government in South Vietnam. In his article, the author said that Nixon’s administration shows how much Kissinger feel afraid from the Negotiations that are full of twists. Despite the hostility between United State and North Vietnam, Nixon still threatening them that he doesn’t want to pay the amount if they do not want to adhere to the guarantee of the understanding, but when Richard Nixon resigned, the